Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 3 September 1937 — Page 20

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The Indianapolis Times

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

W. HOWARD LUDWELL DENNY President Editor

ROY

Owned and published daily (except Sunday) by The Indianapolis Times Publishing Co. 214 W. Maryland St.

ty, 3 cents a copy; deliv-

a week.

in Indiana, $3 a year; outside of Indiana, 65 cents a month.

RIley 5551

Give Light end the Pcople Will Find Their Own Way

Member of United Press, Scripps - Howard Newspaper Alliance, NEA Service, and Audit Bureau of Circulations.

FRIDAY, SEPT. 3, 1937

JOHN KERN'S APPOINTMENT JOHN W. KERN has the qualifications needed to fill his new position on the U. S. Board of Tax Appeals with credit. He has a judicial temperament. He sees things objectively. He has an incisive mind and is no novice at figures. His educational and legal background, his fine family tradition and his experience in public office, including a term as Superior Court Judge, are factors in his favor. President Roosevelt's selection is sure to meet widespread approval in Indiana. We join his many friends in congratulating Mr. Kern and wishing him success. As Mayor, John Kern has given Indianapolis an administration as good as the average American city has and better than some, but he will not go down in history as a great Mayor. Sound tax policies have kept the City solvent, given it relatively low tax rates. Mayor Kern has helped develop the merit principle in public personnel. The worst of the rackets that have plagued Chicago, Cleveland and some other cities in the last decade have been kept out of Indianapolis. John Kern's friends have been disappointed chiefly because he did not do as much for Indianapolis as he might have done, because he was more willing to com= promise than to fight, because he did not take a more vigorous stand on some issues or go down fighting for needed reforms. We mention these things without rancor, for essentially John Kern is a realist and it is no secret that he has not relished the job of Mayor since he discovered the hamstringing political limitations of his post.

= » t 2

E believe he has an important story to tell the citizens

» n

who have been his constituents since 1935. We should

like to hear him say in a farewell message: “I went into office eager for the responsibilities of heading a great municipality. I was soon to learn the red tape and political machinery surrounding those responsibilities, throttling reforms, honeycombing departments with patronage, undermining good government. I learned there was truth in what Lincoln Steffens said about Cincinnati In its municipal dark ages, run-down, boss-ruled, machine-ridden. Not that Indianapolis iS in that category now, for it isn’t, but our system is inherently bad. “Indianapolis needs the machinery and technique to resist the onslaught of politics. It needs a leadership that can reach through and beyond our ‘good citizens’ and command the support of the great majority, which also is made up of good citizens. “Our City is on the upswing. period in business and growth and prosperity. coming harder to think realistically about politics. But we must think realistically, or pay heavily while postponing an autopsy on our municipal government. We

out the patronage system and suvplant it with expert municipal government that can win popular favor. After

nearly three years at City Hall, I am convinced that our | road—Ilike that which won Cincinnati praise as ‘best-gov- |

erned city in America’—lies through the City Manager system.” : That would be a splendid heritage for the retiring Mayor to leave the people of Indianapolis.

MR. LEWIS, MEET MR. GREEN

RESIDENT. GREEN of the A. F. of L. invites Chairman Lewis of the C. I. O. to come and “without condition” bring his 10 suspended unions to the Federation’s October convention and there fight out their craft vs. industrial union jurisdictional disputes “in the true democratic way within the family of labor.” This sounds like a fair proposition. True. the Lewis group would be on hostile ground, but to offset that they would bring their greatly increased voting strength to the convention floor. Mr. Green suggests that a joint committee from each group could be named to work out a settlement, in which the C. 1. 0. would retain organization of the mass-produc-tion industries and the Federation the craft trades. There would be difficulties in those industries where each side has been stepping over the other's lines and there are ugly scars from months of name-calling and worse. But, as Mr. Green says, these scars would be easier healed today than a year hence. If Mr. Green speaks sincerely and with the backing of his executive council this latest gesture should offer some hope for a reunited labor movement. Mr. Lewis is silent, however, and will have his say in a radio talk tonight. Baffled bystanders fervently hope that these two labor groups find some way to settle their interunion rows off the public highway and out of court. In cities all over the country A. F. of L.-C. I. O. rows are being fought out with boycotts, strikes, picketing and even fists. Ofter the employers are innocent; always the public is; and the workers who lose their jobs thereby are the most tragic of the victims. For the sake of workers, employers and the public, we hope Mr. Lewis will not slam the door on this or any other overture that gives hope of intralabor peace. If his groups cannot rejoin the Federation, let them at least set up an arbitration “court” jointly with the Federation - to settle questions of jurisdiction. Surely labor statesmanship can find a better way to bring unionism through these changing times than by cat-and-dog fighting.

