Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 9 March 1937 — Page 13

PAGE 21

Second Section

- oi mnt? \

y LiberalView ~~ The Indianapolis Times

L * BY HARRY ELMER BARNES

> “a )

EW YORK, March 9.—The question of progress is a perplexing one, Take the matter of the human death rate. Through preventive and curative medicine we have enormously cut down the toll exacted by disease. But we parallel such a laudable achievement by the creation of a mechan-

ical device that claims as many lives as the ancient |

plagues. I have reference to the automobile. In

1935 something over 37,000 persons lost their lives in automobile acci- |

dents in the United States. Preliminary estimates would indicate

that the figure for 1936 will come |

pretty close to 40,000. This is a greater

of the wars

of the World War and Civil War. Not only does the automobile mortality rate raise an interesting issue with respect to human progress. It also reveals our conspicuous human inconsistency. Take the matter of pistols.

Dr. Barnes

metropolitan showroom with a pistol. at a time with his revolver,

Yet it is extremely difficult for even the most reputable citizen to get a pistol license. He is sub-

Jected to a humiliating inquisition, has it implied |

that he is contemplating turning crook, must be fingerprinted and the like. But when it comes to getting a driver's license

for an automobile in some states, any moron or

illiterate with na had automobile record behind him |

can cbtain a driver's license with the greatest ease. Yet, equiv a nitwit with an automobile license and he is immediately empowered to operate an instrument with which he can kill or maim a dozen persons. ”n un =

Fast Cars Threat

[= Is time we got to the heart of the automobile issue, This is, first and foremost, the appearance |

in late years of fast and cheap cars. In the old days a cheap car was hard put to it to maintain a top speed of 35 miles an hour. Today it is possible to pick up a second-hand car for $100 with which one can make 80 miles an hour until he kills himself or some fellow citizen. With this power and speed at hand even the most cautious driver is likely to lapse into insanity for a few seconds. Second, we have the truck abomination on passenger highways.

way. But there are 50 trucks to one train.

Third, there is the matter of utterly inexcusable | This is the largest |

lights on automobiles at night. single cause of deaths in night driving. ® " 8 Urges Speed Limitation

F we want to end the frightful mortality in motor-

ing let us first outlaw all automobiles capable of |

making more than 50 miles an hour. Anyone who wants to go faster should take to the air, where he belongs. Then let us construct special truck highways, making use of abandoned Finally, it would be the easiest matter of all to compel the equipment of cars with lights which are

both adequate for motoring and yet free from any | Noth- |

necessity of blinding an approaching motonist ing would be more feasible than the elimination of the light nuisance

Mrs.Roosevelt's Day

By ELEANOR ROOSEVELT

T. WORTH, Texas, Monday—My son, Elliott, and his wife, Ruth, came over to Huntsville yesterday afternoon to pick us up. We did not get away quite as early as we hoped, because the meeting was fol-

TUESDAY, MARCH 9, 1937

Entered as SecondIndianapolis,

at Postoffice,

Class Matter Ind.

PAGE 13 |

mortality than our losses in killed in any | mm which we have | been engaged, with the exception |

The average person | could not hit a barn or a plate glass window in a | Even the most | dangerous gangster rarely kills more than one victim |

Imagine what would be said if a man were compelled to drive his car on a railroad right-of- |

interurban trolley roadbeds. |

HIS BUSINESS OF RELIEF Skilled Workers Rapidly Leaving the Ranks of WPA, Survey Shows

(Second of a Series)

By ROBERT S. BROWN Times Special Writer WASHINGTON, March 9.—WPA, the Federal Government's major attempt to provide jobs rather than doles, is slowly going to seed. Reductions in personnel, plus a general restriction on new enrollments except in drought and flood areas, are stripping the work rolls of skilled, semiskilled and other efficient workers, leaving in the main only workers capable of the less exacting types of hand labor. State WPA administrators are feeling the pinch. They are being forced to revise their programs, cutting off desirable construction Jobs and substituting projects suited to the abilities of the remaining labor supply. Such projects usually fit the popular conception of “made work.” From New York south to Georgla and west to Michigan, WPA officials, when they are sincere, admit that to continue their programs they must undertake projects of dubious desirability. In Maine, Albert Abrahamson, State WPA Administrator, sums up the problem this way: “Those who leave the work-re-lief rolls are likely to be the young, the alert, skilled and strong. As increasing numbers of these types enter private industry, those left behind are more likely to be old, middleaged and less energetic, the unskilled and the weak. “In short, this group becomes mereasingly unemployable.” ” n » PA has by reached the stage, but the trend is necessarily in that direction. Louis N. Nims, Michigan Administrator. acknowledged this when he says: “More and more of

