Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 15 November 1937 — Page 12

COIR

PAGE 12

The Indianapolis Times

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ROY W. HOWARD LUDWELL DENNY MARK FERREE President Business Manager

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Their Own Way

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Give Light and the People Will Find

MONDAY, NOV. 15, 1937 \

NO JOB FOR HAMLET

OT much contemplation is required in deciding to am- , putate a hangnail. If that situation can be accepted as reasonable, then we can’t understand the delay advocated by certain congressional leaders in the matter of the un-distributed-profits tax. This is the tax without a friend. Nobody rises in its defense. Everybody who has anything to say about it at all condemns it out of hand or declares for modification. That action should be halted until after the special session, therefore, doesn’t make sense. The tax was conceived in haste. It has demonstrated glaring faults and inequities. Accordingly it should be corrected quickly. It is contributing seriously to the business recession. Its repeal or modification would do more than any other single thing to give business a healthy and direly needed stimulant. Therefore the action which every one concedes is called for should come within the special session and should be made to apply to the calendar year 1937. That such complicated problems as wages and hours and ever normal granary can be handled in the time covered by the special session, but that remedy of obvious tax mistakes must be mulled over for a year or so, is all out of line with logic. This is no “to be or not to be” proposition. Need for doing something being conceded by all hands, there is no occasion for those who have the power to right the wrong to turn themselves into legislative Hamlets. We are making no argument for bum’s-rush tax legislation. There has been too much ef that. So far as the general renovation of the whole tax system is concerned, that, of course, should go over into 1938 and be given all the time that is required to do the most thorough kind of job. But as for the few specific and universally admitted faults in the undistributed-profits tax law, they can be wiped out pronto and without danger of kickback. The correction having been applied, the patient can then benefit at once and not wait until more months of poison have been absorbed into the system. = = 5 ” = ® E refer to such things as the elimination of the guessing contest which requires the computation of the year’s profits before the year is over in order to take the dividends-paid credits; the provisions which bear down so heavily on small business, prevent reasonable allowance for reserves, debt payments, and plant and equipment investment. Other phases of the law may call for much more consideration. They can wait. But those we have mentioned are as clear and the need for action on them is as obvious as a house on fire, It would in fact be better to call the whole thing off, repeal the ill-starred act completely, and start from taw in 1938 than to do nothing at all in this special session. The stimulation to the nation’s volume of business and the consequent increase in that which can be taxed would, we believe, more than offset any loss in Federal revenue that might occur because of the change in the method of taxation.

The time is precious. The slump can be stopped. But not by procrastination.

SAFETY SEMINAR NE of the fine things that has come out of the war on automobile slaughter is the “safety seminar” which has just been conducted in New York by the CIT Safety Foundation. The students were newspapermen from all over the country. The CIT Foundation is affiliated with an organization which finances car purchases, and thus has a direct interest in traffic safety. The foundation believes the problem can be solved. Wisely, it concentrates on trying to popularize public safe-driving habits. It stresses the point long advocated by The Times that safe driving and safe walking can be made so popular that careless disregard of others can be outlawed as antisocials Safety engineering and enforce-

ment are other indispensable phases of the solution, but at the base lies education. The CIT Foundation, dedicated to this program, should receive the fullest co-operation from the press and other agencies of information. The seminar, following the foundation’s 1936 national motorcade-conference for safe drivers, is an intelligent effort to reduce the horrible highway toll.

A CHANCE TO HELP

HE American Federation of Labor reports that unem.’

ployment among its members increased last month the first October rise since 1931. The increase, while small, is disquieting because October is normally a peak month in the autumn busy season. Now, there are many things that organized labor cannot do about such an addition to its jobless fraternity. But there is one thing it can do. That is to patch up the internal row between the federation and the C. I. O. No one knows just how much labor's civil war, with

“its disrupting jurisdictional strikes and boycotts, has con-

tributed to the slowing up of recovery. Certainly it has laid a pall of uncertainty over the whole industrial scene. Industry, we believe, would immediately respond with quickened pace to an anfiouncement that the conferees who have been meeting in Washington had worked out a p~~se formula and called the fight off.

