Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 22 February 1937 — Page 11

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Vagabond

FROM INDIANA

ERNIE PYLE \

WASHINGTON, Feb. 22.—Just a few Southwest odds and ends. nickel or four for a dime. Take leave ‘em. One night in Phoenix a well-dressed drunk

came in and ordered a giass of beer. He sat down at the counter, fingered his glass, looked slowly around, surveving the people, and then made his pronouncement :

“The trouble with Anthony Adverse is that it's lacking in firsy and second class.” Nobody said anything at first, but finally the bartender said, “First and second-class -what?” “Just what I said,” the drunk answered. “First and second-class.” That’s all they ever got out of him. One morning I got up early and drove 45 miles over a gravel road from Gila Bend to Ajo, to see a man. The man wasn’t there. I drove back. On the way back I met a big truck with a funny contraption on ; the back end. I asked the hitchhiker who was with me what it was. He didn’t know. Just as we got back to Gila Bend a rear tire started going flat. I shot into a garage and had it changed. We pulled out a bent nail three inches long. Then the garageman got to telling me about nails on the Ajo road. About three years ago, he said, a supply truck was going to Ajo and a keg of roofing nails broke open. The driver didn’t know it and he scattered nails from Gila Bend to Ajo. The garageman said he had a call to go down and fix a fellow’s tires, and when he got there all four tires were flat. tire.

Mr Pyle

Desert Corduroy Road”

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PEAKING of roads, there's one in America that I |

have a peculiar attachment for. It’s the old corduroy road across the California desert west of Yuma. I drove over it 10 years ago. It ran for some 10 miles across the only piece of absolutely bare, shifting, drifting, fine-sand desert in America. What is generally called desert in the Southwest is not absolutely bare. It is usually rocky, and has a pretty full growth of cactus or sage, plus several kinds of little dry bushes and weeds. But this “American

Sahara” west of Yuma is barren, and it piles in beau- |

tiful rippled dunes, and it swirls and it drifts. The old corduroy road across it was just wide enough for one car. Every quarter of a mile or so there would be a “pull-out,” for cars to pass. Ten vears ago they said a solid road could never be built across this shifting sand. It gave me a thrill, and made me feel like a pioneer, to drive over that road then. But it gives me just as big a thrill today to speed over the fine paved highway and see the sad. black remains of that old road laying out there. n

Southwesterners Not Inquisitive 'VE noticed this—you can talk to a farmer or a cat-

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tieman or a desert man all day long and he’ll talk |

freely and answer the most personal questions, but he'll never ask vour name, or your business, or where vou're from. The funniest thing I saw in the Southwest—some 30 miles east of Yuma, right out there where there's nothing as far as you can see but sand, and 2500 miles from the Atlantic Ocean, is a huge signboard advertisire the Hotel Edison in New York City.

Mrs.Roosevelt's Day

By ELEANOR ROOSEVELT

LBANY, N. Y., Sunday.—The dinner in Utica on Friday night was like old home week in some respects. We saw many familiar faces, but remembering the women's meetings in Utica of many years ago, this one took my breath away. Thirteen hundred people, for the most part women, jammed every eating space the hotel could provide. I do not underestimate, of course, the natural curiosity we all have in the person who happens to be the wife of the President. Still, the women’s organizations in Utica must have in¢reased in influence and numbers during the past few years. It is gratifying to find women so interested in civic questions, and it means, I think, an increase in action along certain lines. I believe women, once they are informed, are more sensitive to certain conditions than men and more apt to translate their knowledge into practical action.

Two quiet days in the country, with only a mod-

erate amount of mail following me from Washington, have given me a chance to catch up on sleep and reread a book which I read in snatches to my son John when he was home with a slight attack of flu last week. We had much fun over it, for I would read a chapter and then the usher would appear at the door and say, “Your next appointment is waiting.” Or, “The tea guests have arrived,” and I would drop the book and return to my official duties. When I came back to John he would have read two or more chapters and new characters would be mentioned which he would have to explain to me. Not a very satisfactory way of reading a novel but it was such a good one that I had to fead it again. It is called “The Street of the Fishing Cat,” by Jolan Foldes. It is a moving and appealing picture of the life of refugees in Paris who are thrown together in a strange country because of revolution or oppression in their own country. They come from different walks of life but are drawn together by a common misfortune. There are, characters like the educated Russian, so kind and interested in every member of a poor Hungarian workman's family—the beautiful character of the boy who seemed almost like God to some of them because by his little acts of thoughtfulness he made life interesting and colorful by bringing it something unexpected again.

