Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 30 March 1937 — Page 12

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The Indianapolis Times

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

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TUESDAY, MARCH 30, 1937

A DAY IN COURT

E was 74 on that autumn evening in 1932 when he went |

to bat for F. D. R. And he was 79 last night when he went into reverse. “l prefer to keep my rapier clean,” he said five years ago, as he lunged at Ogden Mills and ran him through. “lI am speaking from a soul filled with bitterness,” he declares now, in assailing the man he helped to elect to the Presidency. He is the wasp of the Old Dominion—born into this world in the year of our Lord 1858—the senior Senator of Virginia, sir, in the Congress of the United States. He is the breathing and biting refutation of the argument that age and impotence are twins. Carrying nearly a decade over the weight of years which biblical designation and the Roosevelt Supreme Court proposal allow, he emerges into battle for his second time on the radio with such verbal artillery as “political janizaries,” “judicial marionettes,” “ventriloquisms of the White House” and “biased wetnurses of the Supreme Bench.” Moral-—If it's tranquility you are seeking, don't stir up Carter Glass. And speaking of the superannuated, did you notice what a big judicial wash the nine elderly gentlemen hung out yesterday ? A sizable day's work, wasn't it, considering that six of the nine are past 70 and supposed to be too feeble for their tasks? "

u u

FEW of the more gossipy New Dealers are draping themselves over the back fence and scornfully observing that the bleached-out look of the new-laundered decisions indicates an overuse of the soft soap of inconsistency. But there's no pleasing some people. In this connection, it is cheering to note the hospitable attitude of Senator Ashurst of Arizona, the dean-emeritus of inconsistency, who has cordially welcomed the judges into the philosophical fold of those who find political comfort in changing their minds. Now, there's a good neighbor for you. Senator Ashurst is not going to say spiteful things about Mr. Justice Roberts, who last year joined, with the four more conservative Judges in ruling that a state government had no power to fix minimum wages for women workers, and who, yes-

12 cents a |

terday, joined with the four more liberal judges ruling |

exactly to the contrary. Whatever catty remarks others

may make, we know Senator Ashurst will not point an ac-

cusing finger. He won't care whether Mr. Justice Roberts followed “the illiction returns,” or read the Republican platform's statement about the last decision, or cupped his ear to the fury of the storm raging around the judiciary. It is enough that a judge palpably wrong last year is palpably right this, Everybody taking part in this Court squabble-—which means everybody who isn't tongue-tied—will read yesterday's decisions, and each will draw his own moral therefrom. Some will say that the decisions go to prove that the judges are just a bunch of politicians who blow with the wind. Others will say that the judges are still reading their personal predilections into the Constitution. Some will say it proves the President should be permitted to add six of his own to the High Bench. Others will say it demonstrates that the Court is all right, as is, and can be trusted to correct itself, So, in the spirit of the hour, before quitting discussion of the minimum-wage decision, we should like to put in a plug lor our pet scheme—to require a two-thirds vote of the High Court in holding a law unconstitutional. Had the 6-3 rule been in effect, the New York Minimum Wage Law would not have been struck down when the Court voted 5 to 4 against it last year, and there would have been no occasion for Mr. Justice Roberts’ nimble somersault. The Washington State Minimum Wage Law would never have reached the Court. And, having proved our proposition to our own satisfaction, we borrow from the geometricians the concluding notation, Q. E. D., and move on to other intriguing thoughts. o AST year a Court majority laid low the AAA, saying that the processing tax was unconstitutional because it was a step in a plan to control the growing of crops, which Congress had no power to do. Mr. Justice Stone entered a vigorous dissent. Yesterday Mr. Justice Stone read an opinion upholding the Federal law to control the sale of firearms, saying, in regard to the tax used to enforce that law: “Inquiry into the hidden motives which may move Congress to exercise a power constitutionally conferred upon it is beyond the competency of the courts.” Mr. Justice Stone was superbly consistent. What he said in the firearms case yesterday was on all fours with what he said in the AAA case last year. But what of the strange contradiction in that, whereas last year he spoke for a dissenting minority, yesterday he voiced the opinion of the whole Court? Mr. Justice Roberts, it seems, is not the only judge who has gloriously qualified for Senator Ashurst’s fraternity, Excuse us, please, for taking our fun where we find it. If the judges do as well at what is billed as their next performance—the ruling on the Wagner Labor Act—if, when they get to that law, they strike out as vigorously for collective bargaining and majority rule as they did in their unanimous approval of the Railway Labor Act in the Virginian case yesterday, we may feel constrained to suggest to Mr. Roosevelt that he say: “Okay, if the judges are ready to call it quits, so am 1.” And he might as well. For, if the Court rules consistently for New Deal measures two times in succession, that

will just about ring down the curtain on Mr. Roosevelt's packing scheme.

