Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 5 May 1937 — Page 14

: epNESDAY, MAY 5, 1937 }

PAGE 14 The Indianapolis Times

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Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

WEDNESDAY, MAY 5, 1937

HEARTS WIN HE capital of the British Empire will on May 12 stage its most stupendous pageant of a generation, the “coronation of King-Emperor George the Sixth. London’s beauty and chivalry will outdo themselves to welcome the world to a ceremony that has no equal among the sons of men. Bands, silk pants, gold carriages, uniforms, ritual, top hats, parades and all the trappings of glory will be dis‘played to show Great Britain's might and magnificence. But a roguish little naked lad ith a bow and arrow is stealing the show. y ’ What can pomp and pageantry offer the world compared with those headlines in yesterday’s papers: “Mrs. Simpson and Windsor meet in chateau library”? You may rake the pages of history from the time Antony left the naval battlefield of Actium for Cleopatra’s arms, and you'll find no more romantic story than the one now being staged in the moss-covered Castle de Cande, whither has flown ‘in lover's haste the youthful Duke who renounced the earth’ s chief throne to marry “the woman I love.” Where \in fiction will you read a more moving tale of the way of a man with a maid? Even the gods and goddesses—Daphne and Apollo, Endymion and Diana, Venus and Adonis, Pyramus and Thisbe, Hero and Leander and the other lovers among the immortals—will look down upon this romance and smile approval. And so once more this “senior- -junior, giant-dwarf, Dan Cupid,” wins an easy victory. Edward Windsor may have lost a paltry crowq, but he gets the headlines. We wager “that if he staged his wedding as a public spectacle in France it would take the British Navy to evacuate London | for the occasion.

It Seems to Me

‘By Heywood Broun Writer Regrets Missing May Day Parade, But He's in Training to Be a Candidate for ongress,

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler

Report That Delaware Legislature Forgot to Appropriate for Schools Is lllustrative of Legislatures’ Habits.

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

whether, to put it bluntly, we will mind our own business. + We cannot do both. We need not

(Times readers arz invited to express their views in these columns, religious controversies excluded. Make your letter short,

REPUBLICAN QUOTED ON NEUTRALITY BILL

By a Reader

“LET PAPA FIX”

S

ENATOR LOGAN of Kentucky is a party regular; he is willing to vote for the court-packing bill as written. But he believes a majority of Senators are against it.

At

the same time he thinks a compromise could be put over. “But,” he observes, ‘‘there seems to be some feeling

about preparing a bill and saying or leave it’.”

: ‘There it is. Take it

This is a symptom of a state of mind that is growing in Congress, and unless the President and his aids are careful there may be a grand blowup soon.

Resentment toward the take-it-or-leave-it technique | has been four years in the making. - into the White House, at a time of great crisis.

Mr. Roosevelt went

The powers

and reforms he asked were granted cheerfully by: Congress.

All went well for a while.

crisis there has emerged a longing for the days when a

But with the passing of the |

| individual members and say that

1 Hg 5 : | they were drunk, because it would member of Congress had some dignity, and wasn’t always |

being pushed and shoved around and told to do this or that |

and be quick about it.

It is not unlike the “back to nor-

malcy”’ reaction in the latter months of the Wilson Admin- |

. istration.

=

® 2 2 2 n

HE court controversy is typical of what is beginning

to get the Congressional goat. sprang his plan to put the Supreme Court in its place, and | asked Congress to get busy, some members about the merits of the bill was quickly upset.

began talking But this deliberative stance The White House wanted to know just

how each member stood. : Of the same bolt of cloth was the neutrality measure. Some Congressmen wanted a cash-and-carry provision.

Others didn’t.

But Congress didn’t decide the issu. At

the Administration's insistence the measure was worded to

leave to the President the power to decide whether, and how to appl

“when such a policy.

A similar instance is the President's plan to reorgan-

ize the executive departments.

He wants to subordinate

under his Cabinet officers the quasi-judicial commissions - that hitherto have been considered arms of Congress.

Another case of let-papa-quarrel over the budget and economies.

x is the nub of the current The President ap-

parently wants sole custody over 15 per cent of all money

appropriated, to economize where and as he deems best— | thereby balancing the budget, The lawmakers are a litt getting elected to Congress is no pushover,

le weary of this. After all,

It takes years

of fence-fixing and months of hard campaigning that has to

“be done all over again before the next election:

And Mr.

