Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 14 January 1938 — Page 24
PAGE 24
The Indianapolis Times
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ROY W. HOWARD LUDWELL DENNY MARK FERREE President Editor
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FRIDAY, JAN. 14, 1938
$77.35 AND $225,000
0
PLEA that he is mentally incompetent to defend him- |
self has halted the court-martial trial of Brig. Gen.
Harold C. Reisinger, paymaster of the Marine Corps, at | Gen. Reisinger has been ordered to a naval |
Quantico, Va. hospital. The most serious charge against him, apparently, is that he “padded” his personal travel expense accounts by $77.35. \ Gen. Reisinger’'s case represents tragedy, unrelieved. He has a long and honorable record of service, beginning with the Philippine insurrection of nearly 40 years ago. He has been trusted to disburse hundreds of thousands of dollars of Government money. It seems incredible that he should have risked disgrace and punishment for $77.35. And since, under the complicated rules of the Government's General Accounting Office, it is possible for traveling officials to make entirely innocent mistakes in their accounts, it seems that a charitable explanation might have been found for his alleged discrepancy.
But the Government is strict. stern. Speaking of travel expense, we recall that the members of Congress recently voted themselves $225,000 for travel to and from Washington at the rate of 20 cents a mile. Some members got as much as $1200 each. But nobody investigates to find how much of that money was spent for travel. The Congressmen don’t have to file expense accounts. They just keep what's left after paying the actual cost of travel, if any. For them, no audits, no courts-martial. The moral, it seems, is that if you travel for the Government it’s safer, and much more profitable, to stay out of the Marine Corps and get into Congress.
NO, NO, ELIZABETH! ELL, sir, can you imagine the shock? Leafing through Mrs. Elizabeth Dilling’s book, “The Red Network,” we discovered the name of former President Glenn Frank of the University of Wisconsin, who has accepted the job of keynoting the Republican Party out of the political wilderness. Mr. Frank is listed among those suspected by Mrs. Dilling of being hand in glove with the Communists, arm in arm with Moscow. gave him a special two-page section. After commenting on various occurrences at the University of Wisconsin, Mrs, Dilling adds: “One who has paid
The Marine Corps is
‘particular attention’ nounce publicly that he is not a Communist, and that he believes in God.” But if Mrs. Dilling now wants to crusade to protect the American home, flag and religion against Moscow-in-the G. O. P., she'll have to do it without help from us. know Glenn Frank. And we fear that his fault, as a Republican Moses, is not that he’s a radical, but that he’s too pleasant, too casual and a little too much a fence-sitter to do the kind of job that party needs. This citation of a good American proves only that Mrs. Dilling and many other red-baiters are writers of fairy tales Lor grownups.
THE EVERLASTING ISSUE ONOPOLY is like sin. Nobody defends it. political issues it is the hardy perennial. others wear thin, monopoly always is on hand to take another beating. Monopoly has survived a thousand battles, real or sham, and has always been found still doing business at the same old stand. Now the Roosevelt Administration is attacking monopoly, and the skeptics are having a field day.
Among
It must be admitted that the Administration has left |
itself wide open to suspicions of insincerity. If monopoly caused the present recession it must have had a great deal to do with the big depression, which came after three Republican Administrations had fostered private monopolies in the name of national prosperity. But did the New Deal start out to fight monopoly? On
the contrary.
the name of national recovery. Deal sticks to the same principles in the Guffey Coal Act. I'he whole attempt has been, not to destroy private monopolies, but to check and balance them.
fabor and to other neglected groups. A real attack on monopoly by this Administration calls for more than criticism of business and denunciation of pricing policies. It calls for a re-examination of the New Deal’s own policy. It can be neither very convincing nor very effective if it undertakes to help monopoly with one hand and fight it with the other,
COLORED MONEY
WE hasten to indorse the proposal of 81-year-old Harry Marcus of Olean, N. Y., who wants the Government to issue its paper money, like its postage stamps, in many colors. Dollar bills, Mr. Marcus thinks, should be tan. Starting with that, he has worked out a complete currency tone chart, ranging through pearl-gray $2 bills, melon-tinted $5 bills and sapphire $10 bills up to a tasteful salmon pink for the $50 variety. This system, its sponsor believes, would end all the present confusion over money. While we would hardly go so far as to say that, we can see that it might have distinct advantages. Nothing is more annoying than the experience so many of us frequently have, of getting our $50 bills and our $1 bills all mixed up together in our pockets, and spending one by mistake for the other. The Marcus plan would remove all possibility of such errors—except, of course, for those unfortunate enough to be color blind.
