Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 1 May 1937 — Page 10

i

.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

PAGE 10

a | PR ————— —

ISR ol A

1 .ment.

| The Indianapolis Times

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

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

Price in Marion County, 3 cents a copy; delivered by . carrier, 12 cents a ‘week.

Owned and published daily (except Sunday) by ‘The Indianapolis Times Publishing Co., 214 W. Maryland St. t > Mail subscription rates 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. RTE EE : Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

Rlley 5551

SATURDAY, MAY 1, 1937

WE TAKE A STAND O.THE list of ponderous issues—wars, rumors of wars, : the Supreme Court, budget balancing, floods and strikes —add another. Should Americans wear short and silken trousers, or such other garb as is decreed suitable, at the coronation? Does such compliance make of one a sycophantic Anglophile? It is seemly, yea necessary, that this newspaper go on record in this matter, expressing itself fearlessly, ina way ~ that can leave no doubt in the minds of the readers ds to where we stand; no possibility. that we shall be charged:

with stalling or dodging or hedging or otherwise on-the- |.

~other-handing. : Therefore, here we go. We are for conformance all the way—to the last button, the final buckle, the ultimate strip of braid. ; : : Perhaps- more than any other single thing driving us to * this position is starch. Were it not for starch we might conclude otherwise. But it would be no less than craven hypocrisy for us, who to be conventional have worn starch in this . land of ours, to scoff at conventions across the sea. Did anyone ever don a boiled shirt from choice? Is it within logic to assume that the incessant saw of a neckband is something to be desired; that fingernails tattered from tussling with collar and button are devoutly to be wished ? We think not. : \ And therefore until we as a nation dare to wear slacks to a Presidential ball, let us cease our criticisms of our coun- -- trymen who ape the doorman or imitate the Swiss sunset when in London they do as London does.

Let them as they walk with kings eschew the common touch; let there be no stench from underslung pipes as the ceremonies proceed, a la Charlie Dawes; let there.be no ripping of the plush by the cousins from afar.

. + HARLAN—AND THE U. S. “VV ASHIN GTON, the national capital, is not Harlan q County, Kentucky,” said Senator La Follette, chair“i aw of the Senate Civil Liberties Committee. The Senator had reason for making this obvious stateHe was indignant because witnesses called from Harlan County to testify in the investigation he is conductingbave been intimidated at the threshold of the committee room. He was warning the coal-mine operators and their gun-toting deputy sheriffs that tactics which are commonplace in Harlan will not be tolerated in Washington. 2 Many Americans, reading the testimony the Committee’is bringing out, arg, thankful they don’t have to live in Harlan. But that is hardly enough. Nor, as Senator La Follette realizes, is it enough to promise the coal miners protection while they are in Washington. What all Americans

should demand is that the tactics the Committee is hear-

ing \about—the collusion between mine owners and public officials, the intimidation, beating, kidnaping, dynamiting "and killing of miners and union organizers—must be stopped m Harlan County. ; Such things ought not to be tolerated anywhere in the United States. If the Senate investigation brings the Harlan miners that protection of their right to organize which Federal law guarantees, if it shames Kentucky into anforcing its laws against official oppression of citizens, it will have served a splendid purpose.

_ PRACTICE OF A WISE MAN . °° AND so to fish-and forget it all for a spell President Roosevelt is sailing for south Texas’ shores. He'll fish in much less troubléd waters, no matter hard the winds blow. The gamey tarpon will be easier to hook than scrappy Burt Wheeler and the other liberal Senators opposing his court plan. The wary kingfish will .- prove tame game beside the Aluminum “Trust.” Izaak | © Walton once remarked that ‘angling may be said to be€ so like mathenfatics that it can never be fully learnt”. But we'll wager that the President finds angling easier to learn

* | than how to balance a Federal budget without taxes. ~# The President is wise to seek the blue waters and invite"

~ his soul to peace and contemplation. He heads the biggest and most intricate business in the world. And what business executive is so unfair to his stockholders as to fail to ~ keep his health and poise in needed recreation? So here’s to many strikes and catches and a hoping "that “the east wind may never blow when he goes a-fishing.”

