Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 4 March 1937 — Page 18

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The Indianapolis Times

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

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

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‘n Indiana, outside of Indiana, cents a month,

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RIley 3551

\ \ SCRIPPS = HOW,

Give Light and the People Wil Find Their Own Way

THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 1937

THE JOEL BAKER INVESTIGATION HE Legislature, acting in line with public opinion, has set up machinery and given adequate powers to an

“investigating committee to get to the bottom of the Baker- |

Cancilla fight against welfare reform. And a third official who has been connected with the Marion County Criminal Court has been punished for attempted intimidation in the case. The public will applaud Police Chief Morrissey’s prompt demotion of Detective John Dalton for threatening Senators after Cancilla’s assault on Wayne Coy, State Welfare Director, The next move is up to the committee. The Legislature ordered this group to investigate Joel Baker's alleged refusal to return the original Welfare Merit Bill which he "i It also ordered the committee investigate other matters of any nature whatsoever which the committee may consider to constitute public offenses or delinquencies, and which if not suppressed and extirpated will be inimical to the public interest.” Whatever else may develop in this inquiry the first job is clear. That is to subpena Baker, Cancilla and Dalton without another hour's delay. The committee then can begin getting to the vicious forces behind what has been branded a “gang-controlled

yorrowed.”

political machine.”

A NEW AND BRIGHTER DAY

7ITH amazing suddenness the giant empire of steel has

any

Price in Marion County, | 12 cents a | Mail subscription rates |

$3 a year; | 65

taken steps more intimately and sharply affecting the | fortunes of millions of citizens than they are affected by |!

vital actions of their state and national governments,

The establishment of a basic 40-hour week

and a |

minimum $5 daily wage for common labor in the nation’s |

number one industry, and the consummation of collective bargaining by U. 8, Steel, its biggest unit, may prove the most mmportant simultancous steps ever taken in the country’s labor history. It may take months or years to reveal the full effect of what has just happened, but among the results immediately apparent are these: 1. Tremendous mmpetus has been given to the movement toward a shorter work week by an industry which less than 20 years ago asserted it could not live without the 12-hour day. 2. The S5-a-day wage which was an economic marvel

when Henry Ford announced it now applies to the lowest |

and most unskilled work of the country’s basic industry.

3. United States Steel, for 50 years the bulwark of | the antiunion movement, has signed a contract governing | wages and hours with representatives of an outside union, | although only a few months ago the American Iron and |

Steel Institute announced defiantly that its members would never do so. 1. Millions ol dollars of added wages will be turned

loose.

5. The policies adopted by steel are bound to have a

great bearing on wages, hours and conditions in many other |

industries.

6. Prospects of a steel strike apparently have been |

removed and it is almost inconceivable that the mine opera-

tors will persist in demands tor a long week and reduced |

pay, thus precipitating a coal strike.

7. The whole general eftect is bullish—bullish for the

workers, the common man, the little milltown merchant, the living standards of the great masses of our people. 8. In a very great degree what steel has done marks partial and important acceptance of the social and political philosophy which has decided the last three elections.

While many grave problems of industrial relations

remain and many trials and tribulations are certain before they are solved, we believe that events in steel indicate the breaking ol a new day and we congratulate the industry for the steps it has taken. JOB INSURANCE COMPROMISE . HE Legislature apparently has reached a workable compromise on the bill to amend the State Unemployment Insurance Act. Emplovee contributions are eliminated. The method of calculating benefits is simplified. And the combination reserve-pooled fund system is retained. Advocates believe the reserve system will stabilize emThey argue it will encourage employers to give steady work. Various other plans are being tried in other states, and 32 of them have adopted straight pooled funds. The amended Indiana law will give the State time to test a method which does not figure in most of the other state experiments with this social legislation. The exact provisions are not so important now. Out of the experiences of all states will come improvements, The vital problem now is administration, and Indiana has made a good start in this direction.

ployment,

: PIONEER PEACE OFFICER HEN Capt. Thomas E. Halls died yesterday the number of that small group of men still living who hunted outlaws when the West was wild was diminished by one. It is strange to think that there still live among us men whose memories of Abraham Lincoln are as green as ours of Woodrow Wilson. When one of them dies we feel a vivid sense of loss, for with him goes one more link with our past. Capt. Halls was one of two Government agents credited with foiling a plot to steal the body of Abraham Lincoln. Until 1927, Secret Service bureau in Indianapolis, He was a veteran of the Civil War and later a U. S. marshal. For a long and honorable career in the service of his Government in war and peace, we salute the memory of Capt. Halls,

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler Jim Farley Goes Seymour Weiss and Writer Thinks About Income Tax Indictments.

