Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 29 July 1937 — Page 14
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‘and industry failed to regulate themselves. they tolerated brought on the truth-in-securities law, the |
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THE INDIANA
The Indianapolis Times
ROY W. HOWARD LUDWELL DENNY President Editor
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ER Rlley 5551
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THURSDAY, JULY 29, 1937
CROPS, PRICES AND LAWS BUMPER crops and good prices. Not in years have American farmers had both these blessings at the same time. But now that combination is working its magic. And, agriculture being our basic industry, its prosperity will spread through our whole economic life. Chairman Jones of the House Agriculture Committee has introduced in Congress a bill designed to maintain parity prices and establish an “ever-normal granary” for major crops, reserves to be stored in fat years and distributed in lean years.
production quotas. But other farm leaders, seeing that overproduction now threatens the corn growers and fearing that surpluses will accumulate in other crops, think more stringent production controls are necessary. : Their point of view, we think, is sound. But they are waging their fight under unfortunate circumstances. Congress does not know how far it can go in regulating farm production. The Supreme Court said, in its AAA decision, that Congress couldn't go far. Although in later decisions the Court has expressed very different ideas of Congressional powers, the question is still in the twilight zone. Congress, now at the fag end of a session, will not easily be persuaded to stay on the job and find a solution. But, unless Congress does work out adequate production
controls, let us hope it will adjourn without legislating any |
good intentions about parity prices and an ever-normal granary. Such were the good intentions that resulted in the Hoover Farm Board fiasco. No plan to keep up prices and reserves can succeed without penalties that keep down planting.
REGULATING LABOR VER the years, the trend toward bigness in has been accompanied by a mounting public sentiment for Government regulation. And now, with the rapid growth of organized labor, there seems to be a correspondingly spectacular rise in pub-
Safer, Slower, Saner—By
ivy gt ee -— A Ae *
Kirby
It would depend on the soil conservation pay- | ments and liberal crop loans to induce farmers to abide by |
Fo ee ae
OLIS TIMES
hy :
THURSDAY
How Time Flies!—By Herblock
SAY! BY THE WAY = WHAT BVER HAPPENED TO THAT "ERA OF GOOD EEELING THAT WAS USHERED Nn LAST NOVEMBER?
Fair Enough
By Westbrook Pegler
Fascism, Nazism and Communism All of One lk, Says Columnist, Citing Them as Peril to Democracy. EW YORK, July 29.—It would simplify
matters in our xesistance to that formless and somewhat exaggerated menace
known to the trade as subversive alien in-
| |
lic sentiment for Government regulation of labor unions. |
The “America Speaks” poll, with a record of remark-
|
able accuracy in gauging public opinion, reports that 69 per |
cent of the voters it polled voted “yes” to the question:
“Do you think labor unions s b r the | - s should be regulated by the | obviously feel foolish in this, so the
Government 7”; that 86 out of every 100 voters favored
incorporation of unions; and that 89 out of every 100 | favored a mediation system, such as that now employed in |
the railway industry, for industry as a whole. This noticeable trend in public opinion is something which responsible labor leaders cannot afford to ignore. The future development of a strong and democratic labor
| treat them as one and the same thing. L.siness
fluence, if we should consolidate those two
influences—communism and fascism—and In practical effect they are the same, Naziism, of course, is merely a German imitation of fascism, with special features suited to the peculiarities of the Germans. Hitler copied Mussolini’s blackhand method of organization, and the Nazi salute is exactly the same as the Italian gesture, except the Germans have reduced it to a perfunctory flip of the hand. The Germans, furthermore, are required by law to say, “Heil Hitler,” in giving the salute, but they
password, like the high-sign, has been abbreviated, and is @ow pronounced “Hiddler,” usu under the breath. : The Nazi differs from the Fascist in one impor-
Mr. Pegler
| tant respect, and this difference makes Nazis almost
| identical with the Communists. The Fascists protect
| the Christian religion as a matter of practical politics,
| but the Nazis are anti-Christian. | Christianity provides a common tie with other peoples
movement depends largely upon how labor itself meets its |
new responsibilities. We hope that labor will quickly justify its new power and that it will prove it can be depended upon to regulate
itself—that it will not make the same mistake big business |
made when it brought down upon itself the legal restraints which would have been unnecessary had there existed a larger sense of public responsibility.
