Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 31 December 1937 — Page 12

PAGE 10

The Indianapolis Times

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

ROY. W. HOWARD = LUDWELL DENNY MARK FERREE President Editor

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i RIley 5551

Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

Member of United Press, Scripps - Howard Newspaper Alliance, NEA Service, and Audit Bureau of Circulations.

PRIDAY, DEC. 31, 1937

THAT ICKES SPEECH IF you are looking for a good old-fashioned damn-the-rich political speech, the one by Secretary Harold Ickes is it. Evidently the idea is to go back to the tried and true, and trust that what has worked in the past will work again.

It might be good stuff in a campaign, but nobody is running -

- for office right now, and despite the ever-present danger _ of wealth concentration we think the attack is poorly timed as a solution for the recession. - We wish the solution were that simple. But it isn’t. The effect can only be to make the recession worse, though ‘we cannot believe the Secretary “planned it that way.” : Anyway, he joins the anvil chorus so suddenly started earlier in the week by Assistant Attorney General Robert Jackson; a lightning zigzag from the co-operative policy of a few short days before. What is the meaning of this sudden angry outburst _ from spokesmen of the New Deal? Frankly, we cannot figure it out. Some commentators say that Messrs. Jackson and Ickes are merely warming up “big business” for the knockout, to be delivered by President Roosevelt in his message to Congress. : We find this hard to believe. For Mr. Roosevelt's primary objectives have been.to restore healthy business conditions, to provide jobs for the unemployed and to provide revenue to balance the Federal budget. That cannot be " done by a campaign of vilification. It can be done only by co-operation between government and business—the type of co-operation which seemed to be in the making before this cat-and-dog fight started. There are specific things that can be done to Help improve economic conditions—many of which we have listed repeatedly in recent weeks. To do them requires hard work, leadership, co-operation. We move that those things be substituted for bickering, name-calling and demagoguery.

THE TRAGEDY OF IT

RESIDENT ROOSEVELT has warned that the nation : may have to spend more on its Navy. And Chairman Taylor, of the House Appropriations Committee, has echoed the President’s words. In : a world, gone crazy, he said, we have no option. Nor have we—much as we hate to say it. Until the world is a safer place to live in, we must expect to make sacrifices to gain even a modicum of security. Ours is a small avid fast-shripking world. Hence the “need for armaments is relative. If others insist on arming * themselves to the teeth, we must arm proportionately. That is the tragedy of it. We would much rather see the money go into CCC camps, good roads, flood control, irrigation, reforestation, land reclamation, health, education, national parks, old-age pensions and so on. : E ut let us not forget one thing. If armament needs are comparative; and we must have mor2 because the other powers have more, the corollary is just as true. We shall ‘need less if the other powers have less. So we shall repeat what we have said more than once before, that we believe the time is at hand when, by a de- - termined effort, something could be done to limit the world’s armaments. i Unquestionably the biggest: single peril facing the : : world today is competitive armament with no end in sight. : Unless a-way is soon found to put a stop to it, the end will :be world disaster: National bankruptcies, anarchy, unem‘ployment and revolt, or else international war. : i Quite as the President says, “Facts are facts.” As long tas everybody else is feverishly arming, we can not disarm ‘alone. We can’t even afford to stand still. But we respect- : fully urge that the heads of our Government actively i inves- | jligete the possibility of Stopping the contest.

AN INTELLECTUAL LEAGUE OF NATIONS?

VERY reader who has followed the American Association for the Advancement of Science convention reports ‘here this week must have been impressed by the comtrast ‘between these meetings and much of the news from various ‘other parts of the world. The conquest of disease, the advancement of Himan ‘knowledge, the extension of the welfare of mankind are ‘motivating forces behind these men of science. It is a

‘far cry from their motives to those activating an aviator

‘who drops bombs upon a defenseless town. The scientists themselves realize this fact. And so today the Association made public a resolution extending “to the British Association for the Advancement of Science and to all ‘other scientific organizations with similar aims throughout the world, an invitation to co-operate not only in advancing the interests of pure science, but also in promoting’ Dgace among nations and intellectual freedom in order that science may continue to flourish and to spread more abundantly its benefits over all mankind.” 7 lused is’ an effort to which all of us can give our hearty

¥oGs WE] HAVE KNOWN s the worst fog that London had seen since 1904, a

ea soup.” It settled down like a huge and wet

n-blanke over a nearby soccer field. Goalkeeper Bartram of the Charlton team, however, stuck doggedly to his post on the playing field. Finally the game was called off

s went home. All but Bartram of Chatiton.

