Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 24 August 1937 — Page 14
PAGE 14
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TUESDAY, AUG. 24, 1937
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SABOTAGING MERIT HE League of Women Voters is calling the merit system roll in forthright fashion on Indiana and other members of the late 75th Congress. Senator VanNuys is one of 73 Senators the League accuses of repudiating their party pledges by voting to strike civil service provisions from the Wage-Hour Bill. Senator Minton was recorded as absent on this issue. Senators, ‘whose recommendations determine the naming of postmasters, failed to pass the Ramspeck bill placing all postmasters under civil service. The bill passed the House. And the House record on civil service is equally unfriendly on measures involving: possible House patronage. It struck civil service from the Senate’s Housing Bill and voted to make all appointees political. Merit system protection for CCC employees was abolished. Neither house passed the President's civil service reorganization plan. Here is the record of Hoosier members as interpreted by the League:
Three votes for the merit system: Ludlow, Jenckes. Two votes for the merit system: Halleck, Farley and Crowe. (Halleck cast one vote against it. Farley and Crowe absent on one
vote). One vote for the merit system: . Boehne, (Pettengill and Boehne voted twice against merit.
other two were absent). ; Greenwood and Larrabee voted twice against merit and were
absent once. Three votes against merit system: Gray.
On this record, and on similar performances by other states, the League declares Congress “ignored the pledges of its own party platforms and showed itself deaf and blind to the most undermining political danger that ever threat-
ened a great democracy. ...” Voters next vear should “look at the record.”
Schulte, Pettengili, Griswold, The
FOR BETTER HOMES HE housing shortage is so acute in Indianapolis that it is the most pressing problem facing thousands of our people. And the shortage is no less severe in most other American cities. One of the best things recovery could produce would be a private building boom, employing billions of dollars of private capital in construction of homes. But they should be good homes—well planned, well built, representing sound investments for their owners and sound security for those who lend money to make them possible. Too often in the past builders of small homes have wasted money on poor plans, shoddy materials and flimsy construction because they felt they couldn’t afford capable architectural and supervisory services. The Federal Home Loan Bank Board, through co-opera-tion with the American Institute of Architects, now offers a Home Building Service Plan that should interest every family thinking of building a home costing less than $7500. Here's how it works: You want to build a home. You apply for a loan to a building-and-loan company which is a member of the FHLB system—there are 3900 such companies—and which has qualified to participate in the plan. If your application is approved, you get not only the loan but also, for a very small fee, the services of a competent architect. He will help you to plan a home suited to your family, your building site and your neighborhood. He will supervise the construction work, seeing that specifications are followed and proper materials used. He probably will save you more money than you pay him, and you certainly will get a better home than you could build without such help. Better homes for American families, more work for architects, contractors and building labor, better loans for lending institutions. added protection for the Government's investment in building-and-loan shares—here is a plan that seems to benefit everybody.
WHAT, NO DERRING-DO? HERE was a time when a beautiful golden-haired princess waving from the grim old tower to questing youth, starry-eyed across the mossy moat, meant gallant deeds, or deathless minstrelsy, or at the very least verse so darn noble and beautiful with renunciation that the very oak trees painted on the backdrop bent with pain.
I have not hoped for this. Now let me die, Having lived. It is my voice, mine, my own, That makes you tremble there in the green gloom Above me . .. y
Well, it happened the other day a little Scottish Boy Scout waved to Princess Elizabeth sitting in the casement of ancient Balmoral. And she waved back!
And when the King’s servant came out (probably not |
on a white horse) and told the Scout to get a move on, he simply did. And all he said was, he felt “like a worm.” What kind of romance is that? Don’t they even have novies in Scotland ?
ILLEGAL MARRIAGES
HE low state of Indiana's marriage marts was dramatized again when a Chicago judge declared all marriages contracted by Illinois couples in Crown Point, Ind., illegal in Illinois. He said children born of such marriages are illegitimate. The judge was acting under his State’s marriage evasion statute. Similar evasion laws in 17 other states put an additional cloud on Indiana’s traffic in over-the-counter marriages. The wholesale evasion of marriage laws that has mushroomed in the Middle West because of the new Illinois and Wisconsin hygienic marriage laws is giving Indiana a national black eye. The next Legislature should rise above the local selfish lobbies that controlled the last session, and reform our marriage laws.
