Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 9 April 1937 — Page 16

Xo

PAGE 16 The Indianapolis Times

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

LUDWELL DENNY MARK FERREE

ROY W. HOWARD * Editor Business Manager

. President

Price in Marion Caunty, 3 eents a copy; delivered by carrier, 12 cents a week.

Owned and published E |daily (except Sunday) by; The Indianapolis Times Publishing Co., 214 W. Maryland St.

in Indiana, $3 a year; outside of Indiana, 65 cents a month.

Member of United Press, Scripps - Howard Newspaper Alliance, NEA Service, and Audit Bu-

reau of Circulations. RIley 5551

Give Light and the Pcople Will Find Their Own Way

FRIDAY, APRIL 9, 1937

THE EDITORS ARRIVE

F you see any new wise men around town today there is no cause for mystery—they probably will turn out te be Indiana editors whé meet today as the Hoosier. State Press Association and then split into Republican and Democratic camps for tomorrow’s sessions. | Indiana's Senator Minton heads the speakers for the

Democratic group while Senator Bridges of New Hampshire

will address the Republicans. Having renewed contacts

and gathered new material, the editors will return to their

respective sanctums to take up their tasks again. Indianapolis welcomes the editors and hopes that their

Visit here will be profitable and pleasant.

A LOT OF INDIVIDUALS ENRY FORD has handled a lot of big jobs in his day, and at 73 he's still la very useful citizen. ‘But when he announced, at his winter estate in Georgia, that he'd never

v fou “deal with individual workers,” we're afr aid he didn’t e all the implications of his proposal. Henry employs about 150,000 individual workers in his far-flung enterprises. Surely he doesn’t expect each of these busy men to take time off, drive his V-eight to Georgia nd sit down to discuss hours, wages and working conditions. That would use up just about all of Henry's remaining days and leave him no time at all for collecting antiques or leading quadrilles at country dances. It recalls the fairy tale about the king who never heard story that was long enough. To any suitor who would ell one of satisfactory length the king would give his aughter’ s hand in marriage. A wayfarer told of a toga taid upon the king's granary. “And then,” quoth he, “a ther locust came and carried off another grain of or) nd then another locust came and carried off another grain f corn, and then...” so on far into the night. “Enough,” inally cried the king. “Take the princess and be gone!” ne can imagine each Ford worker hunting up Henry and ach carrying off another little contract, until Henry in esperation demanded that his men deal with him as a group. | No, collective bargaining is not only the legal way these days, it’s the sensible way. And we wager Henry's well-known horse sense will lead him to see it before too much of a row is kicked up.

NEXT YEAR'S RELIEF PLAN EXT week President Roosevelt will tell Congress his unemployment relief plans for the 1937-1938 fiscal year. Anticipating the message, blocs are organizing in Congress—one to demand a $2,400,000,000 work relief program financed by new taxation to employ 3,000,000 persons, another to advocate making the Works Progress Administration permanent, and another to urge relief economies so that new taxes may be avoided. It will not be surprising if Mr. Roosevelt asks for a relief appropriation considerably below his original $1,532,000,000 budget estimate. But it will be disappointing if he proposes to spend the appropriation, or the bulk of it, on work reljef along present WPA lines. No appropriation possible without continued excessive

borrowing or a huge increase in taxes will employ anything |

like all of the able-bodied unemployed. The fact is that WPA, at its spending peak, couldn’t employ all who needed jobs and were able to work. It left, and is still leaving, great numbers of them to the mercy of local direct relief. And many lécalities, regarding the employables as a Federal responsibilityg have given those left out of WPA little or no direct relief, so that their plight has been worse than that of the indigent unemployable, If WPA work relief were above criticism as wasteful and inefficient—and it is not—it would still be wide open. to criticism as grossly unfair. It favors part of the unemployed and discriminates against the rest. If, now, the President feels it necessary to reduce relief spending, we hope he will attempt to remedy that unfairness instead of permitting it to become worse. * That might be accomplished: By undertaking only such dredging, dam-building hod other Federal work projects as are actually needed to fit into a carefully planned scheme of flood control and soil conservation. By liquidating, as rapidly as possible, method of giving work relief through WPA. And by using the bulk of available Federal relief money to help the states and cities maintain direct relief at a decent level for all who really need it, and to develop better employment exchanges and apprentice training methods to Lelp the able-bodied unemployed find real jobs.

