Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 20 January 1938 — Page 14

PAGE 14

The Indianapolis Times

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

r * ROY W. HOWARD LUDWELL DENNY MARK FERREE President Editor Business Manager | Owned and published Fas Price in Marion Coun4 daily (except Sunday) by pn ty, 3 cents a copy; delivThe Indianapolis Times [=i ered by carrier, 12 cents Publishing Co, 214 W. E=8lE————4 a week. Maryland St. Ee a &=- : Mail subscription rates ; Member of United Press, bg in Indiana, $3 a year; Scripps - Howard News- EB outside of Indiana, 65 paper Alliance, NEA cents a month. . Service, and Audit Bu- = A reau of Circulations. RIley 5551 Give Light and the Pcople Will Find Their Own Way ’ ' THURSDAY, JAN. 20, 1938 ’ ABOUT FEDERAL TAXES

PPROXIMATELY 90 per cent of corporations—those with net incomes of $25,000 or less—are to be freed » from the business-disturbing undistributed-profits tax, if the recommendations of the Tax-Revision Subcommittee of the House are enacted. That much is clear even to laymen. And that is an improvement. But how the new “notch” rates and “third baskets” will apply against the remaining 10 per cent of corporations—which incidentally produce an estimated 90 per cent of corporate revenue—is a puzzle which we laymen have to leave to Government experts and corporation lawyers. They | will be arguing about it for some time at Congressional hearings. Meanwhile all of us can understand and applaud the Subcommittee’s recommendation for repeal of manufactur- | ers’ excise taxes on malt sirup, brewers’ wort, toothpaste, toilet soaps, chewing gum and other products. They are taxes on consumption, and all of us are consumers and will be glad to be rid of them. bd " n » un » AND all should be interested in what Undersecretary Ros“7 well Magill testified about the Treasury Department's future intentions. The department, he said, will continue its studies and “at some later date” will propose other tax revisions, including— 1. Repeal of the remaining manufacturers’ excises, and substitution of revenue from income and estate taxes. (In a recent statement of the Treasury's policy Mr. Magill’s chief, ’ Secretary Morgenthau, proposed broadening of the incometax base as a method of raising revenue now obtained by hidden excises. That would increase the number of citiA zens who consciously contribute to the support of their Government, and would make our Federal tax system con: form more closely to the principle of ability to pay.) v 2. Make interest on future issues of Federal, state and municipal bonds subject to income taxes, on the same basis as private investments; and make Federal employees’

«<v

‘ salaries subject to state income taxes, and state and local covernment employees’ salaries subject to Federal income tax, on the same basis as salaries of private citizens. ! 3. Simplify the Federal tax system, and reduce or elimi inate levies which overlap state and local taxes. These changes proposed for the future are long over- » due. We are disappointed that the Subcommittee did not | recommend immediate action. We hope Congress will de- | : cide against delay. ’ ——— ———————————————————— OBJECT REINMUTH WE don’t remember what we were most worried about . last Oct. 30, though no doubt it seemed terribly important at the time. It's a good thing we didn't know that “Object Reinmuth 1937 U. B.” was only 400,000 miles away. . This wandering planetoid, which was photographed by Dr. Karl Reinmuth at Ieidelberg, Germany, and by another astronomer, Dr. Il. II. Wood, at Johannesburg, South .

Alrica, was traveling about 1200 miles a minute. At that rate it could have reached the earth in five and a half hours, and if it had nobody knows what might have happened. * But if all of earth's 2,000,000,000 people had knovn ; that we were nearer than ever before in recorded history to collision with a sizeable heavenly body, and if everyone of '. us had joined in concentrated worry about it for a full 24 y/ hours, it wouldn't have made a particle of difference. Object teinmuth would have gone on away just the same. Of . course, not one of us can be sure this minute that we're not within five and a half hours of an even worse disaster. We're glad Object Reinmuth didn’t hit us. We're glad » we didn’t know about it in time to waste a lot of energy on worry. Come to think of it, we wonder what we accomplished by all the worrying about other things that we did . put our energy into on Oct. 30.

