Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 20 July 1937 — Page 16
PAGE 16
The Indianapolis Times
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TUESDAY, JULY 20, 1937
LEHMAN ON THE COURT OVERNOR LEHMAN precisely expresses our feeling, and we believe that of millions of other Roosevelt admirers, when he says: “His program taken as a whole has, in my opinion, represented the greatest step forward in social reform that any nation has undertaken for many years. I look forward to the opportunity of continuing to support his courageous leadership in matters that are in the interest of the social well-being of our people. This (court) bill, however, I believe to be contrary to their interest. Its enactment would create a greatly dangerous precedent which could be availed of by future less well-intentioned Administrations for the support of oppression or for the curtailment of the constitutional rights of our citizens.” We have just halted to reread that. And we hope you will pardon us if we get a bit personal for a moment and indulge in a little reminiscence. For what Governor Lehman says takes us back to that day last February when the President so suddenly hurled his plan upon the scene. We were for him personally, and what he stood for. Of all the men in the public life of our time he had inspired our greatest enthusiasm. Here was one whose program fitted into what Scripps-Howard newspapers for nearly 60 years had regarded as the concept which could best serve the country. Not merely on humanitarian grounds, but also for cold economic reasons, the betterment of the lot of the rank and file had long pointed the way to national well-being. Our country could thrive only as the masses thrived. A land of such vast natural resources and a productive capacity growing at such a dizzy rate through technological improvement could continue to prosper only as the purchasing power of those masses was increased. On the age of steam had been superimposed the age of electricity, and out of that had come such abundancecreating inventions as almost to stun the imagination. To cash in on that productivity, to distribute that abundance, to attain the age-old ideal of a better life for humankind, there seemed but one answer—greater consumption. And that could be attained not from those who already had much, for their capacity to consume was quickly surfeited, but from those who had little. With Roosevelt came the enacting clause in that philosophy. We assumed he realized that such a goal could be attained only under a government in which freedom of thought and of science could have full sway—the democratic system; that tyrannies kill their Galileos. An obstruction to his program appeared in the courts. A distinct unbalance in behalf of the judiciary had developed. Something should be done about it. For our democracy requires balance as between its three branches. We needed a restoration of balance. Then came Feb. 5 and, instead of a restoration, what was proposed? A plan which, carried to its ultimate, would have made it possible for Franklin Roosevelt, or any successor who desired to seize upon the precedent, to set up one-man rule in this nation. So that, the court-packing plan boils down. With such a program we could not ride. Fully appreciating the provocation and the irritation that caused the President to launch what has proved to be his ill-starred idea, we believe today that defeat of it is necessary if democracy is to live in this land and the advance of the rank and file toward a more abundant life is to continue. Governor Lehman’s expression at this time of crisis may be the gction which decides the issue. This man, called by the President himself his “gcod right arm,” is, of all the liberals who split away on this court plan, closest to Roosevelt. In spectacular degree, timed as his declaration is, he demonstrates that this question is not merely one of the old alignment of the 1936 campaign, of economic royalists on one side and liberals on the other, but that the cleavage runs miles deeper than that. And, addressed as his letter is, to Senator Wagner of New York, a question has been presented which we hope may bring from that other great liberal and friend of Roosevelt's, who has not yet spoken officially on the issue, a reply which will express, as did Governor Lehman’s letter, grave concern over the President's course.
BUMPER INDIANA WHEAT CROP
ROM the wheat fields and grain elevators comes cheering news—reports of a bumper wheat crop in Indiana, forecasts of the largest wheat crop the nation has harvested in six years. The Hoosier yield is estimated at 36,754,000 bushels, while the normal crop is 30,000,000 bushels. And best of all for the farmer, wheat is bringing around $1.20 a bushel. Corn production for the state is estimated at 172,494 ,- 000 bushels, compared to 115,413,000 last year. Oats, barley, rye, potatoes and other crops are above the average for the last 10 years. After a period of lean years, with drought cutting crops and low prices reducing income, this prospect is especially welcome to the farmers. In turn it means increased prosperity for others.
HIS ERROR ILOT MIKHAIL GROMOFF’'S remark after landing, that “we ran into our worst weather over San Diego,” probably will be forgiven as coming from a stranger in a strange land. The implied unfavorable comparison with the climate of the polar regions which the Russian airman and his companions had so recently traversed must, however, have put a strain on even the celebrated hospitality of southern California. And if the Soviets are going to keep on sending their fliers that way, they had better instruct them that the weather in California is never worst, or worse, or even bad.
