Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 16 September 1937 — Page 16

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THURSDAY, SEPT. 16, 1937

BOOMERANG WE are just a bit more amused than excited about the Black-Klan incident—especially as it pertains to some of our fellow liberals in political and journalistic circles. The Black-Klan incident strikes us as being blackest for the President and the diehard supporters of his Court-pack-ing plan. It also strikes us that the suddenly aroused indégnation of some of those who voted for Mr. Justice Black’s confirmation and of some of those who threw up their editorial hands in jubilation is slightly ridiculous. : Had they given more consideration to the cause they might have suffered less agony from the effect. From the first, many sincere liberals objected to the Court-packing plan on the grounds that the method employed made certain that the mental attitude rather than judicial qualifications would determine selections. — There was also well-grounded objection from liberal quarters to a confirmation jammed through the Senate without the customary scrutiny of the character, personality and antecedents of the man being considered for a place on the highest court of the land. » The matter of Mr. Justice Black’s Klan support and affiliation can cause no real surprise to the President. The issue was out in the open long before the confirmation vote was taken. But the President apparently closed his eyes to the light on the subject which now appears to have shocked him into declaring a moratorium of silence. If the matter of Mr. Justice Black’s obligation and political debt to this brigade of bigotry was of no importance to the President before the Senate’s confirmation, what has made it so important now?

* x =» zn THE answer is simple. The President’s vietory in forcing Mr. Justice Black’s confirmation through a hot and harassed Senate has proved one of the quickest returning boomerangs of his political career. The result was demonstrated to the public more clearly than all the arguments, our own included, hurled at the Court-packing plan, that the President’s attempt to remodel the Supreme Court into a body subservient to his will and theories was the major bungle of a great President and an astute politician. But possibly it may be a bungle that will prove a boon. Mr. Justice Black’s refusal to give a simple yes or no answer to the question of whether he was or is a member of the defunct Klan has put the President very definitely in a political hole of as yet unrevealed width and depth. The Honorable Justice’s London runout on reporters seeking answer to a pertinent public question has revealed in dramatic fashion, and to millions who might not otherwise have been convinced, the inherent dangers of executive short-circuit-ing of the processes long employed in the selection of the Supreme Bench. If, as has been rumored, the President still entertains any thought of reviving the Court issue which made a farce of the last session of Congress, “Black Week” should give him pause. :

SUICIDAL

T HE patience of the public, employers and of labor’s rank and file is being worn thin by such tactics as the jurisdictional dispute now blocking building operations throughout Indianapolis. Contractors say the interunion strife between two A. F. of L. groups—the Building Trades Council and one of its members, the Carpenters’ Union—has stopped work on all construction employing union labor. This includes the Federal Building addition, International Harvester and Irvington school buildings, the three largest current jobs. Wages and hours are not at issue. Employers affected have abided by union conditions. But the unions’ own machinery -for settling strictly union disputes, over which crafts shall do what. work, has broken down. Here are firms and government employers, anxious to give jobs and to play ball with union labor. Yet ~ they-ean’t, because two union groups use those jobs as battlegrounds. Hundreds of men are idle. A large payroll is lost. . Greater power leads inescapably to greater responsibility. Labor unions have expanded and gained vast new power. With this have come jurisdictional fights, "violence and several breaches of contract .in other cities, causing the public to question whether the unions have the will or ability to put their own house in order. Hence the growing insistence that government do something about it. : We believe that voluntary self-discipline within labor’s

own ranks can accomplish far more good than legislation to

curb irresponsible and unfair practices on the part of the minority of organized labor. Labor leaders in the situation here can help prevent the growth of dangerous opposition to unionism by ending a dispute which can only bring grief to all of them. ~ Surely labor can settle its own rows without such suicidal interunion strife, : :

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in A YOUR POCKET IS PICKED : PROBABLY not one in a million realized it, but the fact is that American consumers paid $85,654 in Federal * chewing gum taxes and $1,277,036 in Federal match taxes - last month, pad 1 These ‘are but two of the nuisance taxes which clutter up the revenue laws; two of the hidden taxes which add to the cost of living; twa.of a number that should be repealed. And in their place adequate income taxes should be levied. We invite special attention to the word “adequate.” So long as the Government gets the bulk of its revenue

from invisible, painless taxes that pick the pockets of the

voters, the amount of revenue ‘“‘adequate” to balance the

= budget will be limited only by how much the spenders want

to spend. . But once the Government gets the Bulk of its "revenue by visible, painful, income taxation, the voters will . give more attention to how much is “adequate” for Government spending. : 1

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Fair Enough

By: Westbrook Pegler

Justice Black Should Answer Yes Or No About Membership in Klan; Supposed to Be Great Progressive.