New Books

PUBLIC LIBRARY PRESENTS—

Vy on the Social Security Act went into effect on Jan. 1, 1937. a great many of the citizens of the United States were directly or indirectly affected by its provisions. A 6é-page pamphlet, WHAT WILL SOCIAL SECURITY MEAN TO YOU?, by Bion H. Francis and Donald G. Ferguson, presents a timely and helpful explanation of the act. This booklet is intended to answer the questions of employers, employees, and the public in general concerning the effect of the act on business, on unemployment insurance, and on annuities and other forms of personal insurance. The authors also discuss the constitutionality of the act. Each chapter contains charts and examples illustrating individual cases, from which the reader can work out a solution to his own problem. The publisher of the pamphlet is the American Institute for Economic Research, a nonpolitical, noncommercial organization whose aim is “to make certain practical aspects of the results of research available to the average man in a form which he can use to protect his interests.” "

*¢ OMEN . . . throughout the long past ages, have contributed to the joys of life through their embroideries,” runs the dedication to MARY THOMAS’ EMBROIDERY BOOK (Morrow). A companion volume is “Mary Thomas’ Dictionary of Embroidery Stitches.” Almost any woman who so much as pages through this new book will feel at least a momentary desire to add a sample of her handicraft to the needlework . of history. Photographs of beautiful, finished work, complete and detailed drawings and directions for the execution of many different stitches, will spur on the novice and inspire the woman already accomplished in embroidering. The author includes patterns for samplers and quilts; and she also has suggestions for the practical stitches of smocking, patchwork, darning and hemming.

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Two for a | ‘em or |

They pulled 26 nails out of just one |

iv ti og mais paw a Seem

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e Indianapolis

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Second Section

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1937

¥ntered as Second-Class Matter Indianapolis,

at Postoffice,

PAGE 11

Ind,

WASHINGTON'S SUPREME COURT Judicial System Our Chief Pillar,” He Wrote His Appointees

the judiciary.

By THOMAS L. STOKES Times Special Writer

ASHINGTON, Feb. 22.—The anniversary of George Washington's birthday found the nation today still engaged in the furious Supreme Court debate. A flashback into Washington's history shows that in appointing the first Supreme Court, the first President selected six men who were strong Federalists and conservatives, with no representation from that large element which dissented from his party’s doctrine. This policy he carried out in appointing the rest of

“Considering the judicial system as the chief pillar upon which our national Government must rest, I have thought it my duty to nominate, for the highest offices in that department, such men as I conceived would give dignity and luster to our national character,” the President wrote in letters accompanying commissions to the justices. Three of the six, John Rutledge of South Carolina, James Wilson of Pennsylvania and John Blair of Virginia,

had been members of the Constitutional Convention, while

Wilson, John Jay of New &—

York (the chief justice), James Iredell of North Carolina and William Cushing of Massachusetts had participated in the state fights for ratification of the Constitution.

It is interesting to note, in connection with the current controversv about the ages of Supreme Court justices, that the ages of these six men ranged from 38 to 57, Justice Iredell being the youngest. Blair both were 57.

A letter opposing the appointment of Cushing was received by Washington from Christopher Gore, who said that Cushing, then Chief Justice of Massachusetts, “now 56 vears of age, cannot long be an active member of the Court, and he has new habits and modes of legal decision to acquire.” n n ” HIEF JUSTICE JAY was a diplomatist, aristocratic in nature. conservative, with pronounced views on a strong central government, and was unsym-

from Great Britain, later became an ardent advocate of the Revolution.

Rutledge, a lawyer of means, a plantation and slave owner, was president of South Carolina under its first Constitution. He vetoed a bill for a new form of government which was more democratic, saying he preferred “a compound or mixed government to a simple democracy, or one verging toward it.” “However unexceptionable democratic power may appear at first view its defects have been found arbitrary, severe and destructive,” he said. Unable to prevent adontion of the new state constitution, he resigned, but later was elected Governor under it and served. Wilson, a native of Scotland, was a banker and insurance man of Philadelphia. “Wilson's largest interest,” Dr. Charles A. Beard says, “seems to

and Cushing |

have been in public lands, for he was among the members of the Georgia Land Co., a highly speculative concern tainted with fraud, to put it mildly, for 10 shares, 25,000 pounds cash and 750,000 acres.