EW YORK, March 4. Miami Beach reports that Jim Farley, down there for a vacation, went fishing the other day with Seymour Weiss, of New Orleans, described as a hotel man, which he is, but more famous as the cashier of Huey Long's political machine. Mr. Weiss was a very obstreperous enemy of the Roosevelt Administration up to the time of Huey's death, and once, during a Senatorial inquiry into the financial affairs of the Long outfit, he got up out of the witness chair and told Gen, Ansell, who was needling him with questions, that he was of more than half a mind to take him outside and bust him cne for luck. As a boxing spectacle that would have been one of the worst fights the world has ever known, and Mr. Farley, as an old prize fight commissioner, probably would have used his influence to get both boys barred for life, But the incident just goes to show what a rowdy sort of politician Mr. Weiss is, and to indicate the feeling between Seymour and the Administration during the time that Huey was going on the air and sneering the name of Franklin Del-a-no Roose-velt, Huey had a special way of crowding all the ornery, personal spite of a political feud into the mere pronunciation of Mr. Big's name, and 1t took some audacity to do it at the time, because Mr. Roosevelt was riding high just then. Mr. Weiss was one of Huey's boys who were indicted for violation of the Federal Income Tax Law. and there was much talk about the purpose of the indictment. The boys in the Administration said Mr.

Mr. Pegler

Fishing With | | GAMBLING AND CRIME |

A little story from | { consumers |

| buying power. Crime costs us 15 bil- | | lion

THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 1937 :

So Shines a Good Deed in a

Naughty World |_By Talburt

The Hoosier Forum

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

CALLED DESTROYERS By H. L. Seegar Gambling in America takes $6,600,000,000 out of the pockets of annually, This sum would go a long way in increasing |

| cluded.

dollars annually and liquor | brought to the

| consumption over three and a haif | Court.

[ billion, |

| nonproductive channels. | the Supreme Court decisions | about this monstrous destruction of | American purchasing power?

| ing office must

they had enough on him to give him the business. but |

on Huey's side, they said the Administration didn't have a thing, and laughed off the indictment as purely political. on

” ”

HIS latter seemed very cynical, indeed, because |

after all, the Federal courts are sacred, and it would be a shocking abuse of the judiciary to have the law on a man merely to punish him for getting out of line and as an example to others around the country. If Mr. Weiss was guilty, then there were more

somber considerations behind the mere violation of the Income Tax Law.

= ” ” ELL, then, as everybody knows, Huey was killed and in the scramble of the boys to loot the joint, Seymour got away with the real political effects leaving the Rev. Gerald Smith with nothing but an old brown suit which he represented as the mantel of Huey Long. Seymour let him keep the suit, and the Reverend wore it to Cleveland for the memorable brother act with old Dr. Townsend and Father Couglin as a whole mass of feeble but hopeful old men and women sat there wondering what on earth. Well, all I know is what I see in the papers, as Will Rogers used to say, and after a decent period of mourning for Huey I saw where the Department of Justice had dropped the indictment against Sevmour owing to a change in atmosphere. The D. J. didn’t specify whether the atmosphere had changed for the better or for worse, but that wasn't necessary, Your nose knows.

