Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 28 February 1938 — Page 10

‘PAGE 10

The tadiznapolis Times

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER) -.:

ROY W. HOWARD LUDWELL -DENN¥-~ President Editor

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GE Riley 5551

Give Light and the People will Find. Their Qun Way

MONDAY, FEB. 28, 1938

-THE DEATH TREND

FTER getting off to a murderous start in 1938 with a traffic fatality a day for thé first’ week—Indianapolis -now is drawing dividends on its safety campaign. In the

3 1

* city 12 persons have been killed in traffic so far this year,

. compared with 25 for the same period last] year. ‘In the

county, the two months’ death toll has drdpped from ‘33

to 18. This is encouraging. But in the first five weeks of 1937 more than twice as many persons were killed in Indianapolis traffic as during the same period in 1936. So we are: ‘getting back to where we were in: 1936—a year which eclipsed all previous years for automobile slaughter. The trend today is heartening, but we have a long way

to go. N iA

LET'S TAX FOR RI VENUE OR the next few Week ‘businessmen will watch Congress hopefully for. tangible proof that the Administration really is ‘trying to “Help_business get back on its feet. Their eyes will be on the new tax bill. , After long months of work, _the House Ways and “Means Committee is putting the last touches to the measure E which is supposed to relieve puginess of many penalties - and restraints. “Any cause for Kesitotion on the part of business, to "go forward, so far as taxes are concerned, should now disappear,” says Chairman Doughton. ~ < ‘Businessmen whase corporations shoeswiincomes of less than $25,000 a year have some reason to take that statement almost at face value. Because, as explained elsewhere in this newspaper today by Rep. Vinson, principal sponsor of the measure, the new bill relieves those small businesses from all the penalties and uncertainties of the undistributed profits tax. The heads of larger businesses, however, will still have to plan their operations with that hazard in mind, unless further changes are made. Fortunately sentiment seems to be develonids in the Senate in favor of removing this unsound penalty tax altogether, thereby frankly confessing failure of the expériment in using the tax power to force corporations to distribute profits which otherwise might be used for business purposes. Indeed, such a confession is implied in the House Committee's bill, which completely exempts the smaller corporations and drastically modifies the tax rates on the. larger corporations. The Senate idea of coming clean is still better. Businessmen also Will be encouraged by evidence that Senate opinion is veering toward a rationalization of the capital gains tax—another levy which has restrained normal business operations but has raised little revenue. Stripped of their complexities, controversies over both the undistributed profits and capital gains taxes revolve around the issue ‘of whether taxation should be confined to its primary purpose of producing revenue for the Goverhment, or utilized to try to make business behave as the Administration in. power wants it to. The latter purpose “dominates, in these two taxes, much to the detriment of revenue. For revenue, on the scale which a seven-billion-dollar government needs, can be obtained only from a much larger business volume. And business eannot build up such a volume so long as the managers of business have to run to their tax lawyers every time they consider a trade, a new enterprise or a plant expansion. Businessmen know by now that they are going to have to pay out plenty in taxes, to keep the Government going. But the more taxation can be made definite and predictable and confined to a fair proportion of income, the better business can go forward to create that income.

SPIES

OMEHOW we can’t get very excited about the spies who . have been arrested in New York by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, even though one of them i described as “a beautiful red-haired woman.” That various foreign governments have spies in this country is undoubtedly true. But most of them, we suspect, are as clumsy and stupid as the group that has just been rounded up. Few really clever spies exist outside of fiction. In real life, spies usually are little more than: ‘swindlers who sell to their employers. “secrets” that are readily available to everyone who: reads’ the Army and Navy registers and the public reports of ‘hearings.’ - It's a good idea, of course, 5 be + on Sita against spies. - But it-Seems to us that no foreign agent would be likely to discover! any, information nearly as vital as the-infermation some. members ‘of ‘Cotigress have been’ Insisting: our Navy Department, should make: public. - If the Navy. has. new reports, for jhstance, on Ihe effectiveness+of airplane bombs against battleships, they would be of. great. interest to many other countries. Spies might’ be expected to ‘try to get those reports. 'We can understand -why the Navy ‘should be reluctant to give them out: ‘through 3 Congressional committee,

