Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 18 October 1937 — Page 12

Page PDF (11.22 MB)

Back to issue view

PAGE 12

CE EAPO

The Indianapolis Times

NEWSPAPER)

MARK FERREE Business Manager

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD

ROY W. HOWARD LUDWELL DENNY President Editor

Price in Marion County, 3 cents a copy; delive ered by carrier, 12 cents a week.

Owned and published daily (except Sunday) by The Indianapolis Times Publishing Co. 214 W. Maryland St. Mail subscription rates in Indiana, $3 a year; outside of Indiana, 65 cents a month.

Member of United Press, Scripps - Howard Newspaper Alliance, NEA Service, and Audit Bureau of Circulations. RlIley 5551

Give Light and the People Will Find Their Cwn Way

MONDAY, OCT. 18, 1937

THE ONE WAY OUT HE Administration now hopes to balance the national budget in the fiscal year beginning next July, without increasing Federal tax rates. How can that be done, unless the Administration is able to “haul off and pass a miracle”? Just one way: That is for the Administration to concentrate its attention on building the volume of the nation’s business to a point where, with present rates applied, income will equal outgo. Economies, of course, will help. But economies can't do the whole job. Enlargement of that which is taxable—volume—is the way out. But instead of enlarging, the trend today is in the opposite direction. Business is

falling off. If the nation’s volume today were as large as it was in 1928, Federal income would exceed outgo, at the present tax rate, by about 200 millions yearly. That would mean balance, though not much for debt retirement. But, with business volume increasing to a 1928 standard there auto- | matically would occur a decrease in the most burdensome of our expenses, relief. For the expanding private industry | would greatly reduce unemployment. | With enlargement of volume clearly the only alterna- | tive to further and greater “red” figures and ultimate im- |

pairment of national credit, what can the Administration do?

The most immediate, direct and concrete thing is to get actively in behind a move to revamp the hastily con- | ceived and carelessly constructed undisputed profits tax, the working of which is having a devastating effect on business growth in this country. n = » » = 4 ERE is a situation in which apparently all Treasury Department and Congressional tax experts now admit action is needed. Even David Cushman Coyle, ardent advocate of fiscal experimentation and defender of the theory of the undistributed profits tax, is now convinced that alterations are called for (Coyle’s new book, “Why Pay Taxes.”) Jesse Jones, head of the RFC, in a speech in Houston a few days ago, urged allowances for debt ridden corpora- | tions, for plant expansion, replacement, modernization and | so forth. Joseph B. Kennedy, former head of the SEC and now | chairman of the Maritime Commission, is out with a state- | ment urging action. And so on through a long line of expressions by students of the subject.

The coming Congress with proper encouragement from the Administration can take one of the longest steps toward unraveling the whole fiscal and unemployment tangle that it has taken since the depression hit, by the simple process | of renovating this one phase of our tax system. And without going into the matter in detail here, the capital gain and loss tax also calls for the laying on of hands. On that there seems to be general agreement among | experts, but, as in the case of the surplus tax, no action vet. With reasonable Government economy, and with more revenue from a growing volume of business, the budget can be balanced. But if the Government continues by unsound taxation to prevent or discourage business expan- | sion, that will mean fewer jobs for the unemployed, more | demands for Government spending, less revenue in the | Treasury, and more unbalanced budgets. The Government's prospects of bringing income above outgo and beginning to reduce the huge national debt depend | upon the healthy growth of the nation’s business. Give | volume a chance.

WILLIAM S. M'MASTER ILLIAM S. M'MASTER was a credit to the local bar | and an asset to the community as a citizen. The son | of John L. McMaster, who served Indianapolis as mayor in | the Eighties and was a Superior Court Judge for 16 years, William McMaster also became Superior Court Judge. In 1919 he was a member of the Legislature. A wide circle of friends will join the family in mourning his untimely death.

POLITICAL ETHICS

MSS MARY M. DEWSON resigned as vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee to take a position as member of the Social Security Board. | Accepting the resignation, Party Chairman James A. | Farley said: “I realize that in view of the fact that vou | are now serving as a member of the nonpartisan Social | Security Board, it will be impossible for you to continue our work as vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee.” But of course there's nothing inconsistent in the national chairman serving as the nonpartisan Postmaster General.