The captains and lieutenants and sergeants of finance |
The abuses | of war, and it would be a religious duty of the pagan
stock market control law, the utility holding company law, |
a rash of banking laws, and are responsible today for the
existence of strong public sentiment for additional legisla- ! | thing, in return for protection of the Christian re-
tion in respect to wages and hours, child labor and mo- | jigion.
nopolies. ' We trust that the leaders and the rank and file of ceganized labor will show themselves smarter. For we would hate to see the Fascist implications which a wave of overregulation of labor might bring forth.
FAUNTLEROY WAS NO SISSY HERE must be a great many middle-aged male Americans who feel a very special sense of pride that Vivian Burnett died a hero's death. He was the original Little Lord Fauntleroy. He spent most of his 61 years trying strenuously to live down the fact that his mother, Frances Hodgson Burnett, had taken him as a model for the excessively sweet and noble Cedric of her famous story. “I was a perfectly normal boy,” he used to say; “I got just as dirty as the other boys.” Thousands of other members of this generation know from painful experience what he suffered. Their mothers tried to make Fauntleroys of them. They had to wear velvet suits and long golden curls when their ambition was to look like Huckleberry Finn and act like Peck’s Bad Boy. Some of our toughest he-men, beyond doubt, got that way in rebellion against the affront to their young masculinity for which the Fauntleroy vogue was responsible, The legion of ex-Fauntleroys should glory in knowing that their prototype, Vivian Burnett, was willing to strain his aging heart beyond endurance to rescue four persons from drowning in Long Island Sound.
CARRY ON! : T would be pound foolish to allow the La Follette Senate Civil Liberties Committee to fold up from lack of funds, as it must unless the Senate votes more wherewithal. Here is one committee that has more than paid its way. Financed for a year with only $55,000 and depending largely on volunteer help, this little body has turned the light on some of the darkest spots in our democracy. Right now lawless gangs are forming and in some cities vigilantism threatens to supplant law and order. If ever the civil liberties of the people needed guardians it is now. The members of this committee have earned the confidence of the country by their courageous and dispassionate geal for facts. ; There is much work ahead for them. The Senate should {et them carry on.
&
They feel that whom they may be required to kill, so, to prevent fraternalism from extending béyond their horders they have tried two methods. The first holds that the founder of Christianity had a special affection for that geographical area known as Germany and a hatred for all human beings residing outside that zone.
The other, propagated by Gen. Ludendorff and
| Adolf Hitler's special bodyguard, known as the Black
Corps, insists that Christianity is nonsense, and that there are special gods, local to the country, who are
. much better, because, being entirely German, they will
not be accepted by any other race. Thus, there would be no common religious tie with the enemy in time
Nazi to kill all infidels whether Christian, atheists, Mohammedans or Jews. u n ” HE Fascists, however, der. ‘nd certain services or certain acquiescences amounting to the same
Christianity in Italy is controlled to serve a political system which is repugnant to the Christians of the free countries, and a constant menace to their peace and their lives. The Russian Communists have no God unless it be the mummy of Lenin. The Fascists pretend to keep hands off the family and the home, but little boys are taken into military training at the age of “6 and the education of the young constantly points them in the direction of war. And any father, mother or clergyman who tells a child it was wrong, and not God’s will that Italians go a-killing in Abyssinia or Spain, had better bar the door. The Italian teaching of children strives to implant the desire to shoot people, and the motto of Italian youth, lettered on their neckerchiefs and on the hilts of their toy daggers, is not “We play fair,” or “Do one good deed every day,” but “We shoot straight.” ” =n = BYE so far as government and human property rights are concerned, communism, fascism and naziism are all alike, and all enemies of the American ideal of democracy. Hitler does business and enjoys great prestige with his people as the arch-enemy of communism, but if he and Mussolini were to get together with Stalin of Russia in an honest meeting they would find that they have no quarrel at all. They Su believe in the same things and use the same me S.
General Hugh Johnson Says—
Passage of Wages and Hours Bill in Absence of Public Understanding Would Be a National Calamity and a Blow to Principle of Democracy.
