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

PAGE 10.

The Indianapolis Times

“(a SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

W. HOWARD ~~ LUDWELL DENNY MARK FERREE President . Editor Business Manager

ROY

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ase Rlley 5551

Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

MONDAY, OCT. 25, 1937

TAMMANY, WAGNER, LEHMAN—-WHY? O the nation, Tammany is a symbol of all that is bad in politics. Corruption smears its history, from tweed to tin boxes, from Gyp the Blood to “Lucky” Luciano. matter what way the memory turns, the tale is a sordid one. Four years ago Tammany arrived at what seemed to

No |

be just about the end, when Fiorello La Guardia was elected |

Mayor of New York. But now in the nation’s metropolis a curious drama is being staged.

a comeback and is fighting literally for its life. The re-

Tammany is trying for |

election of Mr. La Guardia and an accompanying victory |

for the demon racketbreaker, Thomas E. Dewey, will just about close the lid on the coffin from which the Tiger is trying to escape. Both elections according to all polls and other omens seems assured, come Nov. 2. We call $he drama curious, not because of the usual shabby Tammany tactics that are being manifested, but for another reason. The campaign is revealing in most striking degree a thing that has always been to us inexplainable—how can such an outfit get the hold it has on certain men of high idealism and splendid public service? ‘We refer particularly to two—Governor Lehman and Senator Wagner of New York. Than these there are no two better in our public life today. But both are on the Tammany side. What is it that gets into one’s system when he enters politics which makes him go along with the party, regardless of what that party may have been doing in any given community? We can understand that self-interest and ambition might be the reason, so far as many men are concerned. But not with persons of the type and size of the two we have mentioned. Or we could understand, if Mr. La Guardia's record had been poor and if therefore it were a case of selecting the lesser of two evils. Or if Mr. La Guardia's political philosophy ran counter to that of Mr. Wagner and Mr. Lehman. But here is so obviously fine a record, such excellent administration, such pleasing performance as to be almost unbelievable to a New York so long accustomed to having its pockets picked. What can there be in the name of regu-

good and faithful servant but instead do lip service to a cause against which every instinet must rebel? We have watched the political scene here, there and vonder for many years. explain to ourselves why such a thing can happen in a land where thought is free and independence of action a heritage. So we repeat. It's curious, to put it most mildly. And we'll just have to call it curious and let it go at that. FORCES FOR LABOR PEACE UCH has been said about the obstacles facing the A. F. of L.-C. I. O. peace conference which begins today in Washington. It would be foolish to deny that the obstacles exist. But there are two forces which very plainly are at work and which we see some reason to hope may be strong enough to overcome all the obstacles. One force is operating from within. It is the growing desire for peace among rank-and-file members of both the fighting labor factions. The other force, which is operating from without, is public opinion. The jurisdictional strikes and boycotts with which labor fights labor already have hurt the public badly. The public will not take much more punishment without turning against those who are hurting it. Evidently the leaders of both factions have begun to realize the dangers to the country and to themselves in the war they have been waging. And the same forces which have brought C. 1. O. and A. F. of L. representatives to. gether are likely to keep them together until they have explored every possible basis for a labor armistice.

EDWARD H. HARRIS AS presiaent-pubiisher of the Palladium Publishing Corp., Edward H. Harris built a fine newspaper property at richmond, aided actively in the advancement of his community and achieved a nation-wide reputation for his work in the newspaper field. He served one year as president of the Inland Press Association and two years as chairman of its board of directors. He had been a director of the American Newspaper Publishers’ Association since 1927 and its secretary since 1934. Mr. Harris was a member of the code committee of publishers under the NRA and a member of the industrial board for settlement of labor problems under the same law. As chairman of the publishers’ national radio committee, he became widely known in recent years for his effort to coordinate the news functions of newspapers and radio stations. Mr. Harris was a credit to his profession and an asset to his community and state. We join his many friends in expressing sorrow at his passing.