General Hugh John

Committee Appointed to Report on NRA Was Composed Largely of |

What can | do

What can a New Deal do about | This is: a

a small dent in this waste of in- |

: ® come? What can organized labor

accomplish through strikes or col- | ROOSEVELT COURT REFORM lective bargaining that will balance | PROPOSAL DEFENDED

purchasing power with productive | By R. S. S., Brazil capacity, unless labor organizes its | savings to acquire all the means of | production and operate for social! use?

oppose the ” " » UPHOLDS DECISIONS OF SUPREME COURT By T. J. Wilson

“Twenty million people can't be | wrong.” Though the statement is

| would conclude would scatter

together again. smoke screen

(Times readers are invited to | not express their views in these columns, religious controversies exMake your letter short, so all can have a chance. must be signed, but names will be withheld on request.)

attention

On Capitol Hill in Washington the Here is a total of some 25 billion | Supreme Court hands down its de- | dollars, out of a total annual income | cisions as our self-imposed instruc- | of 60 billions, that is diverted into [tors in constitutional law. The jus= | tices are there by appointment of those whom we chose to represent us in this serious business of democratic government. time | regulating wages or hours to make | thinking and calm judgment.

”

It is amusing to watch those who President's Court proposal jump up and down {and wring their hands. i brainstorms they

are having, that such the Constitution isuch a way it could never be put | This is to hide their dislike

realize that prosperity, like | every structure, must start at the foundation, not at the top. | u ” URGES ACTION AGAINST | SHADY POLITICS By B. C. Whenever stories of election | | frauds pop up, the average citizen | { reads them listlessly. “What else | can you expect of politics?” is his | thought.

In a Kansas City, Mo., case it has i been revealed that, during the last election, the stuffing of ballot boxes

Letters '

of the

for deliberate |

If these persons could have been notified that their votes had been nullified by fraud, their loud yells {of protest might have served to | give a vigorous fillip to the investigation. But it seems tc take more { than shady political tactics to prod the populace into action. And yet few matters demand intense public indignation as do elec- | tion frauds. Some elections can be | swung by a handful of votes; and | an administration that would profit

| | disfranchised many citizens, { 1 1 |

Supreme

From the | one plan in

a : : irreparable harm during its tenure,

un ” =

merely a coMMUNISM NO THREAT

by such malpractice can do almost |

talked of much these days, it is a

fallacy unworthy of analysis. Twen- |

ty million voters have not the right to allow some one to do anything beyond the safeguards of the Constitution. Governmental officers, including the President, before taktake an oath to protect the Government, the gov-

al : ] rab | erned and the Constitution, Weiss was a dead cock in the pit this time, because | Nin

In a Government such as ours

for the New Deal. That the Constitution

| appoint as many | members as they want is a fact any eighth-grade student knows. The language In which this power | given is so simple that no one need misunderstand. . . . { Our country is supposed

gives the | President and Congress the right to | Supreme Court |

| worst depression ever

is |

to be!

TO U. S. NOW, HE SAYS By Hurd We have just passed through the | experienced | and maintained our liberty and form of government. Communism is |

| camera.

Haze

{on the decline.

The last that |

lacks |

election proved

it is presumed that the men serv- | ing in the three branches of gov- | ernment are fully competent and | qualified to fill the positions for { which they are chosen. A person need not be a lawyer to become a member of the executive | or legislative branches of government, but a Supreme Court justice should be a lawyer of distinction and the recommendation of the President is not sufficient, for Congress must approve his recom-

ple.

wealthy classes.

sponsible for

| ruled for the people and by the peo- | COmMMunism in this country The real flouters of the Con- | Competent organizers and members. |

stitution and the real enemies of, The leaders have failed to get far | | democracy are those who thwart the | because they have 1ailed in what | wishes of the people. | The Supreme Court wh { been undemocratic. Ninety per cent | Person gets it in | of its decisions have favored the | communism is a threat to our lib-|

{ they desired to do. . . . has always| I can't see why any well-informed | his head that |

The age of the |erty and Government. It takes men

various members is not entirely re- | of ability and leadership to create a this, oldest justice, Judge Brandeis, is the | such men yet. Let's think of some- | youngest in thought of the group. The majority of the Court does|that will work for the happiness |

however. The | threat and the Communists have no

{thing more important—something |

mendation. | If Supreme Court judges are the | finest lawyers in the land and they | are appointed to interpret what laws are legal according to the Constitution, who 1s competent to call] them wrong? It is allowable that, being human, | they may differ among themselves, | but it is not allowable that they be | | appointed because of any political | | leaning toward some measure passed | |or to be passed by Congress. | They are bound to interpret the | |law of the Constitution without re-

One hate

Or death.