OUR OBLIGATION

N the remaining few days of the Community Fund campaign Indianapolis has an opportunity to help itself as well as the underprivileged. The drive this year is a month earlier than in 1936, and is-one of the first in the country. Dozens of cities are watching Indianapolis for an indication of how municipalities will meet the challenge of the increased local burden that has resulted from a reduction of Federal assistance. A successful drive here, many believe, will inspire other cities to succeed. Moreover, reaching our goal should give the community a spiritual “lift"—a feeling that in these better times of industrial recovery and bumper crops we have taken care of our own. Not evervone is sharing in the blessings of improved conditions. Many are jobless, in debt, ill or suffering from other misfortune. Let us meet our obligation, and meet

it well.

date the men,

| force

| when it is used against strikers.

! enough of the | Bethlehem steel

| United Mine Workers.

| ante movement is a dangerous development.

AS HAIR ANAS. 3 ——————

“THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

inom Be

’

With All Their Faults We Love Them—By Herblock

oBoy! BIGGER TAX RETURNS!

CAMPAIGN

E Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

C. I. O. Views With Alarm, Growth Of Vigilante Move, So Let Unions Take Initiative in Abandoning It.

EW YORK, Oct. 18.—Speaking of the vigilante movement which the C. I. O. has viewed with alarm in its convention in Atlantic City, what would you call the tac-

| tics of the C. 1. 0.?

Notwithstanding attempts to terrorize them into joining the C. I. O, many workmen in

| the steel plants of Youngstown and Bethlehem held | aloof and insisted on their right to keep their jobs.

Pickets were unable to intimiso threats were made in each case that a large of outsiders would be marched in to reinforce those who

. were on strike outside the gates.

These mobile forces were not

| mere orators or silent marchers | who would appeal to reason. They

would come in to close the plants by the same sort of force that is so solemnly deplored as criminal

£ RY 3

Pegler

Having failed to organize Youngstown and workers to close the plants, the C. I. O. then let it be understood that terrific violence would occur if troops were not sent in to close them. The nonstrikers had a right to protection from their Government in this emergency, but the C. I. O.

Mr.

| demanded instead that the troops be used to enforce

the will of a private and unofficial organization. = = 2 HE case was even more flagrant in Hazleton, where a committee of workers of the Suplan

| Silk Corp.. who signed a petition declaring that they

rejected the C. I. O. as their hargaining agent and wanted to go back toc work, were answered by a proc-

| lamation from Hugh V. Brown, president of District | 7 of John L. Lewis’ United Mine Workers.

For vigilantism Mr. Brown's proclamation is a museum piece. “Let it be known,” it said, “by each

| and every signer of the petition that the United Mine

Workers in this region will not permit independent organizations or communism to enter Hazleton or

; any territory within the confines of District 7.”

» 2 » NY member of the United Mine Workers who has a wife, daughter, brother or son who is a signer of this petition should and will pay strict attention to this statement,” Mr. Brown's proclamation continues, “for on it depends his membership in the This organization will not permit any of its members to continue tc hold mem-

| bership who allows any member of his family to scab in an open shop such as the Suplan Silk Mills.”

Thus. the C. I. O. Mine Workers would have arbi-

| trarily extended their authority to control workmen

who had rejected the C. I. O. on a theory that anyone

| who joined the Mine Workers joined for his whole

family. It is easy to agree with the C. I. O. that tne vigilFeeling so, the C. I. O. might take the initiative.

CONTRIBUTIONS!

r W

DSN Ana

The Hoosier Forum

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

| ‘BRAIN’ STUDY HEADLINE STARTS MR. CLANCY | By Daniel Francis Clancy

Headline: | to World at Washington.”

Yes?

| Well, I want to know exactly what | { brain they're talking about and how |

| long it's been in Washington.