FOOLING HIMSELF

COCKY motorist, writing in the Hoosier Forum the other day, said he could drive five feet behind a speeding automobile and stop at the same distance behind the other car no matter how quickly the driver ahead stopped. This driver is kidding himself dangerously, and he is a menace on the streets. . Recent traffic research shows that motorists who think they can “stop on a dime” are courting disaster. “Reactometer” tests show that a person driving 40 miles an hour has to travel 59 feet before he can even get his foot on the brake pedal!

The Strenuous Life: If we win the fight for security, will we have to start battling for freedom again?

No Dewev for Them '—By Kirby

“THE UNDERWORLD

Yi eH Pros ote J 1

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

~ MONDAY, OCT. 25, 1987

Life in an Iron Lung—By Herblock

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

britches. | his race track is one of the greatest gambling plants in the world. He also runs the paper which

| impeach Governor Quinn, who has

| public officer?

| a monopolistic license. | million dollars altogether that Mr. O'Hara and his | pals have taken down for their end.

Promoter of Narragansett Track, Feud With Eastern Governor,

Is Reminded He's Not in Politics. | PROVIDENCE, R. I, Oct. 25.—A flip and

brash horse park promoter, operating

| Narragansett Park in Pawtucket, just out-

side Providence, has grown too big for his His name is Walter O'Hara, and

called Governor Quinn a swear-word liar,

Mr. O'Hara has all the ego, the nervous energy,

. : | the gall and the ethics of Huey larity to make a Lehman and a Wagner not applaud the |

Long, but he hasn't Huey's intelligence or his way with people. he regards himself

He is going to call a special session two-thirds majority, and he will

sent National Guard troops to close the track.» And who is Mr. O'Hara? A No. A Rhode Islander? Well, only in a sort of way. He is from Massachusetts, came to this state four years ago to build and run a horse park. Since then the gambling plant at Narragansett had handled more than $100,000,000 under Call it, say, seven or eight

£9,

Mr. Pegler

” 5 u

NDER these conditions deep political affection exists between Mr. O'Hara and the Pawtucket City Administration, headed by Mayor Tom McCoy. This is not a political leader who speaks of his legislative strength and his intention to toss out the elected Governor, but the operator of a gambling

| plant whose conversation naively suggests that the

| tongue in his head. Ee has a boast.

office of the track is the rightful capital of Rhode Island. But maybe Mr. O'Hara overspeaks himself. True, the horse people in times past have elected Governors and owned Legislatures in some states, but they have always gone about their business with some discretion. Mr. O'Hara, however, can’t keep a still He hoasts tha. he elected Governor Quinn. “I spent over $100,000 to elect him,” he says. “Then he double-crossed me.” » » ”

ND he reviles Governor Quinn verbally and in the paper which he bought with the astonishing flood of easy money received from the track. Horse park promoters everywhere realize that theirs is a chancy business, subject to political chills and reform. The smart ones are careful not to flaunt their political power, lest the citizens get their pride up and

resolve to show them who is boss by repealing the | | . By 0. E. M.

racing laws. Because it is merely a device for gambling, horse racing is licensed only at some sacrifice of popular principle to ease the tex burden In that status in Rhode Island, the horse racket,

nevertheless, has had the dumb effrontery to boast -

that it elected Governor Quinn, but found him ungrateful, and to announce that he will be kicked out and replaced by someone who can remember that the State exists for the gambling joint. The horse people aren't grateful to Mr. O'Hara for all this. It is embarrassing. And, anyway, it is all very unnecessary.

land

The Hoosier Forum

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

| ARGUES CONSUMERS DETERMINE PROFITS By H. L. Seeger Your editorial the slowing

David

claims tax 1s

unemployment payroll

| added to consumers’ prices brought

buyer resistance, Let's get

| straight. This is a consumers’ econ-

omy. The producers and distribu-

cor- |

| tors are flunkeys for the consumers. | | This is not a producers’ profit ccon-

| producing

omy. It is a consumers’ profit econ-

omy. Trying to make it a

| ducers’ profit economy always ends

up in periodic panics. The time has long passed when the producers controlled their own busindts. Profits are of no value into more and better equipment, to persons who can

not turned

that go out

pro- |

(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.)

this | that groceries are supplied, we have |

will the drivers, on percentage, be | to our business structure if they are |paid for the customers that have |warid moral opinion on condemning |

Dividends | that is 0. k. as we will buy from the

neither invest them nor spend them | | for consumers’ goods, are poison to | the profit system.

