Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 19 January 1938 — Page 10

PAGE 10 . - The Indianapolis Times

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ROY W. HOWARD LUDWELL DENNY MARK FERREE President Editor Business Manager

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WEDNESDAY, JAN. 19, 1938

ON SAILING AND PAYROLLS—AND F. D. R.

RE you confused by Mr. Roosevelt's methods, as we frequently are? His tendency for example to call a peace meeting and then come carrying a big stick with a spike in it? Well, we've heard of a better explanation than “he never met a payroll.” It’s this—he likes to sail a boat. Now all of us in our work are influenced by what we enjoy at play. A psychologist would explain it with some such high-priced words as “subconscious coloration.” Anyhow, the only way you can get ahead sailing a boat against the wind is to tack. That means to zigzag; to the right some of the time, left some of the time, in order to make port by what amounts to a middle course, net. Yes, maybe the skipper of our ship of state thinks she carries canvas instead of a propeller. The thing that rather worries us though is that yachting is an expensive sport and not very speedy in an age of speed. 8 » = 8 » ® I you are tired as we are of that “never met a payroll” wheeze, the next time someone springs it on you, ask this question: / “What President ever did?” You'll generate a deep silence in response. Did Washington meet a payroll? Not in slavery days. Did Jefferson? le was a lawyer and a writer. Jackson? Lawyer. Lincoln, lawyer. Cleveland, teacher and lawyer. Theodore Roosevelt, lawyer, soldier. Wilson, teacher, lawyer. After your friend of whom you asked the question has had time to get to his World Almanac he'll find that the only real exception in all the 31 men who have been President was Harding, who owned a newspaper. But your friend won’t have much hankering for an argument with that as his only evidence. As a matter of fact, political life is one line and running an industry or business is another. And when a man who, having gone into politics, is able to transcend politics and become really a statesman you find one who is possessed of such vision as to enable him to understand and sympathize with the problems not only of business and industry but of labor and agriculture and the professions and the services, in fact, of human beings, all. We think that F. D. R. i$ of that caliber, but we must

confess that we would feel more serene about him if he preferred motorboats.

TEACHER SHOULD KNOW

F easy payments were made harder, fewer people would stretch their credit to buy automobiles. Then the automobile industry would not oversell the market one season and run into a subnormal demand for cars the next. So production could be “regularized” and the peaks and valleys of employment could be smoothed out. That, as we get it, is the theory that President Roosevelt will discuss with the leading automobile manufacturers and the heads of big automobile finance companies who have ‘been called to a White House meeting. There may be much to be said for that theory. And there was something to be said for Will Rogers’ theory that the traffic problem could be solved by making it unlawful to drive a car until it had been completely paid for. At least the Rogers plan would have put most of us on our feet. The Roosevelt plan, it seems to us, would make it more difficult for many people to buy cars—this season, next season, or any season. It is not quite clear to us how that would fit in with another Roosevelt theory, that the way to prosperity is to increase production, raise wages and lower prices. But automobile makers, automobile financers and automobile buyers all should enjoy hearing about Mr. Roosevelt’s new plan. It will be edifying to learn of the evil consequences of stretching credit too far—especially from a Government which has stretched its credit for eight years and is on the way to stretch it for a ninth,

WHAM! FEDERAL district judge has just awarded $115,000 to an Illinois coal-mining company to cover damages allegedly suffered by it at the hands of seven locals and 66 individual members of the Progressive Miners of America. The jurist’s name was Judge Fred L. Wham. The company said its mine was shut down for three years as a result of a jurisdictional dispute between the P. M. A. and its rival, the United Mine Workers of America. The P. M. A. pickets prevented U. M. W. A. men from working all these years, and thus were guilty of a conspiracy to hurt the company’s business, it argued. Judge Wham thought so, too. Such judicial crackdowns, fortunately, are rare these days, recalling misuse of the Federal courts against labor unions in the early days of unionism. But the ruling should serve to warn the warring forces of unionism that they cannot long continue to settle their jurisdictional rows by strikes that injure employers and the public not involved in the controversy and deprive rival unionists of the right to work.