Roosevelt only has three and a half years left in the White

House, after which Congress | will still have to look after

itself.

1 GOIN’ THUGGIN’ IME—the present. | Scene—the La Follette Civil Liberties Committee room

on Capitol Hill, Washington, Dramatis personae—the [committes,

5: AL spectators and

William C. Johnson, coal mink boss of Harlan, Ky., testi-

fying.

Mr. Johnson—I'm known as Thug’ ‘Johnson because we

- used to go a-thuggin’.

Senator La Follette— Wha!

do you mean by thuggin’?

Mr. Johnson—Goin’ out huntin’ union men and organ-

izers.

Senator La Follette—Do

like deer?

Mr. Johnson (smiling) Well, 1 ain’t ever killed a man— in ‘Harlan County. We'd just take ’em out and treat ’em ' rough; bump ‘em good and give ‘em a ride. : America has decreed a permanent closed season for this

2 kind of “sport.”

Harlan County should too.-

TWO QUOTATIONS ILL THORNE, Laborite member of the House of Commons, speaking of the British war debt to the United |

States:

tude toward our obligations?” Will Shakespeare, speaking through the mouth of

Polonius: 3

“Neither a borrower nor a lender be; for a loan

off loses both-itself and its friend, amd borrowing dulls the

dee of frushan

2

When the President

“Has the Chancellor read the rude comments | sometimes made by American newspapers about our atti- |

| Wallace-Ezekiel idea of taxing away all ings,” to take from all who have to give to all who

|

EW YORK, May 5.—Between the lines of a dispatch from Wilmington, it appears that the Delaware House of Representatives got confused on the closing night of this year’s session and probably forgot to appropriate the money to run the public schools for the next two years. The item speaks of boisterousness in the chamber

on that night and boisterousness in American legisla-

tive bodies on getaway night sometimes amounts ‘to a souse-party. It is a rite which has almost. escaped public notice all this time, usually

! being dismissed with the words

t‘hilarious scene” in the newspaper accounts, although journalists in Washington as well as state house men in the minor capitals pri-

_vately describe the hilarity: as a

great binge. It is dangerous for a reporter in the press gallery to single out

Mr. Pegler be almost impessible to prove that and cautious description of the conduct of individuals does not convey the idea. Nevertheless, these final exercises are an interesting clue to the character of legislative bodies and a

| graphic- portrayal might help tone citizens understand

their government. ot 2 8 N the British Parliament the Labor Party circulates among its members a pledge to keep away from the bar during sessions and take Ino alcohol until the end of each day's deliberations|which take place in the evening. "This was found to be desirable in the face of the fact that some of the noblest old mane-shakers of Queen Victoria's time were twobottle men who always kept themselves at the boiling point but grabbed much territory for her late majesty, even so. The party leaders felt, however, that the average

member could make enough mistakes cold sober and reckoned that if the other parties were drunk their party would show to advantage. The New York Legislature is expected to adjourn

i this -week and, in view of the mishap to the school

appropriation in Delaware the closing session probably will attract unusual public interest. As a rule the statesmen sing and utter speeches gently mocking the foibles of their colleagues which is all right, to be. sure, provided they do not forget any important business or pass any laws in a mood of foolishness which abolish the sacred heritage of Valley Forge as they are wont to describe the liberties of the American citizen. ‘ ” 2 ”

T= danger of their failing to pass any appropria-

tions seems negligible and it is almost incon- | ceivable that the Delaware Legislature's appropriating instinct failed. Probably it. will be found that they did appropriate for the schools and just don’t remember.

The New York legislators have yet to act on a proposal that they pay the state income tax on their salaries. The boys may get bottled as usual, on closing night, they may pass a law to legalize burglary as a companion to the dog-race and bookmakers’ monopoly acts, but though they get absolutely blind they will never pass that one. That is one instinct that will not desert them.

