Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 19 November 1937 — Page 16

.. ROY W. HOWARD

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PAGE 16 The Indianapolis Times (A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

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Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

FRIDAY, NOV. 19, 1937

WHY THE STAMPEDE? NE of the most amazing scenes in the public life of our times is the unanimity of official sentiment in behalf of correcting the tax on undistributed corporation profits. After a brief spell among the home folks, returning Congressmen in the manner of the herd proceed to stampede the law which the year before they passed. Of all political complexions, from Snell to Schwellenbach, they condemn the thing. It is the tax without a friend. Why? The answer, we think, is in the nature of the corporation itself; and in the failure of the Administration to sense what a major operation might mean to an economic patient if the heart couldn’t withstand the knife.

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” » ” 8 NLESS we frankly admit that the corporation is a special privilege, ingrained by usage in our capitalistic system, we are kidding ourselves. The theory is that the special privilege to the group is good for the whole; that this or that governmental device will help develop the country; and that, as the country develops, all will be benefited. The corporation was set up under Governmental blessing as a means for gathering together capital and putting it to work: as a way to employ other people’s money. Out of it have come abuses that smell to heaven. But out of it also has come the growth of the country and of the capital istic system under which the country, for better or for worse, functions. » ® » SUDDENLY to cut into the heart of that system is hazardous, Yet that is precisely what was done when the undis-tributed-profits tax was passed. The privilege of paying debts “before” taxes, of expanding plant and equipment “before” taxes, of laying up reserves “before” taxes, a privilege vital in the whole corporate conception and denied to individuals and partnerships, was suddenly amputated. Hence the trouble. Now, whether the corporate device is right or wrong in the larger philosophy of things, is certainly debatable, as is the whole capitalistic system, or the tariff, or farm relief, or marine subsidies, or any other of a thousand things which have become inherent in our mode of life. We have always felt, for example, an instinctive animosity toward the whole tariff idea. We believe free trade would have been the better way. But we know that to abolish tariff over night would wreck the country. And we'd rather be wrong than be wrecked. Corrections must be gradual. But what the proponents of the undistributed-profits tax adopted was the evangelical approach. In effect they did what might have been done had they said, “this tariff business is all wrong: though we've been working under it for 150 years, let's junk it.”

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” ” =» 2 B® HE effects are now visible in the stampede. And one danger arising from the unanimous revulsion is that, if we don’t watch out, the corporation will once again become the fair-haired child of Government, its past sins forgiven, and once more we will be made the victims of the Insulls and the Strauses and the others who abused it. The pendulum at the moment is swinging backward as if it had been shoved. But certain it ig that definite things must be done, and at once, to stop the hemorrhage that the happy hooligan surgery started. Congress is in session. It makes tax laws and it unmakes them. It doesn’t have much else to do at the moment, Agreed on in committee already are several modifications. They can be put through quickly if the Congressional leaders who steer tax matters will abandon their suddenly acquired perfectionist attitude which is the successor to their previous bum’s-rush technique. The glaring and obvious faults in the undistributedprofits tax should be corrected in the special session and the correction made to apply to the calendar year 1037. Otherwise God help the short-sighted in 1938 and 1940.

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BEFORE YOU INVEST— NEWS story the other day told how a young man, employed in a Gary steel mill, and his hard-working mother were so gullible they handed $15,500 to two strangers on the promise the money would be doubled within 24 hours. Shortly after they went to Pittsburgh to watch this financial magic work, their $15,500 and the swindlers had disappeared. This seems almost incredible, yet every day sums large and small are lost by persons who think themselves above such gullibility, They put their money into all sorts of worthless schemes which prove equally disappointing. The list ranges from financial racketeers with worthless stock certificates to “free lot” schemers and fraudulent “suit club” operators. The Better Business Bureau, which calls swindling a “billion-dollar business,” investigates shady promotional and investment schemes. It answers hlindreds of inquiries and gives citizens reliable information, without charge. The swindling of the Gary widow and her son should emphasize that it is easy to “investigate before you invest.”

