Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 23 February 1937 — Page 12

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The Indianapolis Times

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ROY W. HOWARD LUDWELL DENNY MARK FERREE President Editor Business Manager

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Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1937

Member of United Press, Scripps - Howard Newspaper Alliance, NEA Service, and Audit Bu-

veau of Circulations. Rlley 5551

COMEUPPANCE ; “YF the two suits are in rem or quasi in rem so that the court must have possession or control of the res in order to proceed with the cause...” “Near vs. Minn., supra, at pp. 713 et seq.” At long last, again to employ words conspicuously appearing in another great constitutional crisis, the lawyers are looking at themselves. And, though belated, never was a soul-searching more timely. For with the lawyers largely rests the responsibility for bringing about the climax in the Supreme Court. ' They have arrived at what Booth Tarkington calls the comeuppance. The cloak of mystery in which the profession so long has robed itself is being removed and the fog of language lifted. The and/ors and the supras, the rems and the reses, the quasis and the at pps bid fair to be translated into the plain Irish language. A wide dawn of public scrutigy is rising on the matter of what our courts and our Constitution are all about. The twistings and the turnings that have made it possible for the barristers to make an amendment, designed to protect freed slaves, shield the corporate body of a gas company—devices such as that, defeating time and time again the obvious purpose of the law and the electorate, are what have finally brought a long smoldering fire to a blaze. And so a group of lawyers gathered in Washington hear Senator Homer T. Bone, himself a lawyer, speak as follows: “Year after year, the profession goes along, carrying a load of dignity that would spring the joints of an archangel, and selling its conscience down the river.” They heard that and seemed to like it. For the object of this group is introspection; a facing of the realities: a recognition of the fact that the days of abracadabra are on their way out; that a new time of responsibility, to the public as well as the client, is at hand. The new organization calls itself the National Lawyers Guild. It is made up of many distinguished barristers representing the more liberal element of the profession in the nation. Nothing could contribute more toward an increasing public respect for the administration of justice than that such a movement should thrive.

PEACE BE WITH US HE Senate Foreign Relations Committee has finally reported out a new neutrality bill. It is designed to keep the United States out of the next war. All factions in the neutrality controversy of the past two years are satisfied with the new measure, which forecasts early enactment. The most important section, and the one over which the fight was hardest, provides that exporters of any and all products to belligerent countries must forfeit all right, title and interest in those products before they leave our shores. So, if they are lost at sea, no claims can be made against the Government and no suits for damage or loss can be entertained by any American court. This would seem to be the best compromise possible in the argument over minimizing the influence of war trade in dragging us into the conflict. There is no practical way to embargo all commerce with belligerents, And about the only reasonable means of lessening its pull is to force the purchasers to come and get it, pay cash for it and carry it away themselves. This is what the committee proposes. The bill also makes mandatory the prohibition against travel hy American citizens on ships of belligerent nations, except under rules prescribed by the President, thus greatly strengthening the present neutrality law. Laws cannot keep the United States out of war. That depends upon men, not statutes. But in so far as law can help, this new bill seems to make an intelligent effort.

AUTO INSPECTION

ANY automobiles should be headed toward the graveyard—possibly ahead of their drivers. No one knows how many traffic accidents are caused by defective mechanical equipment. Usually there is little left to test after the wreck. But if a large number of cars have faulty brakes, bad lights, wheels out of alignment and other defects, we may assume that proper equipment could prevent part of the tragedy. A bill before the Legislature would permit cities to provide compulsory motor vehicle inspection. As part of the Administration safety program, it is expected to become law. If that happens, many motorists will find their cars below safety requirements. We stress safety features in building ‘automobiles. It is time we paid more attention to compulsory maintenance of such features.