SUCH QUAINT NOTIONS

E keep thinking about those Amish and Mennonite farmers in Pennsylvania who traveled down to Washington to ask the Government not to help their community build a $125,000 PWA consolidated school. They don’t believe in borrowing money, or taking it as a gift, even from the G sovernment. They have nobody on relief in their township and then don’t want anybody to go on relief. They don’t want luxuries and conveniences, pleasure automobiles, radios, movies. We keep smiling at the quaintness of such notions. Those Amishmen and Mennonites, clinging to strict observance of ancient beliefs, are depriving themselves of so many modern advantages. The more progressive rest of us can’t help feeling a little sorry for them, as well as amused by them. And yet, while in Washington, they seemed very cheerful. They kept smiling and their smiles were broadest when they started home. It suggests a _ faintly disturbing thought: Maybe they think we're funny, too,

the present

- Mail ‘subscription rates.

bar gain with the auto workers “or any other union” and

' THE INDIANAPOLIS | TIMES .

Speaking of Sales Renta 23s Talburt

| DONT WANT A DEMONSTRATION 0

KK

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

Plight of Baseball Players Fails to Arouse Labor Because Athletes’ Bondage Is Comparatively Luxurious

ASHINGTON, April 9..—It will be hard to arouse any great popular sense of outrage over the downtrodden condition of the professional ballplayers, because theirs is a luxurious bondage by comparison with

that of any other slaves except the moving picture hams. Collective bargaining is absolutely out, and any: player who attempted to organize a militant union

movement would be taken out of the play by a conspiracy of the organized employers. The minor leagues are being absorbed by the major league companies as training grounds for new players and live-storage plants for men of proved ability for whom there are no immediate vacancies in the big time. The entire industry operates under an agreement which amounts to a ruthless antilabor policy on paper. In practice, however, the system is not very harsh and that is the reason why labor and the general public have never had any tears to spare for the athletes. The patronage which supports baseball is drawn from the working classes and a labor boycott could smash the conspiracy in a single season, but labor has never taken any interest in the case because baseball is regarded as play, not toil, even under professional conditions. : The worst injustice occurs where a good young player, without being consulted, finds himself sold to a cheap employer and compelled to accept the employer's terms year after year for services which might sell for twice as much in another city. In these surroundings he has no chance, short of the miraculous, to share in a World Series pool and the years slip away from him while inferior men land with the Giants or. Yankees, the Cubs, Tigers or Red Sox on better base pay and pick up from one to three or four World Series shares.

8 2 ®

HE owners’ conspiracy forbids a player to shop around for a better job, and an owner who wants to hire a man for much more money may be prevented by an exorbitant purchase price. These ‘are injustices beyond the power of Judge Landis to remedy. In fact, the judge is only a figurehead, being the employee of the owners, and the league presidents are only stooges with less authority than the judge. A dramatic case properly exploited by radical labor leaders in the name of collective bargaining, and with a derisive attack on organized baseball’s semicivic status as the national game, could compel some concessions. But labor could tackle baseball only as a demonstration and not with any warmth, as the players’ thralldom, even in the minor leagues, is an enviable state, particularly to the younger men of the Souniry who make up the ranks of the sit-down movemen€.

Mr. Pegler

» ” ” TT athlete may get only $30 a week, he may have family responsibilities, he may wear a patched and ragged uniform and his work may call him far from his home, subject to dismissal on 10 days’ notice, but he gets his name in the papers and his job is just to play ball. Labor will be a long time squeezing a tear over the tragic injustice of that. The main objection to the baseball conspiracy is its effrontery. Here is an industry which accepts and prospers by the sentimental status of the American national game, but arrogantly flouts all the principles for which the majority of its public is fighting on the picket lines.

the wolves.

FRIDAY, APRIL 9, 1937

“We Pequot That Every H Hen Lay From 1 0- to 140 Eggs a Year. Only Aryan Hens Wanted. P—u. P. Dispatch From Berlin)—By Kirby -.

