Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 16 December 1937 — Page 18

PAGE 18

The Indianapolis Times (A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

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THURSDAY, DEC. 16, 1937

THE LOCKEFIELD GARDENS EXPERIENCE

HE investigation into the Lockefield Gardens housing project ordered by Nathan Straus, U. S. Housing Authority administrator, should clear away some of the confusion and help place responsibility for the condition of the Indianapolis project, which has stood completed and idle since June because of structural defects. Apparently the new administrator wants to learn the lessons of our public housing mistakes. There is no effort to gloss over the failures. The tremendous and vital task of furnishing low-rent, sanitary and comfortable quarters to hundreds of thousands of slum-dwellers is- one on which America has barely made a beginning. Another realistic approach is the indication from Mr. Straus that the Government may write off the financial loss and reduce drastically the rents charged tenants of Lockefield and other slum-clearing projects. He says he plans to * demand rents low enough to house “not white-collar people but slum dwellers.” 4 ‘This strikes at one defect of the previous program: The apparent record so far that decent dwellings can’t be built cheaply enough so that poverty-stricken occupants of the slums can rent the modern apartments that replace their old shacks. Other nations have helped themselves back to recovery and higher living standards for their masses by subsidized low-cost housing. No other way has yet been found by which slum-clearance. projects can take care of the people who live in the slums. |

BEER RAKE-OFFS BOOMERANG

OST states learned long ago ‘that they ecouldn’t “live:

alone” in modern America and make their neighbor states like it. The result has been a remarkable growth in interstate compacts and reciprocity agreements by which states act in concert on common problems. We have commended the present and preceding Democratic Indiana Administrations for taking a leading part in handling parole, flood control and other problems through interstate co-op-eration. Yet today we see the absurd spectacle of this sound practice being put into reverse for political gain in Indiana. The State Government, through what has been called a “legalized political racket,” has set up a system of forcing payment of partisan tribute on every barrel of beer brought into Indiana. Administration officials have admitted giving to their friends the money-making, monopolistic port of entry permits under which these fees are collected. Michigan, which has been consuming about $2,000,000

of Hoosier beer annually, now retaliates against this party

tariff by banning the sale of Indiana beer in that state. Missouri also has started retaliatory measures. The Townsend Administration did not put through this discriminatory law. But this Administration carries the stigma, for under it the beer baronies have flourished, reviving dangerous pre-prohibition practices of mixing politics and liquor. Governor Townsend owes it to himself and to the people of Indiana to condemn the system and to see that it is scrapped by the next Legislature.

FAITHFUL SERVANT HARRY L. HOPKINS, national relief administrator, is at

| the Mayo clinic in Rochester, Minn., and, according to his brother, is so “completely fagged out” that he will have

to rest for two or three months and may even require an

operation. Small wonder. For nearly five years Harry Hopkins has carried a staggering load of responsibility. He has worked like a slave at one of the hardest jobs in the world. There are many who have questioned his “spending to save” theory, but there are mighty few who have ever questioned his absolute unselfish devotion to the cause of the unemployed. Having literally worn himself out in public service, he deserves the whole country’s sympathy and its best wishes for recovery of his health and strength.

SWEAT AND TAXES

. W. ROBERTSON, head of Westinghouse Electric Co., sent a telegram to Chairman Vinson of the House Tax subcommittee and Chairman Harrison of the Senate Finance Committee saying that his corporation’s taxes aggregated $2,500,000 in 1934, $5,000,000 in 1935, $9,000,000 in 1936 and $16,000,000 in-1937. “It is well to remember,” he observed, “that money paid out in taxes cannot be paid in wages. Perhaps taxes we are collecting to pay for rélief are the very things causing unemployment.”

It is not a new idea. Franklin, Roosevelt in October;

1932, ex expressed a similar thought in these words: “Taxes are paid inthe sweat of every man who labors because they are a burden on production -and can be paid only by production. If excessive they are reflected in “idle factories, tax-sold farms, and hence in hordes of the hungry tramping the streets and seeking jobs in vain. Our workers .may never see a tax bill but they, pay in reduction from wages, in increased cost of what they buy or (as now) in broad cessation of employment.” i

“THE ROOSEVELT REVOLUTION” | CCORDING to the Department of Commerce, the total compensation of employees in 1929 was 65.5 per cent ‘of America’s national income; in 1936 it was 66.5 per cent. (This includes the 3.3 pér cent that went into work relief wages last year.) Dividends and interest in 1926 were 14.3 per cent of the national income; in 1936 they were 14.3 per cent. Entrepreneurial withdrawals in 1929 were 15.8 per cent of the income; in 1936 they were the same. Net rents and royalties went down from 4.4 per cent to 8.4-per cent. If “revolution” means what Noah Webster-says it does

ia fundatnental hh gels than , eone has beet poof :

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

A Queer old Bird Is the Pelican—gy Talburt

HIST BILL ROLDS MORE THAN

Liberal View By Dr. Harry Elmer Barnes

Value of Circumstantial Evidence Doubted as Adequate in Conviction; Personal Factor Is Still in Case.