Sees System Suffering

Federal credit hypodermics since 1830. The hypodermics are wearing off since the budget is to be balanced at the expense of the unemployed. The truth of the matter is that the system is suffering from creeping paralysis. It really never was a profit system. The panics it created washed out all the makebelieve profits. The system sails under false colors. When we learn that all profits really belong to the consumers and retain only enough of the selling prices to enlarge facilities to serve these customers with more and better goods every day, then we can operate the profit system without the panics. It is not the tax that put the ax on business, it's the attempt to skin the consumer. The consumers determine whether a busi-

U.S. PEACE STAND

hw R. F. Paine. San Francisco The profit system has existed on |

{ peace lay an egg, and Uncle Sam is

been lost? As for the day delivery,

grocer anyway,

» » »

SEES FUTILITY IN

Ye that have cheers prepare to yell them now! At Brussels, before long, they are | again to try to make the dove of |

invi.ed to participate in a NinePower Treaty conference, and he will probably be on hand, at least in his customary role as an impuissant observer, It seems that there has been rank violation of all the treaties concocted during the last 20 years; that one treaty-maker has conquered another and that another treatymaker is at the same bloody busi- | ness; that something ought to be |

SIMILE

done to recover from depression the great international indoor sport, treaty-making, which, under present conditions, indicates a trend by mankind toward war, economic chaos and nattonal barbarism,

Cites U. S. Attitude

We already have Washington information as to Uncle Sam's attitude at Brussels, As President | Roosevelt seems to doubt the pos-| sibility of our neutrality and iso-| lation, in case of war, Uncle Sam's |

attitude at Brussels ought to be considerable of an attitude, and] we have this from Washington in advance. “State Department officials indicate they do not favor economic sanctions or a boycott against Ja- | pan, but prefer instead to ‘quaran- | tine’ Japan with purely moral sua- | sion such as a consolidation of |

Japan's aggression in China.” You can see Uncle's attitude quite clearly, can you not? He wiil not | favor sanctions, boycott or other | measures with teeth, or that the | Japanese won't sneer at. He will] holdly stand for applying “purely | moral suasion,” “consolidation of world moral opinion” upon a robber whose hands reek with the blood | of women, children and other inno- | cent noncombatants. Sounds Wil | sonian, doesn’t it? The world is not | made safe for democracy. The self determination of the Ethiopians, Chinese and some other peoples Is dead or dying.

Puts Blame on Greed

Not moral obligation or treaty | obligation motivates the violators of moral or international law, but | trade greed and real estate greed. | The holdup fellow who puts a gun | to your nose and demands your | purse is not reformed by your calling attention to his moral obliga- | tion. His concern is about a court | with power to enforce its decrees. | It is the same with nations greedy for other people's property. There

riess is run for their benefit or not. Capital is whipped to a knockout if the consumer backs away fron the buying counter. Yes, it's a profit system, a consumers’ profit system. It never was or ever will be a producers’ profit system, Why not make it co-operative?

>" Ww = DEPLORES SUSPENSION IN MILK DELIVERIES

A great mind

{ An Just a word from one of the thou- |

sands of milk consumers who, it | seems, have no voice in the milk situation. Just standing by, letting a small bunch tell us when we shall | have milk delivered and what we shall pay instead of letting deliver- | ies go ahead until the differences | are ironed out, proves milk compan- | ies care little for their customers’ convenience. As they are careful

end thereof | —Proverbs 20:21.

