Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 27 April 1937 — Page 12

PAGE 12

The Indianapolis T imes

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

ROY W. HOWARD LUDWELL DENNY MARK FERRER President Editor Business Manager

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Er fe EJ

Gs \ a Riley 5551 Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

TUESDAY, APRIL 27, 1937

AT LAST

HE Marion County Welfare Board majority, rubber stamp tor its ousted director, Joel A. Baker, has at last resigned. That is its best public service.

ANGELO HERNDON AND US

N its 5-to-4 decision freeing Angelo Herndon from the heavy penalties of a Georgia jury the Supreme Court rebuked the lawlessness of a state statute that seeks to punish men for their radical opinions. It asserted again that

the right to speak and think freely is available to the hum-

blest American. Georgia tried to send this radical Negro to jail for 18 to 20 years under an 1866 statute punishing insurrection. His crime was membership in and agitation for the Communist Party. Justice Roberts’ majority opinion held that mere membership in the Communist Party is not insurrection. The ancient statute, Justice Roberts said, was merely “a dragnet which may enmesh anyone who agitates for a change of government if a jury can be persuaded that he ought to have foreseen his words would have some effect on the future conduct of others.” This opinion, calling us back to a fundamental — the right of every citizen to speak freely, even if wrongly— reproves not only Georgia, but those other states that have tried to stifle minority utterance by “criminal syndicalism” laws and other statutes of doubtful constitutionality. And this opinion affects us all. With Angelo Herndon headed for jail because he voiced unpopular doctrine, each American could say, as John Wesley said of an unfortunate fellow human, “There but for the grace of God go 1!”

THE WAY OF LAW “WICE within a fortnight the new way in labor disputes = has won over the old way of force. Yesterday, working under the Railway Labor Act, President Roosevelt averted a strike of 25,000 Eastern railway freight handlers by appointing a fact-finding board to sit in New York on the issues involved. The other day he named a similar board of able neutrals who are now meeting in San Francisco in an effort to prevent a rail tie-up on the Southern Pacific. In contrast with the conferences in these two cities are such incidents as occurred last week in a cannery strike at Stockton, Cal, where 50 persons, including women and children, were injured by gunfire, clubs and bricks as the result of that state's bloodiest labor riot in years. We will not adorn the tales of these three labor disputes but we will point a moral. The issues are unimportant compared with the methods used to settle them. In San Francisco and New York the disputes have moved to a showdown through an orderly routine spelled out in the 11-year-old railmen’s labor law. Now for 60 days at least, until the President’s fact-finders finish their work and the facts are completely aired betore the public, a strike on the railroads ‘will be illegal. After that there may be strikes—though -all ‘experience points to the contrary. At least we will know then that all the legal preventives which our democracy can invoke have been tried. : The Stockton strike was chiefly over the cannery’s refusal to recognize the newly formed agricultural workers’ union, and the riol was over the company’s attempt to resume canning despite the Governor's plea for continuing a truce pending a settlement. In New York and San Francisco the weapons are those of law, facts, arguinents, appeals to reason. In Stockton they were weapons of anarchy. In the former two cities the conferences will advance the cause of mutual understanding between the carriers and the men. Such disgraceful doings as occurred in Stockton will leave a trail

of broken bodies, class hate and fuel for radical agitators. | Officially, in its Wagner act approved by the Supreme

Court, America has adopted the way of law in labor disputes. lt could further implement that law by extending the mediation system, under which the railroads operate, to the other industries upon whose peace and order its “domestic tranquillity depends.

THE SIDE WE ARE ON

UT of the fog which has made it difficult from the beginning to diseern exactly ‘what is taking place in Spain, we seem to see emerging fairly definite signs of an "approaching climax. Exactly what is going to happen there no man can say. At the moment, the Loyalists seem to be gaining. The Rebels appear to be giving ground. But there ‘are rumors of mutinies among the troops of both sides, and from the various capitals of Europe are coming alarming

tales of the most conflicting nature concerning the inten- | Britain, Russia and '

tions of Italy, Germany, France, the rest. So, while the Spanish conflict seems headed toward some kind of decision, it continues to be the world’s outstanding danger spot. Europe is still very much afraid it may spread. Doubtless the day will come when the world will again be ripe for peace. It was so in 1919. It may or may not have to go through another Armageddon to reach that stage. : But when it does, the moment will have arrived for the President of the United States, the one great neutral power, to use his good offices. And we are confident he will. To that end, we suspect, he has already instructed not only Ambassador Davis but all his envoys to be on the watch. : Meanwhile: It is of the utmost importance that we maintain our neutral stand. In fact, there can be but one side for us in this matter, namely, the western side of the Atlantic and the eastern

‘ sgide of the Pacific.