- It is, at most, unusual. RE 5 a
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THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES ‘It All Seems Like a Wonderful Dream’—By Herblock
TUESDAY, JULY 20, 193%
He Isn’t Blind=—He Just Doesn’t Care!—By Talburt
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=" 7° PUBLIC
OPINION 7
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Washington
By Raymond Clapper
Roosevelt Is Seen Going Down the Same Path of Stubbornness That
Led Wilson to Political Disaster. ASHINGTON, July 20.—Some of President Roosevelt's most loyal friends are gravely disturbed. They see him going down the same path that brought political disaster to Woodrow Wilson. They see him pursuing
the same ruthless, uncompromising tactics in his Supreme Court fight that President Wilson used, to his ruin, in the League of Nations struggle. One day the Senate reached the point where
enough votes were in sight to ratify the Versailles Treaty and put us into the League of Nations provided the Lodge reservations were attached to the resolution of ratification. Those reservations embodied concessions to those who feared unqualified adherence to the League covenant. Mr. Wilson's Senate leader in that fight, the late Senator Hitchcock, went to the White House. He told Mr. Wilson that he could get the treaty ratified if Mr. Wilson would accept the Lodge reservations. Mr. Wilson, hating Mr. Lodge, feeling as bitterly toward Republican opponents of the League as Mr. Roosevelt does toward Tories now, said no. That was the report which Senator Hitchcock brought back to the Senate with almost a broken heart because he knew it was the sentence of defeat. Willingness on the part of Mr. Wilson to accept a compromise would have saved him. He was too stubborn, too blind, or too poor a judge of the situation to see that by relenting on some points he could achieve his larger ends. Demanding everything, he lost all.
Mr. Clapper
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R. ROOSEVELT has a program to which he is devoted with equal passion. It embraces his broad social objectives. He sees in his whole program a means toward improving conditions of American life just as Mr. Wilsor saw in the League of Nations a means of lifting world conditions to a higher level. In the Roosevelt program, the court reorganization proposal is but one of many measures. It arose as a gateway measure, at a time when his whole program seemed hopelessly blocked by the hostile attitude of a majority of the Supreme Court. Mr. Roosevelt was, in my opinion, justified in trying to break down this barrier. But in the meantime the barrier itself gave way. Through all of last winter the Court gave Congress the benefit of the doubt in construing legislation. Had the Court persisted in its earlier opposition, the enlargement plan probably would have been enacted long before this. With the changed situation, the pressing need for it disappeared. Justice Van Devanter resigned.
” =n » EMOCRATS have three out of four members in the House and Senate. No observer here thinks Congress wants to enact the court plan. Mr. Roosevelt’s own party is deep in a rebellion that has shaken it to its heels. In spite of every kind of executive
pressure the plan cannot pass, in the opinion of most persons here,
Administration Defeat on Court Bill Would Not Mean End of New Deal; Return to First-Term Methods Would Bring Roosevelt New Respect.
EHOBOTH, Del, July 20.—When you strike at a king you must kill him. Mr. Roosevelt agrees with those who have contended that, if he is utterly routed on the court legislation, his victors will take over part dominance. Thus Arthur Krock puts a finger on the real cause of the kind of controversy that just now is tearing the New Deal apart.
This year, the Administration has seemed to believe that if one single important legislative proposal is not accepted by Congress almost precisely as it has been cocked up by the executive department bill drafters, it will be the beginning of the New Deal's end. This seems silly. Mr. Roosevelt could take the count of nine in the current round and still remain a leader of so much influence that nothing could take away his championship except a new succession of such mistakes as the manner of presentation of the Court Bill and other legislation since the first part of the year, or a continuance of the unseeemly family row that has so widely separated his Congressional following in the past six months.
N the broil stirred up by the “Dear Alben” letfgr, one statement in that letter has not been emphasized. ens “On ‘the Congress of the United States falls the primary responsik . . . . on the Presi the responsibility of
The Hoosier Forum
I wholly disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.—Voltaire.
READER REPLIES TO MR. MADDOX By HL. W. 8S. At last patience has been rewarded. I had been waiting for Mr.
| Maddox's comment on the meeting
held by the American Legion at the Cadle Tabernacle. Perhaps, Mr. Maddox, you did attend the meeting at the Cadle Tabernacle. And we are wondering if you drove your own oOx-cart, not knowing perhaps that we are living in the age of tri-motor planes. If so, we wonder also if you brought your knitting along, just in case the meeting became too monotonous to be interesting to you. I
| can readily see why your hair failed | to | speeches. You state it will take some real |
rise ' at the aforementioned
hair-raising speeches to wake up the smug, self-satisfied Americans, people who have finally awakened to
| the fact that they have been de- | prived of life, liberty and the purwere | granted them during another revo- |
suit of happiness, which
lution. * Communists are not born; they are made, from just the brand of treatment they have received from such fair-minded Americans as yourself. Communism is but a symptom of the prevailing disease.
