Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 1 February 1938 — Page 9

Vagabond

From Indiana=Ernie Pyle

Ernie Is Unable to Find a Single | Battleship in Pearl Harbor, Big | Enough to Handle the Whole Navy. |

ONOLULU, Feb. 1.—Pearl Harbor is about 10 miles west of downtown Honolulu. It is the only large and really decent harbor in the whole Hawaiian group. They say it could accommodate the entire Ameri-

can Navy all at once. The harbor is shaped like a hand. The wrist is the entrance, and is very narrow. Inside the entrance are the five fingers, some of them running

nearly five miles back into the island. The Navy has some kind of equipment in every one of them. The Navy Yard is the main physical part of the Pearl Harbor base. It's hard to make a Navy Yard look like anything in print. This one is like all the rest, dnly bigger and better, They are equipped to do anything here that can be done in any other Navy Yard. There is an immense drydock, able to take battleships and even the big aircraft carriers. There

Mr. Pyle

machine shops, and derricks you can see for miles,

are great 'hangar-like

for lifting heavy machinery out of ships. There is a “marine railway.” such as you see around yacht clubs for hauling little boats out on shore for the winter. But this marine railway can and does haul out a whole submarine or destroyer onto the bank. Although there's only one coal-burning ship left in these waters (or, I believe, in the whole Navy) they still maintain the coaling docks and a huge store of coal. In case of war, they'd conscript many coal-burning merchant ships. Comparing Pearl Harbor again to a hand, in the center of the “palm” lies a good-sized island called Ford Island. This is an air base. The Navy uses one side of it, the Army the other side. The Army side is called Luke Field. When the Army's great $18,000,000 Hickman Field is finished, the Army will likelv move off and leave Ford Island to the Navy. On Ford Island are quartered all those immense fiving boats they've been ferrying out here from California in uncannily perfect mass flights.

Practice All the Time

The most amazing thing about Pearl Harbor to me is the small number of ships stationed here. There are only a dozen or so submarines, a few destroyers, and some mine-layers, small gunboats and so on. Not a single battleship is stationed here. Not a single cruiser. Lately there has been a policy of sending one cruiser at a time over here for overhaul, and occasionally other cruisers do drop in. But as for permanent station here, there's nothing bigger than a destroyer. These subs and destroyers practice all the time. Every morning the officers and crew come flocking by auto from Honolulu, just like clerks going to work. They hop on their ships, cast loose, and get out into the ocean. The subs take a few minutes start, and when they get outside they submerge. Then the destroyers nose around and try to find them with their electrical instruments. When they've spotted a sub, they drop a theoretical depth bomb on it and wish the bomb were a real one. After the day's play they come back and tie up about 3 o'clock, and everybody leaps off and goes bounding home to Honolulu in his car, to live just like a civilian the rest of his day and night. Hardly seems like the Navy at all.

My Diary

By Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt

National Museum Exhibit Deserves

Pride of WPA Aid, First Lady Says.

ASHINGTON, Monday.—Last night I dined alone with Miss Mary Dewson, an old friend who is the newest member of the Social Security Board, and had a very pleasant, peaceful evening. Her house in Georgetown is just about perfect for her family, which consists of two very beautiful Persians cats, two dogs, herself and a very efficient colored maid who realizes Miss Dewson knows how to delegate authority and that her job is to remember all the things about the house which Miss Dewson doesn't remember. That is really the secret of being a good executive. Choose the people about you carefully and trust them to do all your work. The weather was perfect and springlike yesterday. It is still warm today, but it was raining hard when I arose. After a press conference, I went over to join my guests at Mrs. Townsend's concert. Though I was late, I was in time for at least three-quarters of the program and enjoyed hearing Mr. Beveridge Webster, the pianist, and Mr. Benno Rabinof, the violinist.

Tells of South American Trip

Besides the family, there were only three guests for luncheon. They were Mrs. Ellen Woodward of the WPA; Mr. Dornbush of the special skills division of the Farm Security Administration, and Mr. Jerome Davis. Mr. Davis told us some very interesting things about his South American trip, from which he has just returned. Mrs. Woodward urged all the young people to go to the WPA exhibit at the National Museum. She says she is almost ashamed to mention the exhibit any more, she has done so much talking about it. I am not in the least surprised at her enthusiasm, for it certainly is an exhibit of which she can be proud. I am sorry all these exhibitions cannot last indefinitely and 1 wish that we could send them traveling around the country.