“CAPTAIN X " HE captain of an American passenger ship, testifying before a Senate committee, told a lurid story of alleged conditions for which he said union seamen were responsible. * jecause the captain said his life would be endangered if his name became known, the committee published his testimony without his name. That was a mistake. Conditions may have been bad on Captain X's ship. If they were as bad as he said, no passenger in his right * mind would want to travel on that ship. But certainly the h conditions he described do not prevail on all American ships. Yet his anonymous testimony casts suspicion on the seamen of every American ship, and is enough to frighten passengers out of using any American ship. Captain X's motives may have been good, and his story b may have been true. We don’t know. What we do know .s that anonymous testimony, which doesn’t particularize and which gives the public no means of judging which ships are safe to travel on and which ships aren’t, ought not to be published. \

FOR DEMOCRATS TO REMEMBER HE Federal budget soon will enter its ninth year of unbalance, and President Roosevelt estimates that the public debt will reach $338,528,000,000. Every dollar appropriated by Congress in excess of the amounts that the President says are necessary but sufficient will have to be a 4 borrowed dollar and will make the debt still bigger. | In the face of that fact, the louse is adding little

| slices of pork to appropriation bills, a few millions here and"

| B a few millions there. And this of course is being done by the votes of Democratic Congressmen. Every Democrat in

Majority Leader Sam Rayburn spoke the other day:

“1 plead with this House, and especially with the mem-

pers on this (Democratic) side of the aisle, to remember now that, when our budget is not balanced, when the credit of the Government may be injured, the responsibility and he blame are going to be on the majority party where they hould be.” a a

[ many

| control prices almost instantane-

| ness, | operate some horse tracks.

Congress ought to paste in his hat the warning that House |

Beyond the Foothills

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THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

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THURSDAY, JAN. 20, 1955

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EASY PAYMENTS

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YOU SHOULDN'T ENCOURAGE EOLKS TOGO IN DEBT (F THEIR BUDGET CAN'T STAND IT!

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Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

Jersey City Is the Home of the Largest Gambling Industry in the United States, Columnist Declares.

EW YORK, Jan. 20.—Jersey City is the home of the greatest gambling industry in the United States and perhaps the greatest, by volume, in the world—the horse bourse, in which enormous quantities of money are wagered on the races run at all the tracks in this country and Canada. The business is conducted over a system of wires leading to the tracks and to other horse rooms in cities which stand in the same relation to Jersey City as minor exchanges and brokers’ offices around the country stand to the New York Stock Exchange. Jersey City is the Wall Street of the horse ‘gambling business,

and the pressure” of money from the bourse is able tea make and

ously at horse parks thousands of miles away. For example, if a Jersey City operator finds himself unable to lay oil with other operators elsewhere a bet which he does not want to handle alone, he wires the track at which the race is being run, just before post time, dumps a ioad of money into the mutuel machines through an agent on the grounds and hammers down the

Mr. Pegler

| odds so that his loss. if he should lose the bet, will

be reduced to convenient size. n n ” HE man who is reputed to be the greatest single operator on the Jersey City horse exchange was cnce a waiter in New York. but is now regarded as 2 millionaire. However, the business is not a monopoly, and many New York bookmakers’ clerks find employment on the horse bourse during the months when the steeds are not running on the New York tracks. The ramifications of the system are vast and mysterious, but its existence has been a matter of common knowledge in the sport business for years, and

| there is no doubt that the volume is such as to beggar

the handle of such tracks as Hialeah, Narragansett and Santa Anita. It is a known fact, acknowledged by the horse busithat notorious racketeers are permitted to

It is not unthinkable that some of the brokers holding seats on the Jersey City horse exchange may aiso be silent partners in some of the tracks. In that case they would possess a strong advantage over the customers who place bets with them. } n n ” N years past both St. Paul and Toledc. were notorious havens for criminals who were permitted to rest and spend their money in those cities on condition that they refrain from professional operations. Jersey City offers similar hospitality to horse brokers who come properly sponsored, although, of course, there is no requirement that they cease operations. The horse bourse handles millions of dollars, and it would not exist for an hour if the local administration were not willing. There also is the interesting business chance pro-

| vided by the landlord who rents office space to a

member of the bourse.

sm—————

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

The Hoosier Forum

to express

troversies

(Times readers are invited their these columns, religious conexcluded. your letter short, so all can have a chance. be signed, but names will be withheld on request.)