ETHANY BEACH, Del, July 29.—The defeated Court plan was only the foundation of the legis Hive Suc proposed by the Third New Deal since an. 1. The body of that structure was (1) the original Black-Connery Bill, designed to center the power to fix all wages and hours in industry in a Federal board; (2) the Wallace Farm Bill, designed to set up oneman control of agriculture by donating to Mr. Wallace the power and discretion to subsidize farm compliance and political support from a vast lump-sum appropriation; (3) continuation of the idea of lumpsum appropriations, under complete executive control and discretion; (4) the seven TVA's plan of economic provinces; (5) the Government reorganization plan, transferring to the Executive all the great Congressional commissions of our ‘quasilegislative and quasiJudicial system; (6) contihuation of executive control of the value of money; (7) donation of the power to conduct economic war in the neutrality acts. ® » @w T= foundation of all this—the Court plan—has failed. But all that means is that, if a oneman government is set up, through the=other pro-
posals, the courts still may strike down the structure. in whole or in part. But if it was so frightful a |
thing as to knock out the Court plan—its foundation—why set it up at all? Make no mistake about
3 i
The Hoosier Forum
1 wholly disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.—Voltaire.
DECLARES SUPREME COURT HAS BAD RECORD By W. F. Smith, Cambridge City
Anyone of my age that has had good knowledge ‘of public welfare will tell you that the Supreme Court is a nuisance and has had a bad record. I was past 8 years old when Fit. Sumter was fired upon. I remember it was a cold, bleak morning when we got the news, and many a time I went to the train and bought the Boston Transcript. In all the days of the Civil War, the Supreme Court decisions were published for many days before and after the decision, and it was a ques- | tion of could they get by. The Government went ahead, and money and currency had to suffer through changes. The soldier got $13 per month, which did not buy much. When he got his bounty to leave his folks and family, three or four hundred did not go far, and the Supreme Court did not help him at all. Nor does the Court limit the price of electricfty and utilities, which is much higher here than in England, where the English High Court functions.
yy 9% W SMALL TOWN HELD BETTER THAN (ITY
By Johnny, Greenwood
John Brown owns a small town dry goods store. John is successful because his stock and his store are up-to-date and because he believes in his community of 2000. Several years ago Johnny became dissatisfied with the small town life. On Sundays he saw most of his friends motoring to the city, and on week days many of them drove to the city to trade; he failed to note the steady stream of cily folks that were country bound. Convinced that the trend was definitely to the city, Johnny neglected his store and eventually had to sell. He opened a store in the great city. The neighborhood looked like big business because of the many chain food stores and little shops. Business was exceedingly slow. Most of the merchants lived behind or above their stores. The merchants came early and stayed late—keeping much longer hours than their country brethren. The trading area was limited to about three blocks each way with business so competitive that the trading population was not over 800 people. During 1935 and 1936 there were 42 changes in ownership or failures in business on this street within a few blocks, while in Johnny's small town the casualties were only two. Before spring came, the merchants all said “as soon as it gets warm, business will be better” and during the hot summer “as soon as it gets cool—the people will get out and buy.” To Johnny's amazement everyone was exceedingly price-conscious and seemingly spent all their money on a car, high rents and food. Johnny found himself no longer an individual but just a cog. In January, Johnny moved to his small town again with its popula-
| split.
tion of 2000 and trading area of 700
(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.)
farm people. His week-day business is as good as it was in the great city, and his Saturday trade far in excess. Today Johnny is working hard because he found that the other pasture wasn't as green as his own backyard. ” ” » PONDERS ON RESULTS OF COURT BILL BATTLE
By Paul Masters, Anderson
For many weeks the battle over the President’s Supreme Court Bill has been raging. From coast to coast it has been the leading topic of discussion. Not since the battle over the League of Nations has any legislative question caused sO much discussion or created such hard feelings. President Wilson and his League of Nations split the Democratic Party and now President Roosevelt is heading this party into another Will the defeat of this bill be the end of the measure? Was the bill returned to committee in time to avert a party break that will bring defeat in the next election? A great deal of damage already has been done and hard feelings have arisen. What will be the result if Democratic leaders in this state, led hy Governor Townsend, turn down Senator VanNuys and nominate some puppet to replace him? Will the people of the State of Indiana blindly follow party leaders who OLD LOVE By HARRIETT S. OLINICK Oh you have ruined so many things for me: My china cups, my dusk-fiiled hour for tea, My patch that leads to hill tops and the stars, Far from the strife of men, floods, of wars; My blue wing chair that once you liked to use; My silver frock to match my dancing shoes.
of
Oh you have left me crying in the dusk, And holding close the remnant of love's husk. Oh where shall I go and what shall I do To lose the sight and the pain of you?