Fe

I pretty well along

iy 3

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

The Non-Spanish Armada—By Herblock

HO RRR NTR

— ___ TUESDAY, APRIL 27, 1937" The Only Good Thing That’s Come Out of It By Talburt

FIRE

ir Enough By Westbrook Pegler

Atty. Gen. Cummings’ 67th Birthday Occurs Next Week and Columnist Wonders if He Will Retire at 70.

EW YORK, April 27.—1t is sad indeed to note the advance of the years in old Homer Cummings, but his 67th birthday is coming up next week, and we all know how the old gentleman stands on the matter of

retirement at 70—the age, some say, when human judgment goes definitely haywire, especially in matters of the law, which is Mr. Cummings’ profession. That gives Mr. Cummings only three years to go, and I suppose he must be faltering . slightly even now, hecause age doesn't just knock a man silly, like a clout with a nickel ball bat, on his 70th birthday, but

creeps up in the late 60s—insidious

and inevitable. By the time a man has seen his 67th birthday he must be" in the decline which allegedly becomes total and permanent three years later, but the pity of it is that he can't sense the gradual failure of his faculties . and always thinks of himself as the exception. Still, just to look at the old gentleman now or pass the time of day with him, you would hardly suspect that he was so close to the deadline, for his step is firm and his eye clear and he speaks with neither crack nor quaver in his voice. But after all, he was born in 1870—a horse-and-buggy baby who in 1940 will be one with Charlie Hughes, Pierce Butler, Georgie Sutherland and all that doddering crew. Old Homer goes back a very far piece, but, being human and a lawyer, when the time comes to pack his books and papers and for goodness’ sake get out of a busy world’s way, as like as not he will do the

Pre) -

Mr. Pegler

same as those other superannuated obstacles who have | : glared through their specs with watery eyes and de-

clared they never felt better in all their born days.

8 7 "

IS present term as Attorney General of the |

United States of America, in this interpretation

~ of fitness which old Homer has indorsed with selfless

loyalty to Mr. Big, will have to expire some time

. before the end of the Roosevelt Administration un-

less, of course, he develops that senile tendency so offensive in the aged members of the Supreme Court and, like them, hangs around flouting his own earlier judgment and impeding the progress of man.

And if he does try to hang on, Mr. Roosevelt inconsistently will have to send the cop around to sling the poor old dodo down his own marble stairs at the Department of Justice, a spectacle I should not wish to see. And, after that, what? Will he retire to Stamford, Conn. to sit around the City Hall, where once he reigned as Mayor, whittling the weary days away, with an ear cocked for the rustle’ of angels’ wings, or will he put a sign out in Washington and sit for

customers forewarned by his own saying that a man.

his age is not fitting to take cases to law? s " z

J HOUGH Stamford, Greenwich and New Canaan ? are full of economic royalists, Homer gets a good report from the neighbors up his way, and I make out that the ladies’ auxiliary of the Liberty League would be glad to knit the old gentleman a good warm shawl for presentation three years hence. Three short years to go! How fast thé scurrying days will race and how soon he will waken on an April morning to realize that—no foolin'—Homer Cummings is now an old man in all the meaning of the term that Mr. Roosevelt meant and he himself indorsed.

But meantime, happy birthday, old timer.

The Hoosier Forum

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

UNCLE SAM CAREFUL WHEN SHOPPING By M. S. ; In many ways your Uncle Sam falls short of perfection—as householder, husbandman and employer, to mention a few. But when he goes out with his market basket to shop he presents the picture of a most discriminating customer.