OPPOSES APPOINTMENT °° OF WOMEN | By J. M. Sparks, Solsherry | As I see it, Roosevelt brags he is the first President who appointed a woman to the old country. He is the first President who went back on his country. He put Miss Perkins in as Secretary of Labor, and that is a man's

views in

Make

Letters must

tian civilization is indestructible, |

and its final triumph is certain. raise them. Are we careful to see | Maybe so, but I'd hate to be hold-| that their minds are full of active, | ing my breath all this time waiting | clean thoughts? Do we try to find | because best qualities and develop them? Do the children leave homes | thankful that they were able to be

for that triumph in Russia Spain.

Menace has been recognized in|

or their

job, a big one to contend with. He appointed Mrs. Ruth Bryan Owen she was W. J. Bryan's daughter. This was made a man's world, but woman has taken possession of man.

| i

| LAW IS ASKED

| By Wiliam A. Sprowl

the Red doctrine by people in all| walks of life, from the man on the | street to the most brilliant in the country. But Mr. Cramer sees no menace. He even says that any govern-! ment could use communism provided several ifs were eliminated. | May no one be misled by communism, the scourge of freedom and democracy,

# 4 & ACTION ON TITLE HOLDER

There have been many letters in | the Hoosier Forum recently expressing distaste for the unneces- | sary enforcement of the antiquated

hand signal and the two-bit gadget

laws as safety measures. But we should give even the devil his due. Unless I am greatly | mistaken, there has been little attempt to mislead the taxpayers into | believing that they are safety meas-

| Bureau;

| most of it.

"reform, I have no faith in

| well,

guided by us? Do we try to cultivate

| refinement and respect in them?

It is a big problem, this raising

of someone else's child. My thanks |

State Welfare Children’s my investigator has been most helpful to me. » ” o ALCOHOL TERMED CAUSE

to the

| OF CRIME INCREASE

By H. S. Bonsib

Crime keeps marching on and strong drink is at the bottom of Those interested in preventing juvenile crime are alarmed to note that during the past four years our church attendance has declined 30 per cent, while the sale of whisky has increased 220 per

| cent, and yet the crime breeding is

licensed. Why so? As for the brewers’ promises of them. “When the devil was sick a saint he would be, but when the devil got a devil of a saint was he.” Beer is the toboggan slide of the

Roosevelt also said he was going to see old people taken care of and pass a law, but he left it hanging in the air. .

” ” td

BURDENS ON CAPITALISM BLAMED FOR SLUMP By H. L. 8. The President's conference with business leaders will prove to be just another horseplay. We are

operating this country under capitalism. There is no secret about the cause of this depression. The factories, farms, mines, transportation are bogged down by a burden of at least 200 billion dollars of excess capitalization, cripding debt and speculative selling prices for land. In addition this producing plant is strangled by taxes upon production, and by taxes upon consumers, which reduce the ability to buy goods, amounting to eight and one-half billion, or about

| the sticker law is enforceable but

[that he didn’t

ures. There are many of us who devil.

half the total amount paid out in

will not pay the 2 per cent, heice other methods to collect money for .campaign funds. The New Deal party is in power now and they intend to stay in power, Mr. Spencer said he doubted if|

intend to let it worry him till after March 1. Now would be an ideal time to do something about it and win the favor of the voters.

" n ” FOSTER MOTHER THANKS CHILDREN'S BUREAU

By a Foster Mother

Our minds and memories are refreshed every year by laws and licenses for various things. It would also be a very good thihg to revive memories of our foster homes for children. I think we should each be reminded and checked to see if we | have done our duty as mothers. if | we have tried to fulfill and accom- | plish good for our foster children’s | welfare. Have we lived up to moral standards? After all, our children’s | lives depend upon our ability to|

Israel,

teronomy 24:7.

