Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 27 October 1937 — Page 13

a

WEDNESDAY,| OCT. 27, 1937

Liberal View

By Dr. Harry Elmer Barnes

Survey Disproves the Assertions of | Reactionary Capitalists That WPA | Workers Are of Inferior Ability. |

EW YORK, Oct. 27.—It is pretty generally admitted that the unemployment problem is the hardest nut for private capitalism to crack. And if private capitalism does not deal eflectively with the issue it means that Government will have to enter more and more into industrial activities in order to take care of the great army of the unemployed. A favorable alibi of the economic royalists and other reactionary spokesmen for | old line capitalism is that the | great majority of the unemployed today are “bums” and other types of inferior persons who could not hold a job if one were offered to them. Related to this is the assertion that WPA and PWA pay such | high wages and permit so much loafing that the men thus employed will not accept jobs in private industry. Further, it is contended that relief also spoils men for work and makes them reluctant to accept a job in private industry. The magazine Fortune has rendered a real public service in blasting these cowardly and antisocial assertions. It conducted elaborate research for two months last summer in carefully selected and well distributed communities throughout the nation, employing its usual skilful technique of “scientific sampling.” The Fortune research staff was able quickly to dispose of the assertion that those on relief are “bums” and unemployable. Making a study of those on relief in 1935 it was shown that more than twothirds of those studied had held jobs for more than five years at a time. A third of them had held the same job for 20 years or more before the depression made it necessary for employers to lay them off.

Dr. Barnes

» ” »

T was further shown that the great majority of | those who were employed had not been discharged | because they were incapable of doing satisfactory | work in their positions. Adverse conditions in industry were primarily responsible for their dismissal. Other conclusive evidence of the fact that the unemploved are not worthless bums is to be seen in the fact that some 45 per cent of those on relief | in 1935 have been re-employed by private industry. It is {frequently charged that when employers want | unskilled labor they have to go to the WPA or to | the relief rolls to try to get workers, and even then men cannot be enticed away because they have been spoiled for active work, ® Ww Ww T= research done by Fortune proved that these | allegations are absurd. It was shown that an abundance of unskilled labor is available whenever an announcement is made that jobs are to be had. Nor is there any evidence that the WPA or relief has systematically spoiled men for work or made | them reluctant to take a job when it is offered to them. The fact that about half of those on relief in 1935 have gone back to work is sufficient answer to this, charge. > The majority of those who are still unemployed and are on WPA or relief are men who could hold a | job but are usually turned down because of their | age. which runs mainly between 35 and 55. | While the Fortune survey does not tell us how the | unemployment problem may be solved, it does make it clear once and for all that it is not an issue which industry can duck by the easy “out” that the unemployed are unemployable.

By Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt

Cry to Displace Mature Workers After 35 Disconcerts First Lady.

OSTON, Tuesday.—There is no doubt about it, the B hours spent sitting around in a hospital are conducive to doing a great deal of knitting—if that happens to be the only kind of work you have at hand. I | started a sweater not very long ago in the hope, which | I confess was faint, that it would be finished as a | Christmas present. These two days up here make me very hopeful it will be ready before that date arrives. I have also read a great many communications and articles sent on from my Washington mail. One of the articles was of special interest. It appeared in one of our larger magazines. It deals with the topic of the curtailment of employment for people bevond 35 or 40 vears of age. It is interestingly written and gives some actual stories of what has happened in the past few years to people who found themselves obliged to look for new occupations between the age of 35 and 65. An old age pension steps in to care for people at 65 or 70.

Working Years May Be Shortened

The writer makes an excellent point, it seems to me. when he says that the policy many employers have of hiring only very young people will mean we will have onlv some 15 years in which to earn the necessary money to care for our children until they are of working age. That working age seems how to be somewhere in the twenties. We must also provide for our own old age which is to begin, apparently, after 15 years of work Of course, looked at in cold-blooded fashion, this is preposterous—for in our own experience we know that the most vigorous and able people of our acquaintance, doing the most important work in the world, are people between 40 and 60. We alwavs seem to go to extremes in this land of ours. We neglect to help youth get its first job and give vouth the feeling there is no place in the world in which it fits. Then we bring complete discouragement to the mature worker of 35 or 40 by telling them time after time, “We prefer to employ people between 25 and 35.” How confradictory we are—and how lacking in real understanding. These mature years should be used productively to increase the buying power of the nation. Otherwise it is like writing a death warrant to the expansion of our industries.

