Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 17 February 1937 — Page 14

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THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

PAGE 12 WEDNESDAY, FEB. 17, 1937

The Handwriting

The Indianapolis Times

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

LUDWELL DENNY MARK FERREE Editor Business Manager

ROY W. HOWARD President

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

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

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

Member of United Press, Scripps - Howard Newspaper Alliance, NEA Service, and Audit Buvreau of Circulations.

* yy 5551

Give Lioht and the People Will Pind Their Own Way

1937

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17

PUT TEETH IN IT FTER Governor Townsend's appointment of his son to a State job, a bill was introduced in the Senate to repeal the Anti-Nepotism Act. This may be wise, for the law is weak and ineffectual anyway. But the repeal act should be accompanied by a new anti-nepotism law with sufficient teeth to dispose of this discredited political practice.

ONLY NINE MORE! EW MEXICO has ratified the 13-year-old Child Labor Amendment. the third state to act favorably in this vear's first two months. comes the 27th to sien up for this great national adventure in humanity, leaving only nine others necessary to write the 22d Amendment. Thirteen years of waiting for this simple, humane and necessary change in our Government's charter have taxed the patience of the people. Those reactionary forces which have so long blocked its adoption are largely responsible for the effort now being made to short-circuit the amendment

| |

method.

“A HIGHER STANDARD OF LIFE” A NNOUNCEMENT that 135,000 men's garment makers | of the Amalgamated Clothings Workers’ Union have | received a 12 per cent wage increase, adding $30,000,000 |

a vear to their buying power, is good news. Following wage |

The “Sunshine State” thus be- |

| | | | |

Sauce for the Goose! Sauce for the Gander !—By Talburt

yD A EN A BNL NA Ys Ne ei k

R.. ¥

[nd

NOT

H-CHANGE Ng AY TO AN

BUTTERMILK!

1/7 7/7;

PLA 7) /]/] 2/77

Fair Enough

raises by General Motors, Packard, Chrysler, three Akron | By Westbrook Pegler

rubber firms and others, it indicates that intelligent em- | plovers are beginning to grasp the lesson of the depression. | This is that wages not only must keep abreast. of living costs, now rising, but they must increase in proportion to industry's expanding productive powers. Industries that are granting substantial wage increases | are not only building against labor discontent, strikes and | a market too lean to buy the things they sell. They are helping to bulwark the nation against new depressions in the future.

THE ALIEN-STRAFERS HE alien-baiters are girding on Capitol Hill, first to fight the Administration's substitute for the rational and | humane Kerr-Coolidge bill and, next, to whoop it up for a set of measures that would turn all immigrants into a hunted band of outcasts. Reading a program announced by Senator Robert Reynolds of North Carolina and Rep. Joe Starnes of Alabama, one wonders whether this is America or Nazi Germany. Their bills would prohibit Government employment of aliens; deport all aliens on relief; cut existing quotas 90 per cent; deny entry to an alien who leaves his family abroad; require registration of all aliens here and arriving. Granting that criminal aliens should be given the bum's rush without delay, this program reflects a phobia. We profess to despise the alien-hating fanatics who have isolated Germany from the brotherhood of man. By imitating them we pay them a compliment.

GOOD FARM NEWS | s FATISTICS may make dry reading, but there's good news | ; for the country in the figures just issued by the De- | partment of Agriculture on receipts from the sale of prinsipal tarm products in the 10-month period from January to October, 1936. The total has increased from $5,215,000,000 in 1934 and $5,694,000,000 in 1935, to $6,340,000,000 in 1936. And that increase has come in spite of a sharp cut in Govern- | ment payments to farmers as a result of the AAA being | jeclared unconstitutional. Government payments for the | 10-month period fell from 433 million dollars in 1934, and | 169 million in 1935, to only 232 million in 1936. Not counting Government payments, crop sales are up from $1,939,000,000 in 1953 to $2,624,000,000 in 1936; livestock sales from $2,093,000,000 in 1933 to £3,4%4,000,000 this year. And-—-but without quoting any more billion. follar figures, it's evident the farmer's income has grown mightily since the depihs of the depression, which is a happy omen for sound prosperity.

