Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 24 February 1937 — Page 14

PAGE 11

The Indianapolis Times

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WEDNESDAY. FEBRUARY 24, 1937

THE MAYOR-—AND CITY JOBS HE whole issue of merit in our City government has = been badly muddled. The Kern Administration now 18 about to muddle it further. : In 1935, the Legislature created a so-called merit system for Indianapolis Police and Fire Departments. But it is not a merit system. The law provides handpicking of all candidates by the Mayor and Safety Board, thus negating the civil service principle. Authority is scattered, responsibility divided. The Kern regime has been roundly criticized for appointing only Democrats to the two departments. The alibi has been that an old law required an equal division of political affiliations, and that the departments previously were lopsided with Republicans. : So the system has been and 1s a political setup. Despite this. it has done some good, because a conscientious board

of citizens worked hard to make it succeed.

» ” »

& ” »

HIS woek the Senate killed a bill to extend the merit system to police and firemen of all Indiana cities. One Qenator cried. “I'm for the spoils system. Let's keep politics in our government.” This bill, opposed by Mayor Kern, had many faults, but it was at least & step in the right direction. It harked back to earlier models of merit legislation where the chief aim was to avoid the worst abuses of patronage. We think the bill was too long, with too much detail to apply to several classes of cities. service mandatory in all cities. Many authorities say permissive legislation results in the best personnel programs. kxperts also agree that administrative control should be in the hands of one person, with the civil service board advising on policy matters. This bill would have vested administration in the hoard. These and other defects could have been cured. In general, the plan had many excellent provisions. But the hill is dead. Now before the Legislature is a Kern-sponsored bili to revise the present Indianapolis system. It would remove the bipartisan clause, establish a standing eligibility list and provide physical tests before candidates enter training schools—all good provisions,

Not so good is the provision that keeps patronage |

control of the DPolice and Fire Departments in the hands of the Mayor and Safety Board. The Mayor and Safety Board still would select the candidates permitted to enter the training schools. That is the key to whether it is & true merit program. is not. Political appointments admittedly are troubleThey make more enemies than friends. Yet the

it

Some.

City Administration is reluctant to give up patronage con- |

trol of just two departments. One weakness in all these bills is that they single out two groups of employees for special treatment. The Civil Service Assembly finds that a merit system “reaches its maximum utility when applied to an entire service, rather than to certain segments.” The placing of Police and Fire Departments on a merit basis would help. should apply to all city departments, with standard policies and practices. Such programs are proving successful in Cincinnati and many other cities. » » »

u un "

MAYOR KERN has much to gain by leading a fight for a modern personnel program at City Hall. He has only the friendship of political spoilsmen to lose. The Mayor is young, ambitious, The public now is taking his measure as a public official, good fight will go farther and gain more respect than one afraid to offend the partisans of a dying political spoils system.

THE NATIONAL GUARD WITHDRAWS HE National Guard marched out of Anderson vesterday with a good record on the whole. It preserved ovder without havdboiled tactics, It not only protected property, it also protected the union's constitutional and human right of peaceful assembly. And, when the Guard withdrew, both factions praised its service. That rarely happens. Governor Townsend, Adjt. Gen. Straub, Col. Whitcomb and their associates are to be complimented on this achievement. But one legitimate criticism remains. The Guard held under arrest the union men and the Federated Press reporter shot by a tavern keeper, but took no action against the man who did the shooting. The case of the reporter, Heaton Vorse, is especially significant. The reporter and the union men were not charged with being armed or with any act of violence. They were not on private property but on the public highway,

the man who boasts of shooting them is not even arrested. |

What kind of justice is that?

