Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 2 November 1937 — Page 13

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THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

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TUESDAY,

J The Indianapolis Times Opening the Hunting Season—By Herblock

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

W. HOWARD LUDWELL DENNY President Editor

ROY Business Manager

Owned and published daily (except Sunday) by The Indianapolis Times Publishing Co. 214 W. Maryland St.

Price in Marion County, 8 cents a copy. delive ered by carrier, 12 cents a week,

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 Bu-

reau of Circulations. Riley 5551

Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

TUESDAY, NOV. 2, 1937

LITTLE BUSINESS THE VICTIM

T is important to understand that the chief victim of the undistributed profits tax is little, not big business. The drive for modification or complete repeal, daily gaining momentum as a result of the slump which this tax helped cause, comes mainly from the many, not the few. The lower one-third of businesses that are ill-clad, ill-fed and ill-housed are the ones who are protesting most. Any attempt to describe that complaint as originating with the “octopus” is to paint a false picture. Big and successful business already has its reserves, its credit position; can declare its whole yearly profit into dividends and not be endangered. But little business, which, bear in mind, is a competitor of the big, has its debts to pay, its plant to expand, its improvements to finance, if it is to grow. Going up against its larger competitor it is terribly handicapped at the start and at every turn of the road.

Little businesses that can grow are the hope of indus- | Their |

trial America. They are what have made America. growth becomes a hazard to society only when they become so big, so powerful as to get into the monopoly class. The New Deal has given much critical attention to bigness as such, to bigness when it has become monopolistic. The undistributed profits tax plays directly into the hands of business which is already big. It strangles the little and the struggling. Therefore two major New Deal policies —tax and antimonopoly—clash and negate each other. The undistributed profits tax has been weighed and found wanting. Nothing could contribute more toward a revival of prosperity, toward increased employment, toward building a taxable volume by which budget balancing could be accomplished, than correction of the error. Correction should come as soon as possible. Time is vital. The job can be done and should be at the special session of Congress, before the first of the year, the correction being made applicable to the calendar year 1937.

HIGHWAY SPEEDS ON CITY STREETS VERYONE interested in traffic safety should read the

MARK FERREE

| | |

{ | |

Our Own Little Dutch Bo

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

‘George Spelvin, Now Nearing End Of Long Theatrical Career, Can Play Many Roles Simultaneously.

NEW YORK, Nov. 2.—From time to time these documents have tried to record the mixed ruminations, the prejudices and

the bafflement of the average American,

. using for his name George Spelvin.

Several correspondents, including a drama critic who

| was covering one of the haymow theaters of the sum- | mer circuits in New Hampshire, have been good

Pools, Chicago. It contains some profound thinking on this difficult problem. ! Showing how Chicago traffic conditions cannot be compared with ours, he adds: “Chicagoans pay dearly for driving a little faster. The accident toll is terrible, and even the most careful driver has no assurance of protection from the irresponsible. Indianapolis drivers are lucky in the greater safety of slower driving.” The discussion recalls a recent story in The Times telling how the street railway company wrestled with the Indianapolis traffic problem back in the mule-car days of 50 years ago. On the same recent day, the Motor Vehicle License Division announced that more than one million 1937 auto license plates had been sold in Indiana. The streets that caused traflic difficulties in a mule-car era were not engineered for this modern motor congestion. Happily, most drivers are learning that proper regard

enough to report that they have discovered Mr. Spelvin himself at work in the drama

views to the contrary. This leads me to think that the

| story of Mr. Spelvin is of general

i ally

interest, for he is a noted character in the professional circle of B the theater but dying fast. $4 Mr. Spelvin has played more A wld roles than any other actor that Lik. ever lived, and though he has usu- HANIA performed acceptably and J sometimes with distinction he is Mr. Pegler the only ham of his grade and ability who has never beenginvited to fall in with the rest of the cast and take his bends at the fall of the curtain.

George Spelvin made his debut in a minor part in |

“Brewster's Millions,” and there once was a time when he was appearing in five Broadway productions at

| once,

for others is a major factor in safety on these streets and |

highways. And we believe most of them agree with Mr.

Pools’ warning that they can't “think in terms of highway |

speeds when in the city.”