Business Manager |
So “red” did she consider him that she
to Glenn | Frank is not surprised that he thought it necessary to an- |
For we | | don your insistence for an indirect subsidy through
When all |
| newspapers also have left. | sirongest press-support refused to follow him on this
Under NRA the antitrust laws were sus- | peided and state-controlled monopolies were fostered in | NRA is dead, but the New |
| order to sell more abrdad you have to buy more, that's | progress. 1
And that meant ex- | tending monopolistic privileges to farmers, to organized |
THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES
FRIDAY, JAN. 14, 1938 -
Suspended Animation !—By Talburt
y
Life in he Day of a Dictator—By Herblock
Washington
By Raymond Clapper
Progress Seen in Knox's Advice To G. O. P. That Protective Tariff Is Merely Subsidy for Industry.
VW ASHINGTON, Jan. 14.—Col. Frank Knox, who was put through the wringer with Mr. Landon in the 1936 Presidential campaign, has shaken himself out and he now turns to hand the Republican Party some practical and unvarnished advice. He made a bold and remarkable speech at «Cleveland this week which was so courageous and so hardhitting in dts common sense that it is worth ell
ing and rereading many times. It deserves to mark a turning point in Republican Party policy,
| and will if the party knows what [ ails it.
Among other things, Col. Knox said: “We must spgak up in unmistakable terms to those industries which through excessive tariff schedules have enjoved a monopoly of the domestic market and thus inordinately increased the cost of living. We must say to them: If you do not believe in a system of direct subsidies from the Government for the farmer,
Mr. Clapper
you must aban-
excessively high tariff rates for yourselves. . . . “In the last campaign the Republican Party came to be regarded by millions of workers and farmers as the special representative and spokesman of entrenched wealth. . . . Demands of selfish interests for higher and higher rates led to greater and greater participation in and control of party affairs by the business interests who were the beneficiaries of excessively high tariff rates. . . . The fiction of infant industry which must be protected against a more mature and competent foreign manufacturer is outworn. It is farcical.” w =” os
OL. KNOX has felt strongly on the subjeet for a long time. In March, 1936, when he was hoping for the Presidential nomination, he spoke out against extreme protectionism before the Economic Club in New York, but the idea soon was buried beneath the rubbish of the Presidential campaign. In fact, stiffnecked Republican leaders, who thought everything that Mr. Roosevelt did was wrong, pushed Mr. Landon, who at heart felt much as Col. Knox did about the tariff, into an attack on the Administration recipro-cal-tariff program in the Minneapolis speech. Glenn Frank, head of the new Republican policy committee, is conferring about his program this week
i with Republican National Chairman John Hamilton.
They can hardly escape placing this issue among the subjects the policy committee should study. = n = CONSIDERABLE number of Republicans have left the party on the protective-tariff issue and are with Secretary Hull. Most of the big Republican Some of Mr. Landon's
issue. If the Republicans really are coming around to recoghizing the extreme protective tariff as an unconscionable subsidy and are beginning to see that in
| capitalism now finds itself,
| rely
The Hoosier Forum
I wholly disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.—Voltaire.