SMOKE—PUBLIC ENEMY NO. 1

JE VEN old residents probably will be surprised to learn the real menace of smoke when translated into the graphic terms of hazard to health; cost in building upkeep and operation, and actual fuel waste in dollars and cents. Those facts will be teld in a series of articles in The Times beginning today on Page 15. We have heard about smoke from various sources. The songster tells us it gets in our eyes. The health authorities show it gets in our lungs. Now with the increasingly. insistent ery that the City do something adequate about this plague of smoke, perhaps one hopeful sign is that at last it has got in our hair.

On the second day of the special session President Roosevelt was laid up with a toothache. On the final day it probably will be a headache. as : r

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moderate and intelligent. In any military | North ‘or tral America

‘Your Husband Has Met With an

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, THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES _ Accident’—By Herblock

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FRIDAY, NOV. 19, 1937

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The Question Before the House By Talburt

In Europe By Raymond Clapper

British Conservatives Praise Own

Program of 'Liberal' Social Laws; Their Stand Close to That of F. D. R.

ONDON, Nov. 19.—While waiting for an appointment at Conservative Party headquarters, in an old office building opposite Parliament, I looked at some of the campaign literature spread out on the reception room

table, 1 thought there must be some mis take. This couldn't be Conservative Party material— leaflets like these: “Happier homes for millions.

Government come into office over one and three-quarter million new homes have been built. “Sweeping away the slums. Under the National Government’s slum-clearance campaign, 800,000 slum dwellers have heen rehoused in better and brighter homes since 1033. Slum dwellers are now being rehoused at the record rate of 6000 a week.” And this Conservative Party leafiet: “Milk at school for three million children. Every morning three million school children have one-third of a pint of milk. It costs them only one-half penny. Prior to the new scheme only one million children had their morning milk. It cost them double what it costs them today. More milk for the children has not meant dearer milk for the housewife. The National Government has seen to that. It is bearing half the cost, and the dairy farmers are indirectly bearing the other half.” Toward the end of the last session of Parliament, the Conservative Party issued a leaflet summarizing its efforts.

HIS included: “The factories bill introduced to improve the working conditions and safeguard the health of seven million workers, N “A hill introduced to increase Government grants to local authorities, especially in the poorer and more depressed areas. “An act passed to secure proper development of trunk roads throughout the country. “Further bills introduced to renew subsidies to tramp shipping and livestock industries. “Campaigh against wevercrowding brought operation. “Unemployment scheme for agricultural workers started. “Benefits under unemployment insurance scheme improved. “Slum-clearance campaign beating all previous records.” Such is the appeal made by the Conservatives, At the same time the Conservative Party is frankly the party of business and trade. It appeals to busi ness interests by sound administration, by balancing the budget, by standing as a protector against extreme Socialist proposals. Its principal campaign contributions come fron: business interests. But the Conservative Party is intelligent enough and British businessmen are intelligent enough to see that in order to preserve the system of private initiative, the friends of the system must be alert to correct its abuses. ” ” ” HAT is why these British Conservatives are unable to understand the fury of American cone servatives toward Mr. Roosevelt, They think he is trying to do much the same thing that they are doing. Their sympathies are with him rather than with his conservative opponents. English Conservatives are inclined to agree with American Ambassador Bingham'’s statement that in cessant wholesale attack on the entire Roosevelt program has had the effect of undermining confidence in America and is doing the country serious harm,

