Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 30 September 1937 — Page 20

PAGE 20

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THURSDAY, SEPT. 30, 1937

WHEN JUSTICE BLACK SPEAKS

Mz JUSTICE BLACK refused to answer newspaper reporters’ questions when he disembarked at Norfolk. But he hinted that he might tell all later “in a way that cannot be misquoted, and so the public can hear it.” Today it was announced he will speak over nation-wide radio hookups tomorrow night.

The Justice has waited more than two weeks to end his mysterious silence and there is much to be said in favor of Mr. Black taking plenty of time to prepare his explanation. Because it is very important to his reputation and to the prestige of the Supreme Court that when he does speak he leave nothing unexplained. When the Justice begins explaining, the public will want first of all from Mr. Black an unqualified admission or denial of all charges. Did he ever join the Ku-Klux Klan? Did he later file a resignation, and then still later accept a life membership? If so, did he subsequently resign a second time, or is he still a member? And, whether yes or no to the foregoing, does he subscribe to the Klan’s “kreed” of racial and religious bigotry? Or does he renounce the aprinciptes” of that discredited organization? At a press conference two weeks ago President Roosevelt said that at the time he nominated Mr. Black he had no knowledge of Mr. Black's alleged connections with the Klan. So obviously Mr. Black should now answer why—if charges since made are true—he withheld that important information from Mr. Roosevelt. ~ When Mr. Black’s confirmation was being debated in the Senate, Senator Borah quieted discussion of Mr. Black’s alleged Klan affiliation by rising on the floor and saying: “There never has been at any time one iota of evidence that Senator Black was a member of the Klan. No one has suggested any source from which such evidence could be gathered. We know that Senator Black has said in private conversation, not since this matter came up but at other times, that he was not a member of the Klan, and there is no evidence to the effect that he is . . . there is no fact or facts even indicating it. 1t is rumor, hearsay.” So, obviously, Mr. Black also should answer why—if the.charges subsequently made are true—he permitted Senator Borah’s statement to stand uncorrected. It is important that these questions should be answered, and answered before Mr. Justice Black takes his place on the Supreme Court bench next Monday. The American people know that Mr. Black had a liberal record in the Senate. They know that the Klan charges have been made the most of by reactionary forces. What they want to know is whether Hugo L. Black is a man of integrity or whether he is a political opportunist who regards his oath lightly and is willing to profit by concealing the truth.

OUR INDUSTRIAL GROWTH

HE past two years have produced more substantial industrial expansion than Indianapolis has witnessed since the World War. . .. Our industrial department reports that during the last 30 days it has been working with a larger number of prospects than at any time in the past 20 years. “There are indications that this community has entered upon a new era of expansion and growth, in which it will reap the benefit of the investment it has made in more economical and effective government, and more stable relations between employee and employer.” - This forecast from the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce publication, “Activities,” is all the more encouraging because the expansion is based on sound principles.

#® ” ” # » " RECOVERY has brought renewed Tivalry among cities for new industries. One small Eastern city greets visitors with a sign: “Industries Wanted—Low Taxes.” Four Mississippi towns recently voted bonds to subsidize new factories, Pascagoula going $150,000 in debt to establish a woolen mill. Other cities, particularly in the South, cffer the bait of tax exemptions or special rates. As usual, the subsidies are the result of boom psychology. The communities seem to have forgotten the stern lessons of the past—the post-Civil War period of municipal bond defaults caused by ill-considered bond issues to help railroads ; the widespread municipal defaults during the recent depression traceable to spending public money on. “booster” schemes, including some private promotions; the injury caused some towns by the collapse of fly-by-night concerns which had been subsidized to open. The current competition also ignores the trend in law against diverting public funds to private interests. 2 " 8 ” # 8 I DIANAPOLIS has pursued no such illusory road to “wealth and prosperity” and is not doing so now. Chamber officials point out that few industries of financial responsibility will accept subsidies. Then, too, such’ bonuses are unfair to existing industries. If plants already established need working capital, as some usually do, why endanger their existence and increase the tax burden of all by paying public money over to a stranger with a doubtful future? Experience shows that the location of an indus-