From close observation, the method seems to be a redistribution of wealth not only of our own nation, but of the entire world, so that all men may know the meaning of the word comfort. By such a procedure, some may be deprived of a few unnecessary luxuries. But during the World War human life was conscripted to be sacrificed on the altar of greed. Does it not seem as fair and just to conscript dollars? To be sacrificed to the happiness and comfort of human life? Mr. Maddox, we regret that you were born 30 years too late, whereby you must witness the awakening of a new world—a real world, a land of the free and home of the brave, a world without greed, crime or poverty. ... In closing, I wish to state that the writer of this article is of the Patrick Henry type of Irish American. = ” »
DEFENDS PLEA FOR SPANISH LOYALISTS By N. G., Frankfort
Arguments must contain something besides wisecracks and criticism of the other fellow.
Two writers from Indianapolis have taken dirty digs at Mr. Rey | of Bloomington for his defense of | Spanish Loyalists.
(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.)
and his latest critic he will see the difference between scholarship and prejudice. World democracies should, and are, taking recognition of their newest enemy, fascism. Europe will soon witness the military struggle between democracy and fascism, centering at present in Spain. If the people of France, U. S., and England and her do-
Additional Letters to the Editor, Page 4.
minions would vote their sentiments on the Spanish situation, the Loyalists would win in about the same proportion as democracy won the last U. S. Presidential election. Polls have shown this to be true. Now it is absurd to call all these people Reds, Radicals, ete. It is rather because they live in well-educated, free countries and
MOUSE TRAPS
By PATRICIA BANNER I saw a little mouse one day I said, “Nice Mousie, go away— I don’t feel like I want to play, Oh! I did feel so sappy.
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He looked at me upon the chair Said, “How ya’ doin’ 'way up there? Think I'll come up and get some
air. Oh! I did feel so happy.
So he came up and I came down, We chased each other round and ‘round, And then we took a differsnt route, He stayed in and I stayed out.
DAILY THOUGHT
These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts: and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage.—Jude 1:16,
HE writers against religion, while they oppose every Sys-
If any reader | tem, are wisely careful never to set
will compare the letters of Mr. Rey | up any of their own.—Burke.
General Hugh Johnson Says—
If that means what it seems to say, it is far different from the court and the hours and wages They both came to the Capitol with a
messages.
sympathize with the oppressed, downtrodden underdog and wish him success. Modern educated masses mean the passing of the old privileged orders, so why try to maintain it in Spain? If the Indianapolis
critic wishes to make rebel con- |
verts, let him explain why we should support that group which has maintained poverty and decay in Spain for a century. He can not do it. A reader and a student of Spain and modern social trends will see that he has no argument, that he is just another Red-baiter barking for a purpose.
» % Ww URGES HIGHER PAY FOR FEDERAL EMPLOYEES
By Hiram Lackey
The Times of July 12 continues to urge that the tax on the salaries of Government employees be increased. This is practically the same as urging their pay be decreased. Our Congressmen, President, etc., considering the importance of their work and their expenses, are notoriously underpaid. There would not be so much graft, dishonesty and traitorous conduct at Washington if governmental salaries were increased so that men of character but without wealth could sit in high places and, in old age, return to private life without fear of returning to poverty. This nightmare of poverty accounts for the well-known conscience of the opponents of Roosevelt's Court proposal. I am not a Government employee. But I am tired of newspaper propaganda designed to leave the impression that no Governraent employee is worthy of his hire. President Roosevelt, or any other man that money will not buy, is worth more than the wealthiest Government is able to pay. A WPA worker who does a faithful day's work is entitled to respect. If his work be unprofitable, the fault is not his. The trouble is in the heart and brain of the man who says, “Keep the Government out of business.” This disciple of the philosophy of the claw and fang is to blame if the WPA worker rakes leaves instead of quarrying stone, ” " ” ENJOYS E, F. MADDOX'S LETTERS IN FORUM By Bert Wilkinson, Ben Davis It is my opinion that we have away too few real, honest-to-gosh American citizens these times, and I for one enjoy occasionally to hear from some of them through your columns. Mr. E. F. Maddox's letters are among the best.
It Seems to Me
By Heywood Broun
Secrecy Cloaking Senators’ Vote On Leader Is Declared Improper In View of Selection's Importance.
ASHINGTON, July 20.—-One of the most important political meetings of many months, and probably even years, will be held here tomorrow. That is the time which has been set for the Demecratic cau
cus which will select a majority Senate leader to succeed Joe Robinson. Whatever discussion takes place will be of far greater news interest than anything which is likely to occur this summer on the floor of the upper house. The citizens of America may well have a legili= mate interest in knowing just how each one of the 75 participants casts his vote. They will not know. The Democratic Senators will meet behind closed doors. When they are done the only official handout will be the brief announcement as to whether the mantle has fallen on Pat or Alben. To be sure, some of the more talk= ative legislators may spill a little stuff to the newspapermien and women for the purposes of “back=ground.” Fortunately there are quite a number of U. 8. Senators whose motto seems to be sieve and let sieve. But in the main the fate of the New Deal is to be decided in a conference wholly off the record.
