Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 1 October 1937 — Page 16

The Indianapolis Times (A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

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EE RlIley 5551

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FRIDAY, OCT. 1, 1937

WAITING R. JUSTICE BLACK’S address tonight promises to be one of the most dramatic ever heard over radio—certainly, to American listeners, the most dramatic since the speech of King Edward VIII last December. If anything, Mr. Black's performance i is getting a better _ buildup. The element of suspense is greater. Everyone knew well in advance that Edward was going to annoynce an abdication. And apparently Mr. Black does not feel able to say the one thing which would be the best answer to the question whether he is or ever was a member of the Ku-Klux Klan. He would hardly need 20 minutes on the radio to say “No.”

SOCIAL WORK CONFERENCE

NDIANAPOLIS, as host earlier this year to the National Conference on Social Work, got a graphic picture of how the forces of depression have brought America face-to-face

with a tremendous task of social adjustment and with new

responsibilities of public welfare. So today, as the 46th annual Indiana State Conference on Social Work opens here, we look with increased interest for reports on progress of the new social structure that is ‘being built. Experience with the new State Welfare Act will attract further attention. Allan Bloom, conference vice president, explains that “this gathering of social workers and people from all walks of life who are interested in the social progress of our State will represent the best information and intelligence in the state and nation in regard to problems of social welfare. “It is the only organization which brings together the lay citizen and the professional specialist, the theorist and the practical expert, the worker in private agencies and workers in the vast and expanding governmental program.” We agree with Mr. Bloom that “it is highly important that the public take account of what is being done.”

HON. SHABBINESS DOLPHE MENJOU, Hollywood's glass of fashion and owner of a $50,000 wardrobe, says American men are fast gaining the distinction of being the worst- dressed males in the world. Believing with Robert Herrick that “a sweet disorder in the dress kindles in clothes a wantonness,” we were just about ready to accept handsome Adolphe’s soft impeachment, and even gloat over it, when word came from Tokyo that America is going to lose the palm to Japan. A group of high-ranking Japanese officials over here have organized to practice ‘honorable shabbiness” to reduce Japan’s imports and help her win her war to make the world safe for democracy. _A vice minister went so far as to urge a “no suit association.” Doubtless the well-dressed Japanese gentleman soon will blossom out under the cherry trees clad in a barrel. Which is another proof that in a number of things this country just can’t compete with the land of the Rising Sun.

" THE NEW VIGILANTISM : HE American League Against War and Fascism announces the formation of a national committee to investigate the spread of “vigilantism” in industrial communities, with hearings by a panel of citizen investigators headed by Bishop Francis J. McConnell of the Methodist Church, and containing the names of other prominent Americans.

It is also reported that the Department of Justice may co-

operate with the La Follette Civil Liberties Committee to shed light on this evil. Law-loving Americans will cheer theSe announcements as a healthy public reaction against such extra-legal activities parading under the cloak of patriotism. They will be inclined to agree with the league that their growth “is the most serious menace to American democracy that has presented itseif in recent years.” We have no need for vigilantism of any id in this country. The quickest and surest way to kill these selfappointed bodies is to expose them.

CHURCHES LOOK AHEAD

ECENT conferences of religious groups in 'Indianapolis have developed significant movements and trends. Latest of these is the action this week by the Indiana Pastors’ Conference looking toward organization of a State Church Federation. A committee representing all denominations attending the conference is to be named to outline the program. If successful, the move will give indiana. its - first state-wide church council. Minimum salaries for pastors were discussed by the recent Indiana Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. A commission headed by the Rev. Edwin F. Shake, Bedford, proposed a sustenance fund to which ministers earning more than 60 per cent of the conference average salary would contribute, and out of which pastors edrning less would be paid enough to bring their pay up to between $1040 and $1200, depending on the size of their families. The 1938 conference will vote on the report. This proposal is in line with tendencies in sther fields to assure minimum living standards; also with the high school teachers’ scale established by the State. It represents an attempt to draw into the ministry a higher caliber . of clergymen, for the plan also includes provision for drop- . ping pastors who fail to reach required standards. . ‘Indicating the widening interest of churches in the - problems of modern society, the regional Catholic Confer- . ence on Industrial Problems evoked stimulating discussion of some of today’s most vital social and economic issues. » Running through these conferences have been hearti ening pleas for abler leadership, better churches, c co-opera-tion among. denominations, social justice and world peace.