NOTE ON LEADING INDUSTRIES : A GRICULTU RE DEPARTMENT'S estimate of total cash farm income this year—=$9,000,000,000. Total appropriations of annual Congress session just ended—$9,389,488,893.06. TEM od Seas
Traveling Light—By Herblock
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THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES °
TUESDAY, AUG. 24, 1937
You Shudda Seen Those That Got Away !—By Talburt |
AT LEAST HE DID THROW BACK THAT PACKING CASE TOADFISH!
§ — ABUT
Fair Enough
By Westbrook Pegler
How Come Farley Let Walker Have Pension-Qualifying Job Just Now, When It Is a Boost for La Guardia?
EW YORK, Aug. 24.—Don’t evervbody speak at once, but will someone please explain to me how Jim Farley happened to let Jimmy Walker have the $12,000-a-year tailor-made job on the New York Transit Commission just at this time? By doing so, he stirred up all the old smells of the Walker Administration, and dealt a switt kick in the pants to all the millions of poor, earnest mugg-
type citizens who take their citizenship seriously and never can quite convince themselves that office-holding is a racket. There are still a lot of these people in the country. They get cynical now and again, as when Walker took it on the lam for Europe, but they love tc believe in public office as a public trust, and after a while they cool out and return to their well-motto version of politics. They had forgotten all about the Walker Administration when, just at the point of starting another mayoralty campaign, Mr. Farley lets this Walker thing happen. I know Jim is supposed to be a genius and all such as that, but to the simple intelligence of George Spelvin, typical American, this seems to be a spectacular example of rotten timing. Sure, Jim likes to take care of his pals, and it is understood that he takes care of them at the suckers’ expense, for that is politics. Nobody expects him to take care of them out of his own money. ” = "
B". the whole purpose of this Walker thing is to qualify him for a pension of something between $12,000 and $16,000 a year. The time to have done that was at least a year ago, so that by now, with the city campaign warming up, the heat would have been off. So brief is the memory and the indignation of the George Spelvins, Walker might have been able to sail into the mayoralty campaign on behalf of Mr. Farley’s man, Jerry Mahoney, unhampered by the necessity of pausing in the midst of a wise-crack to wipe the smear away. Don’t tell me I am wrong in assuming that Mr. Farley gave them the go-ahead on the Walker business. As. I see it, Little Jim is under obligations to Big Jim, and never would have put himself into the situation, knowing the scandal that was sure to ensue, without Mr. Farley's consent. And that means Mr. Roosevelt’s consent, too, because the President knows what goes on in the organization and Mr. Farley isn’t in the habit of springing surprises on him. = = =
yt
Mr. Pegler
UT what in the world were they thinking of, and what are they trying to do? Are they trying to get Mr. Mahoney licked, because, no kidding, can you think of any worse handicap to a fellow running for cffice than to send out a guy to make speeches for him, who is so busy with his own explanations that every time he opens his mouth he will remind the customers of all they don’t want in public office? His very presence will stir up memories of Sam Seabury’s investigation and of the digs in Mr. Seabury’s recent letter to the Transit Commission which Little Jim very pointedly ignored. To me it looks as though Big Jim and the boss have thrown a castiron life-preserver to their pal, Jerry, but I am not very bright about the subtleties of political genius, and maybe they just want to see how much handicap Mahoney can carry. Maybe they want La Guardia back in there, although that would not be like Mr. Farley.
The Liberal View
Danger Seen That Russia May Enter Present Sino-Japanese Conflict; Act Would Renew Age-Long Struggle Between Orient and Occident.