It has been a long time since any Republican in public office ha: said

‘anything that I thought was worth

much. But here is a statement by Rep. Francis Case of South Dakota which in my opinion is worth printing: “1 fear that the neutrality bill given quick approval by Congtess Thursday contains a joker paragraph permitting an ‘overnight shift in the designation of particular belligerents hit by the cash-and-carry policy of the United States. “We seem to have given authority for application of that. policy to one side and not to the other at any time, virtually forcing the President to take sides in any conflict, which is hard to interpret as neutrality. “The cash-and-carry provision, requiring that nations to whom it applies come here and buy what they want, paying cash and providing their own delivery, under Section 2 as originally passed by the House, was guarded by Subsection te) which read ‘Any proclamation issued by the President under this section shall apply equally to all belligerents.’ “Section 2'as rewritten by the

Lconferees has in place of that Sub-

section (d) which reads ‘The President may from time to time change, modify or revoke in whole or in part any proclamations issued. by him under the authority of this section.’ “In the very limited House debate on the conference report, I asked the question: ‘Does that not give

“the President the power to withdraw

the cash-and-carry feature as to certain states without withdrawing it as to others?’ “Congressman Shanley, who had the floor at the time and who was allotted all the remaining unexpired time, said not, but as he went into the question further he said he hoped not. ‘And so we tried to

so all can have a chance. Letters must be signed, but names will be withheld on request.)

with American policy since the idea was first enunciated by George Washington in his farewell address. But at the very start, and at the risk of making a lot of worthy people mad, there are a few things which ought to be said in all frankness. We should take stock of our-

selves and see where we stand. We Americans are perhaps the world’s most persistent dabblers in the affairs of other peoples—that is to say, in the affairs of foreigners. We ofganize societies for and against. Hitler, for and against Mussolini, for and. against Haile Selassie, for and against every foreign ideology. We hold mass meetings to protest against Japan's occupation of Manchuria and demand a boycott against Nippon. We raise funds to support one side or the other, or both, in every civil war in Europe, Asia or the Americas. Americans rush to enlist in every conflict that .makes our front pages. We paint insulting placards and picket foreign embassies and legations in Washington.

Consistency Urged

We cannot have our apple and eat it too. There is much to be said for the Arthurian manner of taking up the cudgel against the pagans. Sir Galahad of the Siege Perilous and the quest for the Holy Grail is

well worthy of emulation. But we ought to make up our minds now as

to whether we wish to imitate King

Arthur and set up a Round Table from which to send forth knights in shining armor to do battle for the oppressed wherever they may be, or

expect to throw bricks ourselves and never have any thrown back at us. It may make our hearts bleed to see how our neighbor, John Doe, mistreats his family, but if we value our

tranquillity it behooves us to stay out of the quarrel. For just as surely as we get out in our back yard and start hurling sticks or epithets across the fence, it is only a question of time before we receive a sock in the jaw. “Well,” some may say, “that’s all right, too. Let Doe try it and see what he gets!” ‘No Way to Die in Bed’, And so it is all right. It is a noble thing to take up for the weak. Buf it's no way to die in bed. It's no way to stay out of trouble. And certainly it is not neutral. King Arthur was always fighting. We are told that he fought 12 great battles. At Badon the corpses of 960 men littered the ground about him after a single onset. But he left his own corpse at Camlan, So, King Arthur at least possessed the jewel of consistency. Let us do the same. If we want no foreign wars, if we wish to stay out of Europe's quarrels — a thoroughly laudable ambition — let us stick a mite closer to our own knitting. If, on the other hand, we feel it is our duty to help those we consider wronged—which is also laudable—let us have the courage of our convictions. But we must be prepared to defend ourselves when somebody ebjects—which, like it or Dov, somebody someday is likely to do. : :

o » » NEW DEAL SWITCHES MONOPOLY STAND, CLAIM By R. A.

express the intent of Congress by

The Administration seems to have

extension of remarks on the subject, but it is difficult to escape the opinion that those words definitely empower the President to ‘modify and change from time to time, in whole or in part’ the application of the cash-and-carry rule as to one nation or any group of nations and not as to others. “If that is so, then the so-called Neutrality Act is not an act of neutrality but one of hostility or friendship according to acts and desires of the President. That is a surrender of the war-making power to the executive.” ” » ” CONSISTENT FOREIGN

POLICY URGED By W. P. § Mrs. Roosevelt, Rear Admiral Byrd, Dr. Fosdick and others have fired the opening salvo in what is to be a nation-wide crusade against becoming involved in another foreign war. That is a mighty fine crusade. It is American to the core. It dovetails

Hale.

A FANTASY

By MARY R. WHITE

In the cool, blue dusk With the moon hanging high From the floors of Heaven in The blue-shadowed sky.