CRACK THE CAMEL'S NOSE! THE Jatest phase on the Federal front of the eternal war

between spoils and merit in government is the deadlock.

at Washington between House and Senate conferees over > pérsonnel in the Social Security system. fF

The Senate ‘insisted on writing into an appropriation

bill a provision that appointments of lawyers and experts receiving over $5000 should be confirmed by the Senate. The House had put these and other experts under civil _ service. - ef! : Interested witnesses to this conflict are two important .. groups—the taxpaye and the beneficiaries: of the Social "| Security Act. Unless the appropriation bill goes through by May 1, Federal aid to the states will be shut off from

1+ 1,258,000 aged poor, 330,000 dependent children and 32,000

ind. : : } Important as it is to settle the deadlock at once, it is |» more important that it be settled right. The House should "stand firm, and the Senate should recede. This big governmental venture in contentment cannot succeed if it is run by spoilsmen. Let Congress crack this " eamel’s nose of politics thrusting into the social security

tent,

| | HEAR! HEAR! : a ir “I WILL accept no compromise,” said Senator Ashurst of oy the President's 15-judge court plan. “We must have knees of unwedgeable oak. My ideas are fixed.” : 3 Now what kind of language is that, coming from the ~ dean “emeritus of inconsistency?

ros k

how

“Un wedgeable oak,” |" proffered one of them in payment for :

?

PRO-BLA N SENATOR

SATURDAY, MAY 1, 1937

%

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler

Gen. Pershing's Displeasure With Photographers When He Sailed for Coronation Recalls War Incident. NEW YORK, May '1.—Going up the plank of ithe President Harding to sail for London’ and the coronation of the British

King, John J. Pershing, General of the Armies of the U. S. A., was displeased with

the photographers who were sniping shots

at him. He remarked to a man in mufti, who was forming his intereference, “Knock them down, Sergeant!” a ) Now, John, is that nice? Characteristic, yes, but

is it fair? True, you have been teething these last few years, but surely no man owes more than you to the press photographers, because, if you will remember, John, they were always compelled by martial law to show you in your most impressive poses when you were doing the job that made your more or less immortal reputation. The photographers and the writers, too, John: You dictated your "own publicity and censored your own pictures, and never gave yourself any the worse of it. | For a fact, you old go-getter, no American ever had a better break from the press of his country, and there was never a man could say a word against you until Peyton March took you out behind the picket line after the war, with the epaulets off and sounded off in his book. FX : Can you remember the time you rode in your car all of a sudden to inspect a company of the Sixteenth

Mr. Pegler

Infantry, who were resting at lunch, and bawled out

that poor, patriotic volunteer, just three weeks out from under a derby hat for chewing gum in the ranks and wearing a sprig of evergreen in the band of his campagn hat and turning his head down the line to catch a glimpse of the great god Pershing that you were and are? : ( ” ” ” HEY had been lunching in a field, and didn’t expect the General of all the Armies of the U. S. A, and when the Sergeant yelled, “Fall in,” they jumped up ahd formed any ranks they could, but, not being soldiers, for the most part, just did their best to look the .part. This que was the big, tall gawky fan who couldn't resist tHe temptation to turn his head and thrust out his abdomen to peer down the line -at the successor to Gen. U. S. Grant, in the flesh and alive. : «Jerk that man out of there,” you yelled. Then you said to the Sergeant, “Take that gum out of his mouth and that evergreen out of his hat,” and the Sergeant caught the gum in his hand and grabbed the sprig of evergreen and showed him the true soldierly position as the boy’s hero drove off in. his car in a cloud of dust. ; 7.8 oy HE patriots at home never saw any pictures of that incident, did they? How much do you think

‘that picture would have added to the popularity of

the General of all the Armies? And they never read Heywood Broun’s story, either, did they? That was the story which Freddie Palmer killed that night to protect you with the home folks, and which caused the recall .of Heywood Broun. You remember the story, John. It was all told in the opening sentence, which read, “They will never call him Papa Pershing.” He meant to say that you were not the equivalent.of old Papa Joffre. What do you suppose ever happened to that heroworshiping buck? Dead these many years, maybe,

for God and democracy and your ostrich plumes. He-

might have been a photographer. Knock them down, Sergeant!

: ® The Hoosier Forum 1 wholly disagree with what you say, but will : defend to the death your right 7 say it.—Voltaire.