EW YORK, Sept. 16.—Pardon me, friends, while I bust a few ribs laughing at oyr earnest, intellectual pals over there on the left, the ideology blokes who dusted off a spot on the floor and threw themselves

a fit of jubilation over the appointment of Hugo Black to the U. S. Supreme Court as a great progressive victory. : : Hugo, you remember, was one of those progressive

statesmen of the New South like : Senator Ellender, who helped Huey Long create his armed dictatorship; Bibb Graves, the old Kluxer who named his own wife to Justice Black's Senate seat; Theodore Bilbo who was given a $6000 Federal job clipping papers and magazines because his need of money was more urgent than that of the forgotten man, and Maj. George Berry, the millionaire labor leader and industrialist. Hugo was going to liberalize the big Court. Hugo had a broad mind and great intelligence, and it was a dirty outrage, by and : large; that a little passel of wilful traitors to the mana date of the last election made it impossible: for Mr. Roosevelt to discover five more like him to out-vote the old reactionaries. ;

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ELL, maybe Hugo himself was a ile Bipeetude around the edges, but he was M= osevelt’s selection and thus covered by the mandate. But now what’s all this about Hugo Black having been a Ku-Klux Klan member in Alabama and his refusal! to say aye, yes or no? . If he was a Klan member, pledged by oath, to persecute minorities for religious and racial reasons, is he still the great progressive, and does the mandate wash away the bigotry? True, that would have been 10 years ago, but Hugo was no child then, and the character that was capable of joining such a conspiracy against the rights of other citizens, if Hugo did join, was set and hardened beyond change. Granting that if he did join the Klan it was done only as a political ruse, how do you like having a man on the highest court in the country who 77s. capable of taking the Ku-Klux oath just to win a lot Jpolitical job? If a man can|take one oath with his fihgers crossed, might it not be a wise precaution to make him keep his hands in/plain sight when he takes another, to uphold the Constitution and administer justice impartially? :

» » »

A again, if he did join, a possibility which rea=

sonably may be considéred in view of his refusal to deny or say that he did, what kind of char~ acter is this that put other Senators and perhaps even the President on the spot by withholding this information from them knowing that his membership, past or present, would affect their judgment as to his fitness? If the great Progressive was a Kluxer, then he moved in a set which believed in a mess of nonsense so preposterous and silly that no mature per“Son can recite or read it without an inward crawling. Is this the gauge of the great Progressive Justice who is going to liberalize the Court? If it isn’t, Hugo Black owes it to all of us, to deny it all for a dirty lie and then prove up. ‘

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CARICATU

aRAIN TRUST" RES?

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Vien) =o $f THOSE SAFETY-AT-SEA INVESTIGATIONS?

The Hoosier Forum

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

LUDLOW RELEASES COPY OF LETTER TO F. D. R. By Rep. Louis Ludlow

This is from a letter I sent this week tQ President Roosevelt: As a friend who, to some extent, is in touch with public sentiment, please permit me to say that in my opinion the nation has reacted almost 100 per cent favorably to your warning to American nationals in China to leave the danger zones or otherwise remain at their own risk. May I express the hope that you will consider the issuance at a very early date of a proclamation of neutrality directed to the two belligerent nations in the Orient? I believe such a proclamation would be wise and advisable for the following reasons: Both |belligerents are using the United States as a supply house from which to provision themselves for a long war. Especially is this true of Japan. Our exports to Japan in May this year jumped to more than two and a half times our exports in May last year, the comparable figures being $36,177,000 in May, 1937, and $14,403,000 in May, 1936. During the first six months. of 1937, ending on June 30, our exports to Japan amounted to $165,619,000 as against $93,042,000 during the first six months of 1936.