Healy Public Contracts Act recently proposed by its authors are accepted by Congress he will become almost a model customer, not so much as to { how far he makes his pennies go but | as to the type of merchants he deals | with. . | This act then will insist that those who sell him wares, whether of goods lor service worth more than $2500, | must come with clean hands. Their | goods or’ services may not be produced by sweatshops, nor by boys under 16 or girls under 18 years of | age. . No vendors of convict labor goods need apply. The hours of labor under which they are produced may not exceed 40 a week, except when overtime is paid for as such. If a contractor is a bidder who buys his goods from a manufacturer he must accompany his bid with a certificate that the fabricator lives up to the | standards set by the act. And any seller who has been guilty of per- | sistently violating the Wagner Labor Act by refusing to bargain with his | workers collectively is out. As a taxpayer you might see ob- | jections to this new procedure. { Doubtless the Government will pay | a bit more for what it buys. But its | effects are bound to be all to the good. The Federal Government is the largest single buyer in America, spending upward of a half billion dollars a year. It buys everything from spools of thread to battleships. And it is not only its right but its duty to see that its money goes into building an American standard of living. If every housewife would follow suit in her little way and refuse to patronize exploiters of children, women, convicts and working men it would not take long to make the Government's standard universal.

E-3 E-3 on "LAYS GERMAN COLLAPSE TO WAR EXPENDITURES By a War Abolitionist

Economic collapse in Germany land Italy has been temporarily | averted by using up the capital of {these two nations for creating war equipment. Just as war is destruc[tive to nations engaged in war, so lis the expenditure of national asi sets for war equipment destructive of the creative power of the nation. What is spent on destructive machinery cannot be recovered for creative purposes.

The economic blood-letting represented by these armament races foreshadows economic ruin, even before any military conflict begins. The quack leaders of these Euro-

If amendments to the 1936 Walsh- |

(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.)

pean nations are driving their people to economic suicide. If the money they spend on armament were diverted to the creation of facilities to produce more goods for consumption at lower | prices, there would be no cause for war. However, that takes common sense and engineering, which is the one thing that dictators do not possess.

ers, not as builders of civilization. Their blind followers ignore the

way, Finland, Denmark and other co-operative countries.

a 2 &

NEW DEAL NOT SOCIALISTIC, WRITER AVERS By S. B. Hetrick, Elwood Mr. Maddox thinks the New Deal is socialism. I met an old man the other day who thought the same thing. To me he seemed to be an infant about 80 years old, unable to eat the sincere meat of knowledge and wisdom. Of course, we have had one kind of socialism for many years in the financial and industrial monopoly

PUSSY WILLOWS

By F. F. M'DONALD Fuzzy little pussies nesting on the bough : Tell us that sweet Spring has turned the corner now; Bundled up in fur that keeps them snug and warm, Winter's crystal scepter can ne'er do them harm; Pussies need ne'er mind ice-fringed blankets of snow— Nor dread rude March winds though they bluster and blow. April's chilling rain their armor oft defies— Driving down in sheets from dark, lowering skies. bathed in May sunshine's dazzling rays of light Silky pussy willows are a wondrous sight, Seeming some miraculous sun-sil-vered cloud Ensnared in embrace of a willow tree proud!

But

DAILY THOUGHT

Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel; For I will set rnine eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land; and I will ouild them up, and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up.—Jeremiah24:6.

HETHER they work with mar- : ble or sod, the builcer is hand in hand with God.—William Dun-

bar.

They strut their stuff as wreck- | : y u eet AWAITS COMMONERS WHO

creative examples of Sweden, Nor- '

which is a gigantic co-operative run for the beneficiaries of unearned incomes who also owned the Government. The other kind of socialism is for the people who work in the various trades and professions. Why not give to private monopoly our public institutions, the postal service, schools, highways, law enforcement agencies and others? Men with knowledge and no wisdom are generally actuated in their mental and moral suasion. by their immediate economic determinism. It's a sad spectacle to see a man fighting for capitalism, the destructive force that makes panics, depressions, wars, millionaires, and

| paupers.

2 n 2

EVOKE WILL OF PEOPLE By Paul Jones, Anderson In reply to. Orie J. Simmons: You may brandish your cudgel in behalf of monopolized industry to the vindication of your convictions, but I still have faith that eventually the mumblings of the vast underprivileged class—which you find so impossible to reason with—will be heard and heeded by commoners who possess the courage to evoke

the will of the people. hen protection of mutual liberties and human rights. are consid-

|

|

ered as essential as protection of | property by the Government, per- | haps you will find a common people that will cease their cursing | and crying and exhibit some rea-'! | official parties at the Soviet Embassy are very dressy,

You will observe that the present |

son.