OLD DEAL DEMOCRACY

QuoriNG from the Democratic platform of 1856: Resolved—“That the Federal Government is one of limited power, derived solely from the Constitution; and the grants of power made therein ought to be strictly construed by all the departments and agents of the Government; and that it is inexpedient and dangerous to exercise doubtful constitutional powers. “That the Constitution does not confer upon the General Government the power to commence and carry on a general system of internal improvements . ..” / What a whale of a difference a faw years make!

Off the Rocks-Er Kirby

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

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WEDNESDAY, JAN. 19, 1938.

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler

Those Who Call Roosevelt Traitor To His Class Are Hereditary Rich Who Grew Up Endowed as He Did.

EW YORK, Jan. 19.—Nobody has ever put a finger on the exact spot where Mr. Roosevelt is a pain in the neck to a large proportion of those Americans whom he describes as economic royalists and well-fed

clubmen. The element of rich men whom I have in mind are members of the Horatio Alger school who started from scratch as typical, one-gallus, Whitcomb Riley barefoot boys. They got their rudimentary knowing in a one-room or two-room schoolhouse, split kindling, pumped and carried water by hand and in their high school years sold papers, mowed lawns, shoveled snow and coal and dragged out ashes. In every possible way they hustled to make an honest quarter BF oe or a dollar, always with the am- : of bition to become successful or, in : A 4 a coarser word, rich. A 73 3 Horatio Alger was the most £ Pre) Fe popular boys’ author of the time, and, like some of our most opulent Mr. Pegler fiction writers of today, he wrote the same story over and over. The hero was an insufferable little prig, and nobody ever tried to copy his morals, but his success was dream stuff and he was the inspiration of many men who are now either rich or quite well to do.

“ on # ANY of them had to quit school early to take the responsibility of supporting their mothers and younger brothers and sisters, and when at last they met the one and only and decided to get married they moved into a furnished room or rented a little house and furnished up with installment plan furniture bought at extortionate interest rates. Mr. Roosevelt himself never spent a day in a public school in all his life. , When he had done with nurses and tutors he went to a dude school called

Groton, which prepared him for Harvard, and after he had married and had taken his bride for a honeymoon tour of England, France, Italy and Germany they returned home in time for him to go to Columbia Law School. “My mother-in-law,” writes Mrs. Roosevelt in her book, “had taken a house for us. She had furnished it and engaged our servants.” = ” » N 1903 the President's mother thought their little house too small and therefore bought a plot in New York and built another for them. Later she also bought and gave to Franklin Roosevelt and his young wife an estate on Campobello Island. Now, all this was very nice, but obviously Mr. Roosevelt did not have to do it the hard way. While he was spending long vacations at Campobello and moving from one house to another furnished by his mother other men were scuffling for a living. There are those who call Mr. Roosevelt a traitor to his class, but that cry comes from the hereditary rich who grew up endowed and, as he did, looked to their mothers and fathers for support and luxuries long after they had ceased to be children, The class that I have in mind take pride in having made Lheir own way. They are proud to have taken care of their own parents in their old age, and every crack from him about well-fed clubmen and economic royalists evokes from them the soulsatisfying and contemptuous taunt, *mamma’s boy!”

The Hoosier Forum

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

CRITICIZES STATEMENT BY IRVIN COBB By L. A. Jackson, Vernon

What can we expect from the masses of our people when men like Irvin Cobb exhibit such a lack of logical thinking as he did when he said somebody has pointed out that the causes of sanity and safety suffer from the manufacture and sale of alcoholic drinks; the use of liquor results in much suffering and loss of life. Mr. Cobb says that when this man proves that the manufacture and sale of automobiles promote sanity and safety, he, Cobb, will turn prohibitionist. The manufacture and sale of airplanes has resulted in much suffering and loss of life. The same is true of railroad trains, the building of great churches and cathedrals, etc. I infer that Mr, Cobb will turn prohibitionist when someone can prove to him that all these things can be done with perfect safety. Mr. Cobb puts himself on a plane with the fellow who says, “O yes, alcohol causes some deaths, but a lot of peaple kill themselves eating too much good food, too.” My answer to that is: Food is essential to human life, while alcohol is not. Alcohol is not only unnecessary to human life and health but it is harmful to the body and mind. ” ” ” REGRETS POLITICS IN SCHOOL SYSTEMS By Saddened

