Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 3 April 1937 — Page 10

“PAGE 10 The Indiaftapolis Times

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SATURDAY, APRIL 3, 1937

' 1 I COAL MINERS DON’T SIT F all opportunities to work up a sweat over the sit-down strike, the Senate illogically chose the Guffey Coal Bill. No industry in the country is more free than the coal industry is from the danger of having its premises illegally occupied by striking workers. Management-labor relations in the coal fields: have advanced far beyond the point where such a helter-skelter weapon as the sit-down is utilized. Coal miners don’t have to sit down in dank shafts to force recognition of their collective bargaining rights or settle any other grievance. They don’t even have to picket. And all but a few isolated coalmine owners have long since quit using labor spies, strikebreakers, stretch-outs, speed-ups and so on. Even while the debate raged in the Senate, the miners and operators were demonstrating the peaceable methods by which they settle differences. The United Mine Workers’ annual contract with the operators had just expired. Some 462,000 miners had stoppedwork. ™ But they didn’t squat in damp tunnels. They didn’t even parade around the outside with placards on their shoulders. They simply did not report for work yesterday, and the reason which their spokesman, John L. Lewis, gave was merely that “miners do not work without a contract.” At their homes the miners waited—waited for word from New York where their chosen representatives sat in a hotel room bargaining for a new wage contract with the chosen representatives of their employers. Waited also for the Senate to pass the Guffey Coal Bill, designed to enable their employers to eliminate cutthroat competition and band together to bring more order and stability to the industry. And while they waited, they read in their newspapers of the Senate debate over an amendment to, the Guffey bill ‘declaring it to be against public policy for a miner to sit down in a mine after his employment has terminated. As if any miner wanted to. And as if it made any legal difference what the Senate thought about the “public policy” of disobeying the law of trespass—over which Congress has no authority. zn # # : Ld i ND, strangely enough, the Senators who got most steamed up were the very Senators who hitherto have been shouting that the Federal Government should not meddle in local affairs. ; Incidentally, although the Senate debated all yesterday without reaching a conclusion, the coal operators and miners meanwhile continued their bargaining and late in the afternoon reached an agreement and signed a new annual wage contract. The Senate, in recess over the week-end, will meet again Monday and continue the debate. | But, of course, it isn’t the conditions in the coal industry which the Senators really are worried about. Their concern is for what is happening in the automobile industry, | and may spread. Despite an agreement between General Motors and the _ United Automobile Workers to settle disputes by collective bargaining, a new rash of sit-downs broke out in the G. M. plants in Michigan. The only cure with much possibility of permanence, “we believe, is the development, on the one hand, of disciplined and responsible unions—which will come as the workers accustom themselves to the methods and duties of a labor organization—and, on the other hand, of disciplined and responsible management—which also will come as management learns Ti about dealing with workers as an organized group. oa When that comes, sit-downs in the automobile and other distressed industries will be as unthinkable as they are in the coal and railtoad :ndustries today.

WHAT ABOUT CHILD LABOR? T is ironic that the U. S. Children’s Bureau should have to celebrate its 25th anniversary on April 9 by admitting the defeat of a project dezr to its heart, ratification of the long-pending Child ‘Labor Amendment, which it hoped the states would ratify this year. . : Now, on its silver anniversary, the Children’s Bureau can report little progress in this direction since the setback in 1918, when the Supreme Court's 5-to-4 decision against the first Federal Antichild-Labor Law forced the children’s | friends to undertake re-enactment and the long, hard fight for amendment. If a new amendment is launched, as some propose, we commend for. consideration that by Senator Vandenberg, fixing 16 years as the wage-abor age limit, removing the word “regulate” and prohibiting only labor “for hire.” We commend particularly ‘his specification that ratification should come by convention: rather than by state legislatures. | It is possible also to mike another try at a Federal law, hoping that a majority of the Supreme Court would grant the power. Such a liw has the advantage that it would quiet all fears as to the limits to which Congress would go. |