Colossians 2:19,

HE head, will have

son Says —

Enemies of Act; Report Is Full of Mistakes and Erroneous Conclusions.

VV Saison, March 4.—I get more fun out of

writing this column than anything I ever did— and I have done plenty. The most particular satisfaction is the fact that I can say anything I want to say whether the policy of the paper is in agreement or not. Frequently it isn't. Mr. Roy Howard once said to me, “You can write anything and I'll publish it.” But on one subject both he and all my friends and all my enemies insist I should never speak—NRA. When I ask why, the answer is: “You were too close to it. You know too much about it.” You mustn't write on anything you know about. Judging from some of the writing on public ques tions that I have seen lately, it is a rule more honored in the observance than the breach. That is not only among some commentators but also among some Government officials. The President appointed a committee to report on NRA. Among the members were Mr. W. H. Davis, a New York patent attorney, and Secretaries Wallace,

| Roper and Perkins.

when he was 82, Capt. Halls headed the |

| |

€ i

” ” »

M*= WALLACE always opposed NRA. His idea was that before anything was done for labor the farmers must get theirs. A deliberate antiNRA propaganda infiltrated out of Washington into the row-crop country and wheat belt centered largely on the charge that NRA had increased the price of cotton gloves and averalls. The cost of ol products went up, but they

wei

went up before the cotton code went into operation. They went up because of Mr. Wallace's AAA. They must ponder so long about nutty Rube Goldberg diagrams—lever “A” actuates rachet “B” which revolves gadget “C,” ete.—that they are incapable of many other mental functions. I put Mr, W. H. Davis into Government. He fascinated me in discussion. I grabbed him. He was put in charge of two of the most important industries, and finally in charge of the most difficult of NRA subjects—"compliance.” . In cavalry horse-training the acme of perfection is the gallop-in-place—to get a horse to go through every motion of the gallop and not advance a foot. In his youth Mr. Davis must have been sent to Ft. Riley or the French cavalry school at Saumur as a remount—but maybe not.

from its beginning, the former because he thought its industrial aspects should be in the Department of Commerce and the latter because she believed that all labor problems should be remitted tc her.

erroneous conclusions. is a buffoon. One curious aspect of this inquiry is that nobody who knew the subject was consu'ted. In spite of friendly and inimical advice, this report will be discussed in detail in this col

: | Something is the matter with patent attorneys.

ARSON By KEN HUGHES

Can spark the fire To burn the frail house Where dreams are born for reality

DAILY THOUGHT

And not holding the head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God, —

The great trouble with NRA was—and the great | trouble with this Administration is—interior disloyalty. | The report is full of misstatements of fact and | If it is correct the President |

EJ ” ” ECRETARIES ROPER and Perkins were in a con- | tinuing and constant conspiracy against NRA | | outfits have the art of

{and well-being of the people and jour form of government.

” n ” | ALARMED BY U. 8S. | TRAFFIC TOLL | By Owen Spencer, Spencer

enlightened, wonderful influ- |

ashington M

Bureaucrats Supposed to

The W

It Seems to Me

By Heywood Broun Steinbeck's Short Novel, 'Of Mice And Men,' Termed Infinitely More Important Than 'Gone With Wind." EW YORK, March 4.—I'd like to come along with the large group of critics

| who have already recorded their enthusiasm

for John Steinbeck’s new novel, “Of Mice and Men.” This is a book written with compassion, celerity and an admirable sense of structure. It is that rare and much to be desired thing—a short novel. The telling takes no more than 31,000 words,

and yet the narrative is fully rounded out and complete. For instance, in my opinion, “Of Mice and Men” is infinitely more important in the literary scheme of things than “Gone With the Wind.” One hopes that possibly the writers of the day will come to the belief that it is possible to tell a tale of deep import without sprawl= ing all over the printed page. Cer=tainly the reader knows Lennie and George when he puts down the Steinbeck novel. There is . nothing more to be said. And also IT am moved to great excitement about the