In the tranquil sweet stillness With hands folded—I rest, Night's cool healing fingers To my weary brow pressed.

0, the cool blue dusk-— And the moon’s yellow light Is the weft of dream drapery— The weaver—is Night.

DAILY THOUGHT

Search the scriptures; them ye think ye have eternal life; and they are they which testify of me.—John 5:39.

HE Bible is the only source of all Christian truth—Sir M.

swung completely around the circle in its attitude toward monopolies. The President’s current insistence

that the antitrust laws be overhauled and strengthened, his refusal to approve the Tydings bill to legalize contracts to maintain prices, and the suit against the aluminum combine—all these things offer a sharp contrast to the early history of the Administration. For in the early days the White House seemed to have little fear of monopoly. Perhaps the most potent of all the objections to the way the NRA worked out was the charge that it fostered monopoly and left the consumer at the mercy of the “big fellows.” The Sherman antitrust law got so that it looked like an extremely dead letter. Now, apparently, the opposite course is to be followed. And the ordinary consumer, who fears that the prices of the things he buys will go up faster than his income, is likely to welcome the change.

for in

General Hugh Johnson Says—

Federal Policy “on Business, Economy, Prices, Housing, Public Works, Labor, National Defense and Agriculture Awaits Qutcome of Court Fight.

ASHINGTON, May 5—What is our Federal policy on business? Is it a new era of trust busting as Mr. Cummings’ letter on the antitrust laws

seems superficially to say? Or is it a return to the idea of letting ‘em grow big and then regulating them

| i as the Guffey act implies? you mean you hutited them |

i, Maintenance Bill is no indication, except perhaps that |

he believes state laws are no good for price regulation. The Cummings letter intimates the antitrust laws dre emasculated, but it doesn’t tell in what direction amendments should go. So what is Federal policy on business? Nobody knows. What is Federal fiscal policy? This town hums with talk of a balanced budget. Once it was thought by congressional leaders that the Administration really favored a 10 per cent budget slash. But the famous 15 per cent “impounding amendment” is no slash at all. It just take§ away from Congress 15 per cent of its duty to appropriate money and gives it to the President.

2 # a

TE still leaves the question of fiscal policy undetermined. It is now clear that the Hopkins‘excess sav-

have not, is taking the form of a doctrine to split both parties from top to bottom—with Mr. Wallace as the 1940 model of Huey Long and share the wealth. But is that as yet the fiscal Polley £ of our Government? Nobody knows. oT

What is its price policy? In 1934, in the interest of the debtor class, it was to get prices back to the 1926 level and thereafter to keep the purchasing power of the dollar there by rubberizing it. But in the vertical price-rise that followed, the Government was able to

The President's letter on the Tydings Retail Price | boost wages throughout the country faster and further

| than the rise in he cost of living. That was the first

time that had ever happened in a broad price-up-swing. In the 1937 price-spurt, it didn’t happen. The buying power of wages lagged. ~The Government couldn’t do anything about wages so it cracked down on prices. But does that change the 1934 price policy? Is 1926 still the goal? Maybe it will be if the Administration can get a wages-and-hours bill on the books again. But in the meantime, what is the Government’s price policy? Nobody knows.

» ” " WWEAT is its policy on housing, public works, and the rebuilding of the merchant marine? Bob Wagner's pet baby (housing)'is a Little Orphan Annie, Joe Kennedy of the Maritime Commission. does impress his friends as a man athrill with zeal on the

threshold of a great enterprise. Public works are momentarily shelved in the price stragegy. . What is the Federal policy on these things and on labor as between Mr, Lewis and Mr. Green, and on national defense and on agriculture? Nobody knows. Nobody's going. to know till the Court fight is decided. . iq

The ‘Washington Merry-Go-Round |

Career Boys Overlooked Power

TAMFORD, Conn., May 5.7 1 sorry L: missed the May Day par ade i in New York, because from all accounts it was one of the gayest and most spirited in the long series, Many people used to think, or pretended to think, that all who espoused 3 kind of

radical theory must inevitably be folk f grim demeanor filled . with the hatred of life. There was never any foundation |for oe fallacy,