YOUTH WRITES, AND AGE INTERPRETS N interesting sidelight on the Supreme Court controversy is Booth Tarkington's comment that “there are very few living men who wouldn't need to be at least 70 to be qualified to sit on the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States.” Men whose average age exceeds 70 years now interpret the Constitution. Yet that document was written by men whose average age was 44, Four of the framers were in their 20s. Fifteen— including Alexander llamilton, 30, and James Madison, 36 — were in their 30s. Twenty were in their 40s; eight in their 50s, five in their 60s, and one was 81. To Mr. Tarkington, in his prime at 67, President Roosevelt has reached “voung middle age” at 55. But when George Washington, at 55, presided over the Constitutional Convention, he probably seemed “old” to Ham-

It made civil |

By Westbrook Pegler | Movie Actor's Grandfather, With |

A unified personnel program, however, |

A man licked in a |

Yet |

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES ~ Gosh=Can’t You Find Anything Else?—By Talburt 1 ”

EST

TAISLL MAKE SWEL bt RINDLI NG'/

Ss

Fair Enough

$1 a Week Income, Was Only $6.70 Short of U. S. Living Standard.

NF tiful male movie actors suffered a little embarrassment recently when his old and destitute grandfather bobbed up with an ap- | plication for relief. The actor was said to "be earning $3500 a week, and the old gentle- | man, at the age of 84, was down to a diet of coffee, | oatmeal and bread in a shack on an income of $4 ( a month. At first glimpse this would seem to be a flagrant case of neglect, but actually the young man was not far out of line. He was just | $6.70 a week short of compliance | with his moral obligation accord- | ing to the famous American standard of living as established by public opinion through Con- | gress in the Income Tax Law, | Qongress took a very conserva | tive stand on the American standard of living in the Income Tax { Law, but a much more liberal attitude is apparent in other ac tions of individual statesmen, They all hold strictly to the austere and simple standard in the maximum tax allowance of $460 a year for the support of children under 18 and of dependent grandfathers, grandmothers and other needy kin. But in their personal problems, the members of the House and Senate often find that it takes from $100

Mr. Pegler

role of office clerk or secretary, and put them on the public payroll at such amounts. You would be deeply touched by this generous family loyalty of the same statesmen who establish for others a standard of living not to exceed roughly $1.10 per day. A few years ago, Raymond Clapper uncovered hundreds of examples of this generosity far in excess of the standard of living which Congress fixed by law. Some statesmen had as many as three of their Kin-people safely put away in various bureaus,

| |

” ” » R. CLAPPER'S revelations caused a little reaction, the people seeming to think that the kin { of statesmen should not flout the American standard of living by drawing more than the lawful living re- | quirement, In the present case, the actor's old grandfather has a private income of $1 a week from the rent of the two front rooms of his shack. This will have to he deducted, because like Al Capone, the old gentleman might get 11 years in Aleatraz for concealing income. And the $1 a week would reduce the actor's oblightion to about $6.70 a week according to the Congrossional version oi the American standard,

" n un F course, the actor might want to give the old man as much as $10 or $15 a week and pay income tax on the excess. But if he were to shower the old man with riches to that extent, people might think he was high-hatting a very sacred thing, a proud ideal and boast of the nation, the $7.70 standard of living. The puzzled actor at his rate of pay might give away as much as $25,000 to a society for the prevention of cruelty to animals and deduct that amount from his taxable income. But if he were to assume personally the support of 100 destitute children un- | related to him or give $1000 to some cold and starving |« family of strangers, that money would be taxable.

ASHINGTON, Feb. 24. —Under the Pittman Neu trality Bill, all the products of the United States, excepting only “arms, ammunition and implements of war," can be shipped and sold to any ware ring nation. The only condition is that. “before “any articles or materials whatever” are shipped to a belligerent, title and interest must be transferred out of any American citizen,

The bill prohibits war credits to belligerents, but all they have to do to buy, is what they did n the Jk pla hi the Woe War--establish American cash alances by selling their American se 8 p A ecurities either Except as will be presently discussed, this i embargo at all. Neither is there any restriction > American ships carrying goods to a belligerent, except that they can't carry “arms, ammunition and implements of war,” and they also can't carry some other things which the President may prohibit, In technical language this means that absolute contrabrand is completely embargoed out, but that conditional contraband, while not embargoed, can't be transported on American ships.

" " ”

WHAT is absolute contraband? “Arms, ammunition and implements of WAar'—things that armies use to destroy enemies. What is an implement of war? Is a motor truck? A spool of barbed wire? A man? A horse? A tractor? All are as necessary in modern battle as machine guns and cannon. The t is to decide whether they are

i

Aa

W YORK, Feb. 24.—One of our beau- |

to $250 a month to support a needy relative in the |

‘General Hugh Johnson Says —

Pittman Act Leaves Neutral Rights in Same Tangle Save for Embargo on Lethal Weapons, Denial of Credit and Right to Travel on Warring Ships.