New Books Today

Public Library Presents—

HE CASE OF LEON TROTSKY .(Harper). A report of hearings on the charges made against him in the Moscow trials by the Preliminary Commis sion of Inquiry. Still another book dominated by this fiery, controversial figure, who from his exile in Mexico, dares to defy a Government. THE MODERN FAMILY AND THE CHURCH (Harper). Vital church and family crises presented with a thoughtful and practical interpretation of their interdependence, by Regina Westcott Wieman. SOUTH BY THUNDERBIRD (Random House), Traveling by great aerial ships, which the dazed Indians called “Thunderbirds,” over much of South America gave Hudson Strode “a bird's-eye view of the whole show.” Colorful, beautifully and intimately written, this is a travel book de luxe! EVERYBODY'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY (Ransom House), by Gertrude Stein. Like Burton Rascoe’s Japanese houseboy, we enthrall unparalleled and cogitate, when perusing this woman’s autobiography of everybody, and are petrified out of bewilderment. Herewith, dear reader, we present the cockeyed brilliance of this sequel to “The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas.” MARRIAGES ARE MADE AT HOME (Knopf). Clarita de Forceville writes a working manual on conduct in marriage. Pertinent advice, sans sex or psychology, which, while frivolously imparted, is based on rock-ribbed truths dating directly back to Mother Eve. RACE, A STUDY IN MODERN SUPERSTITION (Harcourt). Particularly timely in the light of recent outbursts of race prejudice, Jacques Barzun shows in his history of the Idea of Race, “how equally unfounded are the commonplace and learned views of ce.” INTRODUCING THE CONSTELLATIONS (Viking Press), by Robert H. Baker. A beautifully nnderstandable book about the stars, even to us humbler watchers of the sky. WAR WITH THE NEWTS (Putnam). In a witty fantasy Karl Capek forecasts the fate of the human race. After Captain J. van Toch discovers a gigantic

do the world's work, only in turn to be destroyed

species of newts, mankind breeds and trains them to ny

"The Indianapolis Times

Second Section

\ TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1938

hat Is a Holding Company?

Class Mater PAGE 9

Entered as Seco at Postoffice. Indianapo

Comparatively New Form of Corporation Has Varied Character

(See “Business—By John T. Flynn,” Page 10)

By Thomas L. Stokes

Times Special Writer

VW ASHINGTON, Feb. 1.—President Roosevelt's vagueness About the exact nature of further holding company reform and the type of holding companies which might be included is explained by an examination of this characteristically American business form. Economic experts disagree as to just what the term “holding company” includes, some giving a broad, some

a narrow, definition,

There is, however, no denial of the

social and economic significance and the rapid growth of the holding company form in the Twenties and early Thirties as an effective means of bringing together many companies in several states into one system with unified

financial control—a development of the trust idea, and, in some respects, an offshoot of the investment trust which had long been familiar abroad. The Administration now is grappling with the problem of public utility holding companies, a problem which is fairly well defined, under the Public Utility Holding Company Act. But when and if it moves into other fields it will find the problem more complex because of the difficulty of classifying corporations. In the authoritative book on holding companies by James C. Bonbright and Gardiner C. Means, of Columbia University, the holding company is defined as follows:

“Any company, incorporated or unincorporated, which is in a position to control, or materially to influence, the management of one or more other companies by virtue, in part at least, of its ownership of securities in the other company or companies.”

=” » » HEY point out that legal and economic writers generally

have narrowed the term from the broadest definition, which would include any company which holds securities in another company or companies. This broad definition was used by critics of President Roosevelt's recent suggestion for abolishing all holding companies. Some experts specify exercise of actual control in other companies as necessary to constitute a holding company, while others specify merely the ability to control. Means and Bonbright go still further to include in the definition a company which exercises a material influence as the result, in part at least, of a significant minority stockholding. They point out, for example, that the two largest utility holding companies, the United Corp. a Morgan enterprise, and Electric Bond & Share, maintain working control over affiliated companies by minority stock interest in most of them. Some great corporations partake of the nature of both holding and operating company,