The merit system always seems to get more support from legislators between sessions.

Ernie Pyle reports that the Matanuska colonists are ‘¥‘plagued by a feeling of insecurity.” + Still 100 per cent Americans. i |

MARK FERREE Business Manager |

Price in Marion Coun- |

ered by carrier, 12 cents

Mail subscription rates

should |

realize that if our City is to go on and up we must throw | | could afford to hire big names to go up toc Saratoga

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

Suffering Is Only Relative—By Herblock

FRIDAY, SEPT. 3 193

Well, We

SRE

k Who’s

gic

IT LOOKS LIKE YOU'D HAVE TO DROWN IT AGAIN!

Back —By Talburt

BET

ky AL REA

oad

—

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

George Spelvin, Average American, | AWARDS BROUN PRIZE |

Advises Governor Lehman of Open Gaming on Big Scale at Saratoga.

NEW YORK, Sept. 8.— Honorable H. H. Lehman Governor of New York Albany, N. Y. Dear Sir—From your recent statement regarding the Federal injunction which has permitted a dog track to operate with open, illegal gambling at Mineola, L. I, I take it that you are opposed to illegal gambling, not only on the dogs but on the dice, the wheel, the box or whatever. Well, sir, I am going to give you the surprise of your life. Saratoga (N. Y., a few miles from where you live in Albany, during the horse meeting which closed last Saturday, was one of the greatest gambling centers

that this country has ever known. I am not kidding, Mr. Lehman.

{| Not only in the horse papers, but : : . | in the general circulation papers, We are in a revival | So it is be- |

there were many references to the great gambling season that the boys were enjoying in Saratoga in August. It was a season reminis-

Mr. Pegler

{ cent of the era of wonderful nonsense, and things werc

so open this year that they even mentioned the names and locations of the playrooms in cold print and the names of the high rollers. The fix was in, everything was right, the play was so big tLat the operators

and blow sweet wind through brass horns or squawk sad songs about love to lure the customers into. the stores.

" » n

AYBE you don't know that the illegal gambling industry thrives by the corruption of certain local politicians. Fact, though. Don’t take my word for this illegal gambling at Saratoga, Governor Lehman. You have cops at your command and friends who: know their way around. You ask them and they will confirm what I have said. You needn't be ashamed, Mr. Governor, because plenty of other Goverriors before you didn’t have the slightest inkling that there were gambling houses in Saratoga, just a pleasant hour’s drive of a summer evening from the Governor's mansion in Albany.

" ="

N the other hand, Mr. Governor, maybe you should have known that this summer and during every summer that you have been in Albany, Saratoga was a great center of illegal crap games, horse rooms, roulette, faro, bird cage and other games of little or no chance. On further thought, Mr. Governor, in view of the notorious size and boldness of the illegal gambling operations in Saratoga, you make me uneasy by your statement that you “are advised” that thou-

| sands of dollars are wagered nightly in defiance of | state penal laws at the Mineola dog track under pro- | tection of a Federal injunction restraining the local

officials from doing their duty. There wasn’t any injunction to restrain the local officials from doing their duty in Saratoga right in your own neighborhood, was there? Yours very truly,

GEORGE SPELVIN, THE AVERAGE AMERICAN.

| {

{ broke up. .. .

The Hoosier Forum

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

AS PHRASE-MAKER By Daniel Francis Clancy

I here award the best-phrase-I've seen-for-a-long-time Gold Cup to Mr. Broun, who recently referred to airmen as “the men who go up to | the sky in ships.” ... A short time ago, in the “Ask The | Times” information column, there | appeared this question: “Where are | the foggiest regions in the United | States?” I know! I know! There’re about 500 of them in the District of | Columbia—or were, until Congress |

Why worry about unemployment? As soon as the war's over in Spain | they'll be needing a lot of Ameri-|

| cans—somebody has to organize a |

| Daughters of the Spanish Revolu- | | tion, don’t they?