BRITAIN ARMS FOR PEACE

JOR three centuries England has swayed the balance of ~ power in Europe. Frequently when one side over on the Continent became so strong that it began to impose its will upon the other, she has stepped in and restored the balance. She has not done this purely in a spirit of largess. Being just a small island off the northwestern coast of Europe, it has been for her a matter of life or death. Britain is now planning to spend upward of eight billion dollars in the next five years on armaments—on a “big stick” to enforce peace. In the past, Europe has stopped, looked and listened . when Britain spoke. A strong Britain, plus a courageous diplomacy, may hold the biggest—perhaps the only—hope for peace in Europe. It seems a pity that to make the

world even a fairly safe place for them to live in, democ-

‘racies feel they must go armed to the teeth.

Fhersw Cs

)

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

TUESDAY, FEB. 23, 1937

Hey! Whoa! Wait a Minute !—By Herblock

AY | we NS

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler Writer Suspects Court Plan and Wonders Why Louisiana Income Tax Indictments Were Dropped. NEV YORK, Feb. 23.—I have read hundreds of columns of argument and comment on the Supreme Court thing, and

my impression is that these others are merely expressing their own well-known preju-

vet

dices and don't know any more about it than |

I do. My own attitude, and it is just an attitude and not a well-informed conclusion, is one of suspicion,

because I know for a certainty that Mr. Roosevelt keeps some pretly dirty political company around the country, especially in Chicago, Kansas City and Louisjana. And when Homer Cummings has the gall to plead the President's case against the Court, I want to ask him once more just what caused the change of atmosphere in New Orleans which decided his department to abandon the prosecution of the income tax indictments against Huey Long's boys .after Huey's death and the great political reconciliation. Mr. Cummings disposes of that satisfactorily, I can listen to him on the subject of a branch or depart-

Mr. Pegler

ment of the Government which has always seemed |

to me to be much cleaner than his own. The mere lapse of time doesn't blur the reality of

the unfinished business in New Orleans, where the | Federal court system found indictments which were held as a club over the political opponents of the | Administration as long as the opposition lived, but |

were quietly tossed out the window when the opposition made peace. n HAT Louisiana case was pretty raw. Huey was giving the President plenty of trouble down there, but the boys in Washington thought they had him over a barrel in the income tax matter. either they were using the law and the court for political coercion in the first place, or they quit cold for political peace in the second place, which would have been just as bad. It isn't as though they had ever given any reasonable explanation. The announcement just said the cases were being dropped because of a change of atmosphere, which strikes me as a plea of guilty. This kind of doing is all reminiscent of Huey's own methods, and the packing of the courts was one of his favorite tricks, too. And now everything is hotsy-totsy between the Administration and Mr. Long's old boys in New Orleans. But in view of the political enmity it should have been left tn ths juries to decide whether the indictments were well founded. What is this anyway, the Department of Justice or the Weather Bureau,

which disposes of serious indictments because of a change of atmosphere?

un advance just whom Mr. Roosevelt has in mind for appointment to the bench. Some of his other ap-

Ld ”

) = THINK it would help some people to reach a deci-

pointments have not been too hot and I wonder if |

he has any Theodore Bilbos in reserve, If there is some mad hatter among the President's selections, the naming of the (names just now would

give the people a chance to pass judgment on his sincerity.

NEUTRAUTON

The Battle Front Shifts —By ki

The Hoosier Forum

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

| UNHITCHED! | By Ernest E. Owens

| before.”

cluded.

(Times readers are invited to | ping downtown I rode the streetcar, express their views in these col- | umns, religious controversies exMake your letter short, so all can have a chance. must be signed, but names will be withheld on request.)

| otherwise I shopped in outlying districts where I could park. The parking meter companies Letters | agree to take all the responsibility, penny's cost to the city, tem is not suitable the

| The horse in the picture is not ( unharnessed; instead, he is | hitched.

