Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 25 September 1937 — Page 10

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The Indianapolis Times

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER) LUDWELL DENNY

ROY W. HOWARD President

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Ep RlIley 5551

Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own.Way

SATURDAY, SEPT. 25, 1937

WELCOME, O. E. S.

JNDIANAPOLIS is proud to be host to the 22d triennial assembly of the Order of Eastern Star, which opens informally here today in advance of the ceremonial opening Monday. Many of the expected 10,000 delegates and vis itors, representing every state and possession of the United - States and several foreign countries, already are here. Convention committee ¢hairmen have worked hard to make the convention a success. The meeting of the General Grand Chapter tonight, featuring a pageant of flags and addresses by Governor Townsend and Mayor Boetcher, will be the forerunner of many colorful and impressive ceremonies. Interesting highlights include a number of special

dinners for various groups.

Other social events and enter-

tainment have been arranged. To Eastern Star members from far and near, Indianapolis extends a hearty welcome.

IN WYOMING

ESTERDAY'’S report from Thomas L. Stokes, Times correspondent aboard President Roosevelt's train, said that Western Governors and other Democrats, who talked with the President appeared to bé very much interested in getting more money from Washington and very little interested in the Supreme Court controversy. The President himself, we think, must have sensed the ,same thing reported by Mr. Stokes and other writers. His speech at Cheyenne largely was a discussion of Government spending policies.. The Supreme Court was not mentioned.

It was a disappointing speech to enemies of Mr. Roosevelt, who had hoped that he would make his visit to Wyoming the occasion for an attack upon Senator O’Maheney of that state, and upon other Western Democratic Senators ~ who opposed the court-packing plan. But it was, in some respects, a most reassuring speech to those among the President’s friends who believe he would make a grave mistake if he should declare war on liberals who, although otherwise supporting the New Deal, could not see eye-to-eye

with him on the court plan.

THE LEGION AND LABOR HE American Legion wound up its convention and whoopee in Manhattan with a program pretty well attuned to the old Greek ideal of “Nothing too much.” A Navy “second to none” and a larger Army, but neutrality and peace as watchtowers of our foreign policy, and

a drafting of capital in case of war.

No wholesale purge

of aliens, but a crackdown on hyphenates who try to stir up trouble here and punishment and deportation for those who try to overthrow the Government by force, fraud or violence. No pension drive, but more justice for World War widows and orphans. Co-operation with capital, labor and Government in getting men past 40 back at work. : The Legion's stand on management-labor relations,

however, is a bit ambiguous.

Quite properly for a body

with a large membership of union men it officially pro-

claimed neutrality in labor disputes.

Quite properly for

one that stands for law it criticized both organized capital and labor for “increasing disregard of fundamental legal rights and remedies.” But it tabled a proposal by retiring Commander Colmery placing the Legion in firm opposition to the least taint of partisanship by word or act in labor warfare “as an organization” or as members in uniform.

This leaves it up to the national commander and the executive committee to set the limits of neutrality. True, the new commander, Daniel J. Doherty of Boston, announced he would follow his predecessor’s policy in frowning on Legionnaires as such taking part in labor wars. But, we believe, the Legion should have made it plain without a shade of doubt that it will not brook the presence of ‘a Legionnaire in uniform as a combatant in a strike situation either as a sworn deputy or as a member of a vigilante

mob.

If the Legion or any of its units or uniformed members participate in labor disputes to that extent, the Legion will lend itself to class war and weaken its influence for the orderly legal processes in our democracy. The people's law can be the only law in this country, and the public officers of the law can be the only enforcers

of law.

“THE CHOICE OF FRIENDS” . ENATOR ALLEN J. ELLENDER of Louisiana, who learned to keep on the public payroll by being a yes-man for Huey Long, says Franklin Roosevelt is trying to do for

the country what Huey did for Louisiana.

And Senator

Ellender, being still a political yes-man, says he is 100 per cent in favor of what he thinks the President is trying to do. Mr. Roosevelt, adept at classic quotations, probably even now is muttering, as did France’s Marshal de Villars: “God save me from my friends, I can protect myself from

my enemies.”