Mr. Broun
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T is no stretching of a point to say that the selec tion of Pat Harrison would mean a 99.78 per cent sabotaging of all President Roosevelt's plans and program.
Senator Harrison has maintained a technical resie dence within the confines of the Roosevelt reservae tion, but it is hardly a secret to Pat, his Senatorial associates or to the President as to which side of the great divide is the homeland of the great heart of the gentleman from Mississippi. Pat is not a progressive. Indeed, if anybody addressed him and used that epithet he would undoubtedly reply, “When you call me that, smile.” ” on " LBEN BARKLEY, of Kentucky, was once a raile road man, and holds a union card. He has been in 100 per cent support of the Roosevelt program,
He is on his personal convictions an ardent advocate of the measure to unpack the Court.
It is quite true that Senator Robinson did a worke manlike job as Senate leader for New Deal measures, but it is probably true that in several instances the man from Arkansas did proceed under a kind of party discipline rather than his nwn steam. And in the case of relief he definitely split with the President. Senator Barkley is likely to have much more joy in this assignment. He will play himself in his New Deal leadership, and not be compelled in certain cases to put on makeup. The history of teday, tomorrow and many davs to come will be conditioned hy the choice of the leader who is to direct the fight on the floor of the Senate. And this vital decision is to be reached in a moderately large room partially filled with smoke,
The Washington Merry-Go-Round
Premier Chamberlain Opens New Era of Anglo-American Relations; Told Dominion Ministers That Realignment of Empire Includes U. S.
By Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen
ASHINGTON, July 20—The State Department is not shouting it from the housetops, but a
ty for the adoption of methods | turn
draft of legislation attached complete in every detail. On the court draft the Administration for weeks remained adamant. On the Black-Connery bill, Senator Black promptly recognized its errors and there was no pressure to prevent change. That indicated some change in policy. Now comes the apparent promise in the Barkley letter of a free Congressional hand in methods if only the Administration objectives are reached.
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I’ this is a correct conclusion, it suggests a return to the methods natural to the President's positive genius for executive co-operation in which the legislature somehow sweetly does most of the co-operat-ing—the highly successful method of his first four years. The whole country would welcome just a little of that. It may be a hay-wire conclusion in which the wish is father to the thought, but the President is said to have repeated recently what he so often used to say in the old honeymoon days, “I don’t care a hang about methods—I'm only interested in results.” In one sentence, that is a statement of the ciple which placed him where he is offic the affection of the great mass of Amer
‘while the ‘operative.
new era of diplomatic co-operation with the British Empire has begun. The initiative in this came from the British, and was inspired by Britain's new Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain. At a meeting of Dominion Prime Ministers at the recent Imperial Conference, Chamberlain spoke almost with emotion in his voice of relations with the U. S. A. He said that any alignment between the Dominions and the mother country was inconceivable without the United States. They were discussing the prospects of war in Europe and Asia. The meeting was confidential, but friendly Dominjon representatives arriving in the United States later relayed the information to Secretary Hull. Aside from this, the State Department has concrete evidence that Premier Chamberlain's theories have been put into practice. During Mr. Baldwin's regime, United States officials never knew exactly what British policy was. The Foreign Office seemed always in a fog. Now say British policy seems more definite, _ Office never has been more co-
officials feel that the ys, gs to y &d over the
Bis
be super-careful not to get sucked in by British diplomacy. % ww IGHTY-TWO-YEAR-OLD Andrew W. Mellon, who was Secretary of the Treasury longer than any other man in history, has been seriously ill for some weeks with a cardiac condition. He has been confined to his Washington aparte ment, where he is attended by a day and night nurse, His illness has remained a carefully guarded secret, Anning S. Prall, chairman of the Federal Com-=-munications Commission, probably will not be able to return to his work, due to a severe illness which has resulted in partial paralysis.
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HE Tennessee Valley Authority has become so adept in the matter of building dams and creating artificial lakes that, as if in response to a summer whim, it has thrown in an extra lake for good measure.
Nobody hears about Big Ridge Lake. It is not on the engineers’ drawings for power development or flood control. It is just something that TVA did for the fun of it, like the miniature pie that cook makes for sonny with left-over dough. Maybe it was left-over ‘“‘dough” that built Big Ridge Lake, but the project is rapidly paying for itself, It is purely a gt ional park. On the banks of
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