Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 17 November 1937 — Page 18

8 Se ans OAc isms i

PAGE 18

The Indianapolis Times

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

ROY W. HOWARD LUDWELL DENNY MARK FERREE “President Editor Business Manager

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.

EE Rlley 5551

Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

Member of United Press, Scripps - Howard Newspaper Alliance, NEA Service, and Audit Bureau of Circulations.

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 17, 1937

MARION COUNTY KILLS THEM OLICE, Municipal Judges and other City officials deserve high praise for the traffic safety campaign in recent months. This accident-reduction drive certainly has been the most effective effort since Indianapolis became one of the nation’s most dangerous traffic cities.

Four months ago, on July 15— The City’s traffic fatalities totaled only two less than the record high figure for the same period of 1936. Auto accidents were up 279. Injuries were 28 ahead of the 1936 period.

Two days ago, on Nov. I5— The fatality mark was 21 under the total a year ago, a reduction of 19.6 per cent. Accidents had been cut to 157 less than a year ago, a net drop of 436 accidents in four months. Injuries were 400 fewer than for the corresponding 1986 period. This is a splendid record. At least 20 persons are alive today who would now be dead if the 1336 and early 1037 traffic fatality rate had continued. Injuries to hun-

dreds have been prevented. 2 2 = = 2 = *.

UT there is another side to this picture, a disgraceful one. 130, only seven less than for the same period of 1936. This is because fatalities in the County outside Indianapolis have increased nearly 50 per cent over 1936. Forty-four persons have been killed in this area, compared with 30 on the same date in 1936. The 1937 total for the entire city is only 86. The Sheriff reports his hands are tied because he has no funds for a road patrol. been unable to cope with the problem. Obscuring even

Traffic deaths in Marion County this year total |

The State Police thus far have |

the extent of the problem is the lack of adequate accident

records for this\County area. No one, it seems, is doing the highly important safety job that is called for.

Obviously, this motorists’ no-man’s-land of Marion |

County outside the city should be the next salient in the | | or corporations, and the decision to move in a goldfish |

safety drive. A large number of the 44 already Killed

there were from Indianapolis.

Any area of such wholesale |

death clearly should be a focal point for the State’s war |

against accidents. This reckless slaughter should be curbed—at once.

LET'S LOOK BEFORE WE LEAP HE Nine-Power Conference at Brussels, having failed to make the least dent in the Far Eastern conflict, has reached an impasse.

| persons who are politically near | and dear to the Administration, | and the Commission should have | lived in a glass house all the time.

What stopped it, of course, was the stone wall of |

Japan's blunt refusal to discuss the invasion of China with anvbody except China. And not with her unless China agreed, in effect, to accept Japan's own terms.

Although the parley has failed to achieve any notable |

results, the conferees, as individual nations, are at liberty to act on their own if thev choose. In fact, there are

rumors that some of them—notably America, Britain and |

France—may vet undertake something. Together there are a number of things they could do short of war. They could virtually isolate Japan, economically and financially. In Rooseveltian language, they could pretty nearly put her in “quarantine.” They could cripple her foreign trade. They could make it extremely difficult

to obtain raw materials, without which she might have to | & z tionately a greater evil.

They could help China with money and | make

call off the war.

munitions. They might even make it possible for China

to keep the struggle going so long that Japan would collapse. | But that would require measures closely bordering on |

It would require serious, well-organized, co-ordinated It would mean drastic sanctions.

war. effort.

Japan would al- |

most certainly declare war against China so she could | legally extend her blockade to cover foreign as well as |

Chinese ships.

o 2 ” ® ® » T is unthinkable, of course, that the law-abiding powers

British Sport?—By Herblock

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

“al ALT

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

FCC 'Glass House' Policy Praised, But Pegler Advises, Now Let's Have A Probe of What Happened Before.

EW YORK, Nov. 17.—The announcement that henceforth the Federal Communications Commission will live in a glass house has a hallelujah sound, and there will be great rejoicing. But the record of the

| recent past remains unfinished business.

The Commission has authority to grant or deny valuable broadcasting rights to private individuals

bowl might be an attempt to obviate a congressional inquiry as to whether such gifts have been granted as political rewards or denied by way of political reprisal. It is also possible, under the authority of the Commission, to favor the applications of those who have dealt generously with

Mr. Pegler

Not having done so, the Commission, not only should be will-

| : > s ing to submit to an examination

of its record and motives and the political connections of successful and unsuccessful applicants, but should demand such an inquiry. Such an inquiry should be conducted in the same tone that sounded throughout the banking and holding company investigations, and the expose of sunning little legal devices in certain income tax returns. A committee should show no deference to the political or family relationships of persons under investigation. = u ” Y the estimate of the President himself in a recent fireside chat, and of Mr. Farley in an oration last week, the radio has become so important a means of education in public affairs that obviously the air is a great national treasure belonging to all the people. It is much more important than Teapot Dome. Any allocation of broadcasting rights done under the influence of politics would be propor-