But—reflecting on ‘the “Second Louisiana Purchase,” by which his Postmaster General, Mr. Farley, and his Attorney General, Mr. Cummings, annexed the Huey Long machine to the New Deal—Mr. Roosevelt might better lament in the words of the English poet, John Gay: : - «mis thus that on the choice of friends Our good or evil name depends.”

CONGRATULATIONS

HARLES W. £HASE, president of Indianapolis Railways, has been elected president of the American _ Transit Association, highest honor in the transit field. In "choosing him, the nominating committee cited “his outstanding leadership in the transit field and his work in bringing to Indianapolis one of the finest transit systems in

the United States.”

His new honors are a compliment to Indianapolis, as

well as to himself.

|

Thunder—By Talburt =

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

American Groups Heterogeneous; Racial, Religious and - Political Alignments Are Found Everywhere.

EW YORK, Sept. 25.—To refer again to the farewell address, as you might call it, of Harry Colmery, the retiring commander of the American Legion, he said that no controversy can arise in this country with-

out finding members of the American Legion arrayed on both sides. To extend the thought, most of the other great groups in the United States have diverse interests and convictions. The Legion, for

example, contains not only members of the A, F. of L. and the C. I. O. and of all races and religions, but Democrats and Republicans and even, as I was assured in a letter scme time ago, at least one Communist. The C. I. O., often accused of communistic tendencies, certainly does include Communists, but it also includes Catholics, Democrats and Republicans, Protestants, and, doubtless, also some past or present members of the Ku-Klux Klan. The membership of the A. F. of L. is likewise heterogeneous, and here, too, as in the Legion there is hardly any controversy of national interest which would not find members arrayed on both sides. # 5 8° HE big groups overlap one another in all directions, and Americans who are conscious of racial and religious differences find themselves affiliated in other bonds all over the country, no more so in the Legion than in any other groupings. It goes without saying that the two major political parties both contain members of all faiths. And the anti-Semitic agitation which stirs now and again is hopelessly confused in its insistence that Jews are communistic or vice versa. This contention would ignore the wealthy Jewish merchants, manufacturers and capitalists. Time was not long ago when the vote of various foreign elements could be delivered more or less in block, but the curtailment of immigration has reduced the settlements in which they gathered and the merican-born descendants, by intermarriage, have produced Americans who are not conscious of any. sympathy for any other country. As recently as 1917 the Kaiser overestimated the number of former Germans who retained some loyalty for the Fatherland and greatly deceived himself as to the split allegiance of the American-born children of these people. : » » » HUS, now, Hitler is even more seriously in error, for immigration has been scant since the war, and there is evidence that most of those who have come over in these years have no desire to import the dictatorship with them. Consequently, Americans object more to the impudenice of the German Government in claiming a mission to “protect” this country from the menace of communism than to any threat of serious domestic interference. v

The mixture, the binding together of elements in.

which the grain runs contrary-wise, makes for toughness in the bread to say nothing of the pleasures of being American at a time when people in other lands may. be, and many of them are, executed or imprisoned for their beliefs or disbeliefs.

SN

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

SPANISH OBSERVATORY WORK GOES ON, REY SAYS

By Prof. Agapito Rey, Bloomington

In the last 20 years scientific research has madg remarkable progress in Spain. Men and women were sent abroad with fellowships: to study at the scientific centers of the world and acquire the new techniques of research. New laboratories were built in which both foreign and native scholars labored to advance human knowledge. Under the republic, scientific research, like all other cultural activities, was intensified and facilities increased. One of the world’s foremost astronomical observatories is the Ebro Observatory, located at Tortosa. This observatory was established and maintained by the Jesuits. When the order was dissolved in 1932, the observatory was not disturbed. It continued under the direction of Fr. Luis Rodes, S. J. The coming of the new regime, the military rebellion culminating in the Italian and German invasion of Spain did not disturb Father Rodes in the retreat” of his observatory. The people love him, for they recog‘nize in him a friend, a pious man devoted to his science and not a schemer or plotter against the nation. \ Says Report False

The Fascists, anxious to discredit the Spanish Government and defame the Spanish people, have on several occasions broadcast the murder of Father Rodes. Several scientific periodicals even went so far as to publish his obituary. Fortunately, these reports were false, as false as nine-tenths of the atrocities attributed to the Loyalists by the reactionaries.