Socrates.

General Hugh Johnson Says—

When F. D. R. Appoints Son James, He Seeks to Lighten His Burden; Military History Shows Commander's Aids Must Be Allied in Thought.

ASHINGTON, Oct. 25.—The muted hammers

are pounding softly on the gossip strings around

| this labyrinthian whispering gallery. The President | has made his son Jimmie a sort of chief of staff to | stand between him and the 18 heads of the principal |

| men’s brains,

departments, to strain out the stream of work that comes to the President's desk, and lighten a little the intolerable load of the most terrible job in Christendom. The best principles of the science of organization that human experience has worked out for handling tremendous masses of business and people in the most efficient way, are military. n un » O commander can supply, administer, maneuver and lead in battle a million men. He has to

have a sort of composite brain composed of other |

This is a general staff of about six

| divisions with a specialist for each and a chief of

| stafl to keep them working together to form a contact

and a conduit between them and the commander, and leave to the latter only major decisions stripped of details. The relation between that commander and that chief of staff is the weak link in the system. If their minds do not work together almost as one, the system tangles.

Military discipline and loyalty make the plan work

| sponsibilities could not overcome official where could the President turn for relief by a system | | accelerate the tempo of WPA spending, this program

in armies much easier than elsewhere. But in some more or less dilute but recognizable form, it is the way many mammoth industries are run. Except

for the military implications of dictation, arbitrary |

power and the jealousies of politics, it is an ideal system for public administration, and especially in a job of such almost impossible proportions as the Presidency. Mr. Roosevelt has reached in this direction two or three times—always to run into the problem of personality. He tried it once with Donald Richberg. When Louis Howe was alive and well, a kind of silent unobtrusive modification of the chief of staff idea operated. Louis obviously was selfless, devoted and in the complete confidence of his chief,

» " » ITH Mr. Howe gone, and the Richberg experi-

ence proving that even affectionate considera- | tion for the President's overwhelming work and re- | jealousies, |

that, on the face of things is absolutely indispensible?

Jimmie Roosevelt was the only possible solution | He has |

of a problem that simply had to be solved. nearly everytiiing the system requires—love and loyalty to his father and the latter's complete confidence—naturally. It is an ideal solution of a problem which, for the good of the Government and the whole country, it was necessary to solve.

BY DANIEL F., CLANCY A red-hot arrow Pierces a white ball of wax,

Darts into a problem.

The wax soon melts; The problem is soon solved.

DAILY THOUGHT

inheritance ma; be gotten hastily at the beginning: but the shall not be blessed.

- | With HEY who provide much wealth for their children but neglect to improve them in virtue, do like those who feed their horses high, | but never train them to be useful. | without

is no world court with power and | determination to enforce its decrees. | A great reception will be due] Uncle Sam upon his return from Brussels. He will land covered with | the glory of having done his best— which has amounted to almighty | little ever since he crossed the At- | lantic as a peace-maker with | muskets.

| boy should go to college,

It Seems to Me

By Heywood Broun

American Education Controlled by Big Business Circles, Is Charge; Former Educator Defends System.

EW YORK, Oct. 25.—The other night 1 found myself seated in a group of serious thinkers, My seat was in the last row on the aisle, so 1 could get out quickly, The guest of honor was a man who once served

as a college president. And so he was being baited abou lucation, Some lads from the left wing

bobbed up. In general their complaint was that education in America is under the control of big financial interests. They argued that even where there was no application of direct pressure, colleges in America are maintanied by endowments and that endowments mean trustees and a keen concern about stocks and bonds. The teacher knows, they said, on which side his bread is buttered, and nobody needs to tell him anything as to what attitude he should take. When challenged as to a reme edy, the left wing recommendation was that colleges ought to be directly and democratically controlled by the student body and the faculty, with some hired hand left to attend to business details,

Mr. Broun

”

HE former college president sniffed derisively, “I can think of no arrangement,” he said, “more perfectly designed to corrupt the colleges, You must face the fact that the average undergraduate is an insolent young man interested in the teams and easy courses. When votes are held as to the most popular professor you will seldom find that the student laurel is placed upon the brow of any great educator.”