and each May Day should serve to drive it deeper under ground. The men ahd women who wish fo change the world are animated by a zest for life. They would have it broader and more abundant. It is generally the arch-conservative who wears the solemn mask, because he commits his faith to a world in which the radion of joy is far too niggardly. I wasn't there! when it happened, but I trust that Oliver Twist had a smile on his face when he asked for more. Cer= tainly the Twist faction of our day is marching forward with a song in |its heart and a. smile of confident xpectation. The folk who are working for a new world deserve the right to take for their own a familiar designation once applied most appropriately. The marchers of May Day are truly the happy warriors. Of course, one. is not under obligation to love every-=. body in the world, and gay people have the right to be good haters as well. Indeed, I think that laughter is rather empty stuff unless it is a| twin faucet in a personality completely equipped with good mod= ern plumbing. : And I gather that in the May Day march there were ample manifestations of a deep and abiding antipathy toward certain men and certain causes. Yet, after all, it is only logical that the exponents of Joy in the world should turn thumbs down on Hitler, Mussolini and Franco. Surely no one can contend that any of these Fascit chieftains is bringing happiness to mankind at the moment. 2 on # To who already can see the bright turrets just. beyond the horizon make up the legions of life. It is not for them to weep. It was proper and heartening that so many children’ marched on May Day. They constituted hostages to the hopes of human kind. They have a right to expect and demand a world in which war|is done and Security established. Their feet were set| in the right pa I wish I had been there even though my voice would add little to the choral singing, and my arches’ make me less than the fnost spirited of marchers. . Even under your feet you could feel that the earth was turning over, and that dead things must give way to those which are full of life and imbued with the joy of growing.

Mr. Broun

= ” =

. HAD an excuse for passing the day | quietly as I. have gone into training for the year 1938. I mean to get to .Congress them on a Labor ticket or break a leg in the effort. I've seen Congressmen, and so I

- have no hesitation in saying that I'm no mere recep-

tive candidate. - The office isn’t going to have a chance to seek me, I'm going to chase after it for dear life. Part of my platform will include the pledge that if the voters can be induced to send me [to the House as a Labor representative I will promise to be just as humorous as any Democrat. or Repu lican. That should not be too hard, for progressive jokes are better than - conservative ones. And radicals | laugh mora heartily than reactionaries. Moreover, they laugh last,

nent

Neutrality Proclamation Gives

Roosevelt to Ban Arms Shipments fo Countries Involved in Spain,

By Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen

ASHINGTON, May 5.—There was a lot of be-hind-the-scenes worry over the new neutrality proclamation which the State Department rushed by special airplane to the President. What the career boys overlooked was that the President has been given the power to embargo arms shipments to Taly, Germany and any other country which is sending organized forces into Spain. Some of Mr. Roosevelt's close strategists now see all too clearly that, having grabbed off the most sweeping power ever given him—the power to throw the nation into war—he finds one of the most complicated * neutrality problems in the world on his door step. For, according to international law, Italy and Germany, having sent organized troops into Spain, are as much at war as the Spanish Rebels and the Spanish Loyalists. 4 » n 2 PARTIAL case might also be built up to show that France and Russia also are involved in Spain, except that their aid has been less organized. And under international law, it is the organization, the training, the equipment of troops before they are sent into a foreign country which is the key to the difference between volunteer aid and armed invasion. Already a move is under way by prominent American sympathizers with the Spanish Government to make Mr. Roosevelt use his new neutrality powers against Italy and Germany.

There are several ways for them| to do this. a One is by a declaratory judgment. This is a relatively new procedure, by which two parties can go before a court and. ask for a decision without the aslay of lengthy litigation. The American Friends of Spanish Democracy ale ready have worked out the strategy of ordering supplies from a friendly munitions dealer and then going into court by mutual agreement to test out certain phases of Mr. Roosevelt's powers under ‘the Neutrality Act. y : # wp HEN this information was conveyed to some of the bright boys around the White House they got extremely jittery. They even ask the pro--Spanish Americans to go: slow, suggested that the Spanish, Government might get a good break from Mr. Roosevelt and for its American friends to wait and see.

. As a result, the American Friends of Spanish Democracy have ordered full speed ahead on their previous activities—collecting of funds, sending of medical supplies, doctors, etc., to Madrid. But coming or going, Mr. Roosevelt is certain to find his new neutrality. powers a terrific headache. Sooner or later the test regarding German and- Ltaiisny armed forces in Spain is bound to come. And when it does, Mr. Roosevelt will have to oie bargo arms shipments to those countries, or else put a virtual stamp of approval on wholesale yrder by the Net Pesci,

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