New Books Today

HANDY, readable book class-angling the labor situation has been written by two young writers from The New Masses, New York Communist magazine, and published as “MEN WHO LEAD LABOR” (Modern Age). It is on sale with other Modern Age books, a new venture, at drugstores and newsstands. Tt is too bad that the authors, Bruce Minton and John Stuart, insist upon leading us into the Marxian class struggle, because the book shows a lot of good research and would be valuable if not so thoroughly “slanted.” A 35-cent book on this subject could fill a long-felt want. But not this book. The book is too doctrinaire to be of real value to lay students of labor affairs.—(By H. L.)

=» » H

Public Library Presents—

ONKEYS and then more monkeys! And how 1 many kinds there are—in folklore, in legend, and in religion—the old-world monkey, the new-world monkey, and that half monkey, the ape! Observations old and new that throw light on the life histories and habits of simians, both wild and in captivity, have been brought together by E. G. Boulenger in’ his APES AND MONKEYS (McBride). A splendid 20-page introduction discusses the pros and cons of the Darwinian theory, its forerunners and followers, and gives a story picture of the evolution of the monkey family. Separate chapters deal with the gorilla, the chimpanzee, the orang-utan, the gibbon, and the baboon. Photographic illustrations of wellknown types and queer and unusual species add life and color to the contents,

The Indianapolis

JACKE 15 1

Second Section

‘Central City’ Reflects Nat

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1937

Entered as Second-Class Postoffice, Indianapolis, Ina.

at

ion's Life

Beneath Surface of Prosperity Lie Relief and Employment Problems

“Central City” canning plants had a busy season. This scene of tomatoes is typical of those enacted in the town's canneries as bumper crops were packed,

(Second of a Series)

By Thomas L. Stokes

Times Special Writer (CENTRA L CITY, U.S.A, Oct. 27.—This prairie town of 6000 exemplifies in miniature some of the social and economic ills to which the national body politic is heir at this stage of surface recovery. Outwardly, prosperity reigns. The sweetcorn crop for canning, upon which this town largely depends, set a new record this year. The two canneries which pack corn and one which handles tomatoes paid out $519,349 to farmers in the surrounding area for corn and tomatoes, and $224,296 in wages to workers during the six-week canning season. They netted nice profits for their owners, who are local people. One men’s clothing merchant reported the best September in his history. Yet, somehow, this does not mean an economically self-suffi-ciency or entirely healthful community. A sore still exists, the sore of relief for those not vet welded into the economic machine. One hundred and fifty families are on relief in the township (which includes about 3000 people outside the town limits). This may increase to 400 families during the winter, including, of course, some families that have no employable member. During the winter about 100 men will be on WPA, which is separate from the relief roll. » » » HIS is largely a seasonal town, and in that way different from lots of small towns in the Middle West, though still typical of many—and illustrative of a problem which is of immense importance nationally. Aside from the canning factories, it has one plant which makes cans, another which makes canning machinery, and a malleable iron plant, all branches of national corporations. The can manufacturing company also is sea=sonal, with about 80 mechanics and maintenance men employed the year round and about 210 employed during the canning season. Work at the canning machinery company slackens in the off-sea-

son, though it keeps an almost complete personnel the year

a

women preparing

— LL

Big crops—which mean jobs—do not necessarily spell prosperity here, for harvest work is seasonal and wages soon are spent,

round. The iron company operates on a year-round basis. The can manufacturing company got $454,152 this year for cans from the three canneries.

oo URING the canning season in August and September this

town hums. Domestic servants, and in some cases wives also, join

in the job to make extra money.