Recent Data Not Available

' These facts disclose. that during

the first six months of 1937, before the invasion of Shanghai began but evidently prompted by plans for war to come, American trade to Japan arose t0 the unparalleled rate of about one-third of a billion dollars per annum,

ent year we sent exports worth $31,355,000 to China, an increase of $10,083,000 over the same period last year. The Department of Commerce official who furnished me these figures said:

“I regret that it is not possible for me to supply you with statistics for July and August, owing to the fact that trade has expanded more rapidly than our facilities for keeping the compilations up to date.” - In other words, during the last two months, with Shanghai invaded and the war in the acute stage, America has been drawn upon for supplies away beyond the capacity of our officials to keep up to date with the operations.

Finance Factor Feared

And this is not the worst side of the picture, as I see it. The worst of

it is that all this draught on Ameri-|-

can resources is insidiously weaving a web of trade and finance that may ultimately be a powerful factor in dragging America into war. Vast quantities of American-made munitions are being shipped to the Orient to be used in killing human beings. It is unreasonable to expect that, if later. America should unhappily be drawn into the war, part of those munitions will be used to kill American soldiers, perhaps to

General Hugh Johnson Says— Black's Record Enough to Show He Is Prejudiced and Class Conscious: That Justice Actually Wears Robes of Klan Makes Little Difference.

ASHINGTON, Sept. 16.—What difference does it make that Hugo Black is .a uniformed Kluxer? What a man wears on his back is not so important as what he wears in his heart. Anybody . Who had observed him knew that—nightie or no nightie—he has all it takes to make a perfect Kluxer and that he has a little more. It was plain from his record that he.is a born witch-burner—narrow, prejudiced fand class con-

scious. His silence when Senator Borah saved his con-

firmation by repeating his denial of Kluxism speaks for itself. To suggest that the President did not know these ‘traits is to belittle not only Mr. Roosevelt's _ splendid intelligence, but also his fine inbred instincts

‘| which are so sensitive that he is made visibly un-

comfortable

by even a few moments in such a contact. :

8 un. A CANDIDATE even for district judge is investigated for weeks by G-Men. ' But Mr. Black's

appointment to the Supreme Bench was not even referred to the Department of Justice.

in a bedsheet to shroud any possible persecutions of Negroes, Jews and Catholics, but he very well knew

that with or without a hobgoblin disguise, Mr. Black.

is a bigot.

"In all that knowledge that appointment was a

Have turned. to dust

(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.)

bomb American cifles and to slay our women and children. As a Christian nation we should arise above the sordid profits of war trade and we should not be a party, even indirectly, to the slaughter of human beings which we are when we furnish munitions and "loans to warring nations. I believe it is now clear to everybody that there is de facto war in the Orient. I believe it is now time to say that America shall not be the supply house to equip nations for mass murder and I wish to express the hope that, in view of the de facto war existing you may see your way clear to enforce the Neutrality Law enacted at the last session of Congress. which, I believe, weak as it is, would better be enforced than left unenforced at this time, in order to cut off the flow of loans and death-dealing munitions on which

war feeds.

# un = SURPRISED BY CENTER TOWNSHIP VALUATION ~

By Charles Bretizelman

As a Center Township taxpayer, I was agreeably surprised at the Page 1 story in The Times recently

| concerning the increase of over $9,During the first half of the pres-|.

MUFFLED DRUMS

By MAUD COURTNEY WADDELL

Huge boulders sleep upon the hill Where moss is banked beside a rill. . : :

Tall sighing trees wave long farewell To each small leaf that slowly fell. Soft ghost winds press against my fase ey WheneTe I pause at this calm place.

And while I rest there in retreat I think anew of life-time fleet.

These Hens rocks and trees and : SKY 7 Will long be here when love and I in sleep profound, Beneath the trees and rocky ground.

: DAILY THOUGHT Godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be 1epented of; but the sorrow of the world worketh death.—II Corinthians 7, 10. :

OD is a sure paymaster. He may J not’ pay at the end-of every week, or month, or year, but remember He pays in the end.—Anne of Austria.

000,000 which the assessor, Mi. Cunningham, has placed on his books over the 1936 total. On the face cf that record for one year, I feel that the taxpayers owe Mr. Cunningham a vote of confidence for heing a real servant of the public in doing his share in lightening the burden

of the ever-incressing tax rate in. - Marion County. .