Since the National

Mr, Clapper

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DECLARES WHOLE U. 8. 18 ON RELIEF NOW By H. L. 8. Why did not Ernie Pyle suggest that relief be abolished by having the Government employ those on relief in the production of goods for their own needs? The whole coun« try is on relief, not only those on the relief register. Every corporation, firm or. individual who benefits from purchases by relief clients is really on relief. So are those who benefit by tariffs, and subsidies, be they merchant marine corporations or farmers. We are supposed to be operating under the profit system but we are not. We are operating under the ‘‘government” system. The profit system always cor rected its overcharges in time of panic by washing out the uncollectable debts and oversold stocks, by receivership liquidation or bankruptey. That system was destroyed when the Government loaned the overindebted railroads and finan cial institutions money to pay the interest on an invalid debt. We have plenty of that. It is invalid if the consumers will not support it with constant buying of services and goods. A large proportion of our business is operated under Government monopoly grants. All the utilities are in that category. Inflexible rates to meet Increasing consumption possibilities are fixed by commissions on guesswork valuations and then these are forced on the public. That is not the capitalist profit system. Intelligent capitalism is represented by the automobile industry which gives a constantly increased value for less money each year, It is not begging for subgidies either. What we need is a washout of the pseudo-capitalist system. Stop relief to the lameduck producers.

. Ld ~ MONEY CIRCULATION HELD PROSPERITY KEY By A. J. McKinnon In regard to your recent editorial in which you state the business cycle is headed downward, you suggest a chief cause of the paralysis of

capital is the Government's tax policy. There is no such fhing as a business cycle; the cycle is due to the banker, According to banking statistics, the money in circulation in commercial banks has decreased by billions in the last few months. Therefore, the “demand for products will not be as favorable in 1938 as in 1037," rightly. Every dollar increase in our supply of deposit currency means three dollars annual increase purchasing power, since our dollar makes three complete circuits from consumer to producer of raw material every year, Every dollar decrease means that our purchase of consumers’ goods is decreased, This drop in demand deposits is caused principally by the sale of bonds held by the banks to the de-

General Hugh Johnson Says—

Constitutional Amendment Providing for Referendum on War Is Sound; But Let's Preserve Present Powers of Congress for Whole Hemisphere.

ASHINGTON, Nov, 19.—The President shall not wage warfare abroad without a declaration of war by Congress. Congress shall not declare war or conscript men for service overseas without a referendum vote of all citizens except in case of invasion, military expedition or attack by a foreign military force against the United States, its territorial possessions, or their resident citizens, or of invasion or milltary expedition against any other North American or Caribbean country. The preceding paragraph is the gist of Senator La Follette’s proposal to amend the Constitution. With a few minor exceptions, I think it is O, K. The first sentence prohibiting the President from waging war abroad is very necessary, Presidents have done that in the past—recently in Haiti, Nicaragua and twice in Mexico. In view of the growth of a new monstrosity in the world—undeclared war—those Presidential precedents need constitutional attention if we are to be insured against such deadly messes as the undeclared wars in China and Spain, =» HE rest of the amendment confines the present Congressional powers to declare war or conscript men for overseas service, to purely defensive wars— except with popular consent by referendum. It is threat to Caribbean coun-

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tries, or to Guam in the Pacific, Congress could act In other cases—such as

alone exactly as at present,

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

positors. If I had on deposit, say, $1000, I could get a U. 8. bond from the bank and the bank would simply cancel my deposit. Thus the creep ing cycle progresses until the banker might cradle out of demand deposits two billions. Another depression would be created. When will we wake up to produce men in Government who will take control of our money to coin and regulate the dollar? No, we produce some men who cry peace and possibly tangle us up into another war in order to draw our attention and minds away from the real issue and cause of our trouble in America, the private Federal Reserve banks. » » ” DEPLORES U. 8. ACTION ON LEAGUE POLICY

By T. P. Glendy On Armistice Day, as I looked out of my window, I saw the flag. It had gotten badly wrapped around the staff and hung limp at halfmast as in mourning and seemed to express my feelings. Woodrow Wilson made the world safe for democracy and tried to keep it that way by a democratic League of Nations. Ex-Senator Jim Watson and Henry Cabot Lodge, with the help of 24 others, defeated his plans. If we had gone into the League, people of the world would have felt safe and instead of rearming for self protection would have gone about daily routines. The war debts would have keen paid and the world wouid have enjoyed peace. As the United States, in prestige and resources, constituted perhaps 50 per cent of the powers, it left the League limp and powerless to do anything, If we had done our part, we could have controlled any

A ROSE

By MAUD COURTNEY WADDELL

A rose may fade at close of day That in the morning held delight, But in a memory vague and dimmed It lives and grows to unknown height.