try is not necessarily a blessing to the city. Obviously, relief, police and health services cost more if the industries

added depend on cheap labor, have heavy seasonal job fluctuations and follow hard-boiled labor policies. Nor is the boast of low taxes always a worthwhile inducement. Low taxes often mean cheap government with low standards, inadequate services and third-rate personnel. The Indianapolis policy, and the one now recognized in most big cities as sound, is to maintain conditions attractive - to industrial development. No effort is spared to help prospective industries solve their many problems, but Indianapolis is, and should be, interested chiefly in industries that can walk in on their own financial legs. And this doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t use every legitimate means to make known the community’s own natural advantages. A better city rather than a bigger city should be the

goal. If the growth is well-planned and solid, size will take |

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER) ~~ ~~~ 2 -s MARK FERREE |

CAN JUST FIND SOMEBODY _ToGoTo TOWN WITH THESE!

“ap

0 . A RY

THURSDAY, SEPT. 30,

| Incident: in ithe Better-Times Parade —By Herblock

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

If We Must Gamble, Why Not Allow U. S. to Take a Broker's Profit of 100 Millions Yearly? Asks Pegler.

EW YORK, Sept. 30.—In discussing the

operations of the British football pools,

the equivalent of the American numbers racket, I am day-dreaming about the moneyraising possibilities of some similar scheme

operated on a national scale and with exclusive rights by the United States Government. Dealing to a regular clientele of about six million, the British pools, in a season of nine months, handle

from 150 million to 200 million dollars. Like the promoters of our numbers racket, they find it profitable to take candy money bets. Their minimum is an English penny, or 2 cents of our money, and the numbers racketeers who do business in most of our big cities and in many smaller ones will accept a 1l-cent bet. There have been many estimates of the amounts handled by the numbers racketeers, but none of them is worth considering because they all are founded on gossip and guess. Nevertheless, the pools and the American rackets demonstrate it is possible to handle with profit wagers so small as to seem not worth the bother. Perhaps the .rackets should be eliminated from consideration in this respect, because they are very informal and keep no records. The British pools, however, are now conducted in a businesslike way, and they still invite 2-cent bets.

8 ] ”

N this country the volume obviously would be much greater. An estimate of a billion a year as the total handle seems very conservative, but even on that volume a 10 per cent rakeoff for the operator, which

would be the Government, would yield one hundred million dollars for the Treasury. It might, and probably would be considerably more. Instinctively the objection arises that the United States Government must never become party to a gambling operation. As for that, many of our state governments already are in the business, taking a percentage of the pari-mutuel turnover at the race tracks, and the Federal Government; even now, through the income tax, not only accepts with pleasure and without compunction its legal percentage of gambling winnings, but even demands, under the law, a fair divvy of the profits of swindlers and racketeers.

# » 2

ND if a technical distinction having a faint color of morality will help the national conscience in this matter of the pool, the fact is that the Government would be no party to the betting. The pool 1s a pari-mutuel device in which the. customers bet against the probabilities and each other. The winning odds in a squarely conducted mutuel of this type are enormous, but the individual losses might not be harmful if bets of a nickel were acceptable. And 10 per cent of a billion-dollar handle is 100 million dollars a year for the national kitty. Do I hear anyone sneering at a hundred million a year even in these days of hoxcar figures?

Ai 4

Mr. Pegler

The Hoosier Forum

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

SEES DANGER IN LATE LOITERING

By Observer My work takes me over the North Side streets, and for the last week around 10 and 11 p. m. I see boys that look to be 10 and 14 years of age playing around’ corners and drugstores at that late hour. Then a great many boys on bicycles use a busy main thoroughfare for a racing circle in the center of the street. This happens to be my week on a district near the park. Also many young girls and boys stop at places selling liquors, buy a bottle or two, get in a car and drive like mad. Squads had better look after the minors a little in their safety drive. Is there a law not to sell liquors to minors and one also to keep youngsters off the street at midnight? Some people also say some small children go to school one and two days a week and play the rest of the time on the streets. What about the truant officer they had when I was a boy? Teach the youngsters law and order and you will have a better city to live in. 3 n ”n ” GAPITALISTIC SYSTEM GREAT —FOR CAPITALISTS, VIEW By R. Sprunger The city of Cleveland was amazed to find it was paying $1,750,000 more for fire, police and hospital protection in the slum area than it was taking in from the same area in the form of taxes. Police profection cost, per capita, in the slum district was $57.60. More than 90 per cent of the ‘67,000 tenements “housing” 2,000,000 persons in New York are condemned as firetraps by experts. This is just anether sample of how the exploiters of the working class profit from misery. It is easy to see that the exploiters condemn such areas because of the lucrative business at low cost to them. The capitalistic system is a great system—for the capitalist.