® " " LAIR was a wealthy lawyer. Of him Dr. Beard says: “Blair took advantage of the excellent opportunity afforded by the rise of securities. He appears frequently in the transactions between the Federal Government and the Virginia loan office.” ° There was some controversy when the Court assembled over the costumes to be worn, especially as to whether the justices should adopt wigs from the English. The upshot was that gowns were adopted but wigs vere barred. Benjamin Harrison is quoted as saying that ‘Jefferson was against any needless official apparel, but if the gown was to carry, he said: ‘For heaven's sake, discard the monstrous wig which makes the

| English judges look like rats peek-

ing through bunches of oakum.'” “Hamilton was for the English

wig with the English gown. Burr

pathetic at first to separation | although he

was for the English gown but against the inverted wool sack termed a wig! The English gown was taken and the wig left.” ” n ” T is interesting to note that the . constitutional amendment proposed by Senators Wheeler (D. Mont.) and Bone (D. Wash.), which would permit Congress to override Court decisions by a twothirds vote of each house, recalls a proposal discussed before the formation of the court. The proposal in question was debated at length in the Constitutional Convention and Wilson took a leading role in the discussions. The so-called Virginia Plan, used as the basis of discussion in drafting the Constitution, provided for a Council of Revision, com=posed of the President and “a convenient number of the national judiciary,” which would pass upon acts of Congress and of state legislatures before they became

ORION EASY STARTING POINT FOR STUDY OF MARCH HEAVENS

WHAT WOULD You DO IF YOU WERE PRESIDENT TODAY °°

operative, to them. The Council's veto could be overridden by Congress or the state legislature, whichever was involved. This plan was modified in later discussions to apply only to acts of Congress. It was championed chiefly by James Madison of Virginia and by Wilson.

=” 2

N its final form the plan provided separate veto powers for the President and for a judicial council, with a two-thirds vote of Congress required to override a veto by either, and three-fourtis to override a veto by both. Another proposal, also embodied in the Virginia Plan and pushed by Charles Pinckney of South

with power

| Carolina, involved a veto power by

Congress over acts of state legis-

| latures.

Both plans were dropped after

| being debated from time to time.

Against the Council of Revision it was argued that it united two functions that should be distinct, the executive and the judicial, and

By JAMES STOKLEY Director of the Fels Planetarium The Franklin Institute (Copyright, 1937, by Science Service) N a clear evening in March, Orion, the heavenly warrior, appears in the southwest, easily identified by the three stars of similar brightness in a row, which form his belt. This constellation provides an easy starting point for the study of the March heavens. Above is Betelgeuse, below is Rigel. Using the belt stars as pointers, and following their direction to the right, one comes to a V-shaped group of rather faint stars, with a bright one, distinctly red in color, on the left hand arm of the V. This is the Hyades, marking the face of Taurus, the bull. The bright star, Aldebaran, marks the animal's eye. Still farther to the right is a smaller cluster, the Pleiades, known in mythology as the “seven sisters.” | If we follow the direction of the | belt to the left, it brings us just above the brightest star in the sky, Sirius, the dog-star, part of Canis Major, the great dog. This should not be confused with Venus, which is much brighter.

n ”

ENUS, however, is a planet, a body like the earth, revolving around the sun and forming part of the solar system. It has no light of its own, but is visible by the sunlight it reflects. Sirius, like all the stars, is another sun, a glowing globe of gas, half a million times as far as ours. Venus, in March, is almost directly west, below the Pleiades, while Sirius is farther to the south. Both of these objects are pictured on the accompanying maps. These depict the skies as seen about 10 p. m. March 1, 9 p. m. March 15 and 8 p. m. March 31. Above Orion are the Gemini, the twins Castor and Pollux. Canis Minor, the lesser dog, is above his larger brother, and contains the star Procyon. High in the morthwest is Capella, part of Auriga, the charioteer. Farther north is Cassiopeia, the queen. This group has the shape of the Greek capital letter Sigma, or a W turned on its side, the top to the right. The great dipper, part of Ursa Major, the great bear, is high in the northeast. The “pointers” at the upper part of the bowl of the dipper, indi-