DIAGNOSIS OF CAPITALISM'S
(Times readers are invited
in response to a question why the company did not use its surplus of
ILLS IS ASKED By L. S. Farmer Having squandered its youth, its maturity, and a ripe old age in a selfish attempt to accumulate material wealth rather than wisdom, in its declining years, perishing for lack of that wisdom, and communism and fascism are craving to devour it. Many well-meaning people look upon communism and fascism as desirable alternatives to capitalism, but they are doomed for disappointment, because those two opposed forces are destined to continue until capitalism has been destroyed, when both will “disappear. What capitalism needs is real statesmen, able and willing to correctly diagnose its ailments and prescribe a proper remedy. Having
| failed to develop such, it, is forced to |
whose | . 10S€ | gounder of our town, and set it up
upon political quacks misdirected efforts to relieve unemployed workers, and incapacitated business
plete demise. Unenlightened human creatures confronted with constantly increasing international crises, chaos and national break-downs are in the same predicament as living cell creatures who, among constant organic disruptions, are unable to recognize that these conditions prelude destruction until it is too late to mend their ways and avoid disaster. The gathering clouds of transpiring events grow darker and darker to those familiar with physical facts only, but to those familiar with spiritual facts as well, the silver lining will grow brighter and brighter, as the future well-being of the race is being carried forward with unmistakable precision. ” » ”
ASKS ONLY PEACE FOR LYNHURST By Cecil 0. Wilson
distressed farmers | only | hastens its final collapse and com-
to express their views in these columns, religious conexcluded. Make your letter short, so all can have a chance. Letters must be signed, but names will be
withheld on request.)
troversies
where all of the citizens have formed factions, where each wants something and is willing to fight for it. Some want a road grader; some a community house; some a playground; some, garbage collection. I have no ax to grind, but to get peace in our town once again, the money in the treasury should be spent quickly. One good way to spend the money would be to have a statue made of that grand old man, Mr. Kellog, the
in the center of the town. ” 5 n OPPOSES ARGUMENTS FOR HIGH FARM PRODUCTION By James R. Meitzler, Attica
When in 1832 the farmer sold his wheat for 30 cents a bushel and his corn for a dime, it was not done to discredit Hoover. He could not, by himself alone, curtail production and so was forced to accept these low prices. The Republican platform of 1932 recognized his plight in the forgotten and repudiated words: “The fundamental problem of American agriculture is the control of production to such volume as will balance supply with demand.” William Knudsen, president of General Motors Corp. before the Senate Unemployment Committee,
THE MEANING OF LIFE By WILLIAM H. CHITWOOD
Though clearly defined In the world’s dictionaries,
$450,000,000 to keep men at work, replied, “That would not be business. It is better to curtail than work off inventories through reduced prices.” A newspaper said, rightly, “Neither Secretary Ickes nor Mr. Jackson will argue that it would be possible for the General Motors Corp. to continue indefinitely hiring men to turn ‘out products in excess of require= ments.” But the Republicans and others ever since 1933 have been arguing it is the farmer's business to go on forever producing in excess of requirements and selling at reduced prices, although none of us has a surplus of $450,000,000. ” ” ” CLAIMS REFUSING OF CREDIT WOULD BALANCE BUDGET By L. 8. Farmer, Anderson
Most of the hullabaloo about a balanced budget is enough to nauseate honest, intelligent citizens. A balanced budget means that Government expenditures shall not exceed its income. Any school child knows that no government or anyone else can spend more than he can take in unless someone extends him credit. The very ones that extend credit to meet deficiencies of unbalanced budgets are the prime movers back of budget ranting. They can force Government to balance budgets at any time they see fit by refusing credit necessary to overcome the deficiency, which is conclusive proof of the inconhsistency and insincerity of their demands. What they fear, but haven't the audacity to say, is that Government attempts to stave off starvation during the sit-down strike of American money will so involve the Government in debt that Government will be unable to shoulder the burden of a prospective war necessary to safeguard foreign investments and markets, which is_the same thing
A few years ago the town of Lynhurst used to make the front page. In those days everybody went to the town meetings prepared for combat. Then came the depression and with it peace for our little city. This great equalizer put everyone on the same footing, practically broke, and each person forgot his narrow views in his own misery. At the present time, our data shows that only one out of every five persons are recipients of charity through the WPA. The rest have received work in private industry. There is a little money in our town once again. The meetings are taking on that old-time style
Nay, but by
28.
Business—By John T. Flynn
Wars Cannot Be Averted by Vote After Sentiment Is Stirred Up: People Beforehand Must Exercise Their Powers Over State Policy.
