Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 30 June 1937 — Page 14

PAGE 14

The Indianapolis Times (A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

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ROY W. HOWARD LUDWELL DENNY

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Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 30, 1937

LICENSING BICYCLE RIDERS

OST of the heat generated over the new bicycle ordinance fails to recognize the safety factor. Nearly 800 bicycle riders were killed in traffic last year in the United States, and 390 of the victims were under 14 years of age. The return of the bike has created a difficult problem of safeguarding cyclists in modern traffic. The urgency of the problem is reflected in regulatory laws recently passed by cities in various population groups, including Des Moines, Los Angeles, Oakland, Salt Lake City, Detroit, Greensboro, N.C.; Fi. Atkinson, Wis.; Sioux Falls, S. D., Minneapolis and Miami. : The Indianapolis ordinance follows the general pattern in requiring lights at night, prohibiting two persons on one bicycle, restricting use on sidewalks and providing traffic laws observance. It neglects one big hazard by not making it illegal to attach bicycles to moving vehicles. Many cities, because of strong public disapproval of fines or imprisonment for juveniles, impound bicycles as the penalty for violations.

"The ordinance here, in providing a heavy fine for in-

fractions, and in assessing a license fee of $1.25, was bound to stir resentment. The emphasis is on fees and fines rather than on safety. The licensing feature is for protection against thefts and the fee should be scaled as low as possible. It is true that the Police Department does not have enough money. properly to enforce traffic laws, but the problem is too big to solve by trying to get enforcement funds from bicycle riders.

HOW THEY VOTED! : 'NLESS you are one of those rare persons who read the Congressional Record, the chances are you don’t know what your Representatives in Congress are doing from day to day. Many bankers and industrialists get current reports on how members voted, at a high price from certain Washington agencies. Occasionally the votes of particular members on specific measures are reported to trade unionists, American Legign members, farm organizations and other groups with special interests in legislation. But the average citizen has little means of knowing how his Senators and Representa‘ives are voting. Since the first of the year The Indianapolis Times has been publishing periodic compilations of how Indiana members voted on all important issues in Congress. One of these reports may be found on Page 13 of today’s Times. We believe that closer public attention to Congressional roll calls would result in more intelligent consideration of vital legislation. Obviously, members are not going to worry much about attending. roll calls, or even about their votes on many questions, if the “people back home” don’t know what their Representatives are doing, or don’t care. The New York Times, for example, found that attendance at sessions of the House by members of the New York, New Jersey and Connecticut delegations has greatly improved since that newspaper began publishing their votes and absences. : ; Voters at home can do much between elections to make democracy work. Members of Congress would give more attention to their duties as Legislators, and more study to particular legislation, if they knew they would be called on by constituents to explain their votes—and their absences.

WHY NOT USE THE MAGNA CARTA? HE Wagner act, heralded as the Magna Carta of labor, » = is the law of the land by approval of Congress and the Supreme Court. f : Its purpose is to assure collective bargaining. It is founded on the principle of majority rule in the selection of bargaining agents. In Johnstown, Pa., and Youngstown, O., danger spots have developed—so dangerous as to have threatened wholesale bloodshed and to have brought on martial law. But in neither has there been a vote to determine whether majority rule prevails. Why? Why doesn’t the military, whose power under martial law is unlimited, see that a vote is had in a fair election by secret ballot, as the Wagner act provides? Then announce the result, and see that civil law takes its course? : That is all possible under martial law. Public sentiment will sustain the verdict, and public sentiment is the determining factor in every labor dispute “when the facts are made clear. What is the good of having a Magna Carta if it isn’t used? :

RED HUNT? HE hair-raising speeches at the mass meeting sponsored here this week by the United Squadrons, Inc., indicate - that a new “Red hunt” may be under way in Indiana. The American people in the last election showed the

“Red scare then was a bogey. If ever we needed the ap- ~ proach of free discussion of all sides of public issues, and of give-and-take instead of intolerance in settling contro- ~ versies, this is the time,

LOVE IN THE SKY AFLYING electric-supply salesman, appropriately named Ted Airheart, flew above the home of his sweetheart at San Mateo, Cal, and there boldly chalked in sky-writing against the blue of Heaven that most beautiful of all sentences: | love you. Yet they say that the machine age is ~ killing romance!