“AIR CONDITIONING”

THERE are days when the smoke pollution in Indianapolis seems to reach a point where the sun's healthgiving violet rays are at least partially invalidated. We'll have a brighter, cleaner and more healthful city when plant and residential furnace owners, and city enforcement officials, begin paying more attention to this job of “air conditioning.”

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ser Se Lat A

| |

G NG by ie

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

And Don’t Spare the Horses !—By Talburt

LISSENY | SAIDRUSK ME ONE OF THOSE

LOVE

SEATS’

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler

Farley's Of Irish Sweep by Newspapers Not So Displeasing to Publishers.

EW YORK, March 30.—Jim Farley seems to have had a change of mind about the morality of news about the Irish Hospitals’ sweep lottery. Four years ago Mr, Farley reversed an old ruling by his predecessor, Walter Brown, which forbade the publication of such matter on the ground that it tended to advertise an illegal enterprise. Mr. Farley said this was a new deal from a new deck, and that he would interpret the law so as to permit the publication of legitimate news, although he must continue the verboten against outright advertisements. The promoters of the Irish lottery then got around even this light restriction by publishing ads in some American papers warning the people against counterfeit tickets, and advising them where to get real ones, which was dirty pool on the part of the promoters and publishers. Now the Postoffice adopted the old policy of suppression, There can be no doubt that the Walter Brown rule impaired the freedom of the press. Murder, rape and fraud are illegal enterprises, too, but no Postmaster General has attempted to close the mails to papers touching on such matters in the coverage of the daily news. The lottery stories, usually fascinating pieces about the bartender, mill-hand or janitor who won a hatful of money, are less sordid than items about ax murders and stickups, and the rule against them was mnceconsistent, Mr. Brown, however, was not entirely to blame for that because the truth was that it had become a

has re=- Mr. Pegler

old

great headache for the papers and newsgathering |

outfits to cover the draw in Dublin and flash the names of the Americans who drew horses or consola=tion prizes, and their addresses. They were not displeased to be forbidden this news.

u "

HE PostoflTice had carried the target for certain papers in two notable cases before, On those occasions rival publishers in circulation wars began to throw money away promiscuously in a coupon stunt, each one raising the ante day by day until the extravagance began to hurt. However, having plunged into the thing, neither side wanted to surrender. so they quietly urged the Postoffice to step in and save them from their recklessness. This the Postoffice obligingly did, and they both quit without loss of face. After Mr. Farley lifted the ban on lottery news, the British Government forbade all mention of the Irish sweep in the papers of England, Scotland and Wales, and almost abolished the trade there. This had been

the greatest market for the tickets, and attention naturally turned to the United States. LL u 5 Se the United States joined the British colonies as a leading customer and the trade here increased, thanks to Mr. Farley's ruling. I am not certain, but I think I read recently that we draw about half the prizes, which would mean that we buy about half the tickets. If the new ruling sticks, it probably will be a grievous kick in the pants for the Irish sweep, but the game has pretty well served its purpose now, for it has raised more than $50,000.000 for the sick poor In a nation of only 3,000,000 people. It has also fattened the Free State Treasury which presently began to grab off 25 per cent of the hospitals’ share of the sweep, which is 25 per cent of the gross. It will take years for the Irish to spend wisely the unexpended pool of more than $25,000,000.

Ruling Against Mention |

- PAGE J,

TUESDAY, MARCH 30, 1937

Do You Suppose the Eskimos Are?”’—By Kirby

a sala FR SY Fay hg IL ER RR SARA A TO TE wnat dv evan HL edb

WAR BULLETINS

#0 | RUSSIAN AIDMLN IN | SPAIN BAILED AS DEST

FIGHTERS .

1} BRITAIN WARNS 1TALY {§ ON MORE AID TO REBELS.

HERQISM OF IRISH

FIGHTING TO SAVE

/ MADRID REVEALED.

GERMAN TROORS

IN DRIVE AGAINST

LOYALISTS.

The Hoosier Forum

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

FINLY CITIZEN FEARS

| STRIKE TROUBLE | By a Reader, Finly

It hagdly seems possible that the

| State and Federal Governments will

| group of half a dozen or so follow=- |

stand aside and let one man with a |

[ers dominate its leading industries

| and

thousands of because

men out | he wants |

throw

of work merely

| power and the almighty dollar,

| mirably,

| | |

[ |

| ilies.

| can’t it help private business?

