Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 14 October 1937 — Page 23

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i The Indianapolis Times

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

W. HOWARD LUDWELL DENNY MARK FERREE President Editor Business Manager

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Ep RIley 5551

Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

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

THURSDAY, OCT. 14, 1937

LABOR: PEACE OR FASCISM?

HE A. F. of L., after militantly charging a trick, nevertheless “keeps the bidding open” on the C. I. O.’s belligerently presented peace proposal. So there is yet a trace of hope that the civil war may be ended. But a toning down of temper on both sides must come first, for name-calling and sizzling oratory aren't efficient preliminaries to calm. We wonder if the leaders of either faction fully envision what they are heading the country for, and then what they are heading themselves for, if they allow this conflict to spread and to get worse.

Already we have seen enough to chart the trend. The |

jurisdictional strikes here and there throughout the land in recent months are but forerunners of vastly wider trouble if these two armies, each four million strong, fail to sense the damage their continued conflict will cause, and the reprisals from the rest of the public that ‘will be the inevitable result. : It should always be borne in mind that a jurisdictional strike is not a strike in the usual sense. It is not a battle for higher wages and better working conditions. It is a struggle for control—within unionism itself,

In the usual controversy between capital and labor the general public sympathy is with labor for the obvious reason that the rank and file is itself interested in better wages and working conditions. Therefore it wants to see any movement in that direction succeed. But not so when wages and working conditions are not an issue, when the contest is not between employees and employers but between rival unions, with the public in the role of innocent bystander. » ® 3 » » ® ENCE out of a long and far-flung jurisdictional warfare that self-same rank and file will turn on those who are responsible for the tremendous loss such a conflict will cause. Vigilantism in some form will appear. It already has shown its ugly head in certain sections. And the longer the war continues the greater is the invitation to a Fascist counter-movement. Demands in Congress and state legislatures for drastic limitations on labor unionism will accompany the jurisdictional struggle. And unless peace can be worked out, labor unionism, given through the Wagner act its greatest

Walk Right In!—By Talburt

COMING TO U.S. YO LOOK INTO ROUSING

CONDITIONS

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

Carpenters’ Home Employee Writes |

Same Low Wages Prevail There That Union Deplores Elsewhere in U. S.

NEW YORK, Oct. 14.—A man who identifies himself as an employee of the home for aged carpenters, maintained by Mr, Hutcheson’s United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, at Lakeland, Fla., has sent

your correspondent two communications. One is a clipping from The Carpenter, official jour-

| nal of the brotherhood, denouncing the wages paid

florists and greenhouse employees in Denver. These

people have been receiving from $10.80 to $12 for a week of 54 to 72 hours, according to The Carpenter, which says other organized workers in many parts of the country are the victims of similar conditions,

The Hoosier Forum

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

THINKS LIEF ERICKSON | MIGHT AID “QUARANTINE” By Babson Babbitt, Lafayette

| Like some of the European states, | we elect men to public offices to fix | their faces like movie actors and { coin phrases. Right now we are | advised that the world shouid keep out of war! Ho hum! You'll find in the Bible

to express

troversies

(Times readers are invited their these columns, religious con: excluded. your letter short, so all can have a chance. be signed, but names will be withheld on request.)

1 you to go with them. It is up to the | individual. If a man or woman has not the power to overcome the desire to drink or gamble, their surroundings should prohibit the two evils. i A strict enforcement of the law is | the remedy. Eliminate the beer | | joints and educate ourselves to the better things in life. If you met

views in Make

Letters must

protest against

tality.

| ism.

voters in 1936 signed a vehement such furnishing glorious evidence of viIn these 17,000,000 we find | the home and is the main road to | the bone and sinew of Republican- | the divorce and police courts. A political party with a rec- | um ord of achievement as great as that of the Republican Partly never dies | ! —unless it dies at the top. What [BLACK APPOINTMENT we now need, therefore, is ODpor- | my H. Arthur B. | tunity for debate—out of which will | : re . come a new grasp of principles and | I read Thomas McNultys quite | a vigorous fighting energy.

your husband or wife at a beer joint, don’t expect to get much out of home life. A good time in a saloon or beer joint dulls the happiness in

a verdict,

INEGRO PRESENTS VIEWS ON

| |

| logical criticism of Justice Black's

It Seems to Me By Heywood Broun

Broun Makes Belated Resolution: He'll Write No More on Mr. Black Until—(Maybe There's a Joker in It.)