no means

our money must go for unskilled |

labor. Local contributions must be increased for materials and skilled labor, can supply.” that in constructing a public building the local contribution in the immediate future must be

leaf-raking |

which we no longer | He warns further |

Windows for health-giving sunlight and air are plentiful in the James Roberts School for Crippled Children, designed by the City of Indianapolis for its crippled school-age wards and financed with an allotment of $98,211 from the Public Works Administration. Besides

“considerably higher than 30 per cent.” Jolm MacVicar, Street Commissioner at Des Moines, asserts that “Towa cities and towns soon will be broke from contributing to WPA programs.” Col. Harry Berry, Tennessee Administrator, now has 40 per cent of the state WPA quota on county road work. In Cleveland, a $100,000 river-straightening job is accepted at twice the cost figure simply because it will give work to the unskilled. Some 2,200.000 persons are now emploved by WPA, This number, Administrator Hopkins has told the House Appropriations Committee, will be cut to 1,600,000 by June 30. About 48 per cent of WPA employes are between 25 and 44; 40 per cent are past 45, and 14 per cent between 16 to 24. As reductions continue, both by the opening up of private employment and by arbitrary cuts in WPA rolls, these proportions will change materially, the “past 45” group rising in proportion to the young categories—

| opposition of many taxpayers to

which reduces efficiency and

raises costs. ” ”n ” CERTAIN number of these older workers were at one time skilled, or semiskilled. Many others, even in the days before organized relief, were casual or marginal labor. The former group earned in private employment as much or a little more in a year's time than from WPA. But the second group is better off now than ever before. The typical member of the first group, having been dependent for several years and being too old to get back into private industry, has lost his skill and is about on a par with the former casual laborer. To meet this changing situation, WPA—if it is to be continued— must readjust itself to higher costs and smaller accomplishment in the way of permanent improvements. Its load eventually will become static, with reductions coming only as workers reach 65 and become eligible for old-age pensions.

This trend will aggravate the

FLOOD-TORN LEAVENWORTH, IND.

classrooms, the school has a medical unit equipped with showers, exercise rooms. a hydrotherapy tank and sun decks for the cure of disabled

limbs. ate difficult stair climbing.

all types of work relief. Eventuallv it must destroy the morale and work habits of 2ll WPA employees, who are no more fooled by “made work” than their projects bosses are, In a few scattered localities I found evidence of efforts by WPA officials to keep skilled workers on relief rolls despite openings in private industry. One Memphis foreman needed a plumber so badly to complete a project that he tried to persuade a former employee to quit his private job and return to relief. n » » O continue WPA and plunge it into such a marginal program as looms in the immediate future would tend to offset much of the splendid work done in the past, constructive effort which a recent critical inspection in seven cities revealed as 40 per cent “excellent.” This examination was made jointly by the WPA and representatives of union building trades. Of the completed work, 78 per cent was graded as “passable,” 21 per cent was adjudged “inferior” by the union inspectors,

Industrial arts are also taught, and elevators and ramps elimi-

and only 8 per cent as inferior by both. WPA programs for other than manual labor compose only a minor part of the picture. WPA work for women has been confined almost entirely to sew= mg-room projects—which involve “production for use.” Generally speaking, the same changes in per= sonnel that are taking place among male workers apply also to women, and with the same prob=able results in efficiency. On the cultural side, WPA has followed more closely its original intention to put employees on jobs suited to their skill. Few pianists are digging ditches, and few artists are laying brick. But WPA is open to charges that too many nonrelief persons have been employed in order to raise the quality of the product. Cultural employment for unems=ployed painters, musicians, writers and actors will probably continue after WPA is gone, but it will be in another division of the Government, where it can be regulated and judged on other than a relief basis. NEXT—After WPA, what?