SELF-DEFENSE

HE United Brewers Industrial Foundation, representing |

half of the country's beer production, has adopted a code of practices pledging co-operation with the “duly constituted authorities to prevent beer sales to minors or to persons who have drunk to excess.” This and other promises in the code—to promote “practical moderation and sobriety” and to “conduct our busi-

ness in conformity with established laws”—reflect, of |

course, an awareness on the part of the brewers that lawless conduct of the liquor business inevitably will result, as it always has, in creating public demands for more restrictive legislation. , Prohibitionists contend the liquor business, as a whole,

never did and never will obey the law—that moderation | | to the name it would be Mr. Jimmy Lane, who also

and sobriety can’t be promoted where liquor is sold. What has gone on in many communities since repeal undeniably lends support to that contention. The liquor business either will obey the law or it again will be outlawed. The Jrewers Foundaticn recognizes that fact.

INDIANA LINCOLN MEMORIAL HE Indiana Lincoln Memorial developed at Lincoln City

during the last 10 years by the Lincoln Union and |

other interested citizens is a praiseworthy achievement.

More than $250,000 has gone into this project, which in- |

cludes the Nancy Hanks Lincoln grave. The 1300-acre

park has recreation areas and markers for historic spots. | There has been a steady increase in the trek of visitors | who have been able thus to get a better understanding of

the Hoosier area where Lincoln spent his boyhood. The proposal now to gain Federal recognition of the memorial should attract widespread interest. The National

Park Service, in its survey of historic sites, will find few | able.

n ” ” OHN GOLDEN, producer of many plays and currently of “Susan and God,” with Gertrude Lawrence, goes back to the beginning on George. It was Eddie Abeles who invented Mr. Spelvin, Mr. Golden informs me. Mr. Spelvin, says Mr. Golden, was an imaginary character, to whom Eddie Abeles attributed all blame for everything that went wrong and all gossip and rumor. He was Mr. Abeles’ personal John Doe, and scorning the popularly accepted form of “I hear” or “they tell me,” Mr. Abeles would attribute the mast scurrilous hearsay to George Spelvin. There were times when half a dozen actors were looking for Mr. Spelvin on murder intent to rebuke vicious reports bearing on their private and domestic affairs. In “Brewster's Millions” there was an actor cast for two parts who naturally wanted to use his own name for the better one, and it was Mr. Abeles, the star, who, when they came to make up the program, proposed the name of his confidential wraith for the minor role. un » 5 N later years, Mr. Golden, out of slightly superstitious respect for the success of “Brewster's Millions,” made a point of using George Spelvin’s name on the program of “No. 6,” “Washington Square,” “Turn to the Right,” “Lightnin’” “Three Wise Fools,” “Seventh Heaven” and ‘The First Year” for the secondary role of the actor who doubled. And it is his belief that if any artist has a special claim

was George Spelvin in a succession of Golden plays over several years. But for all his experience and occasional flashes of genius, Mr. Spelvin never progressed or even took a bow because the men who used his name always reverted to their loftier roles at the end of the show. George Spelvin’s career is waning now, undone by his own versatility and accumulating fame. The customers are getting onto him and, of all things, resent him as a deceiver in a world of make-believe.

The Hoosier Forum

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

| have been confused by his visit to| lour city. On some parts of the] outer drive, which are at least six

to express

troversies

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

into seclusion with a good reporter as coach. Judging by his radio address I perceive that he has studied only the public speaking course, which puts him in the category with the famous parrot of which the advertiser says, ‘You can teach a parrot to say ‘Just as good,’ but he doesn't know what he is talking about.”

views in

Make

Letters must

| lanes wide and even sometimes for |

| one-way traffic, there is a 45-mile | SAYS INDEPENDENT VOTERS This drive—with no cross- MAY WELCOME VANNUYS

| limit. traffic because of grade separations |—is in no way comparable to | Washington or Meridian Sts. in In-|

By Observer

| State St. in Chicago The statement that only six traffic | opposed

| Chicago may indicate something | Minton

ly a description of those conditions. | us.”

needed at a single corner. Because of the long distances|velt bandwagon limits—perhaps the longest of any | outs? | city in the world—it has seemed | | impossible to restrict motorists at| jr 4,0 | suitable in Indianapolis. Chicago- | | ans pay dearly for driving a little | faster. The accident toll is terrible, | will split the and even the most careful driver has no assurance of protection from the irresponsible. Indianapolis drivers are lucky in the greater safety of slower driving. As I write this, it occurs to me that what your correspondent wants is country driving in the city; he is | | impatient when he doesn’t get it. Drivers should come to see that the modern car is really two cars: a city car and a country car. A man driv- | ing his city car ought to think of

themselves. Republicans,

pendent

VanNuys.