‘- — Nema AE ne

Tg

| | . ! The Hoosier Forum 1 wholly disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.—Voltaire,

SULLIVAN SUGGESTION TERMED ILLEGAL By Joseph A. Dickey, Anderson In his column in The Times Mark Sullivan advises Republicans to call for Democratic ballots in next year’s

primary and vote for Fred VanNuys’ delegates as a rebuke to President Roosevelt. The Indiana law governing primary elections requires the voter, if challenged, to make an affidavit that at the last general election he voted for a majority of the candidates of the party whose ticket he offers to vote ‘at such primary, and that at the approaching general election he intends to vote for and support the regular nominees of such party. Of course, if Republicans attempt to act on Mr. Sullivan’s advice, every one will be challenged and will have to make the above affidavit. Would he have Indiana Republicans commit perjury in order to enjoy some revenge upon; President Roosevelt? Mark Sullivan is one | of those ultra-Hoover men—he praised Herbert Hoover last spring as No. 1 man and Landon as No. 2 man—and Roosevelt haters who believe that chicanery is justifiable if it . contributes to the defeat of a Roosevelt objective. In Indiana we do not subscribe to this doctrine and we condemn its support by anyone. Mark Sullivan is a stanch reactionary. He still believes that the four-year Hoover sit-down was a good thing for the United States. And the four reactionary members of the Supreme Court are each 10 years older than Sullivan. ” 2 tJ

LETTER TO VANNUYS WINS PRAISE By A. G. M., Worthington

Hiram Lackey’s excellent letter to Senator VanNuys suggested the following fable: Once a toy terrier forsook his kind and forhed a strange association with a pack of wolves. ~ One day, while wandering in the forest with his new friends, the terrier espied a majestic 3t. Bernard dog carrying a small child he had rescued in a mighty blizzard. Said the terrier, “That big guy has occupied the spotlight long enough. Here's where I attract some attention to myself.” Whereupon the terrier fell . to barking furiously and harassing the St. Bernard, hoping to cause him to abandon the child to the lust of

But the- St. Bernard, seemingly heedless of the antics of the terrier and the howling wolves, continued on his errand of mercy. It happened that, in the excitement of the chase neither the terrier nor the wolves had noticed a group of the St. Bernard's friends and admirers watching the incident. At an opportune moment this audiente fell upon the wolves and destroyed them every one. | The terrier disappeared into the depths of the great forest and was never heard of again,

Moral: Be not found in the com-

General Hugh Johnson Says—

Full Publicity Should Be Substituted for Buck Passing Between Air Transport Firms and Department of Commerce Qver Cause of Crashes.

(3 ECRSETOwN, S. C,, April 9—Another ‘air crackup on a bleak Arizona mountain. A column should be allowed to have at least two pet peeves. Those of this are the lack of honesty and forthrightness of Uncle Danny Roper’s Commerce Department about airplane accidents and about counting the unemployed. The latter has been worn out. The former couldn’t be worn out because every time it grows a little stale, there is a new destruction of a beautiful silver ship— a new breaking, twisting, toasting and azonized torture of from eight to 20 living human beings. _ Accidents will happen and, especially, in a new enterprise so highly dangerous as this one. The answer emphasized by the air transport companies is, “Oh, yes, we killed these people, but remember how many ships and passengers we brought safely into port.” -That cannot solace the dead and it ought not to satisfy the living. The great companies have accomplished marvels and leave as little as possible to chance—but the very record of their perfections is some evidence that if they had never, never fudged, there wouldn't be any accidents. ” ” ” HEY blame these terrible deaths on the Department of Commerce and the Department of Commerce blames the aa least the pilots—

|

“pilot’s’ error.” multiple homicide—but who?

Somebody is a liar in a case Of

(Times readers dre invited to express their views in these columns, religious controversies excluded. Make yoyr letter short, so all can have a chance. Letters must be signed, but names will be withheld on request.)

pany of wolves, whether in the forest, counting house or Liberty

League.

2 8 |» CLAIMS CONTENTION STILL UNANSWERED

By George Morlan

. The fact remains that neither The Times nor George Baar answered the contention that a twothirds ruling would not prevent a dictatorial President from packing the Supreme Court to the size of the House of Lords to overcome an unfavorable decision if necessary. Nor did George Baar deny that both the precedent and the constitutional right to change the number of justices already exist.

” ” 8 ol $17,500,000 FUND ASKED TO PREVENT STRIKES By Joseph B. Adler Here is a plan to prevent strikes:

Let the union men of this country form a corporation which will tax each member $3.50 for a fund of $17,500,000, assuming there are 5,000,000 laborers organized. Let the employers incorporate to raise a similar fund. Ten million dollars of this money should be deposited and invested in Government bonds as a [guaranty to fulfill any contract between the two groups. Five million dollars should be held as an emergency fund and two and one-half million as an expense fund. The fund of the corporation that violates a contract should be forfeited to the other group. A grievance committee could be appointed to settle any dispute. If this committee canhot agree, a committee with three men representing one side and three the other would select a seventh man to .decide the matter and this decision would be final. Compensation for labor should be paid only on a merit basis. Each

PERFUME

By JOSEPHINE I'WKE MOTLEY

No one can steal the sweet perfume of thought Which lingers like a flewer in my

soul, No ill wind chills the ardor of our love : Which lasts like rose leaves in a silver bowl.