DECLARES MODERN GIRLS CAN CARE FOR THEMSELVES By B. C. ; After years of agitation, Indiana

and some other states finally woke |

up and. outlawed breach of promise suits. Recognizing that such suits are, in most cases, merely a polite form of blackmail, and that money is no balm for a genuinely wounded heart, they ruled that failure to go through with a promise of marriage is not a valid cause of action. So far, so good. But a magazine writer pointed out that the other day that only half of the job has been. done. : In most states, for instance, it is still a criminal offense for a gentleman to beguile-a lady into submission with false promises of marriage., Since one threat is about as good as another for gold-digging purposes, .the old shakedown goes on under another guise. Now the shakedown part of it is not really so very important, since the man who sets up as a Don Juan is just asking for trouble, anyway. But, when you stop to think about it, a law of this kind bespeaks about as odd and insulting an idea of American womanhood as could possibly be devised. : For when we provide prison terms for men who accomplish seduction with promises of marriage, we sim-

ply say that the average woman is

a weak and witless creature who cannot look out for herself. We assume, in the most uncomplimentary fashion possible, that she loses her grip the moment a soft-spoken and plausible chap cares to talk glibly about engagement rings and orange blossoms. We write into law the theory that she can say

anything but “no.” !

Could anything be further from the facts? The ordinary American girl is abundantly able to take care of herself, thank you. She can say “no” in six languages and make it stick. She no more needs the criminal code to save her from the gay deceiver than she needs a Government bureau to tell her how to powder her nose. She stopped believing in Santa Claus at the age of 5 and she has had her eyes open ever since.

oe my = LACK OF TOURISTS MAY BE FELT BY DICTATORS By N. J. D. .

Americans, who spent five billions of dollars on. vacations last year, will splurge even more this summer, various surveys indicate. European countries especially will benefit, reveals a noted travel agency. One of the principal reasoils this will be so, it points out, is that there has been a lessening of political tension abroad. If this is the case, tourists must obviously favor countries that are unruffled by politics, and it is quite possible that late this year dicta-

General Hugh Johnson Says—

Gold U. S. Has Stored in Kentucky Has Realizable and Utilitarian Value In Spite of Nonsense About Other Nations Leaving Us With Drug of It.

ASHINGTON, May 1.—Some such statesman as Bourke Cockran was making a speech on the necessity of a firm basis for money and supporting it with pontificial dignity. = A heckler, probably planted, yelled: rhe is the basis of money that will always be safe?” To which the speaker replied with great solemnity: “Gold.” $ 4 “Who is your authority for that statement?” “The Lord God Almighty,” said the orator with one hand on his breast and the index finger of the other pointed toward the sky, “not in the first verse of the first chapter of Genesis, but in the second chapter it is written: ‘And a river went out of Eden io water the garden and from thence it was parted and became into four heads. The name of the first is Pison; that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah where there is gold; and the gold of that land is good. \ :

/ ef

2 ” 2

WwW sir, not long ago in the KhyHer Pass on Alexander the Great's Road to the conquest of

India, a friend of mine, in a British expedition, un--

covered a treasure in the gold coins of Alexander. He brought them back to London, and, ‘in a Soho restaura¥t, Sir, it was value of its weight, I would

seen my friend buy so much as a cup of coffee with all the paper money of all ‘the mighty monarchs of an-

tiquity.”

The story was probably only an oratorical device, but it becomes appropriate in all this talk of horror

unemployed actually need

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

torships that are steeped in it, will be very doleful. If. they are hardly dampened by the shower of American gold, dictators may get the point that an overemphasis on political activity and bellicosity does not always pay dividends. Which would be a very good thing. ‘ # » nn WANTS FACTS ABOUT RELIEF NEEDS By E. A. E.

As to whether President Roosevelt. is asking Congress for too much, or not enough, for Federal relief purposes in the next fiscal year, Senator Wagner (D. N. Y.) said:

“If $500,000,000 or if $1,500,000,000 |

is justified by the facts, I am for it. It is a factual question. But no one should be permitted to starve or to go without shelter.” 4 - Precisely! And the amount of Federal relief money needed to prevent people from. starving or going without shelter is a factual question, or should be. The trouble is it never has been, and is not now being, treated as a factual question. It is amazing, and disturbing, that after four years of huge relief spending the country still has an almost complete lack of the sort of facts upon which future policies should he based. There are guesses, opinions

and theories. But the single salient |

known fact bearing on the subject— and it is an ugly fact—is simply this: The Government is up against the

limit beyond which it cannot safely.

go- in borrowing more money to spend on relief. Nobody knows how many are unemployed. Nobody knows how 1aany relief, Nobody knows how many gelting relief could support themselviis if they were required to do so. No= body knows whether expensive ‘work relief is really better for all concerned than less expensive direct relief. Nobody - knows whether fhe states and cities are bearing niore or less than their fair share of ‘he cost. Or, if anyone does know ti 2se things, there is no evidence that: “he

WHAT WE FORGET

By KEN HUGHES -, Only the concealment . Prods the enemy in imagination, While old knowledge can end A questioning mind with pure fact.

