Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 24 December 1937 — Page 10

PAGE 10

The Indianapolis Times

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Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

FRIDAY, DEC. 24, 1937

THE FIGHT FOR CLEANER AIR IGURES showing that 1127 tons of soot fell on Indian-

apolis last month are an eloquent argument for a - stricter smoke-abatement ordinance and better enforcement methods. The average for November was 21.51 tons

to the square mile, ranging as high as 54.5 tons in the

most smoke-ridden areas. A proportionate share of this soot went into the lungs of Indianapolis citizens, impairing health and aggravating respiratory diseases. Dr. Herman G. Morgan, City Health Board secretary, compares the campaign for clean air with the fights made

20 years ago for clean milk and other vital health regula-

tions.

f

In 1909, the city’s infant mortality rate was 135 out of every 1000 births; in 1911 the rate was 124. Impure

milk was found to be one cause.

Inadequate sewage dis-

posal was another. Through public education, Dr. Morgan relates, a drive was started for a city ordinance to improve these conditions. “Time and again,” he says, “attempts were made to secure passage of an ordinance requiring purification of all milk sold. After two typhoid epidemics, the ordinance was passed in 1916. A sewage disposal ordinance was passed the same year. By 1919 the infant mortality rate was down to 80 and by 1929 it had dropped

to 50.”

The parallel is clear. Just as officials and scientists of other generations attacked the problem of impure water

to a minimum.

ment will become inevitable.

SHALLOW THINKING

d milk, so must the disease-carriers of the air be reduced

An

The reform will not come overnight. | But as the public learns more about excess smoke and noxious gases—blighting plants and flowers, destroying lung tissues, corroding buildings and broadcasting disease—improve-

SECRETARY PERKINS, reporting that 570,000 workers lost their jobs in November, said she saw no connection between the A. F. of L.-C. 1. O. fight and economic condi-

tions.

This strikes us as rather shallow thinking. Where do orders come from? They come from industries that keep going. They come from merchants who sell goods to workers on payroll. Wherever a strike occurs, the industry generally shuts down, and cancels orders. And whenever workers are on strike they are not on payroll, and therefore have no income with which to buy the goods on the merchants’ shelves.” : Until the A. F. of L. and the C. I. O. sign an armistice, jurisdictional strikes will continue to disrupt industry and strip payrolls and cause cancellation of orders. But Secretary Perkins has decided that the Labor Department should not. intervene in these matters, because it Legally speaking, it is true that the

has no authority.

Labor Department has no authority over labor unions. But, pray, why does the Labor Department exist if not to promote’ the welfare of workers? And how better at this time can the workers’ welfare be served than by promoting harmony between labor factions?

KEEP THE COURTS FREE

AT least 25 Indianapolis persons are celebrating the Christmas season who would not have been alive today" had the traffic fatality rate for the first half of 1937 continued through the second half. A great deal remains to be done, but the safety gaths have been material. Obviously one reason for this accident reduction is the enforcement activity of Judge Karabell and Judge Myers through fines and sentences. The traffic laws have public respect today which they didn’t have before. ; This makes it all the more surprising that William E. Clauer, Democratic County chairman, should propose his political associate, John L. McNelis, for appointment to the post now held by Judge Myers. Mr. Clauer is in the liquor business. He has a beer port-of-entry. The judge appoint.ed will handle liquor and traffic cases. A judge who owed his appointment to a

liquor connections would >

position.

itical boss with such profitable -

d himself in an impossible

WHY IT DIED, BLAME for the demise of the Wage-Hour Bill rests chiefly, we believe, with the nature of the bill itself,

friends.

* jts manner of birth and its manhandling at the hands of its

The Black-Connery Bill, you will recall, sprang from

* Price tn Marion Coun- |

—And Laying His Finger Aside of Hi S Nose— And Giving a Nod, Up the Chimney He Rose:

Fair Enough ‘By Westbrook Pegler

Professor Champions Columnist's Views on Narragansett Park War;