THE TRAFFIC PARADOX IRECTOR W, IH. CAMERON of the National Safety Council gives the best explanation we have yet seen of | the traffic accident paradox of 1936. Why was it that 1936 was marked by the greatest organized safety drive, and at the same time by the highest | automobile fatality list on record? Because, says Mr. Cameron, “it was a period in which more travel, more employment and high temperatures placed tremendous obstacles in the path of safety work.” | Trafic deaths went up 4 per cent to 38,500 from 37.000 | in 1935. But “exposure” to accidents was much greater, | Registration figures show 28,270,000 vehicles were on the highways, more than ever before. And they traveled 225, 000,000,000 miles, 22 billion more than in 1935. The death rate per 10 million gallons of gasoline consumed was 21.4 in 1936, or 6 per cent lower than in 1935. “In spite of almost overwhelming odds many cities, many states and many industries, by carrying out well rounded safety programs, turned in sizable reductions in accident deaths and demonstrated that national control of the problem can be achieved,” says Mr. Cameron. “Mile for mile, the American motorists operated more safely than in 1935.” : Indiana was among the group of states having ne standard driver's license law which showed a fatality increase of 7 per cent. The increase in states having such legislation was but 1 per cent. The figures show that the job of traffic courts, engineers and educators has just begun. They also indicate that intelligent safety work, backed by the right legislation, will pull down the accident totais.

Weiter Shocked to Find Louisiana Prize Fight Commission Renouncing Fine Old Art of Dry-Dive or Splash.

NEW YORK, Feb. 17.—It is a shock to

read in the sport pages that the fine |

old art of drv-dive has been renounced by

the Louisiana Prize Fight Commission and

| collusion

| these last few years.

| "eonquered provinces”

classified as dastardly conduct. It has been only a little over three years since I bade a reluctant farewell to the ringside to turn cosmic, and [ am afraid I did not leave the prize fight profession in safe bands. In my day and time, as old Senator Jim Watson would say, the splashman occupied an honorable if humble position in pugilism. Now it appears vhat a tanker imported to Baton Rouge from New York to take a plunge for Jack Torrance, suffered a change of heart or at any rate some qis=turbance in his heart, and refused

| t0 put on the sprawl at the last

moment, As you may imagine, great consternation ensued when it leaked out that there had been afoot, because Baton Rouge is the capital of Louisiana and unaccustomed to subtlety, Jack Torrance was Senator Long's pet athlete, who performed many prodigies in his time and recently turned, to professional pugilism. He won a few slashing contests and seemed to be well on his way to win the fairest bauble in fistiana’s realm, or anyway the runner-up-toy when the New York vat-man or diver came to town under a variety of names with written instructions to go in the water in either the first round or the second. The tanker was faithless to his mission, however, and went out the window shortly before ring-time,

Mi. Pegler

| a course of conduct which called for official maquiry.

=” ” n T= State Prize Fight Commission exonerated Mr. Torrance, but imposed a fine of $500 on each of three others, including the tanker. It is not quite clear whether they fined these sportsmen for the vance or the tankers failure to go through with his mission. But the dastardliness, as I see it. lav in the betrayal of duty, although that may have been due to stagefright, >

The Louisiana Commission. being political and

composed of Louisiana politicians at that, probably |

takes a little too serious view of the offense in any case. In Baton Rouge, where the sense of public duty Is at its highest, they may have placed a sinister inter-

pretation on something which was merely unfamiliar, |

but not bad.

v > » 9 M goodness, I hope this does not mean that the

tribe of dry-tank men has been moved into gen-

eral disrepute while my back was turned on pugilism

respected that people sometimes would prefer a Brodie or splash in one round to 15 rounds of scientific hoxing by two lean bodies trained to the pink of condition, as the saying goes. thes 5 Ww Ro se titles with We had a bantamweight champion some vears ago

who carried a tanker on a tour of the Middle and

Southwest, boxed him 19 times in 18 cities, put him in the water every time, and returned home singing the praises of his spaniel to one and all. The tanker

| fought under 18 different names. The reason he used

only 18 names in 19 fights was that the citizens of Hot Springs clamored for a return match. and got it. He

Was a very calm, sure-footed waterman, always up on |

his signals, and a nice easy bleeder, which made for realism. 1 Suppose you could go so far as to call him a champion tank-man.