EW YORK, Jan. 14—The word “war” has now made its way into the discussion of American problems. For several years the word “depression” held first place. Now we are actually talking about
“war” and what ought to be done in the event of “war” and how we can keep out of “war” and how we ought to go about declaring “war.” The Ludlow resolution, now definitely defeated, was an attempt to protect America from being drawn into war without the consent of its people. It seemed a sound law to me. But it also seemed a rather frail protection against war And this is important now that it has been Killed, because now the country must get down to the question of the real safeguards against war. One of the very last things done as war starts is to “declare” it. Long before the moment for declaring war arrives the people, at least in this country, have been whipped up to the necessary fury. They d have voted to go to war in 1917 and they
“would have voted to go to war in 1898 when we
fought Spain, had the issue been presented to them. » » »
HE actual declaration of war was made by the Congress. But when the moment came about all
| that Congress did was to ratify a sentiment which
had been churned up by a series of events which had been in progress for four years. All wars have proximate causes. Some foolish soldier fires on a neighbor's flag, or some border patrol .makes an attack on a neighbor's citizens. These are Juke the sparks which touch off the war. The causes ; and grow into a huge inflammaofttimes for years. ;
i ara tr, ain i eR si:
It is important that this country be not plunged into war without consent of Congress. But so far as the actual war-making is concerned there are other things more important, There is the question of who
is handling our diplomatic affairs. For instance, at the present time our relations in the East are being handled by Mr. Hull, subject of course to the President. Without intending to cast any reflections on Mr. Hull, it is far more important just what is going on in his mind than who will make the formal declaration of war, so far as the final event is concerned.
” # #" » S Mr. Hull proceeding on the policy that we should co-operate with Britain in the East? Is his course shaped by the belief that we should take action of one sort or another on the Chinese side in the existing war? Does he propose to keep these
" war-torn sea zones filled with American naval vessels to protect. those who insist on trading in these
dangerous markets? No one can say what the policy is. And yet it is these decisions which will ultimately get us into war and keep us out rather than the vote of Congress
or the people. The policy we now take with reference to arma-
ments must also be looked upon as playing a fore-
most role in shaping the thinking of officials and public in this perilous war subject. If Americans want to stay out of war, the way to do it is to exercise the powers they have now over state policy rather than to sit idly by while war and war scares and war spirit are cooked up and then hope to avert by vote it. ‘
Life’s real definition No printed page carries. No course in biology, Either, can give it. To know its true meaning Each person must live it.
ep —— DAILY THOUGHT
Where is boasting then? excluded. By what law? of works? the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.—Romans 3:27,
(OME men wish they did, but no man disbelieves.—Young.
as saying that foreign investments and markets are more important than millions of American lives. » ” ” URGES CO-OPERATION OF STATES IN RELIEF WORK By Donald G. Reeves
I suggest that all states co-oper-ate and take care of each other's unfortunates needing relief paying the difference of one over the other. Every person could have a tag with name, number and state on it, as in the army during war. Regardless of where they are born, if they are in Indiana on registration days, they are registered as Hoosiers, and SOON .
It is
Gen. Johnson Says—
Conference Between Industrialists
And F. D. R. Is Encouraging Start, But Task Ahead Is Difficult One.
VV ASHINGTON, Jan. 14.—The pleasant conference between the President and the five industrialists is a step in the right direction. The three of the five who are known to me—Weir, Sloan and Chester—are all men of good will and I am told the same is true aboui the others. In other words, there is no shadow-box-ing about this visit so far as they are concerned. It is not generally known but it is literally true that, back in 1933, there was no one in all industry more sincerely in line with the President's social objectives than Mr. Weir—certainly no one in the steel industry. It was a series of misunderstandings and errors that put him out. in front in his fight with the Labor Board. In hearings before the first Labor Board, presided over by Senator Wagner, Mr, Weir's people appeared in a perfectly co-operative attitude and rules for a labor election were worked out. On the eve of the election, and when there was no time to change, a subordinate of the board presented the National Steel Co. with a set of rules inconsistent with those agreed upon with the board. Mr. Weir declined to change, held his election—and then the board disapproved it. A fight started that is still going on.