Business Manager

TO BREAK UP MONOPOLIES

LAUNCHED BY

NEW DEAL

Siam Vid idee

Vibe ALBEE,

anal

}. WONDER _|& THEYD BE INTERESTED IN A MONOPOLY

bi Fair Enough estbrook Pegler

| Columnist Eats Words for New York | Fire Department, but’ Begs for Law | To Eliminate Smoking in Theaters.

NEW YORK, Dec. 31.—If the members of the New: York Fire Department will gather closely at this moment they may have the satisfaction of watching this cor-, respondent eat those recent words of his in which he abused the members of the theater detail for their failure to perform a duty which is not theirs under authority which they do

not possess. This refers to an angry essay of a few

weeks back on the subject of-gfo-miscuous smoking in. the New York theaters and the practice of firing up matches and little gasoline - torches to provide reading

By

-lignt -for the perusal of programs

by customers, & few of whom sometimes are so high in alco- * holic content, by volume, that they would burn like a plum pudding if touched with the slightest spark. | The fire hazard is great, and the Fite Department as well as Sas e theater managers have. gone along in fear of a ghsastly panic Mr. Pegler some night, but the truth is that the greatest theater town in the world has absolutely no provision against the danger. Your correspondent aims fo do a little reporting on every. story involving questions of fact, and in this case obtained from three well-known theatermen of long experience who are supposed: to know the ordinances under which they operate the misinformation that the firemen detailed to duty at the theaters had authority to call the police and cause arrests to be made. # t J » : T= Fire Department will have to accept a small share of the blame, too, because Commissioner McElligott confessed that the department had fostered a popular superstition that smoking and the striking of flames in theaters was forbidden by law as a bluff t0 minimize the peril. Members of the theater detail have imposed on the general ignorance of the public

~ to make people stop smoking, but, as the Commis-

sioner now admits, for the purpose of dramatizing the danger and urging a new ordinance, there is nothing that the fireman can do if the theater-goer smokes or goes in for a little reading by firelight.

HE opinion of the theater people seems to be that the ‘most poisonous theater manners of the day are those of Hollywood actors who come East to strut their celebrity at opening nights and wave and yoohoo at imaginary acquaintances across the house and smoke and strike lights to call attention to themselves. The new ordinance will be presented to the new Council after the first of the year, and it will have the support of not only the Fire Department and most of the theater people, but of many department store owners, too. Until the néw ordinance goes through, the firemen will have no right to interfere with anyone’s desire to play with fire, and it will be permissible for any crack-. pot to bring an armful of kindling and play with it Fight jn, the Buy of » wrowded theater. :

The Hoosier Forum

- I wholly disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to sa:.it.—Voltaire.

| SAYS PUBLIC SHOULD KNOW

LOCKEFIELD FACTS By Paul B. Sallee, Holton

Is Lockefield Gardens another intended example to convince the local general public that governmental housing is an interference with private business and cannot be conducted successfully? Or is it the policy of the present Government and its representatives to build a political party in the name of a proven social necessity with the taxpayers’ money at the expense of the poorly housed and the unemployed? In any case, the public has a right to know the full and complete facts, anc whoever is responsible, individually or collectively, should be compelled to carry the blame. Anything but a complete exposure of the entire matter will be a white-wash of the guilty.

Passing the buck, repaiting the

poor construction and the general silence of those .involved is high crime of the lowest order. Every detail of supervision and construction of buildings is well known. Architects, builders and the Government know what material and what construction is necessary to complete & sound building; there-

‘| fore, why should poor material be

used, and impractical construction practiced and permitted. until the Lockefield buildings were completed? At the time of general building | trades unemployment, hourly wage| increases were permitted on Lockefield Gardens, which caused a general building trades wage advance locally, when building trade unions were in no position to-compel such wage increases or control good working conditions. Strikes and general dissatisfaction of labor continued from the start to the finish. This labor condition was responsible for bad work, additional cost and general inefficiency. One didn’t have to be a building expert to see the yards of rough sidewalk being torn up, the split and unputtied stiles on the badly hung doors, the poorly plastered and patched walls, the rusted steel window sash, the tar and lime on the metal trim all of which was painted over, the heavy paint used on the kitchen walls and the electric cable dug up. ... “ ® 2 = READER BELIEVES PERFECT

COMBUSTION POSSIBLE By C. P. Laycock We have been interested readers of different articles concerning the smoke nuisance and expert information given on how to fire the furnace. There are certain natural

General Hugh cheer Says—

_ Rumors Have lf There Is a Graduated Corporation Tax in the Offing: It's the Large Companies Which Protect Consumers With Lower Prices.