Father Rodes is perfectly well, busy with his studies and books. In July he sent President Negrin a copy of one of his new books and he inclosed a letter written in longhand to prove that the report of his death was an invention of the traitors. Later several newspaper correspondents interviewed him and\have given us details of his present activities. He is now publishing a new edition of “The Heavens,” his most famous work, and editing the monthly Bulletin of the Ebro Conservatory.

The laboratories located in Madrid did not fare so well. The famous Cancer Institute, Cajal’s laboratory and the centers of medical researc in University City were hit by the Rebels. However, the work of these institutions has not ceased entirely. The Spanish Government moved the scholars to Valencia and founded there a Culture House in which the scientists live and work absorbed in their research. The ' Government has issued some of the results of their labors in excellent publications. Thus while the Rebels execute poets, teachers and university presidents, the Government strives to protect and support the learned men who

{will be sorely needed for the work

of reconstruction.

General Hugh Johnson Says—

Administration Has Failed to Keep Mandate Given It in Election of 1936;

Wages and Hours Measure

ETHANY BEACH, Del, Sept. 25.—This Administration was elected on a definite program. The quarterback changed signals right after January first, lost the ball and piled up the whole team. The principal parts of the elected program were a new farm bill and a maximum-hours-minimum-wages bill. ‘A big majority in this country expects a wages and hours bill. The awful mess that was cooked up by the White House was not a maximum hour and minimum wage bill. It did not fix any upper and lower limits. It just set up another body, like the Labor Relations Board, and gave it authority, locality by locality, to dictate payrolls to separate employers and to tell thousands of groups of workers what their base wages shall be. ‘The moment it was announced the pressure blocs began chiseling hunks out of it. Agriculture, led by Mr. Wallace, got king’s-ex on all its provisions. ' Child labor, sweat-shop wages and the 12-hour day are an abomination in other industries, but down on the farm they are the more abundant life.. S : EJ 8 = NDER political pummeling, the bill was dehorned before it got out of the committee. If it is not an unconstitutional invasion of state powers, there never was one. If Federal executive dictation can enier any state and, in its own unlimited discretion, so regulate practically all wages—which means costs of production ra > Sl ad

(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.)

CITES FIREMAN'S OVERHEAD AS SOAP, GAS, ETC. By Ralph J. McCombs “Oh, yes, the City furnishes the fireman’s car, uniform, and all the rest of his equipment,” was a reply I overheard. But do you know how incorrect that is? I have done a bit of research and found that our socalled political city is making money off their employees in the fire-fight-ing service. A shirt which sells at downtown stores for $1.40 is bought by the firemen at $195. The uniform trousers are bought for $7. Anywhere pants like these sell for much less. The articles are purchased at our department stores but are paid at the office of the Indianapolis Fire Department. > Such items that the men at a station must pay for from their own pockets are soap, daily “papers, gas for cooking purposes, and meals. In this list we might include a telephone bill—the phone which the public so generously uses without a

UNWELCOME GUEST By JOSEPHINE DUKE MOTLEY You're here again, oh, most unwelcome guest, And I must give you lodging for the night. « Unseemly seems your attitude and quest - To disrupt beauty and all gay delight. You freeze the smile upon my garden’s face 5 And wither every flower and brown each stalk, And spoil the curving verdure and the grace Of all the life you contact when you walk. If I could I would send some subtle c To say I'm not at home, and that ‘is all; A But such a note I fear you'd disregard, So come, bring Winter with you, cruel Fall,

DAILY THOUGH

This is a faithful saying and worthy ©f all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.—1 Timothy 1:15.

O escape from evil we must be made, as far as possible, like God; and this resemblance consists in becoming just and holy, and wise.—Plato.