DAILY THOUGHT

For with God nothing is impossible.—Luke 1:37.

OTHING is impossible; there are ways that lead fo everything, and if we had sufficient will we should always have sufficient means. =-Rochefoucatiid.

laborer should be classified numerically and according to his profession. Many work faster than others. Such persons should be paid a certain percentage of the increase above the standard. Sixty days before the expiration

‘of the agreement between laborers

and employers they must give each other notice that they desire to enter into another contract; otherwise the matter will be terminated. In case one or both groups refuse

to incorporate for this purpose, the |-

Government should enact a law

compelling it or them to do so. » ” 2 FORSEES FARM PERIL IN COURT REFORM By Alden Vangorden, Flat Rock Almost all Indiana farmers have received letters from the Agricultural Adjustment Administration informing them of meetings for the 1937 soil conservation program. The letters also advise that they have the bases for each farm and field measurements of farms that have been measured. The form letters close with the message that “you are urged to make every effort to attend these meetings.” If Roosevelt wins his fight with the Supreme Court, the AAA letters will read something like this: “Meetings of the 1938 soil conservation program will “be held in the various townships at the time and place listed below. The committee has the base and measurements for each farm in the county and will be prepared to tell each farmer how many acres he can plant and with what crops. Failure to attend your meeting is punishable by a fine of $300 and not more than two years in jail. Therefore, do not fail to be present when your farm allotments are called.” I doubt if those who favor Roosevelt’s Court reform are aware that a law of this kind can be made possible. It’s sure to come, as Secretary Wallace, long ago, stated that there should be a license for every plowed field.

J ” 2

KNOWS A VOTER WHO PICKS THE LOSERS By Daniel Francis Clancy, Logansport

This present Indian 'situation is something to which the nonbelievers may point with pride. The Indians aren’t ready for a derhocracy yet— what with their worship for the ballot boxes. Which brings to mind a story (quite true) regarding Americans and democracy. I recently heard of one chap who always votes for the candidate he thinks will be defeated so that he will be able to say, when the Administrati¢ga begins to ruin the country (as most do), that he is not to blame!

Additional letters from readers, Pages 30 and 31.

=

3

The Washington Merry-Go- Round

~ese

a

Is ———

It Soo to Me

By Heywood Broun

Writer Hits Third Degree, Take Slap at Foes of Court Plan and Ha Good [Word to Say for Sit-Downs.’

EW ork April 9.—This column is di< vided into three parts so that I can! touch on crime, the Supreme Court and sit; down strikes all in a single day. : I feel very strongly that the hysterical: ap-.

proach to the crime problem is the least use-- . ful which the community can adopt. - To be specific, two suspected persons have been: : pointed at in the Beekman Hill murders. At the,

present writing the first suspect. apparently has been cleared. But] his own ‘personal tragedy undoubt-* edly has been heightened by the. . ordeal which he has been made to, suffer at the hands of the author-’ ities. . I do not know whether or note «it is true that he was beaten dur-] ing the process of the third de-* gree, but there can be little doubts that such practices are familiar; when the police of New York un-; dertake to break a man down. In--deed, recently I heard a local- © judge boast of the prowess of our: police in beating prisoners about the legs with a rub-; ber hose in such a manner that great torture could: be inflicted without leaving any telltale marks. It seemed to me that his contention as to the ne--cessity of this practice was lost when he complained that in a certain case two men who were undoubtedly guilty, according to his judgment, had been acquitted by a jury because they were able to present: convincing evidence that they had signed confes-. sions only under dreadful duress. A confession ought to be a very vital piece of evi= dence, but such documents are now suspect, and justlyso, because an honest juror cannot be blamed if he. holds a reasonable doubt concerning such testimony, on account of the torture practices of the police.

os

<,.00, 2 se Be BT La

Mr. Broun

2 2 = :