two outstanding examples being the Pennslvania Railroad Co. and the American Telephone & Telegraph Co. The holding company, say Means and Bonbright, “has become the greatest of the modern devices by which business enterprises may escape the various forms of social control that have, been developed, wisely or unwisely, as & means of limiting the vast power of the great captains of industry.” ” » » HIS exemption from social controls, they explain, derives partly from the fact that it is a comparatively new device in large scale use, partly because it “is protected from interference by our traditions of constitutional law” and partly because it extends beyond the jurisdiction of any one state in many cases. Economic and social benefits and evils of the holding company are widely debated. The holding company has made possible the development of giant. enterprises far more rapidly than otherwise would have been possihle, as Bonbright and Means point out, but this then leads to the larger social question of whether this concentration is best for the country. Holding company defenders say this form of business makes financing easier and works toward economy. Both these claims are disputed. It was demonstrated in the case of public utility holding companies that extravagances rather than economies frequently were the result. All economists agree that the holding company has been subject to flagrant abuse in many cases, as attested by Congressional investigations and inquiries by Federal agencies. It has been the vehicle, through pyramiding control, of speculation that brought millions of losses to investors, as in the crash of the Insull empire.

”n ” EJ HEN, when leaders in Congress, notably the late Senator Couzens (R. Mich.), began to look around for remedies for these evils they discovered that these giants had got beyond the reach of states through the holdingcompany device and that only Federal regulation could reach them. Development of the holdingcompany form has been so rapid that no estimate exists of the amount of investment in this field. Scaling down of the holdingcompany superstructure probably would mean a shift to simpler economic and financial organiza-

tion, perhaps to smaller units, though no one knows what are the plans of the Roosevelt Administration and no forecast is possible at this time. Means and Bonhright list four purposes, for one or more of which the holding company is used: : (1) To combine two or more hitherto independent companies under a centralized management or control; (2) to combine two or more companies, not only under a centralized control, but also under a unified financial structure; (3) to recapitalize the financial structure of one or more enterprises through a substitution of the securities of the holding company for the securities of the subsidiary companies; (4) to pyramid the voting control so as to give to the organizers of the holding company control over the subsidiaries with a minimum amount of investment. » EJ » Y erecting a series of holding companies, it is possible for a small group to retain control by a very limited actual investment. Such cases have been revealed in Congressional investigations. The

Quorum Calls Used Effectively By Southerners in Filibuster

By E. R. R. ASHINGTON, Feb.

into law.

The House in the last four weeks has passed a few appropriation bills, approved a conference report on the important housing bill, and turned down a “war plebiscite” proposal. The Senate has confirmed a few appointménts, passed one minor appropriation measure, and devoted most of its time since Jan. 3 to

1.—Two and a half months have passed since the President called Congress into special session to enact a five-point emergency program. For the last four weeks, the Congress has been in regular session. Not one item of the agenda submitted by the President to the special session has yet been enacted

demonstrating that it is the last deliberative body in the world in which debate is unrestricted. The obstructive tactics of a filibuster by a determined group of southern Senators effectively blocked action on the antilynching bill, The Southerners used every parliamentary trick in the bag, not the least useful of which was that of insisting upon the attendance at all times of a majority of the Senate. On 53 occasions during the last four weeks the Senate took time out to ascertain whether enough members were present for the transaction of business.

” » » LL told, these 53 time-killing quorum calls consumed 12 per cent of all the time the Senate was in session.

It was certain that the bill would have passed, could it have been brought to a vote, possibly with as many as 70 Senators voting in the affirmative. The only near-test seemed to indicate, however, that at least some Senators who might have voted for the bill were not sufficiently concerned about its fate to sanction application of the Senate's cloture rule,

The cloture motion, signed by 17 Senators, was filed Jan. 25, and was in order for a vote on Jan. 27. It required a two-thirds majority for adoption and was soundly snowed under—37 yeas to 51 nays. Indiana’s Senators; VanNuys and Minton, both voted to invoke cloture.

HOLDING COMPANIES

Robert H. Jackson

(left), Assistant Attorney General, has made

some of the most vigorous Administration attacks on “big business” and

business combinations.

He is shown here with Wendell L. Willkie,

Commonwealth & Southern Corp. president, when they were in New

York for a radio debate.