The W

thought of where the money comes from. When the President’s Ball or such occasions come ‘round, the firemen aren’t asked if they wish to buy a ticket: they are told to. These are paid for from our fireman's purse. The city does supply the trucks, hose and station. The one commodity that our protector does not pay for is his bedding. The city also furnishes that, but the laundering of it is done by the wife of friend fireman, or at his laundry. Now can you see how unjust and unfair it is to say that the city provides for a fireman when he certainly doesn’t draw -enough salary, as is thought by the average citizen, to cover costs of supporting both home and station. ati The department of fire-fighting is on the merit system, but recently the Chief was asked to sign a bill netting 2 or 3 per cent of the fireman's salary for political campaign funds. Let’s hope he didn’t sign.

(Editor's Note: Chief Kennedy said most of the statements in Mr. McCombs’ letter were true. He said the men would be permitted to buy lower-priced clothes if they. would come up to the department's specifications, but denied that they do. He emphasized that the firemen pay for everything, including their telephone calls into the department, with the exception of their bedding. However, he denied that any “bill” netting 2 or 3 per cent of the fireman’s salary for political campaign funds had ever been presented to him. He asserted that no -deductions for political purposes could be made under the law.)

» » ” BROUN’S COMMENT DRAWS A REPLY By Mrs. Nina Richards, Edinburg Have all you Times readers read Heywood Broun’s column in Sept. 18 issue? If you haven't, you should hasten to read of this man’s bravery. Just to think that this “brave” man sat on his doorstep an hour with a bread knife in his hand and the Klansmen came and, seeing how brave he was, ran away. I do hope the knife was sharp. But he says maybe they were not Kluxers! I know The Times surely will want to keep such a brave man on its staff. And to think, they burned a fiery cross in his’ meadow before that awful night. Did I say it was sharp? What a man and what a knife! He also thinks Justice Black ought to get out or there won't be no justice! Wouldn't it be funny if our President knew what he was doing? Well, I'd better close for I haven't a sharp bread knife and the Klansmen may get me if I don’t watch out. :

ashington Merry-Go-Round

Roosevelt's Wyoming Detour Seen as Rebuke to Senator O'Mahoney;

Was Expected, but Court Bill Submerged It.

and hence price—there is little left for the states to do, or for labor unions or industry or consumers, either. : John Marshall said the Congressional power over

commerce does not extend to purely local contracts. These belong to the states. But it is a power to regulate that commerce within a single state that “affects or concerns more states than one.”

y ” » » s F the Federal Government can’t keep the products of sweated labor from one state from crossing into others and, by price competition, to degrade wages in the latter states, the pull of sweat-shop operations in backward states always will be powerfully downward on labor conditions in all surrounding states. Thus low labor standards do affect or concern other states if others must receive the products of lowstandard states. iu But if we had a simple Federal law preventing the shipment into any state of products of lower labor standard than its own or of the competing state of highest standards, the whole picture would be changed. The problem would be solved far more ef- | fectively by this economic compulsion than by some bureaucratic dictation. The pull would be completely reversed. Labor standards would be controlled by the

states of highest standards and not as now, by the states of lowest standards. i n 2 :

| life.

By Heywood Broun

Hugo Black's Weakness Lies in His Failure to Answer Adequately the Allegations Hurled Against Him,

EW YORK, Sept. 25.—Hugo L. Black has

one conspicuous weakness. At the moment I am not referring to the charge that he is or has been a member of the Ku-Klux Klan. What I have in mind is his singular

ineptitude in regard to publicity, or personal relations if you like. If he has an adequate answer to the allegations hurled against him he should have, made it long ago. y I think myself that the Sena-. torial record of the gentleman from Alabama gives every indication that he would make an excellent Justice of the Supreme Court, no matter what his earlier record may have been. And yet, obviously, a political blunder has been made. Many grossly unfair and inaccurate things are being said by conservatives and reactionary forceswhich are eager to seize upon an” advantage. But in the give-and-take of the American system it is well for all gladiators to remember that maybe the breaks will not be" clean and that they must protect themselves at all times. ; ; rs : 2 =» 8 . io FEW observations might as well be made for the.