A news item reports that two Lake County legislators are to take up new legislative posts, awarded for their support of a bill designed to give the Gary city administration control over school trustee appointment, I find that item very saddening in its significance. Not for the reward or patronage given the legislators, though that is disheartening enough to anyone who believes that good government, like virtue, is its own best reward. The rewards in themselves are not necessarily unethical, but they are in payment, as it were, for a hill that is a decided step backward in the development of Gary's famous school system. It makes the system a political football. The Gary school system is unique and has wide adoption throughout the country. It could only have been developed by a great educator free to pursue the course his experience and observation taught him made for better educated citizens. Dr. Wirt, former superintendent of the Gary schools, was that educator, but because of his differing political beliefs publicized during the early part of. the Roosevelt regime he was ousted by means of this bill. Dr. Wirt saw Communists under the Federal bed, but I'm not at all sure his mild views were not seized’ upon and distorted beyond recognition. Though his political views did not coincide with that of the city fathers of Gary, his ability as an edu-

Business—By John T. Flynn

Writer Terms Holding Companies Unsound Economic Instruments; Corporate Reform Is Almost Impossible So Long as They Exist.

EW YORK, Jan. 19.—The announcement that the President favors the abolition of all holding companies will come as a surprise to the business leaders he has been smoking the peace pipe with. It will also come as a surprise to the liberals who hailed the attack on monopoly and then sank down in gloom as he removed his horns to entertain the barons and suggest a revival of the NRA. It leaves the whole subject in a state of confusion. But despite all this the holding company. issue is one of profound importance. Like all corporate devices, the holding company has been used for legitimate and illegitimate purposes. It has been used by businessmen and their corporations for wholly proper and wholly bad purposes. There is no point in indicting all who use the holding company. The plain fact is that the law permits them; not oniy permits them but actually sanctions them. There is no reason, therefore, why a business group with a legitimate purpose in mind

should not use them. ” " ”

UT this does not affect the fundamental question, which is this: Is the holding company a sound economic and social instrument? Should it be permitted? And the answer would seem to be that it is thoroughly unsound. convene Ts vay aa wean Bt a s

(Times readers are invited to express their 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.)

views in

cator still should not have been overlooked, nor should his unfortunate utterances have served as an excuse to make. Gary's school system open to patronage raids. Political supervision need not be hamstringing and indeed has a laudable motive in print—to see to it the children are taught patriotism and learn no inkling of subversive foreign isms. But actually it has a degenerating influence because it stultifies any real thought or progress. No educator dare show greater intelligence than trustees who have been picked principally for their political merits, except in his technical field. " H n SUGGESTS GLASS AS CURE FOR DUST AND DROUGHTS By W. L. Ballard, Syracuse “So comes to tragic close the cycle that began with the winning of the West.” Those words were recently used editorially by a great Midwest newspaper in interpreting the dust storms of our Western states. Is man, then, too immature, too puny, to stem this fateful tide of disaster? ... As a test of human hope and determination, I suggest fragile glass as a cure for drought, dust and erosion, and for early and late frosts everywhere; not for garden tracts of a few acres, but for whole regions. General farming under glass is the proper term, not hothouse culture. No heat but the sun, Specifically, it would do this: 1. Make sure our sowing, care and harvest. At planting time we would plant, Growth and maturing would be controlled by man, no longer by blind nature. 2. Lengthen seasons, mature crops that do not ripen so far north. When it gets frosty, simply close the doors. 3. Impede the spread of weeds and of plant pests. Insects could neither

REFLECTING By JOSEPHINE D. MOTLEY

You see her there And know her for her worth. No keener eye Detects her faults or mirth, You are alike In comeliness of face A mirvor, that alone Divides your twin like grace.

DAILY THOUGHT So Job died, being old and full of days.—Job 42:17,

T is a rare and difficult attainment to grow old gracefully and happily.—L. M. Child.

