Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 8 November 1937 — Page 10

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The Indianapolis Times

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

W. HOWARD MARK FERREE President Business Manager

ROY LUDWELL DENNY

Editor

Price in Marion County, 3 cents a copy. delivered 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.

Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Wgy

Member of United Press, Scripps - Howard Newspaper Alliance, NEA Service, and Audit Bu-

reau of Circulations. RIley 5551

MONDAY, NOV. 8, 1937

DELAY IS DANGEROUS HE New Deal’s policy, it seems, is one of taxing in haste and revising at leisure. Pleas to take time, study carefully and calculate results were of little avail when Congress was being prodded into speedy enactment of the experimental tax on undistributed profits. Yet now. after this tax has been in operation more than a year and when its friends agree that the experiment has had a disastrous effect on business, the New Deal's tax leaders in Congress suddenly decide to move slowly and cautiously. From the House Subcommittee on Tax Revision comes word that modification of the undistributed-profits tax has been placed at the top of the list of reforms to be considered at the next regular session of Congress. That means that nothing is to be done until after Jan. 1, until after this de-pression-inducing tax has wrought its effect at the close of another calendar year of business. It means that corporation directors again will have to guess in advance what their annual earnings will be, and pay out dividends before those estimated earnings are realized. It means that for months industries will continue to hold up plans for expansion, thereby postponing the creation of much-needed jobs for the unemployed. “Bum’s rush” tax legislating in the past has resulted in so many blunders that, academically speaking the idea of cautious and deliberate procedure henceforth is appealing. But the undistributed-profits tax is no longer an academic theory. It has been tried, and it has failed. Nor

is the current business slump an abstraction—certainly not |

in the minds of the men and women who are losing their jobs. Treasury and Congressional tax experts are reported to be agreed that the tax should be modified to promote business and employment conditions. If modification next vear would be beneficial, modification this year would be vastly more so. For the sooner this country pulls itself out

of this slump, the less will be the spread of human misery |

and despair. Congress convenes in special session Nov. 15. act then—and act decisively.

WAR ON MARRIAGE MILLS

It should

will applaud the fight to curb the evil at Crown Point. Lake County Clerk Sweigart has issued an average of

1700 marriage licenses a month since the Illinois and Wis- | | in existence, and the 15 million which he mentioned

consin hygienic marriage laws became effective last summer. Chicago marriages were reduced to a fraction of their former number. Backed by an aroused citizenry in the area, and at the request of Prosecutor Egan, Circuit Judge Sullivan enjoined Mr. Sweigart under an 1852 law from issuing licenses to any brides not residents of the county. Unless the Indiana Supreme Court upholds this action, and it becomes a precedent for other injunctions, the court

fight seems futile. Already the clerk in neighboring Porter | County has announced he is ready to issue licenses at any |

time of the day or night and that several Justices of the Peace are ready to help him. Several Illinois judges recently tried to clamp down on marriage applicants seeking to dodge the required venereal disease test. They ruled that marriage out of the state for the purpose of evading the Illinois act was invalid. The Illinois Attorney General then held such marriages are valid because the Legislature omitted a “null and void” clause in the law. Legal loopholes also may be found in the Indiana court fight against the racket. The important thing is whether such marriages, if contracted expressly to evade the new health laws, conflict with sound public policy. We believe they do.

We hope that Indiana and other states will raise mar- | riage standards throughout the Middle West by enacting | similar health tests and “waiting period” marriage laws |

when their legislatures meet again.

SEWER PROJECTS HE Works Board has authorized the building of two North Side sewers at a cost of $175,000. WPA labor is to be used and the work is to begin soon. That is good news. The present system is overtaxed. Heavy rains a few months ago flooded basements, buildings and streets. A health hazard was created when obsolete drainage lines were burdened beyond capacity.

Protests then resulted in a survey of defective lines. City Engineer Steeg last week recommended construction of $524,300 of new sewers to relieve the North Side con- | gestion. The Works Board's prompt action on two pro- | posed sewers is in line with Mr. Steeg’s findings that other |

| or i parts of the program are not em ergency needs, but can | orienting economic universes, reversing the experience

be done later. The summer floods and the checkup this fall should demonstrate the wisdom of modernizing the sewer system as the city grows, rather than inflicting on taxpayers the heavy burden of many years’ neglect.