EW YORK, Dec. 16.—Is circumstantial evidence ever an adequate basis for the conviction of an accused person, particularly one accused of capital crime? Many have argued that it is not. It is contended that proof should be based at least

in part upon the sworn testimony of eye-witnesses. The case for circumstantial evidence is presented by Edmund Pearson in an article of “What Is Evidence?” in Scribner’s Magazine. It is here coniended that “a hundred eye-witnesses of a crime can be wrong, ani often are, but the much maligned circumstantial evidence is almost always trustworthy.” Mr. Pearson illustrates ‘his thesis by reference to a number of famous cases, such as the Charles Tucker murder case in Massachusetts, the Hauptmann case in New Jersey, and that of the impostet, Sir Roger. Tichborne, in England. ‘Mr. Pearson thus describes the character : of circumstantial evidence and his belief in its adequacy: “With circumstantial evidence a amber of more or less unrelated items—facts, objects, incidents— point in a certain direction, and indicate the truth. It is the accumulation of a umber of these which makes the whole conclusive.” This is a reasonable. statement, but it incidentally proves-that circumstantial evidence, however valuable and trustworthy in any given.case, is highly unsuited to a jury trial. It requirgs intelligent analysis and considerable power of deduction, qualities; which can hardly be attributed to the general run of jurymen. \ Circumstantial evidence often becomes a matter for scientific study. Technicians and scientists, of course, do appear in court to pronounce on such data. - But leaving the final decision on highly technical matters to an untrained jury is not scientific.

8 8 8

R. PEARSON, himself, of course, is! trained in this field. The average man who sits in the jury box is not so trained. I believe that>Mr., Pearson would have made a more effective case if he had said more about the unreliability of much alleged direct evidence provided by eyé-witnesses. !/ Some of pur most conspicuous cases of miscarriage of justice heve been based upon the testimony of numerous anil ostensibly trustworthy eye-witnesses. Such, for example, were the cases of Mooney and Billings and Saco and Vanzetti. . It is alse true, of course, that circumstantial evidence can bs framed. ‘Missing links of circumstantial evidence are not infrequently supplied by prosecutors and police. The fact that circumstantial evidence is by no means impregnable was thoroughly brought out in the famous book: by Prof. Edwin M. Borchard, “Convicting the Innocent,” (Yalé University Press). 2 8 8 : r this work Prof. Borchard cites many cases where conviction was seeured upon the basis of seemingly convincing circumstatitial evidence, but innocence of the convicted man. was later established. The fact is that no kind of evidence will be adequate uriless we have competent persons to examine it, whether it be circumstantial or Ree direct testimony of eye-witnesses. This would mean the abolition of jury trial. Experts must examine the evidence, They

br. Barnes

‘will be interested only in the truth, and will be

capable of discovering it. ‘Théy can plece together eircumstantial evidénce and draw the logical deductions. They can also expose thé palpably absurd testimony of many sworn eye-witnesses.

- Washington, Deg. 3% 1937. HON. JOREPH P. RENNEDY, Maritime Cémmiission, Washington,

EAR JOE-—This is the advice you so earnestly didn’t ask me for, but I hear you aré becoming ambassado to the court of “Sihjims.” Don’t 168 p that one over on you, oe—don’t let | ‘em

After Bite. neglected in 1933, you finally dot the gun—twice—and rang up a bullseye each time. the conditions were favorable foi that in both ties =visibility high, no necessity to take a lot of left windage, and shots smack down your alley. | Biit this highly perfuined, silk Hosking exile is something else again. In the SEC th one of getting some reforins that even the reformed kiiew had to be made. You hadi’t been

either any wolf of Wall Street or J. P. Morgan, but | .you knew your way around. You did a swell job ahd

got out, while the going was good. 4 = 8

HE merchant marine stuff was some thore of the same You had known a little and not too much

abot shit building for a long time. You had an engineering survey made and when it was published it was so god everybody agreed skyscraper ©

to go on ulding a the specifications

¥

- : ® : : i The Hoosier Forum 1 wholly disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.—Voltaire. |