General Hugh Johnson Says —

Backers of "Clarifying Amendment’ Instead of President's Court Plan | Are Trying to Euchre Submission of .. . Proposal To . . Illegal Referendum

ASHINGTON, Feb. 17.--“Seek amendment, Mr, President,” Thompson. Other contemporaries tell how simple and qui is to amend. On a simple issue, op But the “hy cipal precedent, when the Supreme Oourt nullified Congress on a real split, was the Dred Scott decision. It was only the second time in our history that the Court had presumed to this power. The question there also was the power to improve working condi= tions. The Court shocked the country by saying that Congress could not prohibit slavery in the territories, 80-0-0-. We amended the Constitution-by the bloodiest Civii War in history, by reducing 11 states to

by oppressing them for a generation, and finally by skewering three amends-

a clarifying

| ments on 200,000 bayonets and ramming them down

the throats ‘of those states! We se states! could not have amended it in any other way because it takes threes fourths of the states to amend the Constitution, and

| that issue happened to be serious—like the present

one,

LJ n »

f 2s than 33'4 per cent of our people vote, Less than 5 per cent now live fn 12 states Those 12 states—or less than 2 per cent of our PODUIALION could prevent an amendment, to the Constitution, A

P8-to-2 voting shot against am ed A endment and at best

conni- |

| ; : : There were many gifted per. | | formers in my time, and the specialty was so highly

| 02s. Some of our divers were known as | | Splash or Diving Dan, and bore

prays Miss Dorothy |

The Hoosier Forum

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

LICENSE PLATE ROUTINE | BRINGS PROTEST By Pat Hogan, Columbus, Ind.

An open letter to Governor Townsend and the State Legislature: For several years those who happen to rule over the auto license bureau have assumed or attained the roles of dictators. The incumbent king decrees that Jan. 1 is the deadline branch offices will be open after hours and vio= lators will be arrested. This king, who draws a fat salary, does not understand why 100,000 car owners are unable to buy plates though they have mot been employed regularly and barely can keep their families in necessaries and meet payments on the home or rent. This brilliant idea of arrest makes it a crime to be poor, and is on a par with the English debtor's prison. In hundreds of cases, five or six men are riding to work in one car, when they have work. Some of them walk a mile or two through muddy fields in the dark and wait at a crossroad. Tt is a Pleasant jaunt—doubly so when a man is carrying groceries, and feed for nis cow and chickens. Other men ride about 10 or 12 miles on busses for an hour when they might drive three miles in 15 minutes. Others | walk three or four miles, no bus be- | ing available. Since the money for license plates is spent over a period of a vear, | why must it be on the spot Jan. 1? | Until every car owner is guarantead | a living wage, what right has one | to expect this spot pavment—much [ less demand it? What is the differ-

| ence whether a man gets his plates |

| Jan, 1, Feb. 1 or March 1, since the price is just the same? | Here are a few suggestions: Cut | the salaries in the license bureau | four times, and make a $2 flat rate for passenger cars; this will pro= duce enough funds. The car owner pays 10 other taxes in license,

REPLIES TO CRITICISM [OF AUTO TAG PROCEDURE

"Motor Vehicles | The date of expiration for display | of license plates in any year is De- [ cember 31, of that year, which date

| is not set by the bureau but is the |

law, and has been since 1925. > % @ PICKING GOOD JUDGES DIFFICULT, SAYS READER By EM. | Before we place our reliance on {a mere change in the personnel of

[the Supreme Court, let us, citizens |

[and congressmen, try to answer the quiet challenge recently given by Charles E. Clark, dean of the School of Law, Yale University, in an address to the National Con

[sumer League, The address was de- |

{livered before the President's plan | was made public. “I suggest that as a test each of

| on any great issue, the Constitution ought never to | pe violated for the sake of expediency. But how about the present propaganda to force an unconstitutional referendum, not to amend, but to confirm the Cons

stitution?

only say:

says! Cockeyed?

not expressed in the Constitution, an amendment to support it!

sion and the Civil Way,

| By, Frank Finney, Commissioner, Bureau of

For what would the amendment say? “The Oongress shall have the power to increase the number of Supreme Court judges and to provide for their retirement at the age of 70 on full pay. The President, by and with the advice and cons sent of the Senate, shall appoint the judges.” But that is exactly what the Constitution now

> 5 w T isn't a “clarifying amendment’ It is A scheme to euchre submission of this cons stitutional proposal to an tllegal referendum under rules that automatically pack the electorate not 5-to-4 put from 3=to=1 to 4f-to.1 against it! The Court is exercising a power which is certainly

duced 120 years ago--with ne suggestion whatever of It did not dare use it from the first time it tried it to the Dred Scott deci=

In every recent decade it has increased the use of that power until now no Federal law is really safe Sea the Dot has had a look at it. It is an SH reatening fr ustrate democratic government un almost insuperable dificulty | the Constitution, 4

(Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns, religious controversies excluded. Make vour letter shoit, v0 all can have a chance. Letters must be signed, but names will be withheld on request.)