ANTILYNCHING LAW HE action of 218 members of the House of Representatives in discharging its committees and forcing a Te on the Antilynching Bill is significant of a changing sentiment in this country toward its occasional reversions to mob law that have shocked the civilized world. | It appears certain now that the House will pass the Gavagan bill on April 12 and that only a filibuster will stop the Senate from passing it: twin, the Wagner-VanNuys bill. Both are identical with the Wagner-Costigan antilynching measure, which has fared so ill in former sessions. The Federal law putting penalties upon counties that permit lynching would stiffen local law enforcement. Tax- ‘ payers would not tolerate local officers who failed to stand off lynch mobs. Enlightened Southerners know that the mobbing and lynching of Negroes is a survival of carpetbagger days. These days are gone, and with the help of the Federal Government lynch law, too, should soon give way to the orderly processes of Americin justice, 7 y : i -

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aning—By Herblock 0 CR2:Y

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THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES _

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SATURDAY, APRIL 3, 1937 |

— By oS

Unfinished Business !—By Talburt

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

Newspaper Stories on Tomorrow's Events Are Fancy Attempts to Smother Facts With Literature.

ASHINGTON, April 3.—Walter Haight, the horse-park writer of the Washington Post, started Thursday’s piece as follows: “On a hill top, some 18 miles out in Prince

{zeorge’s County, where somebody's fore-

fathers made a clearing in the dense pine woods: hoping to gain a plow-holdgin new America, racing fans will gather this afternoon hoping to gain a wallet-hold.on the money that will be played into

the mutuel machines.” What he meant was that the spring racing season at Bowie, Md., would start Thursday afternoon, but we have 4 habit in our business of saying simple things the hard way in certain circumstances. It is a quaint custom that has grewn up in the newspaper business and it usually applies to overnight stories about

tomorrow’s events.

The simple, obvious way of doing would be just to say that the event will take place at a certain time on certain premises and that a goodly throng is expected. But the simple, direct type of lead is somehow regarded as wooden, so we sit glaring at the keyboard

PA Mr. Pegler

’'a long time the night before trying to do it fancy.

Sometimes, in the Western Union plant at New Haven or Princeton on the night before a big football game you can see a dozen or 20 writers tearing out spoiled sheets and dropping them on the floor, grinding cigaret butts under heel, visiting the water cooler and drawing little dingbats on copy paper as they fumble and reach for words with which to conceal the main idea. When the job is finally done it usually is something about the crimson horde, the hosts in blue or the tiger athirst for gore and, if the attempt is successful,” it refrains from saying in so many words that Harvard and Yale or Princeton will play another football game on the morrow. ° I suppose the real reason is that everybody knows perfectly well who is playing whom and at what time and that a man therefore would feel a little silly to

offer an announcement as news.

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OU take the case of an inauguration. You can't keep those things secret these days, but nevertheless on the night before there must be a story indicating that tomorrow is the day. So we write about fanfare and the tread of marching columns,

festoons of bunting and the footsore hordes of

patriots come to town from all over. I think the press associations have been most responsible for this habit of ours. The A. P. used to have a wooden style, hewing pretty ‘close to the

‘news as a rule and leaving the literature to the

U. P. and the I. N. S. I know that when I was on the U. P. we ‘used to try to put some literary polish on - everything, even to the weather bulletins and the Chicago livestock quotations in order to steal the play away from the Fish and Game Society, a the A. P. is called. 2 n n HEN the I. N. S. would put some maraschinos on their stuff to steal the play away from us and the first thing you knew we were so literary that you couldn't tell what we were trying to say. But I knew one writer who complied with custom without undue effort or loss of sleep. After some years of baseball writing Mr. Bozeman Bulger decided on a standard ‘opening sentence for his over-

‘night story on the opening of the season and used

it ever after. ; Mr. Bulger’s opening line on opening day was: “All roads lead to the Polo Grounds.”

EW YORK, April 3.—Mr, Gedeon in New York's No. 1 triple murder mystery is not, on the current newspaper showing, one to inspire sympathy and he may be proved guilty. He will be if the police can sweat, beat or torture enough out of him. “Did Gedeon get the third degree?” a reporter asked a police captain. “Oh no, no, no. He has a double hernia. No one would think |of striking him.” Beating is the .least effective of third degrees. Sleeplessness can be a greater torture. So can starvation and other deprivations. So is [continuous questioning for 34 hours. There should be no sympathy with criminal rats.