The two big corn canneries employ from 600 to 1000 persons each at times, Likewise, business hums in the

stores and shops along Main Street, And, humanly, the quick money burns through some pockets. Accordingly, the money runs out and the peak of the relief load, which comes in March, will include some

Hard times and relief employment were forg There were jobs in the fields for all who wanted them—and would work,

“Central City’s” can manufacturing company did a big volume of business just supplying containers to keep the local canneries going.

of those who worked in the canning factories. This is one of the gaps in the local, economic machine.

The farms which produce the corn and tomatoes are owned by the canning companies. Formerly the companies operated the farms themselves. Now they lease them out to tenants on a rental basis and buy the crops.

Eccles Reported Favorable to

Proposed Profit-Tax Law Amendment

By Marshall McNeil Times Special Writer WY SHVITON. Oct. 27.—Chairman Marriner Eccles of the Federal Reserve strongly, it was learned today. that prompt action by Congress to amend the undistributed-profits tax would not only act as a brake on the present decline of business, but would also stimulate trade and thereby in-

power, He feels the law should not penalize plant expansions by corporations, and that some relief should be given to small businesses. The Administration will have an opportunity to make such recommendations when a special Housc subcommittee meets Nov. 4 to start its study of the whole tax structure. By that time, if the present trend continues, the experiment of taxing undistributed profits of corporations to make them disgorge dividends will be a “tax without a friend.” » » » N top of the wholesale protests of businessmen, large and small, of tax administrators, and of

| crease employment and purchasing |

| Kennedy,

Board believes | | Exchange

also favors amendments of the law, |

| members of Congress, men high in|

the New Deal have recently trained |

their guns on the tax. Among these | it opposes or favors the tax, which

are Jesse H. Jones, Reconstruction Finance Corp. chairman, and Joseph Maritime Commission chairman. It is understood that William O. Douglas, Securities and Commission chairman,

When the Revenue Act of 1936 was enacted, its new

million dollars a year. Federal estimates of total tax rev-

enue have now declined by almost | | that exact sum. |

The President, however, still be-

lieves that the 1936 act will yield 2 | g | requires, ynsound financing;

large amount of money, for in his Oct. 19 statement he said ‘Income taxes will produce 634 million dollars more revenue, principally reflecting a full year of collections under the Revenue Act of 1936 as compared with one-half year’s collections in the fiscal year 1937.” W. C. Alvord, Washington tax lawyer, who attacked the undistributedprofits levy last night before the National Tax Association at Baltimore, believes that even the new estimate of yield is still only a guess, and not a good guess at that, ” ” ”

FTER calling upon the association to state positively whether

corporation tax | features were expected to yield ale

y Mr. Alvord believes is Dr. Rex Tug- | wells

baby, he he believes

listed 14 reasons

why it should be re-

| pealed altogether:

“1. It is not a measure for raising revenue; “2. It violates every principle of taxation and conforms to none; “3. It cannot be administered, “4. Tt jeopardizes employment and

{ | prevents re-employment;

“5. It promotes monopoly;

“6. It puts the small business in |

| a straitjacket:

“7. It encourages, in fact almost

“8. It discourages normal growth and expansion; “9. It penalizes debts; “10. It risks penalties upon those least able to pay; “11. It risks the income of those who have retired, by reason of age or disability, and who are dependent upon income from their savings, annuities or pensions; “12. Tt thrusts the arm of Government into every undertaking; “13. It denies to youth the opportunities which should be left them: and “14. Last but not accept objectives.”

the payment of

least I will not

to |

the Tugwellian tenets and | ' going to do?

HE farmers have done well. But the farms are illustrative of another gap in the economic machine of today. The machine has come in to supplant manpower. Two or three men with a machine, for instance, can husk as much corn as 10 men could husk formerly. This has diminished the opportunities for work in the small town, Labor-saving machinery has cut into the employment needs at the factories, too.

