Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 12 March 1937 — Page 19
PAGE 18
The Indianapolis Times
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Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way
FRIDAY, MARCH 12, 1937
JOEL BAKER SURRENDERS
MONG his many mistakes, Joel Baker probably regrets mast his hiding out until after the Marion County Grand Jury had indicted him on two counts in the assault on Wayne Coy. No man helps himself by running away, Baker's close associate, Peter A. Cancilla, similarly charged, made the additional blunder of remaining a fugitive and forcing the G-Men onto his trail. He was then captured by City Police. Now that Baker has belatedly surrendered, several things should be cleared up. First, he is entitled to an early and fair trial, a chance to defend himself against the charges of malicious mavhem and assamt with intent to kill Mr. Coy. Cancilla has the same right. Also, the Legislature's Investigating Committee has heen looking for Baker. The Committee is interested in Baker's connection with Cancilla’s brutal assault on a State official. According to testimony, he was with his friend Cancilla just before the attack, when the latter said, “I've got a little job to do.” le was reported seen with Cancilla again shortly after the slugging at the State House. Baker's disappearance with the original Welfare Merit Bill—thus interfering with legislative processes—and his other lobbying activities, also concern the Committee.
PARDON ME FOR INQUIRING, BUT JUST WHERE THE HECK DO YOU THINK WE'RE GOING?
THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES Timelv Question —By Herblock
FRIDAY, MARCH 12, 1937
“we. — ART
|
And what about Virgil Sheppard’s testimony that |
Baker threatened to kill him? Joel Baker's operdtions in the local political intimidation ring should be investigated fully and promptly.
ON THE SOCIAL FRONTIER
N Indianapolis woman yesterday became the nation’s first recipient of a death benefit under the Social Security Act.
Seven other persons, in other states, received old-age | benefits under the program inaugurated Jan. 1, 1937. These | seven were wage earners who became 65 during the first
An estimated 123,000 will reach the age | a foreign article and identified with atheism. On the | other hand, there is a good deal of
few days of 1937. of 65 this year. And death payments during 1937 are expected to total 191,000. This is another milestone in our first ordered attack on poverty. Indiana, a leader among the states joining in the Federal program, has the honor of helping to break ground on the social frontier. These lump-sum benefits are preliminary to the Social
Security Act's major program of monthly old-age retire- |
ment benefits, which begin in 1942. The Federal-State effort in this growing field of human welfare aims to reduce the hazards of old age and unemplovment, to aid the blind, to meet the needs of dependent
children, and to stabilize consumption by stabilizing income. |
.. " . : . | Joiner: ’ ig A ; Society 1s beginning to protect its members against | JOURCrS and you have the nucleus of fascism.
the risks which society has created.
SAUCE FOR THE GANDER SECRETARY HULL has instructed our Ambassador in Berlin to lodge a vigorous protest with the German Government over articles appearing in the Nazi press concerning the United States. And so he should. After NeW York's Mayor La Guardia had publicly declared that Nazidom’s “brown-shirted fanatic”—meaning Hitler—should be done in wax and exhibited in a “chamber of horrors,” the Secretary did the magnanimous thing. Ile expressed regret. He reminded the Nazis that the Mayor is not a United States official, that the Federal Government has no control over his words and that, with us, freedom of speech is traditional. Nevertheless, he strained a point as a gentleman should when feelings get hurt, and said that he was sorry. But that did not satisfy Germany. Far from it. Her controlled press—every word of which is officially weighed —unloosed a load of Billingsgate against the Americay Government, American officials and the American people. But even that was not enough. In veiled, but unmistakable language, it went so far as to threaten this country with something unpleasant unless we learned to curb our tongues a little better. Thus Germany—after demanding and receiving polite amends for La Guardia’s verbal molehill—has heaped a mountain of “insult” upon a nation which had done the correct thing. Hence she should now apologize in turn, or else appear in the role of would-be bully and hoor.
