Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 1 February 1938 — Page 10

PAGE 10

The Indianapolis Tim.

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

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

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Their Own Way

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Give Light and the People Will Find

TUESDAY, FEB, 1, 1938

THAT FAIR-WEATHER TAX NE who knows the President well recently made this comment about him: *He has a peculiar trait of isolating the proposition immediately at hand, and reaching a conclusion without regard to its relationship to the rest of his policy.” That helped us, in part at least, to explain in our own mind the many and obvidus inconsistencies. Like, for example, advocacy of agreed restriction on trade and production, occurring simultaneously with demand for antitrust prosecutions in behalf of unrestrained competition: exaltation of smallness as moral in business and condemnation of bigness, accompanied by espousal of wage-hour legislation which would hit only the “little fellow,” big business already operating above the base-line of wages and hours set in the proposed legislation; the campaign to restore the 1926 price level, succeeded by a plea, before that level

had been attained, for lower prices as the cure for our |

economic ills. The list of inconsistencies is long. So we think that cemment from the one who knows the President well is a keen observation, and helpful in

THE INDIANAPOLIS

Mickey Mouse?—By Talburt

—

A mu

AND THE SEVEN

DWARFS

TIMES

TUESDAY, FEB. 1, 1933 Round-the-World Flight—By Herblock

understanding the man on whose action so much of the

future of all of us depends.

Maybe the technique of isolated conclusions will prove | Perhaps, through an approach to |

all right in the long run. each problem as a thing in itself, with a mind unburdened by expediency and uninfluenced by the general pattern, we are getting an objective judgment, rare in political life. And perhaps there will come a time when the pieces of what now looks like an insoluble puzzle will fit together, to the general good. But we can’t help being reminded of the story probably not true but nevertheless apropos, that was being told during the first Ickes-Hopkins dispute. It seems that Secretary Ickes called to complain. Mrs. Roesevelt happened to be present. After hearing the Secretary's complaint the President was said to have remarked: “Harold, you're absolutely right.” Then came Mr. Hopkins. Having heard him, the President's comment, as the story goes, was: “Harry, you're absolutely right.” After Mr. Hopkins’ departure, Mrs. Roosevelt is supposed to have said: “Franklin, they couldn't both have been right.” To which the President is said to have replied: “Eleanor, you're absolutely right.” Anyway, we are not devotees of what Senator Ashurst calls that blighting vice of consistency. But we must confess that inconsistency on so broad a front is confusion, . ‘8 > un ERE is the latest. Mr. Roosevelt, speaking on prices, wages and recessions, said: “Those who get the profits when business is good must bear the losses when business temporarily is sick.” : How does that fit with the undistributed-profits tax, a Presidential policy?

The effect of the tax is to prevent the very thing the i President now espouses: To force out as dividends thos:

very profits which hitherto had been available for the rainy day. It is a fair-weather device designed to keep the cupboard bare. And though roundly condemned —and with the necessity for change now admitted by the President himself, the Treasury Department, Congressional leaders and tax experts, and, in fact, everybody—it is still the law of the land, threatening to add immeasurably to the severity of depression times. We are glad to see that the President's statement has served to stimulate a Senate sentiment, grown somewhat dormant through long days of filibustering, for suitable action to correct this, one of the most vital mistakes in the whole New Deal record.

ANOTHER VICTORY

THE Wagner Act triumphed again yesterday when the U. S. Supreme Court, in two unanimous decisions, served notice on Federal district courts to keep their hands off the administration of that law. The act vests original jurisdiction in the National [Labor Relations Board, and confers appellate jurisdiction on the U. S. Circuit Courts of Appeals. But despite those specific provisions, a Federal district court in Massachusetts issued an injunction which prevented the Board from proceeding with a fact-finding inquiry into a complaint against the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp. A Federal district court in Virginia denied a similar application for an injunction in the case of the Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co. The Supreme Court upheld the prudent action of the Virginia court, and threw out the Massachusetts court’s injunction, saying it was “an improvident exercise of judicial discretion.” ; We hope these two decisions will bring to an end the

persistent efforts of some employers to break down the |

Wagner Act’s orderly processes and chisel away its guarantees of workers’ rights. The sooner employers accept these processes and rights as established law, the sooner can responsibility for the successful administration of the law be placed where it belongs. And in that connection Justice Brandeis took pains in one of yesterday's decisions to point out that the findings of the National Labor Relations Board must be based on “adequate evidence.”