COMFORTING THOUGHT

THE Rev. Gerald L. K. Smith has contracted for the Sunday afternoon radio time recently relinquished by Father Coughlin and plans a 26-week series of attacks on the C. 1. O. and on the concentration of power in the Roosevelt Administration. His programs, he says, will be “as energetic as a Billy Sunday revival, as sincere as a William Jennings Bryan campaign and as sound as Abraham Lincoln Americanism.” And—those 'whd like peace and good will on Sunday afternoons may reflect gratefully—as easy to switch off as any other disturbing noise on the @amily radi

- radio

though that trifie of money was | hardly worth the bother of collect- | jibe with the experience of those OOSIERS who are disgusted with the thriving marriage | mill racket operated in border counties by county | clerks, justices of the peace and some “marrying parsons” |

| this

| income, much less pay a tax on it.

| which are ohvious,

answer Has ‘afta;

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

MONDAY, NOV. 8, 1937

The Badge of Leadership—By Herblock

Off Again By Talburt

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

Treasury Official's Approval of Proposal to Abolish Tax Exemptions Is Called Kiss of Mother-in-Law.

NEW YORK, Nov. 8 —Roswell Magill, Undersecretary of the Treasury, recently bestowed a mother-in-law’s kiss on the proposal to abolish the parasitic exemptions now enjoyed by some four million public officials and employees and the owners of billions in public bonds. Mr. Magill went through the motions of embracing the idea, but with such a face that he might as well have kicked it. He said the Federal return from the tax on the

billions in salaries now exempt would be less than $15,000,000, as

ing—an attitude which doesn’t who not only do pay the tax on much smaller incomes but often have to spend a day haggling with the Treasury catchpolls over a matter of $4.80.

The apparatus for collecting

Y Kis tax from the great over-

privileged horde of exempt judges, Mr. Pegler mayor, governors, commissioners and all is already

in a strangely condescending tone would be gravy enough to take care of a large number of political

| scrapbook keepers.

x » ¥

R, MAGILL also emphasized the difficulty of obtaining a Constitutional amendment, as the

| Treasury would prefer, rather than a legislative en- | actment which might be slapped down by the Su-

preme Court, in proceeding against the tax-exempt bonds. The objections to this approach is that it doesn't attack the problem but takes an awestruck look at

its muscle and concedes that it is too tough. Thus, |

although the tax amendment says Congress may levy taxes on incomes from whatever source derived, a large portion of the total of employed persons in the country get their civilization at a discount.

Moreover, there are other great incomes from other sources derived which the Treasury appears to regard with fear. These are the revenues of religious, charitable and educational organizations and of labor unions. ” ” »

T= present revenue act distinctly says that if a religious, charitable or educational institution shall engage in propaganda or otherwise attempt to influence legislation its income shall be subject to the tax, but, although there are flagrant and very attractive cases, the Treasury is not interested. Mention the handsome possibilities of this unexploited field of income {axation to anyone in the Treasury

| or the Internal Revenue and the pictures fall off

the walls, women faint and strong men weep. For, although the amendment is plain and the money is there, the political risks take a kind of courage that isn’t in the Treasury or Congress, and the law will continue to be enforced by ear. Supreme Court decisions have held that an organization in these classes may engage in private retail business, sell merchandise or run hotels for profit or rent valuable tax-exempt lands in competition with the taxpayers and needn't even report the It would take only an act of Congress to destroy that interpretation, and no Constitutional question would be involved, but there has been and will be no action for reasons

more and more apparent that the greatest of our troubles result from brainstorm legislation, reof decades, cooked up by enthusiasts in a closet and bum’s rushed through Congress under the force of the President's great prestige. That is so powerful that, if one of the parties to the ceremony of enactment seems to be nervously acting against conviction, and is asked why he goes ahead, it is like a radio comedian’s story about the groom at the hillbilly shotgun wedding who, when asked the same question, pointed to a glum, lanternjawed, old mountaineer leaning on a squirrel rifle in the coor of the office of the Justice of the Peace, and asked: “Who do you think that is—Daniel Boone?” ~ » » TN the strong and closely controlled Administration 4 Congressional majorities, even hearings before Congressional committees are not very convincing. Opposition is frequently heard, heckled and filed for posterity. The Committee knows what it has to do before it starts and the hearings are mostly hurried formalities to keep the record clear. You can’t too much blame Congressmen for submitting their convictions to regimental drill. This ‘affvays been persuasive to me: “Listen—I