JOE KENNEDY'S NEW JOB WHEN Joseph P. Kennedy was named the first chairman of the new Securities and Exchange Commission, we frankly doubted the wisdom of selecting a stock market speculator to stop the abuses of other speculators. But that hard-hitting Irishman did such a superb job on the SEC that we almost fell over ourselves apologizing for our original misjudgment. Now Joe Kennedy has been chosen by the President as first chairman of the new Federal Maritime Commission. Under the law creating the commission there are grounds for douhting the propriety of Mr. Kennedy’s appointment. One of the big jobs facing the commission is to end the abuses that have grown out of the too-intimate tie-up between private shipping interests and the Government agencies that have dealt with those interests. And Kennedy is a substantial stockholder in one of the large shipbuilding corporations. But if his appointment is confirmed, we believe Joe Kennedy will fool the doubters again. Nothing less than a thoroughgoing reform of the old ways will suffice. Heretofore too large a share of the subsidies has been funneled into the pockets of financial insiders, and too small a share into the actual building and operation of ships. The new commission must see to it that the new subsidies paid out to maintain decent American wage standards actually provide such wages, and that subsidies paid out to maintain adequate merchant marine actually provide such an efficient shipping service,
described as God-fearing, patriotic Americans.
Fair Enough
By Westbrook Pegler
Fascism Is Danger to United States |
For Americans Naturally Seem to Have Some Tendencies That Way.
EW YORK, March 12.—Some fellow writes to inquire why these dispatches
|-s0 often view with alarm the possibility of
a Fascist movement in this country but seldom show any concern about a rise of com-
munism. The answer to that is easy. The answer is that communism will never get to first base in the United States because it is strictly
native fascism in the American
| makeup and a strong religious and | chivalrous strain,
The tendency toward fascism has been demonstrated many times in vigilante movements of various
| kinds such as the Ku Klux, the {| Knights
of Luther, the Silver Shirts and the Black Legion and in the domination of many communities by an element vaguely the right-thinking,
Individually they are all right
: : y Mr. Pegler and their Americanism under nor-
| mal conditions is pure. But bring them together under
the smell of secrecy and the charm of a voice in the belief that they are normally better than the non-
The danger of fascism is that it is insidious. It employs religions as a stooge and communism is a punching dummy in regions where even the poorest people would tar and feather a Communist agitator on the ground that he must be there to advocate sexual promiscuity and the burning of the churches. Some Communists try to argue that the special brand of communism which has been created for the American market is not atheistic and would let religion be.
But it is too late to sell that bill of i United States. Kh
un u on
HE majority of the American Communist leaders have been either foreigners or Americans who caught communism in Russia. The American Fascist leaders all were born on this side, Communism has never made any.progress here except in a few crowded industrial or metropolitan centers where there are foreign settlements. Fascism, in its various guises, some of which antedate fascism in Italy, always has excluded the foreign born and has been most suecessful in strictly American communities. Tt is fairly easy to recognize communism because it simply cannot disguise itself as that which we understand as Americanism. It wants no part of Americanism. It is not easy to recognize fascism because it always calls itself Americanism and calls on eyeryone who calls himself an American to join some band to protect his hearth and altar from the foul invader. ” To of course, there are commercial advantages to be considered, and Fascists in all countries have always shown a sharp appreciation of such opportunities. The members of the band conspire to trade with one another and hoycott the nonmembers
” »
and in countries where fascism takes over the gov- |
ernment the band becomes a governing party and simply grabs anything. Considering the known American appetite for this kind of thing and the suckers we have been for promoters preying on our regard for home and church, 1 feel that fascism might be put across sometime, especially if we get careless about law and the Constitution. But communism, should it ever make a break, would be slapped down in a few days. Communism just isn’t in the breed.
Hoosier Forum
I wholly disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.~Voltaire.
KOKOMO TRIBUNE ASKS ‘WHY’ OF BAKER ANXIETY By N. Db.