No one expects Mr. Black to do likewise.

.operators in

. cies will not change.

rman SR LAURE

How Shout Hollywood Visiting Mussolin, > ByE Herblock

(Alter Mussolini Jr. Completes His Study of Hollywood)

NOTICE THE EXPRESSION: IN THE BYES!

a) — AND BETTER

| BAMBINOS = CAMPAIGN

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

U. S. Business Should View Fascism

With Same Alarm It Already Has Shown Against Communist Ranks.

EW YORK, Oct. 1.—There has been no special demand for it, but my advice to the National Association of Manufacturers and all the Chambers of Commerce and

Boards of Trade around the country which

have been viewing communism with such picturesque alarm is to view fascism the same way

and make it convincing.’ In this manner they could bust up the play around the left wing which holds that all businessmen, or, anyway, all men in big business, are pining for a dictatorship like. Mussolini's or Hitler's in which: the workingman is forbidden to organize or strike and may even be forbidden to quit his job as an individual. True enough, the workingman has few liberties in Italy and Germany, and there may be some hig American industry who would like to adopt that portion of fascism which deals with labor. But that isn’t all there is to fascism, and every intelligent businessman knows that business also loses its rights under a dictator. Under fascism the big shot tells the boss how many men he must employ and how much to pay them, regulates the volume of business that he may handle, and regulates his prices and profits. " » s F a dictator needs money—and they are always broke from overspending on arms or public works —he doesn’t bother to call together parliament and get them to pass a tax law. He just takes it wherever he finds it, and inasmuch as business always keeps some on hand as fuel to keep the chimneys hot, the dictator is always sending some flunkey around with a satchel to put the bite on the businessmen. Sure, in the early days of fascism and naziism, the businessmen, and especially the heavy operators, thought these dictatorships were the answer to their prayer. The Communists were wrecking plants, wasting and,

Mr. Pegler

destroying material, pushing people around, sluggii:g,

shooting and burning. They were as tough and dirty in their ways as the Black Shirts and Brown Shirts were to be when they came along, a fact toeremember when some Communist starts beefing about the brutalities practiced on Lis comrades in the crazy couutries.

s 2 8 UT the Italian and German businessmen didn't forget that once their dictators obtained absolute control, business, like labor, would be ruled by the whim of the head man or some accredited deputy who might be a terrible thief and grafter. Big business in this country doesn’t want fascism, but, like the American Legion a few years ago, it has hated Communists so noisily and exclusively that the bolos are able to make a fairly convincing charge of inferential fascism. It takes only a few words to undo this, as the Legion did, by adding the words fascism, naziism and dictatorship in every resolution against communism and every speech on the subject. The plan should be to create one front against all of them, instead of standing in the middle and fighting them on all sides. In practical effect they are all about the same.

and

The Hoosier Forum

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

LAWS, NOT COURTS, HELD CAUSE OF DIFFICULTY / By Gerard Denlow, Chicago

The other day I met a man in Lafayette who still is impressed with the idea that all human ills are to be charged against judges. He had been listening to the Presidential fireside chats and reading all the tirades against the U. S. Supreme Court, which blame it for all the business wrongs, even for Negro slavery, the Civil War, and the perversion of corporate rights. It therefore is a relief to note in your Hoosier Forum a Lafayette man who calls attention to some facts: Legislators, not judges, make the iaws. If laws are bad, legislators, not judges, are to blame. Legislators have the sole power to furnish means to enforce the law. are not enforced, officers wink at again the legislators are at fault,

‘not the judges. The constitutional

provision that judges shall be independent of Executive amd Legislative is simple plain common sense. All the earmarks indicate most of the present tirade§ against the Court to be. a product of cunning politics, an. attempt to make the judges a scape-goat for the legislative monstrosities inevitably doomed to failure as the hard-boiled political managers very well know. ‘Much of our law is poor stuff. But a law against intellectual crookedness: might be .a leaven to help some politicians.