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 24, 1957)

=

BAD.

Were Things Simpler in the Old Days?—By Herblock

TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION

POPULAR COVERNMENT 1s

GOOD.

cHecox!

YOU SA)

SLAVERY 1S WRONG. EREEDOM 8 RIGHT.

pe!

RL

Ro EEE 1 7 SN RR A Fs

ER

The Hoosier Forum

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

| FREEDOM AT STAKE, READER BELIEVES | By Mabel German

| retain our Constitution with gov ernment of the people created by

| the people or sit idly and do noth |

ing about it, One of us has noth= ing more to lose than another, but

we certainly have the same thing to lose=our freedom. We have enjoyed freedom for

| many years and some there are who | think we always oan possess this |

| freedom. For four years the New Deal constantly has sought to take the freedom of the people, It has sought to assume powers that the Constitution does not give to the executive. Our legislative and exacutive bodies have, in truth, been one man in Washington, There is no advantage to the people in tampering with the Supreme Court and adding more justices, The advantage ig to Roosevelt and the expense is to the people, as usual, » ” READER RECALLS | SOME COURT HISTORY By The Horn Book, Union City “Defeated in the election (1800), the Federalists retreated into the | judiciary as a stronghold.” This | statement was made by Dr. Edward | Channing, history professor at Har[vard in “A Student's History of the | United States,” page 259, Dr. Channing goes on to say that the judiciary, as it was established at the time our Government was organized, was more than sufficient to handle any business likely to come before it for vears, However, when | Thomas Jefferson was elected the | Pederalists were frightened and | rushed through Congress the Judiciary Act of 1801, which became a law | before Jefferson took office, The act | retiring President, to pack the | judiciary with judges who would be "favorable toward the Federalists, | thus planning defeat of the people {who wanted a different interpreta- | tion of the Constitution, During the hasty maneuvers of the Federalists between the election of Jefferson and March 4, 1801, Ohief Justice Oliver Ellsworth resigned and Adams appointed his Secretary of State, John Marshall, to that high office, So persistent were the Federalists in filling every vacant office before their time expired that those appointed went down in history as “midnight appointments.” John Adams and John Marshall worked,

The time has come for the Amer | fcan people to decide whether we | are to remain a free nation and |

permitted John Adams, |

(Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns, religious controversies exs | cluded. Make your letter short, x0 all can have a chance, Letters must be signed, but names will be withheld on request.)

- signing commissions until the clock | struck 12 on the night of March 3, | 1801, 1 do not mention the Judiciary Act of 1801 in an attempt to debunk | the Supreme Court, but to show the truth behind certain court manipu= lations in the matter of appoints ments to the high judicial bench, | I must say that to date The Times [seems to have been fair in this | issue, but do I begin to detect a half<baked support of our President in the matter of the Supreme Court [ fssue? | Tt reminds me of the man who subscribed liberally to the building | of a new church in his community, then fought the location so that he | would not be compelled to pay his | subscription. To amend the Con- [ stitution means three-fourths of the [ states must favor the act, This is impossible in the face of a huge war chest which the President says he hears is being raised. Don't fight | location, 4 " » BELIEVES FEDERAL SPEED LIMITS WOULD REDUCE TOLL By Herb Ferris

Speed is the cause of all accis dents, If there is no speed there is no accident, and the more speed the more chance for fatal acecidents, Did you ever hear of two

VERSE By MARGARET HUGHES

The poet sings of divers things, Of earth and sky, sweet summer dew And dreams that fade in distant | blue, Of many things the poet sings-- [ The lonely hills, swift, silent wings, |Of life and death and Saturn's INES | But 1 sing just of you,

———

DAILY THOUGHT

The King's strength also lov= eth judgment; thou dost establish equity, thou executest judgment and righteousness in Jacob, Psalms 99:4.

IRR is that exact rule of righteousness or justice which is to be observed between man and man. It is beautifully and compre=hensively expressed in the words of the Savior, “All things whatsoever ve would that men should do to you,

persons walking into one another and getting hurt? I have not, but I have seen football players rush

into one another and get injuries

from the collision.