WE STILL PUNISH WITCHES

jAvETON, N. Rn, is doing a right decent thing for Eunice (Goody) Cole, even if it does come 300 years | 400 late,’ 3 Jn1'1658 the good citizens of Hampton town seized 'Geody Cole; i imprisoned her for witchcraft and let her die

in prison, after ‘which a frenzied mob buried her body in

a shallow ditch: and impaled it with a stake “to make certain she would not rise again and revisit her usual haunts,” “But Goody did rise again and haunted Hampton’s con- : {acience. And on: March'8 Hampton will celebrate her ters ‘eentenary by publicly burning the accusation and restoring 7-Cole to “her rightful place as a citizen.” fE

“7 American’ ‘communities, shocked at the madness that :

New: England three centuries ago, might ask Nether thelr citizens don’t stil fear and punish

Billings’ Be

ow Serf ft over

ore. they die.

--MARK- FERREE- | pusiness Manager |

. Mall subscription rates ‘in, Indiana, $3 a. yout .

a, for instance, which jailed. Mooney and | ‘ago for economic nonconformity, might | do better than Hasmptoh. It Hight Ges and exonerate them °

"ered by carrier, 12 cents. | 5

THE HOOSIER FORUM

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

The Pegler, Broun and Johnson columns will be resunied on this page tomorrow,

CARTOON ON AUTO TAXES PRAISED ; By John T. Harris, Washington, . ind.

Your cartoon in The Times,

“Merrily We Roll Along,” portraying the numerous .taxes upon the

automobile and the automobile in-

dustry, tells the story in a Bienty convincing way. What can be said of the representatives of an automobile association who appeared before those having charge of the “safety” adnfinistration measures (which carried arn increase in cost to each automobile ‘and truck owner in Indiana) and approved each and

.every-one of these measures?

One of the bills “appteyed” carries the mandate to equip outwindshields: with 25 cents worth of tomfoolery. A few days ago these same officers: went on record as being opposed to. this container—but nothing was said about the other expense they assisted in saddling

on automobile and truck owners.

» » ” TOWNSEND'S STATEMENT ON VANNUYS CRITICIZED By: Edward Paul, Clay City An open letter to Governor Town-

: send: :

It is a khown fact that there are not enough Democrats or Republicans in Indiana to win an election. The balance of ‘power .lies in the hands of the independent voters. I am a member of this group of voters. I voted for you at the last election as a matter of conviction. I have since stated to friends that you are the best Governor that the state has had since I have known Indiana politics. However I feel that you are making a grievous mig take. You have said, aceording to the papers, that by the formation of the 100,000 Club, Senator VanNuys is reading himself out of the party. I cannot see how this is true unless

it is caused by such an interpretation on the part of the State Demo-

cratic Convention. If the leaders of

the Democratic Party in Indiana place such an interpretation upon his action, they are reading voters like myself out of the party. I have signed one of the cards and will vote for the Senator if it does mean going out of the party. You may say that you are not responsible for what the. convention does. ‘I will concede that possibly you are not. You are responsible for this statement ‘and the reactions that will result. I refuse to vote for a Charlie McCarthy under any name. If this is reading ‘myself out of the party, I am on: my way.

EXPLANATIONS ASKED FROM WATSON bs By The Horn Book, Union City

Since Sunny Jim. Watson has an-{

nounced himself as a debutante in: the new political society of this

modern age, we are wondering if he’

might answer a question or two which come from the old era.

that prosperity must come to the top first and then trickle down through the fingers of the big boys to the common people. Do you still

believe the same way about that? | In the present day prosperity does - not trickle; it gets clogged in the |

pockets of the big boys. Some of us whose comrades are

recall that they went to untimely deaths in the thought that they were. fighting a war to end wars. Then when our war President went to Versailles with the avowed intention to secure an agreement which would accomplish that end, was it you who helped passa roundrobin in the U. S. Senate, pledging that body to.opposition to whatever Woodrow Wilson might do, even before you knew what action he might take? = Perhaps Wilson was wrong in going ‘himself rather than sending somebody; but wasn’t it just a little silly to use that as a basis for opposition? s

COMPLAINS OF ROUGH STREETS By R. Thomas Te

How much longer are “we sole to have to ride on these trackless trolley cars on these rough streets with holes as large as a common tub?. , Just take a.ride on the West Indianapolis car over S. Pershing and W. Howard St., but before you do, fake a pair of boots and harness yourself to the seats. I feel sorry for the men who have to ride these streets every day.

