Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 20 November 1937 — Page 10

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i RAH IR MAO oy gs a i

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

LUDWELL DENNY MARK FERREE Editor

ROY W. HOWARD President

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SATURDAY, NOV. 20, 1937

WHY NOT LEGISLATE? HE comprehensive survey of local business conditions published yesterday in The Times is worth careful No economic wizardry is required to see what and industries, and some

examination. is happening in specific businesses of the reasons why. The holiday business outlook is bright. perity and major industrial expansion programs make Indianapolis a brighter spot on the business map than many other cities. did here. but we are now beginning to feel some effects of declining payrolls and rising relief rolls. No community today can be an isolated business unit. Most business leaders feel there is no basic unsoundThey believe the recovery curve can and should continue upward. But they are almost unanimous in saying the Administration's present tax policy must be corrected —at once—if this is to happen. Business needs help, needs it badly. The jobs of millions depend upon business getting that help quickly. The time for action in Congress is now, not several weeks hence. :

Ness,

= n nN = x » EVERAL Southern Democratic Senators, including George of Georgia, Bailey of North Carolina and Connally of Texas, have been demanding that Congress quit wasting time and do something to help pull business out of the slump. jut the way these particular do-something-for-business Senators want Congress to “quit wasting time” is to debate the antilynching bill. Inasmuch as antilynching legislation has already been debated in Congress for more than 15 years, the quickest and best way for the Senate to “quit wasting time” would be for Senators George, Bailey, Connally et al. to stop their talk, take their seats, and vote. After all, passage of the measure would not hurt business, except the savage business of lynching. In the House also the legislative process is being choked by nine members who constitute a majority on the House Rules Committee. nery Wage-Hour Bill. And so, although the bill has been passed by the Senate and approved by the House Labor Committee, these nine men won't let the 424 other Representatives ‘vote on the bill. We don’t like the Wage-Hour Bill as it is now written. We think it would be better for Congress to fix labor standards than to delegate that power to a commission. But so long as the bill is bottled up there can’t be any wage-hour consideration at all. Once it gets out on the House floor, this bill can be amended and improved by the orderly democratic processes. But some elected “representatives” of the people seem to be afraid to let representative government function. Too much depends on prompt action to permit the legislative machinery to be stalled now.

THE JUNIOR CHAMBER'S SURVEY HE Junior Chamber of Commerce has made a valuable contribution to the safety campaign. Its study of police and traffic court activities for 1936 parallels the findings of similar 1937 traffic surveys by this newspaper. The indisputable fact is that accidents, deaths and injuries decrease as enforcement is tightened. The Junior Chamber found that traffic law enforcement last year was lax and spasmodic. Less than half of those arrested were fined. Enforcement activity spurted one month, lagged the next.

Records show this condition continued until mid-July of this year, when an expose of the situation and public indignation brought a more consistent penalizing of violators. Since then, the courts have an admirable record. Deaths and accidents have been reduced markedly. With this basic correction under way, and with gains made in popularizing safe driving, attention should now be given to other phases of a rounded safety program. The Junior Chamber can perform another public service by continuing its active interest in the fight.

BLUNTNESS IS NEEDED HE National Broadcasting Co., after declining to broadcast a talk by Gen. Hugh Johnson on social diseases, has carried such a talk by Dr. Morris Fishbein, editor of the American Medical Journal. We congratulate the NBC on this action, which makes it clear that the company’s policy is not to bar discussion of the topic, but to have it discussed by medical authorities rather than by laymen. At the same time, we still doubt whether Gen. Johnson’s remarks would have been too “blunt” for a radio audience, as the NBC says it feared. It’s true that the yeneral is given to blunt language. But that, after all, is the kind of language the subject demands.

MARS RAISES PRICES . OLDIERS’ wages are just the'same as ever, but the costs of war's engines of destruction are soaring to new highs. A battleship that used to cost 30 million dollars now costs double that, or the price of an up-to-date university. Six divisions, or 150,000 men, will shoot away in heavy action two million dollars worth of ammunition a day. A torpedo now will cost $12,500.