By Dr. Harry Elmer Barnes EW YORK, Aug. 24.—The danger that Russia may be involved in the war between China and Japan brings up the interesting question as to whether the world will re-enact another drama in the agelong struggle between the East and the West. As soon as a civilization was built up rich enough to attract Oriental envy the wars began. The Egyptians menaced the sea empire of Crete in the third millennium before Christ. The Persians under Darius, Artaphernes and Xerxes sought to destroy Greek power, but they were turned back at Marathon, Thermopylae and Salamis. Under Roman dominion the process was temporarily reversed, the West taking the offensive. Yet even in this age Western aggression was not wholly uncontested. The essentially Oriental Carthage, a Phoenician colony, all but extinguished Roman power.
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ROM the beginning to the end of the Middle Ages Europe was repeatedly invaded from the East. Rome was saved from capture by Attila and his Huns in 452 A, D. only through superstitious fear, in the face of the pleas of Pope Leo. The Moslems invaded Spain in the Eighth Century and tried to exterminate Christian power in the West. Their ad-
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The Hoosier Forum
I wholly disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.—Voltaire.
LAUDS LEFTY GOMEZ FOR PITCHING FEAT By Casey Jones Instead of knocking, kicking, and running down different individuals let’s give one a boost now and then. The one elected by all true sports and sportsmen at this time would be Lefty Gomez. After pitching a game as he pitched Aug. 17, I would say that he is one of the best, if not the greatest, of the sports stars I have heard of for a long time. This act of Mr. Gomez's comes near duplicating a fable I once
heard: Once upon a time there was a boy | who was a star basketball player on a small-town team. This team was | tied for the championship of the county. The play-off was to come at an appointed date. This boy's father was blind, yet he attended every game in which his boy played. Unable to see, he was told by the spectator who sat next to him just what plays his boy was in. On the night before this game was to be plaved, the father died. The boy's schoolmates and outside friends wondered and worried how the team would win without his services. When the team came out to play, the boy was in his regular position, and played one of his most sincere and best games. The team won. His friends wondered how he could play such a brilliant game when his father lay at home dead. One of his best friends asked how he did it. He replied: “My father has attended every game in which I have played and has not seen a play in which I was in, but tonight his eyes have been opened.” I feel that Mr. Gomez was feeling the same way about his mother, who was unable to attend the game which he pitched. He pitched this wonderful game just for her.
$ 4 6 OBJECTS TO NOISEMAKERS WHO PESTER WORKERS By a Tired Office Worker
Every newspaper one reads from the East tells us that officials there are doing everything in their power to eradicate all unnecessary noises, as it had been found noise irritates the nerves. I wonder what wouid they think if they were employed in a downtown office buiiding, with trucks, cars, sirens and every other noise all day long, where the heat makes it necessary to keep the office windows open? What if they heard ‘a siren several blocks away, increasing its noise as it drew nearer, only to find it is one or more - of our city policemen on motorcycles tearing at breakneck speed through the downtown streets and around Monument Circle followed by automobiles or busses carrying some big shot through the city? Are the people paying the police officers money to ride around and announce the coming of every Tom, Dick and Harry that arrives in Indianapolis? They had better em-
ploy their time to other things that
(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.)
are more important. Another thing that should be stopped is wedding parties driving through downtown streets and around the Circle times without number keeping horns tooiing all the time. It is absolutely useless to try to talk over the telephone, especially
| long distance, in some of our down-
town offices because of this small town stuff.
All during the football season the police permit the high school students to come down about the time the offices are closing. Traffic is in a terrible muddle anyway, and these youngsters drive upon the walks around the monument, stop their cars any place they feel like and perform all kinds of stunts. It is high time that some of the people realize that Indianapolis is not a small country town, that people actually work in office buildings in the city.
Suggests Using Country.
If some people must blow off steam and celebrate everything that comes along, let them drive out in the country some place and let’s make them realize that this is a city, not. a hick town. Do you see such things in New York, Chicago or Louisville? Not much, The police officers there enforce the traffic laws and stop unnecessary tooting of horns on all cars, wedding cars included. Let our policemen spend their time trying to enforce laws, and not ride through the downtown streets at breakneck speed with sirens screeching, heralding a new car, a visitor or some silly thing.