DIRTY WORK RED tape seems to be holding up the fund promised for the job of cleaning up the old part of the Federal Building so it will match the new addition. If smoke and grime are given a chance for much more dirt; work, the new wing may have to be cleaned along with the old. ht :

en for Business—By

aT ASO Te CRN

HAVE TO BE YANKED OUT AN’ THE MOLES ‘BILLED UP IN A FEWABE PUT NEW POR GOSH SAKES DoC-

EN NM i BRR

MONDAY, NOV. 15, 1937

Hitler as M

Pr —— ee

ediator Between Japan and China?—By Herblock

A ANY

~

gor HAVEN Te ANCESTORS ?

Ti

AND NOW, IF YOU GENTLEMEN WILL EXCUSE ME FOR A MINUTE, I'LL SEE MOW MY TROOPS ARE MAKING OUT IN SPAIN

SAY, BOSS — DO YOU WANT TO REPEAL THAT LAW FORBIDDING GERMANS TO ACCEPT NOBEL PRIZES?

~2N ¢

wey! As my COMMISSION ON THIS DEAL, HOW ABOUT HANDING BACK THOSE GERMAN ISLANDS YOu GOT AFTER THE WAR?

THE COURSE OF UMPIRE

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

Debunker Declares He Never Saw Boy Caught in Pantry With Jam— But Maybe He Doesn't Get Around.

EW YORK, Nov. 15.—I have never met a Negro named Rufus, Rastus or Sambo or a Negro woman named Mandy or Chloe or an Englishman named Algernon or Montgomery or a farmer named Si Perkins. Neither have I known personally or even known of the existence of a farmer's wife or daughter or any-

one else named Samanthy. Have you? The only Perkins I have known in

recent years, with the exception of the Secretary of Labor, whom I have met only in print—to our, no doubt, mutual loss—is the old catcher of Connie Mack's Philadelphia Athletics, now coaching for the New York Yankees. His square name is Ralph and he never was any sort of farmer, EY being a Gloucesterman or, anyway : Pan gd a Cape Codder. He was called St of Si on the sport pages for the same 5 $a reason that all players named A ¥ Nan oe ga famous at all LS are cal Sir Walter—such as Sir Pegler Walter Johnson and Sir Walter Mr Hagen. For the same reason all well-known players by the name of Krouse or Krause are called Buck, and lots of men, in and out of sports, named MecGovern are called Terry. e 8 ® NEVER knew an office boy who telephoned the boss on the opening day of the baseball season to say that his grandmother was dead, although a lot of the little pests would lay off now and again during the season and report next day that they had been sick when everybody knew they had been at some ball game or maybe just bumming around the 5-and-10, which was much more seductive to office boys than the ball park, but never received proper recognition in the native lore of the country. I never have known a kid in my own youth or since who raided a jam pot and got caught in the pantry by his mother or anvone else and tried to plead not guilty, with the evidence smeared all over his face, as depicted in more funny papers than I can begin to guess. I doubt that any kid ever did that, but I want to set a statute of limitations against Vat time before the existence of the corner candy store. * o* pitas it is true that half a century ago kids went for jam in the raw, and it may be that the kids of those days actually practiced the device of sticking a shingle down inside their pants to stifie the blow of the strap, which was supposed to hang behind the door or above the kitchen range, or somewhere. There weren't any dumb fatheérs and mothers in our part of the country. They would have known, and, anyway, there was never any of that formal “get over my knee and get spanked” business. And I never knew a husband to phone home that he wouldn't be there to dinner Because he had to sit up with a sick friend, or a wife to throw a rolling pin, or a bridegroom to kick up a row because the bride's pie didn't compare with that which his mother used to make, or a cop who said “begorra” or flirted with a nursemaid by the name of Norah. Did you? Maybe we don't get around enough—eh, pal?