There's something very fitting and | these | | young ladies going about in squirrel |

| proper about so many of

| coats. . .. “Study Lips to Pick Mate,

| Is Latest Advice.” Latest advice, eh? | | Tried and tested, I'd say — and a | very pleasant study to apply oneself . . . By the way, here's vour turn |

| to! | for laughing. Day-dreaming of an | “old love,” I tossed my 3 cents on | the paper counter, whereupon some-

one asked how I was. Thoughtlessly, |

from my reverie I replied, “—deso- | late, and sick of an old passion!" I

before finishing Dowson's

the lips of my desire!™)

Every attic in Germany is to be | d ‘ ; cleaned out before Oct. 20—and now | °° the C. I. O. deserves apprecia- |

if they'd just clean the bats out of

a few belfries it wouldn't be a bad |

country. . . . Was urged to run for Congress a few days ago — which proves that what has been mistaken

for a blockhead is really Congres- | s | able to labor, for it cannot expect a Constitution Day celebrations I no- | ticed that one was offering a speech |

sional timber

| by a U. S. Senator and, as added attractions, a juvenile movie and opera star — a couple of tap dancers and a comedian would have made that affair worth attending. » o 5 WAGNER ACT RIPE FOR REPEAL READER THINKS

By Taxpaver

Time was when the mountebank |

came to town in a 10-gallon hat bound with a snake skin, an Indian wig—made of a horse's tail—and | a handful of assorted roots. He procured a quart of furniture polish | a bottle of red ink, and five gallons | of river water: These ingredients | were mixed and put | with fancy labels. From atop a soapbox he extolled the virtues of this Golden Discovery and passed it out to the sufferers of lumbago, | toothache, rheumatism, gout or | what have you at a special intro- | ductory price of $1 a bottle, regular price $3. eteers with glib tongues and affable | manners who promise to satisfy every known need, hope and desire of the human -race—higher wages,

shorter hours, seniority rights, se- |

curity. They guarantee an obscure

mule pilot or lumberjack he can be |

transformed into a first-class machinist, carpenter, plumber,

| and instead of $1 for 12 hours’ work | on the farm, he will get $6 for eight | hours, and cannot be discharged,

‘General Hugh Johnson Says—

“Study of Brain Open |

singer |

into bottles |

Comes now another class of rack- |

elec- | | trician or milk salesman overnight, |

(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.)

| regardless of the hardship and danger his pet theories bring to the public welfare. The Wagner act is ripe for repeal —it has cost almost as much in lost | wages and lost business as the pro-

hibition experiment; it has made a |

sucker of employer, employee and the public. » » n UNION OF LABOR | FACTIONS FAVORED By Wm. Lemon Your recent editorial advising the A. F. of L. not to “slam the door” tion from Labor. It was practicable and to the point. Labor by settling its family squabble, could unite in the political field and put over candidates favor-

break if capital “names the baby.”

For the first time in the history of our country they “have the bull by the horns.” and if they are dumb enough to “muff out” they will lose the sympathy of the public, Public sympathy will either | make or break, and the public | soon grows tired of any group that

LAMP OF ALADDIN

By EDNA JETT CROSLEY

Bright vellow moon aglow at night, | Sweeping the earth with your mellow light, Softening the roughened edges of clay, Curning all darkness into day.

| What would love do, without moonbeams? find a dreams? {1f you should fail your lamp to fill, | Lost would be love on Cupid's Hill.

| When time to meet in

| Turn up your wick, trim it with care | Light us the way, to Cod's golden stair. | Lamp of Aladdin, 1 wish to sav,

Bring me your blessing, as you pass |

my way.

DAILY THOUGHT

That which is born of the flesh | is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.—John 3:6.

{ UR birth is nothing, but our death begun, as tapers waste | the moment they take fire—Young.

Present Confiscatory Taxation Is Blamed for Poor Economic Condition: -

Policy Leaves Capital No Incentive, Only Risk, to Employ Its Resources.

ASHINGTON, Oct. 18.—That was a good argu-

ment has an interest in having at least somebody make money in this country. The Twenticth Century Fund study of taxes shows that if a corporation official makes a million dollars a year in New York or Illinois, Federal, State and local taxes take it all. If he makes $100,000 they take from 55.7 per cent to 60.3 per cent of it. If he makes

$20,000. they take from 32.8 per cent to 37.4 per cent |

of it.

It takes the risk of money to make money. Why

should a man risk money to make more if, after he |

has made it, the Government units take it all or much of it, whereas if he loses it, he is poorer than when he started and can’t even offset his loss against his gain, if any, next year?