Insull empire was of this character. As a matter of public psychology. it is easier to sell stock in a big company than in a small company and the holding company has capitalized this psychology. Development of the holdingcompany form started in a sizable way in the Nineties, though it really began to flower on a large scale in the 1920's when the great public utility holding companies were organized. In more recent years railroads have resorted to the holding-company form, largely, according to Means and Bonbright, to escape supervision of the Interstate Commerce Commission. In the Nineties, holding companies appeared mostly in large industrial corporations. Bank holding companies also have been organized, though not on as large a scale as in other fields.

EJ n n NE of the earliest holding

companies was formed when the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad

was authorized by the Maryland Legislature in 1832 to acquire stock in the Washington Branch Road. Subsequently - it was authorized to buy stock of other roads.

In. those earlier days such transactions were hedged about with legal limitations, and in most states, as in Maryland, it was necessary to get specific legislative authority. Between 1868 and 1872 the Pennsylvania Legislature chartered some 40 corporations. These were perhaps the first pure holding companies. A public outcry in 1874 stopped this practice by a constitutional amendment. Holding-company formation got its real start in the late Eighties when New Jersey liberalized its laws, though at the start only a few corporation Ilaviyers “were bold enough,” as Means and Bonbright described it, to advise their clients to try out the new statutes permitting purchase of stock in other companie§.

Side Glances—By Clark

ode

2-1

204 NE wish

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the train would pull out.

A WOMAN'S VIEW

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson HE thing I enjoy most about : beauty parlors are the movie, magazines. What's more, I wouldn't give a tuppence for a salon that wasn’t littered with them. Every 10 days or so I go dutifully to be slicked up and during the process catch up on the news about Hollywood. The beauty parlor proprietors are good psychologists. The urge to have a lash curl or an eyebrow trim or a new colored hair rinse is bound to follow close porings over the pages of these magazines. Reason tells us. especially if we are standing on the brink of middle age, that no such Utopias as are here pictured ever will exist. Women can never be so lovely nor men sO handsome. Just the same, the sight of such slenderness, such perfectly arranged curls, such lips stirs the deepest feminine longings, and for a few minutes the homeliest woman can dream she is beautiful—or that she will be just as soon as the present treatment is over. To be sure, the shock afterwards is bad. The moment comes when the operator turns you locse. The magazines are read, the dreams ended. You look into the mirror and—crash—like the smash of a giant airliner your hopes lie in a heap. But that makes no difference if your spirit is perked up and perking up the spirit is the main good beauty parlors can do for us

Owen

Jasper—By Frank

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244 W hE Copr. 1938 by United Peature Syndicats, Tne.

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"Hello, Scoutmaster?—Jasper says if you'll come over he

thinks-he Sokal ci |

Our Town By Anton Scherrer

Inscription Is Beautiful Enough, But It Fails to Record Just What Dr. Bobbs Did to Deserve Credit.

DE JOHN STOUGH BOBBS who lived in the big house near Irish Hill, the one I told you about yesterday, was the first— anywhere in the world—to perform the operation of cholecystotomy. Reduced to simpler terms, it means the removal of gall stones. Mary Wiggins was the beneficiary of Dr. Bobbs’ skill. She was taken to the third floor of Vinton & Kiefer's drug store at the southwest corner of Meridian and Pearl Sts. (where the Ayres people now do business), and it was there, on June 15, 1867, in a bare, barnlike room made to serve the purpose of a hospital, that Dr. Bobbs relieved Miss Wiggins of her gall stones. Dr. Bobbs had a lot of kibitzers that day. At any rate, legend has it that Drs. D. H. Oliver, R. N. Todd, F. S. Newcomer, George W. pp. Mears, John Cameron, John P. :

Avery and John Cominger were present at the opeére ation,

After Mary Wiggins was operated, she was pub to bed in charge of an anonymous English woman whom Dr. Bobbs had engaged for the purpose. Six weeks later, Miss Wiggins got up, none the worse for her experience. As a matter of fact, she got married—= Burnsworth was the name—and lived 46 years after inst: She died at the age of 77. Dr. Bobbs died in

One year after performing the famous operation, Dr. Bobbs let the world in on his secret by way of a paper titled “Lithotomy of the Gall Bladder.” It was read at the annual meeting of the Indiana Medical Society. Subsequently it was published, and of course, like everything else in this world, it had ail the doctors wondering why they hadn't thought of it,