EW YORK, Oct. 14.—There should be a terminal facility for every public prob lem. Even the most complicated controversy, eventually is talked out to the point where there ought to be a recess or a show of

hands. Specifically, IT am thinking of the case of Justice Hugo Black. The complaint has been made that he

was confirmed with too brief a discussion period. I agree. But there has been ample debate since. Those who think that the appointment was tragic have a right to their opinion and no amount of argument is likely to change their opinion. In the same way, the partisans who hold that this particular choice was

“It would be a goed plan,” says The Carpenter, “to make a record of these low wages business groups and throw it in the face of the chronic ballyhooers who insist on

The mask has now been torn | Supreme Court fitness. I am a Nefrom the design behind the “ob- | gro and a layman. Since we layjectives” of the New Deal. Issues men are in the masses in our are clearer, and a national conven- | ited States, I shall attempt to

“quarantine” Japan and probably Italy, Germany and Gen. Franco. The Lief Erickson Boulevard up in Chicago must have quaked with

middling good or perfect are by now rutted in their convictions. Obviously, Republicans and other opponents of the Adminis-

opportunity in all history, will have wrecked that opportunity by its own actions. In the meantime the nation, so hopeful that prosperity

Same as little Miss :

on ® »

Ea part of the Lord's prayer which says we forgive our debtors. | Fe % 3 - i

might be achieved and that higher wages and better working conditions through collective bargaining might contribute to the recovery, will witness industry shut down, unemployed increased, tax revenues falling off sharply, and all the other symptoms of economic paralysis which are the certain results of the strikes, the boycotts and the general disruption. All that can be prevented—but only by labor. To the leaders of the A. F. of L. and the C. I. O. we commend the words recently spoken by Paul Eliel, head of the Division of Industrial Relations of Stanford University, before the California convention of the League of Women Voters. Forecasting a “revulsion of feeling in the general public so strong that it is likely to lead to Government control of all labor organizations,” Mr. Eliel said: “This is the road that leads to fascism and if the labor struggle sends this country along this dangerous route it will be appalling. Whether those who are responsible for the rift in labor ranks will see their error before this violent public revulsion takes place, only time will tell.”

What the two major labor leagues need is a Judge Landis.

THE BRADY GANG L BRADY and his lieutenant, Shaffer, died as they and the public expected them to die, except that they didn’t have a chance to take any more lives. Cowering James Dalhover has confessed four murders by the gang, including the slaying of an Indianapolis policeman, and will be hrought back to face that serious charge. The G-Men, Indiana State Police and other authorities who worked long and hard on the case are to be commended. Their work should stand as a warning to every other criminal in the country. If any other criminal is tempted to surpass Brady, as Brady tried to outdo Dillinger, he should count his days of life and freedom as numbered. The end is sure to come. Many of these self-styled “big time” criminals end up in a penitentiary ; others die at the hands of the law they tried to outsmart. Invariably they are little men, lacking the character to face life's real battles, without the courage to stand up and take it.

A FINE EXAMPLE ESTERDAY’S headlines told of the deaths of two Indianapolis children in auto accidents. These fatalities did not occur in the city—Dbut the child auto death toll here is too large. In contrast, a municipality of comparable size, Kansas City, this week completed a year without a child traffic fatality, According to the National Safety Council it is the only large city in the country with such a splendid record. Statistics show that in the average American city of 400,000 a child is killed by motor traffic every 27 days. Kansas Cily should be complimented on an achievement that resulted from vigilance by drivers, children, parents, police and school patrols. Its example should be copied. Maybe those peace talks should be held in this country so the guns won't drown out the speakers. Aiding France and England must be predicated on that

| money

unloading on the public the false propaganda that unreasonably iow wages do not exist in the United States.” Your correspondent’s correspondent places himself in absolute agreement with The Carpenter's contention that such wages do exist, and

asks that his identity be kept confidential, because, | miserable as the job is which he holds in the employ |

of a great and prosperous labor union, he needs the nevertheless,

” ® »

.“Y have been told that a dollar a day is starvation

wages,” your correspondent’s correspondent says. “The enclosed article is written by Mr. Duffy, general

secretary of the union, and it dwells on the abomin- |

ably low wages in one section of the country. Let me pause here, however, to state that our wages here at the home come through Mr. Duffy's office, and that, on the whole, we are paid much less, and that our hours are equal to those mentioned in the article which he wrote.”