Perhaps the mounting costs of these magnificent arsenals may bring peace where other efforts have failed.

A filibuster is a halter used by Southern Senators to hang the anitlynching bill,

: The safest thing to predict of labor or peace parleys : is postponement, -

Business Manager | Price in Marion Coun- |

ered by carrier, 12 cents |

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Farm pros-

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THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES The Indianapolis Times The Deep, Deep South—By Kirby

I I ANH O00 HE EE tt

SATURDAY, NOV.

By Talburt

< ‘3 os A 3 . #3

HEYWHERE DO You GUYS TAINK YOU'RE

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

Mob 'Clean Up' in Miami Is Termed Mask to Hide Corruption of City, Long Linked to Big Time Rackets.

EW YORK, Nov. 20.—A sudden righteouness recently prompted a band of alleged Klansmen to kick in a night club on the outskirts of Miami, Fla. The proprietor claimed the raiders indulged in a little incidental robbery, listing among his losses $350 cash, a $7 watch and seven rifles. This charge seems plausible. The Grand Dragon of Florida attempted to scoff it away with the asser-

tion the Miami Klan includes some of the best people in town, which disproves nothing. The fact is that such gangs not only here but in Italy and Germany habitually use their patriotic pretense to disguise looting and often are in-

| spired by the personal motives of | individual members who may be

unsuccessful business rivals of the victim or in debt to him, or just plain thieves. Thus the early Black Shirts and Brown Shirts liquidated their competitive problems, compelled the cancellation of their debts by terrorizing their creditors and covered common stickups with a mask of civic duty. Thus, also, the Ku-Klux Klan in former days. But to come to an understanding of the situation it is best to eliminate both the charge of larceny against the Klan and the claim that the mob contained the best elements of the community. The fact is that “the best people” of Miami for years have not only tolerated, but encouraged the development of a major league underworld in a minor league city for the sake of the money to be made through political graft’ levied on notorious criminals from New York, Chicago and other big cities. 2 5 =» HE politicians frankly sold concessions for the violation of the laws, and “the best people” of Miami, mostly retail merchants or real estate promoters, agreed this was necessary because otherwise the heavy spenders would avoid Miami. Some of “the best people” of Miami have participated in this system, politically and financially, for 15 years and have watched with pleasure and pride the growth of a system of corruption the like of which will not be found in any city of equal size in the United States. It was a matter of naive satisfaction to “the best people” of Miami that such distinguished criminals as Al Capone, Lucky Luciano, Johnny Torrio and Dutch Schultz chose to honor them with their presence and their professional interest, and they saw the creation, on the outskirts of their city, of a town called Hialeah, whose principal industry was graft. Hialeah, from the start, has been a rare political freak, an aggregation of rackets organized into a municipality. ® 4 4% F all this “the best pecpl>” of Miami have been well aware, and the system has ramified to such an extent that if the individuals who raided the night club were to unmask and reveal their identity a majority probably could be shown to have had more or less direct personal connection with the corruption of their town. In fact, if they had been clean and had

possessed ordinary physical and civic courage it would

not have been necessary for them to go raiding or to wear masks. They could have obtained evidence of crookedness sufficient to conviet some of their local officeholders on many charges any time they resolved {o clean house by egal methods.

The Hoosier Forum

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

PRAISES GECKLER AS EARNEST JUDGE By Milton Siegel I know from immediate experience that the reports about Juvenile Court Judge Geckler and the pur-

ported incident of “You Don’t Shed Enough Tears” are exaggerated. The unfair criticism of the Judge is unwarranted and motivated by ill-

to express

troversies

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

State and County officials, should mean many thousand dollars in the pockets of the Indianapolis workingmen. . . . The press is the greatest potential factor in the industrial rehabilitation of Marion County, and the writer is only expressing the sentiments of many readers in hoping that you will do your utmost to bring about an era of prosperity for the workingmen of Marion County

views in

Make

Letters must

advised and self-seeking individuals. I am not here to defend Judge Geckler, because he needs no defense. I know him, and I know that he is an earnest judge who desires the greatest good for the greatest number appearing before -him. He presides over the Juvenile Court with an open mind, and without bias or prejudice. Child-delinquency and juvenile problems might be cured by wiping | out slums and building up decent, habitable houses with facilities for proper child-guidance. recreation, rest and cultural development. But | until these objectives are attained, | the community will do well to permit the Juvenile Judge to reprimand, punish and advise the child, and if need be, “shed tears,” more or less. It is high time that these anonymous letter-writers learn true facts before they again attempt to speak at random. $ & #4 SEES DANGER IN

