Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 5 February 1938 — Page 10

PAGE 10 The Indianapolis Times

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

ROY W. HOWARD LUDWELL DENNY MARK FERREE President Business Manager

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Give Light and the People Will Find

SATURDAY, FEB. 5, 1938

JAPAN IS ASKED HE Governments of the United States, Great Britain and France have asked the Government of Japan a very pertinent question. Since Japan walked out on the London Naval Conference of 1936, rumors have been numerous and recurring that Japan is building and planning to build not only a greater number of ships than was formerly considered ade-

quate to her defensive needs but also huge “mystery” ships of greater tonnage and with larger guns than have ever been on the seas. The American, British and French Governments want, if possible, to prevent the costly and destructive armament race that would be sure to start if Japan went through with such a program. So these Governments have asked Japan this simple question: What does Japan intend to do? No Government which has any desire whatever to bring peace and armament sanity into this jittery world of ours can refuse to answer that question.

THE “FIX” NPAID fines on 1937 traffic stickers already have cost the City an estimated $40,000—or enough to launch a well-rounded safety campaign. The amount is large not because of wholesale “fixing” but because officials permitted traffic offenders to ignore the police notices without punishment. About the time Indianapolis started its mythical “fixproof” sticker system, the New York City Magistrates’ Court put into effect a uniform system of traffic-ticket

fines. Magistrates were required to state fully, in writing, |

the reason for each suspended traffic sentence. During the past year suspended sentences, formerly granted in 4914 per cent of all New York traffic cases, have dropped to 2 per cent. The Magistrates Courts, instead of costing taxpayers $875,000 a year, have been made almost self-supporting. Ticket fixing, Chief Magistrate Schurman said, is an abuse as old as traffic courts “and far more sinister than most people like to admit.” It is a type of patronage that “shifts the cost of enforcing traffic laws from the traffic violators, where it properly belongs, to the taxpayer.” If ticket fixing can be stopped in New York, traffic ticket “fixing by default” can be stopped in Indianapolis. The new pledges of enforcement should be made to stick. There are few practices more unfair, more conducive to contempt for law, more discouraging to honest officials. The law should be enforced—now! :

LETS BUILD “YT is high time for us in America to roll up our sleeves and begin to build homes.

there exists one of the most favorable public and private money markets in the nation’s history.” This statement by Senator Wagner might well be taken as the keynote of the private housing program to be launched by the legislation which Congress finally has passed. Through a system of insurance for home-building loans the legislation is designed to make it safer for lenders to lend, and cheaper for borrowers to borrow. Congress has made a start. enterprise—architects and contractors, producers with materials to sell, banks with idle funds, and building-trades workers with idle hands. Due to the depression, which cut the number of new dwellings built from 900,000 a year to 50,000 in 1933, and due to the population increase, our country is far behind mm its housing facilities.

MICKEY AND THE MUSICIANS HARLIE M’CARTHY is America’s No. 1 radio favorite. Sinclair Lewis, listing our current public heroes, puts Mickey Mouse in second place. Many a debate has raged over whether Donald Duck is the finest actor on the screen. And Westbrook Pegler calls “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” the greatest moving picture ever made. Maybe the psychologists would know why the country has gone ga-ga over these creatures of fantasy. We don’t. All we know is that we like them. One of the best and most remarkable things about them, it occurs to us, is that they don’t throw human beings out of work. On the contrary, they make jobs. Charlie McCarthy, for instance, though only a wooden dummy, provides flesh-and-blood Edgar Bergen with an enviable income. A whole army of artists worked for three years to draw the seven reels of “Snow White.” And now Leopold Stokowski, famed conductor of the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra, credits Mickey Mouse with developments which he believes will lead to steady employment for 18,000 first-class musicians. The movies have displaced thousands of musicians from jobs in theater orchestras. It will be grand if Mickey Mouse, reversing the trend of technological unemployment, can bring them back again.