pole star. -

cate the direction of Polaris, ue

B® following the curve of the sun's direction to be seen at all. | handle of the dipper to the|Mars appears in the east about |

south, Arcturus can be located, in Bootes, the bear driver. Still farther south is Spica, marking Virgo, the virgin. Another prominent constellation is seen above Virgo, which is Leo, the lion. Just as the great bear contains a smaller group, the dipper, so does the lion contain the “sickle.” The blade, which also forms the lion's head, curves to the right, and Regulus, below, marks the end of the handle. An important astronomical event within the next month occurs on Saturday, March 20, at 6:45 p. m. (Indianapolis Time). The sun, which has been moving northward in the sky all winter, reaches the half-way point and crosses the equator. This is the beginning of spring. Venus is the only planet visible on March evenings. Mercury and Saturn are both too nearly in the

Spica | -

4 EAST

’ 1d # % ©» SYMBOLS FOR STARS IN ORDER OF BRIGHTNESS could provide. solidarity of

midnight, while Jupiter comes up about three hours before sunrise.

But the great brilliance of Venus

well atones for the lack of other planets. It can get brighter than any other planet or star, and it will be brightest on March 12. Then it will be of magnitude minus 4.3. Sirius, the brightest star, is minus 1.6; thus Venus exceeds it about 40 times. The difference in brightness between a star of one magnitude and the next is about two and a half times. ‘Through a telescope in March Venus looks like the crescent moon. This happens because, being a planet, it is illuminated by the sun, sO that the sunward hemisphere is bright, the other dark. The same, of course, is true of earth. Venus moves in an orbit only 67.170,000 miles from the sun, while that of the earth is 92,900,000 miles.

Arcturus

CORONA

ue ik) CANIS 2" S i MAJOR Ny

VELA °

WEST?

veto |

that it would join the President and the judges against Congress. Apparently the most effective arguments against a Congressional veto of state legislative acts were that it would infringe upon the rights of the states and that it might put the little states at the | mercy of the big ones, such as | Virginia and Pennsylvania and | New York, because of the big | states’ larger representation in Congress. A practical argument raised by Gunning Bedford, of Delaware, was that of distance and the difficulties of communication and transportation. “Are the laws of the states,” Bedford asked, “to be suspended in the most urgent cases until they | can be sent seven or eight hun- | dred miles, and undergo the deliberations of a body who may he incapable of judging them? Ts the national legislature to sit continually in order to revise the laws of the states?”

T no time was there a.formal proposal before the convention that the Supreme Court be specifically empowered to outlaw acts of Congress. The convention simply disregarded it. It was left to John Marshall to proclaim this power in the Marbury vs. Madison decision. During debate on the Council of Revision, the possibility of a Supreme Court veto power was disclosed without any conclusion being reached, or even being sought. Some speakers took this power for granted as inherent. Others deplored the very idea that courts should have such power.

” ”

But nobody did anything about it. In the initial discussion of the proposed Council of Revision, Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts doubted “whether the judiciary ought to form a part of it, as they will have a sufficient check against encroachments on their own department by their exposi-

power of deciding on their constitutionality.” Wilson said, at one point, that “laws may be unjust, may be unwise, may be dangerous, may be destructive; and yet may not be so unconstitutional as to justify the judges in refusing to give them effect.” Nathaniel Gorham of Massachusetts did not see “the advantage of employing the judges in this way. As judges they are not to be presumed to possess any peculiar knowledge of the mere policy of public measures.” John Francis Mercer of Maryland “disapproved of the doctrine that the judges as expositors of the Constitution should have authority to declare a law void. He thought laws ought to be well and cautiously made, and then to be uncontrollable.” John Dickinson of Delaware “was strongly impressed with the remark of Mr. Mercer as to the power of the judges to set aside the law. He thought no such pow= er ought to exist. He was at the same time at a loss what expedient to substitute.”

NEXT-—Grant and the Supreme

Court.