Clapper Urges Complete Relief Setup Overhauling,

Our Town

By ANTON SCHERRER

J XAMINE any one of the latest cults and the first thing that strikes you is the fact that there isn’t anything new in any of them——certainly nothing that we didn’t know around here when I was a kid. I bring up the subject because of C. K. Ogden of Magdalene College, Cambridge, England, who, among other things, is also the director of the Orthological Institute over there. Prof. Ogden has a notion—God bless him—that you can say everything you want to say—at least in the English language—in 850 words, instead of the 20,000 or s0 we now try to handle. Indeed, he’s gotten far enouzh with his idea to give it the name of “Basic English” and all that remains is to put it across. Well, whether Prof. Ogden knows it or not, we talked Basic

English around when when I was Mr. Scherrer

a kid, which, of course, was a long time before we knew anything about the poets who write the advertisements for our newspapers. Ad writers, I suspect, use close to a million words, and

| it may be another reasen why Prof. Ogden wants to

do something about it. I'm sure I don't know. All I know is that 50 years ago we were smart enough to know that a man’s stock of words is no guaranty of his ideas Anyway, it was surprising what we could do with | a small vocabulary, especially in the way of verbs, | 1 guess we didn't use more than 20 verbs, none of | which was made up of more than four letters. It | didn’t cramp our style at all because we always knew | how to help out in a pinch with a liberal use of adverbs, prepositions and nouns. You have no idea how it made for a picturesque language. s n n

Didn’t Know About ‘Irritate’ OR example, we didn’t know anything about the verb “irritate.” We simply said “to make mad,” | and it was more than enough to convey the meaning. It was that way all along the line, and I guess if the truth were told, we said everything we wanted to say with “get, give, go, come, make, let, put, keep, seem. take, do, be, see, say, send, will and may.” Having these we could express all the necessary nuances, and if you don’t believe it, allow me to point out that the modern slang is predicated (a gold tooth word) on the same healthy use of such simple verbs. “Put me next.” “put me wise,” “get wise,” “get pusy,” “put it over,” are all fine, upstanding examples of the kind of language we kids were brought up on. u H" ” Gloried in ‘Ain't ALSO note that Prof. Ogden doesn't make any dis= tinction between shall and will, and should and would. Neither did we. To tell the truth, we didn’t pay any attention to the grammarians, and it was all to the good. We even said “ain't,” and gloried in it, In fact, I think something went out of Indian=apolis when people stopped saying “ain't” and sub stituted the word “isn't.” At any rate, something hore rible came in, because almost immediately we had two clasres of people: Those who lined up on the side of culture, and those who went on saying “ain't.” The split didn't do the town any good, because just as soon as the smart guys learned how to say “isn’t,” and hiss it properly through their teeth, immediately they began to show off. Chuck Conners sort of

| sized it up at the time when, speaking of diamonds,

he said, “Them as has 'em wears 'em.”

A Woman's View

By MRS. WALTER FERGUSON

UCH delightful incidents as happen to us quite unexpectedly! There was the day last week, for instance, when I found myself sitting next to E. M. Delafield, the Provincial Lady, at a dinner.

lowed by questions, and, by the time we had returned

ety muons ana we mee me nme | 1 O° MOVE TO HIGHER GROUND erup Wh

ley’s house, it was after 5 o'clock. By RAYMOND CLAPPER Our very nice state police escort, who had brought us | ey | Times Snecial Writer over in the morning from Houston, insisted they must ASHINGTON March 9. — cial insurance, establishment of vo- | g0 part of the way with us, but after a while we bade After investigating relief | cational and apprentice training, |

them goodby. On the whole a long drive is pleasanter | conditions in nearly a dozen states | and perfection of a nation-wide | system of employment exchanges all

Slender, graceful, with

without even the kind attentions of an escort. ve go So Eh |as correspondent for the Scripps-