8 =» = LIKES FORUM WRITERS BEST, READER SAYS

By J. E... Morgantown

I am just a plain citizen down here ih Morgan County. I enjoy reading the Hoosier Forum more, if possible, than any other part of The Indianapolis. Times. I think the reason is that the articles are written by amateurs; that is, men and women who write just occasionally, not for pay. They do other work for their living. They are so sincere, so unaffected and unsophisticated. The reader feels he is getting at the real source of things. They write because they have something to say. What they say comes from the heart. It is pure and undefiled. But there are some other writers —Hugh Johnson, Heywood Broun, Westbrook Pegler, Raymond Clap-

per, H. E. Barnes. Drew Pearson and

Robert, Allen, mentioning also Mrs. Roosevelt, Mrs. Ferguson and Mark Sullivan, who wouldn’t do sog¢badly sometimes, if they would have something to say. But they must ap-

pear in print every day. It must be |

a tragic moment in the columnist’s life when he feels constrained to

say something, thinks he is expected

General Hugh Johnson Says— 'We'll Stick With You if We Get Our Dough,' West Tells Roosevelt:

© And President in Turn Replies: Fear Not! My Policies Will Not Change:

EW YORK, Oct. 1—Mr. Roosevelt didn’t need to go out to Bonneville to find out that the chapter of blunders on the Supreme Court wasn’t pop-

ular. He is as sensitive as an®* ammeter to the least little current of public opinion. For the same reason, he knew that despite that chapter, he has an unshakable hold on the areas he is visiting. That hold is money—jack—dough . . , the Strongest single hold in the human bag of tricks. The most significant news in the wake of the Presidential train at every stop was that he was

| everywhere advised, “We don’t like what happened

in the Supreme Court fight but we won't go back on you as long as we get our Federal dough.” Boiled down, the President's replies amount to this: Fear not, importunate dough-seekers. My poliSome friends advise me: to coast but I am going to continue to pedal. And don’t let anybody tell you this will bust the United States. The budget will be balanced in 1938 but you will get your dough. ® ” o IF the grain and row-crop country the dough will come from Mr. Wallace's new AAA. At the great power sites on the Pacific slope, the dough is to

come from power at low prices subsidized by Federal

dough. At Bonneville there was a promise to rebuild that” whole region with this Federal dough spent on i

new Columbia River dams.

If laws if executives them,

(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.)

to say something and in his heart knows he has nothing to say. Yet he pretends to be full of his subject, writes a wordy paper filled with wise cracks, “shrewd” observations and “profound” prognostica=tions, and brings his paper to a dramatic. close. On reading it one is led to think that the direct calamities are impending, that a world war is imminent, that President Roosevelt will declare himself a dictator in the next 24 hours, a social upheaval is just about to take place which will blow the present social set clear into the middle of Mars. With fear and trembling ‘I have looked for their contributions the next day to see what the situation is one day later, fully expecting my worst fears to be realized. What I really do find, however, is that this same writer is writing on an entirely different subject. Sometimes some of these writers say some worthwhile things, but for the most part much of what they say could remain unsaid and the world would lose nothing.

2 2 # DEFENDS APPOINTMENT OF BLACK TO COURT By Rebecca S. Stewart, Brazil

Catholic, Jewish, foreign-born, and colored Mr. and Mrs. Ordinary

HARVEST TIME

By JAMES D. ROTH

Brawny arms in the field, Braving the sunny rays, To store the bounteous yield For future needful days.

No want or hunger stalks Near those who toil. None comes to him who walks On fertile soil.

Then sow and garner long, A recompense will come Of character be strong. Reward when day is done.

DAILY THOUGHT

The blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, cleanseth us from all sin.—John 1:7.