FAviNG ctime for’ the moment, there has been a. recent hue and cry that the Administration’ forces are trying to railroad the President’s proposals: through the House and Senate by curtailing the testi=; mony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. I can: see little in this charge. . After all, there has been. so much discussion already that the mind of the’ public is becoming a little too numb to think. And some of the persons who have been called: upon to state opinions have already had full andample opportunity to make their opinions known’ Suppose I admit, for the sake of the argument, that’ Miss Dorothy Thompson has something important to say on the Supreme Court problem. I would still contend that Miss Thompson has already said it 10. or 20 times in her widely syndicated column. In the case of Oswald Garrison Villard I would" be less critical, since Mr. Villard has been absent from: the country for tome weeks and unable to take part. in the discussion. Still I am a little puzzled as to why Mr. Villard should have been summoned by the foes of the President's proposals. According to the’ New York Times, his chief argument was that imme-: diately economic necessities could best and most expeditiously be handled by a constitutional amendment. » ” » . N adding up the vices and virtues of the sit-down: strike I have no desire or capacity to enter into the argument as to its legality. But I think that some, of its most severe critics might try to make an estimate of the number of men and women who would: now be killed and injured if the strikes in huge industries had been carried on along the traditional lines of fight outside the plants between strike break ers, company guards, police and strikers and stri ke, sympathizers.

—

Senate's Rejection of Byrnes Amendment to Guffey Bill Condermning Sit-Downs Was Escape for President, Who Doesn't Want to Take Stand,

"By Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen

Right here is where I think there is a true bill against Uncle Danny. The public is never given any opportunity to judge for itself. The facts of these accumulating holocausts are deliberately, continuously and invariably withheld. Why shouldn’t all such hearings and every bit of testimony be ruthlessly publicized? It might shock some people. It might temporarily diminish air traffic, but it would be the surest way to quick reform and multiplication of air transport. It is now alleged by the companies that departmental aids to blind flying were not sufficient and that this insufficiency is to blame for nearly every Acqident, : > # ” #

B%: if this insufficiency in early accidents had been made abundantly clear, would the Department have hesitated to ask for adequate appropriations to jake it sufficient? The public would have seen to And- conversely—if aids to blind fying were known to be insufficient for safety, why was blind flying permitted—by the companies, if they thought the aids not dependable—by the Department, if its only excuse Was Inadequate appropriation? :

YA Asumvaron. April 9.—The Senate's rejection of Senator Byrnes’ proposed rider to the Guffey Coa! Bill condemning sit-down strikes was a close squeak for the President. For a time, 1t looked as if the sponsors of the amendment would succeed in their strategy to force him to declare himself on the sit-down issue. A resolution of condemnation is only an expression of Congressional opinion. It does not involve the President, since it does not go to him for signature or veto. But by tacking such a declaration onto the Guffey bill, an Administration measure certain of enactment, the antisit-downers would have put Roosevelt squarely on the spot. He would have had to sign or veto the bill. Whatever Roosevelt did, he could not have ducked taking a stand on the 14bor issue. If he approved the bill without comment, his action would have been considered an indorsement of the sit-down condemnation. If he vetoed it, labor would have hailed it as disapproving the rider.

} ” nz 2 EING. put over the barrel in this manner was the last thing the President wanted. He does not ‘want to take a public stand on sit-down strikes one way or the other. The question. is loaded with foo much political dynamite. It involves not only genr

- growing grass. has

eral labor relations, but taking sides in the furious row between the A. F. of L., whose President Bilk Green has denouiced sit- downs, and the C. 1. O.,] whose unions are the chief users of the technique [© So Administration floor leaders put on the heat | and, after five days of acrimonious battling and with, the aid of the Republican liberals, they squelched, the Byrnes-Bailey raid. Note: A significant feature of the final vote was the fact that all the leading Democratic opponents of the President's Court bill voted for the rider. The; one exception was Senator Wheeler, who ducked the vote entirely. The Montanan is under heavy labor fire in his State for fighting the Cowtt plan. :

2 nn _&n :

HE Senate’s bad boy, Rush Holt of West Virginia, is preparing a blast against Hull's Latin-Amer= ican policy, declaring it has established and sup= ported dictatorships. . . . A large percentage of news which U. S. diplomats ‘garner abroad for dispatch to the State Department, comes through British sources, naturally is somewhat colored. . WPA] Federal Theater presents shows ranging from Aeschylus, Aristophanes and Shakespeare to circuses and vaudeville . , . Government gardeners say Washington is the Bisivaih; most difficult city for In its various reservoir areas, TVA