ONE YEAR AFTER

GECOND-GUESSING is one of our least profitable sports. Nothing much was ever gained by speculation about what might have happened if Princip hadn’t fired the shots at Sarajevo, if Hughes had carried California in 1916, if Harding had lived, etc., etc. But such speculation is interesting just the same. And this, being an anniversary, suggests a subject: - How much nearer its objectives would the New Deal pe today if President Roosevelt had never written the court-plan message which he sent to a startled Congress

We cannot allow a housing |

shortage to accumulate while millions of men are idle and | : | is strange,

Now it is up to private | © | like Dempsey's in New York—that would be some-

. ___ THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

Another Run!

WELL

UM GETTING

FED UP TROTTING BACK HERE

EVERY QTHER

DAY!

SATURDAY, FEB. 5, 1938

The Modern Version!

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

Spike O'Donnell Sees a Chance For Profit in Writing a Book of Memoirs or Even in Selling Water.

HICAGO, - Feb. 5.—Spike O'Donnell is thinking of having his memoirs done, and at this moment might be described as a book in search of an author. Mr. O'Donnell was in beer in Chicago during the exciting time of Prohibition and served as clay pigeon in many exciting shooting fests. By his own count he was shelled on 11 separate occasions, anc there is no disputing the fact that

he twice came through attacks at close quarters combining the fire of machine guns and biunderbusses which tossed out such home-made shrapnel as SCrews, bolts, bent nails and fragments of sash weights. On another occasion some business rivals drove slowly past his happy home (selecting with fine chivalry, an hour when the Kids had gone to bed) and splattered it with bullets which left marks in the dining room and kitchen— marks preserved to this day with pride as souvenirs of a more Mr. Pegler strenuous and altogether happier period of his life. Politically, something has happened to Mr. O’Donnell. And he is sad beneath the garrulous nonchalance with which he salutes old friends. Three years running, on the day before Christmas Eve, the Chicago cops have picked him up and held him in the bucket, as he says, for 24 hours, at a time when a man wants to be doing his Christmas shopping. Mr. O'Donnell is out of action entirely, which because there is plenty of action in Chicago and other men, less worthy, are doing very well in coal, horse books, insurance and other standard branches of business.

8 Ld »

HAT about -organizing a labor union? That sometimes has been a reliable business for a man of Mr. O'Donnell’s talents. “Labor?” Mr. O'Donnell replied. “It is so long since they built anything in this town that if you had a steam shovel you could charge admission to see it work.” No, there is nothing doing in labor, but if a man could only get a little capital and start a big place

thing. Or that book—“The Life, and Battles of Spike O'Donnell.” But when Mr. O'Donnell starts reciting his memoirs to a ghost for posterity’s sake he chokes up. He is jerked about by his desire to tell a story and

make a fortune as an author—how much did that

girl make out of “Gone With the Wind"?—and the cultivated reticence of a man whose trade regards it as a capital crime to blow the whistle. = ” 5 E speaks of “a certain party” and “Mister Smith” and “this Jones,” and when he comes to the mention of men dead who wanted his life in the heat of competition those few short years ago, he softens their memory and speaks no ill Mr. ODonnell's Prohibition brewery is gone, too. He still defends the quality of his beer, swearing that he drew "he water from a special well 1800 feet down and never released the brew under seven days old. “Now, if I could only market that water this town would go to town,” Mr. O'Donnell says. “Peps vou up. Makes you strong. Makes you think fast. I could make a million out of that water if I still owned that well.”

The Hoosier Forum

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

MARINE DESCRIBES LIFE IN SHANGHAI

EDITOR'S NOTE: Following are excerpts from letters written weeks ago but just received by Mrs. Grace Collier, Rural Route 3, from her son, Corp. Loyal A. Macey, serving with the 6th U. S. Marines at Shanghai, China:

“Probably the most interesting thing to people in the States is the war which the Japs insist is not a | war and which the Chinese call an invasion. As individuals most of us would like to see the Chinese wallop the stuffings out of the Japs, but really I believe the Japs will | win. “As representatives of the Amerjean Government we are neutral. The war doesn’t interest us a great deal except when we are on the line and are watching the fighting because we have to or because there | is nothing else to do. It is rather monotonous duty on the creek. “Jap planes are usually in the air with the Chinese shooting at them. Sometimes the Chinese antiaircraft shells fall on our side of the creek, but they are not particularly dangerous. On the creek we live in emplacements made of sandbags. Once or twice the emplacements were peppered by rifle and machine gun fire. That happened to my emplacement one night and wakened me, but only one man has been hit and he was on top of the emplacement taking pictures.

