Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 2 December 1937 — Page 20

PAGE 20

The Indianapolis Times

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

ROY W. FOWARD LUDWELL DENNY MARK FERREE President Editor | Business Manager

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Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

THURSDAY, DEC. 2, 1937

RAILROADS AND RECOVERY UESDAY we had something to say about what a real house-building boom would mean in terms of prosperity for all of us. Today let's have a look at our twenty-six-billion-dollar railroad system. House-building and railroads—they are two giant American industries—albeit, at the moment, sick giants. If these two mammoth industries could be lifted miraculously to their feet, their prodigious appetites for the things all of us produce and sell would jerk business out of its slump so fast that before 1938 we'd forget there ever was a “recession.” The railroads are now before the Interstate Commerce Commission asking for higher freight rates and higher passenger fares. shrinking in the face of higher taxes, higher wages, higher prices for the things they buy. And they say that unless they get rate increases a lot more railroads are going broke. Already 83 major lines, covering 28 per cent of all rail mileage, are in the hands of receiverships or trustees. If many more topple, they assert, timid capital will crawl further into hiding. The ICC may decide that a rate increase is necessary to meet the present emergency, or that it will be better in the long run for a few more roads to go through the wringer and squeeze down their uneconomic debt structures. There are other possible remedies, such as consolidations and coordination of duplicating services.

= 8

= WITH one statement of the rails’ spokesman—President J. J. Pelley of the Association of American Railroads— all of us must agree. And that is that “there can be no full recovery from the depression until the railroad industry can earn adequate revenues to meet its needs.” No full recovery, for the simple reason that the railroads are too important as customers of the rest of us. In good times the railroads— Employ one million men at good wages at an annual payroll of nearly two billion dollars; Buy more than a billion dollars’ worth of materials and supplies—everything from locomotives to apple pies; Purchase 23 per cent of all mined soft coal, 20 per cent of the total timber cut, 18 per cent of all iron and steel; Pay one million dollars a day in Federal, state and local taxes.

Thev contend that their revenues are |

A Burden

Ra) io = On tC

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES to Be Shared—By Kirby

5 = 8 SR

THURSDAY, DEC. 2, 1937

| That Ought to Cheer Him Up—By Kirby

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

@—Did You Build Your Own Home? |

A—Did I! And What an Experience; Look Out, Uncle Sam, for Headache.

NEW YORK, Dec. 2.—George Spelvin, American, appeared before the Housing Commission and testified as follows: Q—You claim authority on housing? Why ? A—Well; I built a house; I own a house

and I live in a house. Q—You think a Government housing program would run into trouble? A—Well, judging by my own case, ves. Q—State your experience? A—Well, there was the sewer. The real estate promoter promised to put in a sewer, but he went into bankruptcy and the sewer isn't in. He had several corporations. Every time he bought another Jot he would form another corporation, and the

| brought up by those behind the |

The Hoos

I wholly disagree with

defend to the death your right to say it.—Voltaire.

ler Forum

what you say, but will

| BOETCHER PRAISED FOR | DELAYING COLISEUM By Stephen LeVan Mayor Boetcher is to be com- | } mended for refusing to consider the | troversies building of a coliseum during his | administration. All the arguments

to express

+ movement to build are well taken, | and I agree that we ought to be |

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

money was to be spent and have the power to raise and lower the

views in J woma 1 in which their income

would be increased or decreased. By Make or six children and 15 or 20 grandchildren, look how it would affect the whole voting group. The old-age pension law, if administered in the way they have tried to force it on Towa, could control the balance of power in

Letters must

able to point with proper civic pride to such an edifice. However, the 13 million which the committee says would be at-! tracted to our city is an overestimate for the present, I believe.

Conventions may be invited till the echoes roll again, but it doesn't follow they will be accepted. They also have a way of varying selec- | tion from year to year. Too many | other cities have more to offer con- | vention goers in the way of sight-

come is $45,000 a

[a little straightforward denouncing. | Connecticut, lady who is suing for divorce de- | mands alimony of $1000 a month | KNOW YOUR BUMS, pending trial of the suit. band objects, saying that her in- |g. g 1. 3.

| not need the alimony. She replies

| % te » . y . 3 | that he is mistaken; last year her |i, Indianapolis with exactly $2.50. income was a scant $30,000.

voting in the states; and together

of alimony does occasionally call for | With all the other bureaus the Ad- |

| ministration controls, it would

for instance, a!ijn the future.