Its strikes adWhy must Indiana allow the service of such a company as the Indiana Railroad system to be | held up? . There are many good, reliable men in this company who only ask the opportunity to make a living to support their fam-

Chicago handled

| aoesn’t, the men who are in private |

| rected so it won't be necessary to [hold a post mortem investigation.

[land of the free? | newspapers are full

| strikes, shut-in strikes, ete.

business will soon be on the WPA Nine out of every 10 now employed | voted the Democratic ticket, They stood by the Democratic Party in| the election. Why can't the officials stand by their voters now?

u PRECAUTION ASKED AGAINST DISASTERS By X. Y. Z,, Crawfordsville

We have auto wrecks and then investigate. We blow up a school | and snuff out innocent lives, then | investigate. If a schoolhouse is sit- | ting on a “powder keg” it is better to remove the powder keg before | there is an explosion. If school | children are drinking insanitary | water, conditions should be

un ”

cor. |

We have a disastrous fire and learn that the fire department is | not prepared to handle a big con- | flagration, making it necessary to | call on help from other cities to | save the town. What can a well- | trained fire department do to put out fires with junk apparatus? Well, | we can have an investigation after | it's all over. So it goes. We have disaster after disaster | and investigations, about it, An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Let us profit by our losses and try to prevent by precaution, thus reduce disasters to a minimum, n » »

TERMS WORKERS FOOLISH TO STRIKE

By Alarmed

How long will America remain the How long can she stave off her downfall? The of news of strikes—-sit-down strikes. stand-up | I doubt | realize what |

that many citizens

| these strikes mean to America now | | and what they may lead to.

| The strike, as it is today, can mean only one thing to us. It means the loss of property, food, | clothing, and shelter. While it may |

| and

| of

(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.)

not affect you or me directly, it does and will affect us ultimately. The

| employer cannot afford to suffer all | the loss, so his loss is passed on to

his employees, who have been foolish enough to try to remedy and better their situations, This comes about by reduction of wages and the loss of valuable time money while striking, And what are they striking for? I'll wager that only about 20 per cent these men and women really know, The is

strike only beginning.

| Stand by the Constitution, appeal

to the Government, and end this strife before it puts an end to our freedom.

" n un

| MONEY SPENT FOR LIQUOR

WASTED, IS CLAIM By H. S. Bonsib

I want to take issue with the man who tries to refute the argument

| of a recent Forum contributor. The | man wants to know what becomes

of the money made by men work-

| ing in distilleries, saloons and other

places where liquor is sold. I would say that all the money spent for liquor is wasted money, Money spent for “wet goods’ hurts the drygoods business, on beer is at the expense of the bread and milk businesses. Henry Ford put it correctly when he said: “The liquor business made

| money for a few, took money and

moneymaking ability from the very

| many. .

n n n CRITICIZES MAKEUP OF EDITORIAL PAGE By C. 'V. C. What has become of The Times’ reporter who was assaulted by Cancilla last year? Why is the content of Hugh Johnson's column cut regularly? I think it is decidedly unfair to John-

then forget all son. He should have all his say or

THE CRISIS

By EDNA JETT CROSLEY

I did just what you bade me do, I dried my tears—and hid a sigh. I tossed my head and curled my lip But—something in me died.

You'd think me gay to see me smile For sorrow must be covered.

| Come back, I pray, ere it be too late,

Come back, my heart—my lover.

DAILY THOUGHT

The trespass money and sin money was not brought into the house of the Lord: It was the priests.—II Kings 12:18.

All our money has a moral stamp. It is coined over again in an inward mint.—T, Starr King.

Money spent |

none, Perhaps this is a result of | vour tendency to crowd too much [on your editorial page at one time. Is the Washington Merry-Go- | Round cut to shape also?

[clash and spoil the appearance of | the page, I wish you would forget | strange leaning backwardness and | forget Mark Sullivan, Six days of Raymond Clapper would be much better,

”" n

| | " LABOR CONDEMNED FOR ‘REFUSAL TO LEARN’ |» 7. Bp |

| East is East and West is West, [and never the twain shall meet. | The guy that made that crack sure-

| ly knew his onions but he didn't go |

He should have gone on to say that “Muscle is muscle land brains are brains and you [simply cannot get the two to cooperate.”

far enough,

to reason, but because many of the gentlemen who make up labor want more money for less work, when the only sound basis for obtaining more money is to learn more or produce more, They haven't sense enough to know that the value of a dollar is elastic and that the more they ohtain for the less they do, the less a dollar will buy when they get it. They do not know and they stubbornly refuse to learn, All of which enables other gentlemen, who are not so dumb, to make mighty good things for themselves out of such things as the Townsend Plan, labor unions, ete., ete.