EW YORK, Dec. 24.—When, in October, Governor Quinn of Rhode Island, called out the National Guard to suppress horse racing at Narragansett Park in retaliation for certgin insults to him by Walter O’Hara the plant’s manager, one of my constituents scolded me for proceeding to Providence to cover the story. He accused me of evading Armageddon to write about a brawl in a back room. But I had a

feeling that there was more to this case then a mere temperamental &nd political row, and tried, apparently without success, to explain what it all meant.” This has now been done, however, by Zachariah Chafee Jr. a Rhode Islander who is a professor of law afi Harvard, in a pamphlet called “State House vs. Pent House,” which comes to the conclusion that, if the troops were illegally called then Governor Sunn Himself a every soldier in #55 e detail from the general down are liable for the loss suffered by Mr. Pegler O'Hara and the other stockholders of Narragansett Park. : As to the soldiers, he gives the interesting opinion that ar order from a superior does not justify the commission of an illegal act, although he admits that, in certgin conditions, a patriot in arms has only a choice between being shot by a firing squad for refusal and hanging at the hands of the civil execu- . tioner for obedience. ! :

® ” # ROI". CHAFEE goes into the unwisdom of legalizing a nuisance which has great resources, drained from the public. oo In this case, the horse park had 600 jobs to dis-

of political power was such that he told me of his intention to impeach Governor Quinn and get another Governor. He would upset the government of a state whose people obviously, to his mind, had ceased to be citizens of Rhode Island and had become citizens of a race track. : O'Hara’s job paid $75,000 a year, but the state racing authorities, who owed their jobs to Governor Quinn, purported to sit impartially on two sets of charges which resulted in two orders to the race track company to fire him. Both orders were reversed by th: State Supreme Court, and after that Governor Quinn sent the soldiers to keep the track shut—a course which, if upheld, would authorize a future Governor to use the National Guard to close the premises of any lawful business for political or personal reasons. : : : 2 5 = : > TT state racing officials found themselves acting

in legislative, judicial capacities, and Prof. Chafee

"departs from the localized and ribald circumstances Jof this particular case to consider the effect of a |

similar concentration of power in a state or Federal Commission having to do with other phases of life. “The battle is important not for what happened but for what it revealed,” he writes. “The people of Rhode Island have seen what was rendered easy by an ill-planned and outworn Constitution—subservience of officials to the superior who can remove them, reckless use of military force, seizure of property without the slightest legislative authorization, and public apa’hy which renders the mass of citizens willing to accept the overriding of civil government by soldiers.” That is what I was trying to tell you in October.

Shows Danger to , Civil Liberties.

‘| cents. If President

tribute on the patronage basis, and O’Hara’s sense {.

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

OVERPRODUCTION DANGER CALLED IMAGINARY By Frank Walton, Campbelisburg The Republican Party ran us into tax slavery, and e Democratic Party is shoving the people in deeper all the time. Corn sold just a short time ago

for $1.50 a bushel. Now it is 40 evelt wants to do something for the people, he would start corn at 80 cents a bushel, finish for the year at $1; hogs, 10 cents straight, and the price of cattle accordingly. There is no danger .of overproduc-

tion in this country, If so, why do |.

so many people need help? It is a case- of underproducticn, high taxes

‘and idle hands. \

_ Production never | was as low as it is now. Direct and indirect taxes are sponsoring the nation’s worst breakdown. This country must have money and labor,

can enjoy the f

labor. We can’t all|be Presidents.

attracted much attention when she inherited a 45tune, has renounced her American citizenship. Dispatches from New York say that haying married a g a Danish citizen; and her erstwhile fellowcountrymen, who created her fortune by their purchases in the five-and-ten-cent stores, presumably will see and hear of her no more. All of this see to me to come under the general heading of news that the nation can bear. We pay too much attention anyway, probably, to those lucky ladies who come into enormous fortunes that they did not earn; e will flow as smoothly if this one transfers her activities to fore soil. It is too bad, probably, but we'll try to get hlong.

“pigs RELIEF WORK CRITICIZED AS JOB. AID P ; : By Indiana “Relief” Taxpayer Federal Gove ent expenditures

| for .relief will again be near one

and one-half billion dollars for this fiscal year. That does not include local relief taxes.

If this money were diverted fo in- |.

no relief proble value received in usable wealth, instead . of squandering this sum to keep production at a minimum. Relief work the most insane

pick and shovel production of values, is a relic of| the pioneer days. There is a t psychological lag in the conduct lof our national affairs.” Business Insists on regiment-

(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.)

ing the idle on relief in gangs doing hand labor, when the job, if worthwhile, should be done in the most efficient way with machinery. An unbalanced mental approach to our problem-of unemployment is responsible for our unbalanced budget. Nothing could be more disastrous to business than a continued deficit in the national budget. That is the of inflation, when we spend money not collected by taxation. Inflation is not around the corner, it started when the deficit started, and will wind up with ‘skyrocketing prices as taxes begin to be levied to wipe out the deficit or to balance the budget. Business revived a little from the shot in the arm of Federal nontaxed spending. That is the most expensive way of operating business. Government owes nothing to business that requires false purchasing power to survive. Let business get down to business, that of supplying America with goods at prices the customers can pay out of their earnings: in industry. Thin #8 E J * ! COAL HAULER PROTESTS