you would have confidence. Be sure that you play the game fairly \in that you suggest men of sufficient Yrominence, territorial distribution, and ability, and yet possessing the outlook vou desire, so that the ap-= pointment would meet with public

approval and would be one that the |

President realistically might make. “You will find your small indeed, but more than that you will find yourself unwilling to guaran= tee your own satisfaction with you choices five years hence. Now recalling that your list is individual and personal, that others would agree with it only in part at most, and that it is humanly too much to expect a President, subject to ail the pressure he has and not know= ing personally all the persons recom= mended, to make a perfect score on appointments, it would seem clear that it is not going to be s0 easy (0 remake the Court. Actually what we must expect in the future is what we have had in the past. i. e,

list

strong=-minded men conditioned by

their environment and training.” o n ” RAPS CONCENTRATION OF | WEALTH AS WAR CAUSE | By 8. B. Hetrick | Concentration of wealth and war.

makes | depressions

over falling European nations as | long as it has the same disease. The

disease was contracted by Europaan |

TOGETHER By VIRGINIA KIDWELL

me ignore those moments of your life

| |

Let

poth in mind

| And spirit=busy with your daily |

strife Of competition: signed

Ixot me be re=

| To live for those few hours you |

share with me. Our inner life=this love we keep apart, Untouched by misery This hour that quiet heart.

DAILY THOUGHT For they prophesy falsely unio vou in my name: I have not sent them, saith the Lord==Jeremiah 29.9.

ALSEHOOD, like poison, will generally be rejected when ade-

worldly care and

gives us each a

{

It could may or may not

major changes.

* that is sought! how, acoustics,

other, but which it de=

the Justices face each other.

The other new Justices=is

America | should not boast of its superiority |

When you are absent from me=

itself, and the other, an If the Court should be increased in number, the

present bench would be gorapped, and replaced by an entirely new bench, ant bench has never been entirely satisfactory any»

It had two Justices Stone and Butler,

"opposite points on the bench are unable to hear eacn

expansion to this country, with its private manipulation of markets

between producer and consumer, all |

for the sake of maintaining an evil system of unearned income which stops trade at home as well as abroad. ., . . Remove all

unearned incomes-—

interest, rent and profits—and we

will have unlimited trade here at

home and in foreign markets. This |

will do away with poverty, envy and strife. Some persons think that the agitator is silenced by the prosperity | we are now enjoying. Prosperity is only comparative. The cold and hungry man who gets a square meal

is prosperous “or the time being as |

is the ignorant man who owns a beautiful home with an ugly mort= gage on it. The middle-class man who imitates the rich, yeu saves up money for a rainy day, putting it in a pri= vate bank or investing it in inter=

est=paying, nontaxable bonds is good |

for trade as long as anybody else is able to pay the interest, rent and | profits and spend enough money over and above to keep trade going. This all fails to be true if the other fellow cannot pay rent, interest and profit and still keep up trade. It's 50 and it isn't so, truthful lie. This

# » ” READER RESENTS EFFORT | TO CHANGE COURT | By W. H. Young, Rushville

There have been cases in which |

la lawyer has been accused of pack= ing the jury. By that, I mean

will decide in his favor, no matter | how strong the evidence against him. The President seems to be enaci= ing the role of the jury=packing lawyer, racking “Weak Wills,” validity of a President? I cannot conceive of radical step by a President. succeeds in this rash there is no need of a Court. It would be supreme name only. The dighity and power lof this august body would shamed forever. be justice handed down becauase there would be no justice.

the Supreme Court who is to decide the law favorable to the

such a

| 1 notice The Times’ editorials are | | inclined to look upon this step with

growing fear. The Times has sup= ported many of the Administration's

| ideas up to now, but this one =eems |

te grate just a little. It is time now to get in the saddle and curb the ambitions of a power= ful “dictator.” He is out | with a whip and hold the reins. American people do not want such rule, | hampered can | There must be a real awakening | among the people. The right to govern must remain with the elec-

sit in judgment.