# nn =» VIEWS GEN. JOHNSON AS GOING ‘REACTIONARY’ By Joseph A. Dickey, Anderson

I have been reading Gen. Johnson’s articles for some time and am impressed with his almost complete change of attitude. I suppose he claims the same rights that the Supreme Court possesses, except that, as the Supreme Court has become liberal, Johnson is becoming more reactionary. He appears of late to be joining with those who,

General Hugh Johnson Says—

Give Them a Break! ‘Sons of Celebrities Have a Tough Row to Hoe; It's Censure. if They Fail and Cry of 'Favoritism' if They Succeed. TEW YORK, Sept.

Morgenthau and John L. Lewis are entering Princeton together—both with my deepest sympathy.

30—The sons of Henry

I don’t know the Secretary’s son. The other lad is a modest sturdy prep-school product who could well make his way in any company, under the name of Walter Wigglespot. Friénds tell me Robert Mor‘gentkhau is exactly the same kind. The almost indescribable pathos of being the freshman son of a famous father is that almost nobody in college is willing to let it go at that. He has about as much privacy as a cigar-store Indian. Tom Jones may ‘have a little accident with a popbottle and a French mayor and nobody hears about if, but the gendarmes. If it happens to John Roosevelt, it is wiretl to the world before morning. That is an extreme example not to be construed as a plea for the freedom of youth to squirt carbon-dioxide on foreign dignitaries, but it illustrates the point that the lot of the sons of celebrities is not a happy one. ” ® n T West Point in my day, my young brother barA barians took a very erroneous and even more

cruelly active view of their duty toward such sons.

In my own or the preceeding class were U. 8. Grant III, the sons of such Civil War heroes as McArthur and Phil Sheridan and the brother of Hobson who tried to sink the Merrimac to bottle Cervera’s fleet in

It was bad enough at the academy for the pub-

(Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns, religious controversigs excluded. Make. your letter short, so all can have a chance. Letters must be signed, but names will be withheld on request.) -

for political and economic reasons, condemn the President. Mr. Johnson. more than any writer that I know about, seems to want to convey the impression that he can’t be wrong. He forgets the storm of criticism that beat against him because, while NRA Adminisrator, he “cracked down” on the little fellow and allowed the big boys to do as they pleased. He still takes the side of the economic royalists against those who are not so fortunate. : In his article of Sept. 22, he complains of Roosevelt’s program fo change our form of government. He never has attempted to specify as to what changes in the form are proposed. If he means that the Court Reorganization Plan was a step in the change, he makes understanding difficult. Lincoln and Grant both added members to the Supreme Court with the expressed purpose of controlling the Court’s decisions.

‘Talk Appears Silly’,

This talk about -changing the Constitution without the amendment process appears silly when we reflect that in the AAA case, Justice Roberts added the word “expressly” to the implied powers clause of the Constitution and thus changed it without an amendment and against even the majority in Congress. i The Supreme Court, since the election and since the proposal of the President’s Court Plan, has absolutely changed its interpretation of the Constitution of the United

“TAKE IT EASY By CLIFF HANSBERRY Don’t bite and Kick, ‘grab and shove,

Or fill the ‘world ‘With SOITOW. Take your time—learn to love,

You may not be here tomorrow.

DAILY THOUGHT

The wages of sin is death.— Romans 6, 23.

SE sin as it will use you; spare it not, for it will not spare you; it is your murderer, and the murderer of the world; use it, therefore, as a murderer should be used. Kill it before it kills you. You love not death; love not the cause of death. —Baxter.