” ” 8

Her hus- | IS ADVICE TO D. E. S.

year and she does | even years ago, losing a good job,

family and all I owned, I arrived

| T had to live on that for two weeks.

visiting two elderly people with five |

be | impossible to have a free election |

Merry-Go-Round

By Pearson & Allen

Vinson Blocking Senate Drive for Tax Revision During This Session; F.D.R. Aids Two Dixie Congressmen,

WASHINGTON, Dec. 2.—The trouble with the Congressional drive for immediate amputation of the capital gains and undistributed profits taxes is that while it has plenty of will, it lacks a way. If the Senate could get at the two taxes it would cut them up fast, for there is overwhelming sentiment for revision instanter, if not for outright re peal. But the rub is that the Senate has no immediate say-s0 in the matter. Initiating tax legislation is a House prerogative—and that is where the President has the drop on the Senate, Chairman of the Ways and Means subcommittee now fore mulating the new tax bill is Rep. Fred M. Vinson. Besides being

a strong New Dealer and ardent supporter of the two taxes, the

expenditures. The largest immediate potentiality of the railroads as customers lies in the fact that they are many years behind in the replacement of worn-out equipment. This obsolescence in rolling stocks, locomotives, etc., contributes much to higher operating costs. To bring the railroads up to the point of efficiency which our streamline age demands would require the immediate spending of many, many billions. This sick industry should be put on its feet. The country needs a modernized transportation system. And the country needs the benefit of that buying power.

BILL AND JOHN ILL GREEN and John Lewis—they once were “Bill” and “John” to each other—meet face to face today, in a closed room, in Washington. We hope someone locks the door and throws away the key—so they can’t get out until they are willing to put their shoulders together to push down the door and break down the strife in America’s labor movement. For much of America's immediate future rests with these two men who started life as coal miners and who for vears worked side by side in the labor movement.

| went bankrupt. | inspector wouldn't let | cesspool couldn't build the sewer.

| money.

If they |

| second-hand furnace came and got it, claiming he had

| of solder on a joint under the bathroom floor. | couldn't get at it, so we had t¢ wreck the floor and | rebuild it.

can cement again their personal friendship and re-estab- |

lish a common purpose, they can bring peace to America’s

harried industrial front. And that peace would do much to bring back confi-

dence—confidence on the part of workers that they will be | more secure in their jobs, confidence on the part of em- |

ployvers that their production schedules will not be disrupted by jurisdictional wars between rival unions. The day Bill Green's A. F. of L. and John Lewis’ C. I. 0. sign a permanent armistice—that day will be great in American industrial and labor history.

IRVINGTON ART EXHIBIT HE tenth annual Irvington Art Exhibition, which opened yesterday in Carr’s Hall, is evidence of a laudable community cultural interest. About a dozen artists are exhibiting this year, many of whom on previous occasions have attracted statewide attention. Talks by Wilbur D. Peat of the Herron Art Museum, and by the artists themselves help to emphasize how vital a thing art is in everyday life. Gallery hours for the rest of the week will be from 7 to 10 p. m., with daytime visits for school children. The Irvington Union of Clubs deserves congratulations for its sponsorship of this event.

WE LIKE HER

RS. ELEANOR ROOSEVELT and friends—one of them was Doris Cromwell, heiress to the Duke tobacco millions—spent a rainy week-end touring the unlovely cove towns of the West Virginia coal mining district. She danced Virginia reels at a veterans’ ball, sat on the front pew at church of a Sunday morning, consumed cookies and cider, beamed on the De Golreys’ 11 children, and generally had herself a good time. This visit of the First Lady was not regarded by the humble hillbilly families as an intrusion into their work,

play and worship. Their cordiality was typified by a young |

fellow who introduced himself, shook hands and said: “Tell your husband I think he is a great guy.” And no American who has met Mrs. Roosevelt will think this at all strange. For her interest in fellow-humans is not a pose, but of a stuff so genuine as to break down all barriers. She likes people not as abstractions or political concepts, but as folks.