=u ” ”

HAT is business, industry, employment? It’s money working to make more money. But if

| money can't keep the money it makes by working,

why should it work? If it doesn’t work, what happens to business and, most important of all, to emplovment? The answer is, as has been said here before, men are put to work when money is put to work, and when money doesn't work, men don't work. The whole tax structure, especially Federal, couldn't be

more effective to keep money—and hence men—irom .

| in jobs.

| working if it had been deliberately designed to create ment of Winthrop Aldrich’s that the Govern- |

unemployment. Now, Government has an interest

BZ where is Government going to get that money? | The impression is that Government gets it by | taxing the rich to feed the poor.

various sales taxes that hit the

where we begin. all risk and little or no gain, there for Government among the rich.

pening.

If enough are out of jobs long enough, Government itself goes by the board and also if men are out of jobs, Government must find money to | | support them.

harder than they do the rich, the only way Govern- | ment can do that is to tax big incomes. comes are the result of big money risking and working itself to make big money—which gets us back to If putting big money te work is

That leaves Government no choice but to tax the employed poor to feed the unemployed poor and the whole idea of taking from the haves to give to the have-nots becomes just taking from the have-littles | to give to the have-nothings, which is what is hap-

The tax policy keeps the have-nothings large in number because money is not working to make. jobs and, because money is not working, the Government must get much money from the poor.

in keeping people

this time, |

affects its welfare by its useless { squabbling. | Although the C. I. O. does affect certain groups of craft unions, still | it takes in all; namely, the man | without a trade. Common labor | has alwavs been exploited, by the | contractors of the North to the cot- | ton fields of the South. The C. 1. O. also reaches the | farmers, those tough old gents who | work by the light of the moon and

| lantern, and in the West they are |

| taking advantage of their oppor- | tunity to organize. All this, came | about by one honest fearless labor | leader, John L. Lewis, who is also a shrewd’ politician. One sure thing is his rank and | file are behind him hook, line and | sinker, and the C. I. O. infant is Jr ready to fight in the “heavyweight division.” ® on ” | SOCIALISM CALLED | PROPHETIC FULFILLMENT | By W. B. Schreiber | After reading the recent Maddox | letter, I said surely the forces laboring for human emancipation are | progressing gloriously. I tell the | boys of the Civil Liberties Commit-

| tee to keep shaking the shirt, while |

| safe on the opposite side of the fence. | It seems some peopie cannot, or | won't, see that socialism is the ful- | fillment of prophecies. Ever so often in the past centuries socialism has | made its appearance and struggled | hard to establish a righteous social | order, but just as often it has been crushed by the mad bulls of the existing social order. Some 20 years ago misery makers | met defeat. Then poor despairing | Russia rose from her knees before | the Tsar and with giant strength | cast off her foes. Once again the Bi star sheds forth its rays throughout the world.

"> & = RILEY EXHIBIT AT LIBRARY PRAISED By M. A. A.

I should like to say how interesting and enjoyable I found the Riley exhibit at the Library last

tional as well as an artistic treat. There was something to appeal to every taste in the scale of Riley's works, from the children’s choice of “Raggedy Man” and “Uncle Sidney,” The patriotic note was represented by his fine manuscript of “How 1t Came by the Name of Old Glory.” And how touching was the sight of the poet's own well-worn copy of the “Oxford Book of English Verse.” All honor to our library for this timely and valuable exhibit.

week. Both cases of carefully ar- | ranged manuscripts were an educa- |

to the more serious “John Brown.” |

MONDAY, OCT. 18, 1937

Sam Srp

ap a

a TET 12 4'% 199%, wai Gov x QUT) PLP

RYT nT? .

1 ih

7 a a

oil

aan

«er, ria weal

“3

TL mew” tts ann

a 4 r —

Seems to Me

Heywood Broun

Showmanship of F. D. R. Not Ground For Complaint, Because His Job Is to Sell Government to People.

NEW YORK, Oct. 18.—Many of the critics of President Roosevelt hold against him the fact that he is a superb showman. I think there should be no ground for complaint in that. In a sense the Chief Execu-

tive of the United States is under an obliga-

tion to sell the business of government to the people. And when the issues are dramatized in effective fashion the debate becomes more general. Dictatorships prefer to have things arranged with a minimum of free discussion. The methods of Franklin Delano Roosevelt are certainly provocative. Granted that many of his theories are in themselves contentious. I also maintain that he has often flung them out in such a challenging way that he was actually inviting his opponents to declare themselves. Take, for instance, the Supreme Court plan. At the moment we are not discussing its merits. I can think of no other President except possibly the preceding Roosevelt who could have brought the man in the street into the argument on such an abstruse problem. For centuries the average American has regarded all things legal as constituting a kind of game preserve on which only the barristers were allowed to bring their shotguns.