A WORTHY CAUSE

GQPORTS build health—— Basketball fans who go to Butler Fieldhouse tonight to see the Indiana-Butler game will be more than spectators at a sports event. They will be contributing to the fight on infantile paralysis. \ Tonight's basketball game is a civic event. The Junior League, sponsor of the game, will give its share of the receipts to Riley Hospital's occupational therapy department. Interest in the game would have been high even without the charity inducement because of the rivalry between the two teams. Rp

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

For a While It Seems the Cook's Accident on Her Day Off May Cause

George Spelvin Serious Trouble. EW YORK, Feb. 1.—Last summer George Spelvin decided to get away from it all and therefore rented a little place in the country and moved up, taking along Emma, the colored woman, who fluffs up the pillows and runs the vacuum and does the cooking in the Spelvins’ love nest in town, to do the same up there, They had a good time and returned to town fit for the fray, as Dale Carnegie might say.

There had been no mishap to mar their enjoyment of the woods and fields except one aimost forgotten incident last July when Emma, on her day off, went out to gather some wild flowers, slipped on a rock, grabbed a maple sapling to save herself from falling, and sprained her thumb. It

, hurt a little that night, so Mr.

Spelvin drove her over to the doctor, who gave her a bag of pills which she was to. take every hour on the hour. Neither Emma nor the Spelvins gave it another thought until Mr. Pegler a short time before Thanksgiving, when Mr. Spelvin received a large and formidable official form from the State Industrial Commission and a letter calling him to time for failure to report an industrial acci-

i dent on his place. The form had dozens of blanks to | be filled in. What was the nature of the industry?

= = =”

HAT was the cause of the accident on his premises? Structural defect? Mechanical breakdown? Explosion? Were all the injured given immediate first aid? Had any lives been lost or limbs blown, torn or lopped off. and where had Mr. Spelvin buried his dead, if any? Mr. Spelvin saw that there was a little misapprehension, and, after consulting Emma. who had completely forgotten her sprained thumb. threw aside the form and wrote the Commission a letter, stating. in effect. “Cook sprained thumb picking wie, flowers on day off. No explosion. No fire. No ead.” He thought he had been rather clever in his sarcasm, but last week there comes to him another communication from the Commission. He is summoned to appear at a hearing at 10 a. m. in Room 1322 of the Labor Department, tailing which he will be subject to prosecution and on conviction, to a heavy fine and long imprisonment.

=" Ld ”

AZ this point Mr, Spelvin thought he would call up somebody, so he looked in the telephone book, got the number of the Commission, and told the girl on the switchboard that he wanted to discuss the industrial accident with someone who had “nfirisnt. orecp and authority to advise him well. She said, “Wait a minute,” and presently a man’s voic aid. “neilo what's vour trouble?” “My coo:,” said Mr. Spelvin, “last summer she sprained her thumb picking wild flowers on her day off. No explosives. No lathes or unprotected saws. Just wild flowers on her day off. Now I am summoned to a hearing. Can you advise me?” “Oh, don’t pay no attention to it.” the man said. “But they say I can be fined and imprisoned.” Mr. Spelvin said. “Don't pay no attention,” said the man. only a matter of form. tion. like.”