DAILY THOUGHT
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the.glory which shall be revealed in us. ns 8:18,
God washes the eyes by tears until they can behold the invisible land where tears shall come no
| farms with a population of 5600 | more.—H. W. Beecher.
place party loyalty ahove loyalty to the nation? Do the Supreme Court and the Constitution of the United States belong to the party in power or to the people? Should the President dictate the action of the United States Senate or should the Senate represent the people? Consider these questions and remember, be you Democrat or Republican, pro-New Deal or anti=. New Deal, the day will come when some man other than Roosevelt will occupy the White House. Shall the present Administration set a precedent which will open the door to dictatorship in America? ” ” ”
STATE NOT READY FOR DICTATOR, HE SAYS By E. F. Maddox
Governor Townsend took in too much territory when he claimed “the people” of Indiana favored the Judiciary Reform Bill, or the compromise bill. Indiana is normally a Republican state. I think that at least 50 per cent of the Democrats had common sense enough to see the dangers in the Court Bill. Not all Democrats are “yes men,” and the Governor must remember that the Two Per Cent Club and the WPA do not represent the will of all Indiana Democrats. And the McNutt-Townsend machine may not be strong enough to bulldoze the Hoosier Democrats into knifing a truly courageous Democrat like Frederick VanNuys because he would not sell his American principles for a mess of New Deal pottage. The Republicans and real constitutional Democrats should form an Independent National Democratic Party in Indiana and send Mr. VanNuys back to the Senate to help guard our liberties. We are not ready for a big dictator in the White House, or a little dictator in the State House. 4 un ” U. S. HAS DEMOCRACY, WRITER ASSERTS,
By John F. Mever We have democracy in America. Most European countries, whether they be Fascists or Communists, haven't. How do they differ from democracy? Democracy represents rule by the people for the people. The rights of individual come first. Fascism is rule by a dictator for the state, a super-colored highly nationalized government, The right of the individual is subjected at all times and in all things to the state. He may have some few liberties, property being one.
Communism offers rule by a dic- |, tator for the state, the state being |
a select group of those belonging to the Communist Party proper (less than 1 per cent of the population comprise the state in Russia). 1 rights of the individual are subi jected to the state. He can't. own property, choose his party, organize for labor, etc. . Democracy gives freedom; fascism, little freedom, but doesn’t impair the state: communism gives no freedom-—agree with the dictator or =the purge. { We do not have to choose hetween communism or fascism; we have democracy.
right of |
It Seems to Me By Heywood Broun
Declared a Professional Liberal, Columnist Rises to State That He Ig Merely an ‘Independent Liberal."
NEW YORK, July 29.—1I find myself described in my home paper as a “profes sional liberal.” My answer is, “Oh, go on.” Maybe once upon a time I was an amae teur liberal or even a semiprofessional one,
but certainly I never was taken even on a training trip of any big league liberal club. Perhaps I am subject to censure. Of late I have devoted a good deal of space to reading self-professed
liberals out of the marching and chowder club. Anybody has a right to say, “By what authority do you set yourself up as a sort of Archbishop of Canterbury to say what is orthodox and what is heretical in the liberal faith?” And the answer would have te be, “I am covering too much ters. ritory in asserting any such privie lege.” So be it. Burton K. Wheeler of Montana is a liberal in good standing. And so is Amos Finchot, and that includes Senator Nye ia spite of his injudicious co-opera= tion with a roving press agent for Republic. ” ” ” F Tom Girdler wants to get in who am I to cast a blackball against him? Obviously anybody who writes an opinion under the label of a lighthouse qualifies without any possible dissent from an oute sider. My only fair complaint is that if the entrance requirements are made extremely easy I do hot want to have my name on the rolls of those clamoring for permission ‘to matriculate. From this day on it will be a question of swords or pistols in the case of any= one who uses that fighting term in connection with me. Those who call me a liberal are warned to smile when they utter the word. Perhaps that raises the question as to what I am*. if not a liberal. Plaintively I ask if I have to be anys * thing. My own choice would be to be termed an independent radical, but that, like “liberal,” covers such a wide kingdom that it might mean anything or nothing at all. There was a character in a play written some 20 years ago by Harvey O'Higgins who asserted that he belonged to a church which had not yet been founded, Tha’ is really my own estate, Once I belonged to the Socialist Party, but the party and I ran into a mixup about “party discipline.” First of all T was haled up on charges for having ° written about Al Smith in much too friendly fashion, * I wish to point out that ‘this was many years ago, Next I was summoned to appear before the central ‘committee because I had agreed to speak at a united front meeting in favor of the release of the Scottsboro defendants,
Mr. Broun
® ® » UCH goings-on made me feel like a member of the Light Brigade, even though I was not quite the type. After all, I had eannons to the right and to the left of me. And so I said in Garbo fashion, “I think I go home.” And there I am today until my particular kind of church. is created. And I want to see the day of jits dawning, I am not a Communist, but neither am ‘I ah anarchist, which is the direct antithesis. I want to have the warm feeling of standing elbow to elbow with other people. There is no comfort in being an independent radical if you are the only one of that breed now extant. We could organize. But the moment we organize there will be the need of discipline, and there we will al! be back where we started.