States. Perhaps that is what Mr. Johnson means by changing our form of government, and he got the wrong cow by the tail. As Prof. Charles A. Beard says, “Many myths have been built up with reference to the Constitution.” .. . I think it hardly. can be denied that a majority of the 39 men who signed the Constitution understood that the Supreme Court would have power to review legislation. It also can hardly be denied that a majority of those who were elected delegates to the convention were opposed to giving the Supreme Court this power. This Supreme Court question was one of thin ice and the delegates skated “over it hurriedly. There was an effort made —in fact, four efforts—to give the Court express power to review legislation, not in the form that it has taken, but each time it was. voted down.

Acts Like Sophomore, Claim

There are times. when Gen. Johnson writes dnd acts like a sophomore. He says that Roosevelt, since the election, is not attempting to give the people the reforms that he promised them. Fine attempt to create prejudice against the President! Roosevelt promised wage and hour legislation, farm relief, power legisiation and many other things. And he has: insisted that Congress enact this legislation. He could not help it that Congressmen who rode in on his coat-tails neglected to pass this legislation. Perhaps this Western trip will help Congress do something. When the President says a few nice words to Gen. Johnson he is in great good humor for a week; when he feels neglected he just cannot hold back his billingsgate. President Roosevelt has not had time for him for several weeks.

Ree QUESTIONS SINCERITY OF LANDON ATTITUDE By M. Kelley, Beech Grove It is with interest I review the comments .of thé press or the present tour of the President. The first to greet with a challenge was our old friend Mr. Landon. “Submit

"| your court proposal to the people

and take your licking.” I assume he meant if he were placed in a similar

predicament that such would be his actions. Landon in the early days ofthe depression was a strong advocate of the New Deal policies within his own state, if the press of the day is to be believed, but the steam roller tactics of the. convention which nominated him surely cast a doubt upon his sincerity.

It Seems to Me By Heywood Broun

Satire May Be Strong Weapon, But When the President Uses It, America's Sense of Humor Fails.

EW YORK, Sept. 30.—Franklin D. Roosevelt frequently breaks a well-established tradition of American politics. He uses satire. I will readily admit that for the most part he employs this weapon not to mollify his foes but to madden them. Some of his most punishing thrusts have been couched in a form which was humorous, at least upon the surface. According to theory this practice is dangerous, be-

cause the public may be puzzled as “to just when the leader in questign is in deadly earnest and when he:is having his little joke. Although: a sense of humor is regarded ‘as=a great gift in almost every other walk of life, Americans have geherally indicated a preference for Presidents without any appreciation of anecdotes. It seems to me that Franklin Delano Roosevelt is not likely to suffer much from any mistake as to his intentions when he uses an epigram as an arrow. By now the early misapprehension which Set him down as a shade too genial to be effective has been thoroughly dissipated. For better or worse both friends and foes admit that Mr. Roosevelt has a more than average capacity for throwing the 16-pound har“poon. -

Mr. Broun

:

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ND it seems to me that many of his opponents err in their failure to reply in kind. Specifically, I have in mind Frederick H. Stinchfield, the president of the American Bar Association. Mr. Stinchfield :in all reason has a right to be annoyed or even infuriated by the President’s gibes at the legal profession in his last radio address, but I feel that the eminent barristér has been trapped out of a perfect manner of courtroom calm. There was room for a reply, but hardly an opening for the argument which the barrister gave. One might feel that Franklin Roosevelt has gone a shade too far and still be unwilling to go along with Mr. Stinchfield in his statement that “they (lawyers) have made America what it is today.” The assertion is so sweeping that it lends support to the President's contention that the function of gavernment has been impeded by legal fine print bf judicial arrogance. -

# =z = 3 OR is it accurate for Mr. Stinchfield to suggest that in the debatable economic and political problems of the day all legal opinion is solidly on one side or the other. The Bar Association may represent the very best butter which the profession has to offer, but the fine words which its luminaries have to offer will not suffice to grease every parsnip of: proletarian necessity. If the legal profession is worth its salt it must stand ready to furnish advocates to every contendinz side in public questions. If it is really true, as Mr. Stinchfield suggests, that all lawyers are on the same side in regard to vital problems, then indeed the profession has lost its savor, and the time is ripe for the

laymen of the land to take over the task of Jendering vigorous dissenting opinions.