” u » SOCIETY BLAMED FOR EXISTENCE OF CRIME By Unemployed

When social conditions in this

and age of wonders without fear of the present or future, we will have pone a long way toward solving our crime problem, When we remove economic fear from the minds of our people we will have done away with the thing that induces men to commit crime, Until that day we can build more prisons, have more crime conferences, G-Men and hypocrites to tell us that crime does not pay, but organized crime is flourishing on a paying basis right under our noses. Society must answer for the conditions that it creates.

" Ww DISDAINS HOUSE AND SENATE TOO By Daniel Francis Clancy, Logansport Dr. Francis E.

jail sentence for contempt of the House of Representatives. Is it a crime to be contemptuous of the House? If so, what about the chap who is sitting on the same chair that I am and who is rather disdainful of not only the House but also the Senate? . :

It seems | [to me that Talburt's cartoon aloe | | would be sufficient. Two cartoons |

your |

Not because brains will not listen |

country are transformed to the ex- | tent that all men can live in a day |

Townsend was | fined $100 and given a one month |

wy NEARER WET EERE a Sapp, ’ ' yy

Hay

v ss OV ee Jods “of

It Seems to Me

By Heywood Broun | Writer Takes Young Critics te Task for Terming All Older Men Reactionary With No Valid Proof.

EW YORK, March 30.-Francis Hackett is annoyed in a pleasant sort of way by the younger critics, and uses one of them as a springboard for a lively piece in the New Republic, Mr. Hackett finds that many of the writing lads and lasses of today have a strange notion that the reviewers of 15 or 16 vears ago were little better than moronic, The newer Daniels come to judgment seem to believe that not until this era did anybody ever identify the literas ture of escape, And they are su=premely certain that economic determinism is practically their own invention, This, somewhat too briefly and haldly, is the theme of Mr, Hack=ett’s complaint, I would like to come along and, clinging to his ; coattails, say a few words on some | other aspects of the subject, Of

late I've tried very hard to avoid the phrase “the nine old men.” Don't worry, this is not another column on the Supreme Court, What I have in mind is the unfortunate result of the phrase in its effect upon the popular conception of age in its relationship to all ideas. Some seem ready to believe that all you need to know in order to evaluate a man's political and economic views is a reading of his blood pressure, According to this theory, notions harden in a direct ratio to the arteries, But what are the facts as they are proclaimed in the headlines of our newspapers? The two Americans who seem to be moving most rapidly right now (to save time we will leave out the question of the direction) are both past the half century mark. And in the case of John L. Lewis it might be added that ten years ago even the wildest word user would have never even dreamed of calling him a Communist. Of course, John L. is not a Communist now, but he has been putting on such a sprint that perhaps his native hue becomes blurred in the eyes of some beholders. " ” ELL do I remember the day when I sat back in the fringes of Greenwich Village discourses and listened to denunciations of the rampant conservatism of the leader of the United Mine Workers of America. | Lewis was younger then, of course, but hardly a stripling, and I wish I had a nickel for every time some earnest thinker exclaimed, “John L. Lewis has sold out the cause of labor to the reactionaries.” And now those same young men and women and { their even younger sons and daughters have selected Lewis as the great white hope of an even newer | New Deal, I am not blaming them for this. Again in the case of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, I have not forgotten the day when newspapers and newspapermen were inclined to set the graduate of Groton and Harvard down as a well-meaning young humanitarian with no greater equipment than a roundhouse curve, Friends and foes must now admit that Mr. Roosevelt has developed a hop upon his fast one, and that he has grown from the estate of a mere collegian into the stature of a strikeout king. Wn Ww GREAT many years ago John Farrar—in those days he was known as Johnny-took me to dine at the home of Amy Lowell, Farrar was trying to bring up the names of those who were referred to as “the younger poets.” Miss Lowell would have none of them. “I stand upon the battlements,” she eried. “Let them come and push me off.” Johnny and 1 admitted that it would be difficult. And it seems to me that some of the older writers and playwrights and politicians could, with justice, adopt the same slogan. I would suggest to the younger critics that they take up humility and bending exer cises,

Mr. Broun

”

General Hugh Johnson Says—

Overbalancing Budget by Increased Income Taxes to Prevent Stock Market Inflation Is Share-the-Wealth Idea New Deal Economists Like.