I believe in good roads, but Strict | ;.. oa11ied on just outside this city, in Alex speed limits, I have no sympathy | £ ” JW , 8 EY v') oui

for drunken drivers and think that

Roads were not paved with the intention of making them for great speed, but for easier riding, less tire and car wear. I believe that we should have Pederal speed limits, so that a person passing from one state to another will know what to expect. Until we have a limit to speed we

Why not save life and limb by beginning at the root of the evil, not by parking meters for revenue? Remomber, speed limitation laws will reduce the death toll which might include you and me. »" » ” GLAD MISS EARHART DENIES VISIONS By Bruce Oatton Her tousled head, boyish smile and intrepidity in the air have endeared Amelia Earhart Putham to

| her public.

Admirers airwoman are eagerly awaiting her take-off on the ambitious globecircling hop announced recently. It is probable, however, that their enthusiasm was dampened a bit by a story that broke in the meantime. According to it, Mrs, Putham was found to be psychic where air crashes were concerned, She had already, the article said, divined exactly where two plane disasters had occurred and soon would fathom the recent mysterious disappearance of another airliner, Many who read this story une doubtedly wondered whether the first lady of the air was going publicity=hungry on them. Tt was pleasant, therefore, to have her deny later that she had ever had psychic visions; to say, in fact, that, she couldn't psyche at all, " " " ACCUSES TIMES OF SIDING WITH ‘LABOR EXPLOITERS' By R. P. Cunningham, Darlington A lot of Hoosiers who have always thought they must take a state paper have been set wondering again by the utter lack of intestinal stamina displayed by The Times during the recent automobile strike. It

pussyfooted and pollyfoxed and finally moved lock, stock and barrel into the camp of the labor ex-

[do ve so to them, for this is the law and the prophets.”-—Buck,

the stuff the

The Washington M

ploiters,

they should not be allowed to drive, |

can expect more deaths annually, !

of the nation’s No, 1|

It Seems to Me

By Heywood Broun A Raised-Eyebrow Strike Will Confront John L. Lewis When He Returns to Home in Alexandria,

ASHINGTON, Feb, 24.—One the strangest strikes in all the land ig bes

of

andria. It isn't a sit=down nor a lockout; in

fact, 1 don’t know just what to call it. It is a sort of raised-eyebrow strike and it will not be settled until Mrs. Berenice Fleming Holland consents to lower her lorgnette and quit looking at John L. Lewis with a jaundiced eye. It seems to be one of those matters which they neglected to take up in the conference af Detroit. Alexandria is partly the relict of the Oolonial period and in part a growing industrial town, Mrs. Holland owns one of the heirlooms, while Lewis rents a small cottage which is a gem in its architectural simplicity Not far away stands the Hol= land homestead, which 1s part Colonial and part Neo Palm Beach. In other words, Mrs. Beres nice Fleming Holland has in= dulged in a certain amount of re building, and the newest part of her house rather dwarfs the older portion, Once a year it has been the custom of the Rector's Ald Society of St. Paul Episcopal Church to hold a kind of festival in which the historic homes are thrown open to the general public, But this year Mrs. Holland has announced that she won't play ball, Since John IL. Lewis has promised to open his house, she intends to keep hers closed. The Lewis cottage is rather more in the mood of the period, but the Church Society is anxious to settle the strike, and it has recognized Mrs, Holland as the sole bargaining agent for herself. Until some compromise can be reached the festival has been postponed,

“ » w

HAVE not yet offered myself as a mediator, but I've looked the ground over and I wonder whether there might not be a truce on the basis of the Lewis house being open on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and the Holland home on view Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday with nothing open on Sunday except the corner drug store, Under this plan, nobody could come into the Hols land home with the dust of the John L. Lewis house still palpable upon his shoes,

Mr. Broun

As a matter of fact, Mrs, Holland has been quoted as explaining that her strike against the Rector's Ald Society and John L. Lewis 1s motivated by prin ciple and not by pique, “I feel no personal animosity toward Mr, Lewis," she said, “but I thoroughly disagree with his principles, You can think what you please of the caste system. In the older days we had thinkers who con= tributed thought, nobles who upheld chivalry, mers chants who sold goods and laborers who worked with their hands. Coming down to our time, it probably was true when I was a girl that capital oppressed labor, but now labor is oppressing capital.”