We stopped just outside of Corsicana at a little place called “The Derrick” and had sandwiches, cof-

| Howard

newspapers, Robert S. Brown says WPA “is slowly going

fitted into

co-ordinated function- | ing of Federal, state and local re-

She is a charming woman, bobbed hair worn in a circle of curls, a long face, high aristocratic nose and enormous, heavy-lidded,

to seed.” He finds it drifting back | toward leaf-raking. This disintegration is accelerated by pressure on Washington from municipal and state officials who want to get out from under local relief costs and shift the burden to

lief agencies. Thus you would have a trained reserve of competent industrial | workers drawing full-time wages on | worth-while public works expanding | and contracting with fluctuations in private production, all entirely di- | vorced from relief. Unemployables, |

fee and milk. I always find curb service in the South | better arranged than it is in almost any Northern | place I know of, perhaps because the climate makes it pleasanter to sit in your car than to go in. It was fairly dark but we got out to walk around, | and before I knew it someone recognized me. In a | little while we had a small procession of people com-

gray-blue eyes. She talks as wittily as she writes, and her accent is just English enough to be pleasant to the ears of a provincial Middle Westerner. Two things she said were especially interestiny and important to women, I thought. Explaining the mo= tives which prompted her recent sojourn in Russia, which is described in her latest book, “I Visit the

ing out to shake hands with *‘the President's wife.” |

Idle curiosity can be rather trying sometimes, par-

ticularly when you are trying to eat, but anything |

as warm and as simple as the welcome given us here, can only give one a sense of happiness and gratitude.

As we left, the last words I heard were, “Good right |

and good luck.” from a man in a neighboring car. We reached Elliott's home at about 10 o'clock. Texas has had plenty of rain and the road to the ranch was fairly muddy. However, the wind blew all night and I imagine a day or two of sun will take away all the excess water

Out of my window this morning, I see the daffodils | blooming and in the woods yesterday, I glimpsed vel- |

low jasmine mixed with green pine and redbud trees in full bloom. When we walked into the dining room this morn-

the Federal Government. Governors of six industrial states—New York, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Massachusetts and Rhode Island—were here over the week-end applying the chisel to Roosevelt. They protest a proposed cut of 600,000 in WPA rolls by June 30. As private industry absorbs workers from WPA rolls, the Governors would have their places filled by needy employables now on iocal relief. That policy, they frankly say, would mean no cuts in WPA. The U. S. Conference of Mayors maintains a high pressure lobby to prevent shrinkage in WPA while their own local communities in many in-

in so far as their needs were not met |

by social insurance, would be cared for by local relief, to which the Federal Government would contribute in return for observance of certain standards. President Roosevelt and Federal relief officials are working now on a permanent program which probably will be submitted to Congress after the President’s return from his Warm Springs vacation late this month. While a complete overhaul of the existing setup is sought, there are

indications of reluctance to break |

away from the WPA approach despite the disrepute into which that

Soviet,” she told us: “I rebelled against the suggestion at first. I knew I would be uncomfortable, homesick and perhaps mis= erable in other ways. I disliked the thought of gete ting out of my pleasant little rut of life. “Then I thought: If I turn down the chance for such an adventure, will I not turn down the oppor= tunity for all others which may offer themselves? I'd better go. I don't dare to be so middle aged as to refuse.” She went. She was uncomfortable, and homesick, but she had a great advantage in living, an unfore gettable experience. Isn't that worth a bit of dise comfort? How many less well-known women let themselves fall into the temptation which Miss Delafield was sane and bold enough to resist. We hate to disarrange our

ing, at a little table by herself sat Chandler. our 2s-vear-old granddaughter. She gave us the | most engaging smile of welcome and had not forgotten Mrs. Scheider or me since she left us in Washington.

lives, or subject our minds to shock. That's why we go on, day after day, doing the same things we did vesterday and last year, afraid to meet new ideas, and positively alarmed at the thought of finding ourselves in a strange situation. “Miss Delafield's other arresting remark was this: “It is monstrous and unbelievable. Nobody in Enge | land wants war; everyone abhors the thought, yet everyone feels we are bound to have it. It is as if | some ominous doom hovered over us, and we were helpless.” Miss Delafield also envies American women their freedom and good times. “England,” she says, “is still very much a man’s country.”

By DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN Editor American Medical Assn, Journal HEN a grownup has mumps, people somehow think the condition comical. The swelling which appears at the sides of the face in this disease usually gives the person infected a distinctly ludicrous appearance. Yet mumps really is not a laughing mate ter, for either a child or an adult. Mumps usually occurs in children between 5 ana 15 years of age, but may spread rapidly among older people if it appears in epidemic form in a factory, an army camp, or some similar place of assemblage. In 1918, 5756 cases of mumps occurred among 18,000 men at Camp Wheeler; in other words, about

one-third of the men in the camp had the disease. Mumps attacks girls as well as boys. One siege

program has fallen. If a thorough job isn't done this year, the Administration will run into the 1938 Congressional elections with all of the political complica- | tions which don’t mix well with re- | lief—or mix too well.

HEARD IN CONGRESS

Rep. Martin (D. Colo.) —A friend |

yoviding useful work for the un- : ! x [from out in my home town, a man

| skilled and less competent. Cor- | : respondent Brown found that 40 | Who might be mildly termed a rabid

per cent of WPA workers in Ten- reactionary, went out to Seattle, nessee were working on county and he happened to stray down on |

New Books ES eee oN of

Leavenworth appears, nestled by the Ohio River in a narrow gorge,

By NEA SERVICE | UT bag and baggage, its 418; HE flood over, Leavenworth beA 1884 the picturesque little | citizens will have moved out, to | came a cheerless tent city, its

Looking down from the heights of the hills along PUBLIC LIBRARY PRESENTS— the mighty river, this is how the doomed town of T is ironical that the sons of George III, who were reared in a family of 15 children, in an atmosphere replete with carefully ordered domesticity, should have become bitter rivals among themselves. Their profligacy shocked their family and the nation, and they died, not childless, but almost without legitimate issue to take the throne of England. George, who became George IV of England, Frederick, Duke of York, whose affair with Mrs. Clarke

| resettle, high and dry for all time, | citizens huddling under canvas sheltown of Leavenworth, Ind, on a nearby hilltop which already | ters brought in by Army trucks for | | squeezed in a narrow gorge along-| has been declared suitable for the | the homeless. This, plus illness, Jack | : Hovey ‘side the Ohio River, has been an | purpose if the plan suggested is of proper sanitation, and chill win- | roads. In Cleveland, 2 aver Tis the waterfront, in the soapbox seccarried through. ter winds, helped Leavenworth make | Was NE nie ice Wee give | tion in which they set out boxes for | | This year, water more than 20 Up its mind to move. OE DY et the orators. He paused before a mace him the laughing-stock of England; William i . i | feet deep poured through Leaven-| A plot of land on a nearby hill, [VO : 0 . : fellow on a soapbox who was raisHenry, successor to George, trained to a life on the | Every time the sinuous Ohio has | worth at the height of the flood, |large enough for the new Leaven-| Originally WPA was set up to ing hell with the existing order of sea and then transplanted to that of a landlubber; |overrcached its banks, Leavenworth | driving inhabitants out and making | worth, was offered for the purpose. | provide useful work for able-bodied things. A big officer was standing Edward Augustus, father of Queen Victoria, and hated | has suffered. Now, after 53 years, | 75 per cent of the homes unfit for| Other river towns have indicated men pending the time they would calmly by, and after my friend lisby the Duke of York for his prudishness; Ernest Au- | the town has decided to call it quits | habitation. | they will follow Leavenworth's lead. | be recalled to private industry, un- tened to this tirade a moment he gustus, Duke of Cumberland, romantic in appearance, | and move. | Street paving was demolished, Shawneetown and Junction, Iii, | employables were to be cared for | ysheq up to the officer and said a red-hot Tory, hated and feared as a monster, and | Fragments of the original Leaven- | homes were broken, battered and | have formed a committee to discuss | locally. In practice WPA tends | «Officer, you are not going to stand Adolphus Frederick, George's one virtuous son, who [worth may remain as ragged re- | upset, and asif to include any build- | a plan to combine the two on higher | more and more to become a resting | here and permit that to go on, are for many years was Governor General of Hanover, and | minders of the old glory of the town | ings his first fury missed, Old Man | ground. Uniontown, Ky., is consider- | place for those who are unaccept- vou?” And the officer looked down later returned to England to indulge his eccentricities. | when it was a unit in the booming | River spread a generous litter of mud | ing means of financing its reloca- | able for private employment. at him and said, “Get a box, me Such were the father and THE WICKED UNCLES | river traffic. {and debris over all as he receded. tion. Thus, with the passing of the | boy, get a box.” (Putnam) of Queen Victoria, as described by Reger | [acute stage of the unemployment : » » Fulford. Extravagant, not too intelligent. often ‘emergency, with industry operating Rep. Rankin (D. Miss.)—I shall never forget the debate between the gentleman from Kansas, Mr. Tinch-

| uncomplaining host during periodic | | visitations of flood waters.