Outfit May Return in Spring

“From present indications the outfit will be in the States before spring has ended, but then the Chinese may be able to hold the Japs and in that case the Marines stay put. “Last week the Chinese dropped back and took up positions on the west of the Settlement. That takes away the danger of the Chinese breaking into the Settlement, so we are beginning to take things easier. The Japs and the Chinese are still giving one another ‘Hail Columbia’ over the way and I can hear a little rifle fire as I write this. It sounds like fire-crackers, but there is no danger to us here. “We never pay any attention to it any more except sometimes the artillery fire wakens us. A battle seldom lasts for more than an hour and then everything is all quiet again. “The other night my Chinese roomboy and I went downtown and I made regular Chinese liberty. First we went to a Chinese theater where I didn’t understand much about what was going on. Then we went to a little Chinese restaurant where they never even spoke English. Washes Face Three Times

“First thing the waiters brought a hot towel and we wiped our faces and hands. Then more towels and more face washing. Three times I washed my face before eating and

once afterwards. Then my boy ordered chow and about five waiters

Business—By John T. Flynn

Communists’ Response to F. D. R.'s Armament Plan and Their Action in Outlawing Oxford Oath Show They Aren't Conducting a Peace Plot.

EW YORK, Feb. 5.—An excellent example of the too free use of the labels “communism” and “fascism” has just come to light. For several years it has been the custom to settle all arguments by calling the man who disagrees with you a Communist or a Fascist, usually the former. A year ago students all over the United States were holding demonstrations against war. These demonstrations were being staged under the auspices of a students’ organization which includes some Socialists, Y. M. C. A. members, unorganized groups and, of course, some Communists. The feature of the students’ program which got the most attention was the so-called “Oxford Oath” —an oath in which the student vowed not to take part in any war in which the United States might engage. In many colleges these student demonstrations were opposed chiefly because of this oath and efforts were made to prevent the students from taking the oath. The oath, it was charged, was a Communist conspiracy, part of a plan to render the United States militarily as helpless as possible so that in the event of war between the United States and Russia we would be defenseless. ” » » ISER heads pointed out that this was a very shortsighted view; that while there were Communists in the students’ organization, the Communists were the ones least interested in this oath; that the oath was especially dear to the pacifist groups or less old-time

4

this explanation was rejected. It was all Communist; As in so many cases these angry charges came from people who follow very little

it was a Communist plot.

(Times readers are invited fo express their views in 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.)

started bringing it in. No plates or silverware were on the tables and we all used chopsticks. I didn’t make out so well with the chopsticks but I had to do the best I could, fer they had no spoons or forks in the house. The only drink was tea and samchiu, which is a potent Chinese rice brandy. No salt, sugar or milk was on the table. The tea leaves were placed in a cup and hot water poured on them. Then a sort of saucer was placed on the cup. The saucer was small enough to fit down into the cup. You drink from the cup holding the saucer in place with the index finger so that you drink no tea leaves. Steamed rice was served instead of bread. “I spent only about five dollars mex for the evening which is less than two American dollars, and one mex went to a rickshaw boy. Liberties like that are cheap and inter esting.” ” » » PROTESTS PROPOSED RAILROAD BILL By Railroad Man I for one agree with “Voice in the Crowd,” in his opinion on American railroads. The railroads are one of the most abused and taxed corporations in existence. They can make hardly a move of any kind without conferring with the ICC. They cannot increase or decrease rates without permission from some body of wise men. Yet the average citizen does not realize that the American railroads are the pulse of the nation. They are always ready

CLOSE OF DAY

By MAUD COURTNEY WADDELL

I watched the evening's sun drop low Among laced net of trees and snow. It seemed a vivid orange ball Whose beauty crowned dark trees grown tall. Soon purple shadows folded o'er And night stepped forth once more.