ASHINGTON, March 30.—Mr. Marriner Eccles, in a remarkable extension in Fortune magazine of his recent memorandum on fiscal policy, gives a picture of what Government can do and is considering to regulate business and economic forces generally, Now Mr. David Cushman Coyle has come out with an interpretation of Mr. Eccles. “Go on spending,” is Mr. Coyle's advice to his Government, “to help the poorest, but overbalance the budget by increased taxes. This will stop monetary inflation. Make the new taxes rest on personal incomes and, especially, on capital gains and speculative trading so as to pump the surplus income back into the lowest incomes. “That, if boldly done, will prevent stock market inflation. : The real danger is in those members of the organized groups who are well enough off to hold out part of these incomes and throw it Into speculation. ‘If most of this surplus income could be drawn off by heavy income taxes and turned back into help for the poorest, the bad effect of high prices would be largely overcome. Instead of going into stock speculation, the surplus would be pumped back into the low income groups.” ” ”

" ARE you have very frankly stated a thought that is gaining great headway among the economists who sit at the shoulders of the principal New

1 ns "We jsren't going to have any 1020 increase

The Washi ngton Merry-Go-Round

Cordell Hull Sympathizes With Spanish Loyalists, but Feels U. S. Mus

Remain Strictly Neutral;

in speculation or even investment because if a man makes money we will take it away from him and give it to his poorer neighbors.”

But Mr. Eccles proposes several other regulatory measures. He still thinks that the quantity of money has a lot to do with prices and he proposes to regulate that. His No. 2 control is the higher taxes expedient discussed by Mr. Coyle. No. 3 is to regulate the value of American money in foreign exchanges and he proposes to do this by jimmying the gold content of the dollar up and down whenever that seems advisable.

u H on H® even thinks that large foreign investments here may constitute a breach of our neutrality, because they would enable a belligerent to pay cash and carry away munitions even under the Pittman plan. Finally, he wants to regulate the hours of labor —extending them, as I understand it, as prices advance and reducing them in the contrary case.

There is no doubt that many of these artificial controls would work very much as suggested, but if there is any difference between the essential principles of this philosophy ang the bright idea of the late Huey Long, I don’t know what they are. This is “share our wealth” and that is all it is. We have long been doing a little of that. But this Is a proposal to do it in times of increasing prosperity and for the of checking pros-

By Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen

ASHINGTON, March 30.—Aside from the very real danger that the Spanish civil war may bring war flames for all Europe, Secretary of State Hull is keenly worried about the Spanish combat it-

self. He tells close friends that nothing can be more devastating to a nation and its people than civil strife, And he illustrates his point with the experiences of his own family during the war between the North and South. His family, he explains, lived in Tennessee, in a section of the country split between the two sides. It was impossible for them to stay neutral. The result was that different members of the family joined opposing sides, and the family was torn to pieces. Privately, Hull's sympathies are very much with the Spanish Government, though he believes firmly that the United States must remain absolutely neutral,

n ” n

EW YORK SUPREME COURT JUSTICE FERDINAND PECORA’S two-fisted advocacy of the President's Court plan drew a barrage of sharp questions from opposition Senators. In the course of a brisk exchange with Senator “Long-Tom” Connally, Pecora made a reference to the Ten Commandments: “I don't think either ‘one of ‘the Ten Commandments.” |

New Tax Bill May Be Introduced Yet,

“Probably not,” returned Pecora sweetly, “but I at least nave read them.” “And I,” retorted Connally, flushing angrily at the wave of laughter that greeted Pecora's sly barb, “ene deavor to observe them. And now, Mr. Chairman, having reached the Ten Commandments I think it 1s a good place to stop.” “Yes,” observed Pecora reflectively, “they stop a

lot of people.” n

Peale ROOSEVELT is earnestly against increasing taxes this year. Congress, even more earnestly, agrees with him. But just the same, don't rule out new fax legislation. A tax boosting bill may yet make its appearance on Capitol Hill. Real inside fact is that the admitted $81,000,000 shortage in income tax receipts tells only partly how far Treasury estimates went wrong. Big Bertha shortages in three othér revenue sources left great gaping holes in budget estimates.

These items are social security, “windfall” and

o Ld

railroad pension taxes, Roosevelt's budget estimated that social security would yield $324,600,000 by June 30. But up to March 22 it yielded only $53,787,000, or about one-sixth of expectations. The so-called “windfall” taxes (AAA ocessi taxes that the Government is seeking to Ho.— or

down in the budget for $82,000,000. But so far

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