boards, I'd say. un

| compared with other transportation when driven safely at reasonable speeds, instead of “seeing red” every time he has to slow down or stop. Unquestionably, impatience arising from the wrong frame of mind breeds the disregard for others

| Senator VanNuys was read out | dianapolis, or to Michigan Ave. or | of the party, said a state official | the other day, because he not only | the President's | policemen were seen in a week of (Court reform plan, but also because | driving around the business part of | he opposed the election of Senator and Governor Townsend. | about the care with which condi-|“O wad some power the giftie gie | tions were observed, but it is hard-|us, To see our sils Isn't the spokesman a member | Practically every corner in the loop | of that Democratic machine which has one policeman on traffic duty, opposed the nomination of and sometimes more than two are|velt and which had such a hard! | time climbing back on the Roosein order Chicagoans drive within the city eligible for Federal patronage hand-

And by the same token, officials all times to speeds “which could be Party eC it VanNuys run as an Independent Democratic | ought also to take a good look at The rank and file of 80 discouraged with the lack of real leadership, the Tory outlook of its would-be leaders, and disgusted with eternal bickering, may welcome an indecandidate

Indiana political comedy is better than any appearing on the

| the great convenience it offers as|pANDON CALLED | BACK-SEAT DRIVER By Pat Hogan, Columbus, Ind

In the Hoosier Forum a year ago I advised Alf M. Landon to procure an A B C book on political economy, another on public speaking and go

In other words Alf M. Landon holds the all-America championship for back-seat drivers. The government at Washington in his opin- | fon would be perfect if he occupied | {the Presidency and most of the other important offices A mere glance at Mr. Landon's Supreme | accomplishments and his qualifications will show that he is ably [fitted for this simple task, and we are asked to infer from his talk | that he could improve the present setup about 500 per cent. Someone ought to try to convince Mr. Landon that there is no Santa | Claus. He still believes there is, for | everything he advocates would be | | brought to pass by Santa Claus—he | has never offered any other plan.

n on un DISCUSSES FACTORS | CAUSING MODERN WAR By L. B. Hetrick, Elwood

at If Mr. Maddox does not know the | | cause of the other World War, he |

| doesn't know the cause of this | one, which is now going on in other countries. He accuses both Com- | munists and Fascists alike. The |

same thing that caused the other war caused this. He knows the Communists did not cause it, or the depression. | The underlying cause of all wars | is hidden and is not allowed to be | told except in isolated places. Tt is not published in the open, except a bit now and then in a way and manner that cannot be under- | stood except by those who already | know. The age-long hidden cause | of all wars is economic and abnormal ambition, unearned incomes | and centralized wealth, which stop trade here and abroad, causing ex-

as {thers see Roose-

to be

Republican

because

intraparty

like Senator

which plays a part in so many accidents within cities. That wrong frame of mind, I repeat, is thinking in terms of highway speeds when in the city. EJ ” ”n

HALLOWEEN SHOULD GO, TAXPAYER SAYS By H. L. M. I am a taxpayer of this fair city, so I would like to give my views on Halloween. I believe most people will agree with me and say they are glad it is over. It is bad enough to have to put up with one night of rowdyism but unthinkable when the police give rowdies two nights for destruction of property. I think Halloween should be taken off the calendar. If it were just foolish pranks, we could stand it, but hurling milk bottles on people's porches and destroying property is simply beyond any sane person's imagination.

| (But) boo-hoo,

Pascal.

General Hugh Johnson Says—

Increasing Price of Gold in London Points to Possible Financial Slump; Situation Is Complicated and Its Course and Effects Are Unpredictable.

ASHINGTON, Nov. 2.—The price we pay for gold is going up in London. : That may or may not mean a great deal. If such a

| trend should continue rapidly—i. e., that a dollar will | buy less and less gold, it means that, in terms of the

more worthy of Federal support for development and main- |

tenance.