DAILY THOUGHT

Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.—Mat= thew 5:7. y

E hand folks over to God's

mercy and show - none guiselves.—George Eliot.

Make your letter short,

knowledge is being applied to the problem. Mr. Roosevelt asks Congress for $1,500,000,000 more for work relief, to be .used in a plan whieh he says will he developed in June. Congressmen argue that the amount should be cut to:a billion or half a hillion, or raised to two billion or three billion. Everyone agrees with Senator Wagner that no one should be permitted to starye or to go without shelter. But how can we make sure, and at the same time be certain that the appropriation, whatever its size, won't be used wastefully? Nohody knows. 3

There is no excuse for this lack |

of information. Means of obtaining facts to serve the Government as chart and compass in following -a sound relief policy are available to the President and Congress. These means have not been employed in the past, and that is all the more

reason why they should be employed |.

now. It is vitally necessary, without further delay, to begin treating relief as a factual problem.

” 8 x

ENCOURAGED BY FEDERAL

RESERVE FIGURES

By a Subscriber

The recovery movement has been in progress now for some four years. It has faltered and stumbled pretty badly, at times, but at last it seems to have settled down to .a steady gait; but the thing to remember about it is that; from the,very start, it has been based on a policy of heavy Government spending.

Since the Government can’t go on

~%

| spending much- longer, it is encour-

aging toe notice that the business summary recently: made public by the Federal Reserve System shows indications that the recovery movement is beginning to walk alone. Production of such basic commodities as steel, minerals, lumber, autos and cotton are sharply up this spring. . Employment and payroll

indices are rising faster than the].

usual seasonal rate. Ard as publicly - financed work declines, the amount of privately financed work is going up. } It looks very much as if the time has come when Uncle Sam can pull in his purse strings without halting the recovery movement. : ~

on 8 ! BOOSTS VANNUYS, HITS TOWNSEND By Mabel German ... Mr, B. B, Clark's Hill, is in error about my writing anything against Senator VanNuys. He is my idea of a statesman. - Nor have I said’ anything whatsoever against Townsend, as yet. : : However, let me say at this time Townsend is not what we thought

‘| he was; he has all the earmarks of

the Minton type of politician rather than the VanNuys statesman type. But what could you expect from a McNutt puppet?

‘right there.

hero had “just been wounded.

t Seems to Me By Heywood Broun

Gillette's Death Brings Touch of Nostalgia to Writer, for 'Sherlock' Was First Serious Actor He Saw

EW YORK, May 1.—I was sorry to hear of the death of William Gillette, because he was the first serious actor I ever saw. My first play was a musical show about a French maid. Father seemed to like it all right, but 1 didn’t quite get the drift of the plot, and

so I asked for something weightier. 2 Accordingly; we went next week to “Secret Serve ice.” That, would have:been about 40 years ago, buf 5 "then, and to his dying day, William Gillette was the complete master of what is known as modern acting. . f . In later years they told me that no one would ever realize what ~ naturalism on |the stage could be without seeitig Duse. I saw Duse. She was old, and I was a not so .’/ young dramatic critic who -spoke no Italian. But granted these handicaps, it seemed to me that the famous hands of Duse waved .like those of a musical maestro and that she orchestrated eéach line. No, for my taste Gillette was the least actory per= son who ever backed away from: the footlights. Of course, he appeared for the most part in highly the= atrical vehicles, Probably “Secret Service” would be laughed at today, but certainly it gripped the attene tion of my father and me. Fortunately, I never saw it in any revival. It remains in memory as the almost perfect play. I don’t even have to close'my eyes to recreate the scene in which Gillette, as the Northern spy, is trapped ab, a telegraph instrument by a Confederate officer. Mr. Gillette, as I remember, was sending infore

Mr. Broun

mation about Lee's army straight to Grant’s heade

quarters, and the rebel villain raised objection. Very possibly this was my first sight of censorship. It was violent and drastic. The officer in gray fired through the window and hit Gillette, or rather Capt. Thorne, in his sending arm. :

2 # ” N= content with this violation of free prods, the fellow stalked into the room and said to Capt. ’ Thorne. “Do you know why you're not lying dead with a bullet through your head?” | Gillette used to throw in a very long stage wait Of course, he held your attention with the business of binding: up his wounded arm with a handkerchief. I watched him fascinated. :