The Washington Merry-Go-Round
Love and Kisses Among Democrats Seen Merely Temporary Lull in Fight; Court Issue Post-Mortem Reveals Garner Dealt Death Blows to Plan,
principle, local self-government and Congressional independence. The objectives of those bills—abolition of sweatshops and child labor, a floor under wages and ‘a ceiling over hours, plus the principle of price equality for agriculture with other industry--these are necessary and were underwritten by both parties and candidates in the last campaign. But it is not necessary in attaining these objectives, so greatly to change our form of Government—to take away the powers of the states and of Congress and to give them to the Executive until the latter can be self. perpetuating and almost all-powerful.
” ” ” HERE would be very little danger of that happening if the contents and implications of these bills were well-known to the country. But they are not. The original Black-Connery bill had some hurried hearings before a joint committee. It was proved so bad that it had to be hastily rewritten removing some of its worst, features. The revised bill still has the center vices of the old bill, but it has had almost ho publicity. The Wallace farm bill has been publicized only in a few boiled-down units of its contents and with very little discussion or ‘informed comment.
By Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen
ASHINGTON, July 20.—You hear a lot of talk around Capitol lobbies that the Supreme Court fight is over, and everything is now love and kisses in the Democratic Party. But don't be deceived. There may be a temporary lull in the battle, but it will be very temporary. The real issue today is: Will the: Roosevelt program go on? : The program, so far, has been whipped through by the scourge of the depression and by overwhelming popular demand. But now the depression is over, pub= lic opinion is more complacent, and Mr. Roosevelt has suddenly suffered a terrific defeat. White House advisers are putting out the story that the defeat was neither significant nor important. But they are whistling in their beards. 4 ” » ” PET-MORTEMS aré dreary, but in the case of the ‘Supreme Court fight there are some significant lessons to be gained from reviewing the strategy by which the President lost it. : There were, of course, errors in failing to take Senators into his confidence; letting Attorney General Cummings get him off oh such wrong steers as old age ization and letting his I al ! opponents drag oul e until Chief Justice Hughes could spring favorable
cated privately his willingness to accept a compromise, He wanted to scrap the six-judge increase for a two= judge increase. This would create a Supreme Court of 11 justices, one each for the 11 judicial oifcuits. But Joe Robinson opposed. Reason was that by some quirk of gerrymandering, Arkansas (Joe's state, is in the Eighth Circuit with Minnesota. But since Minnesota already has a man on the bench=-Pierce Butler=the plan of appointing a judge for eath circuit would not have helped Joe. ' Shortly after the resignation of Justice Van Dee vanter, Joe galvanized into action: My. Roosevelt cone veyed to him the idea that while no appointment was possible, as a lone judge, he could be appointed among a panel of several younger men.
OE'S death gave Jack Garner the opportunity to return and assume command in the Senate. Jack had sworn to. follow his “leader” wherever he might lead. . When he talked to the President just after his arrival, Mr. Garner said a compromise was possible. But to Senator Wheeler, leader of the opposition, he sang another song. He told him to “write his own . ticket.” Also he inspired seven Democrats to make a statement that they would vote against the President. In brief, i. Cha sib ui Sonia of thé . situation and sol . Roosevelt down the river. Tos * day some Wry harsh words about the Vice President