The relief burden in this town also has been increased by an invasion from a border state. The annual corn pack lures peopie from the other state to “Central City.” Some of them have stayed behind. Somehow eking out an existence during the winter, they remain for a year and are then eligible for the relief rolls—for which a year’s residence is required. " ® = HE yawning gaps in the economic machine here are apparent to some people, including some of the industrialists and businessmen, but they hold up their hands and confess they are stumped. Some have resigned themselves to a continual relief problem. But they kick about it, and complain bitterly that the President's policies have encouraged a class which won't work. Likewise they bemoan New Deal measures such as the WageHour Bill, designed to close some of the gaps. Some of them speak reverently of Calvin Coolidge and yearn for a time when Washington will not interest itself in their affairs. Next: Relief—"“What are you

Side Glances—By Clark

(5)

cma

"When you buy jokes from me you're not experimenting.

0-27

Every

one of them has gone over big on nearly every program on the air."

o

|A WOMAN'S VIEW.

|

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

T last the pulpit is becoming | incensed at the notion that]

| American men prefer | dumb women. Let me introduce the |

to marry

| Rev. John Clarence Petrie of Memphis,

who has the courage to discourse on a subject as important as theology or creed to the uplift of

-| the race. He said:

“Any man wanting a beautiful but dumb wife who will feed his vanity is ' lacking in character or intelligence. Modern marriage ought to be a companionship. Americans must rise up against any other thought. If education actually unfits the American girl to be a good wife, then it's up to us to find out what is wrong with the school system.” It would be hard to calculate the harm that has been done by the smug, stupid notion that an intelligent man and an intelligent woman can’t get along in marriage. Add to that the persistent propaganda spread among girls that the boys will not favor them if they cultivate their brains or use the sense God gave them, and vou have a condition which is enough to set the nation on the road to Moronville. In the first place, if a man is capable of taking an education he ought to know he can’t count upon producing supersons by giving them a mother with a low I. Q. In the second place, & few moments’ serious thought on the subject should convince him that when he wins a superior woman for his wife he has added to his own laurels, whareas union with a foolish one brings him down to her intellectual level.

Jasper—By Frank Owen

FRuirg Pon _ N Copr. 1957 by United Feature Syndicate, ine. |

"Look! | let him down after a cabbage, and he breaks my back!"

| the part.

| blue and yellow stripes, and they

| about to be married to a young man whom I like | days of hard work and worry are over and I can afford

PAGE 13

Matter I

ur Town

By Anton Scherrer

Slums of Indianapolis Produced Hoodlum Gangs Which Plundered, Fought and Even Killed Policemen.

O write scrupulously of the tough gangs that once infested Indianapolis it is necessary first to set the stage and mention some of the early slum sections. They were known by nicknames, some-

times descriptive, sometimes cryptic — like Hop Light, for instance, and Bird's Nest, Possom Hole low, Rag Alley, Murder Alley, the Crib, Hell's Hall Acre and Brickville. Of all these, Brickville possibly produced the first gangsters—in a big way, I mean. Drinking and fighting were their pastimes, and knives and guns their playthings. Sometimes, too, they resorted to bricks, because Brickville was the name of the cluster of brickyards which lay east of Woodruff Place and stretched lackadaisically toward the south. Most of the gangsters ol Brickville had a fancy for dogs, too. At any rate, legend has it that one man out there had 30, and took evervone with him every time he went after sheep { sheep were scarce, he took anything else that came his wav. The Brickville bandits were organized and thera was no mistaking the fact, because they even dressed They must have had some gypsy in their makeup, because they always went in for loud colors, Their pants, for instance, consisted of a series of red, always wore red flannel undershirts crossed with brilliantly colored suspenders. They knew how to let well-enough alone, too, for thev never wore vests or coats. Besides the gypsy in him, the Brickvillain also had something of the cowboy in him. Af any rate, he al= ways wore a cowboy hat. He tucked his pants in the top of his boots, too. And he was never without a big, black mustache. Just about the time the Brickville gang showed signs of fading out, the Modoc gang turned up. That's the gang that got Patrolman Richards. He followed them one night to Senate Ave. and Fall Creek. and caught them in the act of dividing the spoils of a good night's work. Patrolman Richards fell with three bul« lets in his body. '