Even a commission dwelling in a glass house must painful decisions between insistent and suspicious applicants, and so must endure a certain amount of unjust criticism from those who feel that they have been vietims of discrimination. The short duration of the license term may be criticized as a means of reminding the licensees that they had better be good, but any other term.

whether indefinite or for a number of years, could |

be criticized just as severely. ” 2 o PY to now there has been no congressional in-

vestigation of any branch of the New Deal comparable with the memorable ones of other times.

| No Administration likes such trouble but this one

should stand by, twiddling their thumbs while outlaw |

owe it to themselves and to posterity to do everything they | can to prevent it. But that is just the point: Before taking |

the plunge they must be exceedingly careful to find out just what they can, and cannot, do. A world war is not a sane remedy for a smaller war. It would be a mistake to belittle the Brussels conference. It has not halted Japan or saved China, but it has contributed something to the sum total of world opinion against the sort of thing Japan is doing. Had the treaty signatories not met, they would have been almost as guilty as Japan. But should the conference resume, or should the pact signatories undertake further action on their own, they ought to examine with extreme care all the likely, or even possible, effects. We in this country, especially, should look long and well before we even think of leaping.

POSTPONE IT! A MOVEMENT is afoot, led by a butchers’ trade paper and backed by Rep. Emanuel Celler of New York, to have the turkey declared the national symbol in place of the eagle. “The eagle,” argues the paper, “is a bird of prey, swooping down on his victims. That is not representative of the American spirit. “The turkey, on the other hand, is a bird whose history is blended with that of the American people from the days of the Pilgrim Fathers.” The biggest objection comes from The New Yorker, which asks whether it mightn’t be considered seditious to eat the national bird. Let's stick to the eagle. It would be terrible if we had to stand up and sing on Thanksgiving and Christmas instead of sitting down and eating. . ka

struck off on a strange course when Rep. Hamilton

3 3 : i Fi tol i i ci irv states invade and dismember the territory of others. They | onl wo conic Might enter the income tax inquiry

only on condition that he promised not to refer to the tax returns of one of his constituents named Franklin D. Roosevelt. And the Administration went further on that course when Rep. Treadway of Massachusetts was refused the services of tax experts to analyze the returns of Jimmy Roosevelt. Agreed that the radio is all that the President and Mr. Farley say it is, the move into the glass house prompts a reasonable interest in the goings-on at the Commission before moving day.

The Hoosier Forum

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

|G. O. P. FUNDAMENTALIST GROUP IS CRITICIZED | By Milton Siegel

I am sure that not many Republican voters in Marion County advocate repeal of the Wagner Labor Relations Act, as purported to have been expressed by Wesley T. Wilson, state chairman of the Republican Fundamentalist organization.

Today, the group that has fat-

to express

troversies

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

selves can make a living without doing any actual manual labor, The theory of “union labor” is

views in

beautiful, but in actual practice in the United States it doesn’t work out that way. When the labor leaders themselves can clean out their own ranks and actually agree on a sane, sound, safe policy and really put it through —then, and only then will the men

Make

Letters must

tened on ill-paid labor and social injustice uses every device of law to terrorize, belittle and betray the

leisure. Let all who live by labor go | to work, work enough hours to

who “pay the bills” ever have a chance.

» o 5

41 er to reach that goal.

common people.

person. But this cry just now is to save America its liberties and ideals, when only so recently they have been all but wrecked by similar selfstyled groups. The Wagner Labor Relations Act was enacted because of the overwhelming demand of American workers for recognition and protection of their fundamental rights. | Labor wants security and that means job security. The Wagner | act is helping the American workLabor does not want “class legislation.” In cases arising out of the conflict between labor and capital, it is always the man on the picket line, the | striker, and one who advocates a

: : | accomplish what is necessary, and I am not accusing any particular |

all be “unemployed” when the day's work is done. This can never be accomplished so long as we hold to the capitalist profit system. Let the nation own the means of production and distribution, employ all who want work, pay a decent wage, sell the products at cost and cut out entirely the profits of private owners. That we must invent more work so that men may spend their energy in toil is a delusion. It is a slave mind pervading the whole world that thinks what we want is more work. The products of labor are the need and opportunity for every man and woman to have and enjoy them, with as little expenditure of human energy as may be necessary. In other words, socialize the industries and operate them for use and not for profit. After eight long years, prosperity is still just around the corner. When we turn the corner to socialism,

there we will meet prosperity in |

| posed and fought for a stiffening | up of our Food and Drug laws to

ELIXIR DEATHS CITED FAVORING DRUG LAW By a Subscriber, Crawfordsville The furor regarding the deathdealing elixir of sulphanilamide still

rages, and the American Medical | Association fans the flames. It is time that someone points out | to the association that just a short time ago Mr. Tugwell pro-

protect the public against just such a danger as that involved in the sulphanilamide case, and that the association ridiculed him, | branding him a heretic. . . The sulphanilamide case proves the need of a “new deal” in the American Medical Association.

y W % FAVORS MERIT SYSTEM FOR RELIEF DIRECTORS

By J.P. B.

which all will share.