» ” » [ity in unity. [NEW JUDGES FOR COURT | y y

NEEDED, IS BELIEF

un- keep the universe in order. The law {of human need binds all mankind as lone. The law of love holds human-

These laws, inherent in man, have

guarantees to remove the machines without damage to the sidewalks or streets.

make a mistake by trying something that it certainly needs?

making the installation without one If the syscompany |

If this is true, why will the city |

[caused and directed all human prog|ress. Social progress, welfare and It seems to me the important tranquillity are dependent on them. | thing about President Roosevelt's When obeyed, they function for the | proposed Supreme Court reform is benefit of the human race and when |

By L. L. Patton, Crawfordsville

Last year I was in six cities where parking meters were used. I found that 90 per cent of the people favored the systems, William Blan-

don, Houston Chamber of Commerce |

After |

So |

that it would give him opportunity | to establish a new precedent for ap- | pointing Supreme Court judges. [ TI believe most Americans will agree that the most important need

is to make the Supreme Court more |

representative. The past method of appointing Supreme Court judges from the top flight of corporation lawyers has practically resulted in | establishing a junior Liberty League

to dictate the law of the land.

Unquestionably the present judges are fine Americans, but they are not representative of the American people. They represent only che class. corporate management. They grew up through the institution of corporate management and it is only natural that their sympathies are | along that line.

at present we are making adjustments after having passed through [an economic revolution. We must | make a decision concerning the part | that corporate management is to [ play in our future economic life. How can the American people, | whose greatest love is the prinziple | of representative government, respect decisions oh problems of | corporate management passed down by the present Supreme Court? 4 ” 5 | OPPOSITION TO PARKING | METERS VOICED By Chester Smith Will the people of Indianapolis

violated their penalty is inescapable. | secretary, told me that they could |

| Every undertaking serving human | hot vote meters out of Houston if (needs or contributing to the social | they threw the revenue in the ship | welfare and tranquillity is a divine | canal, | function. | The function of the farm, factory, , ] . bank, commerce, and school is to | motorists do their shopping in 45 ‘assure plenty and economic security Bilt, The a nih h rd | to society. The essential function of | SM chance urnisihing hi

This is especially important since |

industry, business, education,

ahd | customers any parking space in the

Hil Dive the City medicine is to promote the welfare A0Wntown area. T will give the City | of society, rather than to make men, | ©f Indianapolis $5 to assure me 45

| corporations or churches wealthy.

minutes’ parking space in the down-

Hence, the law of human need and | OWh district; yet, meters will assure

love makes the spirit of sharing im- | perative to the fulfillment of a per- | fect social order.

The spirit of sharing, to the sacrifice of life itself, was the

with the recent flood The absence of the spirit of shar{ing in the dealing of parties in- | volved inh the General Motors strike [levied a tax on security, affecting | both peace and tranquillity.

» # ”

FAVORS INSTALLATION OF

| PARKING METERS HERE

| By J. W. Crowder | 1 have read with much interest | The Times’ articles regarding parking meters. I have lived in Indianapolis nearly a vear and formerly lived in Houston. The parking situation in Indianapolis, in my judgment, is ter- [ rible, I am at a loss to know why auto-

driving | kin in society's endeavor to cope |

{it for 5 cents.

Of course, T do not know what

| percentage of the motorists is rep- |

| resented by automobile clubs, but, I { havs been driving for 15 years and 1

help to me. And I am sure that if they render a service they charge a fee. If the city is to render a

to charge a fee, Some of the small towns Mr. Stoops speaks of ih discussing the meter opposition may not have traffic problems. Why doesn't mention Houston, Dallas, Kansas City, San Antonio and Toledo?

" YW. % TESTS ON 19 DRIVERS SHOW 18 ARE DEFECTIVE By B. C.

who had been convicted of drunk or reckless driving were examined at the court's psychopathic clinic. There it was learned that eight

| of the 19 had defective vision, two |

hag in the past sustained head inJuries, one had a hysterical temperament, two suffered from a mental |

The other day, in Detroit, 19 men |

The United States Department of | Commerce says 81 per cent of the |

am sure they have not been of anv |

service it certainly should be allowed |

ne | |

| | |

sion on the Supreme Court proposal to know in |

day to leave their cars near their — work? I think that workers should have | badges to show that they have a | right to park all day in some free, |

vate lots. If they can afford to drive ( downtown for their shopping they |

| could afford to use the meters,

| and streetcars are going to do more | business and the system may not | pay for the cost of installation,