; sake of the record, which may become more apparent after the tumult slackens. In the first place, there is no possible connection between the President's proposal to add additional Justices to the High Bench and the appointment of Hugo Black. The name was

sent up in the usual fashion. 7

There is nothing in precedent or Constitutional requirement which compels a President to allow the: name of his selection to leak out before the nominae tion is formally sent to the Senate for confirmation. Nor is there any basis for the prevalent opinion that the name of Justice Black was confirmed with unholy haste. There was more extended debate upon the issue than is usual. Nor is it true that Senatorial courtesy was a prime factor in the confirmation. Indeed, there was much less Senatorial courtesy than usual.

\

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’ I" was said by several commentators that a unanie_

mous Senate had agreed that Joe Robinson was entitled to the nomination, and that the “club” would

‘not even tolerate the mention of any other name. If.

Mr. Robinson had lived and the President had chosen him he probably would have been confimed with a whoop. That would have been Senatorial courtesy, In the case of Hugo Black there was decidedly

" acrimonious debate, and a sizable minority was re-

corded against his confirmation, There was scant

courtesy in that. : The fact remains. that President Roosevelt has had a bad break in the luck. But it is monstrously unfair to throw the whole burden of the blame on him. The Senate ought to be in a position to size up the quali=fications of its own members. And it is interesting ta. note that Burton K. Wheeler, who is now one of the loudest squawkers about the appointment of Hugo. Black, did not vote against the confirmation.. It is” true he didn’t vote for it. He wasn't sufficiently ine. terested to vote at all. -

Former Friend of Jim Farley Was Active in Defeat of Court Measure,

By Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen AZSsD THE PRESIDENT’S TRAIN, Sept. 25.— When Mr. Roosevelt went out of his way to traverse a good section of this husky State of Wyoming, while en route to Seattle, he did so partly to gratify the personal peeve of his good friend Jim Farley against the senior Senator from Wyoming. The Senator, Joseph Christopher O'Mahoney, owes a large slice of his recent political success to Jim Farley, and according to Jim's Tammany-bred ethics there is no greater sin among the political ten commandments than ingratitude. Joe O'Mahoney was not grateful. Joe and Jim got to know each other back-in 1932 when Mr. Farley was trekking across the continent slapping backs and lining up local leaders for Franklin Delano Roosevelt. . Joseph C. O'Mahoney was one of those. In fact, he was one of Mr. Farley's chief advisers for the area west of the Mississippi River. The two men became very close, and immediately after the election, Mr. Farley made Mr. O'Mahoney his first assistant postmaster general.

” » #

HEN in the late fall of 1933, Senator Kendrick of Wyoming suddenly died, and the Governor appointed Joe O'Mahoney, Mr. Kendrick’s former secretary. - Just a year later he was ruefully regretting the fact that he had elevated Mr. O'Mahoney to public For Joe became one of the most effective lead

of the fight against Mr. Roosevelt's reform of the. Superme Court. : - Joe O'Mahoney was born, not in Wyoming, but in a Boston suburb, of poor Irish parents and with noth=ing in life save unfailing courage, a good brain and’ plenty of luck. : : He got a job with The Boulder (Colo.) Daily Herald, but a few years later went to Cheyenne, Wyo. > ~ Here he got a job as city editor of The Cheyenne’ State Leader, owned by John B. Kendrick, then Gov=" ernor of the state. “Mr. O'Mahoney became his secre=tary when Kendrick was elected to the Senate. # » »

EERE is no escaping the fact that Mr. ©’ Mahoney has been an able Senator. His ellectiveness

comes in part from his love of a good fight, part

from the fact that when he arrived, he knew Wash- ;

ington as few other Senators. do. : : It was his effectiveness on the Judiciary Committee which helped materially in defeating Mr. Roosevelt's Supreme Court bill. Joe drafted the famous com-~ promise plan which Administration leaders agreed to.Unquestionably Mr. O’Mahoney’s stand on the Supreme Court hurt him. It hurt him with Mr, Roosevelt, and it hurt him with Wyoming voters. : With Mr, Roosevelt, Mr. O’'Mahoney’s position has not been damaged beyond repair. Joe, careful to indulge in no personal invective, wants to come back to the simon-pure New Deal fold, and if he bee: haves, probably he will. But meanwhile Mr, Roose

vel, and especially Mr. Farley, have their fingers

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