CALLED FAULTY IN PRACTICE

Does “organized labor” actually know what they are organizing for or are they simply taking the word of a bunch of silver-tongued windjammers whose main purpose seems to be to collect dues from its working members so that they, them-

By H. V. Allison » Ernie Pyle's columns in The | Times on relief conditions as he | found them in North Platte, Neb, are a fair example of the situation over the nation. No doubt he was right when he said relief was here to stay and the cost of administering it is too great. Many are on relief through no fault of their own; others believe the world owes them a living.

try.

‘General Hugh Johnson Says—

Is It Really True? Business Asks of New F. D. R. Policy Toward Capital; Burden of Revising Laws to Halt Recession Rests on Few Congressmen.

ASHINGTON, Nov. 17.—Never has the well-

being of workers, farmers, the middle-classes and unemployed depended more certainly on what happens in Congress. This Administration has done many things to restrict, rebuff and punish the flow of private capital into employment-making work. Now, in the face of a threatened depression, the Administration, speaking through both the President and the Secretary of the Treasury, seems to say that recovery and re-employ-ment are dependent on resisting that flow—except that the President adds, “If private enterprise does not respond, Government must take up the slack.” Private capital can’t respond under recent policies and legislation. Neither can Government take up the slack. Under a profit and capital system private capital can't work without reasonable wunconfiscated profits. The lag in turnover behind normal American activity is somewhere between 20 and 30 billions of private spending. Government can't take up that slack with four to five billions of ill-advised extravagance. On the contrary, it was this same idea of Government “taking up the slack.” among others, that has prevented the flow of private capital.

® ® ® XACTLY what Government now belatedly proposes to do, under threat of a severe economic Sam aue Sugestod as a ae, week after week, a 1th and year a ‘vear. Up to

shot through with people of great influence who still think otherwise. The great question is, “Is it really true that, regardless of the continued presence of these influential advisers, the Administration's policy is reversed?” Rescue from a new slump depends on the possibility of convincing this country that the answer to that question is unalterably “yes.” Tt will not be convinced by words without deeds. The record of per= formance is all to the contrary. Thousands of workers are being turned out to tramp the streets seeking work. Everybody, including the Administration, seems to be in at least partial agreement that the principal cause, not only for the present decline, but also in the long stubborn lag of recovery in general, is due to punitive and restrictive measures toward capital.

HE President's proposal puts ahead of these questions a list of highly controversial measures, which move, if anywhere, in the opposite direction. That passes the duty of relieving this winter's suffering to Congress. The leaders are Senators Barkley and Harrison, and Representatives Bankhead, Doughton and Vinson. If they succeed and, as many believe, a powerful upswing in business and employment should follow, they will deserve the thanks of the now ‘submerged

threatened | every class.

A SUNNY DAY

By JAMES D. ROTH

Day of cheerfulness and hope When black clouds have passed by With herculean tasks we'll cope; With buoyant spirit again we'll

Though clouds obscure th» scene And despair may stalk your way, Soon all will be serene. > » % There'll come a sunny day.

DAILY THOUGHT

There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him; but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man —Mark 7:15.

UCH as thy words are, such will thy affections be esteemed; and such will thy deeds as thy affecsuch thy life as thy

large-scale, tely financed boom and to EE

WHE YOU 5: of poopie Of |

Congress should pass a law providing for a merit system to administer relief and giving a pension sufficient to maintain a good standard of living for the old people who have led a useful life. The poor house should be the home for only the shiftless. This is a matter of great concern. It is time to stop experimenting and use fundamental principles that have guided us in the past.

SUGGESTS NEW TITLE TO HONOR DUCHESS

By Hans Aamot

Washington society has been worried about the right title for the Duchess of Windsor. Some want to call her “Her Grace,” while others insist upon ‘“Her Royal Highness.” My humble suggestion is that if and when the good lady arrives she should be called “The Merry Wife of Windsor,” to get around the delicate question.

It Seems to Me

By Heywood Broun

Broun Starts to Inform Us Abou? Stamp Collecting, but Wanders to Sherlock Holmes and Other Things.