DAILY THOUGHT

Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of neces= sity; for God loveth a cheerful giver.—II Corinthians 9:7.

HE manner of giving shows the character of the giver, more than the gift itself.—Lavater.

right.

who is wintering here,

for an emergency of weather conditions. There is a bill coming up in this session of Congress that will almost bankrupt the Class One railroads if passed. This bill is known as the 70 Car Limit Bill, a vicious piece of legislation. The railroads have several thousand engines built for heavy service which will be useless if this bill is permitted to become a law. I think that it is the duty of every voter to protest against this piece of unfair legislation.

regardless

» ” ” TERMS FILIBUSTER UN-AMERICAN By Henry Prell, Anderson I certainly agree with B. C. in the Forum in his opinion of the recent antilynching bill filibuster in Congress. However, in addition to being a rather expensive pastime for

grown men in the pursuit of their |

nation’s business, it is definitely unAmerican in principle. In my school days I learned that Congress is supported by the taxpayer because it legislates. That is, it introduces and discusses corrective measures which are vital to part or all of its employers. These measures are then entitled, by rights, to either be passed or rejected, according to the will of the majority. Now, back to our frolicsome filibusters of the Southland. It is plain to me that they started this record-stuffing farce because they feared that fair debate and final vote of the majority would eventually pass it. In short, as in other cases of filibustering in Congress, a. minority has actually been given precedence over a possible majority. It is wrong and should be stopped. ” ” ” CITY-OWNED ELECTRIC PLANT URGED By C. J. Johnson, Local 18990, A. F. of L. As business agent for the local filling station union I am asking a question in the minds of all my members as well as many local citizens. Why cannot Indianapolis have a municipally owned light plant in order to obtain lower light rates? Records show that municipally owned light plints universally sell the current at a lower rate than privately owned light plants. Filling station managers, whether owners or lessees from major oil companies, operate under a heavy overhead expense. They pay their own gross income tax, city sales tax, water meter deposit, water bill, light meter deposit and light bill. Due to long night hours the light bill is a large overhead expense. A municipal light plant with its accompanying cheap rates would be a blessing to this city.

Gen. Johnson Says—

. A Bureau Should Be Established

To Receive and Study the Numerous Proposals to End the Recession.

NEW YORK, Feb. 5.—What made the little businessmen so wild at Uncle Danny Roper’s party? Plans made many of them that way. This whole depression has been an epidemic of planomania. Wh~n Mr. Roosevelt first came in 1933, Washington was snowed under in drifts of plans. One that had the most dignified support and was seriously considered was that every factory in the

country should simply start going full blast on a given day. This would give jobs to everybody and so everybody would begin buying what the factories made. The depression would be over in a day. Of course, this overlooked a lot of little trifies like the fact that 40 per cent of rural population wouldn't be helped and so couldn't buy, and that our foreign market was A. W. O. L. But criticisms like that merely serve to infuriate your true planomaniac. Some plans actually got across like the idea that, by putting less or more gold into the dollar, you can regulate prices up and down as easily as you can turn a water-spigot on and off. NRA was a plan and so was AAA. But thousands were born to blush unseen and others, like the Townsend plan, got an airing and then the air. ” ” ” INCE the first outbreak in 1933, the great planomania has steadily continued. There are at least three schemes to end the depression in my mail every week. There is an element of pathos about them, Some are so elaborate with charts and statistics that you know their authors have spent months and may= be years on them. All of them come in with letters so earnest and sincere that you know the author confidently believes that he has discovered the key to utopia. Some sound plausible but upon study turn out to have holes in them as big as a barn door. Some are duplicates of things that have been tried and failed and some are just plain screwy. After years of experience you can tell at a glance what is in them and what is wrong, but answering them is a hard job. You can’t find the heart just to say, “This thing is crazy.” Also, while it usually would be an act of kindness to try to put an end to such agony and waste of time, money and effort, no amount of criticism or argument will divert a con=firmed planomaniac in the advanced stages. His jaw clamps, his eyes become glassy and he stalks away like the “pale martyr in his shirt of fire.” 2 = =

HERE ought to be a bureau of Government where you can refer them all. In so many thousands of efforts there must be some merit. We had exactly such a bureau in the World War. It was headed by Thomas Edison and out of thousands of suggestions for new devices to win the war, several proved invaluable. There is no such place now and & mere come mentator can’t do anything but try to dodge the patients who come in person and to write gentle evasions to those who use the mail. All this is why, when Uncle Danny Roper declared open season on suggestions, planners flocked from 45 states and when they found that nobody was going to listen they were ready to tear the place apart.