We would always have maximum crops. Cultivated acreage would drop sharply, along with labor required; for only the pest land would be thus used. Poor land would go to pasturage and to trees. 4. Heavy rains and winds would not injure crops or wash or blow topsoil away. Glass would supplant endless, costly terracing and treeplanting for windbrake. 5. Sun, wind and dust would stop robbing soil of its moisture. Gardeners already discount glass-losses from wind and hail. Time was when window glass could not resist moderate hail or wind, but now a 10-ton truck does not destroy a pane of newest glass. Sufficient labor has been ignored since 1929 to glass in the' choicest land in several states. Machine glass-making factories are idle, though each could produce several acres of glass each day. ” ” ” URGES AIR PILOTS’ TESTS FOR MOTORISTS By Airminded : Airplane pilots are not like auto drivers. They are made to order, so to speak: they want to ride, they want to be a pilot, and they can’t be a pilot by being able to turn in an isolated street or stopping at a fire-plug. They've got to have many hours in the air alone; and then they've got to stand the stiffest exam that's given to an operator of a moving vehicle. They must know their onions. As far as I have been able to find out, the air is much safer than any other way of going places, per capita traveling. If auto drivers’ licenses were as hard to get as airplane pilot licenses, we wouldn't have so many accidents in this county to date. ”

enter nor leave.

4 2 BRITON’'S SUGGESTION TERMED REASSURING By B. C.

It is commonly assumed, and certainly the events in Spain and China bear it out, that in the next World War civilians, women and babies will all be slaughtered on even terms with soldiers. Now a British admiral offers an alternate suggestion that would be more reassuring if the thought behind it were not such a revelation of the mad way in which the world is thinking today. “The bombing of noncombatants, except munition workers,” says the sagacious admiral, “would not be carried out by anybody except madmen, as food supply is a great problem in war-time, and to reduce the number of noncombatants, and nonmunition workers is assisting to solve the enemy's most vital problem.” In other words, because noncombatants eat, thus consuming food that might otherwise go to their soldiers, opposing future warriors may wisely spare their lives. So mad has the world become that sane and intelligent men indulge quite gravely in speculations like that.

Gen. Johnson Says—

Best Method for Recovery Lies n Accepting Capitalist System and Attempting to Correct Its Evils,

VV ASHINGTON, Jan. 19.—There is little" room to argue the assertion that the extension of corporate enterprises has gone so far as to create great economic provinces as closely affecting the daily lives of millions

of people as any political government under the sun. It is also true that the people thus affected have little or no voice in saying how these governments

shall operate. It seems clear that such a cone . dition cannot continue long in a. democracy without some correc~ tion. The only circumstances 'in which it could continue would be uninterrupted prosperity at least to the satisfaction of those concerned and such has not been the condition. So much power is a natural target for political assault. With= . out doubt, something will have ta be done about it. There are four things that.

Hugh Johnson

could be done. : 1. Laissez faire. Let it alone. That is precisely ° what our present antitrust laws do, and don't let any= body tell you anything to the contrary. 2. Accept them as natural growths under natural law which have brought great benefits—together with whatever burdens and abuses may be proved. Accept

them, but give people, through their Government, a sav in the correction of proved abuses by letting these corporations live, but requiring them to operate under the supervision of Government and with its co-opera-tion in some such tribunal as might be called a “high:

court of commerce.” F- 8 ”

TS function would be to tell them what they can do, as well as what they can't do and to see that they live within the limits thus laid down. 3. Attack and assault them. Use them as a polit« ical target. Attempt to break them up into little pieces by holding them up to the scorn and hostility of the proletariat. That is what is now being done. It is an effort to shatter an existing system of employment with nothing of known or proved value to re= place it. It is the precise cause of the present silly slump. . 4. Have the Government confiscate and attempt to °; operate them. That is the communistic doctrine of “production for use and not for profit.” That is the : second step in the process of heedless, headlong assault on them that is now in process. 8 4 & : T seems to me—and for 20 years it has seemed to “a me—that No. 2 is the sane solution of this difficult ~ problem.” We can have the capitalist system and try - to correct its abuses and honestly, try to make it work, Or we can have the Communist systera that never has worked anywhere in human history. But we’. can’t have both at once. . I.believe that the key to recovery is simple. Just : make it clear that Government intends that every man will be permitted to invest his money, make 4