was about the Marion County Welfare Department, as it was operat-
that made it so desirable to him that he was willing, seemingly, to resort vo violent expedient in hig | effort to prevent enactment of a | bill providing for the Department's reorganization. | “Baker has been quoted as threat- | ening Virgil Sheppard, an em- | ployee of the department, with
death if he interfered with the way things were being run. Later Peter A. Cancilla, an Indianapolis attorney, who is said to have Been a | bodyguard for Baker, committed a | brutal assault on Wayne Coy, acting State Welfare Director, | was supporting the bill to which | Baker was opposed. Furthermore, | Baker is reported to have borrowed | the original state welfare reorgani- | zation bill from Rep. Downey, chair- | man of the committee to which it had been referred, and never returned it. “Cancilla, who has been charged with assault and battery with intent to Kill, disappeared right after his attack on Coy and has not been found. Baker is reported to have gone to Florida and has not been obtained to testify in the investigation of the assault on Cov. Rep. Downey, who admitted lending the original bill to Baker, was let out of the chairmanship of Judiciary A Committee in the closing days of the legislative session, “What puzzles citizens generally is that Baker made a fight of such desperate character to retain control of the Welfare Department in Marion County. Why should a department of government designed,
ject of such bitter and violent controversy? Why was Baker so determined to hold on to control? What, if anything, was wrong that impelled Coy and others to seek a reorganization of the department? Exactly what is behind this mess? That is what the citizens of Indiana want to know.” ” ” » | ‘AIN'T DEFENDED AS PROPER ENGLISH | By M. S. For many years our best people
have been shying away from that | | disreputable but earthy old idiom, | They taboo not only the |
| “ain't.” grammatically improper “we ain't” and “you ain't” but they handle gingerly the proper “I ain't” as if that, too, were vulgar and lowborn. The purists insist on laboring { through the clumsy and Wilsonian
General Hugh Johnson Says—
Satisfactory Compromise Between C. I. O. and A. F. of L. Will Come Soon Through Pressure Exerted on Latter's Leaders From Below.
The best proof that all that was needed was a little new blood and fighting spirit, is the tremendous
ASHINGTON, March 12.—The executive committee of the American Federation oi Labor took this column to town for “lauding” the constructive, fighting ability of Mr. Lewis and faintly hinting that if organization and collective bargaining were ever to get anywhere, they would have to get rid of some of the old coffee coolers of the elder day who are too complacently content to rest on their old laurels. What labor needs is a president's judiciary proposal. This column began saying like that two years ago and kept saying it as often as the traffic would stand. There was no intent to take a sock at the A. F. of L. where I still have many friends. Most of the international presidents are as good as anything in C. I. O,, outside of two or three leaders, and far better than some of the rash young tyros in the new indust.ial unions. They have experience, and it is the lack of that qualtiy in C. I. O. that is responsible for much of the recent trouble. Its young firing-line officials go bulling ahead without Mr. Lewis’ advice or in defiance of
it. Then, when they make a mess of it, they dump it in Mr. Lewis’ lap.
» ” by experience. They are on
® Tor will cure itself the march. But the policy of the A. F. of L. and some of the old bench-warmers who are responsible for it was dead from the neck up. It needed
a vigorous churnin
and according to and portents it is TR ed. te Signy
eftting what it needed and will get
ed under Joel A. Baker, director, |
supposedly, solely for the benefit | of the aged and needy, be the sub- |
I believe Times readers will be interested in the following editorial | comment from the Kokomo Tribune: |
“Naturally, many citizens of In- | diana are wondering just what there | “Am I not?” while a growing school
|
| | | { |
| with a bit of research that should | as |
(Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns, religious controversies excluded. Make your letter short, so all can have a chance. Letters must be signed, but names will be withheld on request.)
of sophisticates get around it by using the kittenish, British-import-ed, “aren't 1?” Let's have an end to this squeamfshness. “Ain't” is a contraction of “am not” and, therefore, it is proper to say “I ain't” or to inquire “Ain't I?” H., L. Mencken says so. Sterling A. Leonard in “Current English Usage” quotes a British linguist as calling “Ain't 1?” “good colloquial English.” And now comes Prof. Harold Bender of Princeton
make “Ain't I?” as respectable
this nation, The men who are against the President are ruining the country.
5 % CARRIES PROPOSAL
| A RIT FURTHER | By a Times Reader Regarding S. H.'s suggestion for a city-owned parking lot. Why not have the city take over the chain stores, butcher shops, barber shops, taverns too and run
work 12 to 2 hours a day can go on relief? The officials are getting enough now, so why not let them have everything?
put under the memorial where the obelisk stands between Meridian and Pennsylvania Sts,
3 » = NEW EXPOSURES PREDICTED
{the D. A. R. He says that “ain't” | IN BAKER PROBE
who |
| | |
|
came into being in 1775, a year before the U. S. A. was born. Anything that stood time's test that long in this one of us. Of course, we will be warned that
“ain't” can only be used in place of | “am not.” I'm ready to go the whole |
way with this old pioneer. I, thou, and he, she and it, ve and
ain't are all okeh by us.
you? ” Ld ” BACKS ROOSEVELT IN COURT PROPOSAL By 8. L. M., Mentone I am not a Congressman, but I can understand politics enough to know that an eighth grade pupil can understand this judiciary problem, I know President Roosevelt is for the right and the Congressmen promised when they were elected that they would stand by the President. Now, for the sake of money,
[they are trying to tie his hands.