Mr. Broun

| emergence of Steinbeck because he so neatly splits the

bracket between the old romanticists and the stern= faced boys and girls who have recently been treating the novel as if it were nothing more than a candid Steinbeck knows his farm workers as well as anybody else. Lennie and George talk straight. No spurious literary phrase creeps into the mcuth of either. Nevertheless many long stretches of their conversation are animated by true poetic content. I think life is like that and that modern authors are beginning to find it out. Transcripts of talk may be as faithful as you please and still take on the cadence and color which make for beauty. Ferhaps somewhat after the manner of Moliere's hero who dis= covered that he had been talking prose all his life the common run-of-the-mine American may wake up to the fact that he uses a good deal of poetry in dealing with his daily concerns.

" ” Wu WHITMAN palpably lived before his time and to all save the elect of his day he was speaking strange doctrine. He found a lilt and a lift in the talk of toilers and in the very commonplaces of city life. To most that seemed a pose. Certainly out of our elementary schools the pupil comes trained to the belief that poetry is something which must inevitably deal with kings and queens and men in

”

| armor riding six white horses.

1 do not know which native author should be selected as the spiritual ancestor of Steinbeck. Off-

| hand it would seem to me that Ring Lardner might

have suggested in part the manner and mode of John Steinbeck. To be sure, there is little similarity in subject matter and none at all in point of view save the quality of compassion for those who get pushed around. un u ” ASSUME that at some period of his life Steinbeck read Upton Sinclair. Mr, Sinclair is a good model for young authors, since he can serve both as an ine spiration and at the same time as a horrible example, I think that writers will be lucky if they can catch from Upton something of his terrific zeal about pres= ent problems in the workaday world, and yet if the younger men are exposed to his influence too long they may become infected with the flatness and

I bleakness of the Sinclair prose.

erry-Go-Round

Keep Hands Off Plans for Reorganizing

Bureaus, but Agriculture Chiefs Lobby Through Farm Organizations,

By Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen TASHINGTON, March 4—While the country at large is in a dither over the Supreme Court controversy, the only thing that seems to worry the bureaucrats of Washington is the President's plan to reorganize their bureaus. The bureaucrats are supposed to keep hands off these plans, to refrain from all lobbying, to let Congress decide the issue without benefit of advice from them. But every bureaucrat seeks to perpetuate his office, if possible extend his power. And just at present the bureaucrats of Henry Wallace's Agriculture Department have found a neat way of getting around the Presideht’s anti-lobbying order. Their method is to let various farm organizations do the lobbying for them. Chief among these are the American Farm Bureau Federation, the American Forestry Association, and the National Grange. These Congressional wire-pulling down to a fine art, and they work hand-in-glove with the Agriculture Department,

” " ”

ALLACE'S brand of bureaucrats probably are more bureaucratic, more entrenched than any in the Government. Many of them date back to the days of Harding and Coolidge. Recently their power has become greater than than ever, for two reasons. First, the New Deal has ded the Department of Agriculture until it is

the largest in Washington. One of its buildings now outranks the gigantic Department of Commerce, has seven miles of corridors, 37 elevators, 4500 rooms and houses 5800 employees. Second, Henry Wallace, philosopher, dreamer and dreader of administrative detail, lets his bureau chiefs run their own show.

uo bd "

NTO this sprawling conglomeration of bureaus, Henry's bureaucracy now is lobbying secretly to get the General Land Office, the Grazing Division, and the Indian Bureau (except for the education of Ine dians) away from the Interior Department. Actually, the President's reorganization plan rece

comends just the opposite. It specifies that the Agrie culture Department surrender its Forestry Service and Biological Survey to the present Interior Department, which would then become the Department of Cone servation. This attempt by the Agriculture Department to raid the Interior Department has led to open feud between their respective chiefs, Henry Wallace an Harold Ickes. . Wallace already has euchered two bureaus—Soil Erosion and Subsistence Homesteads—away from Ickes. And once while speaking before the annual dinner on the conservation of wild life Ickes said: “I'm almost afraid to go out of town for fear Henry will sneak up the back stairs and steal another bureau {from me.” id Wallace, il was present, didn’t like it a bit.