E that hath slight thought of sin never had great thoughts of God. —Owen.

American Citizen is not the least worked up by the noise made over

-| the appointment of Hugo Black as

a member of the Supreme Court. They recognize it as political propaganda conducted on a low plane. It is a new, refreshing ges-

ture for some of these protesting people to show any interest in the common man of any.race, color or creed. Ten years ago, when sympathy for the Klan was popular in Indiana, many did not raise their voices in protest or even hint that membership was a ban to officeholding. They were not so couragecus then. Also, Klanism did not exist only newspaper correspondent stated. When Louis Brandeis was appointed to the Supreme Court, the same fight was on, with a different excuse. Both men believe in equal justice to all and special privilege to none. Although Brandeis was fought supposedly because he was a Jew, the real reason was that he had successfully opposed an Eastern corporation and was considered a friend to labor. Likewise, Black is opposed today, not because of his alleged Klan connection, but because he has fought special privileges and has stood as a sincere New Dealer for many needed economic and social reforms. The masses, regardless of religious or racial differences, agree that it is a mighty good appointment and wish there were more members of the Court like him.

2 # #8

MOUNTS HEYWOOD BROUN’S COLUMN ON CARDBOARD By H. H. B.

Just a line about the Heywood Broun column for Monday, Sept. 27. There is a swing, a force, a refrain that is gripping. Every so often Broun strikes the chord that makes a reader tense. IT have the column mounted on cardboard. It bears rereading.

# a '# PEDESTRIANS AT FAULT IN MANY ACCIDENTS

By Knowing Motorist

A number of states make pe-destriun-participation in motor vehicle accidents specimens for study . . . to throw light on the problem of pedestrian responsibility. A special study of accident reports from five states (Arizona, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island) shows that: In all accidents studied in which there was a. fatality and which involved a pedestrian, the pedestrian was at fault in 55.2 per cent of the cases. Using all motor vehicle accidents for a base, the study showed pedestrian faults were the cause in 25 per cent of all fatal accidents.

in the Scuth, as one |:

It Seems to Me By Heywood Broun

Broun Cites Antilabor Violence as Fascist Tactics Practiced by Those Who Condemn Hitler and Mussolini.

NEW YORK, Oct. 1.—“Everybody talking about Heaven ain’ gwine there.” So runs the spiritual. And so runs the world, for there are those who prate of liberty, extol freedom, dedicate themselves to democracy

and yet move precisely in the opposite direction. Some of these days God’s chillun are going to put on their shoes and walk all over God's heaven, but in a world of false prophets they must weigh not only

the words but the inward grace of those ‘who would lead the way. ‘And most of all we must fear ‘those who give lip service to the fight against fascism and still take up the very weapon which Hitler and Mussolini used in their drive toward power. Der Fuehrer and Il Duce diverted attention by "setting goblins and ghosts to danc- . ing. They befogged the electorate with a mist of ectoplasm and behind this screen they crawled into the seats of the mighty. And practitioners of the same sort of black magic parade before us in America. Oh, yes; they hate Hitler and all his works,. but they use his very words and generously adopt his devices. Hardly had I. expected to hear again about “The nationalization of women.” Fascism has made its women no ‘more than kine set to the task of bearing calves for the munitions market.

Mr. Broun

5 2 E-3 " HERE was an Italian mother who lost her three sons in the crusade to bring civilization to Ethiopia, and Mussolini honored her in the course of a great review. He patted her cheek. The Fascist leaders frightened the middle classes by pretending to believe that the trade unionists were about to murder each peaceful citizen in his bed.