SOME USES SUGGESTED FOR MONEY WE DON'T HAVE

By Taxpayer

The $225,000 Congress appropriated for its traveling expenses to and from the special session is a mere trifle to a nation used to spending billions. So it seems, but getting down to casés it also is a lot of money. Lets be charitable to the Congressmen and assume they are traveling both ways on their 20 cents a mile, which they aren’t. But if they were they would actually spend about $47,400 for transportation and incidentals en route. That leaves $177,600 with which the Congressmen are lining their own pockets. That's even a more trifling trifle but it would do these things: Pay the President for two and a third years. Pay the Cabinet for 13 months. Pay the annual salaries of 17 Senators. Buy 4400 bales of cotton. ~ Buy 180,000 bushels of wheat. Buy 350,000 bushels of corn. Buy 35,000 Christmas turkeys. Buy 177,600 good dinners for the poor. Buy 1776 autos. Buy 888,000 gallons of gasoline for the autos, which would be turned

‘into 10,656,000 miles of travel.

Buy 355,200 Christmas toys at 50 cents each. Buy 444,000 hours of labor at 40

cents an hour.

Buy nine months’ work for ‘one laborer for each of the 531 Congressmen at the WPA scale of $35 a month. These are Some thinigs the $177,600. might buy, but it could also purchase: “Four cases of fine imported chamspagne for each Congressman. ~ One $335 fur coat for -a female member of each Congressman’s family, if Congressmen’s ladies would wear such cheap fur coats. And it’s pretty good insurance that at least 531 Americans should have a Merry Christmas. . : : 2 # = : COMPLAINS THAT SHELTER = | SERVICE IS INADEQUATE By Unemployed

The young men of Indianapolis who are out of work are taken care of by the County. Although funds are ample for the task, the young men ‘and cripples are forced through the efforts of the Salvation Army to be little better off than in jail. ‘There are no decent baths, little or no ventilation, no delousing station, no recreation, no lights. A sample of the daily menu is: Break-fast—one-third of a pie pan of Hotniny, two pieces of bacon the size of sugar cubes, one cup of imitation coffee, two dried peaches and two slices of bread—no refills. Dinner consists of the same ammount of stew plus peaches and two slices of bread and coffee. The same thing for supper. The U. S. Army gets approximately 13 cents a day for its men and feeds them well. We get 21 cents a day per man with bread furnished and $5 a month for a bed. And yet we eat and sleep like

a

General ‘Hugh Johnson Says—

Dear Joe Kennedy: Don't Take That Silk-Stocking Job in England; t's Not Up Your Alley, and You Can Do a Lot More for Us Right Here.

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

dogs. If anyone can explain that, try please. SHELTER HEAD SAYS FACILITIES AVAILABLE By Capt. A. J. Wolf, in charge of the

‘Ohio St. Shelter, Salvation Army.

We have just been moved into this shelter about a week. We have

‘| not yet had ‘time to organize com-

pletely. We are developing our service as rapidly as possible and in a short time will have a complete and adequate shelter. Even now we can afford baths, we do have delousing facilities, and we are offering three meals a day. We are open for inspection any time.

- i. 8 8 ASKS IF TROLLEY CARS PAYS STREET UPKEEP By E. R. E.

It gives me a laugh when I read that the State has ordered its drivers to drive safely. How can they when they are not equipped accord-

ing to law? Half of the State trucks.

have taillights the size of a quarter, and drive about five miles ah hour. Will these be equipped with the turn lights they are about te demand of the truckers? Another thing, they are asking the Government for more money for roads. Will they give the city of

OBSERVATION GENEVIEVE MITCHELL

That soul is rich which spends itself Freely upon its fellow men. Tell me if it glows not more intense With beauty, not quite of this world, And moves not even you To grudging admiration of the power And magnetism of its flow As out it reaches to some laden soul And lends with gladness all the strength It has to light the way and guide the step

From some gloom-cavern of the.

heart

That you and I paused not to see;

Not even caring if it did exist So long as we escaped the deprossion. Of its touch.

This wofld needs not so much Of ponderous advice As of more burden-bearers. :

DAILY THOUGHT Blessed “are Shey ina do His commandments, t they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates. into the city.—Revelation 22:14. °

BEDIENCE to God is the most infallible evidence of sincere and supreme love to Him.—Em-

mons.

a According to Heywood Broun—

Indianapolis anothér sum to fix the streets -on which the ftrackless trolleys run, keeping the trucks from using them? Do the trackless trolleys pay any upkeep on. these streets for their 10 tons?