PAY IS TOO LOW

{By A Coal Hauler

Of course you know the price of coal has been raised and the coal dealers are telling customers the Government at Washington has raised the miners’ wages, thus making it necessary to raise the cost of coal. Now us coal haulers have had no raise and the dealers have been

DECEMBER DAYS By VIRGINIA POTTER

December days are here again, Days, we will long remember; Crisp, chilling winds and mistletoe, Bid farewell to bleak November.

December days with Christmas near, Days filled with mirth and glad-

ness; : Snow flurries and the evergreens, Remove all trace of sadness. :

"DAILY THOUGHT

These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when 1 shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of thi Father.—John 16:25. :

E study of proverbs may be more instructive and compre~ hensive than the mast

scheme of philosophy. —Motherwell.

elaborate |

adding a little on every ton of coal sold all summer. It was stated that the cealers will charge the higher prices for the coal they bought away last spring, and you know prices were lower then. How would you like to shovel a ton of coal into a truck, then haul it and shovel it into a wheelbarrow and push it under the kind of conditions we have had recently? Think

that over and put in application for |

a job—and when you get paid you get only very little for doing that work. . Hie : : 7 . Something is wrong somewhere when we cannot make enough to feed a family and coal dealers can tell the public of coal. 2 8 8». RECALLS TOWNSEND PLEDGE ON TAX COLLECTIONS By George W. O’Connory. : An open letter lo Townsend: It is generally corceded, that promises in politics are made to be forgotten rather than to be’ kept, but when I voted for you, I did it because I thought that there was—

or might be—a politician who will,

not only make promises but keep them. . ; In one of your speeches about a year ago, you very pointedly stated that it will be one of your first concerns to set the time for the collection of taxes and license fees, etc. as conveniently for the public as posible, realizing, of course, as you did with good commen sense, that the wrong time-is often a greater hardship even, than the amount of the tax itself. : ; At this Christmas season ‘thousands upon thousands have again had their incomes reduced—if not eliminated—during the last 60 days, but all of them hope and many of them with good reason, that January or February will put them back to work. Many have a few dollars laid aside for licensz plates. The children and the wife would like to have a Christmas. A license plate—a piece of tin— when the clock ticks Jan. 1, to please a hardboiled, heartless State —and an empty Christmas stocking for’ the children, or a cheerful Christmas for all--with the State collecting exactly the same amounts a few days later, when we are all better able “to take it”?

- = =n SUGGESTS LIBRARY WORK FOR RELIEF RECIPIENTS By C. H. : Calling your atterition to a recent story, “Grants $242,310 etc.”—at the bottom is $40,454 for public library book repairing. Why not take those 200 men at 308 W. Ohio St., now on ; trustee relief, and put them on this WPA project. .These are mostly ' gray-haired men too

feeble to do hard -labor, but they | mi |-are not too feeble to repair

If the pressure tn WPA officials can be applied, every man at 308

W. Ohio St. can be on WPA projects |

by Jan 6, 1938. Why not give these men a break, a special project if necessary?

wages raised the price

Governor |’

Merry-Go-Round ;

By Pearson & Allen

Glenn Frank Faces Job of Winning Favor of G. O. P. Congressmen; Stark's Gift Turns Out Profitably.

VV ASHINGTON, ‘Dee. 24.—Dr. Glenn Frank, chsirman of the Republican committee to draft a new declaration of principles, has one job on his hands not men- - tioned when he was appointed last week. It is to win tie good will of véteran G. O. P. leaders in Congress. Almost to a man these leaders privately are cold toward the former University of Wisconsin president. Their hostility is not so much’

personal (though that is a factor) as against putting an academician

mittee.

protest before Col. Frank Knox at a secret meeting in Washington just a week before the St. Louis Conference, and Col. Knox wanted them to telegraph National ' Chairman Hamilton demanding that he call off the whole thing, committee, platform, everything. However, the G. O. P. Cone gressmen declined to intervene. Of 25 names on Mr. Hamilton's list of likely candidates for com mittee chairman, 18 were either college professors or presidents. Can you beat that for amateur politics?” wailed another Congressional leader. “After all the criti cism we Republicans have been ‘handing to Roosevelt brain-trust-. ers! And now we consider putting one of them at the head of this committee! : , “If Hamilton and Hoover in- ' sist on having a committee, then the thing to do is put a farmer . or a businessman at its head. We need someone with popular appeal, who won't lay himself open to kidding even before he gets tarted.” Col. Knox agreed 100 per cent with thes . sentiments, but his views didn’t carry decisive weight at

St. Louis. age * 8 8.