It's been said that one can’t es- | cape one's past and, alas it is the |

| NOW.

| cis since I took up poetry (whoever |

heard of a poet with less than three | names—). . . . Ah, these Americans! | I see that they're frisking the kids! for cap guns in the cinema lobbies, | They've been shooting at the | villain when he came to collect the mortgage. . = » ” PRAISES MERRY-GO-ROUND BUT “PINKS” PEGLER

By Hiram Lackey

A, J. McKinnon declares I am wrong in stating Senator Wheeler's passion is “jealousy of the Presi-| dent.” This disgrace of Wheeler is not a creation of my fancy. It is a conviction formed by that quality of mind which educated people call “fair.” Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen were among the first to educate the people concerning the concealed motives of Wheeler and his group. Observe that the Merry-Go-Rounders seldom speak ill of anyone without just cause. Note well that sarcasm is used sparingly. Contrast their mental health with the baby acts of Westbrook Pegler whom Mr. McKinnon holds aloft as a reliable guide. Study how Mr. Pegler’s sarcasm springs from vanity. Notice how his sarcasm begins where argument stops. Grow to discount his statements resulting from wounded ego. Contrast his statements with the accuracy of | Messrs. Pearson and Allen, or the | intellectual discipline of Dr. Harry Elmer Barnes. Learn to detect the presence of man’s most deadly enemy—prejudice, the curse that causes men to prefer error to truth. Remember the Merry-Go-Round- | ers demonstrated literary courage | when they exposed the foes of | Roosevelt's Court plan. Recall the taunts that Mr. Pegler once wrote about the expediency of Arthur Brisbane, and then, in the light of

| fall victims to the very things they

| chaseth away his mother is a son

(Times readers are invited to express their views in | these columns, reiigious controversies excluded. Make your letter short, so all can have a chance. Letters must be signed, but names will |

be withheld on request.) |

his present apostasy, see if you can | find for him a more fitting name than that of a literary coward? Ponder well how weaklings often

fight. Allow the truth of this psychology to explain how Pegler, in | lowering his writing to a bread and | butter basis, has fallen a victim to the well-known weakness of Mr. Brisbane. - Such are the facts to consider | while reading Mr. Pegler’s scathing |

| compel visitors to cough up for our |

| CHICKENS ARE

| cent on all your purchases. This can amount to as high as 10 per | cent, for when you make a dime | purchase in Ohio you pay a l-penny | sales tax. And the average fam-

| ily’s income is so small that prac- |

tically all of it must be spent to live. Our State income tax system is open to improvement, but it's a blessing compared to the sales tax | “racket.” It costs the average family only a fraction of what they |

would pay if they lived in neighbor- |

| ing states, and according to news- | paper reports, it's been enough to] [ouild up a big surplus. | more,

Furthe:- |

we're not crude enough to |

State’s extravagance every time they |

| stop long enough to buy a tube of | toothpaste or a ham sandwich. |

u u »

DESPAIR

| OF PRACTICAL GARDENER

Additional letters from readers, Page 25.

FOOLS’ GOLD By VIRGINIA POTTER Fools gold is but a dream— And riches, aren’t they too? Can money buy you happiness, Or change the sky to blue?

Your family, friends and human ties, Do they mean less to you? And can money really take the place, Of one pal who is true?

Somehow, some folks are blinded, Impatient with their lot— By fools’ gold they are tempted, I only hope you're not.

DAILY THOUGHT He that wasteth his father and

that causeth shame, and bringth reproach .—Proverbs 19, 26.

—— | EMORSE not only turns God against us, but turns us against ourselves, and makes the soul like the scorpion in the fire, which stings itself to death.—Thomas.

I'By R. M. L.

GARDENERS’ WOE

I have a little garden, To care for it’s the dickens; When it isn't weeds or bugs, It’s my neighbors’ chickens.