Lived Here 30 Years ; I have resided in Marion County all of my life and have had my name on the assessment books for over 30 years, and this is the first time that I have had the pleasure of seeing in print any official statement showing a politician doing anything but finding a new way in which to spend our money. According to the story in your good paper, over $8,000,000 of the increase was from personal assessments alone. Theat record speaks for itself. If the same efficiency ex-

isted in all the public offices in the.

Court Hotise and City Hall, we could look for a stationary or at least a consistent tax rate instead of increases year after year. Another innovation was the fact that Mr. Cunningham is making an honest effort tc “nail” the biggest parasite of all—the man who owns a car and refuses to make a return on it for taxing purposes. I understand that i Center Township alone last year over 25,000 owners failed to declare their cars. ~ Amounted fo Million ‘This amounted {fo a loss of over $1,000,000 ‘for tax revenue purposes. Your. article states that this number has been reduced to 15,000 evaders and that they will be forced to make a voluntary declaration in January. It certeinly is not fair for thousands of honest ¢itizens who own cars to pay ‘heir taxes while others boast that they just tear up the list the assessor gives them. I figuratively shake the Iiynd of Mr. Cunningham on this splendid record. We taxpayers would like to see similar stories from other office holders—and less about proposed boosts,

ay AGE AND EMPLOYMENT SEEN BIG PROBLEM By “Born 30 Years Too Soon’

Some time ago. an article appeared stating physically handicapped persons were to te educated so as to obtain employment— thereby caring for themselves That is and will be very, very fine. But what about the men, and women whose only handicap is the fact they are over 45 years of age? Mentally and physically fit—yet barred from the privilege of earning a living for themselves and families. I Rave inl mind a nan experienced -in the field of shipping service who receives this answer when applying for a job: “Yes, the job is open but you are too old.” What is to be done for these people?

THE POSSIBILITY | OF THE RETURN: OF 2¢ POSTAGE

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THAT NICE LONG SUMMER WE WERE. LOOKING FORWARD TO?

lt Seems to Me

By Heywood Broun

When Drums and Bugles of War Ring Out, Let America's Cries of ‘Not Again’ Overwhelm the Noise.

NEW YORK, Sept. 16.—In the problem of preserving peace two schools of thought are almost equally dangerous. I refer to those who say, “There is no hope,” and those who say, “There is no danger.” :

On the whole, it is the second attitude which’ frightens me more. Just the other night at

ATTEN

‘dinner I heard a widely-known writer sey, “Why,

there isn't a chance of America getting into any war, © We've learned our lesson. The American people would never stand for it.” I wish that were true. ‘Much is forgotten in 20 years and distance lends enchantment. Unfortunately, quite a few Americans in the Army and out of. it, had a pretty good time of it in the World War. Only a comparatively small percentage of our population went through the pounding which wears away the soul. ; _ Nevertheless, at the moment 1 haven't the slightest doubt that any sort of plebiscite would show an overwhelming majority for peace at any price. But those who are for peace will play into the hands of the war mongers if they overlook propaganda’s artful aid. It seems to me that the forces which would have us fight are better organized and further along in their campaign than they were at about this same time in 1914. In the autumn of that year there were few indeed who had the slightest notion that we

would be embroiled. : 3 un

ND it will be always thus. The liars and rabble rousers always come first to make all things ready. They come running, walking and crawling on their bellies. And it is the crawlers whose activities must be watched every minute of the day and night. Inertia and- good intent will not avail us. We must build and prepare for peace. Legions must be met by legions. In the beginning those steps which make for war all will be presented as methods of avoiding conflict. False prophets will arise preaching and prating of “firm attitudes” and “the strong hand.” There will be a demand for rousing notes from Washington. The argument will run that unless we put our foot down now there is no hope of peace and that a belligerent attitude is the first and best way of keeping the invaders from our shores.

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NTICING logic will be used to back these theories, but let us not forget that they have been put to the laboratory test and that the ink of ultimata has almost invariably turned into the blood of conflict. Possibly the most dangerous of the propagandists for war are those who serve the cause of Mars almost unconsciously. Among them must be numbered all the vile commentators who find exaltation of the ego in denouncing what they call “spinelessness” and “timidity.” ,The names of the warrior dead will be paraded and there will be drum beats and bugle calls. 2 Flags will whip out in the breeze. Old scars will be forgotten and our dead are mute. But let those who live cry out for them. Out of the soil of stricken and mutilated earth there should come to our ears, however faintly, the call of those who paid the price beyond understanding. And it should grow in volume until it overwhelms the noise of bugles and of drums. Take up the cry of “Not again!” !