{ Sd

So the sanitary us dig a corporation So they had a receiver which took all the So finally the town built the sewer and taxed us for it. Same way about the sidewalks and the pavement. We paid for them in the purchase of the lot, but after the corporation went bankrupt we had to pay for them again, in taxes.

and the

2 —Was there something about a furnace? A—Yes, sir. The contractor made a deal with a furnace contractor and he installed an old furnace instead of a new one. It wouldn't heat and the pipe froze, and then the furnace blew up and we had to move to a boarding house while they

fixed it. Then, when they went to fix the frozen pipes, they discovered the builder didn’t leave that little trap door so you could get at the pines. So we had to get a carpenter to tear out the wall and a plasterer to make it over. Meantime, this new plumber discovered the original plumber had used wax instead He

Then the furnace contractor, it seems, didn't have any backing, so he couldn't replace the furnace with a good one. And then the junk man who sold him the

not been paid for it. That didn’t leave me any furAnd then the furnace workmen sued the

”n —Any other liens?

A—T guess you could call them liens Some lumber company that sold the builder the shingles served a paper on me because he didn't pay them, although I paid him. Then some workmen who worked for the builder on another job served another lien on me, claiming I had to pay them a balance of $400 which I owed the builder because he owed them wages. I said I wasn't intending to pay him the $400 because of all the expense he put me to. But they say I have to pay them the $400 and then sue the builder for not performing his contract. But he claims he is broke, too. Q—So you think the Government might have serious difficulty building three million houses? A—Difficulty! Tt would be a war.

2 n

| tivities. | The real moneyed conventions | rarely come here, anyway. They go to Atlantic City, Chicago, New York and San Francisco. The conventions whose members must arrange months in advance for the cost of the trip, will meet here anyway, for it seems to me Indianapolis is an economical convention city. First Things First

the institution of alimony at all, except in cases where there are smail children to support. For this seems | to be the reductio ad absurdum of {the idea that an able-bodied | woman is entitled to fat sums from | a man simply because she once ac- | corded him the privilege of suppori= | ing her, ”

” Ld

“| PENSTON CONTROL CALLED

SOURCE OF POLITICS

| who expressed

coffee and doughnuts for 5 cents. |

| This place thrived on panhandler |

business. Such an experience would have been an eye-opener to D. E. S. such sweet sentiments in the Forum Nov. 27. These

| panhandlers were not the present

day bar-fly bums. They were men like myself. Four or five times a day these panhandlers made the “loop,” a | trip from the beanery to Meridian |

Say that we do need a coliseum, but we must first get our civic house in company order. There is | the matter of sewer repair for the North Side, and new sewer systems for many sections of the city which have not yet been so provided. Many of our schools have 1madequale | plumbing facilities. There are the traffic problem and the smoke problem, both of which annually [take their toll in lives and money. ( There is the matter of a belt super[highway which the city needs for its commercial growth, and a boulevard | [system for civic improvement. | It appears laudable for the City Council to save the taxpayers money

By W. Sheaffer, Ft.

| they have done | & corps of | paid people

and could

The Administration has no inten | { tion of balancing the budget. Every | | law passed contains a clause giving | | it control of the votes. Think what would be the effect | | if they could do in every state what |

eight or

who would be permanent state and would continually visit the | persons receiving old-age pensions dictate

St., around about six blocks in all. I have seen many a take as high as $3.50 on one trip around the “loop.” perience during these two weeks I never saw one trip net less than 80 cents. The “picking” was so soft that these fellows actually laughed whén anyone mentioned the “wood shed,” the nickame for a local mission.

Madison, Ia.

in Towa—to have

10 highly | Poor deluded D. E. 8. If Chief every community | Morrissey or any policeman runs in the | in “a present day panhandler, you can bet the 10 cents you donate to his next beer they know their busi ness and the bum.” I'll never forget those two weeks

the way the

in refusing to appropriate money for | traffic regulation and smoke abatement, but it doesn't seem to diffcr= entiate between real money and being penny-wise and pound foolish. Such short-sighted economy costs | taxpayers much, much more in the | long run. In view of all the first things to be done in Indianapolis, I think the commission urging the coliseum project (if it didn’t find it proiitable to build with private capital pooled by those who would benefit most) ought to cease agitation regarding it. ® ” WANTS TO KNOW | WHY IS ALIMONY?

| | By B. C.

divorce suit, because the troubles | which arise in divorce court are | troubles which people bring on] i themselves. Nevertheless, the matter | Racine.