Business—By John T. Flynn

World Is Confused Today in Determining Various Forms of Government;

Economic Objectives of

EW YORK, Jan. 20.—From Brazil comes news of an event designed to prove to the world that the dictatorship of President Vargas is not a form of fascism. The news is that an order to deport 1000 Jews has been revoked. This is done, of course, because a great many people imagine that one of the essentials of fascism is hatred of the Jew. The whole Brazilian episode, and this latest incident, illustrates one of the strange phenomenon of these days, namely the complete confusion about the true character of any given government or any given government movement. Now, apparently, observers and reporters cannot agree on what the Vargas regime in Brazil is. Some insist it is fascism. Prof. Jerome Davis, visiting the country, says it is no such thing, only an old-fashioned South American dictatorship. And now Vargas himself, who resolutely denies he is a Fascist, seeks to prove it by permitting 1000 Jews who had been ordered to move to remain in the country. ” n ” p= it all not arise out of a good deal of confusion as to what fascism is? If you look at his destruction of the constitution, the dictatorial ending of the federal system, the promulgation of a new constitution like a Russian ukase, and various other acts of the dictator, and the setting up of the corporate state, you feel you are in the presence of fascism. But then here are some of the things Vargas has done as Presiden®, which look strangely

ss nig 2 3

Brazilian Dictatorship Label It Fascism.

hour law, a reorganization of federal bureaus; he has set up a ministry of labor and education, he has pushed through a series of reciprocal trade treaties, he has reorganized the judiciary and stripped it of some of its powers, and he has increased the number of voters from one million to three million.

The truth is that these new regimes are not to be judged merely by the reforms they introduce and the various measures of social justice. These new regimes are essentially economic experiments. ” n "

HEY are essentially attempts to make the cap-

familiar, He

italist system work by bringing the wholé area

| of business under central control, that control to be

exercised not by a Congress or parliament, but by representatives of business named by business itself and organized into “corporatives.” Hence the corporative state. Fascism sets up a new instrument of government called Business and Business is implemented with cer tain sovereign powers to regulate the national economy. Labor, in theory at least, is given a voice in this, but it is also kept subject to pretty rigid central discipline. All this is done under the supervision of a dictatorship, since, of course, the democratic process is not workable in such a system. There seems no doubt that Vargas has done this in Brazil. Whether or not he persecutes Jews or Nigroes or attempts any other emotional appeals to e Brazilian people is not the determining thing.

nt fac are

I WONDER? By VIRGINIA POTTER

I wonder if you will recall When with friends old and new, The plans you shared with someone, And things you used to do?

I wonder will you tell someone, Your love will always last— Without a thought of someone You told that in the past?

I wonder will you some day See how foolish you are now, # 4 # And wish you had considered And proved sincere, somehow?

DAILY THOUGHT If a man be found stealing any of his brethren of the children of and maketh merchandise of him, or selleth him; then that thief shall die; and thou shalt put evil away from among you.—Deu-

deed, the whole thing seems to be a drive against the

1935, as interest, profits, entrepreneurial withdrawals and net rents and royalties. Private initiative cannot, judged by all economic standards, maintain a decent standard of comfort for the American people, burdened thus. The trouble is we are afraid to let capitalism operate. Capitalism has always washed up its illegitimate claims through bankruptcy. This has not occurred on a large enough scale since 1929 to let capitalism get its feet back on the ground.

SEES CONGRESSMEN WRITING COUPLETS By Daniel Francis Clancy, Logansport Secretary of War Woodring and Gen. Craig recently gave forth a couple of poems. If our politicians ever start emptying their minds into | poetry, there's going to be many a ‘member of Congress «who'll be un-

| able to show anything more than

HOSE are men-stealers who | couplet. abduct, keep, sell, or buy slaves or freemen.—Grotius.

Looks like Ludlow has been laid low.

Washington

By Rodney Dutcher

Economists Agree That Bottom of Slump Was Reached Around Jan. |; Jackson Seen as Reed's Successor.

ASHINGTON, Jan. 20.—Even the most pessimistic of the Government economists seem to be agreeing that the bottom of the business slump was reached around the. first of the year in so far as the next few

months are concerned. A substantial business pickup in the spring is considered almost inevitable. The upturns used to appear in the business activity curves each spring during the depression in Mr. Hoover's Administration. The one now anticipated ought to be relatively large because the current recession has been so sharp. But it is considerably more problematical just how many of the people thrown out of work since August will get back to work, and whether business and. Government will be able to keep the upturn going through the summer and fall. The uncomfortable fact which no one can dodge is that Mr, Roosevelt and the country, in four months, have lost about 70 per cent of a ‘“we-planned-it-that-way” recovery, the achievement of which required more than four years. A wide-followed general business index reached a depression low of 65 points, climbed to a high mark of 111 in August and then was back down to a bit above 78 at the first of the year. Figure it out for yourself. How much of that 70 per cent of lost ground is about to be regained? What will be the net increase in the unemployment army and the relief problem by next fall? The most likely answer to these and many other questions will be found in the certainty that Roosevelt will try to do whatever he thinks necessary to put business on the upgrade during the election campaigns. Current bright spots in the business picture include conspicuously the fact that inventories ere being: eaten up in certain important commodities such as steel, used cars, rugs, cotton textiles, clothing and shoes.