A hoe will cure the weed crop; Sprayed, the insects die. But what to do with chickens, Except to stew or fry.

My seeds and fruits they ruin; I could almost cry. I try to jail the scourges, But they have learned to fly.

Ignore my ripe tomatoes Chicks, stay in your coop; For if I ever catch you, You'll be chicken soup.

LAMENT Hoeing out the thistle, In the strawberry bed, Hubby, all unknowing, Hoes berry plants instead.

I shall have a garden Get the seeds to sprout, Maybe grow a spud or two, If hunby won't help out.

". YW Ww INVENTS TITLES FOR FORUM CONTRIBUTORS By N. G., Frankfort, Indiana

Professor Middleton certainly touched a responsive chord when he indexed the Forum's too frequent columnists as “graphomaniacs.” However, the other suggested name of | “politico dihardicus” is very ap- | propriate; but for some I suggest | the more simple term of just plain “crankitis.”

These public Forums give the opportunity for Mr. Citizen to express his view on current topics, a place | generally free from propaganda control. Most contributors write to convince others of their viewpoints, | but it should be borné in mind that abusive language and often repeated | loose statements changes very few (Turn to Page 25)

It Seems to Me

By Heywood Broun

John L. Lewis Could Have Told Boxing Experts Just How Farr And Other Coal Miners Do Battle. EW YORK, Sept. 3.—It is beginning to seem as if an expert is a man who gives

\ good reasons for bad predictions. The politie

cal commentators can now console theme selves with the thought, “We do not pick

any worse than the Pugilistic Pundits.” But why do the experts go awry so frequently? I think it is because they take in one another's columns, and in turn are taken in by them. Most experts would rather ride than rough it, and when a band wagon comes along they leap or thumb it. Within a little group it becomes the custom to say that Roosevelt is slipping, and within anpther articulate oligarchy the dictum is accepted that Tommy Farr is just another horizontal British heavyweight. And then the boys grow just a bit confused and begin to believe (hat matters of opinion by the wave of a wand have become matters of fact. In all fairness to the boxing experts it must be admitted that they go deeper into research than the political commentators. It is not unusual to see a sports writer at a ‘training camp. But the expert comes to have too great faith in the rapidity of his own reactions,

Mr. Broun

» or “Nay” quite often is founded on no And in such a

» »

IS “Yea” more than a passing glance.

| rapid survey only the externals come into considera | tion.

You cannot review a book from its dust cover, Nor should one attempt to evaluate the mettle of a

| fighter from some brief survey of his action against

a sparring partner. Many barriers lie in the way of perfect reporting,

Probably few heavyweights on the eve of a battle would | permit even the most famous expert to submit them

to complete psychoanalysis. Yet it would do much to promote accurate prophecy. A fighter is a good deal like an iceberg, and most of him lies below the sure

face.

» u ”

ACK SHARKEY was ridiculed, rather than ape plaudesd, because he was the most conversationa) of recen. contenders. Indeed, the observation, “He talks a good fight,” is generally used as a reproach. Without denying the successes of strong silent men, I ven ture to say that most of the heavyweights who have talked a good fight just before a bout have then pro~' ceeded to deliver. : Now, Tommy Farr was quite ready to strut his. stuff, and was accorded a hearing, but unfortunately no interpreter was present on several occasions. Farr is a Welshman. He is also a coal miner. He comes from approximately the same section of the world as the ancestors of John Dlewellyn Lewis. Boxing exe perts should have realized that no man who has spent his youth in the deep tunnels of those ancient veins would be one to flinch under punishment. A passionately curious boxing expert might well have taken one afternoon off from the training camps

and gone on aside excursion to his advantage. He might have called at the offices of the U. M. W. A. and asked John L. Lewis, “Do you think a coal miner can fight?”

General Hugh Johnson Says—

Henry Wallace's New Program for Pegging Cotton Prices and Controlling

The Washington Merry-Go-Round

Recruiting Office Near White House Enlists Men for Chinese Army;

Production Regarded as Only Another Step in Destroying Export Markets.