LET'S BE FAIR

APAN'’S good-will mission sent to this country to explain her side of the Sino-Japanese conflict, says the United Press, was met at the San Francisco waterfront “by a screaming, booing crowd.” That's not exactly cricket. We do a lot of boasting about our free country—our freedom of opinion, conscience, press, speech and the rest. Now is the time to prove it. It’s no particular feather in our cap to listen to things we like to hear, or with which we are in complete accord. The most narrow-minded of bigots can do that. The test is to let the other fellow get up and make a case for the other side.

traditional yardstick, the dollar is less and less valuIn other words, that it will buy fewer things, tha! the prices of everything and the cost of living will rise rapidly, that wages will be worth less and less, and that savings, insurance policies, social security perfSions, and all present debts and fixed incomes will also be of less and less actual worth. That would be real inflation—the fear and dread of every prudent and informed statesman. » n n HIS situation is terribly mixed and unpredictable because of a great number of artificial and arbitrary controls that Congress has granted to the Administration. We have a tremendous hoard of gold.

If any such “flight from the dollar” really started on toreign exchanges, there are many things the Government could try to do to stop it. Whether they would be enough to control it is anybody's guess. If the price of gold abroad goes high enough above what we pay for it here, presumably we would export and sell it in sufficient quantities to try to bring the price in dollars down again to the point at which

we desire to keep it stationary. That is what is

have a “managed currency.”

power of the dollar. But since what a dollar will buy depends on the price of what it buys, that is just another way of saying that the President has the power of regulating or at least strongly affecting

general price levels. " » Ww

THER controls directly affecting business are in the taxing system. It is admitted now by most observers out of Government and—except a few influential die-hards—in Government itself, that the present capital gains and undistributed profits taxes nail the feet of business expansion to the floor and will result not only in reduced revenue, but also in retarded recovery-—or worse. There are being managed business and financial matters of the greatest magnitude in the world, the vast business and finance of the Government itself, but also, and more important, the business and finance and jobs and wages of every person in the country. Most of the men who are doing this mammoth man-

agement never in their lives proved any skill or showed any experience at all in either business or finance

. ‘Could that possibly be the trouble? i

=F w 1]

What that means is that the President has power | rent ‘of ‘business developments during the next few

both directly and indirectly to regulate the purchasing |

HEARTS

By CLIFF HANSBERRY

Hearts are very funny things— They often play us pranks, Make our heads go ‘round in rings, And never give us thanks! My heart, once stout and true— The kind that could be trusted, one look at you and the

The darn thing up and busted!

DAILY THOUGHT

Happy are Thy men, happy are these Thy servants, which stand continually before Thee, and that hear Thy wisdom.—I. Kings 10:8.

called “managing the currency” or why we say we

| slump is merely a temporary recession or the begin-

pansion in war. If, by the aid of Mussolini and | Hitler fascism, Japanese militarists | can take China, they can take all | Europe and Asia. Then they wiil | come over here and put us all out of our misery by improved methods of warfare-~the Communist scare | will fade away Capitalism has | served its day. It is going out and | in its place will come either social- | * |ism or fascism. People should not | be afraid to learn the difference be- | tween communism, socialism, fascism | and anarchy. | By the noise now being made and general national and international confusion going on, we have cap- | italism gone into anarchy. If we are able to do away with the cause, | the effect will go with it, and then, |

APPINESS is neither within us |if there is anyone left to continue, only, or without us; it is the union of ourselves

we will naturally install the new order, scientific socialism. Maybe by |

with God.— that time intelligent men will know. |

NOV. 2, 1937

Vy By Talburt

I'LL HAVE TO LOOK INTO THAT LATER

ON!!

‘By Heywood Broun

Roosevelt Criticized for Spending Too Much Time Hearing Opponents, At Same Time Ignoring Supporters.