The Hoosier Forum

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

REGRETS DELAY IN DUKE’'S TRIP HERE By Kitchen Cynie One advantage (or disadvantage, depending on your sex) the electric shaver has over the old fashioned kind: It won't open cans . « « Teachers in England are advised to help Cupid by telling girls “about the best brands of lipstick and where to get the best cheap silk hose.” « My word, these English are odd! Don’t they know Cupid's serv=ices depend on (1) your toothpaste, (2) your soap, (3) your shampoo, (4) what you drink, and (5) what you use to launder your lingerie? The English can’t be very well read, can they? The chemistry of a constellation has been determined by a scientist of McDonald Observatory in Texas. The milk patch of light in the constellation Cygnus is hydrogen and oxygen. Now if there were ohly a bit of carbon dioxide present, we'd know for certain Cygnus had a Con-

..%¢

| gress in session. The same opaque

nebulosity hovers over Washington + « « If James E. Watson gets the Republican nomination for Senator from Indiana, it will prove that the G. O. P. elephant learns nothing. Too bad the Duke and Duchess of Windsor “postponed” their visit to our shores. I should like to see what 70 trunks can hold in the way of war bonnets and feathers and just how those old Scores mentioned by Westbrook Pegler would be paid oii.

“. & * ‘LIBERATION’ BY DICTATORS DENIED By Mrs. W. B. Schreiber Copying the methods of the “democratic” imperialism in shedding crocodile tears for the aggression of other nations, a few weeks

ago Benito Mussolini asserted that “laws which for thousands of years guaranteed justice to civilized mankind are openly trampled on, and innocent citizens are punished for deeds for which they bear no responsibility.” These words, coming from the conqueror of Ethiopia, are spoken in the best style of British and Freuch diplomacy. Behind II Duce's move to have “the pot call the kettle black” is the implied threat to British and French imperialism in the event of a war. In his program of empire building, Sig. Mussolini is doing now what Britain did in the last war—promising to ald the Arabians in their war for liberation. England used this as a weapon against the central power. Now Italy uses it as a weapon against the British Empire, Sig. Mussolini's action is not an isolated instance of how the imperial powers pose as the friends of oppressed peoples in order to ade

vance imperialistic purposes. Eng-

General Hugh Johnson Says—

Secretary Morgenthau Left Room for Retreat in Tax Revision Speech; It Will Take More Than Implied Promises to Renew Faith in New Deal.

EW YORK, Nov. 15. — Secretary Morgenthau’s recent speech has received such acclaim that it sounds curmudgeon sour to slam it. But

duty is duty and as Al Smith so aptly says, “No matter how fine you slice it, it’s still baloney.” In the first place, the greatest Secretary of the Treasury since William Woodin burst forth with an “Arise! Awake! Employment and prosperity are all now dependent on encouraging private capital to ine vest itself. The way to do that is to balance the budget and amend such tax laws as have put it in irons. Our only hope is business confidence.” He whom his boss delights to honor by calling “Henry the Morgue,” didn't go so far as to say that quite so emphatically about taxes. But such Was so clearly his intended implication that he reaped enconiums on his hints. His actual words were so warily weasel that he could retreat from them tomorrow by simply saying a single word—“Misinter« pretation.” ee = =»

F you mean things, there are ways of saying them that leave not the slightest doubt of their intention—like Salmon P. Chases, “The way to resumption is to resume.” Or W. T. Sherman's, “If nome inated, Lin ot accept. If elected, I will not serve.” —or, to bring the philosophizing nearer to the fac like Pat = ophizt to Mig

“There must be some modification of the undistribu

(Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns, religious cone troversies excluded. Make your letter short, so all can have a chance. Letters must be signed, but names will be withheld on request.)

land did it in Ethiopia. Are we doing it in China? We workers dare not trust imperial heads who weep these crocodile tears; they will never liberate anybody. Liberation is a task of the workers themselves, The masses of the world will be free when the workers of the world in both the democratic and dictatorial capitalist countries rise to take power for themselves, to build an international community of workers’ nations. $ & 8 SOCIALIST-SOVIET LINK ALLEGED By Edward F. Maddox Since H. W. Daacke, who had a “correctional” letter in the Forum, complained because I used the term “Socialist-Communist” in referring to the American League Against War and Fascism and the La Follette Civil Liberties Committee, in regard to an investigation of vigi=lantism, I would like to refer Mr. Daacke to a recent article on Soviet Russia in The Times. This article states: “Twenty years after the 1917 revolution, the Soviet Union is considering its achievements in the establishment of a proletarian, socialist state and proclaiming them good. . . . Socialism has been realized. . Socialist economy now dominates all but an infinitesimal fraction of Soviet activity. . . - Retail trade is 100 per cent socialized. . . .” So you see, Mr. Daacke, that the Com-

WOMAN THE SENTRY

By POLLY LOIS NORTON Woman the sentry, pacing at your

post, What do you see in the stillness of the dawn? What is the message when the stars are gone In that pale hour when walks every ghost? Shall we have word from them we love most?