(EDITOR'S NOTE--Acccrding to City Engineer Henry B. Steeg, the City collected $9999 from the Street Railway Co. last year under its contract with the City, signed March 26, 1936. According te that contract, the company pays the City $357.23 per street mile of operation every year plus $51 for each bus license. The money is paid into the City General Fund and is classified. under miscellaneous receipts so that it does not ‘necessarily go to the Works Board for street work, Deputy City Controller Hershall Tebay said. This year, Mr. Steeg said, the company will pay approximately $15,886 for operating on 44% miles of city streets. To date it: has paid $13,871, ported.) s 8. 8

LAWS FOR AUTO SAFETY

: PICTURED AS INADEQUATE

By Gray K. Gould, Clermont There ‘afée times when our patience is taxed beyond endurance band this cockeyed idea of placing a certificate of title in the windshield sure takes the cake.

the last few months. to lower traffic accidents and promote gensral safety and our papers talk of and em-

gineered murder, and yet we have

| mollycoddle Legislatures to pass

just such idiotic laws and force the public to accept them. How many children will = be maimed for life or killed as a result of a meaningless piece of paper in the windshield to obstruct the view? None, I. hope, but there probably will be. Our Indiana drivers’ license is also quite a pain in the neck, Anyone who can sigh his X and answer a few questions can obtain| one by slightly stretching the truth. If it was necessary for the applicant to pass a practical driving test, especially in the greater metropolitan districts, there undoubtedly would be fewer licenses sold and considerably fewer accidents. Why not attack the trouble at its start, namely: inefficiency and mental deficiency. 3 2 #8 = GOOD ROADS FOR GOOD CITIZENS, IS PLEA By H. V. Allison What demands the excessive Spesd on the streets and highways? radio speaker said a speed of o miles pér hour can be made with safety on good roads. He should have said also that, “what is to be. will be and when we are dead, we are really dead.” In reality we are visiting here. Our destination and time for leaving are uncertain, Many persons in éarly growth have to give up the promise of a long and happy life because of a feckless or drunken

driver. Good roads should be for the law-abiding citizen to travel

ree from fear or danger.

the controller's office re-

We have been having a campaign

phasize with pictures, stories of ‘en- |.

Merry-Go-Round

By Pearson & Allen

Unemployment: Increase. Level of Roosevelt Has Missouri's “Senator In Corner Over Renaming: Milligan

ASHINGTON, Dec. 16.—The forthcoms, ing monthly employment report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics is going to ha plenty sour. “Covering the period Oct. 16-to° Nov. 15;

the figures will show a drop in employment: of nearly three times the 1.7 per cent fall recorded ink the previous month. This is the heaviest decrease for any November since 1929. The real significance, .. of these figures is contained in the fact that normally employment is on the upgrade during thig season. There are, however, some’ .cheery spots in the picture. = Since Nov, 15, while the. trend of employment has continued downward, the rate of decrease has diminished appreciably. In, the last 10 days, it has practically leveled off as a result of a pickup in textiles and a big jump iif wholesale and retail employment to handle the Christmas buyings 2 2 »

When the Washington social season - starts abruptly, as it-bag ° this month, it takes Mrs. Roose= velt a little while to harden the muscles of her back and shoulders to the ordeal of handshaking.Shaking hands with 300 to 500. people a day is a hard job phy<' =sically, and according to Malvina. Scheider, -her secrétary, so is pouring tea. “It gets you in the arms when you haven't been doing it. ol summer,” she says. “Mrs. Roosevelt says the same. things about shaking hands. She feels it most at’ the beginning of the season; after that, she-hits her’ stride and can take them by the thousands.” oh A 5 a. 2% 2 HE President has decided to retaln Maurice Milll§ gan, ‘the Tom Dewey of Kansas City, as U. 8: District Attorney of western Missouri. : > The young vice crusader’s term expires in February, and because he has sent many ward heeélers to jail for election frauds, Kansas City’s Boss Pendergast has publicly avowed his intention to “get” Milligan’s job Pendergast made a deal last summer with Senator. Clark, Mr. Milligan’s original sponsor, under which Peridergast agreed to support Senator Clark for ree election in exchange for a free hand in western Mis» souri patronage. But the President has notified the Justice Departs ment that Milligan stays. : = Mr. Roosevel' is undecided as fo how he will proved in keeping Milligan in office. He can do so without causing Clark any trouble, Yor, if so minded, he cant give the anti-New Dealish ourian plenty of heads aches. Milligan stays in office until a suceessor i appointed. If the President does nothing, - Milligan would keep on being District Attorney. This would be gn easy way out for Senator Clark : since it would save him the embarrassment of faking a position on Milligan’s reappointment. - But if Roosevelt wishés hé can send Mitligan's name to the Senate for another four-year term and watch Clark squirm deciding between flouting publig opinion and Boss Pendergast’s demands. -