» un 5

GAIN it seems to me that the threat of war is intensified at such times as our millions remain ignorant about the issues involved. Practically nobody in America was aware of the fact when the spark was struck which brought about the last world conflict. I do not want to commit myself right off as to whether the President's declarations in the existing inte. ‘tional situation seem wise or unwise. Like many of my fellows, I wouldn't know. But, whatever occurs. none of us will have a right to say that the question has not been underlined and boldly put forward into the national forum. Our eyes are opened. The decision should and will be with us, President Roosevelt has been criticized for making what are called surprise moves. And yet in many cases there is ample evidence that these are not in reality snap judgments. Many experienced newspaper commentators in Washington are decidedly opposed to the President politically, but practically all of them admit that whether for weal or woe the Chicago speech was the fruit of discussion with Secretary Hull and other national leaders.

” un td

THINK it is sound statesmanship and good stage management to emphasize problems by throwing them out in a dramatic way rather than by having them straggle into the popular consciousness by little leaks unauthorized or deliberate. Statesmanship must have in it something of the same quality whicn makes for success in the theater, Every President hopes that thgse things in which he believes will be accepted. And so a President ought to be, among other things, a successful propagandist, The greatest living propagandist in the world today is George Bernard Shaw. He is also the greatest showman. His only rival is Franklin Delano Roosevelt. And both G. B. S. and F. D. R. have found that one of the most effective ways of putting over a theory is through the shock impact of surprise.

Mr. Broun

The Washington Merry-Go-Round ?

‘Leading Economist’ Quoted by F. D. R. Ex-Aid, O. M. W. Sprague; Fireside Chat Indicates Return to Theory of Low Prices and Big Volume.

By Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen ASHINGTON, Oct. 18.—Only & few of his most intimate advisers know it, but the President's recent fireside chat signified a highly

switch in his economic theories. While discussing domestic affairs, Mr. Roosevelt

important

| read a short quotation from a “leading economist.”

Only because

hi But aside from Sprague left his

poor man much Big in- | issue of prices.

are slim pickings

| vocated low price But when he

the present

| his advice, Prof. turned to his old job at Harvard.

| He did not name this man, but he meant Prof. O. M. W. Sprague, former adviser to the Bank of England.

Mr. Roosevelt asked him to, Prof. $25,000 a year British post to join

the Treasury at $6000. But he didn’t stay long. Prof. Sprague wanted the New Deal to embark on a large scale, low-cost housing and slum-clearance program | as the English had done, but Mr. Roosevelt couldn't see it. Also, Prof. Sprague clashed with him over the

The President had been sold on the idea that the | way to revive industry was to boost prices. Sprague held this was unsound temporizing. He ad-

Prof. and large volume of production. couldn't get Mr. Roosevelt to follow Sprague quietly departed and re-

AS a result of frequent exchanges of opinion and

stock market slump, Mr. Roosevelt

has completely changed his mind on the price issue and now agrees with Prof. Sprague. In his speech the President gave two indications

of this new view: (1) the flattering reference te Prof, Sprague; (2) the statement, “ . , . increased volume of sales ought to lessen other costs of production so much that even a considerable increase in labor costs can be absorbed without imposing higher prices on the consumer,”

Among other things, Mr. Roosevelt believes abundant cotton and wheat crops may bring about a wider distribution of money, even though they sell at lower prices. ” n =u VIRGINIA agent of Rural Electrification sailed a meeting of farmers in the high school o* Bowling Green recently to discuss establishment of a utilities co-operative. Following the meeting, prizes were given out, an electric iron and full-course meals cooked by clectricity on the stage. Names were drawn out of a hat, and the top prize winner proved to be “George Washington.” Boyd Fisher, in charge of the REA meeting, thought a practical joker had put this name in the hat. But at that moment George Washington rose in the audience, claimed his prize—the electric iron— and explained that he was the seventh lineal descende ant of George Washington's brother John, Handing over the New Deal prize to George Wash ington, Mr. Fisher asked if there were a Martha Washington to make use of the iron. George replied that there was not; he would use the iron to press his pants.

CR A i i a RN x