DAILY THOUGHT

Thou shalt not pervert the judgment of the stranger, nor of the fatherless; nor take a widow’s raiment to pledge.—Deut. 24:17.

E all have a propensity to grasp at forbidden fruit.— From the Latin.

munist government of Russia also links socialism with communism. Speaking of the proposed Congressional investigation of vigilantism Mr. Daacke says, “If there is any such investigation, it will be for the purpose of finding how much some members of the American Legion have denied such civil rights to others.” He quoted my statement that “the way to stop vigilantism is to quell and outlaw socialism,” and tried to create the impression that I meant to stop subversive activities by vigilantism. Not at ail, Mr. Daacke, but by the law of the land and the civil and military authorities, if necessary. . . . The only way to socialize this nation is by force, and a hundred million Americans are sure to be “agin” it

* 8 =n HOUSEWIFE COMPLAINS OF PURE FOOD LAWS

By a Housewife It cannot be said that our Food and Drug Laws are antiguated— they never were up to date. John Wiley, the man who fought so long to have food and drug laws passed in 1906 fell short of his goal then to have the laws adequate for the protection of the public. With every passing day it becomes more and more imperative that the nation make its food and drug laws more stringent. . . . It is a mystery to me why Congressmen, who are elected to represent the rank and file of constitu ents as well as the big business element, found it impossible to legislate in our interests. I had the nerve to ask our Congressman how he voted on the recent food and drug bill, since before his election he was always orating about “what the public had a right to know.” Evidently I had no right to know how he voted, for I haven't received the courtesy of a reply from him yet. Previously he had been very nice to me about sending me literature printed at Government expense, ” = os IT CAN HAPPEN HERE, SHE BELIEVES By Kathleen McDonald In 1018 the great majority of people in Russia did not know there was to be a revolution and a new form of government until it was upon them. Yet people say it cannot happen here. It can and will if something isn't done to stop it. Will the new organization, the United Squadrons, be able to do this? Their members pledge themselves to rid our country of the four isms that are flourishing in Europe today. Those same isms are insidiously gaining a foothold here— communism, atheism, fascism and nagziism. ,

It Seems to Me

By Heywood Broun

Labor Warned Any Demonstrations Against Windsors, if They Come, May Play Into Hands of Fascists.

EW YORK, Nov. 15.—At the moment of writing it seems that Wallie and Dave are coming to America after all. Remember, in addressing the Duke and Duchess of Windsor that it is “Your Royal Highness’

the first time and after that “Sir” will do for him and that the lady is to ke “Ma'am.” Quick« witted Americans who dislike the formal greeting established for the Duke of Windsor can adopt the easier form simply by saying, “Here I am again, Sir.” The rebuke administered by the Baltimore meeting of the American Federation of Labor has been most salutary. It was just, and it serves to clear the air. Already ‘“well-in-formed” sources say that the Duke ' and Duchess will incline more to the i social side and curtail the projected ..§ survey of housing and labor condi : tions. That's a good idea. If the Duche ess wishes to go back to Baltimore and show her boy {friend to the dowagers who knew her when, I can see no earthly reason for objection, That is only human. And, again, I think that Americans ought to welcome ‘Windsor to the mutuel windows, if he chooses to study housing at Hialeah or at Santa Anita. After all, racing is the sport of kings, and even an ex-king has a right to take a flier on a 20-to-1 shot.

4 8 0 THINK that trade unionists and other progressive groups will make a mistake if they stage any hostile demonstrations against the Duke. Such action would give a poltitical importance to the visit which it does not merit. After all, you can get a call on functioning kings for a low figure, and ex-kings are deservedly a dime a dozen. Hitler's game was to build Windsor up as a potential world ambassador for fascism. In all fairness to the Duke he may have been just as ignorant of what was going on as he is about labor or housing. A few pleasant words to the miners of Wales is hardly a labor record. As a visiting and amiable Englishman his week-ends are no concern of liberals one way or another. Shrewd and powerful forces seem to be planning to use the Duke for their purposes, but his potentialities as a menace can be reduced if he is ignored by anti-Fascist groups as not worth the bother of a demonstration.