The Hoosier Forum

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

| CRITICIZES DELAYS IN | COUNTY COURTS

| | |

to express By a Taxpayer I noticed in your column a note [of criticism of the Juvenile Court |the other day. It is too bad the | general public does not come into | closer contact with the Circuit and | Superior Courts.

troversies

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

its intention from the start. It has been a perfect success. However, prosperity is still just around the corner and we have not yet turned |the corner to socialization of industry, operated to produce for use and

views in

Make

| lies true prosperity. Letters must | v % CRITICIZES LETTER ON

CIVIL LIBERTIES

Lawyers are condemned by their | clients for the delay in their cases.

{other depression has begun. I have |

By H. W. Daacke

| The lawyer is not at fault; it is the | nayer been convinced that the old | Mr Maddox requires a correctional

| fault of some of the judges, for | they take their time in ruling, mo[tions and pleadings. Marion County

| have enough court facilities for litligation. I suggest that every cit- | lizen pay a visit to the Court House

land observe conditions. greedy few aoes not spell prosper- | lity for the country as a whole. { The fact is that the condition we (have had for the past nine years | was misnamed. It is not a depres- | sion, for a depression is a hollow | between two hills. In his reply to criticisms direct- | toboggan slide downward with no cd against the Marion County Ju- | hill on which to rise. Increased profits to the rich only

* 4% URGES FAIR PROBE OF JUVENILE COURT

By a Confused Citizen

| venile Court, Judge Geckler asserts that he has had the “active and sincere co-operation of many ganizations,” citing the principal [in the banks.

of the city,

feel adequately informed?

| one ever ended. With one-third of the population still suffering for | could abolish at least two Superior | want of food, clothing and shelter; | | Courts and save money and yet | prices rising twice as fast as wages; land millions yet unemployed, creased scooping of profits by the

(means that money, or- [is now no avenue of investment, is Bankers would gladprivate and public welfare agencies [ly loan it at a low rate of interest, {but no business can use it to expand To an outsider, it is confusing to when they cannot find a market for read such conflicting points of view | half volume production. All wealth | las those expressed by Mrs. L. P, ais the product of Taxpaying Citizen, and Judge Geck- | shorter wages, longer hours, faster | ler. Is there any agency or organ- | maehines and higher prices, some | ization which would undertake the |profiteers have stolen from the real responsibility of making an investl- | producers more than ever gation of the court situation, so that reaping gains from the impoverish- | the community as a whole might iment of the many. The New Deal has indeed brought | | prosperity for the few and that was | x ww »

reply. The absurd charge that the | American League Against War and | Fascism and the La Follette Civil { Liberties Committee are of Social- | ist-Communist origin is ridiculous. in- | hyphenated expression | gullible would accept. The article | stated: | Legion for its activities to pre- | serve civil rights.”

Positively no, Mr. Maddox. If

It has been a | | will be for the purpose of finding how much some members of American Legion have denied such civil rights to ethers. Your saying “The way

for which there

to stop

plore; namely, the breakdown of

labor and hy|law and order. suggested, by such action as vigillantism, is not in any respect in before, | compliance with the Bill of Rights of the U. S. Constitution, that you | have written much, but seem

know so little, about.

| » » n | SOCTAL WORKERS ASKED | ABOUT JUVENILE COURT

By Interested

The letters which have appeared | in this column concerning the Mar- | ion County Juvenile Court have | | been of great interest to me. It seems significant that

They've birth. Judge

by indorsing himself with the names | length of social work agencies. ,

agencies cannot publicly challenge | Judge Geckler’s statement. Social | workers, however, should be able to|

strength

nity in their particular field. Can|

Think how spring.