“reasonable profit and keep a reasonable part of it—

but that abuses in that process will not be tolerated. That is far from clear today and that uncertainty -. is why the capitalist system is not working. :

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According to Heywood Broun—

Distinct Cultural Influence of Radio Is Impossible So Long as Commission Requires Broadcasts Be Prepared for Wide Audiences. . -

responsible for most of the evils which have crept into the corporate system. For years we have limited our discussion of the social aspects of corporations to monopoly. Trusts

have monopolized our attention. We have not thought enough about the corporation itself as an economic instrument. There are all sorts of corporate practices which ought to be ended. Corporations ought to be limited to a single function. They should be compelled to have ‘simple capital structures.

= = » ARIOUS other corporate financial reforms should be enforced without regard to whether the corporation is a monopoly or not, a good corpora= | tion or not. But it would be almost impossible to eniorce any sort.of corporate reform if the holding company is allowed to continue. It is impossible to enforce banking examinations and reforms. It is impossible to regulate utilities and railroads. It is impossible to control industrial corporation and investment practices if holding com-

panies are allowed to exist. It has long been the sober judgment of many men that the greatest single economic business reform that could be effected in this country would be to put an end absolutely to the holding company. This the President is reported to favor. Critics of the President may warn that he does not mean it;

that he is talking to Please ES ostals in order to take the edge off his parieys a:

{rom this da never

EW YORK, Jan. 18.—I wasn't around the night Mae West took the air, nor have I heard her on a platter. Sometimes a whole year or so goes by without my hearing or seeing Miss West in anything. I am not a Mae West fan.

Nevertheless, I think the Federal Communications Commission has indulged in dangerous folly in its public statement on the incident. Mr. McNinch stated that the feature was “vulgar, indecent and against all proprieties.” I do not think that the “‘proprieties” should be any part of the business of the Radio Commission, Naturally, there must be Federal supervision as long as the lanes of the air are numbered. And I suppose that there shouldbe some protection against the dissemination of words palpably gross and obscene. But at present radio stations are prissy. I think it was a far greater error to shut off General Johnson's talk on venereal disease than to let “Adam and Eve” go on.

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HE result of the recent blast by the Communications Commission is going to be distinctly bad. Radio entrepreneurs “are a feeble folk.” They have always been frightened by what they call “controversial” subjects. In recent years there has been some little actual growth in the development of adult programs, but the ukase from Washington is going to send most of the stations back to their infancy again. Presently I expect to hear that the word “rat” must be spelled out “r” “a” “t,” lest some tiny toddler be frightened by an ugly word. The censorship which already exists is pretty silly, It says to a prominent actress, who must be nameless : "Go West y and

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understand it, is done to proteét the youth of the’: land. On the other hand, many of adventure pre- :* grams specially prepared for children frighten the & life out of the little brats and send them to bed with I convulsions. They could do ketter. . NBC should not have apologized all over the map. It should have made a fight. At the very least the chain ought to put a speaker on the air who would challenge the right of Mr. McNinch to assume the- - role of Emily Post for an entire nation. Questions of good taste are devious and difficult. Pretty soon :- some political speaker will be stopped because the . Commission deplores his choice of words,

' » " 8

ND speaking of niceties in expression, just run over this fragment from the Commission's re- | port:—“The high standards required for a broadcast :’ program intended for reception in the homes, schools, * automobiles, religious, social and economic institutions, = as well as clubs, hotels, trains and other places . . . » carrying its message to men, women and children of & all ages.” That is too many people to hit with any one program. Radio could have a distinct cultural influence, but this will be impossible if every broadcast must be aimed to swat grandma and little Willie squarely. between the eyes. I think the Lotels and clubs of which Mr. McNinch speaks so tenderly ought to be equipped with shock absorbers, just as the automobiles are. And I wonder whether the defenders of decency ever stop to think that every radio listener, beyond the grade of first year moron, can easily be his own censor

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