General Hugh Johnson Says—

Delay of Codes and Rise of Company Unions Brought First Rift Between New Deal and Business After Love Pact of Recovery Act.

ASHINGTON, D. C., Dec. 2.—This is the second article tracing the development of the antagonism between the business community and the Administration. Yesterday I related the almost <¢loying sweetness of the 1933 honeymoon—which lasted scarcely a month before a little rift began. This chapter deals with events leading up to the divorce. The beginning of this rift is not to be charged to the President. When the New Deal began, conditions

! were terrible and all business cuddled up to Govern-

ment in complete co-operation. The prompt action taken induced a sudden and tremendous wave of buy-

ing. Most of all, the air was electric with a new hope and courage that had been for three years dead. NRA made 2,785,000 jobs. All prices started sky-rocketing. A palpable boom was under way. The steel code, which was really ready for submission, was unaccountably delayed. Delayed proposed codes began to carry impossible monopolistic proposals.

Sor the insertion of a real wedge in the opening rift was felt. From one end of the coun-

| try to the other so spontaneously as to suggest con- | certed action, there was a tidal wave of organization

| |

by management, of company unions. Due to a flaw in the law, these were not forbidden, if they were the free and uninfluenced choice of employees. But that was almost never the case. The movement clearly violated the spirit of TA of the act— which all industry had promised to respect in the President's re-employment agreement. That ripped the early labogrmanagement corporation and confi-

| dence wide asunder. All this chilled the warmth of feeling between the Administration and industry like an early frost. On the other side, forces within Government began to act up. All the food industry's codes had been taken out of NRA and put in AAA—which didn't like any part of NRA. It regarded the industries as a ravaging pack of wolves—and made that regard evident in every conference. There was centered the nest of pink, young amateur Kerenskys with whom George Peek wrestled, and several of whom Chester Davis finally purged.

UT they were not purged soon enough to prevent their sabotaging their part of the Recovery Act and throwing into all business a real fear of a governmental intent to Hitlerize or Stalinize industry. Thousands of business men tagged all the New Deal with this unauthorized nonsense.. The Recovery Act authorized co-operation within industries with Governmental participation and regulation. To that extent the antitrust acts were amended. The Federal Trade Commission simply omitted to concede the amendment. It continued to harass and threaten industries for doing precisely what the President had authorized them to do. The President could never make up his mind where he stood. Business, bewildered and embittered, charged a lack of faith. All these causes, with plenty of blame on both sides, by March, 1934, had shattered the peace of June, 1033.

THE ROCKING CHAIR By VIRGINIA POTTER

There's a rocking chair In a little house That's especially for me. There's a fire at night And a lamp’s A place I love to be!

There's a bird to sing And flowers to bring Joy as I sit and sew, And there's someone who Cheers me when I'm blue As I'm rocking to and fro!

DAILY THOUGHT

The wicked in his pride doth It is a little bit hard to work up | bersecute the poor: let them be a whole lot of sympathy or indigna- | taken in the devices that they | tion over the lot of either party to a | have imagined. —Psalms 10:2.

HE happiness of the wicked passes away

=I worked every angle I knew ex-

small way started a business of my own. This is no Alger tale. I have achieved no great success. But now when 1 see such sloppy sentiment dished out, I wonder if I were

warm light

$3.50 a clip around the “loop ” By the way, my business could do with a little capital now. Now that I eat uptown—say, D. E. 8.— brother could you spare a grand?

A poor bum stopped me on the street, And with a cunning leer Said, “Brother, could you spare a dime? I want to buy a beer.” I durned near keeled right in my tracks. He got the dime, by gum, Because the first time in my life I'd met an honest bum!

like a torrent.