And if thy poor,

a Sojourner;

General Hugh Johnson Says—

Regimented Congress and Sifted Committees Blamed for Hasty Laws; President's Prestige Overrides Judgment of Intelligent Legislators. ORCESTER, Mass, Nov, 8.—It is now becoming | at least know what is wrong with this thing. If I vote

| against it, they'll see that I get licked by a galoot that either doesn’t know that, or thinks it is right or fust doesn’t care.” There is too much truth in that to brush aside. Abstract principle, good judgment, and what would be the very best thing in all circumstances is one thing and compromise plus practical politics is quite

another, »n » »

NOTHER kind of Commission that is practically pure buncombe is a “President's Committee on Government Reorganization,” or on unemployment or this or that, composed of a few hand-picked college professors or a National Resources and Planning Commission composed of Cabinet members ex-officio and a few other carefully sifted co-operators and | idolators. They either produce what they are expected to produce or what they do produce dies somewhere along the way—like the long-drawn and edited administrative committee reports on NRA, and Danny Roper’s investigation of aircraft disasters. Truth has about as much chance of escaping the burning fagots at the stake in any investigation by any of the Administration’s own committees of its own plans and performance, as Joan of Arc had in her ecclesiastical

AUTUMN LEAVES

By EDNA JETT CROSLEY | Soon the autumn leaves must weave Their carpet o'er the earth, A kiss they leave upon the tree lived with

Geckler justifies his court procedure | They take a trip, "tis Heaven's

The tree of life stands there, It can be understood why such | And gathers from its leaves the

| ‘Which gives them will to bear,

Interpret the needs of the commu-| They but escape the winter snow | Which carries a frozen sting, they speak now, either as a profes-| Bug Indian Summer whispers low— | they'll

DAILY THOUGHT

brother be waxen and fallen in decay with thee; then thou shalt relieve him: vea, though he be a stranger, or that he with thee.—Levit. 25:35.

HEN a person is down in the | world, an ounce of help is | | better than a pound of preaching.— | cent mortgage money for new con-

BLAMES HOUSE SHORTAGE ON HIGH INTEREST RATES By H. L. Seeger Your editorial saying that a change in Federal tax policy would revive the prosperity engendered by spending Federal funds was quite interesting. There has been no tax policy that provided the “spending money,” which temporarily revived the system of private enterprise. The bulk of the money was ob-

tained with Federal credit, not taxes. The taxes are still to come, but who shall pay them? The

since their

grow next

ness groups are the only ones who can pay. They can solve the unemployment problem. Until that | unemployment is approached con- | structively, business itself is on re-

make any difference. | The housing shortage is getting | more acute, while business hangs loon to 6 and 7 per cent interest rates, which strangle construction. Why cannot HOLC provide 4 per

may live

| struction?

| profits to idle owners cut out, There

A recent Hoosier Forum letter by |

My objection to the assertion is the | “Socialist- | | Communist” which only the most |

“I suppose that they are | going to investigate the American |

| there is any such investigation, it |

the |

| vigilantism is to quell and outlaw | socialism” is a paradox indeed. You | l invoke the very forces that you de- |

to |

families on relief cannot. The busi- |

lief, and no tax policy change will |

It Seems to Me

By Heywood Broun

George M. Cohan's Takeoff on Roosevelt Proves All in Good Fun; High Dudgeon Fails to Materialize.

EW YORK, Nov. 8 —The new George Kaufman-Moss Hart show may save newspapers and magazines the expense of taking those Presidential polls which do not always turn out so well. If the first night crowd was a fair cross section of New York | “T'd Rather Be Right” is going to move its audiences | into some interesting reactions. To be sure, Broadway first nighters constitute a highly specialized group,

and at the Alvin the players were more minked and ermined than usual. Still, sneak in.

a few New Dealers did The sound range test came up most palpably when George Cohan, as Franklin D, Roosevelt, remarked that he might need another term to accomplish his objectives. In the gallery there was applause, sporadic to be sure, " and possibly playful. It fell upon stony ground in the orchestra, and after a few seconds hissing began. The men and women who hissed weren't fooling. This was for real. Soon somebody laughed, and the applauders, and more particularly the hissers, remembered that it wasn't really the President who was talking but George Cohan, the actor, and that a show was going on—indeed, a dream play. But the whole thing was rather startling and indicated how thin a veneer is | that insulation which we call our sense of humor,