“It's Just don’t pay no attenJust ignore Jt It's you know, it's the law,

EW YORK, Feb. 1.—Various readers, since the LN. President made his attack and then his retreat on holding companies, have written to ask what, precisely, is a holding company. Generally, a holding company is a corporation formed to own stocks in one or more other corporations. Thus it differs from an operating company which is formed to operate an enterprise. In practice, however, corporations are frequently both operating and holding companies. Thus certain large industrial corporations are looked upon as corporate units, but if you look closely you will see they consist of numerous corporations—perhaps 40 or 50 subsidiary companies the stock of which is held by one

central holding company which may also operate a part of the business. y es

. LJ » UENTLY oll the corporations have the same directors and the central company owns all the stock of all the subsidiaries. In such cases the socalled subsidiaries are little more than incorporated departments of one great corporate structure. The

Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey, General Motors Corp., United States Steel are examples of this kind of holding companies. However, there are two other sorts which are quite different. One is the holding company organized to enable promoters, with a small amount of and t the resources

to get posse

The Hoosier Forum

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

SEES WASTE ENDED THROUGH GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP By H. C. A.

I wholly disagree with what The Times says in its editorial, “TVA, the Utilities—and the Future,” and here are my reasons. I believe the arguments given against Government ownership of utilities to be a little unfair. In the first place the Government, State and municipality already are running a series of enterprises quite successfully. I never hear much about the failure of the Navy, Army, Postoffice, Highway Department, Police, Fire Department. schools and other institutions operated by the public. Does Government operation here ‘tend to the status quo, to dull incentive,” and is it “essentially reactionary, not progressive”? To my simple

| mind all of these enterprises seem

to be quite up to date and very

| efficient.

Again, this country has less things operated by the Government than have the most successful of the European countries. In Norway, Sweden, Denmark and, I believe also in Holland and Finland, the Government or the Municipality operates not only the above mentioned institutions but practically all the railroads, telephone, telegraph, power plants, gas plants, streetcar systems, public baths and swimming pools, water supply and broadcasting. Many utilities are operated extremely well. These happy countries were never hit very hard by the world depres- | sion. The reason? Norway's Foreign Secretary, on a recent visit to America, told newspapermen why. In those countries, he said, such a large percentage of the people were on the Government payroll that the public purchasing power remained practically unchanged. Now, there is one angle of Government ownership worth while remembering. Regarding the “packaged power units” mentioned by The Times as a probable blessing of the future, heaven forbid that they be adopted! That is if we care anything about posterity. If every home should use oil ‘to run Diesel motors in the basement, the world’s supply of fuel would not last long. If, on the other hand, the Government would develop all the available water power through enterprises like the Boulder Dam and the TVA, much fuel would be conserved for our descendants. Government ownership could also i stop the scandalous waste of metals and other supplies. ” n ” | FINDS FILIBUSTER IN 1938 | HARD TO EXPLAIN By Kitchen Cynic Filibustering seems such an an- | achronism in this day. 1t is hard to explain why this relative of the dodo is not extinct. It could happen only

in our

Business—By John T. Flynn

Economist Believes Exploiting and Personal Holding Companies Are Two Types of Corporation the Government Should Not Permit.

The first of these is best illustrated by the utility

(Times readers are invited their these columns, religious conexcluded. Make your letter short, so all can Letters must

to express views in

troversies have a chance.

be signed, but names will be withheld on request.)

American Congress and it's one of the reasons we have to grin and bear our Congressmen. We could easily laugh off this silliest of their antics if it didn’t cost taxpayers so many thousands of dollars every day. That is not counting the losses suffered in delaying really important legislation. Immediately upon electing Con-

‘gressmen we ought to have some

means of automatically making statesmen out of them. As it is many of them seem to go to Washington equipped with just a set of monkey wrenches.

» » ” ASKS SPEED ON CITY MANAGER PLAN By a Voter

Some time ago Glenn Funk, an attorney, asked for a vote by the people on the city manager plan. Nothing further seems to have been said or done about it. Indeed, with all the talk and agitation for the city manager plan we do not seem to get anywhere with it. Why? In whose hands lies the power to set voting machinery in motion? Some apparently capable men are running for mayor in the next election. and their very capability dismays me. It makes a continuation of the system more certain. I firmly believe Indianapolis needs the city manager system. Citizens have expressed their desire for the change. Why can’t we go on from there? If the next move in this is up to the City Council, I can see why we are not getting anywhere, That

TO MY MOTHER By TEDDY HILL

Now most folk have their songs That they like to sing, or hear; Well, may I tell you, please, Of the two that I hold dear?