NEW YORK, Nov. 17.=The hot news flash which T saw under a London date line read: “Among the stamp fans in Britain today must be numbered Princess Elizabeth, now in her 12th year and in direct succes-

sion to the throne.” There can be no great harm in that. A princess must have something to do in her spare time, and after all, the grandfather of little Elizabeth was a

philatelist. They say that you learn a lot about geography by putting the various issues in their places. That I doubt. As a child I used to get stamps on commission, but since Dale Carnegie was not yet functioning I influenced few people and invariably ended up by buying : in all the stock myself. SR Collecting of all kinds leaves me : cold. Books are all right except © that if you have a lot you never can find Sherlock Holmes when you want him. But why should one edition be more desirable than another? The words remain the same.

Possibly 1 speak petulantly because, of seven ofr eight books I wrote, only one went beyond a first printing. And that one didn't get over the goal line by much. The name of my big 5000 copy smash hit was “The Boy Grew Older.” This is not a sales talk. The book has been out of print for 20 years, and you can't buy it except maybe in a second-hand shop, where 1 believe it ix quoted at a dime bid and 25 cents asked. I sometimes wonder what the reader buys one-half so precious as the book he sells.

Mr. Broun

2 o 2

fy friend of mine tells me that he gets a A a great thrill out of looking over his old columns. “Believe it or not,” he told me, “I run across certain things which just knock me for a loop. I look at them and say to myself, ‘Well, T was certainly swell when I wrote that. How did it happen?’ ” But that's another risk I'm dodging. My fear is that if IT went back into my old files I might be moved to say, “Why that big stiff copied that particular column from the one 1 just wrote vesterday.” No, when I read for the fun of it I try to find something by Wodehouse or one of the adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Somebody did a biography of Holmes, I believe, but there is a rich field for another enterprising author who wants to do “The Life of Dr. Watson.”

o ” o

>= often wondered whether Dr. Watson was much as 1 physician. His practice couldn't have been so big, betause he was always tearing off to places with Sherlock Holmes. “The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb” is the only story in which Watson goes inte any detail as to his clinical technique. But I insist he couldn't have been much of a doctor or he would have cured Sherlock Holmes of saying, “Quick Watson, the needle.” It is true that in his later adven=tures the great detective seems to have conquered the habit. But the cure was not accomplished by Watson. The whole thing was done by suggestion—the sugges= tion of the managing editor of Collier's to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This started out to be a column about stamps. What happened to them? How on earth did we get around to Sherlock Holmes? Let's just drop the whole thing.

The Washington Merry-Go-Round

Roosevelt to Wait Clamer

From Business Before Renewing Spending:

Morgenthau Pleads for Economy, but His Advice Has Little Weight.

By Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen

ASHINGTON, Nov. 17.—Behind the flurry of White House conferences and master-minding on plans to reverse the downward economic trend, are the following personal views and secret strategy of the President: 1. He is greatly disturbed over business conditions and is fearful they will become much worse before they get better. 2. Despite his economy policy and sincere desire to balance the budget, he agrees with the contention of his liberal advisers that the cessation of Government spending was a major cause for the sudden business recession. ' 3. He is fairly convinced a new “pump priming” program will be necessary, but he will not openly take the initiative in advocating it. 4. Tt is his fixed determination to force Congress, and business elements that have been clamoring for a balanced budget and drastic curtailment of Government expenditures, to take the lead ih asking for more money. 5. Mr. Roosevelt believes that before the winter 1s over such a movement will develop. 6. It and when it does, he is prepared to recommend that it be channeled chiefly through armaments, new railroad equipment, and building construction. 7. Meanwhile he is bending every effort to launch

ENTIMENT in the inner White House council #8 overwhelmingly for a resumption of spending. This includes Chairman Marriner Eccles of the Federal Reserve Board; Secretaries Wallace and Ickes; WPA Administrator Hopkins; Dr. Isador Lubin, head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics; Dr. Leon Hender-

son, WPA economist, and Lauchlin Currie, Reserve Board economist. Even Chairman Joe Kennedy of the Maritime Commission, one of the most earnest budget balancers, recently has changed his tune and now believes new spending may be necessary. Only adviser still standing grimly by his guns 8 Becretary Morgenthau. To him, slashing expenditures and balancing the budget are the alpha and omega of every issue and problem. In the inner council deliberations his unvaryving cry is: “When are we going to make good our promise to balance the budget?” on ” » B an old friend and Dutchess County neighbon, Mr. Roosevelt is personally fond of Morgenthau. But Young Henry's counsel does not carry great weight.

Jefferson Oaffery, American Ambassador to Brazil and one of the ablest, but most hard-shelled bachelors in the foreign service, finally has decided to take unte himself a wife, Bhe is Gertrude McCarthy of ud Evansville, Ind, and they are to be mairied de Janeiro Baturday. i