_ “That’s red ink,” my father whispered. I waved him away, for I knew better. It must be bloéd. The

Gillette adjusted the bandage and then looked at his foe with scorn. “Because you're such a damn bad shot,” he said. | zn on ” ILLETTE always gave the impression that he hadn't quite learned his part and that he was ad-libbing as he: went along. I believe it is called “the illusion the first performance.” : , ible ‘that he purposely chose ran= ssembling a melodrama cast, for he was always the quiet one in the midst of tumuit, Even when they had Rim trapped in the death chame ber in “Sherlock Holmes” he hardly spoke above a whisper. t ° It was, of course, a triumphant whisper, for they followed his lighted cigar which he had stuck in the far corner of the room while he corporeally slipped out the door.

The Washington Merry-Go-Round =

John Michael Carmody, Two-Fisted Irish Rial Electrification. Chief, Is Mentioned in Offices of Power Firms With Curses or Awed Whispers.

By Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen

ASHINGTON, May 1.—You don’t hear’ very much about John Michael Carmody out in the corn belt, but in the ornate, walnut-paneled offices of

8s a. whim

because we are collecting billions of dollars of gold and putting it back in the ground. ! It is far beyond our needs and, for this sterilized asset, a good many American securities are being sent ‘out of the country. This piece isn’t discussing that. It is only protesfing the exaggerated nonsense that is being written ut other countries abandoning gold and leaving us win a drug of the metal.

2 » 2

OLD has been a standard of value since the beginning of time, and it is still a standard of value wherever men breathe. There is no doubt whatever about both the realizable and utilitarian value of those yellow ingots down in that Kentucky hole in the ground. : What would happen if the Government should now suddenly increase the gold content of the dollar by, say 25 per cent. First it would lose between 2% and 3 billion dollars. It would increase by 2% per cent the burden of all debt on all the debtors including its own

debt, shatter the price of export farm products, cut off perhaps one quarter of our exports, destroy our favor-. able balance of trade, give all other countries an ad=

noth

; program. This was in 1933.

the big elegtric power companies it is a name that is mentioned either with curses or in awed whispers.

For John Michael Carmody is a husky, .two-fisted |

Irishman, who next to Roosevelt himself has become the chief bugaboo of the power companies. His present job as chief of the Rural Electrification Adminis-

areas. : Carmody first broke into the New Deal limelight as chief engineer .of CWA, the first. New Deal relief 1 Harry Hopkins commandeered him t¢ help with the stupendous task of getting 4,000,000 rain busy with made-work—all within

30 days. | bo ® » =»

: E took a three-week furlough from the McGraw-

Hill Publishirg Co. when he started the CWA |

job, and that furlough still continues.

When the three weeks were up, the President persuaded Carmody to continue. When CWA. terminated, he was snapped up for the NRA by Gen. Johnson. ‘When the Blue Eagle folded its wings he was appointed to the National Mediation Board for railroads,

| later to the Nation Labor Relations Board. : 5 , when Morris L. Cooke stepped oulya¥ head

He talks cold turkey to the utilities. If they are ]

willing to co-operate and furnish the REA-financed farmer co-operatives with juice at reasonable rates, he is ready to sign up with them. If they afe not, he is just as ready to erect competing power plants. Above

| all he bars prolonged negotiations.

Carmody has been administrator for two months, In those two months he has authorized the construce

| tion of almost as many generating plants as Cooke | approved in more than two years,

tration is to string electric wires through the farm

2 » » ”

a member of the Labor Relations Board, he got

Ss | A indignant over the action of an RFC official in

granting Government loans to textile mills which were

involved in a’dispute over wage cuts. The workers

claimed that the operators were using the RFC loans to fight their union. ny id ge Carmody called on the RFC executive and ree quested that the loans be cancelled. The RFC official « airily brushed him aside. “Of course,” he wise-cracked, “I may be just a boy. & from the country, but I don't see how these labor probe lems affect the RFC.” ’ eh “You don’t, en?” thundered Carmody, sl Loh his fist down. on the desk of the now goggle-eyed offi= 2

‘cial. “Now let me tell you something. ‘You eut: out

this cheap wise-cracking and stalling. —You’re no hick

and we know it. You know what your loans are doing

for these mills, and if you don’t do somethnig af

igh now 3) go toa ssriain party Who will