The first one is just—“Margie,” The second one—"‘Rosalie”; Why, that’s my mother’s name—! And they mean—so much to me!

DAILY THOUGHT

And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.—Matthew 21:22.

RAYER is not eloquence. but earnestness: not figures of speech, but earnestness of soul.— H. Moore.

group of men seems to me to be as stubborn a set of standpatters as I ever heard tell about in Congress.

” ” »” CLAIMS RAILROADS ARE IN UNFAIR POSITION By a Voice in the Crowd Many people do not share the view of Frank Walton that the railroads should pass out of existence as an American institution, Every form of transportation serves a purpose. When quantities of material must be moved, the

railroads are the ones that move it. Anyone who knows anything of war appreciates the importance of the railyoad to the first line of defense. When enough people realize what, is wrong with our railroads, the railroads may be enabled to push to greater achievements, They are a fine example of what happens when the “operation for use and not for profit” applesauce applies. That the railroads have held their own as well as they have is a miracle of management.

When it comes to the setting of rates for service performed, primary operating costs and mode of operation, the railroads are public corporations and the people's commissions fix these details. However, when it comes to the paying of taxes to every subdivision of government, paying interest on and retiring bond issues, giving the shareholders a return on their investment and improving the standards of service, the railroads become private corporations, and these details are something for private management to sweat about. Is it fair? If all American business were conducted in that manner, we would not need the railroads, and we would not need the trucks. And it would not be America anymore.

4 #2 URGES LAWS TO ASSIST

SOUTHERN STATES By Fred Roper One cannot escape the hypocrisy evident in the progress of the antilynching bill, the ultimate defeat of which is obvious. Political strategists of the North are quiescent; the President, though sponsoring one of the most important programs of his Administration, is content to give the measure the necessary time to go the way of its predecessors. But why the deception? If the unexpected should happen and the bill should pass, it is a safe guess that the Supreme Court will nullify the act. Let Congress instead attempt legislation designed to assist Southern states to rehabilitate the Negroes in the South,

Man Has a Disposition to

Gen. Johnson Says—

Some Small Businessmen May Sing

Out of Tune, but Secretary Roper

Should Keep the Parley Harmonious. ASHINGTON, Feb. 1.—Uncle Danny Roper’s coming Congress of Lilliputians will be worth watching. It isn’t altogether clear what rule Uncle Danny used to select 500 little fellows in business to round

out the President's program of conferences with business on his depression, but the rule had to be good. It is easy to suspect that we are about to witness a hand-picked—not to say “packed’—per= formance. The Administration has been careful to distinguish what it calls big business—which it regards as a big bum-—from little business— which it says is the object of its tenderest affection. It seems to say that while all of big business opposes it, little business is behind it to a man, In. this atmosphere, it would never, never do to permit the as~ sembly here of a lot of savagely angry little tribesmen. To prevent precisely that, ree quired some very skillful picking, In journeying to and fro in this country and talking to little fellows in business—both singly and in groups —I find them, by and large, hotter and more hostile than the grand sachems of big business.

" » ” HE undistributed profits taxes hit many of them harder than they did the big corporations, because few had any accumulated surplus with which to pay their debts, repair their factories, and expand their operations. They. least of all, are able to follow the President's advice to cut prices without cutting wages. They, most, of all, are dependent on the use of capital to make profits and they, most painfully of all, are hurt by the continued popular, political and statutory attacks on the profits system, Generally speaking. little angry hornets and to have picked out of such a swarm as many as 500, each of whom can be relied upon not to hum like a hot hornet, but to fan the air softly like a contented butterfly was a job for an artistic chooser. Uncle Danny is just that. » ” ” E also can be relied upon to guide the group when it gets together. At the end of its deliberations a smaller committee of about 10 are to

represen’ the 500 in a conference with the President himse]f. The choosing of that group and the shaping of their memorial to the boss will require the very acme of Uncle Danny's art.