' The antigangster rule of shooting first and inquiring

afterward is necessary. There it is a question of preserving an officer's life. If hévkills unnecessarily, he does so at his peril. That differs from this business of a bunch of burly bulls surrounding a frightened suspect for hours and churning a confession out of him by inflicting every form of anguish that will leave no telltale mark.

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= prohibition against self-incrimination is old. “Man does not accuse himself,” says the Jewish Talmud. The trial of Jesus is one of the first recorded ;third degrees. They carried Him before Annas at night. When they could get no evidence and He would not reveal His disciples, they beat Him up. : ; de “If I have Speken evil bear witness of the evil;

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

COURT DEFENDED AS MINORITY PROTECTION By a Conservative, Crawfordsville | Mr. James H. Job’s recent letter was childish. . . . I wonder if he ever took seriously the biennial

packed by the ruling class, that workers’ votes for the two old parties .are thrown away and that it is better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for

what you don’t want and get it. I wonder if he remembers that 1t was Congress that declared war and made the Espionage Act that sent Eugene Debs to prison and gave a 20-year sentence to Victor Berger, who was later freed by the despised Supreme Court. The same Congress twice denied Berger his seat. In the event of the next depression, which is bound to come déspite New Deal panaceas, with .the none-too-reliable Court either packed’ or definitely out of the way, would a New Deal Ccngress hesitate to suspend elections? We had a smallscale example of that during the McNutt New Deal reign. The writer holds no brief for the personnel of modern courts nor the methods of choosing judges. Under our system of limited political democracy (which could be improved by first reforming our legislative departments and methods of choosing

| legislators, State and Federal) the

Supreme Court is the final refuge of minorities from injustice. That it may be a rather poor refuge at times is beside the point of principle. The protection of the majority and minority from oppression is a cardinal principle of democracy. There is nothing to be gained for democracy by throwing overboard what little democracy we have. History teaches the curious paradox that the minority is often more right than the majority. - If Congress had no constitutional right to authorize the Department of Agriculture to tell farmers what kind of farming they should choose and how to farm prior to 1933, that right does not exist now.

2 ® un CUMBERSOME AMENDMENT METHOD CRITICIZED By del Mundo

Under the Constitution it is possible for 13 states with a total population of less than 7 per cent of the nation’s population, to block amendments to the Constitution and therefore prevent needed progressive and social legislation. The present method of amending the Constitution is cumbersome, reactionary, inadequate and undemocratic, ; _ If the present form of government in the United States falls and some other form takes its place one of the main reasons will be this cumbersome method of amendment. | A little reasoning will show that a goverhment that is sufficiently democratic cannot fall because of internal conditions. When a democ-

General Hugh Johnson Says—

Third Degree Given Gedeon in Triple Murder Case Is an Example of Daily Destruction of Fundamental Right Guaranteed Under Constitution.

arguments that Congress is always|

(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.)

racy ceases to be democratic, it falls. History demonstrates this. It certainly would not be practical if 7 per cent of each house or both houses of Congress or the State Legislature could block legislation. This condition, if it existed, would be most undemocratic. Yet, this is the condition that now exists in reference to amending our Constitu- | tion. ” ”n 8 POLICEMAN SUGGESTS STRINGENT REGULATION By Murl R. Pollock I believe I have a plan to decrease fatal accidents in this city at least 75 per cent. x The .police now arrest the driver of an automobile involved in an accident if he has no driver's license. There are no unavoidable accidents. Someone is always at fault. When two or mgre autos collide we have laws which, if enforced, will take care of offenders, My plan would be that police called to investigate an accident must arrest someone. If the officers making the investigation can fix the responsibilty on one or more of those involved without a reasonable doubt, they should arrest the person or persons. If definite responsibility cannot be fixed, all

HALLELUIAH

By EDNA JETT CROSLEY

Let’s join the angels when they sing. ~ Halleluiah. . O grave where is thy victory? O death where is thy sting? . Halleluiah.

"Tis Christ our Lord, who overcame Temptationy death and hell, And arose triumphant from the, grave. Halleluiah.

The day of resurrection brings Memories of faith and power. And this; I have overcome all things. : Hallefhian.

In Christ we die, and live, to sing Peace on earth, to men of good will ; : Through Christ, the risen Lord, our King. | Halleluiah.