ND there the matter stands, The whole town 1s talking whether it makes much sense or not, To be strictly accurate, Mrs. Holland has done most of the talking since John Lewis has been away recently on a business trip to Detroit. Something about au

erry-Go-Round v

tomobiles I believe,

Wilson's Irreconcilables and Some Senate Liberals Are Lined Up

Against Court Plan; Effort

What is “conditional eantraband" President MAY be permitted not to embargo but to prohibit from shipment in American vessels Tt fis merchandise necessary for civilian populations but subject to seizure as contraband if destined for enemy armed forces, Food--armies “march on their stomachs” but embattled nations must have food or perish. The strong sea-powers try to make everything contraband. That is exactly where all the trouble comes from-— neutrals insist that they can ship civilian supplies and are sucked into war fighting for the right to do so, while belligerents insist on the right to declare anything contraband and fight for the right to seize it. The Pittman act permits the President to say what is conditional contraband,

" » ” XOEPT for the flat emgargo on lethal weapons, the denial of credits, and the right of Americans to travel on belligerent ships, this begs the question and leaves the struggle over neutral rights in war exactly where it was Why noi simply refuse to afford protection to certain dangerous shipments? That's the real purpose of the act, If that iS what we really mean, why not say it? After prohibiting credit, “travel on the conveyances of belligerents into war gones or shipments to a belligeren!. are at the sole risk of the voyager, seller, shipper Or carrier ag the case may be. The United States ASSUMes no duty to protect against any risk | assumeg ils statute,” § x

i

By Drew Pearson and Robert S, Allen ASHINGTON, Feb, 24.-Out of the Battle of the Supreme Court have emerged two small Senatorial armies, diametrically opposite, but both contributing to the sabotage of Roosevelt's reform of the judiciary. One is the same little band of irreconcilables which fought Woodrow Wilson on the League of Nations, It is highly organized, hard boiled, effec tive. The others are the Senate liberals—unorganized, heterogeneous, and in a state of pathetic dither, Both are causing a lot of worry at the White House. Here is the lineup of the old League of Nations warriors who have now turned their vitriol on Roosevelt: Senators Borah and Johnson-—expected to carry the brunt of the floor fighting when the President's court proposals reach the debating stage.

Senator Lodge--youthful grandson of Henry Cabot Lodge, who fought Wilson so bitterly. Borah and Johnson hover paternally near young Cabot. Alice Longworth-—always bitter against Cousin Franklin and now throwing the force of her column and radio. broadcasts against his court plan, Bill Hard—chief journalistic lance of the League

i

fight, is now back in Washington on the Republican National wpyroll,

¥

|

Made to Win Liberals With Compromise,

EHIND the scenes also are George Moses, cx= Senator from New Hampshire, and a League bitter-ender, together with vehemently critical “Littla Artie” Robinson, ex-Senator from Indiana, now prace ticing law in Washington, Most of these are close friends and see ®ach other frequently. Mrs. Longworth flits in and out of the Senate gallery and lunchroom like an animated shuttlecock, and is one of the inspirations of Frank Kent's bitter comment. Young Lodge lives across the street from her, and Bill Hard is a frequent vise itor at her house, If the President's court proposals are defeated it will be due in no small part to Cousin Alice,

” ” ”

other group—the Senate liberals, favorable to Roosevelt—have drawn scathing comment from their liberal throughout the Administration. “Traitor” and “ingrate” are among the mildest epithets the pro-Rooseveltians hurl at the liberal opposition, “Why did you go along with him in November?” “Why didn’t you form your own third party?” “Why did you cling so tenaciously to the Roosevelt bande wagon?” are Just a few of the queries hurled at Sena tors Bone, Clark, Norris and Wheeler, Rowing among the liberals has been so intense that some of them are getting worried for fear both sides will eaten by the wolves. Result is strenus ‘ous effort to arrange a compromise, fa ~ 45h 7

usually caustic, frends

2