ETHANY BEACH, Del, Sept. 3.—When cotton prices slumped over a threatened surplus, fair Dixie shrieked: “Lookie! Lookie! Save my child! We want loans to peg the price at 17 cents.” Bug Henry Wallace said: “Not unless you sell me your priceless liberty to plant what you please.” So, Congress promised a crop control bill delivering Dame Dixie body and soul to handsome Henry for a loan of 9 cents, and a possible subsidy of as much as 3 cents if prices drop below 12. But Mr. Wallace has the fair lady over the barrel on this because she doesn’t get her 3 cents until next fall when he can see whether she actually has submitted to his design to control her planting. The real case for the farmer is that, on surplus cash crops, his price is made not by American, but by world conditions, The farmer sells in a free trade market. But upder our tariff system, he buys in a highly protected ‘market and is gypped for the difference. It was only economic justice for Mr. Roosevelt to promise a “benefit equivalent to the tariff benefit to industry on the part of his crop consumed at home.” ” » » UT that isn't what Mr. Wallace is doing. He is on the whole crop and trying to reduce farm prod toward what the domestic

| shiv tor

Mr. Hoover frankly said that the solution of the farm problem is to starve out the export surplus. Mr. Roosevelt repudiated that, but its only variation in Mr. Wallace's hands is to fenagle out the export surplus. This policy has financed cotton production in other countries. Our share of world consumption has fallen from 63 per cent to 44 per cent—a gift to our competitors of markets for 3,000,000 bales—nearly 25 per cent of a normal crop. ” ” » E have lost our export markets for cattle, almost for wheat and lard, and are rapidly destroying it for cotton. It is plain economic insanity. Our farm surpluses reduce the prices of the entire production below cost or “parity,” but a big crop costs relatively little more than a small one and these farm exports give livings to millions. So what? Starve them out, let Mr. Wallace dictate them out or keep Mr. Roosevelt's campaign promise, subsidize farm prices up to “parity” on domestic consumption only and let exports and farm production go free? It will cost the American consumer the same for food and clothing in either case, because, under the New Deal, exports or no exports, price parity is pledged. But free production will employ at least a

million more people than Mr. Wallace's plan, be much hateful dictator-

‘better for the fariner, and avoid a

Government Buys Heavily By Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen

| 7TASHINGTON, Sept. 3.—~While the State De- |

partment is leaning over backward to avoid embroilment in the Far Eastern conflict, a recruiting office almost in the shadow of the White House is enlisting men to fight in the Chinese army. About 200 American-born Chinese have signed up so far. Most

of them are young members of Washington's minia- |

ture Chinatown, which has a population of around 5000.

The secret recruiting office is in charge of George | | apples, grapefruit, onions,

Moy, restaurateur and son of the former “mavor’ of Chinatown. His place of business is known among his people as “city hall.” Aviators and machine gunners are in chief demand. Experienced fliers are being offered a% high as $1500 a month, with a bonus for every enemy plane they shoot down. A number of young local Chinese are taking flying lessons in preparation for service. Recruits are given a physical examination. pass muster, they then are required to sign papers that divest them of American citizenship and make them Chinese subjec The Chinese colony is financing

as well as the tra ss paying the traveling

Bo foi

the recruiting ‘expenses of the

Se he

If they |

in Eastern Egg Market to Stop Price Dip,

ITHOUT saying much about it, the Federal Gove ernment is getting to be the big butter and egg man of the East. During the first six months of this year, it stepped quietly into the market to buy. eight million dozen eggs, while last year purchases of butter totaled three million pounds. The purpose of this buying was to prevent price drops which might be disastrous to the farmer. It was through the Federal Surplus Commodities Corp.

| which, incidentally, bought heavily not only in butter

and eggs, but in various other products, among them prunes, peaches, wheat, peas, syrup and skimmed milk. Few are aware of it, but the origin of this buying program was the famous slaughter of little pigs in’ 1933. At that time Mrs. Roosevelt telephoned Chester Davis, then AAA Administrator, suggesting that ine

| stead of destroying the pigs, the meat be given to needy families. This idea was expanded during the drought of 1034, when the Government purchased cattle, and canned and distributed 100,000,000 pounds of canned beef. Today the: buying program, greatly enlarged, 18 chiefly for the purpose of stabilizing prices, although the commodities purchased d for relief,