Administration has heard the weeping, however bereft of gentle logic, and is doing its best to effect a readjustment. : You intimated in a recent Forum letter, that a large number

of |

words per paragraph savored of |

emotional argument. creased the number of words

tension has been eased by the Su‘preme Court upholding legislation of vital interest to my colleagues and myself.

” » ” PROMPT PROSECUTION OF BAKER URGED By Subscriber

The Prosecutor was commended for his promptness in filing charges against Baker and Cancilla for the attack on Wayne Coy. I agree to that. What has been done about J. A. Baker's lohbying and the violation of the perjury act by Cancilla? Coy's departure to the Philippines shouldn't interfere with a prompt prosecution. I would like to see the Prosecutor continue his good work and bring these men to trial at once. : I would like to see the Coy affair hrought to a speedy trial, regardless of attempts by the defense to delay it. Mr. Baker asked for a speedy trial and I, for one, want him to

get it.

If I have de- | in, these paragraphs, it is because the where I can get a dinner coat.” a

lt Seems to Me By Heywood Broun 3

Mr. Gerard's Announced Intention Of Wearing Knee Breeches at Coronation Has Stirred Up Rumpus.

EW YORK, April 27.—Congress has quit the Supreme Court fight for a moment to go into a pants controversy. At any rate, a little group in the House is all heated up because Mr. Gerard purposes to wear knee

breeches at the Coronation. And Mr. Gerard has magnified his offense by announcing that he will have his pants made in England He has given wbat seems to me a logical excuse in explaining that if he ordered knee breeches over here the tailor might hand him down plus fours. I doubt that the incident will cause international complications or even become a burning issue here in the homeland. "There have been Representa= tives and even a Senator or two who gained vctes by proclaiming along the hustings that neverwould they he found in the devil's livery or dinner clothes. But not long ago President Roosevelt was chosen by soine tailors’ :o1ganization as one of the best-dressed men in America, and this tribute does not seem to have wrecked his Administration. : At the last Gridiron dinner John L. Lewis sat at the head table wearing tails and a white tie. And the suit fitted at least reasonably well. On cxternal evidence, at any rate, I would hazard ‘he guess that it was not a costume borrowed or rented for the occasion. Once upon a time radical regulations were served about the matter of dressing up. Several years ago Floyd Dell was bitterly attacked by former left wing associates who produced a photograph in which Dell indubitably appeared in a dinner coat. Of late the rules have been modified. It is a familiar tact that

Mr. Broun

on = 2 AM told on good authority that before the Gride I iron dinner of last fall, to which both Norman Thomas and Earl Browder were bidden, there was a telephone conversation between the two leaders. It was Earl who called up his Socialist rival to ascertain what the moderately well-dressed radical should wear at such a function. Thomas told Browder that tails and a white tire were customary, but that he himself was going in the simple mufti of a dinner coat. “That's fine,” Browder replied. “I think I knew

A lingering survival of professional bad dressing -in

‘America obtains chiefly among the Fascist dems

agogues. : Huey Long was a bad dresser now and then. Around Washington he wore well-tailored clothes, but when it became necessary for him to campaign down in the red clay belt he would get out his old speaking suit and tramp up and down upon it. un ” » NCE he was in real trouble. There are sections of America in which pajamas are considered, even more effete than dinner clothes. And a story was widely publicized that Huey had received a visiting Admiral and that the Senator had been clad in baby blue silk. Huey took occasion to make a trip into the outlying parishes, where he roundly denounced the canard to a rural audience. - “It is quite true,” he shouted, “that I received that naval high mucky-muck informally, but it's a lie that I had on pajamas. Naturally I wore a good old-fashioned nightshirt.” 2 i At that, they tell me that Huey was beginning to lose touch with his constituents and that his speech was a grave political error. You see, most of the men. in his audience slept in the raw, and to them a nightshirt meant that their great hero had been corrupted by the slick ways of Washington and had become a sissy. !