Won Distinction During War

Well, I can tell them why. ‘It’s because Dr. Bobhs was one of the most remarkable men ever to come to Indianapolis. He came in 1835 by way of Pennsylvania, his birthplace. He was 26 years old at the time and had practiced medicine before he came here, but without the benefit of a degree. During his first year here, however, he attended a course of lectures at Jefferson Medical College, and so impressed his teachers that they conferred the degree of doctor upon him. After that, he had the world beating a path to his door, which, by the way, was in a house where the State Life Building now stands. The trustees of Asbury University tendered him the chair of surgery in the Central Medical College which was being established in Indianapolis at the time. He accepted and was made dean, to boot. He served as a member of the Health Board from 1854 to 1857, and followed it up with two terms in the State Senate. He won distinction for bravery during the first campaign of the Civil War. My only reason for going into this so thoroughly today is to explain more fully the inscription on the memorial tablet in the reading room of our Central Library. It merely says. “John Stough Bobbs . . . Illustrious Surgeon . . . Patriotic Citizen . « . Self Sacrificing Benefactor . . . Servant of God Through Service to Mankind,” ire Pretty enough, but it leaves a lot to the imagina« n.

Scherrer

Jane Jordan—

Girl's Personality Often Is Hurt

By Too Much Interest in Herself.

D+: JANE JORDAN—I am a 15-year-old high school girl and this is my trouble. I am about the only girl in my class who does not, have dates. Up to the present time I have had but one. I realize 1 am quite young, but T feel so left out of things. I think the main cause is that I attend a school for girls only, but, this does not hinder the other girls from having dates. It is not because I do not dress well, and I am frequently told by my classmates and relatives that I am pretty. Several boys whom I have met said they should like to see me again and then they get cold feet. Must girls ask boys for dates? Can you help me? Please publish this letter for the benefit of a few more like me. R. M.

” ” ”

Answer—Of course I don’t know why you have no dates. All I know about you is that you are a well~ dressed, good-looking girl whom the boys have overJoded so far. but I haven't the slightest hint as to why. What kind of a childhood did you have? Did you spend a lot of time alone or did you play solely with girls? Was there anything in the attitude of your parents towarc boys which made you tongue-tied when one appeared? Did you have a popular older sister who discouraged you? Did someone make a careless remark which made you think you weren't attractive? All of these things have a bearing on the attitude a girl assumes toward boys when she starts to grow up. Some girls are so occupied with thinking about themselves that they simply cannot show a genuine, warm interest in anybody else. They aren't even as interested in other girls as they should be so that when there is a party where an extra girl is needed their companions do not care to include them. . Every girl is interested in herself primarily, but not 80 self-consumed that she cannot annex friends of both sexes. A self-conscious girl may want friends desperately, but she expects the other fellow to make all the advances, to seek her out, break through her reserves and make her the center of attention with« out the least effort on her part. In casual contacts she is unresponsive, passive, withdrawn and so colore less that she escapes notice. You cannot make your personality felt in a gather= ing if you are constantly wondering what effect you are having upon others. Your cue is to break your concentration upon yourself and try to make others have a good time. If you do not know what your com=panion’s interests are, do not hesitate to ask him. Ask him what sports he plays, what movies he Sees, what programs he likes on the radio. Make a deliberate effort to find out what sort of a person he is without regard to what he thinks of you. Your interest will he appreciated, I assure you. Think how you would feel if some stranger took this much interest in you! You'd love it; so does everybody else, JANE JORDAN,

Put your problems in a letter to Jane Jordan, who will answer your questions in this column daily,

Walter O'Keefe—

OLLYWOOD, Feb. 1.—Business is beating a path to the White House door. When the business men finish paying their taxes and railway fares they will not have any money left for expansion. They say Government and business should co-op-erate, and that certainly has been going on for the last few months. Congress and business have both been in a coma.

The situation has provided a new excuse for the married man who doesn’t come home nights. He simply tells the wife he was sitting up with the President, You'll notice some of them carry their sample cases to the White House. Deep down in their hearts they feel that they can get back on their feet if they can just get the trade of all the Roosevelts, If the partnership between Government and busi= ness is pushed any further we can expect to see this sign over -a retail store— Weinstein & Roosev

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