From start to finish, the urbane Secretary of Com= merce undertook here one of the most difficult assign« ments of his career. He may not be able to pull it off without some untoward outburst.

There may be some singing out of tune at the coming concert, but my bet is an Uncle Danny on the general result. In four years as conductor of his futile Business Advisory Council, not one strident note of discord ever leaked out to offend the public ear—and those were business big shots. If he could handle them in harmony for so long, he certainly can conduct the little fellows in a single appearance.

Hugh Johnson

business is a hive of

According to Heywood Broun—

Hero Worship and He Evens Up Only by

Getting a Little Tired of the Great Ones Who Have Been on Too Long.

EW YORK, Feb. 1.—William Slavens McNutt, a

holding companies, or most of them, by certain bank holding companies, some railroad holding companies and certain so-called investment trusts. The personal holding company is merely a corporation in which one

man or one family is permitted to incorporate theme selves and enjoy under the guise of corporate ownership certain advantages which do not go with individual private ownership.

» ” n Y own belief is that these latter two types—exploiting holding companies and personal holding companies—should not be permitted under the law.

As a matter of fact, the Utility Holding Company law now gives the Federal Government the power to great-

ly curtail the abuses of the utility holding company type. If the President, instead of talking about these things, would get some action under this law he would be doing a better job. He had a magnificent chance to do something about bank holding companies in 1833 but no one could interest him in it. In the case of the large industrial holding company, it seems to me that some means should be

found to rid the corporate system of the practice, but in the meantime they should be permitted only when subject to two restrictions—(1) only where the central holding company owns all of the stock of the §|

ubsidiaries as in the case of U. 8. Steel and General

§ a. 3 ghosd tS aay

newspaperman who died a few days ago, uttered what seems to me the classic line about sports writing. He said, in effect, “All sports writers can be divided into two classes—those who say ‘Ah, look!’ and those who say, ‘Ah, nuts!” The accuracy of his comment. was borne home to me one Sunday when on the same page of the same newspaper I saw contrasting stories by Grantland Rice and Bill McGeehan about a heavyweight bout in which Georges Carpentier retired, on the ground that he had sprained his ankle. Grant wrote that he had never seen a greater exhibition of gameness under adversity. Bill said that the Frenchman had quit like a yellow dog. But McNutt’s aphorism covers a wider territory than that of sports reporting. All commentators, philosophers, politicians and artists either view with alarm or point with pride.

® =» S OMEBORNY can supply the name of the Greek hero who eventually was exiled from Athens because the citizens grew tired of hearing him called “the just.” In school this incident was presented to us as tragic, but I think that on the whole it was salutary. Man has a disposition to hero worship, and he evens up only by getting a little tired of great men who have been on too long. Not even the most sagacious leader is smart enough to get off the stage while the applause is still with him. Napoleon, as a convenient symbol, insisted on coming back to take one more bow, when it would have been wiser for him to get to the dressing’

+ A

|

The public whim to demand new faces and new lines after a certain interval is profoundly important politically. This restless desire and change is not altogether good, and yet not wholly evil. The itch for alteration has destroyed reform administrations in many cities. Even good Mayors go down to defeat be cause the voters begin to grow bored at hearing that their local government is the most efficient in the country. On the other hand, it, is somewhat the same tide which finally disrupts the most carefully organized corrupt machine. Tammany seems to be at low ebb in New York, and it has gone out of power not only on its errors, but because its own supporters would like to turn the page and get at least a change in title,

n o ”

N the field of criticism it is obvious that no author or dramatist can hope to stay at the top of the heap all his life. Even if his powers do not flag his audience will. It is easier to attack than to defend. To be specific, any belated critic who goes to “Snow White” hopes in his heart that he can find something in the Walt Disney picture to which he can take violent exception. All the adjectives of adula=tion already have been flung to the breezes, There is no room except on the other side of the street. Some of this shift and change may seem monstrously unfair, and yet in the long run justice is done. Even the best act on the bill ought to re-, member that there is such a thing as a saturation point. Heroes and martyrs may serve useful pur-

poses, but into the life of every man there comea