General Hugh Johnson Says —

MacArthur Put One Over When He Got Quezon to Name Him

Field Marshal and Now

EW YORK, April 27.—According to a recent Army order, the General of the Armies (Pershing), the Chief of Staff (Craig), and the Field Marshal of the Philippine Islands (MacArthur) may design and prescribe their own uniforms. This country has always seemed opposed to exalted military rank and fuss and feathers. The highest grade ever permitted is that of general. Even Washington, Grant and Pershing were never considered for the rank of field marshal. From the Civil War to the World War, no officer ever held the rank of general. The rank of general was revived in 1918, and conferred upon Pershing for life—and on Peyton March for the period of his incumbency as Chief of Staff. No, we don’t seem to like exalted military fanfare. But my classmate Douglas MacArthur put one over. As a close personal friend of the brilliant Manuel Quezon, President of the new Philippine Government (“Casey” to close friends), he got himself loaned to the budding commonwealth as military adviser and administrator. Then he got himself named field marshal by that Government.

" EJ ” AM not casting any aspersions in the direction of Douglas. He is one of the most brilliant men in

public service. He doesn’t know the name of fear. Sent to Frafice on an educational trip before our

He's Going to Design Own Uniform.

troops got there, he volunteered to join a British trench raid and captured himself a German colonel. By incredible fighting and marching he almost beat the French to the capture of Sedan.

# ” 2

N° this piece isn’t intended as critical of Douglas— it is just wondering what that uniform will look like. A distinguished predecessor of MacArthur's, the first professional American humorist, Capt. Derby of the Engineer Corps (John Phoenix), once designed one—and nearly got court-martialed for it. eminently practical. The right epaulette could also be used for a hair brush and the left for a shoe brush The helmet was really an inverted stew pot. The pompon could be bent over to make a handle. I have forgotten all the details but I remember that the sergeants carried a wand like a bishop's crook and the privates all “had a ring in the back of their belts. The idea was that the’ sergeants could keep the men in line by hooking them from behind. Irn bet the Field Marshal will burst forth in a pelisse, dolman and sabre-tache—a red uniform with flame color trim and that his special orders will require of him on all occasions the irksome duty

¥ PN

It was

of wearing all his medals. He only has half a ton |.

The Washington Merry-Go-Round

President Roosevelt Indicates Willingness to Trade War Debts for Disarmament, but Unimpressed European Diplomats Sniff at Gesture.

By Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen

ASHINGTON, April 27.—Apropos of the backhanded British suggestion of paying war debts, the President was talking over the European situation with a foreign affairs expert the other day, and made the significant remark that the last thing he wanted to discuss with European nations was war debts. He indicated that he would much rather keep war debts on the shelf, whence he could take them down: as a possible gesture of American good will if Europe was able to get togther on disarmament. In other words, if Europe would make a new pledge to avoid the next war, Roosevelt would throw away. the financial memories of the last war. Note—European diplomats, informed of this plan, point out that Europe long ago has forgotten about war debts, that Roosevelt's gesture would be next to empty. ' » » ” : NE of the most unusual lobbying combinations seen on Capitol Hill in many moons is the unique alliance between the big sugar refiners and the beet sugar companies, now nicknamed “The Unholy Al-

The hig refiners import their sugar in the raw trom Cuba. The beet growers grow their sugar in ths Middle West, refine it themselves in the beet areas. So the economic interests of the two clash all along the line. Nevertheless they have now come together, chiefly for the purpose of putting up a united front against the two minor sugar areas of Puerto Rico and Hawail. 4 nn - NDER the Jones-Costigan Sugar Act it was generally admitted that Hawaii got a dirty deal. Someone, presumably the refiners, had slipped a joker into the bill by which the Hawaiians were able t¢ refine only 30 per cent of their output. The rest

had to be sent to the continental United States td

be refined—obviously a real concession to the refiners. : Moreover, the Hawaiians claim that on the da their sugar arrived in Néw York, the refiners alwa contrived to depress the price of sugar temporaril 80 as to buy the cargo cheap. ‘ This has been eliminated in the new sugar bill, which is one reason why the big refiners and thé beet sugar .people have formed their alliance. Their chief aim is to up their own quotas at ‘the expense

of other areas, and Capitol Hill is going to see -& finally is

| terrific sugar battle before a sugar bill -

SRLS

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