: Robert Allen

sent the President an apple which att ted the attention of Secretary Morgenthau, himself a highly successful fruit grower in Dutchess County, “Where did you get that magnificent apple?” Secretary Morgenttiau asked Mr. Roosevelt. came from Governor Stark, Mr. Morgen him for further details, and got a reply that h be in Washingtcn in a few days and would Several days later, he called on the Tr and after a chal; emerged with an order for 2000 Stark Delicious trees which Secretary Morgenthat plans to plant in his orchards. | : ® ” ®

The day aftsr the Japanese bombing of U. S. and

English gunboets, Sir Ronald Lindsay, British Ame bassador, callec/ at the State Department for a cons

en. : vt But to all ‘queries he replied with a. ness, until finally one of the reporters remarked: “Mr, Ambassador, can you question we could ask you?” SE ; : “No,” replied Sir Ronald smiling broadly, “I don't think I can. .And can you think of any more evasive answers I could have given you.” . i

bland evasivee

think of .any “other: ’

at the head of the platform come : \ Congressional chiefs put their

Gon STARK, a large Missouri ofchardist,

ference with Stcretary Hull. While waiting to be ad= mitted, Sir Ronald was questioned by excited newse:

-

fii

y Aud

the Nowhere last May all written and done up in ribbons | (Cea ead 1 1d | ©) di by braintrusters with a flair for legalistic jargon. Its General H ugh Johnson S ays— Accord humane asd public spirited oblectives were simple—to put | Critical Discussion of War Possbiity Must Not Be Suppressed) , dustries, mers M1 Question of Peace Between U. S. and Japan Hinges-on Tokyo Policy. |

These objectives could have been set down in 100.| V certain that England ‘vould enter. such a | NJEW YORK, Dec. 2—Tm afraid my gear Wh

5 5 “Mr, m’s ort to the Presi | & owas hound to do it by treaty oi be awhly until another year rolls around simple. words, Instead, the proposed law contained 11,000 | oe; = oe ot ie Preat | Belen wap. She va is by Thea in for es aap has Bo And, after all, words. And, instead of merely outlawing wages and hours | cord continue a course of outrages’ on our tights | way. Grey. of Fallodon's “Twenty-Five Years” says: | the typewriter is. mightier than tho ax, and sawing that no decent American employer has a right to demand | wrich would inflame this nation to's willingness to | “In every crisis since 1905, Germany had been told | Mayor Hague in half ought to be cisier than demolof workers, the bill set up a bureaucratic board and endowed | Fim ‘Nothing should be saifl or done to disabuse the | thet ix war came we would be drawn into it ‘on the | ishing an oak. But in addition to removing the Haghe it with powers to invade the higher wage and hour brackets lo of Frands. The warning was given again to | Stain somebody should get to Work on Magistrate at their will. Like NRA, it meant well but it was too ambitious. heen Cv SR

ng to Heywood Broun— : New York Magistrate Joins ‘With Mayor Hague as Union Splitters - Sweatshop Conditions Can Infect Nation Just as Can Spotted Fever,

the paper with great pride that he always makes & point of going into a store if he sees a picket line outside is no: only playing the role of the meanest - man on earts, but actually deludes himself. He is cutting his own throat as well as those of his fellows. He ought to understand that when he does his bit - to pull down wages and increase hours he will feel. J the results of that movement in his own job. ais

ASHINGTON, Dec. 24—The country, applauds Tw

is ats : to hat we have a e | a point where “Hc More : ; : "| Anthony F. Burke of New York City. ; : patriotism’ requires that, all critical discussion. of this | Lag ol © «+ TIRE than: this could not be hf Christmas is being celebrated in many situation must now cease, as ; |p : : Ava ; or. And this fury | here is one commentator who with equal f :

a sort of wa 2 is going

5 : : Why, we wonder, did not the the Administration pave | may be... the way for this highly important reform as it paved the | Tn for the Social Security Act of 1985? Then the White | e callec le nation’s best economists, actuaries and | i