Semen

DAILY THOUGHT

Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect ‘of a holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days.—Colossians 2:16.

Judgment is forced upon us by experience.—Johnson.

‘a driver, whom they do not

parties directly involved should be arrested. an The reckless driving law, as I interpret it, covers all cases where the car is not under complete control.

An accident court could be set up with an uneven number of judges presiding so there can be no ties on fixing the responsibility. . If drivers knew they were going to jail if they caused an accident, they would be more careful. . If the police have aright to arrest see drive, for having no driver’s license, they have the same right to arrest a man for any other state law violation. I am now +a member of the police department and have been for 15 years, ” ” ” READER SAYS NEWSPAPERS GUARD DEMOCRACY

By a Reader Recently I read in a publication which I believe to be authentic, the following: A proposed hill is soon to be presented in Congress whereby it would be illegal -to write, typewrite, photograph, etc., any material that would indicate or suggest a feeling | of hatred, disgust, anger (most any | adjective) ete. against any race, creed or religion and send it through the mails. This is to be a Federal offense. However, in the Constitution it is clearly stated that the right of free speech shall in no way be interfered with and this is what would distinctly be violated in the event that the bill is presented and passed. Of course, one can easily see how, if the Supreme Court is changed, a matter such as this one could easily be taken care of by ignoring the Constitution. We call ourselves a democratic nation, - but. from obseryations . I doubt that many people understand just what a democracy is or what part they are supposed to play in it. If this is truly a democratic nation, then the best vehicle the people ‘have, the newspapers, must broadcast the facts and educate them in the truths concerning laws for their welfare. » ”n » THINKS CONDITIONS GREATLY IMPROVED

By John Greene, Lebanon

Mabel German must be a bad loser. She has cried since the election and doesn’t seem to know that this is the first Administration for the poor people. . She said Indiana sure had a double dose. She is right. Indiana had it for 12 years—Harding, Coolidge, Hoover, Watson, McCray, Goodrich, Leslie, ‘Robinson, etc, . , . I guess she’s proud of them. Can’t she see that more people

farmers are out of debt, no banks are closing, soup kitchens are gone, no little children are riding freight trains and very few men are on the “road”?

Walter Chrysler Lives on To 19 Swanky Clubs, but

1

are working at higher wages, more

{ humanity now?

but if well, why smitest thou Me.” He was quoting to the Supreme Court their own law and that stopped that—“Annas sent Him bound to Caiaphas.

which permitted the third degree. Pilate also failed to get a confession by a night of torture—scourging, . scorning and the crown of thorns, and then acquitted Him. The civil law of Rome continued to allow this human churning and so did the church. It was the hideous practice of Torquemada’s inquisition. But, from an early day, it was completely barred by the common law and the courts of England. It was never permitted in this country. !

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T= Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of New York say in almost identical words that no person in any criminal case shall ke compelled to be a witness against himself. What kind of press and public complacency is it that permits this police perversion of constitutional People read with apparent approval this daily destruction of a fundamental right which any of them may need desperately for his own protection tomorrow. ‘It isn’t a question of sympathy or prejudice against one little emmigrant upholsterer suspected of a particularly revolting murder. It's a question of main-

taining necessary rights of individuals

Caiaphas sent Him to Pilate and the Roman law—

under the law. | union,

By Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen TASHINGTON, April 3.—Although he lives in a Park Ave. duplex apartment, commutes to Long Island in the summer in his two yachts “Zowie” and “Frolic III,” and belongs to 19 swanky clubs scattered from Detroit to Palm Beach, Walter Percy Chrysler is a relatively good friend of labor. He .is no enthusiastic union advocate, but he is tolerant, was generous to laid-off workers during the depression, and pays satisfactory wages—75 cents an hotr for men, 65 cents for women. During the rubber strike in Akron, later in the automobile glass strike, Chrysler was consulted privately by the mediators, used his influence to bring about a settlement. Since he was a big customer of both ‘industries, his influence counted. Whether he was working for his own business or for labor is debatable, but anyway labor gave him credit. Again, during the General Motors strike, the C. I. O. played Chrysler off against G.M.C., publicly emphasized his labor attitude in the hope of throwing business his way, thereby hurting General Motors.