Hugh Johnson

According to Heywood Broun—

An Interview With a Circus Trainer Reveals That an Elehant Likes Tobacco, Forgets Quite Often, and Is Afraid of Small Animals.

ARASOTA, Fla, Feb. 5.—Arthur Brisbane was I've met Gargantua the Great, the gorilla

and there isn’t a doubt that he nor would it

what is going on in the world and, in fact, have not the faintest idea what communism means or what the Communists are driving at.

Now, however, the whole incident is placed in its true light by two recent events. The latest of course is the Communist response to the President's proposal for a great armament program. The first to come forward and support the President's program is Earl Browder, the Communist leader in the United States.

» = ”

HE Communists are more intelligent, apparently, than the frightened patriots who are always denouncing them. Communists in America know that the last thing in the world Russia fears is war with the United States. What she does fear is war with Germany and Italy and the Fascist bloc, including Japan. If such a war comes Russia's great hope is that the so-called democratic nations will be fighting on the same side as Russia. She realizes that a heavily armed America is the best thing in the world for Russia. There is not the slightest doubt that Communists in Great Britain, France and the United States, as far as they may be influenced from Moscow, are urged to support armament programs. The other incident, of course, is the action of that same student organization ntly in dropping the as it ae Communists who wee most active in . Here ‘a perfect example of |

could take both Louis and Schmeling; pother him much if Braddock and Farr were thrown in for good measure. The big ape lived up to his billing. He is the fiercest looking thing I have ever seen on two legs. And probably his power and truculence were all the more impressive because he did look a good deal like a distant relative. No one was allowed to g0 close to his cage, because Gargantua can reach about 5 feet through the bars and get a toe hold on a visitor whom he dislikes. Moreover, hefdidn’t seem to like anybody, which may have been one of the reasons why he reminded me of a relative. They used to let him have large tin cans to bang around, but he flattened them in such a way as to hurl them through the bars like darts. He still has an automobile tire which he is using as a teething ring, but the only thing he can throw out of the cage is straw or bananas. He got me behind the right ear with a banana, and so I went away to look over the circus elephants. » ” ” APT. LARRY DAVIS, who is in charge of the Ringling herd, was a little scornful when I spoke in awe of the gorilla’s prowess. He gave it as his opinion that Fanny, the 8-year-old elephant in his barn, could demolish Gargantua without any trouble and that such a bout would be no more than a

~

elephant. Moreover, he proceeded to shatter three familiar fallacies in which I have always had faith. An elephant often forgets. In fact, he has a very poor memory. His hide is not tough. On the con=trary, it is extremely sensitive, and a fly can drive him wild. Elephants don’t like small animals around, but they are not particularly afraid of mice. y » »” HE story about the boy who gave the elephant a chew of tobacco and had water squirted in his face 20 years later is pure fake. In the first place, most elephants like tobacco, and their lack of memory was proved again to Capt. Davis only today when he had to ship a few to Tampa. These were old circus animals which had toured the country up and down for 20 years, but after a few months in winter quar ters they acted as if they had never seen a railroad before. “But,” said Larry Davis, “I guess people like to hear about the way elephants remember. I'm sure one of my assistants made an old lady happy yester=day. He told her the story of a hunter who took a splinter out of an elephants foot in the jungle. Fif« teen years later that man was very poor, and when the circus came to town he could afford only a 25-cent seat. The lead elephant—it was the one that had the thorn trouble—spied him and lifted him gently with his trunk and placed his benefactor in the best box seat in the house.” But realizing that he was talking to a newspaper

earnestly, “You know, Jt never . {