DAILY THOUGHT

But go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest and stand in thy lot at the end of the days. ~Daniel 12:13.

NOW this of a truth, that no

evil can happen to a good man either in life or after death.—Plato.

The Hoosier Forum

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

condition that might have arisen by means of the boycott and embargo. wu WANTS ROOSEVELT TO REVERSE POLICIES By William A. Boyce Jr. 1 read a recent editorial in The Times, “You Can Help Get Action,” with great satisfaction, It indicates The Times is beginning to see light. IL is an admission that a paper which supported the New Deal believes that American business and industry has been built on conservative, sound, American principles, such as frugality, economy and hon-

esty. Indirectly, I believe the editorial admits that if American business had to adopt the New Deal theory of operation, i. e,, of borrowing from the future to meet today’s demands, there would be no hope for us today, and certainly none for the future. Since The Times su strongly advocated the election of the New Deal's head man, who carried so many rubber-stamp Congressmen into office with him, let the writer suggest that The Times put pressure on the head man to correct his colossal mistakes and remove the legal shackles from American business by reversing his policies which, s0 The Times says, have wiped out the basic idea upon which American business has heen built. Incidentally, The Times might advocate next year the election of a Congressman from the llth District who has some independence of mind and spirit and not just another “Yes” man for the head man. The country now needs real Democrats like Ludlow and Pettengill from Indiana who are not ordertakers, but thinkers. An editorial calling on the head man to reverse his policy on business would now be in order.

» d 5 SEEKS REMEDY FOR TRAFFIC CONGESTION By B. C. It is an interesting and ironic fact that despite the high speeds which are being built into modern auto-

mobiles, the best speed which a motorist can make when driving through the average hig city Is slightly less than 20 miles an hour. This, of course, is simply due to traffic congestion. It does one little geod to drive a car capable of high speeds, if the traffic stream compels one to poke along at a pace which the top-heavy limousines of 1912 could equal. And it emphasizes the tremendous problem which traffic engineers are facing. Harvard's famous Dr. Miller McClintock has suggested that five or six million new auto buyers would come into the market if city traffic congestion could be relieved. It is certain that the disastrous toll of fatal accidents would be lessened. Few problems in American life cry more imperatively for a solution,

It Seems to Me By Heywood Broun

Broun Sees No Ethics in Argument Poverty Is a Deserved Affliction; Cites Difficulties in Job Problem.

NEW YORK, Nov. 19.—I saw an extraordinary letter in a newspaper the other day in which the writer said that there was practically no such thing as undeserved poverty, He didn't quite go to the length of identifying it as the judgment of God, but the author of the little homily contended that people were poor because they didn't save when they had

a chance or because they failed to equip themselves

with technical training which would fit them for skilled trades. Even if these assertions were true the business of dividing the underprivileged into the deserving and the undeserving would be harsh medicine. After all, poverty generally falls hardest of all upon the © very young, and the moralist’s ad © vice of “Let them suffer for their folly” would have to include the philosophy of visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children. I wonder whether he would really care to deny assistance to some boy of 5 and content himself by saying, “You should have saved your money or studied to be a skilled mechanic.” While it is undoubtedly true that the untrained are worse off in depressions than the highly skilled, the total problem would not be solved if everybody knew a trade. They would then glut the market just as the unskilled do today, and there are many lines of endeavor in which even proficiency does not insure a job. It was a romantic notion of James M. Barrie's that any woman can go out into the world and keep herself going the moment she knows how to use a typewriter, » 8 Y now, of course, we ought to get rid of that word “emergency” in dealing with relief. Unemployment in a high percentage of cases is a permanent or, at the very best, a semi-permanent problem. The quantity of “unemployables” on the rolls should end all nonsense about private enterprise taking up the slack. In all fairness to private industry it could not, with the best will in the world, take over anything like the entire army of the jobless. What we call boom times still leave many stragglers on the sidelines. Nor do I refer to those who are unable to work, through age or impairment of health. An even greater number includes those who are not sufficiently productive to fit into the machine age. But though the picture is gloomy, something can be done about it. Naturally there should be greater opportunity for increased technical education, but there must be some relationship between the opportunities and the kind of training given. The state of America would not be improved much if in any given year one million highly competent linotypers were thrown into the field of endeavor.