Court Plan Defeat Rests

On Democrats—Sullivan

ASHINGTON, Feb. 22. —If President Roosevelt's court proposal is beaten, it will be done | by Democrats. In a full Senate, de- | feat—that ir prevention of passage —would take exactly half the Sen-

ate’s 48 votes. And in those 48 votes not more than 16 could be Republican—for 16 is the total number of Republicans of all varieties. 1n short, in defeat of the proposal, if defeat is the outcome, the Republic-

to the Democrats’ two. The Democrats, in this. contest, had to provide both the Administration party and the opposition one. The Republicans were not even the rallying post of the opposi- | tion, for it was not around Repub- | licans that the opposition centered; | it was around Democrats. It was | Democrats, not Republicans, who provided the early leadership and | spokesmanship of the opposition.

> » »

| HIS letting Democrats take the banner of the opposition was lin some degre2 an act of voluntary self-abnegation on the part of Republicans in the Senate. Knowing they could not provide the army, they did not attempt to provide the generals. So far as recognition of impotence is a virtue, the Republicans had at least that. It should be added, of course, that while the Republicans in Congress cannot provide an army, in the eountry they can. The | nearly 17 million Republican voters, nearly 40 per cent of the whole ‘electorate, will be practically solid | in opposition to the President's proposal. It should be added also that the

ans can contribute only one vote

By MARK SULLIVAN

small number they have. Apparently every man in the Senate having the letter “R” after his name

will be against the President's pro- |

posal. on

N the President's court posal, all the regular Repub-

licans are opposed. With them, on |

this issue, stands Senator Borah, who is the last two Presidential campaigns did not support the Republican candidate, taking refuge in a neutral silence. With them stands California, who went over to the New Deal and Mr. Roosevelt when they emerged in the 1932 campaign. With them stands Senator Frazier of North Dakota, who last fall supported the third party Presidential candidate, Mr. Lemke, With them, apparently, will stand Senator Nye of North Dakota, though so far he is noncommittal. Senator Norris of Nebraska no longer carries the “R”; he ran last fall as “Independent,” and is now so designated in the Senate. On the court issue, he is dubious about the President’s proposal. The Democrats who lead opposition to the proposal will be more forceful than those who lead the fight in behalf of it. They will be more forceful because, among other reasons, they are more earnest. In any situation, a Senator who on

| Republicans in the Senate, though | ta

tion of the laws, which involved a |

pro- |

now Senator Johnson of |

Our Town

By ANTON SCHERRER

JFIFTY-FIVE years ago today, Oscar Wilde turned up in Indianapolis and delivered his lecture on the “English Renaissance.” Mrs. Maria Rhodius, who ran the Circle House bar, was reasonably sure that Harry Pierce would introduce Oscar Wilde that night. So sure, indeed, that she posted odds of three to one that he would. Mr. Pierce did nothing of the kind. | of fact, nobody introduced Mr. | Wilde, an impasse that led to no | end of trouble when it came time | to settle the hets, Oscar Wilde appeared all by himself. He moved in a mousie ! sort of way from the right wing | of English’'s Grand Opera house at precisely 20 minutes past 8 | o'clock and took his place beside | a bare reading desk at the center | of the stage. He wore a swallow-tail coat and a double-breasted vest exposing a wide expanse of unsullied shirt front in the midst of which glowed 2 single stud of gold. The only other | jewelry on his 30n was a cameo seal suspended by | a broad black silk ribbon on the other end of which was supposed to be a watch. The watch, if such it was, needed fixing, because the lecture was scheduled to begin at 8 o'clock. The rest of Mr. Wilde's outfit consisted of velvet knee breeches, a high-standing collar, a virgin-white necktie, black silk stockings, white kid gloves and | enormous shoes, low-cut with magnificent silver buckles, a detail which was completely hidden by the gas footlights of the stage. , : There wasn't a sign of a sunflower anywhere on | his person, a defect that led some sore-heads to de= | mand their money back. Oscar's coming to Indian= apolis in the dead of winter may have had something to do with his failure to say it with flowers.