ASHINGTON, Dec. 31.—Last year the Treasury FV business-baiters had a brainstorm and invented the undivided profits tax which, with the capital gains tax, did as mich to paralyze business expansion and stop recovery .ns any other single cause. They did not acknowledge the blunder of this as-

sault on employment and a return of normal condi- . tions. But although théy now recognize it, instead of

correcting it, they apparently are going to perpetrate a worse pain to divert the sufferer’s attention from the paroxysm they last gave him. : In some fom or other—so the rumors have ewe are now going’ to have a graduated corporation tax. That is to say the percentage rate of tax on income of a corporation will rise sharply as its income increases—up to 25. per cent of the net. : : - The argument is, “that’s what we do to individuals

—why not do It to a corporation?” ‘On that argument | there is no sense in stopping at 25 per cent—we might. | just ‘as well take 70 per cent to 80 per cent from a

451000000 meme. ‘That's what we do to Individuals. also 8 :

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

laws involved in combustion that cannot be ignored. The designers of various units

and makes have had these laws in mind and have built into their product various controls that, if intelligently used, will give as nearly perfect combustion as it is possible to attain, which means the least amount of smoke, No fire can be started without some smoke that will gradually be eliminated as the heat increases. Heated air ascends; there can be ino combustion without oxygen, which is derived from the air as it passes through the fuel. To pass through the fuel, it must be supplied from below, at least in heating units as now constructec. Fire works from below upward, Therefore, he who puts his fuel in first, his kindling next and his paper last, will have a smokeless chimney simply because there will be no fire to smoke after the paper

NEW YEAR'S EVE ‘By DANIEL FRANCIS CLANCY Old '37 is packing u To catch the midnight tabs,

‘Packing all our troubles, Our Sorrows, woes and pain.

Young ’38 by bus Is down the highway humming— With laughter, joy and health And a fine new year coming.

When ’37 goes out And '38 comes in, Let's altogether shout And raise a merry din!

Let’s all say to ourselves i When they blow the old curfew— You're surely welcome, Bh Je Old ‘37, adieu! .

DAILY THOUGHT

And thou shalt write upon the stones all the words of this law very plainly —Deuteronomy 27:8.

NATURAL law, without God behind it, is no more than a glove without a hand in it.— “Joseph Cook.

{

YORK,

‘| combustion and

is gone. It is working against pature to put in paper first, then kindling and fuel. Adjust the controls so that enough oxygen (air) will be admitted to burn the gases that are being driven out of the fuel. No. two makes of furnaces have the same controls, but they both face the same irrefutable laws of an intelligent study of the controls is nece: Ssary for best results. » » » FINDS INCONSISTENCIES IN NEW DEAL PROGRAM By Edward F. Maddox

Those who look for consistency in

Dealers are doomed to bitter disappointment. Not long ago the Chief New Deal er said: “I am for democracy, and more democracy,” but he opposes the Ludlow war referendum which would give the people a chance io vote on foreign wars, The Ludlow amendment may be dangerous, but jit certainly Is the essence of de- ! mocracy. The National Labor Relations Board has stretched a point or two to. insure union organizers a free hand in labor disputes, $0 insure freedom of speech and assembly, but it cracks down on its critics and in-

terferes with the freedom of the press, according to reports. The American Civil Liberties

| Union, champion of free speech and | ‘assembly, where its friends are con- | cerned, is reported to be supporting | the NLRB in its attempt to stifle

Criticism. The man who declared for “more democracy,” which certainly includes freedom of the press to criticize boards and commissions, has not said a word in defense of a free press in the above case. According to Pearson and Allen, President Roosevelt intends “fo accuse Congress of deserting the American people, of complotely f.outing the wishes of those who sent them to Washington.” That sounds more like a dictator's tactics than it does of those of a democratic president. The President’s job is to enforce the law, not to write laws and force

of reasonable doubts as to their constitutionality,” or workability. A careful analysis of the New Deal strategy reveals, that to look for consisten®y in it is like looking

for a needle in a haystack.