" = » ‘ABOVE WANT' PENSIONS ARE URGED FOR AGED By H. V. Allison In the first chapter of the New Deal much was said in regard to
doing away with the Poor House and pensioning the aged sufficiently
CAN'T TAKE IT
By CLIFF HANSBERRY I've turned your picture to the wall (Had a mind to break it) Since from your graces I did fall— Guess I just can’t take it.
DAILY THOUGHT
Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer; and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.—I John 3, 15.
O live is not to live for one’s self alone; let us help one another.—~Menander.
to maintain a good standard of living. A fair start was made, giving a pension of $30 a month. This did not suit Mr. McNutt. He called an extra session, got around paying the $30 a. month, and the Baker welfare relief setup was started.
It got under full steam giving out lean pensions.’ In a speech Mr, McNutt said the aged were well cared for. The same week a letter in The Times by Mr. Baker said that with his 70 investigations he was keeping the pensions near $10. A month later a pot shot from Washington winged several of the setup and left it in poor shape to face the Republican firing squad in the coming campaign. The unemployment anc old-age pension problem can be solved by using fundamental principles already giving satisfaction. Take, for example, the railroads. They retire the old on a pension-and put young men in their places. The same plan will work with the government—a merit system. A man or woman of good moral character who has lived an active life and has been a useful citizen should be retired on a pension, enough to keep them above want. We have with us the unfortunate who, for some reason, think the world owes them a living. Those we will have to retire to the Poor House where better days.
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PRAISES EDITORIAL CITING CONGRESS’ WORK
By Charles E. Black, Chairman of Local No. 80, Workers Alliance of Indiana
In regard to your editorial Aug. 20 oh the march to Washington for the Schwellenbach and Allen Resolution, and protesting the unjust cuts made on WPA, I wish to commend you for your stand that Congress had not done the job for which it was sent and that it should have listened to the mass protests and appropriated a much larger sum for relief. The fact remains that there are still millions of people who are able and willing to work if work could be found. Now the march on Washington was demanded by a inajority of the members of the Workers Alliance, protesting the layoffs and asking Congress and the President to do something about it. Also it will serve to let the people know ‘that the depression is still with us even though business has reached the 1929 level, and that the problem of unemployment is still unsolved and something should be done. We are only asking for the right to live and work, and we feel that as American citizens in a land where there is plenty for all we should be entitled to some of it and not allowed to starve as some of our reactionary fellow beings seem to think. We know that it was only through greed and mismanagement that we became thrown out of our jobs, and that it is only because of the same that we are being cut out of the little existence we have--the WPA.
they will see
It Seems to Me
'By Heywood Broun
Columnist, Looking Forward to Vacation, Is Attracted by Idea of 'Evaporating' With Feet on Ground,
EW YORK, Aug. 24.—A lawyer who was acting for Father Divine said the other day that his client, if pressed too hard by enemies, might simply ‘‘evaporate” and not return to this world for 1900 years.
It is a good trick if it can be done. In fact, I have been looking into the possibilities for myself of sitting out a couple of waltzes in the dance of life. Nineteen hundred years would be a bit too long for my purpose. At the end of such a vacation one would return to a completely repainted world in which everything would be new except the after-dinner stories. In our folklore Rip Van Winkle is accounted a foolish fellow, and yet there was nothing of un~ wisdom in his nap, save that he failed to leave a call. He stayed away too long. Accordingly, it is just as well that the vacation due me runs only for a week. I seem to hear an ugly murmur from the mob, and as nearly as I can make out the comment it runs, “What have you been doing all through the year but lolling back and taking a good long rest tor yourself?”
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TT question is something less than completely fair. Many jobs are much harder than they seem. The number of words in a newspaper column may be insignificant, but just think of the nervous strain. Pity every poor serf who has a daily rendezvous with a deadline. Besides, there are such things as extracurricular activities.