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Washington

By Raymond Clapper

G. O. P. Stir of Life Seen by Clapper As National Committee and McNary ‘Reunite’ to Lure "White Democrats.’

VW ASHINGTON, June 30.—Quietly and with evidence of having engaged in some constructive thinking, the Republicans are stirring to life again. This has not attracted much attention, because after the

last election we all went off and left them for dead. . But within the last few weeks they have begun to recover consciousness and are beginning to take a

few steps. Not only have they been moving * quietly around to help beat the Roosevelt Supreme Court proposal but they have, largely through the activity of Senator Bridges, the boy wonder from New Hampshire, goaded the Administration into investigating alleged interference with the mail in the steel strike area. It isn't a great deal, but anything from the Republicans in these times is something. Also the Republican National Committee has set its publicity mimeograph to running again. It had grown very rusty. More significant, the National Committee issues a statement by Senator McNary of Oregon, Republican Senate Leader. You might think that the most natural thing in the world. But the fact is that Senator McNary and the National Committee have scarcely 4spoken - to each other in months, much less spoken for each other. ” n #” OW, through the National Committee, he has issued a statement deriding the Roosevelt “charm school” at Jefferson Island and inviting anti-New Deal Democrats—the New Dealers now call them “White Demccrats”—to come over and join the Republicans in “sound constructive action.” While no doubt the energies of William Hard, who is the Charlie Michetson of the Republican National Committee, have had something to do with this revival of Republican action, much credit should go to Senator Vandenberg, who by example has shown the party that it could find useful work to do. For months he has seemed to be the only Republican on the job. Senator Vandenberg’s latest contribution is a series of proposed amendments to the Wagner Labor Act, which will serve as the basis for threshing out the question of labor responsibility. 8

Mr. Clapper

8 ”

N proposing these amendments, Senator Vandenberg offers them largely as a basis of discussion, remarking that he may have gone too far dr not far enough, but emphasizing that protection now may prevent radical restraints on labor later. He would make it possible for employers as well as labcr to call for employee elections under the Wagner ace. He would require all working agreements to be reduced to writing. Strikers could be called only by majority vote of employees. Breach of contract would be penalized. Unions as: well as employers Foul be prohibited from using coercion or intimidaon. When the Wagner act was adopted, labor was thought to need the advantage of special Governmen‘tal assistance. Now labor organization has developed to the. point where Senator Vandenberg and a good many others feel that it should be subjected to public obligations similar to those imposed upon employers.

ULSA, Okla., June 30.—The “spontaneous” Senate revolt, exploded by Harry Hopkins against requiring even as much as 25 per cent of local contribution to match Federal spending by WPA, is an omen of the fact suspected by many that this Administration hasn't the faintest intention of reducing or localizing spending at all. Harry Hopkins, who up to recently, was just a loyal, modest and highly efficient go-getter, is changing in several respects. In the first place, he has become No. 1 boy in the inner circle of the Third New Deal economists. He now not only executes plans. He makes them. In the second—his personal staff waterboys have

possibilities—he is heir apparent No. 42. Gone ga-ga on these delusions, Harry is advancing a psychiatric fantasy known as the “Hopkins plan.” » ” un 2 AS vaguely rumored, the idea is to hold spending at about seven and half billions. Taxes are to

remain at current rates. At the present speed of business, this would leave a continuing deficit of

more than two billions. But rapidly increasing business is relied upon to increase within a year or so and then go on to provide a revenue of about nine billions and so eventually begin to reduce the public debt. ;

The argument is that, by taking about three bil

| lions away from the haves to give to the have-nots, you increase the buying power of the submerged adsl