EW YORK, Dec. 2.—~Pay no attention to the familiar proverb. As a matter of fact, the burnt

child is fascinated by the fire and will continue tw scorch its fingers over and over again. Unfortunately, mistakes are more often habit-forming than educational. If this were not true we should not have again a resurgence of the monstrous twaddle about gharitable organizations being capable of taking over the work of relief. This system broke down utterly in the years following the crash of 1929. I speak in part out of a certain amount of pere sonal observation, since I helped to run an employment bureau for a few months in 1930. Our motives were excellent and our utility almost negligible. I am not contending, of course, that Community Chests and similar drives do no good at all, but their scope should never be and can never be more than supplemental. Private and semi-public welfare organizations are always built upon the conception that they are dispensing charity. That in itself is an inadequate cornerstone. It starts off on the wrong foot. Relief is justice. It should never even be thought of

in terms of charity. - ” s T has been said that under Federal relief there is a tendency to regiment all unemployed JJottons into support of the administration in power, this is true . it is a grievous fault, : .

the Circle and back, |

In my ex- |

cept panhandling, and finally in a |

smart after all in not panhandling | my initial capital from those “pat | on the shoulder” Circle suckers at |

a life job on the U. 8. Court of Appeals in the District of Coe lumbia. His appointment was announced last week, The Federal judge-to-be sees no reason why special favors should be extended to the capital gains and undistributed : oR profits taxes. He holds with Be A Roosevelt that action on these i % two taxes should be a part of a

\ ) general overhauling of the tax 1

system, and, further, that it Robert Allen

Drew Pearson

makes no difference whether lege islation is passed now or two months later, since the changes will not apply to this year's returns anyway. Also like the President, Rep. Vinson is convinced that the hurryup drive on the two taxes is a smoke screen to jam through a sales tax. If Rep. Vinson were for immediate action there would be tax legislation by Christmas. But he isn’t and that is where the President has the laugh on the boys in the Senate. They can orate and fulminate all they want, but except for making a lot of noise, they can't do a thing. The next move is up to Judge-Elect Vinson and he will not make it until some time in January, ” ” TT: Gulf Stream is not the only water in which the President will fish during his Florida junket, In fact, his piscatorial junket is partly a screen for more serious angling. Privately, Mr. Roosevelt is anxious to see Florida's rookie Senator Pepper renominated next spring, and Alabama's seven-term Rep. Lister Hill win the January primary for Justice Black's Senate seat. Outwardly, Mr. Roosevelt will do no politicking for Senator Pepper or Rep. Hill. But they will be seen prominently in his company, have their pictures taken with him and will be affectionately referred to as “Claude” and “Lister.” ” ” " T= President has still another unannounced mise sion on his Southern trip. y On return, he plans to do some quiet proselytin for the Wage-Hour Bill among the eight Governs of the Southeastern Governors Conference during his stop-over in Gainesville, Ga. The conference has been sharpshooting at th 4 i” e Wage-Hour Bill and Mr. Roosevelt will try to persuade the Governors to lay off. As they have favors to ask him, he may be able to make a trade.

”

According to Heywood Broun—

Of Course Private Charity No Longer Can Handle the Relief Load: Sectarian Danger Is as Great as That of Government Regimentation.

But I wonder whether the cause of freedom would be much promoted if we were to drop that system and take over another in which all the hungry were obliged to sing a hymn for their supper. I am well aware of the fact that some of the large private charities, although religious in character, try hard not to mix evangelism with the stew. In 1930 the Rev. Randolph Ray, rector of the Little Church Around the Corner, ran a breadline, He was a man of broad human sympathies, and he tried his darndest to give out the tickets entitling each recipi ent to a 20 cent breakfast without any catechizing. » » ® UT he admitted to me that on one certain morne ing a kind of reportorial curiosity overcame him, and as he dispensed the crumbs of comfort he sald to each man, “I beg your pardon, but would you mind telling me your religious affiliations, if any?” It was his intention, of course, to give to every man a ticket regardless of the answer, but it so happened that the first unfortunate in the line said “Baptist” in a loud, clear voice. The man behind him took the answer to be the password, and before the astonished eyes of Dr. Ray there then passed without a break 276 Baptists. In the administration of relief I maintain that this is too

many Baptists. ) et