PRESENT TAX LAW

By Ward B. Hiner

I read with much interest President Roosevelt's speecn to Congress, and the time is here not for political prestige or fault-finding, but to criticize severely his theoretical, experi= mental ideas and urge workable,

business. ployment,

The time is

pay the taxes.

rental country.

be temporary,

1929 depression. #

By Arthur L. Cramp

This is not good for em=-

Cites Homes Shortage

There is a shortage of homes and | apartments If it were not for a cause that stops investment by taxation, labor would be employed all over the United States. It is my hope this depression will but Congress must art quickly on taxation to avoid a

APPEALS FOR CIVIC AID AS BOOST TO COUNTY

In years gone by it been possible for Indianapolis and

which, in the past, has been denied them through the shortsightedness of some banks and commercial in-

No one | 70 WILL ROGERS By D. B. St. Clair Hurrah for Westbrook Pegler and more power to bis pen. 1 have long been an admirer of Mr. Pegler’s writings and his frankness on his subjects. The world profit from more men like him. I often compare his honest writings with those of the beloved Will Rogers. The fact that he writes on facts leaves his dissenting readers and the objectors to his articles not a peg to stand on. His articles are almost the first thing I look for in The Times. ” ” n CENSURES FRANCO FOR PLIGHT OF SPAIN » By Norman Glenn, Clinton County Again I see Mr. Deery of Bloomington championing the cause of Franco. Let us recall that it was Franco's crowd, the landed aristocracy and higher army officers, that ruled in

the |

with the |

all over the |

would have

practical ways, in behalf of business and labor and property holders. In his speech he said local and private capital must be interested in certain programs that will help bring relief and maintain relief. If President Roosevelt had been trying to make money through business investments or real estate investments, he would have made no such statement. The man with $5000 to $100,000 is no: going to put his money into a business program that is taxation suicide, such as exists today. He is going to sit on it, hide it, save it.

Fears Further Taxes We read that the Social Security

Marion County to have been in the same position in regards to the

automotive industry that is at the present time enjoyed by Detroit and the surrounding territory. From 1008 to the present period there have been 14 makes of automobiles manufactured in greater Indianapolis, and today, our no mean city is not represented in the automotive industry by any car. . .. During the past few months several of our larger industrial organigations have purchased ground with the intention of building their own manufacturing plants which, if given the proper support by the Chamber of Commerce and the

Spain for the last century: and few modern states have sunk as low as Spain. . .. How could anyone uphold the Fascist conception of religion as practiced by Franco's backers in Germany? The pitiless persecution of the Jews, the crushing restrictions placed upon the Catholic and Protestant churches were bad enough. , ,. Does he believe in democracy with its principle of the greatest good to the greatest number, as willed by the majority? The Spanish people do not want to return to the old order.

» ” u

tax, Old Age Pension and Unemployment Insurance money is being spent. In a few years when the people who have paid it are entitled to it, we will be taxed again to raise the money. A man of middle age engaged in the motor truck business told me he was doing fhough business but

[va They are trying to retard

hate thee:

0:8.

opinion

and slow up losses by doing less —Nietzsche.

NIP AND TUCK

By JOSEPHINE D. MOTLEY I know a town called Nip and Tuck Not very far away, And unlike Rome this Nip and Tuck Was finished in a day.

DAILY THOUGHT

Reprove not a scorner, lest he rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee.—Proverbs

HEN we have to change an about charge heavily to his account the inconvenience he thereby causes us.