”

As a matter

Mr. Scherrer

” ”

Hair Was Long

R. WILDE'S attire was extraordinary enough without flowers but it was almost forgotten in the contemplation of his hair. It was of a dark | auburn hue, grewing in a dense mass to his shouls ders, giving a pyramidal contour to his head. He was tall, all reports agree-—considerably over six feet—and Morris Ross took pains to record at | the time that “he had many sharp corners.” He hada fine gray eyes and occasionally his ears would break through their hairy environment, showing them=

| selves so huge as to suggest a purpose in their concealment,

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Took 75 Per Cent Cut SCAR, billed as the “Apostle of Aestheticism,” spoke an hour and 15 minutes. At Ft. Wayne, he said the same thing in one hour flat. His audience here consisted of 500 people, good for a gate of $350, of which Oscar got 75 per cent, The highest price paid by anybody was one dollar: the lowest two bits. Col. Maynard of the Sentinel occupied a front | seat, so did Morris Ross of the News and Col. Halford | of the Journal. Charlie Kregelo, the undertaker, said he was present to get pointers for his business. David Hanchette, who ran a dramatic school here at the time, stayed long enough to pronounce Mr, Wilde a bad actor. Harry Pierce, everybody agreed, was the most interested man present and Charlie Dennis the most disgusted. Mr. Dennis, who ran the Saturday Review at the time, was especially dis= gusted with Oscar's legs. “They actually had no more symmetry than the same length of garden hose,” said Mr. Dennis. Where James Whitcomb Riley was that night is still a mystery. The Indianapolis Journal printed Mr. Riley's “The Brook” on Feb. 4, 1882: his “Bin-a Fishin’ ” on April 22. The interval represents a silence of more than 40 days and nights, at a time when, i goodness knows, Indianapolis needed him most.

A Woman's View

By MRS. WALTER FERGUSON

T'S always sensible to take casual reports of other | countries with a large grain of salt. For visiting ladies and gentlemen are apt to let their prejudices | sway their judgment, and besides no two people ever | see exactly the same thing wherever they may be. A voung Communist woman from Russia, for ex= ample. has recently gone back home and is having a high time reporting the deplorable conditions in the United States. She found people starving, she savs. She found white slavery, crime, riots, and plenty of despair. And we've got them all too. No doubt other countries are making much of our Tennessee child marriage, our lovers who chain thems selves to radiators to induce their sweethearts to say “Yes.” Probably their headlines tell of our strikes and late the conditions of our undernourished children nd our unemployed men and women. But isn't it true that many of us allow the same squint-eyed view to mar our vision when we speak of other nations with whose forms of government we disagree? Several newspaper writers have taken a truculent attitude toward the Communist girl, who they say is spreading lies about us. It seems to me this is a childish attitude. If we had no undernourished chile dren, no youthful matings, no strikes and no riots we could then afford to be angry. So long as we do have them, isn’t it better to admit our faults and resolve to improve conditions? The truth is that a lot of us spend too rauch time worrying about communism in Russia and fascism in Germany and Italy and the sort of social democracy now thriving in England and France. We had much better be sweeping our own doorsteps. I hate the noisy patriotism that is always roars ing about national virtues. The fellow who makes the | room ring with his praises, who extols his many ex= cellences and thumps his chest with self-admiration is regarded in most places as a plain fool. And that's what he is. Countries, even as men, should walk humbly.

Your Health

By DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN

Editor, American Medical Assn, Journal

N the United States, measles is most common during February and March. It affects all kinds of people, but is slightly more prevalent among girls than boys, and among white than colored children, More city than country people die of measles, and more people in the North than in the South. More than one-half of all cases of measles affect children younger than 5 years of age, and 97 per cent of cases affect children under 15. If an older person catches measles, it is no sign that he is childish in his ways or habits, but it is nevertheless an unusual dis= ease among older people. Not only do most cases of measles affect young children, but most deaths from the disease claim very young children. Over 90 per cent of deaths involve children under 5, and the highest death rate occurs among children in the first and second years of life. The safest time to have measles is between 5 and 15 years of age. : Measles, like other infectious diseases, is not what it used to be. The death rate from diphtheria dropped from 21 per 100,000 in 1919 to around 6 in 1930. Similarly, the death rate from measles dropped from 12 per 100,000 in 1910 to 2': in 1930. About 10,000 deaths from measles still occur each year in the United States. For a long time it generally was thought that every child had to have measles. Mothers even used to exe pose their children to the disease with the idea that they might as well have it and get it over with, Today we know that measles is transmitted from one person to another, and that, with suitable pre-

it 1s possible to avoid the disease,