The Bungaloos and the Boos

After that we had the Boo gang and the Bunga= loos. They weren't the same, although a lot of people seem to think so. The Boo gang was a crowd of can shooters who used to infest the box cars around Irish Hill. Nobody thought them especially vicious until the night they killed Charlie Ware, a bicycle cop. The Bungaloos, a gang of 30 or more, ranging from 12 to 19 years old, was the meanest gang. For some reason, they liked to operate around Military Park. They went to pieces finally because they didn’t know enough to stay organized. Anyway, they split—the boys living north of New York St. comprising one faction, and those living south of that street, the other. As long as the boys stayed on their own side there was no trouble, but if they crossed the line there was heck to pay. That's what happened one night in 1899. There was a show at Howard and 11th St. and the “south= siders” attended. After it was over, they started for home, but only got half way. There they met their enemies and the battle was on. Sergt. Hyland and his crew took most of them to the Police Station. The Black Maria had to make three trips that night,

Mr. Scherrer

Jane Jordan—

It's a Wise Mother-in-Law Who Declines to Live With Daughter.

EAR JANE JORDAN--I became a widow when my daughter was quite young. I went to work to support and educate her, a task which 1 performed very well within modest limits. Now she is grown and Mv

to relax. My daughter and I are very close and dread to be separated. She and her fiance have invited me to quit work and live with them so that I can take a long-needed rest. All the old jokes concerning the mother-in-law in the home have come to mind to frighten me, yet the prospect of living alone without my daughter is very bleak. I would enjoy being a part of her new home. I like my son-in-law-to-be, and have made it a point to side with him in all their little arguments. My daughter is somewhat headstrong and accustomed to having her own way. I would not be the doting mother who always sides with her daughter. I am just wondering if you know of any cases where the mother-in-law in the home has actually been welcome and not the character which has borne the brunt of vaudeville jokes all these years. MOTHER-IN-LAW,

Answer-—-Yes, I've known of cases where the mother-in-law in the home did not cause as much grief as her reputation has led us to expect. No doubt the terrors of the mother-in-law situation have been exaggerated, yet a jest so universal does have its roots in actual human experience. Unless it is absolutely necessary for you to share your daughter's home, you wouid be a wise woman to live alone even though the separation from your daughter does cause a wrench. The mother-in-law often is the innocent victim of her son-in-law's displeasure. A man wants to love his wife, but even if she is a paragon of all the vir tues, which you admit your daughter is not, he is bound to find certain faults in her which he wishes he could change. A favorite psychological trick is to transfer these faults to some other person where he can condemn them without upsetting the peaceful relations between himself and his wife. More often than not he transfers them to his mother-in-law, heartily disliking in her the qualities which annoy him in his wife. How often have we heard a man say, “I love my wife, but I can’t stand her mother”; yet the outsider can see a decided resemblance bee tween mother and daughter. It is a smart mother-in-law who keeps enough distance betwen herself and her daughter's husband to protect herself against these unconscious projections. The mother-in-law in the home isn’t always so ine nocent. It isn’t easy to take a back seat in anybody’s household when you're accustomed to running your own. Criticism and advice are almost second nature to a woman who has carried the responsibility of her family for years. Then there are your own ambitions. You may feel at present that you would like to quit, but the energies which you have expended on your work all these years will not suddenly disappear. The chances are that they would seek an outlet in the management of your daughter’s affairs, and your interference, however efficient, would be resented in time. Your job is your best insurance against excessive interest in your daughter’s life and how she lives it. Hang on to it as long as you can. JANE JORDAN,

Put your problems in a letter to Jane Jordan, who will answer your questions in this column daily,

Walter O'Keefe —

HE Moscow Art Theater never staged a funnier comedy than that being presented right now by the Soviet Supreme Council as it hornswoggles the reds into thinking they're having a democratic election. Like all political campaigns, there's a lot of mud=slinging; but over there, due to the shouting, the mudslinging is all being done by the gravediggers. It would be a sensation if there were one vote cast against Stalin, He'd probably demand a recount.