At this point I put my hand up and said, “Why, teacher?”

“Because,” replied the practical educator, “every man on the faculty from instructor to the highest paid professor, is worried about his tenure. There is nothing in the notion that few die, none resign and never is anybody fired. American colleges are just as sharply in competition as any other industry. If the president doesn’t seem to have a winning combination he locks around and makes what seem to him to be the necessary changes.”

” ”

ND so IT am not at all sure that there may not i have been something in what the left wing boys and girls said. I do not think that education should be put into the hands of men and women who live in constant terror of their jobs. And I would like to add an anecdote about the prevalence of high power salesmanship among the cloisters. A friend of mine came up from the ranks and had to leave school early. He decided that his He was also interested in the fact that his son was a star player in preparatory school.

The dean of the institution of higher learning

” ”

| which had been selected aid to the proud parent, “If

your son makes the freshman football team I think we can get him a scholarship which will eut the tuition costs in half.” A week later I saw the father and said, “How is your son getting along in football?” “I've had the strangest letter from him,” he replied. “He writes, ‘Dear Pop: I've decided not to go out for football, because I want to get good marks. I'm going to stick to my studies and let the scholarship go hang.”

The Washington Merry-Go-Round

New Deal's Secret 'Recovery Program’ Appears Favorable to Business:

Peace Resulting From C.

By Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen \

ASHINGTON, Oct. 25.—There is good cheer | for businessmen in one of the secret ‘“recovery rescue” programs compiled by New Deal | economists. It is for possible use in event the indus- | trial recession becomes so serious as to require drastic restorative measures. A number of proposals have been submitted to | President Roosevelt. This particular plan, work of | a leading Administration expert who predicted the | current slump as early as last spring, is: 1. Remit the last quarter of income tax payments, | amounting to approximately half a billion dollars. 2. Modify the capital gains tax in some details, and lcosen up the undistributed profits tax to ease the load on small businessmen and the construction industries. 3. Lower margin requirements on stock exchanges. | 4, Expand relief expenditures. 5. EXpedite action to get the new low-cost hous- | ing program under way at high speed.

With the possible exception of the proposal to

would be received by businessmen with enthusiastic hosannas. They long have been clamoring for repeal or revision of the capital gains and undistributed profits | taxes. However, the Treasury has just as vigorously been resisting this action, and would strongly urge the President against it if he indicated serious con-

sideration of such a move.

% ATRIA to

ete —— a al

I. O-A. F. L. Parley Held Doubtful.

T will be a miracle if anything comes out of the A. F. of L.-C. 1.0. meeting. Among rank and file in both camps there is widespread demand for harmony. The average unionite is weary of the cut-throat bickering and wants peace. Two major hurdles are: (1) fierce personal ven= dettas among the rival leaders, and (2) equally fierce jurisdictional differences. The public has little realization of the depth of hatred toward one anotner among the competing la= bor chiefs. C. 1. O's Lewis, Hillman and Bridges are worlds apart in fundamental outlook from Green, Frey and

| Hutcheson of the A, F. of L. They can no more mix

than water and oil. Even if it were possible to bring them together again the rapprochement wouldn't

| last.

i” ny gy HE jurisdictional problem might have been fairly easily solved a year ago. At that time the C. I. O. had not invaded the craft union field. But now it is deeply imbedded in this Federation preserve and has formed more than a score of competing unions. C. I. O. moguls have no intention to return to the A. PF. of L. fold under any circumstances. They were

| sincere in their peace overture. But what they want

is a working arrangement with the Federation as an independent organization but not as a unit under its banner, In other words, the C. I. O. is willing to talk terms with the Federation for an amicable division of the labor field.

de FN dns se ap ier % a en ny Sr