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES Third Party That Made the Grade!—By Talburt

a oe &

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 30, 1937

Idea in Congress—By Herblock

The Hoosier Forum

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

URGES WEED CUTTING WEEK BE NOTED HERE By Phil Richey This is a peculiar country in which we live. I see by the Almanac that we have Cotton Week, National Fire Prevention Week, National Hearing Week, Thrift Week, Own-

Your-Home Week, Youth Week, Be Kind to Animals Week, Baby Week, Apple Week . ... take a look for yourself. : ' But here in Indianapolis, aside from these, what do we do about weeds? And to be more specific, what do we do about Ambrosia artemisiifolia? (Common ragweed to you and me.) a Why not, sir, ragweed week? I see by your paper we have an ordinance requiring the cutting of weeds. A short tour around town discloses weeds on corners, weeds in vacant lots, weeds along alleys, and weeds, yes, even weeds in these good Hoosier gardens. Common ragweeds, the book tells us, may be destroyed once and for all by application in spray solution of copper sulphate or iron sulphate, without particular injury to other plants or to grass. Just as eflective, but for one season only, is the weed-cutting aforementioned. For sufferers from ‘hay fever” such a week would prove a real boon. Picture if you will squads of men and boys, hurrying from one corner to another armed with scythes, sickles, mowers, and a little ambition encouraged by the lusty cries of 10,000 victims of the drippy nose. A toast, gentlemen all, to the destruction, eradication and total extinction of Ambrosia artemisiifolia! 2 o 2 CITES VOTING FIGURES AGAINST LOYALISTS By John Meyer. Of interest was one or two lines of Mr. Rey’s letter in the Hoosier

Forum column June 24. In them he states the Loyalists in Spain are fighting to preserve their New Deal Government and will not go back to feudal conditions. An assertion such as this must leave one under these impressions: First, the Government now in power in Spain, so called the “Popular Front Government,” is the choice of the majority of the Spanish people, including the Basque as well. Second, this majority is fighting on the Loyalist side all by itself, with no support from without (all the outside help going to Franco). Neither of these impressions will stand up if a few facts are swiftly surveyed. In the election of 1836 the Popular Action Party polled 400,000 more votes than the Leftists. By dint of force the Leftists altered the votes

of the six constituencies—Cornua,

General Hugh Johnson Says—

Senate Revolt, Exploded by Hopkins Agaifist Local Contributions to WPA Work, Indicates Administration Doesn't Intend to Cut Spending.

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

Pentevedra, Lugo, Coceres, Cordova and Seville—in their favor and thus gained a small majority. Their next move was to annul wholly or in part the elections in Granada, Cuenca, Salamanca and Burges, thus giving them a huge majority. How popular is a government which gets in power by fraud?

Claims Both Sides Aided

As to the impression that the majority of Spaniards arg/fighting on the Leftist side withotit aid, the fact that the majority” didn’t vote for the Leftist in the last election would seem to be a good criterion whereby we could judge that the majority of the people in Spain aren't fighting for the Leftists. People don’t generally vote one way and act the other. The “without help from the outside” will also limp considerably when we reflect that according to many casual perusings of the daily paper both sides in Spain have received help and plenty of it from the outside. Hence neither side is going it alone. Had this been the case the war would perhaps long since have heen forgotten.

2 2 ”n TURNS ‘BRUTALITY’ CHARGE TO LOYALISTS By Frederick W. Fries

What amazes me most in Agapito Rey’s letter, which appeared in The

‘Times, June 24, is his sudden, almost inexplicable, loss of memory. His

opinion that the inhabitants of Bilbao were “the victims of the most

LOVE SONG

By MARGARET HUGHES Darling, I have loved you deeply, Cared for you through right and wrong, Bent my will to all your wishes, Checked your tear drops with a song.

What is past will be forgotten; All our future lies before, Darling, I have loved you deeply, But each day I love you more.

DAILY THOUGHT

He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low decree. Luke 1:52.