In the last few weeks I made at least a dozen speeches in almost as many cities. One of the orations in Chicago lasted two hours and a half, and the hall temperature was 95. An address as long as that is pretty wearing—even on the speaker. Indeed, on that occasion both the members of the audience and the visiting fireman were prepared to admit that they had been through a battle,
= ” ” ND so for one week all my answers will be terse and mostly “No,” I hope. If any further exe planation is required I trust that “not until the sun crosses the yardarm,” will be sufficient. I am looking for a cave with modern improvements and a radio, so
that I can lie flat and listen to Ben Bernie in an effort to learn from the old maestro the art of charming an audience. The precise manner of getting away from it all has given me no little trouble. There are no caverns in the town itself, and the farm near
Mr. Broun
‘Stamford will not be the most restful place in the
world until the weather forecasters cease from troubling with their daily predictions of “warmer and local thunderstorms.” I wish I had a cyclone cellar, for these meteorolo= gists so far this summer have been generous to a fault. All the brightest electrical displays have centered just above my rooftree. The other night I listened to a man who knew a man who said he had seen the Indian rope trick. You know, a boy climbs up a rope and disappears into thin air. But I have decided not to try that. It is not the melting into thin air which bothers me, but how on earth would I ever get up the rope? I guess I'll see if it may not be possible for me to keep both feet upon the ground and still evaporate for seven days.
The Washington Merry-Go-Round
President Will Recall Congress If Public Backs Him, Claim; Goofy New York Politics Align Communists With G. O. P. Old Guard.
the grandson of Genghis Khan came in the middle of the 13th Century. The Mongols penetrated far enough to defeat the Germanic defenders of Europe in 1241, but they ultimately retired to Russia, where they maintained their dominion until 148C. o n n TT Turks followed and captured Constantinople © in 1453. They threatened to overrun western Europe, but finally the forces of Christendom, led by John Sobieski, the Polish King, turned them back from the gates of Vienna in 1683. Except for later piratical ralds in the Mediterranean, the Turks were the last Oriental threat to the West for many centures. The tables were soon turned. The great riches of the East were opened up after the Crusades. Greater prosperity and strength came to the West as a result of the new commerce. More powerful armies and navies were forthcoming. = 2 ” [oa was parceled out and ultimately swallowed A up by Britain. China was the next victim. Durin the greater part of the 19th Century she was regarded as fair prey for Westerners. The: World War may, however, have marked the turning point in the drama of the conflict between East and West. While the Western nations were cutting one another’s throats to satisfy false pride or ‘selfish ambitions, Japan calmly took advantage of the
By Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen ASHINGTON, Aug. 24—It's a 50-50 proposi¥Y tion whether the President will call Congress back in special session in November.
His personal inclination is to do so. Also, some.
of his close advisers are strongly urging this course on the ground that delay until January might materially increase the difficulties of putting through his unfinished legislative program. On the other hand, the congressional floor leaders to a man are vigorously opposed to a special session, They have told Mr. Roosevelt he would gain nothing by recalling Congress two months early, but would risk antagonizing many members who don’t want to be brought back. No decision on the matter is likely until late September or early October, after the President has had a chance to canvass the political situation and sound out the trend of public sentiment. If he satisfies himself that popular opinion is with him, the boys are going to be brought back and put to work whether they like it or not. 8 » »
1= maddest irony of the mad political scramble . in New York City is the coalition of silk-stocking Republicans with cop-fighting Communists. Focal
point of this weird amalgam is Thomas E. Dewey
La Guardia has the support of labor because of his liberal policies. The Republican organization backs him because it wants to win the election, but the G. O. P, Old Guard definitely doesn't like him.
It is in the hope of winning over this die-hard wing that Senator Copeland, Tammany's New Dealbaiting candidate, is running against Mr. La Guardia in the Republican primary, as well as in the Democratic primary against anti-Tammany Democrat Jeremiah T. Mahoney. ! But there is no Republican split in regard to Mr. Dewey. He will be the sole nominee for District Attorney in the G. O. P, primary,
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FoR years ago the Republican-Fusion group, which elected Mr. La Guardia Mayor, got Tom Dewey appointed special prosecutor to investigate rackets. Mr. Dewey's sensational conviction of 70 racketeers has made him solid with the businessmen and “best people,” most of them, in New York, Republicans. At the same time, his prosecutions have won him labor backing because they have driven racketeers out of many crook-ridden unions. He is supported by the same liberal-labor group which supports Mr, La Guardia. adn The punists enter the ;
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