erratic, given to roistering, essentially ignorant of , 2 3 3 FR i lat normal or better in some lines, politics—these rotund and froklicksome middle-aged ity ar 3 ee i POR ; | the problem which WPA was de-

gentlemen disported themselves in the limelight until the acvent of the young Victoria swept them into discreet obscurity. ® n n “Y ETTERS That We Ought to Burn,” “Old Mystery Books,” “Mighty Women Book Hunters,” “The Libraries of the Presidents of the United States” and “Manchausen and Company,” are among the headings in 2a BOOK HUNTER'S HOLIDAY, by A. S. W. Rosenbach (Houghton Mifflin). In his discussion, Dr. Rosenbach, who has been called “the greatest collector and dealer that has ever lived,” declares that Napoleon's love-letters are the least interesting of all those ever written. He names the five greatest detectives of fiction—"“Of course, no one will agree with me!” If found dead with a book

in his pocket, he hopes it will be the first edition of |

“The Murders in the Rue Morgue.”

The prices paid by collectors for rare items are al- |

ways of interest: 800 pounds for a letter by Burns,

$1950 for an Atkins almanac, $9800 for Washington's |

own copy of his “Official Letters to the Honorable

lof which would | back up to the peak.

siened to meet has changed materially. It is in fact dealing now with casual or unsatisfactory workers instead of with a group of competent men who were temporarily

[out of work because industry was

operating below normal. Changed conditions have left WPA somewhat outmoded, yet it still has 2,000,000 out of a peak 3.000,000 on its rolls. This reduction was brought about largely by arbitrary restrictions, the removal send the figure

” » ”

N conclusions based upon long familiarity with relief operations here and frequent investigation in the field, plus discussion with scores of relief officials here and in the

er, and the gentleman from Massachrusetts, Mr. Luce, over the proposal to put a tariff on hides. Mr. Tincher called them “cowhides,” and Mr. Luce called them “cawfskins.”

” ” ”

..Rep. O’Connor (D. N. Y.)—I hate every principle the Communists stand for, but I would not muzzle them... . I would let them go on as they do in our Union Square in New York City, when some 10,000 get together and let the steam off

their chests, and then one Irish cop

disperses them. ” ” 5 Rep. Gifford (R. Mass.) This reminds me of the dear minister who asked one of his lady parishioners how she liked his sermons. She said: in-

usually protects against future attacks of this disease, although instances are known, in which people have had it two or three times. For those who do not know what mumps really is, it is a contagious disease in which there is a swelling of the parotid glands, the salivary glands which lie just in front of the ears. Occasionally the mumps also may affect other salivary glands, such as those under the jaw and chin. The exact cause of mumps has not yet been ese tablished, although there is good evidence that it is probably due to what is now called a filterable virus =an organism small enough to pass through the pores of a clay filter, The disease usually is spread by contact with a person who has it. Mumps is contagious from the time the first symptoms appear until perhaps a few days after the swelling has disappeared.

For safety it is customary to isolate the patient for three weeks, from the time the symptoms first appear until one week after the swelling has disap= peared. .

“They are wonderful, and so structive! We begin to think we did not know anything about sin until you came.”

field, Correspondent Brown says that the permanent program should be based upon a long-range program of public works, expanded A

Mumps is not so contagious as chickenpox or measles, but still is sufficiently contagious to warrant some reasonably protective measures when the cone ditign appears in any school or community,

American Congress, 1735.” Dr, Rosenbach’s own enthusiasm is communicated to us; and we are glad, with him, that he has the only copy known of the first _ edition of “Poor Richards Almanac,” JT,

From the gloom that hangs over the old Leavenworth whose homes, left, were toppled, broken by

flood waters, Earl J. Frans, holding his son, looks |

from the nearby hill at a happier view of the suggested new townsite. A. B. Krug, Indiana State

jp. a