Your correspondent’s correspondent then states

that in the kitchen department of the national home |

of this labor union the wages are $7 for a week of seven days from 6:30 a. m. to 7 p. m.

The hospital staff, he says works in shifts owing |

to the necessity for a night side, but the working day averages nine and one-half hours and the wages range from $8 to $11. The help work from 7:30 a. m. to 5 p. m. on weekdays, he reports, and put in three hours on Sunday mornings for $9 or $10 a week.

1 LL overtime is donated,” your correspondent’s

correspondent writes. “Vacations are rare, and there are no set meal hours—half the time you eat and run or run between bites. We tried to organize, fed by the initiative of the kitchen help, within the Hotel and Restaurant Employees’ International Alliance, which is affiliated with the A. F. of L., like the Carpenters and Joiners Brotherhood, but we did not get very far. There seems to have been pressure exSie somewhere and our charter was never recognized. “We are also puzzled by the fact that we are not included in the New Deal's old-age pension plan. Why not? This home is not connected with charity.” Your correspondent does not know why the employees of the national home of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners are excluded from the benefits of the Social Security Act. But probably it goes back to initiation fees and dues exacted by some private and unofficial licensing authorities. Congress may have reckoned that anyone employed in such an organization must be rich.

| excitement! Virginia Dare must have rolled over "in her grave when she heard what the villains of the Supreme Court | were doing to the AAA and the rest of the alphabetical exhibit of | phonetic spellings! Or maybe old Lief himself was stalking the | scenery, wondering what had be- | come of his “First White Child” or why he, a specialist on quarantines, who had properly shut up Coluin- | bus and Americus years ago, was | now being consulted in this current | quarantine affair. But a slight question here might arise. Suppose old Lief should want | us to help quarantine England or | Russia? | > * @»

| | URGES ADOPTION OF HOOVER

|G. 0. P. CONVENTION IDEA | By Ballard Dunn, Los Angeles

Former President Hoover urges |a national convention of Repub[licans. Affirmative leadership of | this kind should be met in like spirit. {Instead we have inexcusable side- | stepping. Only out of the searching [debate of a national convention can | we Republicans fit ourselves, spir- | itually and intellectually to meet the | New Deal. We have failed in this to | date, because we have not yet met {the challenge of the du Pont-Mich- | elson smear. The New Deal was founded on the | smear. It continues to harp on it.| Out of the smear it has built its scarecrows and on the smear based | its “emergencies.” The smear was | not merely an attack on Mr. Hoover,

| will make and drink liquor.

tion is all important in giving Re- |

| publicans the stimulation and in-

spiration needed in planning the | struggle for the preservation of | America. | It is time that the rank and file | of the Republican Party expresses itself, and I hope this letter will stimulate other Republicans to write the editor of this newspaper, giving their views. » » ” BEER-JOINT ROMANCES DON'T LAST, WRITER SAYS By RH. V. Allison As long as boys have a desire to play marbles, men will gamble. As long as farmers raise grain, men Here are two evils long overlooked and steadily gaining ground. Gambling affects only the individual and his family. Liquor, the worst menace to mankind, ruins more homes than all other evils combined. What is the remedy? Gambling and liquor do not ask |

LIGHTNING FLASHES

By ROBERT O. LEVELL

I like to see the lightning flash, The bright light it can make; The way it makes a rapid clash In streaks that often break.

When they go dashing in the air, In day time ov. the night;

give you a Justice Black. He is a progressive Southerner

who plays the top with disregard of

the under dog. This the Justice brought out by joining the Kian at the time it was at its strongest and

could be of social and political benefit, When our President sponsored

the Court packing bill, Justice Black |

as an ardent supporter, received the first court appointment. In conclusion, let us remember that the Court honor is a permanent position, and any one unwanted by the masses should not receive honor through lack of information re-

ceived by our honorable President. |

” » » NOW, AS WE WERE SAYING By D. A. Sommer The greatest depth-bomb ever | loosed was dropped by Roosevelt | from a bridge in Chicago. It shook | the “lower regions” as it passed! through, and landed in China and Japan. Some criminals are very liberalminded, for they indorse very much | the principle of give and take. We | give them a parole and they take a payroll.