Mr. Dutcher

” ” " N the day after Stanley Reed's nomination to

the Supreme Cougt it became apparent to this writer that Assistant Attorney General Robert H. Jackson, groomed by the Administration to become

the next Governor of New York, was the logical per= son te succeed Mr. Reed as U. S. Solicitor General. Mr. Jackson thus would control the handling of all cases in which the Government is represented be=fore the Supreme Court. Perhaps it was even more significant to note that he would also become second in command at the Department of Justice, and the logical successor to Attorney General Homer S. Cum-= mings should Mr. Cummings enter private law practice or accept another Federal post. Fromotion of Mr. Jackson would be a continuance of the buildup of this brilliant New Dealer for the New York Governorship—and a chance at the Presidency, ” on " FTER a succession of Democratic victories in . Pennsylvania, Senator James J. Davis-——Secretary of Labor in previous Republican Administrations—is understood to have given up hope that he can be reelected this year and may decide not to run,

According to Heywood Broun—

Injustice Being Done Seamen by Publicizing Passengers’ Testimony; Copeland's Committee Seems to Be Seeking Rumors Rather Than Facts,

EW YORK, Jan. 20.—I have been on a good many ships—American, French and English—but I remain an illiterate landlubber as far as ocean travel is concerned. But at that I doubt that my ignorance is any more profound than that of the average passenger who goes down to the sea in a steamer chair. Accordingly, I feel that grave injustice is being done to crews by the publicizing of passenger testimony in regard to matters concerning which the witnesses are by no means expert. I have in mind a recent widely reported story in wich a tripper accused the crew of drunkenness on the ground that “the ship steered an erratic course.” I have grave doubts as to whether the average passenger reclining on the promenade deck could possibly have any knowledge whatsoever as to the nature of the ship's course. Once Sandy Hook :s passed I don’t pretend to know whether we are heading for Havana or Cape Horn,

” » »

GAIN I think it extremely unfair for Senator Copeland or his committee to give out the highly generalized accusation of a nameless shipmaster. The gentleman in question was reported to have testified that he had seen ‘discipline vanish entirely” in the American merchant marine. Even if the witness hac a rowboat he hardly could have covered conditions on all the vessels, and if he spoke only for his own shin there is at least the possibility that the witness himself was a wee bit incompetent. Little of the material given out by Senator Copeland has been specific. The committee seems to be fishing for rumors rather than angling for facts. In-

: po i8 dark

Fag

I think the Algic case is a striking example of a miscarriage of justice, It is utterly unfair to call a strike in port a mutiny. And I am wondering why Senator Copeland and his associates have been so inaifferent as to seeking testimony as to pay, hours, food and crew quarters. ” » s F course, passengers have a right to be heard, but sometimes their testimony should be taken only with a barrel of brine. The early stories about the President Hoover have not been borne out by later investigation, but the first story always gets more play than even the most authentic denial. Indeed, I think that one of the troubles with pas senger ships is the passenger himself. Luxury liners have bred a kind of captiousness. Even the finest floating hofel may run into conditions under which the toast may be burned. When I hear talk about rudeness on the part of members of the crew I wonder whether justification may not exist in certain instances. There are new tides, and no one should expect maritime workers to be forever the story-book sailors who said nothing but, “Aye, aye, sir!” and enjoyed the privilege, being tearfully called “gallant seadogs” as they went down with the ship. And as far as the contact between passenger and crew goes, I think the man who orders the ham and eggs or the scotch and soda should be under the same compulsion to courtesy as the man who serves the food or drink. I have never seen a steward slug a passenger, but on several occasions it would have been a proper thing. The rule of the sea ought to be that the passenger who' gives courtesy gets it in return. What