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T= of the matter is that the Chrysler sit-down was a pure fluke. It was the last thing John L. Lewis and the C. I. O. master-minds wanted. The day before the General Motors strike settlement, Chrysler announced a 10 per cent increase in

It Seems to Me. By Heywood Broun

If 2,000,000 Americans Wers Starving, Sutherland Would Want

NEW YORK, April 3.—In' commenting upon the switch of the Supreme Court’ in regard to the minimum wage

After mature deliberation I am prepared to defend that statement, although I do not hold that Justices Sutherland, Butler, McReynolds and Van Devanter are [consciously devdting their efforts

ito the cause of upheaval by violence. : But mark Justice Sutherland's linsistence upon the - inflexibility lof the Constitution. In addition to his statement that “the mean-

change with the ebb and flow of

ircumstance. : Mr. Broun }

which is not utterly fantastic. Suppose a situation arose in which immediate Federal action were needed to save 2,000,000 Americans from :starvation. And suppose this action was of a nature not within the scope of Justice Sutherland's constitutional phi= losophy. - According to the rule which Justice Sutherland and his associates have set for themselves, they would be compelled to say: “We cannot consider the cir= cumstances. If there is a fault it does not lie with us, but with the Constitution. In order to obtain relief you must amend it, and while that process is going on the 2,000,000 will have to starve in a quiet and dignified manner in order to preserve the sanctity of the Constitution and salve the conscience of Sutherland, et al.” ;

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ND if you think this imaginary situatipn is far fetched let me cite a few extracts fromithe dise senting opinion: “The sole basis upon which the question of validity rests is the assumption that the employee is entitled to receive a sum of money sufficient to provide a living for her, keep her in health and preserve her morals.” And in another part of the

is referred. to as an “extraneous circumstance.”

I haye already said that in a certain sense Jus< tice Sutherland may have logic on his side when he nds that the problem of the underprivileged “be< longs to. society as a whole.” Of course, he did not

anybody.” % un ” E will assume that under pressure masses of people will see that it belongs to somebody. And democratic constitutional government can endure only if economic considerations can catch up with the courts. Justice Sutherland is somewhat more pessimistic than I am. In stressing the burden which welfare legislation imposes upon the employer he seems to feel that very little can be done to relieve the situation as long as competitive capitalism prevails, He may be right. But it is extremely silly for anybody who calls himself a liberal to fight against the President's proposals to enlarge the Court. We are now living under the dictatorship not of nine old men, but of one comparatively young man. The whims and the heartbeat of Justice Roberts at this moment are paramount in the destiny of American democracy. ” ‘

The Washington Merry-Go-Round

Park Ave. Has Two Yachts and Belongs

He Is a Relatively Good Friend of Labor.

committees rather than by the leaders, a more democratic procedure, but contrary to usual custom. When the committees hit an early snag, they reported back to the men, got excited, and rashly voted to strike, despite the wishes of C. I. O. strategists, Chrysler was furious. #® a =

Bia was born 62 years ago in Wamego, Kas., - Later the family moved further west on the Union Pacific to the small town of Ellis, where Chrysler went to school with the Kansas girl whe, now wears ermines on Long Island. His passion for automobiles was sueh that in his

for Buick at half the salary he was getting in Pittse hurgh as manager of the American Locomotive Works, In 1919 he became vice president of General Motors, the company whose strongest competitor he was later to become. As a young railroader, Chrysler was a member of the International Association of Machinists, and although he boasts that he has not forgotten the worker’s viewpoint, there are several black marks which labor holds against him. . One was his effort to break a strike on the Chicaga. Great Western when he was superintendent. Another is his recent use of labor spies within Chrysler plants. Despite this, Chrysler’s plants are more unionized

wages. and began negotiations for recognition of the

negotiations were handled by the shop | dustry.

than other members of the Big Three in the auto in«,

Amendment Before Feeding Them.

problem I described the so-called conservative bloc as being revolutionary in character. |

ing of the Constitution does not

‘economic events” he quotes Judge |Cooley’s assertion that the bene- | fits of any written constitution | will be lost if its provisions are | fre bent to meet the needs of

. Now just what does that mean? | ‘Let us go into a hypothetical case |

opinion the question of subsistence, health and moraly

qualify that with the remark, “if it belongs to

thirties he accepted an offer to become plant manager .