Dec. 31.—I got Connie to come in

Socialists, Communists and New|

them through Congress, “regardless |

| tavor of little ones, that can be.

holding a few shares, .or insurance companies or banks holding the savings of millions of people of all classes, are the persons really prejudiced more by |

higher taxes on the shares of stock they may | |

to hold in a big corporation than in a small one. To tax people who own stock in a large corporation more on its earnings than those whose. stock is in a small corporation, is simply to reduce the capital .value of the former—and to what purpose? In ad-

dition to his loss in earnings, the shareholder suffers | |: this loss in value—10 to 20 times as much as the loss in earnings. But the Government doesn’t get that

‘lost value. ‘It simply destroys it to no useful purpose

. whatever and the total wreckage may run into oll:

Hons. - Joslom Te F the purpose is to force investment money from big

corporations into little ones, it is incontestably true | &iF th

If the purpose is to up big

‘on 2 pledge not to knock anybody until 1938. Three minutes later she was sounding off, and when 1 objected she answered, “But he doesn't count. You ‘know what I think of that little runt. If he ever ‘up a couple of inches I'm going to: punch him right in the nose.” “That,” I said severely, “is not the holiday spirit. At your age you ought to know ‘enough to koep your big ‘rap shi With that the fight started, and in a couple of \ seconds broken pledges were lying all over the room. And so I've signed ‘up again for the duration of 1937. Somebody has sent me a clipping Dale CarBegle n which that ambassador of good: will wit ies; " “Hunger is one of your grea will have to be passed by until next year. i "Nor have I any intention of mentioning the spedch

| recently made. by Henry Ford's radio man, William |

prs pps Sa

A re EE End

‘jump into .the New Year.

t inspirations.” ‘That |

Merry-Go-Round

By Pearson & Allen

Six Public Figures Are Named Ww Columnists’ 1937 Roll of Honor; Mayor La Guardia Tops the List.

VV ASHINGTON, Dec. 81.—We have nomi nated for the Washington Merry-Go-Round Honor Roll for 1937 the following: = THE MAN OF THE YEAR—Fiorello H. La Guardia. Because he rose from a poor immigrant family to be the second most important political figure in the United States; be cause he was the best mayor in the history of New

York, and was re-elected despite the open opposition of the Democratic Party and the

lukewarm support of the Repubn ‘

licans. Gi ‘THE WASHINGTON pIPLO"MAT OF THE YEAR—Oswaldo Aranha. Because he resigned ‘his post; as Ampassador of Brazil to U. 3. when he could have contin=

ued indefinitely, returned to his = |

country to face imprisonment er - worse in order to fight fascism and ~work for greater political freedom for the Brazilian people. © ''HE CABINET MEMBERS oF. THE YEAR—James A. Farley and Harold Ickes. Because, alth diametrically opposite in politic anc. temperament, both have done good jobs; and in addition ‘have taken a lot. of kicking from tHe President, never complained, and are leaned on heaviest—Farley to do the political patching, Ickes to do the political meat-axing. . ‘MOST EFFECTIVE ROOSEVELT OPPONENT OF THE YEAR—Charles Evans Hughes, - Because, while Senators were ha= : ranguing in:the market-places, hs : reversed the Nine Old Men, and Robert Alien more than any other individu killed the Supreme Court bill THE REPUBLICAN OF THE YEAR—AIf M. Lan don. Because, having been defeated for the Presi= dency, he took that defeat without rancor, opposed

“the Administration when he felt opposition

healthy and supported it when he felt country, should come before party. THE WOMAN OF THE YEAR—Eleanor Roc Not because she is the First Lady of the land, because despite that position she remains .he has won the respect of the American people; written one of the frankest and most human ments of the year, ” » ta ig HE National Labo: Board’s scorching blast /the Ford Motor (Co. was the most carefully dered ruling it has ever issued. Not only did the Board’s crack staff of go over the document with a fine-tooth comb, make doubly sure there were no legal bulls, Board sent it to the Justice Department for thorough scanning. The Department kept it a month while three different sets of pen on it, making a number of changes in These were accepted by the Board.

Aserdy to Heywood Broun—

Give 1938 a Break and Den't Hold the Sire's Faults Against the Bi But Don't Try Entering the New Year From the Top of a Step

be different and the lamb will lie down lion and live to get up again.

In our family we have a New Year's Eve

brought over, I suppose, by my grandiathés. Prussians. Just bi

was one of those sentimental imental sae J p) stools or stepladders, and as the chimes b The idea is tk are shaking from your shoes the dust of th It is not only a Mew Year but ‘a new which you leap. Az In the cass of 1 from heaven, each :ebel suspended for a split second in hat lies between time and space. ‘

8 =» .

he nas the inc ination,

may even set of resolutions during the : t purifying

As