The Washington Merry - Go- Round

Mr. President Makes It Clear Why He's Making the Western Tour: _ This Is for the Purpose of Educating the Press, He Says in Wyoming.

By Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen

licity pretentions of any plebe, but the lives of these lads was continuous, unrelieved and ingenious torture. Young Phil Sheridan, when off duty, carried a broomstick capped with the head of a hobby-horse. At the approach of an upper classman it was his “teck”—

. every plebe had one—to ride that stick furiously down

the company street herding other plebes in the opposite direction with a wooden sword and yelling, “Turn,

- boys, turn, we’re-going back,” as his father had done’

in the Shenandoah. ; » ” ® 2 A

'LYSSES GRANT who is now one of the most :

distinguished officers in the Army and who then was, and still is, as shy as a rabbit, had to “sound off” the famous terse sentences of his grandfather— strung together in unintelligible monotone. Hobson sank more peanut-shell and watermelon-seed Merrimacs in Subs and basins than there are leaves on a tree.’ It’s a big. burden for such boys. If: they stumble they are “good stock gone to seed.” If they shine,

they're “being favored with all the breaks.” Some‘times they don’t have the satisfaction of being quite sure that their genuine little triumphs are all their own. They never know whether people who are kind are kidding them, or using them, or merely curious they to calf

EATTLE, Sept. 30.—At last it ‘can be told—the real S reason why the President is making his 6000-mile trip. from Coast to Coast. The mystery was cleared up at Wheatland, in southeastern Wyoming, by the President himself during a 5-minute stop in the little plains tewn. He said: “Back in the dining-car, listening over -a loudspeaker to what I am saying, are a couple dozzsn newspapermen. Now you know all about your co ry out here, but they don’t. So this trip is for the p pose .of educating the press... . » p ” s HE President’s visit in Washington is expected to have an ameliorating effect upon a secret feud which has been waxing bitter ‘between the two-

Senators from this state.

They are Senators Bone and Schwellenbach, both Democrats, both strong backers of Mr. Roosevelt, and for a long while good friends. Back in the Capital, however, it has been an open secret that all during the last session they would hardly speak. Mr. Bone, the senior Senator, came to the Sen-

ate in 1932 and immediately established a reputation

as a crusading progressive. Mr. Schwellenbach who joined him in 1934, took lessons from Mr. Bone, worked closely with him, but soon was displaying a more forthright brand of pro-

More recently Mr. Schwellenbach has been critical of his senior colleague and friend because of a Seattle radio station in which Mr. Bone is supposed to have interest. Operated by Saul Haas, Collector of

wattage jumped up by the Federal Communications Commission, upon the representation of Mr. Bone. Relations reached the breaking point between the two Senators when the Democrats elected ‘a Senate ° floor leader to succeed Joe Robinson. All of Mr, Roosevelt’s supporter, including Mr, Schwellenbach, lined up for Mr. Barkley, but Mr. Bone insisted on voting for Pat Harrison. He almost, jumped down Senator McAdoo’s throat when asked to support the President’s candidate. Mr. Roosevelt considers both men extremely able and has expressed the private wish that they patéh up their row. : 2 » #" » als a HE trip may be a pleasure junket for the Presi dent, but Mrs. Roosevelt is finding it no vacation, The First Lady is in the. dining car eating break- _ fast by 8 o'clock every morning. The President has his in bed. After the meal, and between stops, she

works with Mrs. Malvina Scheider, her secretary, in

the latter's ‘compartment in in the ear adjoining fille President’s.

‘Attired in a plain shirtwaist aod stay skirt, Ms, Roosevelt, seated opposite Mrs. Scheider, dictates

letters in reply to her heavy correspondence, which

is brought to the train by special mail several times a day. The door of the compartment is open, and passersby along the corridor can see’ Mrs. Roosevelt busily at work. In the afternoon Mrs. Roosevelt writes her: daily newspaper column for The Times, then finishes ool mail. She dines with the President in the 1 and . early to her room to read bef