And here we have those who profess to abhor the Nazi chief and all his works, and yet play his game by labeling every progressive movement in labor .as a Red menace. > : The very spinal cord of democracy lies in the

faith that government must serve the needs and,

necessities of the masses of mankind. I am not contending that the voice of each passing majority is the voice of God. : Discussion, debate, reconsideration and change of mind all are essential to democratic procedure. But if small entrenched groups can con-

sistently defy the will of the many, the men and

women who celebrate such rule are Fascists. ® 2 ”

LOOK through the headlines and I see, “Armed

Band Wrecks Strike Headquarters,” “Mayor Bans Outside Agitators,” “Judge Warns Police Against Coddling,” “Chamber of Commerce Asks Strong Hand.” Are these a proper part of the record of democracy? There have been those who stood in crowded halls and earned applause by baring the breast and declaring against all “foreign isms,” very men are the instigators of “citizens committees” and espionage and “Save America” societies. But the masses of America want democracy and will have it. God’s chillun will put on their shoes and dance all over God's heaven. Some of these days.

The ‘Washington Merry- Go-Round

‘Eight Old Men' May Give 'New Young Man' Black a Severe Hazing; He'll Need Crack Legal Secretary, but Probably Will Hire Nephew.

By Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen ASHINGTON, Oct. 1—With the return of Supreme Court Justices to Washington it has been

You can’t beat that. You can’t oppose it, but you can question it. The proposition is simply this, that we can, subsidize all depressed classes with Federal dough and still balance the budget and not bankrupt the Government. : 2 =n 8 ha ; : IF the past is any sample, it can’t be done. We've spent the Federal dough, but we haven't balanced the budget notwithstanding three promises all quite as emphatic as this. The only way to continue the subsidies and still balance the budget is to collect about one-third more in taxes. Who will pay that? As is becoming increasingly more clear, there are only about a billion and a half dollars out of about 12% billions of taxes collected in this country that are not passed on directly to consumers in sales taxes of one hidden kind or an-

other, or in increased prices or decreased wages and employment. This Federal dough, that is going to

make everybody happy, is first going tobe taken away

from somebody on something like an even basis of: contribution, and then given back to whoever, on whatever basis, a beneficen

perienced Justice.

whispered among Court attaches that the “Eight

Old Men” will put the “New Young Man”—Hugo Black—through a severe hazing. Any new Justice, by ‘being assigned. extremely difficult, long and arduous cases; can be left hanging on the ropes gasping for breath. Among the hardest cases are those involving State boundaries, and Justice Van Devanter, whom Justice Black replaces, for some reason, liked them. Chief Justice Hughes might continue the. ‘precedent, by passing them on to Justice Black. The hardest job is passing upon writs of certiorari and showing why the cases should or should not be reviewed by the Supreme Court. About 900 writs come before the Court annually, compared with only 200 cases actually heard, and the job cof wading through these 900 writs is difficult even for an ex-

E 3 ® 8 HERE are 450 cases on file before the Court and other Justices have spent most of the summer studying the writs of certiorari. Some Justices rely upon their secretaries to do the spadework in these cases. And since Justice Black has not practiced law for many years, and never was known as an outstanding jurist; he probably could use crack legal secretary.

However, it looks as if the secrelafial salary is to be kept in the Black family. Present indications are that his nephew, Hollis Black, will be his legal clerk. Mr. Hollis may or may not be a good lawyer, but for his uncle's sake, the other Justices are hoping that he is. . : 2 # 5 URING the last few days more than one Justice ‘has dug out the case of Bryant vs. Zimmerman, in which the Supreme’ Court put itself on record in the most vigorous language against the hooded order to which Justice Black allegedly belongs. Strangely enough this decision was written by Justice Van Devanter, the man whom Black replaces, Only one member of ‘the Court dissented—Justice McReynolds. Justice McReynolds differs emphatically with most of the labor and liberal views held by Justice Black. The Van Devanter opinion was written in a test of the Walker act in New York State by which secret organizations (with the exception of benevolent orders) had to register with the State. Bryant, a member of the Buffalo, N, Y., Klan, was convicted

‘under this law, appealed to the Supreme Court, and

was overruled. Justice Van Devanter held the Klan was “cone ducting a crusade against Catholics, Jews and Nee groes and stimulating hurtful religious and race prejudices; that it was striving for political al powe: and assuming a sort of tansy over the adminis- : “affairs.”

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