The President is conscientious and is trying to work for the people. He has always worked for peace. Those old men are not able to run
NIGHT
By ROBERT O. LEVELL When darkness fills the way Somehow my heart is sad, Missing the light of day That shined and made me glad.
For when the day is gone I lose a mighty friend; A real joy passes on When dark is here again.
It would be a long, long night, Sadness forever be, If there were no more light My eyes could ever see, DAILY THOUGHT But when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ. -]I Corinthians 8:12.
OW immense appear to us the
sins that we have not com- |
mitted.—M. Necker.
| get
they | And, just | between us, ain't they all right with
| By a Humiliated Democrat | Joel Baker and Pete “Slugger”
i ) ; ne. country deserves to be made | Cancilla are not alon
If the citizens of this community to the bottom of this latest episode I predict some startling exposures of other, higher-up cians. The borrowing of a
to Cancilla all smells to this taxpayer like reeking politics. I wonder how much longer the
to allow this unhealthy condition to continue? ”
” ” UNDUE EXCITEMENT ABOUT COY INCIDENT CHARGED By P. W. I don’t see why so much fuss is raised about Cancilla slugging Wayne Coy. Men get hit every day and do nothing about it. Is Mr. Coy an idol or supreme being? No, he is just flesh and blood like anyone else. If one wears glasses he shouldn't get in others’ hair, I once called at Mr. Coy’s office on business, but it seemed I would have had to have an order from the President to get an interview. If the law wants a case to work on why doesn’t it get busy on some auto drivers? And why not treat us all alike?
” ” © CLERGY ASKED TO SPEAK ON BAKER AFFAIR By “Spectator” As one of many persons in Ine dianapolis who has read every story and all the verbatim testimony in the Baker-Cancilla affair, I am impressed by one fact. That is the thunder of the silence on the moral issue which has been maintained by the clergy of Indianapolis, individually and collectively, and by most of the other moral and civic leaders of the community. I know from what my friends and neighbors say that this is no pass ing incident. Too many people are involved. The public wants a reform of this intolerable political sit uation. The public is waiting for | the “leaders” to lead. | Why don’t they speak out?
them all, so we little fellows who |
It Seems to Me
‘By Heywood Broun | Sons of Old Eli Are Barking Up Wrong Tree With Roosevelt-for-King Club, for Satire Is Weapon of Rebels
EW YORK, March 12.—I am not a Yale man nor one of the most partisan supporters of the excellent school in New Haven, Conn. And yet it grieves me whenever the sons of Eli get themselves off on a limb.
I have in mind the Roosevelt-for-King Club which has just been organized under the New England elms, The idea is moderately amusing, I don't see how anybody can give it much more than that, and distinctly Yale is taking
A public garage should have been | square |
|
politi-
the satirical dust of Princeton.
But there is a rigid rule about satire, Perhaps exceptions may be pointed out. Yet it seems to me almost impossible to be effectively satirical from the conformist point of view, Like salmon, satirists must swim upstream. This form of attack is limited, I believe, to those who wish to attack established in= stitutions. To be specific, the Supreme Court has been so sacred for so many years that many who would attack its pretensions have been moved to feel that they must make their drive upon
Mr. Broun
| a flank rather than risking a dead center assault,
legislative document, by Baker, the brutal at- | tack on Mr. Coy by Cancilla, the | | awarding of high receivership fees
voters of Marion County are going |
But it makes things too complicated when anybody attempts to build a satire upon the base of the other fellow’s ironic enterprise, Many attempts to josh Mr. Chief Justice Hughes may be ill-warranted and unfair, but I can hardly conceive of a technique by which one may take up the cudgels for the oracle «in the spirit of good clean fun, The defense of the conservative in practically every situation must be one based upon an attitude of moral indignation. Even before the Yale boys tried and failed, the attack upon Roosevelt from the left wing of belittling burlesque has proved pretty feeble. Win or lose, the President is playing the role of underdog. He is out to smash tradition, and satire, by its very hature, must be aimed at the status quo,
” ” »
HAVE mentioned in an earlier column the fact that “Of Thee I Sing” may have broken some ground in preparing the way for the criticism of the nine remote men on the High Bench. How on
earth could any undergraduate or others get to first base by trying to kid the kidding of George 8S. Kaufmann and Morrie Ryskind? Liberty Leaguers may have their proper place in the American political scheme, but it is not a jesting role. When Al Smith came to Washington to speak at’ the famous dinner of too many du Ponts he made a few wisecracks in his address, but they were wholly incidental te his main purpose, which was one of viewing with alarm, » ” ”