EW YORK, Nov. 2.—The trouble with President Roosevelt is his continuing failure to surround himself with a sufficient number of yes-men. He spends far too much time in listening to people who are in opposition to his policies. Now, I am aware that the general opinion holds the precise reverse to be true, and I am not trying to be paradoxical. It will be my endeavor to bring up specific points in support of my contention. The morale of the New Deal organization has been badly hurt by the fact that Mr. Roosevelt always sees his enemies and pays practical« ly no attention to his supporters. I was reminded of this situation by seeing a brief news note that Fulton Oursler, editor of Liberty ' Magazine, had been an overnight , guest at Hyde Park. This meeting concerned no major piece of political strategy, I assume, but it is thoroughly within tae Roosevelt manner. Mr. Oursler's magazine has been sharply critical of the President for some time, and so the editor is asked to come around to split a herring. However, Mr. Oursler had better be on his guard, If he keeps on attacking Mr. Roosevelt he may suddenly find that he has become an Ambassador to Pata= gonia. Such was the fate of Dr. Ernest Gruening, former editor of the Nation. Dr. Gruening had been one of the Administration's severest critics in regard to American colonial policy. Then one day he was summoned to the White House, and when the good

Mr. Broun

| doctor left he shook his head in some bewilderment

and remembered that he had just agreed to accept the post of commissioner of our insular possessions.

» ” » O far so good. Mr. Roosevelt had liquidated a dissenting editor and gained an excellent public servant. But it doesn't always work as well as that. One of the most able progressive leaders in the House, who has been a tower of strength in support of New Deal measures, told me recently that he had neither seen the President nor had any word from him in a year. “And he's always talking to the fellows who fight him,” added the Congressman. “He goes on the principle that he doesn't have to bother with his friends. They can take care of themselves. But we're human. We want a pat on the back, and we want some information as to which way the drive is going and when.” Some say that business has been hurt because the President has been too friendly to labor. He may be friendly to labor, but he rarely sees any of the

labor leaders. ” 8 1

T seems to me that both the C. I. O. and the American Federation of Labor were extremely ill= advised in attacking the National Labor Relations Board, and the situation might have been averted if Mr. Roosevelt had kept in closer contact with Mr. Lewis and Mr. Green. ? It is all very well to know what your opponent is up to, but battles are won by co-operating with the

men on your own side. The President should prove to the country, and to himself as well, that he is not

The Washington Merry-Go-Round

November Business Expected to Show Whether Slump Is Permanent; Labor Department Considering Early Hearing on Bridges Deportation;

By Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen

ASHINGTON, Nov. 2.—White House master minds are awaiting with bated breath the

weeks. Government experts have informed them that November will tell the story of whether the business

ning of another major depression. If consumer buying picks up, then the winter's outlook is hopeful. But if consumer buying doesn't pick up, the experts warned, watch for a nose dive in January or February. The key to the situation, they told the President, is prices. Their diagnosis is that steadily mounting | prices were the root cause of the current slump. As late as September prices continued to climb skyward. The result was that people stopped buying This left retailers with large inventories of highpriced goods and they shut down on new orders. This in turn shut down mills and factories, the stock market took to the storm cellar and an ominous slump was in full swing. | A hopeful development, according to the experts, is | that in the last few weeks prices have started to drop.

HERE is considerable difference of opinion within

the Administration regarding the attempt to deport Harry Bridges, head of C. I. O. forces in San Francisco, and chief rival of the A, F. of L. on the Pacific Coast.

a \ ASE A an TE, = a ——— N di ho ~~

Mr, Bridges is an Australian citizen, although he has lived in the United States for the last 12 years Recently Governor Martin of Oregon demanded Miss Perkins that Mr. Bridges be deported, and sént her affidavits sworn to by Pacific Coast labor leaders that Mr. Bridges is a member of the Communist Party. ; Guvernor Martin's move is understood to have the backing of Dave Beck, head of the Teamsters’ Union in Seattle and tsar of A. F. of L. forces on the Pacifie Coast. Mr. Beck and Mr. Bridges are waging a death battle for supremacy in that region, and Governor Martin, who is running for re-election, wants Mr, Beck's support. : » ” & 3 HEN Mr. Bridges was in Atlantic City for the C. 1. O. convention, he mentioned the deportas«

‘tioh move to other C. I. O. leaders, but did not seen

concerned about it. Now it is revealed that Miss Per«

| kins plans to hold hearings on the matter soon.

Simultaneously it has leaked out that the Justice

| Department investigated Mr. Bridges for more than a

year with a view to deporting him, but was unable. to find any grounds for so doing. He entered the United States legally and has taken out first citizenship papers. : Miss Perkins would act on the charge that Mr, Bridges is a Communist. He swears he is not. In view of the searching investigation made by the Justice Department, some New Dealers claim Miss Perkins is only acting against Mr, Bridges in order to curry favor with the A. F. of L.