For not

EB * | ians 10:18. | SPIRIT OF SHARING HELD IMPERATIVE TO SOCIETY By Lewis E. Frazeur

The law of gravity holds matter

together and the laws of motion |

VERSE | By DANTEL FRANCIS CLANCY

If the system is used the busses | DAILY THOUGHT

he that himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth.—II

EN of real merit, whose noble

disease, and two others were on the verge of insbhity. Tour were chronic alcoholics, and four had “deficient depth perception,” which | [meant that whenever they speeded | past another car, they were apt to | come too close and collide. The doctor who conducted the study noted one markedly impres- | sive thing. It was that the defects | of all these men must have been known to relatives and friends. And here is the point every responsible citizen might keep in| mind. “Such men,” that doctor said, “could have been lectured and worked upon by relatives and mem- | bers of the community, in order to | keep them out of trouble.” And,

commendeth

Corinth-

deeds we are

| lives.

rby

o a, Sy oy -

It Seems to Me By Heywood Broun | Columnist Sees No Paradox in

Highly Centralized Government | That Is Also Entirely Democratic.

| NEW YORK, Feb, 28.—Dorothy Thompson, a brilliant commentator who has done distinguished work in the interpreta- | tion of Fouropean politics and economics for the American public, recently seems to be making a gallant attempt to familiarize herself with conditions here, It seems to me that Dorothy Thompson is populares zing an error which may be dangerous to the cause

of democracy, Having watched fascism at close hand in Germany and Ttaly, she quite properly is tere rified at any similar growth in America. Still her thesis seems to be that any extension of the exec= utive or the legislative power is a step on the road toward dictators ship. With that notion 1 quarrel vio lently. T think it is quite possible to have a highly centralized gov ernment which is at the same time thoroughly democratic. Any Mr. Broun other theory plays into the hand of the potential dictator. After all, there are many millions in America whose estate is so precarious that they have a right to follow after even somewhat shallow promisems. Their inevitable reaction can be expressed in the simple sentence, “What have I got to lose?” And so they are willing to take a chance, Miss Thompson says epecifically in a recent column, “The possibilities of legislation as a real aid to the eco nomic well-being of the people are very limited ine deed.” She also offers the opinion that “one arrangement voluntarily arrived at by negotiation between workers and employers in a given industry is worth a | pile of laws.” | ”

“wed,

” ”

HAVE no disagreement with the latter opinion if I am permitted to restate the equation. The funda- | mental strength of any labor group lies in its own potentialities to fight along the economic front, Legislation is a secondary matter, But I do choke at the word “voluntary,” because I think Miss Thompson is naive in her seeming belief that anything is ever dropped into the lap of labor, As a rule, labor gets what it fights for and not much more. And yet I am unwilling to agree that the possibilities of legislation are as limited as Miss Thompson believes. I had small faith in the integrity of Huey Long or the utility of his share-the-wealth plans even if he really meant to press them, Still, if Huey had lived, any opponent would hava had a hard task to defeat him by saying, “If slected President I can do nothing for those who are in misery and want. My only argument is that Senator Long may fall short of those bright prospects which he has presented.” ‘ ” on un

Nov. I am not suggesting that when a demagog comes along he can be shown up only by somes body who promises much more, but in the case of Roosevelt, who is less radical than I would desire, it is stlly not to admit that some parts of his program actually have eased the burden of the underprivileged, I had some close contacts with the workings of tha NRA. 1 know through my own experience that Sec tion 7A was not much more than a straw. But when

| a drowning man is compellad to clutch even a feebla

reed it is better than nothing, Section 7A, while it proved ineffective as far as enforcement went, had a real psychological value to the trade union move:nent, John L. Lewis employed it to recruit many new members in the United Mine Workers of America. And in unorganized groups this will-o'-the-wisp, if you please, still served as a light ®» bring a certain number into their first step out "of darkness,

General Hugh Johnson Says —

President's Court Plan Has Put Country and Congress Into Confusion Just When Many Other Important Measures Are Up for Consideration.