GIVES COMMENTS ON HEADLINES By Daniel Francis Clancy,

Headline on Jane Jordan's column: “Husband's Sudden Dislike for Girl He Married Regarded as Warning” —It should be!... The Times “Mind Your Manners” column asks how one would refer to a young man over 21—well, that depends very much upon whether he was a Democrat or a Republican. . . At the end of a feature article, “Next: Relief—What are you going to do?” The answer to that is usually—"Get it!” Headline: *“Bedbugs Rout Judges of High Kentucky Court’—well, there's one court where even the judges admitted things were lousy.

Logansport

anyone we

It Seems to M

re ——

By Heywood Broun

There's Even an Anti-Fascist Moral In Shakespeare, Broun Discovers; Don't Believe It? Try "Julius Caesar.

EW YORK, Nov. 20.—The most exciting play in New York and the only one which deals seriously with current political issues is “Julius Caesar.” This seems to be Shakespeare's answer to Mussolini and the Fascist International. The present success gives Shakespeare a batting average of .500 for the season because he failed lamentably with “Antony and Cleopatra.” Some critics blamed that mishap upon the cast, but I think they were most unjust. It really isn't a good play, and at the very best it is a trivial one. “Antony and Cleopatra,” as you may remember, is a love story. Love is all right in its way, but it has small dramatic possibilities. I refer, of course, to the he-loves-her theme. "{ That may be good enough for farces or light comedies, but it has little place in the field of serious dramatic : presentation. Great literature must PE ’ deal with something more than the Mr. Broun clash of isolated individuals. I am well aware of the fact that Shakespeare did pretty well once with a love theme in “Romeo and Juliet,” but I have always felt that the boy and girl were largely stooges set up as background for the more fundamental tragedy of Mercutio. When Shakespeare really went to town, as he did in “Hamlet” and “Macbeth,” love flew out the window. ” ” ” WISH to take nothing away from Orson Welles, the producer of “Julius Caesar” at the Mercury, when I say that he had the advantage of dealing with an excellent script. The lighting, the casting and the pace of the production are magnificent. But the play does not become timely in all its implications merely because Caesar wears a Sam Browne belt and looks like Mussolini. The play has been shortened, but no liberties are taken with the text. Mr. Welles has been perceptive enough to call attention to the fact that Shakespeare was no Ivory Tower artist but a great propagandist. To be sure, Shakespeare was shrewd enough not to let the audience catch him as he slipped all the eggs of emotion into one basket. He gave the other side good speeches, too. Indeed, he may have overdone the Elizabethan spirit of fair play, for I note that there is some difference of opinion among the critics as to whether the intent of “Julius Caesar” is red or white, ” n ” F course, I think the reviewers who find in it a defense of the march on Rome are plainly daft. Even in high school I thought that Brutus actually was an honorable man and Marc Antony a stuffed shirt. But I did not realize then just how savagely Shakespeare was attacking the well-meaning liberal who muckers up his own cause. Rome falls back into tyranny after Caesar's assassination, because Brutus must blow himself to a pretty gesture in favor of free speech at all costs. After sparing Antony's life lest he be accused of instituting a purge Brutus crowns that folly by permitting Antony to make his snide and demagogic funeral address. The result is a black shirt massacre vividly illustrated in the death of the poet Cinna. I have a notion that Shakespeare was thinking of Norman Thomas, but if so the portrait is so severe that both Brutus and Mr. Thomas might justly form a united front and jointly protest.

General Hugh Johnson Says—

'Thinking Makes It So'—<Even in Business and Market Ups and Downs; Will People Now Believe in New Deal's Hint of Change of Front?