PRIDE is the master of the devil. —E. H. Chapin.

brutal outrages of the Spanish conflict” cannot be otherwise explained. Has he forgotten perhaps the unspeakable atrocities perpetrated by the Loyalists during the early months of the war? The brutal outrages committed against priests and nuns, women and children? The murders in cold blood? The unmentionable cfimes? No! Bilbao did not see the most brutal cutrages of the Spanish conflict. To speak positively, what, after all, is so “brutal” about the use of aircraft and bombs in modern warfare? . Another thing: If Prof. Rey thinks the Rebels are considering a compromise, he is badly mistaken. There can be no truce or conciliation as long as the red flag of communism floats over Spain.

» 8 2 ADVISES BULL MOOSER TO STUDY SUBJECT By Daniel Francis Clancy And may I step up to say a few words to the Bull Mooser from Crawfordsville? I advise that the honorable gentleman from Crawfordsville study his subject more assidiously henceforth before breaking into print with such self-

assurance and vehemence—I refer to the description of the Rt. Hon.

Neville Chamberlain as an “old re- |

actionary and oppressor of the poor.” Surely, sir, you are aware of the contents of Mr. Chamberlain’s last budget - as Chancellor of the Exchequer—and the shouts of protest which arose from the rich? You recall Mr. Chamberlain’s willingness to listen to all complaints—and, finally, his failure to change his budget? The rich are looking forward to being oppressed, in Britain, not the poor!

# a.» REFLECTORS TO AID HIGHWAY SAFETY

By George E. Currier, Council In the name of safety at the crossroads, E. J. O'Meara, state traffic engineer, reports the Wisconsin Highway Department will install large 24-inch, reflectorized = stop signs at every major intersection of State or Federal and State highways. . The announcement was on the heels of information that route markers and warning signs on U. S. 12 were to be reflectorized. The Badger state footnotes its annual invitation to vacationing motorists: “Every State and Federal route in Wisconsin will be made dustproof -this year.” Bituminous material is’ being applied on more than 2800 miles of highway, 1813 miles of which never had been “dusted” before.

National Safety

nT 2 820.0 0 58 0 5p HE

The Liberal View

By Dr. Harry Elmer Barnes

Neutrality Is Held Most Difficult To Maintain; Influences Tending For Entry in World War Still Potent,

ASHINGTON, June 30.—In all the talk about war one of the questions suggested is whether or not we can keep out of the second world war when it comes along. Let us look into this matter, viewing the whole situation in relation to what happened in 1914 and 1917. We are very fortunate in our President and Secreretary of State, both of whom are now sincerely

committed to the cause of world peace. But Mr, Roosevelt and Mr. Hull are hardly as reassuring as were Wilson and Bryan in 1914. : . Mr. Wilson was a scholarly an

cultivated pacifist, who had come

to his convictions as a result of prolonged study and analysis, and William Jennings Bryan was the outstanding leader of American pacificism when he entered Mr. Wilson's Cabinet. We could not have had a more perfect setup with respect to personnel than we had in 1914 with Mr. Wilson as President and Mr. . Bryan as Secretary of State. If these outstanding pacifists could not keep us neutral in the first World War we can hardly expect that Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Hull will do better in the second world war. Mr. Roosevelt has a well-known likeness for naval demonstrations. So far as the second world war is concerned, it is pretty sure to be a naval war for us. Mr. Hull has no such pacificist background and experience as Mr. Bryan possessed. So far as the bankers are concerned, there is no evidence that they have learned anything from their experience in the World War. » s s : IKEWISE, the industrialists: who would sell war - supplies would be just as willing as ever to make their profits. When the second world war comes along, the military cult will be much more powerful than it was in 1914 and 1917. In addition ta those who.supported it then, we have powerful new organizations, such as the American Legion and the R. O. T. C, to which we may add a vastly increased National Guard. + The propaganda in the second world war will make that of the first World War seem shabby and simple-minded. 2 un z OME of our newspapers will have sense enough to realize the appalling aftermath of the second world war, but the stupidity of the majority of them with respect to domestic politics in the last four years makes it seem: hardly probable that they can be depended upon to show any more intelligence with respect to foreign affairs. Therefore. if the second world war lasts for more than a year or so, it would seem that we have very slight grounds for expecting that America will remain neutral. Neutrality legislation will he worn away by the war interests just as the neutrality policy of Wilson and Bryan was effectively worn down. It is estimated that 90 per cent of the members of Congress were against war in the summer of 1916. But the same Congress voted overwhelmingly for war in April, 1917.