ASHINGTON, Feb. 23.—The judiciary reorganization proposal has thrown this country and its Congress into such confusion that they are not fit to pass on that or any other question. Yet, at the same moment, there are proposals for completely recasting the political and economic cosmos which in the present pandemonium can't be given the consideration we ordinarily would accord to a bill to regulate the diameter of hogs’ nose rings. There are the plans to make over the face of nature for flood and river control; the reconstruction of the great plains; a reorganization of our whole agricultural economy; a hill to adopt communism on the outbreak of war under the false face of “taking the profits out of war”; an incipient price inflation and 1929 boom-and-bust, illustrated by the recent godless advance in the price of nonferrous metals. A foreign armaments race passing precedent; our headlong entrance into it; an oncoming internatibnal catastrophe or either war explosion or world eco-

homic collapse; industrial war with labor—just entering the phase of incipient revolution; a proposed complete recasting of executive government, which is itself a politico-economic revolution reforming our wi! | - oh any a but to

executive genius of one peculiar but necessarily fleet= ing life—and the Pittman “neutrality” resolution. ” n n HIS is not half the list, ‘There is more to come. We will get & new NRA in whatever guise, a reincarnated AAA, TVAs for every river system, a rehousing of the poor, a rebuilding of our merchant marine and—but this column only runs to about 620 words. A million of the most effective words coupled with the passion of Jerethiah and the poignancy of Cassandra would not do enough to emphasize the resulting hysterical incompetenicy of the nation to decide any of these questions intelligently. . * » w HERE isn't any room here to discuss the neutrality resolution, except to say that while, on the surface, it is a revolution in international law,

in essence it leaves completely unsolved most of the principal problems to which it is addressed. It does not solve them. It just hands them over to the President. The point of this piece is neither to approve nor condemn it, We will talk about that later. Here we want to point to the bughouse fallacy ‘national in \pdssh mans

The Washington Merry-Go-Round

SEC Mas Subpenaed Standard Oil of New Jersey's President to Tell

What Me Knows of Firm's

By Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen |

ASHINGTON, Feb. 23.—Walter Teagle, head of the lordly Standard Oil Oo. of New Jersey, has just been secretly subpenaed by the Securities and Bxchange Commission to tell what he knows about an alleged attempt by his company to corner control of all defaulted bonds of the Republic of Colombia. This, on the surface, is a remote and innocuous matter. But actually it is not. It illustrates how the American public may be euchred out of millions of dollars worth of investmerits. The subpenaing of Mr, Teagle came about when

the Bondholders Protective Committee for Colombian Dollar Bonds applied to the SEC for the right wo

Activities in Defaulted Colombian Bonds.

of Standard Oil. One director was James H. Hayes, attorney for Standard Oil. Another was Hartisor: K. McCann, member of the firm of McCann Brick. son, Inc., advertising agents for Standard Oil,

The executive secretary of the committee was Lawrence E. de 8. Hoover, once implicated in reyvolue tionary gun-running, Not only were the committee's chief directors afTillated with Standard Oil, but at one time its - offices were in the Standard Oil Building at 98 Broadway, and its telephone setvice was in conJunction with Standard Oil. * B® W URTHERMORE, the SEC knew that Standard Oil and its subsidiaries are the single biggest

exchange certificates of deposit for bonds. The committee is an organization supposed to protect the unlucky investor who was high-pressured by bank-ing-house salesmen into buying Colombian bonds, all of which now are in default. There are 26 defaulted national, state and municipal issues totaling $152,851,000. * B® =» UT scanning the list of the committee's directors,

the SEO was suprised to find that most of

property-holders and taxpayers in Colombia. They pay about 10 per cent of the country's total taxes, Naturally, the less the Colombian Goverhmant PAYS to its bondholders the less it has to raise ih taxes. So Standard Oil appeared to be sitting In the peculiar position of both protecting holders of dee faulted Colombian bonds and also of benefitifig from