Il Duce says Italy and Germany are the best of democracies. If he | had said condem-ocracies, the rest

layman's viewpoint of |

publican record. Only after we have met this challenge, therefore, can we rededicate ourselves to Republican principles and refresh ourselves at the fountain of Republican history. Democracies demand clean-cut issues. The New Deal is leading America to the treadmill of forced | labor under the collective state. The | place for the Republican Party is ET us at the very opposite of such a pro- |

Proverbs 10:11.

General Hugh Johnson Says—

Thanks, Peg, for That Wallop at Us Columnists. Now Here's My Reply: If We Don't Do the Talking the Politicians Will. Which Is Worse?

ASHINGTON, Oct. 14 — Westbrook Pegler did a fine job in his column razzing all columnists, including himself, and—by an implication as delicate as a kick in the pants—the present writer. His point is that an undertaking to produce incessantly, from day to day, a cluster of critical comments on as many subjects as are covered in an encyclopedia by an authority whose knowledge of most of them must necessarily be a thin film, takes either the cheek of a brass monkey or the ego of a bug-house Bonaparte. It is plain true. Peg speculates on the question: “Why is a columnist?” He concludes they are just stuck in the paper as vaudevillian variety to the comic strips, although not one-tenth as popular. I think they are a device to offset editorial comment so that people who don't like the policy of the paper can find a different slant they do like among the columnists and still remain customers. If they don’t like one columnist, there are usually others with a different view. It is a scatter-gun shot at public

favor. 123 see much difference between the ponderous, ao ica Oe nope of an unnamed editorial e equ ionated offerings of a guy with his name and mug under the title, except as Peg, himself, once said, the enraged consumer can satisfy his murderous libido on the latter by writing him letters beginning, “Dear Sir, You Cur.”

opinion on what seems to me the most intelligent plan I have seen. Among other questions which engaged his curiosity was how people rated on a scale of “bade ly informed,” “well informed,” and “very well informed” as among income classes rated “highest,” “middle,” and “smallest.” Three per cent of the rich and 3 per cent of the poor were rated “very well informed,” but only 2 per cent of the middle class. Isn't that the answer to Peg’s question? In a coun= try and a pace of life where one man in 48 has time to find out what's going on, another who has nothing else to do but find out, has a double advantage. He can get away with anything. He is bound to rate in information better than 97 per cent of his consumers.

” ” » GET a lot of cur letters about a cock-sure columnist who has heated the writers all up by assertions with which they do not agree. I get one satisfaction out of them—“Boy, I certainly relieved you of carking doubts anyway.” Peg is right. Tt takes a lot of gall to be going around commenting all over everything every day. But if the columnists and editors didn’t pontificate it would leave the politicians in undisturbed monopoly —and they have a selfishness to serve that might swerve them from the eternal verities far more than the mere cocky complacency of any columnist. If the ukase went out tomorrow to liquidate all columnists, ‘estbrook

a lot more people would Wi Pegler than

It went to the very heart of the Re- | When they are seen mosv anywhere The lightning shines so bright.

DAILY THOUGHT “Go.”

The mouth of a righteous man is a well of life; but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked.—-

have faith makes might, and in that faith, gram. Mr. Farley says the Repub- | let us to the end, dare to do our lican Party is dead, but 17.,000.000] duty, as we understand it.—Lincoln.

of the world would have agreed. Labor is in confusion at the crossing, because its leaders are color blind. Lewis sees “Green” and yells, and Green sees Lewis as “Red” and yells, “Stop.” When Mussolini gets to hunting submarines, wouldn't it be interesting to see his expression if he suddenly peered over the railing into the water and saw his reflection? No matter which party wins in Spain, it is the Left that will survive, and its name will be changed to Not-much Left.

that right

tration have a perfect right to u:e the Black issue in those fugitive spots where national issues are pertinent in 1937, If it seems expedient, there is no reason why the case should not be raised again in 1938 or in 1940, But I doubt very much whether any great pro- | portion of the population of the United States is as | much exercised about Mr. Justice Black as a perusal | of the newspapers would seem to indicate. Quite frankly I will admit that, in addition to rather more important persons, your columnist felt that he had been put upon the spot. When the name of the gentleman from Alabama was sent to the Sen ate I was among the first couple of hundred to say, “This is a swell appointment.” Now I would like to take that back. A blunder was made. It was, from my point of view, more a political blunder than an actual one,