” ” oy UT even that record has not changed Mr. Weir's eagerness to co-operate with his Government in this war on depression—as he did in 1933. It is refreshing to see these five men back at least offering to play ball. It is an encouraging start, but it is no more than a start. The way ahead is long and hard and the problem full of prickles. The first difficulty is that business has no responsible organization—not even big business. It is a kind of community of individual economic stars with all the pride, if not all the jealousy, of the Hollywood variety. The President's conferees will have the neat little job of tact and diplomacy of keeping all those ruffled feelings smoothed out and at the same time leading the hitherto unled leaders on some new but predestined path of peace. : “wl N the other side, as soon as the Presitdlent begins to play iootie-footie under the table with these lately regained friends, all the professicnal business mistrusters among his retainers will begin jumping up and down along the wailing wall shrieking in anguish that he is “letting the people down.” The business barons will have to recognize all the time that the President has a political problem, just as the President should constantly keep in mind that they have no organization plus prima donna trouble, There must be neither trading nor threats in this new etfort, It’s a hard job but it’s not an impossible job. And the President, plus the particular men who made the start, are about the best equipped people in the coune try to do it.
Hugh Johnson
According to Heywood Broun—
Capital's Clear Dissenting Opinion of Black Earns Favor With Newspapermen.
ASHINGTON, Jan. 14.—Joe Alsop won the prize. It was at the National Press Club, and a little group of newspapermen were swapping stories on the general topic of “The most tactless thing I ever said.” Joe Alsop told of an argument he had with Senator
Vandenberg of Michigan. “We were talking about John L: Lewis,” Mr. Alsop explained, “and Vandenberg was questioning the sincerity of Lewis. I said that in my opinion Lewis was utterly sincere, and the Senator objected that the C. I. O. leader was ambitious, ‘But,’ I answered, ‘those things don’t necessarily war with each other. The personal ambitions of Lewis go along the same road as the cause to which he is committed.’ “‘I think,’ said Mr. Vandenberg, ‘that we do not define the word “sincerity” in the same way. At some point in his life every man stands at a crossroad and he must choose the path which leads to fame and fortune and to evil or take the road which leads to self-sacrifice and righteousness. I, too, have stood at the fork in the road and made my choice.’ ” “And it was right there that I made my little mistake in tact,” added Joe Alsop. “I didn’t do it on purpose. It just popped out. I asked, ‘Senator, which
| road did you choose?”
» » s O me the National Press Club houses the greatest deliberative body in the world. Surely the veterans of the working press know far more about the business of government than the average Senator. And the House just isn't in the same league. Congressmen are in Washington today and back in Pascagoula, Miss., tomorrow. Washington coire= spondents are seldom fired, never
Reporters Constitute Tough Audience for Flag-Wavers;
frequently. They constitute a very tough audience for the flag-wavers. "Aside from the little group of commenting columnists, Washington reporters are not particularly politically minded. I mean that few of them have any passionate personal convictions about contentious legislation, past or present. They carry salt, since they seek the little bird which whispers to a Senator and very rarely pay much attention to the noble motives which an orator assigns to himself when on the rostrum. » » ”
OME of the judgments are snap ones and far from fair. Frances Perkins, for instance, is a woman of great ability and is better informed about her own fleld of activity than any Secretary of Labor in recent years. And yet her effectiveness has been seriously impaired by a bad press. She earned a bad press by her tendency at conferences to lecture newspapermen and women as if she were a professor talking to a scmewhat backward group of freshmen. Of course, a Washington notable may get a very bad press as far as editorials are concerned and still be very highly regarded by the factual reporters in the nation’s capital. I would cite John L. Lewis, for instance, and also Mr. Justice Hugo Black. A reporter who specializes on the court told me last week that in his judgment the new recruit had already become the leading liberal on the High Bench and had won a. great respect from his colleagues. Justice Black is certainly popular with newspaper= men, because he recently wrote a dissent in English as simple and clear as a good running story on the first page. And, naturally, reporters take to those who speak their own language. And it is a finer tongue ‘than that ¢ vented by Js, Blackplonts
»9