o ” 8 HE national attitude should be polite but distant and if David Windsor tries to pat any American miners on the head I suggest that they pat him pack in friendly condescension. It is difficult to tell just how far the British Cabi« net is backing the expedition. It is possible that Chamberlain and the rest do not approve, and yet there is a distinct coincidence in the fact that Windsor comes to us at the very moment that Anthony Eden is going to the right as fast as his hands and knees will carry him. Already he has indicated a willingness to sell out to Mussolini and Hitler by making contact with Charlie McCarthy Franco. It may be that the Duke also moves his lips to let the voice of others be heard. Even so, the brunt of protest should not be visited upon him. I trust that American liberal leaders will not be foolish enough to hew to the line and let the sawdust fly. Rather they should say both “Sir” and “Your Royal Highness,” and add the pious hope upon the clube house lawn, “I hope, Sir, that you and your lady have picked yourself a winner for the next race.”

The Washington Merry-Go-Round

Elections and Business Recession Profoundly Influence Congress; Roosevelt Called Session Expecting Docility, but Is Dubious Now.

ed profits tax." rg

Boy, that's batting this “must” business right back from one end of Pennsylvania Ave. to the other— the most hopeful sign on the whole horizon. Mr. ‘Morgenthau might as well have said it right out in the first place, if he meant it—and if he didn't mean it, why did he talk at all? This and other recent wyriggiing amount to a concession, that the unprecedented policies upon which the third New Deal insisted and against which it was repeatedly. warned--their precise effect, accurately forecast——were the very causes of this new wave of unemployment and misery. ® ® » . K. “Better late than never.” Also, “ ‘Tis love that makes the world go round.” But the coafidence that will restore what Secretary Morgenthau calls the driving force of private capital ‘springs from faith in the promises, the stability and the dependability of Government, It is a cruel and, to me, a painful question to ask but, on all the facts, it is a aoubt so logical that it would be less than honest not to ask it. “Who is going to believe these protestations—and especially when they come in a form so questionable,” or more accurately, “who is going to believe them enough to bet on them?”

profound.

By Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen

ASHINGTON, Nov. 15.—Outwardly, the Congress that convenes today is no different from that which adjourned two and a half months ago. In every external respect it is the same body. Under the surface, however, a very profound change has taken place. Two new factors have entered the Capitol Hill picture: (1) Next year's elections, (2) the increasingly ominous business recession. Their effect on the temper of members will be

Ordinarily, in an election period, a Congress up against a popular President is inclined to be tractable. Mr. Roosevelt had this consideration in the back of his mind when he overruled the unanimous counsel of his advisers and called the special session. To whip his measures through with a minimum of difficulty, he counted heavily on the fact that the entire House and a third of the Senate faced going on the block. 3 "i 8. FTER he issued his call, business went into a nose dive and his secret cdlculation no longer fitted the circumstances. It is possible that the slump may act to offset the election factor and spur Congress to become more truculently independent than ever. This is the unexpressed hope of Administration foes. : On the other d, a jittery economic condition jay create a psychology” in the chambers aa t hii A eX =

and play into the President's hand. That was what happened in 1933 and '34. The inner White House circle isn't saying so publicly, but it is figuring strongly on history repeating itself this session. 2 ” ” HE first batch of Supreme Court decisions ree vealed one very significant fact: The presence of Justice Black has made no fundamental change in the complexion of the tribunal. Chief Justice Hughes and Justice Roberts still wield the balance of power. They determine the slant of the Court's decrees. If they side with the liberals, the result is a liberal ruling. If they line up with the conservative Justices, the conservatives win. The two major decisions handed down by the Court involved tax issues. In one, challenging the constitutionality of an Iowa law taxing state bonds, Justices Hughes and Roberts voted with Justices Stone, Brandeis, Cardozo and Black. This gave the liberal bloc a 6-to-3 victory. In the second case, testing the right of the Government to tax bonuses paid former employees of a reorganized corporation, the Chief Justice and his Philadelphia colleague held with the conservative group. This handed them the palm by 5 to 4. In New Deal circles the Hughes-Roberts swing did not pass unnoticed. Under cover it again fanned into flame their smouldering bitterness against the Chief Justice. The New Dealers credit Mr. with chief responsibility for the defeat of Roosevelt's

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