Mr. Broun

” ” ” M* guess is that Mr. Black will be an extremely useful member of the High Bench. The blemish | on his record may even prove to be helpful in the long

| run, because it is likely that he will be under a spe=

cial kind of pressure in dealing with issues affecting tolerance and civil rights. Upon such points the barrister from Birmingham will have to go the whole hog in espousing the liberal position. I realize there are sincere people who will not like the appointment even if it turns out well in the long run. They will say that high principles must always outweigh any question of expediency. There could be a long debate on that, and I am interested only in short arguments. Justice Black has been seated. His position is official. At reasonable times the whole issue may be brought up again for sound political purposes. But I do not think tha# those of us who live with our noses buried in news= papers should be compelled to have Black for breake fast, Black for lunch and Black for dinner time. ” o ” N particular, T am getting weary of the letter to the editor. It is always the same letter. Will any« body join me in a swear-off? This column is going to be dedicated to a no-mention-of-Black program until such time as new evidence comes in or the Juse tice renders a decision which is properly a subject of news comment, After reading many editorials I think I have a right to say, “This is where I came in, and I don't want to see all eight reels over again.” And lest I break the heart of some pro or anti-Black fan, I will make a concession. The merits of the new Justice should still be subject to debate upon agreement that Mr. Justice Butler's name and fame and anteceder.is should be thrown into the agenda also.

The Washington Merry-Go-Round

C. I. O. Leaders, Like Their Rivals in A. F. L., Bicker Among Themselves; Auto Workers Union Feud Continues as Martin Makes 'Reds' an Issue.

By Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen

ASHINGTON, Oct. 14—The C. I. O. meeting in Atlantic City this week, has one or two dents in its armor which indicate that all is not harmonious beneath the surface. In piling up its vast membership of 4,000,000 members and outmaneuvering the A. F. of L. in most of the mass-production industries, the C. I. O. has fallen into one of the chief mistakes which ripped open its rival ~that of internal bickering. Chief prima donna row has been between David Dubinsky, president of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers, and Sidney Hillman, president of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers,

HE Dubinsky-Hillman dispute has been over who shall organize and control the workers of the knit-goods industry. During the depression Mr. Dubinsky’s Ladies’ Garment Workers slumped badly. Membership dropped to a new low. On the other hand Sidney Hillman's Amalgamated Clothing Workers weathered the storm. With the NRA, however, the Garment Workers got a new lease on life, reached a present membership of about 225,000. Mr, Hillman’s Amalgamated Clothing Workers meanwhile numbers about 200,000. Rivalry between Mr. Dubinsky and Mr. Hillman, already at a high peak, reached the breaking point when it came to organizing the workers in the knitgoods industry Mr. Hillman claimed the industry as Mr. Dubinsky

a division of Wear.

claimed it Shree

Finally they took their case to John L. Lewis. He decided that since Mr. Hillman was organizing the entire textile industry of 1,000,000 workers, it was only fair that the 75,000 workers in the knit-goods industry should go to Mr. Dubinsky.

" » ” HIEF fly in the United Automobile Workers’ ointe ! ment is President Homer Martin himself. Mr, Martin is a great haranguer, can whip a crowd into a frenzy, He became head of the union partly because of that, partly because he was a compromise between two rival factions. Those factions still exist, one of them under the

influence of Jay Lovestone, former head of the Com« munist Party, who was expelled by Moscow some years ago. Mr. Lovestone today is the bitter foe of communism and has organized the “C. P. 0.” or Communist Party Opposition. His present complaint against commusnism is that it is not radical enough. Homer Martin, under the domination of Mr. Love= stone, simultaneously charges other U, A, W. leaders with being “Reds” and dangerous radicals. : Truth is that these “Reds” are some of the oldtimers among the automobile workers, the Ruether brothers, Robert Travis and George Edwards, men who did the early organizing, staged the first successful strike at Flint, Mich. Mr, Martin, a newcomer in th industry, served as an automobile worker only has been