ATURALLY the abolition of child labor would help, and so would pensioning men and women in the higher age brackets. And so will a shorter work day, but there must be large-scale planning. A brash Congressman jumped to his feet in the House the moment the President's message had been read and exclaimed that in his district the laws of nature had not been replaced. That is no compliment to the gentleman’s district, because one of the fundamental laws of nature is that anyone who cannot keep up with the procession must be allowed to starve to death without any assistance.

Mr. Broun

The Washington Merry-Go-Round

Lack of Legislative Preparation Blamed for Lame Start of Congress: Conservative Democrats 'Plot' With Republicans Against Roosevelt.

By Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen ASHINGTON, Nov. 19.—There are some very

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offensive war in Europe or Asia—it could declare us in only after a referendum on both war and conscription for service overseas. The argument against the war referendum is that it takes too long. The proposed amendment takes care of that. For defensive war, or if we are attacked, there is no change in the present system. It would only be in the case of projected offensive war by us before we are attacked, and then only if carried on outside that part of the western hemisphere which lies approximately north of the equator, that Congress could not act as at present. » » » HE most important question is of the proposed restriction on the present Congressional war powers in the western hemisphere south of the equator, What would happen to the Monroe Doctrine, and to us, in a sudden revolt by provinces of Brazil where German Nazis are now politically strong? Suppose, as in Spain, Hitler supported them with military and naval strength in an undeclared war. Sup t resulted in a threat to create a great Nazi empire in Brazil? Should we not preserve the war powers of Congress, as they now are, to include the whole of the western hemisphere and not just its

cogent reasons why the special session of Congress got off to such a lame start, and they can be traced to a spot not very far from the White House. Congress never was officially called together. Congressmen read in the newspapers that a special session was set for Nov. 15, and drifted back to the Capital. But they never received written notification. Mr. Roosevelt issued the call over the radio, but someone down the line slipped up on the other formalities. Much more important was the fact that Congressional leaders had done very little preparation. Apparently Mr. Roosevelt had taken their word that they would get back to town to whip bills into shape before the actual opening. Sam Rayburn of Texas, Democratic Floor Leader of the House, when asked by arriving colleagues what was on the program, replied: “Oh, we'll get a farm bill out in two or three weeks.” : He was going through the routine of standing by the President, but his heart wasn’t in it. An extremely capable legislator, the truth is that Rep. Rayburn

doesn’t like the Wage-and-Hour Bill. And almost |/

every Southern Democrat agrees with him. = " ® ECRETARY WALLACE has sent no farm bill to S the Hill. Instead the Agriculture

Committees of

Result: No farm bill is yet written. “Cotton Ed” Smith, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, came back from South Carolina breathing love and devotion to the farmer, but nothing else. Meanwhile Marvin Jones, chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, has held hearings, but the bill is still in a chaotic state completely unacceptable to Secretary Wallace. One unique spectacle at this session of Congress has been the Democrats sitting on the Republican side plotting together against Mr. Roosevelt. Object of the Conservative Democrats and the Republicans is different, but they are poonng operations. The Democrats want to whittle down the Roosevelt program. They never did agree with it. n » 2 HE Republicans, on the other hand, are merely out to make political capital. Last session they were meek and browbeaten. Now they are on the march. During the special session in 1933 the drift was to give everything to Mr. Roosevelt. Now the drift is to be sore at Roosevelt. Underneath, of course, there is a large group for the President, but keeping quiet about if. i There are just two things that will make them erupt in aid of the President: Too much taunting from the Republican side, and too much disloyalty from the turncoat Democrats, 5% op Tu