HE same thing holds true in the case of Col. McCormick and Col. Knox, who fought the first battle of Armageddon and now want to fight it all over again. During the recent political unpleasantness the telephone operators of the Chicago Tribune were under instruction to answer every call with a cheery, “Good morning. This is the Chicago Tribune. What have you done today to save the nation?” After the votes had been counted it became necessary to discard this formula, and I am told that a new and equally cheery one was found. According to my information, if you call up “the world’s greatest newspaper” today you will be greeted with, “Good morning. This is the Chicago Tribune. What have you done today to stamp out social disease?” And so I would advise those undergraduates at New Haven who are wedded to the old order that they may be as cheery as they please, but that they are likely to stub their toes if they attempt to be
funny,
The Washington Merry-Go-Round
Roosevelt Jeopardized Court Plan by Failing to Consult Certain Senators Before Announcing It; Their Self-Esteem Was Injured,
By Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen
sweep and drive that is going on through all of in dustry. That didn’t just happen. It started because Mr. Lewis and his aggressive lieutenants kicked off the hobbles that chained them to the moribund leadership of labor's own particular nine old men. Over a year ago this column predicted with considerable accuracy what has happened—a vertical split from the top to the bottom of organized labor with Mr. Lewis running away with the show and the old order sitting and wailing in sackcloth and ashes.
p= is a very bad business and totally unnecessary. It can’t last long. Perhaps so much bad feeling has been stirred up in the seats of the mighty both in the A. F. of L. and C. I. O. that there can't
true among the rank and file. Out in the field locals of the crafts are finding little trouble affiliating for representation with the C. I. O. vertical unions. I believe that if the voting mechanism provided for a referendum to the actual workers in the crafts, nine out of 10 would vote for affiliation with Mr. Lewis on some plan to preserve the crafts for all appropriate purposes. This column is ready to risk another prediction that a satisf ompromise will come soon th
rough pressure on la nine old men of the A. F\, of L.
be any kissing and making up there, but that is not
ASHINGTON, March 12~If the President loses his Supreme Court fight, his defeat will result chiefly from the identical mistake which cost Woodrow Wilson his League of Nations battle— failure to consider the vanities of human nature, If Wilson had given more consideration to the Senate during the negotiation of the Versailles Treaty and immediately thereafter, the history of the League of Nations might have been different. How similar was the position of Roosevelt, before he sent his Supreme Court message to Congress, is indicated by a conversation he had with one of his closest friends several weeks before the message was delivered,
. » 8 . R YtavaLy had explained in great detail his plan for increasing the Court, told just how he was going to send his message to Congress. “But, Mr. President,” suggested the friend, “don't you think that will come as rather a shock to some people? I don’t believe the country is quite prepared for anything so sudden. Don’t you think you ought to take at least some of the amendment-minded Senators, such as George Norris and Hiram Johnson, into your confidence?” “Oh, if they object, I'll send for them.” “But what about William Green and some of the
or ——
| little advance suppors from men of that type
farm leaders? Dont Sou think youd better et a
the heads of the Senators to the
“Oh, it they kick,” blandly replied th “I'll call them in, Ill talk to them. = | oidenty
” » ”
overEnLy one reason for Roosevelt's dee cision not to flatter certain Senators by advance consultation was that there have been leaks from 50 many of his previous conversations: also because he has such a fine sense of the dramatic.
The President has almost a mania for springing surprises. He loves to put one over on the news papermen. It is a game with him, sometimes a very serious game, because he has been known to hold up an important move which already had been decided upon, simply because a newspaper broke the story first. On occasion he has upset his entire plan merely to contradict a newspaper story he didn’t like. The President also has great confidence in his personal powers of persuasion. He has come to rely more and more on the method of calling in critical Senators and persuading them. “I'll send for them,” is one of his stock expressions. Usually it works. But during the Supreme Court controversy, dele gations of Senators have been leaving the White House with glum and unenthusiastic faces. It took a long time to convince Roosevelt that his policy of “I'll send for him,” would not work this once. That is why he decided to appeal the case over people,’