ASHINGTON, Nov. 20.—"There is nothing either

good or bad, but thinking makes it s0.” You could hardly say that of a bad egg—but Hamlet was talking about whether you like the country where you live or not. Modern medicine knows there is a lot in the idea of faith cures. It may not work with bad eggs, but there is one place where it is almost the whole story. That place is business and stock market booms and slumps. Prices go up when a sufficient number of people believe they are going yp. They go down when enough people think they are going down. If everybody thinks prices are going up and business is going to be good, everybody wants to buy things, stocks, clothes or automobiles—everything. They want to buy because they can “make their money go further.” The competitive bidding to get the things raises the price. @Q. e. d. prices go up because enough people thought they were going up. “ 4 » . XACTLY the reverse process goes on when the pessimistic faucet is turned on. If people think prices are going down they rush out to sell everything they have for sale because they want to protect their wealth. This mass-selling drives prices down and again q. e. 4. prices went down because people thought they were going down. In this field anyway, “there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”

Of course, "underlying conditions”—the amount of available goods, money or credit, the burden of taxes, the policies of government, fire, drought, pestilence and war—affect prices but only because® and to the extent that they affect such thinking. In the Dutch Tulipomania, people hocked everything they could get to buy nothing more substantial than tulips which reached fantastic prices. What “conditions” could have been more adverse to price rises than those underlying our western land booms, and especially the French assignats or the Mississippi and South Sea spéculations? ” = s R take our now threatened depression. The present conditions certainly do not warrant a new 1020. But it threatens. Why? Not because the tax and budget structure is as {it is. It was exactly the same, or perhaps not quite so good, earlier in the year. No, the “thinking’ that made this slump is not based so much on what has been done by the Third New Deal as what people fear it is going to do. The question on which our “escape from the abyss” now depends is not this or that particular

piece of tax legislation. It is whether the whole cluster of what is done and said now by the Third New Deal will be sufficient to convince the country of a true change of front, It ou be some job,

The Washington Merry-Go-Round

Librarian of Congress Called Tyrant for Policy as Administrator; . Ouster Bill Is Threatened This Session by Unfriendly Representatives.

By Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen \ ASHINGTON, Nov. 20.—Across the Plaza from the Capitol stands an antiquated pile of stone which probably merits the boast of being “the greatest library in the world.” On its shelves are more than five million books and pamphlets, several million manuscripts, more than a million maps, a million pieces of music and more than half a million prints. Through its somber marble halls every day pass hundreds of tourists. They gaze at the great gilded dome, stand in reverence before the guarded glass case holding the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. In its musty stack-rooms toils a sort of chain gang of young men, exiled to the task of stacking books. And all through the reading room and alcoves exists rebellion against the. “tyrant of the Library.” The gentleman in question is Herbert Putnam, Librarian of Congress for 38 years, who must be given credit for having built the library into a great institution. The secret of Putnam’s power is his ability to hire and fire, raise or lower the wages of his 800 employees entirely at his own discretion. No privite citizen, no member of Congress, no union delegate, no Civil Service Commission can stop him.

ow» HOSE who govern the library are all Republicans, while below them is a small army of highly educated college men. After several years of work they still draw their salaries of $1260. However, those who bask in Putnam's favor enjoy

special privilege. For instance, Leicester Holland draws $5000 as Chief of the Division of Fine Arts, 18 permitted to work for the Carnegie Foundation; also travels once a week to Philadelphia to lecture for the University of Pennsylvania. The man who rules this strange kingdom is an odd combination of simplicity and ostentation. Until recently, Mr. Putnam would strap on roller-skates and go for a frisk on the pavements with his grand children. His friendliness is dropped when he enters the doors of his kingdom. There he is cold and severe. Mr. Putnam regulates his life as he pleases, work= ing hard at his desk one day, absenting himself the next. He travels widely about the world. Distinguished and learned, he is known by scholars everywhere, and is friendly with them. But as an administrator, he rules with the high-handedness of an industrial baron. » n s

R. PUTNAM is in for some Congressional fire works this session, chiefly because he summarily dismissed George J. Shulz, Director of Legislative Reference. Mr. Schulz was fired because he submitted a report which Putnam labeled “an insolent, abusive and scandalous document,” recommending . measures to increase the efficiency of the Legislative Reference Service. . Three times bills have been introduced in Congress for pensions to those who have served “as Libarian of Congress” for 35 years. The bills were aimed at Putnam, but they did not pass. : Congressmen in this session may not use diplomacy.