Drew Pearson

Robert Allen

>

I

Jersey City's Mayor Hague Combines Roles of Tyrant and Clown; Threat to Democracy Seen in His . Reported Local Dictafgetipy

e question was |

was a. great idea not

Both these jobs broke absolutely new ground—naturals—perfect setups for a man with a meat ax. The required qualifications were exactly yours—ana eéxactly the reverse of those needed in this oily fénagling art as old as history which calls for a slicker and not a

{ slugger.

For you to take that job would be exactly like Jack Dempsey putting on a morning coat and 6 Ag up as a man-milliner in competition with a Parisian couturier. Yo can’t = the British public to “stop bellyaching” or say to the King, “Aw, Geotgie, go mp | She lake}™ : #8 8

ND furthermore, whoever heard of an hassddor to “Sinjims” stepping from thefe on up. Another thing, don’t fall for this stuff about a ‘hearty, bluff, two-fistéd American introducing a new note of frank, open, salty honesty into diplomaey. It can’t be done.

This other idea of the shiewd old Yankee trader

showing His British uncle how to Suck eggs is just

86 ga-ga. You aren't a shrewd old Yankee tradér.

And show me one single case in which any ¢ of our 8. Y. Ts ever came out of any trading contest with Frigdpmginkigiirylogitod pind are a t executive but not even 0 nendinent could make you ote of ihe

1 offistt waé around iiquiring why 7 wad ciieine classes in kindergarten.

EW YORK, Dec. 16.—Jersey City ‘is quite a large town, and its citizens should blush at the conduct of Mayor Prank Hague. In addition to playing the 7 of a tyrant he is also acting the role of the

clown. In one and the same ring you git Mussolini

and Marceline. Surely even the supporters of this boss can hardly be edified by their leader when he starts reading fairy tales and talking baby talk. He must have been browsing about a,second hand shop when hé fan across the “Red Netwerk—A Handbook of Radicalism,” by Mrs. Elizabeth Dilling. A Jersey City bibliophile describes the writér of that engaging burlesque as “a noted author and lecturer.” The lady’s fame must be local, for she was laughed away in lavender a good many years.ago. It was Mrs. Dilling who listed both, Jane Addams and Eleanor Roosévelt as da efous Reds. No one has 4 right to object if Frank occasionally lays aside his civic duties to indulge in recreation, His taste for belles lettres is newly aéquired.

ss 8

NC, politician in America éan do as much with a column of figures as Frank Hague. Still, it must be admitted that all ‘his dazzling exhibitions have been Be his home groutids. Thé most recent. Stack the book worm boss i& aimed at Morris Eins A ud Pac" bien Hy pelion sotsel ever sis the truant

-Hague sa that M Ernst 1am red to i hie 18

win, who are tagged by the Jersey Mayor as leaders, were both refused passports to Russia summer by Soviet officials. Mayor Hague is fighting C. I. O. organization in Jord sey City because he finds ii expedient, for one reason or another, to play ball with certain employers in town. Jersey City has been very candid, advertisi its virtués as a haven for runaway factories. It proms ises cheap and contefited labor. Frank Hague is mak ng the pledge that 1t will remain cheap. 8.88 5 ERSEY CITY is wholly in the hands of Hague, Ing Members of Congress who have insisted on as questions as to the manner in which he has acq his title to complete dictatorship are weil within ole rights. This is \not a local issue. If democracy cay be suspended in one locality the plague may eh Mayor Hague is running a school for fascism which far more dangerous than any camp ‘of héthouse steppers. But valuable lessons may be learned 5%

' the empire which he has carved for himself across

Hudson, Here is a very specific illustration of 2 werkness of the case agaist u the Child Labor Am meat and the Wages and s Bill. THe Federal Government ry one agency whi cope with such secessi as mocracy cannot endure if little imperial ture of the n

| be set 1p within | lead.