Mr. Broun

The crushing of minorities, as vou |

» » n

HIS was peculiarly marked because there is small emotional content in “I'd Rather Be Right.” Its object is one of mockery, and only in a few spots do the authors really get satirically mad about anything. The piece is far more deft and also far less punishing than the average Gridiron Show. Indeed, the tone of “I'd Rather Be Right” was a great surprise to me. The news from out of town suggested that Kaufman and Hart were pouring vitriol on Mr. Roosevelt, and one commentator was furious at what he called the pillorying of the President's mother. But I detected no bad taste in the two spoofing scenes mentioned, nor was there anything unkind. Heeding the rumors, IT had carried my coat to my seat in order to be ready to walk out in a high dudgeon if the show turned out to be a Liberty League charade. I remained until the final curtain. No exit cue was furnished for me. I didn’t like the cracks about the Federal Theater, and the skit about the Wagner act was not down my alley, but nevertheless if Mr. Roosevelt runs again both Moss Hart and George Kaufman might vote for him with practically clear consciences, ” ” »

F they had intended to tear the President limb from limb they would hardly have chosen George M. Cohan to endow the role with infinite benevolence and charm. Indeed, the criticism of Mr. Roosevelt goes little beyond the assertion that at times he becomes a hit confused, However, both New Dealers and Old Dealers ate quite likely to read more into the lines than they | contain upon the surface, and before the run is over I venture the prediction that there will be some very spirited bouts between the booers and the applauders. And that is an excellent thing for a living theater. And President Roosevelt is in a good spot to grin and bear it, for he can easily afford to let the orchestra go Maine and Vermont as long as he carries the gallery.

The Washington Merry-Go-Round

Dewey Considered More Likely Presidential Candidate Than La Guardia; Farley Controls Wreckage of Tammany After Five Years of Opposition,

By Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen

ASHINGTON, Nov. 8—To wise politicos the man really touched by the hand of fate in New York's anti-Tammany vietory was not Mayor Fiorello La Guardia but his 35-year-old running-mate, Tom Dewey. This does not mean that the wise men discount the “Little Flowers” potentialities as a Presidential white hope. His phenomenal victory definitely injects him into the picture, encumbered with a flock of handicaps that do not bother Mr. Dewey. One is his name—a fact appreciated best by Mavor La Guardia himself. Another is his race.

Finally there is the strong distrust with which he is |

viewed by national G. O, P. leaders—a distrust, incidentally, that is warmly reciprocated by Mayor La Guardia.

Mr. Dewey, on the other hand, has a perfect | campaign name, his Republicanism is unquestionable, |

he belongs to the right clubs, and he has just enough reformist flavor to appeal to the masses without scaring off the conservatives, ” ” n

HREE years is a long time in politics and much may happen by 1940. But given the breaks, Mr, Dewey is far more apt to blossom into a G. O, P. Prestdentfal possibility. There is deep irony in this because Mr. Dewey owes his rise to be district attorney entirely to the or. “Mr. Dewey

‘ .

But he starts the race |

a a A a 4

| chances and the American Labor Party was distinctly | pool toward him. But Mayor La Guardia overrode | the objections of both and literally pushed Dewey | into the campaign, What happens to them in 1940 will be shaped by election developments next year, New York State elects a Governor and a U. S. Senator, Mayor La Guardia or Mr. Dewey would be a powerful candidate for either office, though it is too early to predict which will seek which, But this safely can be predicted: Whichever post | either one is elected to, it will provide a potent jump- | ing board for leaping into Presidential waters,

» » »

YT is related of the late Boles Penrose that when 4 Senator Bill Borah warned him that the renomination of President Taft would wreck the Republican Party, the Pennsylvania boss teplied: “Maybe so, but I'll control the wreckage.” That is exactly the position of Postmaster General Jim Farley as a result of Tammany's terrific trouncing. Por five years he had tried to harness the Tiger to the New Deal bandwagon. But Al Smith, John Curry and other anti-Administration sachems refused to play ball, For the next four years, Tammany is out in the cold as a power in New York City, Meanwhile, Jim Farley is Tammany. Mr. Farley also has political ambitions:

) Governor ‘in 1938, the Senatorial scalp of Royal S. :

‘in