The Washington Merry-Go-Rou

which means a | undoubtedly | the mystery of our modern Babylon. |

selecting only those veniremen who |

should he be successful in| with |

If he | movement | Supreme | in |

be | There could never |

to rule

Only a Supreme Court un= |

on the Wall

NKARDS

| fut,

- -

Atay = | | if EY | nt” A fon

Roe E FERMITTED DRIVE

i J

| |

Wie

IAS

=National Safety Council,

It Seems to Me

By Heywood Broun | Most Dangerous Opposition to | President's Court Reform Plan Comes From Progressive Blog, EW YORK, Feb. 17.=There can be no doubt that the most dangerous opposi= tion which has been mustered against Roosevelt's drive to liberalize the i comes from the Progressive Bloc.

courts What Carter Glass says doesn’t count very much, but the words of Wheeler really hurt. And it is my guess that the President can hardly win unless he can induce Senator Norris to come out vigorously for his

proposals. No one can doubt the courage and sincerity of Wheeler and Nor= ris, and both men have been around Washington long enough to learn wisdom about political strategy, but I fail to see how any pathway for an amendment can be cleared by first defeating the President's plan. The die is cast now, and a defeat for the Admin= istration or even a deep coms promise will mean that politicians will shun the problem of the Con= stitution and the courts for a good many years to come. The result will be taken to mean that the status quo is too well entrenched to pe tackled. And the very people who are now saying that, of course, Mr. Roosevelt has every right to pro= pose an amendment will turn with fury on anything he suggests. It is curious to find Wheeler allying | himself with this pack on this particular point, and { still more strange to mee Norris casting sheep's eves | at the wolves. The position of the gentleman from Nebraska would be stronger if he had been carrying on any | particularly wigorous campaigh for an amendment | during the last year. I know that a small committee went to him @arly in 1936 to ask him to call a con= ference of farm leaders, labor leaders, and liberals in the House and Senate to dizcéuss the possibility of framing some amendment on which those forces could agree. I was there. Senator Norris threw cold water on the plan.

Mr, Broun

NUMBER of other men, notably Senator La Fols lette, were willing and eager to get going, but | they all agreed that Norris was the natural leader foe the movement, and they waited a word from him. None came until more than 12 months had passed. There are mote than 40 amendments hung up in the Congress already. It is probable that a very large majority of the people of America and their represen = tatives will agree that Congress should have the power | to legislate in regard to the problems of agriculture and labor. But that agreement breaks into tiny pieces when there ig a discussion of the method. One of the “the general welfare”

n #

| favorite devices is to restate

clause,

” # "

HAVE seen several attempts to do this=in parties lar the “Garrison amendment.” but I hold that it is almost impossible to set down anything which may nos | be construed conservatively or liberally, according to the complexion of the Court, If it were possible to hold a Constitutional Convention and go over the ens tire document I would be for that, The Madison amendment, by which a Suprema Court veto can be nullified by a two=thirds vote of both houses, iz a good one, but obviously it commands | no great popular support, as it haz been knocking | around for a long time without attracting attention, It has been explained painstakingly that Mr. Roosevels, weighed many suggestions before he announced his

present plan.

EE ——

Capitol Architect Already Has Plans for Altering Supreme Court Building in Order to Make Accommodations for Six New Justices,

By Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen ASHINGTON, Feb, 17—Plans are already under way for alteration of the new Supreme Oouri Building to accommodate six new Justices, The President's request for “new judicial blood”

be accepted, but the architect of the

Capitol is preparing himself for any eventuality,

The plans in ¢ One is the enlargement of the bench

he office of the architect call for two

fherease in private offices.

shaped like a horseshoe. The press

in respect to

“dead spots” in it seated at

HE new bench would obviate that difficulty, for

on the ends of the horseshoe would Only drawback would be that the

enlarged bench would crowd the attorneys, cause a packward removal of the bronze railing that separates the attorneys from the public, and thus restrict the space available for visitors. roved inadequate. b change=providing office

This space already has

for six

more diffioult, Bach ¢ hes a

suite of three offices. To provide 18 new rooms, all equipped like the 27 rooms of the present Justices, would strain the marble walls to bursting. Tentative plans call for converting: 1, the rooms devoted to attorneys practicing before the Court; 2, the offices of the clark of the Court; 3, the offices of the Attorney General into offices for Justices, At present the Attorney General and the Solicitor

CGieneral have separate office suites, but the rooms of the Attorney General seldom are used. " » » O make these offices comparable to the suites of & the present Justices would require installation of oak paneling, new plumbing, and new fireplaces, The Architect hopes he can dispense with the fireplaces, which the Nine Old Men never use. An alternative to the expansion plan would be to reduce the present suites from three rooms to two, Bach suite has a room for the Justice, one for his law clerk, and another for his secretary. The contraction would mean putting the law clerk and the secretary in the same room. : Even this plan would require major plumbing ale terations, if each Justice, as at present, is to have his PHYR BO bath, - “ short, President's proposal is a headache to

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