. Mr. Broun

The Washingion Merry-Go-Round

China's Gen. Chiang Changes His Religion, Also His Friends and Policies; War Leader's American-Educated Wife Shares Credit for His Success.

The President may not have known the general Washington belief that Mr. Black had a written charter to snoop around |

gesture of derision toward the pretensions of that Court to the highest dignity and respect. It derided their: pretensions to legal learning because the appointee was just a police judge. - It argued contempt for their pretensions to high impartiality because the appointee was a dogmatic partisan. The President properly felt outraged by the little consideration the Court gave to his sincerity of purposé in approving laws which the

Court later scathingly condemned. Smarting with that resentment, when this opportunity came he knew exactly what to do with it. 4 :

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B22 little boys in a small town can’t do much to express their disapproval of the pompous president of the town bank, who ‘also is chairman of the school board before whom they have been haled and castigated. But when I was a little boy we used

to invent reprisals to salve our sense of outrage. The |

least of these was softly to place on the stoop of his mansion a couple of ripe dead cats, and then ring the doorbell and run. = = ; Something of this general idea there is in the deposit of Mr. Black on the beautiful marble steps of ‘the;'new Supreme Court Building. . The gesture isn’t. ade’ any less effective by this Kluxer scandal, but I doubt if we shall have any more of these. adolescent” political obscenities.: The kickback has been terrific ‘It has completely exploded the allege pups : fhe Sours plan to “increase the respect of the people” or > ; Jot RAE PEs i

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of

‘Today, however, he, is get

By Drew Fearsor and Robert S. Allen

ASHINGTON, Sept. 16.—Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, brains of the Chinese Army now! fighting to block the Japanese at Shanghai, is one of the most complex ‘characters in the Far Hast. When one of the Merry-Go-Rounders knew him in Canton in 1925, he was the outstanding gambler of ‘South China. He gambled on everything, from mah jong to the stock market, was reputed to have cleaned up a million in the latter, Het Today Chiang is a devout Christian, does not

“touch liquor or tobacco.

American missionaries ‘in China attribute the change ‘to Chiang’s conversion. This may be true.

But probably :his wife and a marvelous sense: of ex-

pediency also had something to do with it. Gen. Chiang is one of the most practical leaders in China, and the Chinese are a practical people. His sense of consistency is like a rubber band. 3; waa Lo HEN the Merry-Go-Rounder knew him in South ¥ China he was the disciple of the famous Russian

' Communist leader, Borodin,sand was waging a Com-

munist-inspired boycott against Americans and British. Chiang’s trcops were Russian trained—and.

‘well trained—even to the point of adopting Cossack - uniforms. ah

A few years later Chiang had thrown overboard his Russian advisers, raided the Russian consulate ‘in Shanghai, and severed relations with - the Soviet. encouragement, money

and what supplies they can spare from that same Soviet. Today also, Chiang is getting unofficial encouragement and support from the same British and Americans whony he boycotted in 1925. ° Chiang has been almost equally inconsistent-—

| though not quite so much so—in his relations with

the Japanese. When Nippon’s bluejackets landed in Shanghai in 1932, he was urged by everyone vocal in his country to oppose them. Instead he kept his crack troops in Nanking and lifted not a finger to help

Gen. Tsai Ting-kai. |

Chiang is a superb strategist, and "his delay in opposing the Japanese may have been due his

- conviction that China was not sufficiently united to

wage a major campaign. : 2 0 8. : :

PI HERE are only two things in which Chiang fs

consistent. One is his astuteness as a military leader, the other is his devotion to his wife. It is undoubtedly true that Madame Chiang is largely responsible for her husband’s success. A graduate of Wellesley in 1917, she comes from the famous Soong dynasty, her sister being Madame Sun Yat-sen, her brother being T. V. Soong, ex-finance minister, and another sister being Madame H. H. Kung, wife of the vice premier. 3: : Madame Chiang is extremely pretty, looks ‘much

| younger than she is, and speaks excellent English. She

is reputed to be, and probably is ponsible for the sudden stiffening of the backbone which her husband

‘has showgl toward the Japanese.