Dr. Barnes

The Washington Merry-Go-Round

Impending WPA Slash Creates Conflict in Washington Relief Project;

Ickes Fights Identical Bids

filled his head with the nonsense that he has political

third and make business more active which makes revenue larger which pays for the extravagance. A valuable byproduct, not mentioned, is that by dishing out billions to traditionally Republican areas, you can switch the normal Republican majority. into the Democratic column and keep it there. By the device of lump-sum appropriations, the spending of these billions remains in the hands of the executive and that controls Congressmen whether they are Democrats or Republicans. \ ” n ” ! Yours the matter with that? As a political panacea it is perfect. But as an economic formula it is the deadliest idea ever seriously presented as g national policy. Our national debt is rapidly approaching the dynamite deadline that even Mr. Roosevelt set for himself—forty billions. That money wasn't borrowed. It was just written upon bank ledgers which

| are so crammed with it that any marked decline in:

the price of Government bonds would hit every bank in the country, or leave the Government to the last suicidal alternative of paying the whole forty billions in printed money which could become as valueless as cigaret coupons. It gambles the fate of the country on a crazy bet that business will improve 50 per cent in the next three years—which of itself means an inflationary boom worse than 1929. If that does happen a new bust must come. If it doesn’t happen, what? The Hopkins plan doesn’t bother about that; but the answer is, “a bust, on this plan, in either event.”

By Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen

YY Suwon, June 30.—The spacious “great : hall” of the Justice Department was the scene of a drama the other day—a drama that soon may be repeated in other cities when the WPA begins slashing its rolls. The cast consisted of several hundred white-collar relief Workers and Wayne Morse, their supervisor. Cause of the incident- was fear of the discontinuance of the WPA project that for the past year and a half has given the relief workers and a thousand others in the field steady employment. The project was a compilation of statistics on paroled prisoners. Field workers gathered the data and the Washington staff, using the Justice Department hall as a workroom, sorted and assembled it. : 8 n-® PA plans to conclude this work July 1. The staff decided to make an effort ta save their jobs, and sent a communication to Morse threatening “mass action” unless they were retained. This truculent challenge drew a prompt comeback. Striding into the ‘great hall” and taking a stand on a stairway overlooking the workers, he laid down the law in emphatic language. “I never want to receive another communication . like this,” Morse exclaimed. “Where do you think you are? We are doing all we can to help you—the Attorney General, Harry Hopkins and myself. But we are not going to stand for any more talk about ‘mass action.” That is not going to get you anywhere—except into trouble.”

by Giving Contracts to Remote Bidders.

The relief workers received the caustic lecture with out interrupticn. ~eturned silently to their desks. s ss = ECRETARY HAROLD ICKES has a time trying to keep a jump ahead of steel and cement corporae tions bidding on Public Works Administration cone tracts. ; ; ; The administrator has been warring with them for more than four years over their practice of submitting identical bids. First he tried to outwit them by re jecting all bids. But the new bids again were all the same. fT Then he appealed to the Justice Department for action under anti-trust laws. Attorney General Cum mings advised there was nothing he could do about the matter.

When the next batch of identical bids were sube mitted, Ickes awarded the contract to the firm

farthest away, thus cutting heavily into its profits by

extra freight charges. : The contractors launched a flank attack. They filed complaints with Acting Controller General Richard N. Elliott charging that Ickes’ tactics were illegal and unfair. In a tart communication, Elliott told Ickes he was breaking established rules, and ore dered him to award future contracts by drawing lots, Ickes threw Elliott's letter into the waste-basket. The only concession Ickes has made to Elliott's blast was in a case where five cement companies thag entered identical bids were located in the same come munity. He awarded that contract by drawing lots.

Laer