STREET COMMISSIONER PROMISES RELIEF

° By Fred K. Eisenhut, Street Commissioner

The condition existing on Pershing Ave., is ‘due to the open winter. We have tried to give temporary relief by filling the holes in this street, but the filling soon beats out.

s a

We will start our grading pro-| gram as soon as the weather con- |

ditions Perils

2 ASSAILS TRADING OF JOBS FOR VOTES By L. J. Benson

Your recent editorial on “Jailing Vote Stealers” made a big appeal. We hope you are correct when: you state that exposure and prosecution has thrown fear into the hearts of election crooks everywhere. But stealing votes outright is no greater affront to society than handing out jobs only to those hav-

ing influence and votes to give in |

return,

When Mr. Milligan has cleaned. up | § Missouri politics, we might keep him |.

busy in In years.

for the next two

(Times readers are invited fo éxpress 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.) elt

ASKS RELIEF FOR EX-SOLDIERS

; : % ‘By. Roy J. Osborne, Spencer We have a rather vivid recollec- | tion of you, Mr. Watson, going up: and down this Hoosier state saying:

/1. see where President Roosevelt asked for 250 million . dollars for? ‘WPA relief increase. It is very nice to know that we have a President who is doing all in his power to take

care of the unemployed. On the other hand, I have my first time to see where they have ever asked for Army funds to increase pensions of the ex-soldier

: | who is down and out, not able to buried in unnamed graves of France| work. They seem to think the x

soldier should live and support his

.family and be happy on a $12 or

$14 pension every 30 days. I doubt if any member of Congress would be willing to take the small sum of $14 to keep his family. I can’t see why some good Congressman doesn’t step to the front for the ex-soldier and see that .he gets a living along with the rest. 2 2 # PRAISES INDEPENDENCE OF VANNUYXS By Armchair Politician

In referring to the announcement of Senator VanNuys of his -candidacy for re-election, Governor Townsend said, “The Senator would be happier today if he had followed the will of the majority of the people.” That statement is to me more amusing than plausible. Here are just a very few instances of where the will of the people has been disregarded: Before the Governor was elected, he indorsed the merit system at the behest of the will of the people; after election he intrenched a patronage system more firmly. The will of the people protested against having the Two-Per-Cent Club exempted from the Corrupt Practices Act and made not subject. to “public accounting. But the

| action was railroaded through the

State Legislature just the same. Now the funds of the .Two-Per-Cent. Club, it is being rumored, are financing the McNutt for President boom, but the people of Indiana, least of all those cogs who contributed, will never know. The will of the people protests against the _port-of-entry ‘system and liquor in politics, but nothing is done to abolish it. In fact news items appear that reprisals against other states are being prepared for their discrimination against this Indiana system.

DAILY THOUGHT

And Zadok the priest took an horn of oil out ‘of ‘the tabernacle, and anointed Solomon. And they blew the trumpet; and all the people said, God save King Solomon.—I Kings 1:39, :39. :

INGS, in this chiefly, should imitate = God; their mercy should be above all their works.—

Penn.

Business—By John T. Flynn

Fascism Is an Economic Disease With Various Social Complications, :

But It Can Make Headway Only When a Nation Has Been Weakened.

EW YORK, Feb. 28.—New York and Washington are filled with the frenzied cries of patriots demanding that the United States dec something— at least her share—to stem the tide of fascism. . There seems to be a well-settled belief that fascism | menaces us and that this menace takes the form of growing militarist Fascist nations which will some-. how, some day attack us and impose fascism on us. And ‘of course the conclusion follows'that the way’ to fight fascism is to raise armies and build navies of our own and attack fascism and destroy it. ; This naive. conviction seems to be based upon a - complete. misapprehension of what fascism 1s and where the attack is {hireatened from.

8.8 8

~ASCISM is an economic disease with social complications of all sorts. It is a parasitic disease, like tuberculosis. Before it can make any headway the social body must be weakened by other diseases. The. society must be enervated by economic -depres- | sion, failure of the economic system to work, vast unemployment, social disorders, government bewilderment and breakdown. In a nation where the €conomic system is working with reasonable: fascism would have no more chance than tuberculosis

in a strong and virile body. .

The threat of fascism comes from within

ernment on us? | was mad enough,

ernment here. © If" we are in

down.

. Even assuming that some nation insane enough to attack us, to send

‘a fleet of guerrilla planes here to harass our cities and rdin death on them from the air or even to bombard our coasts, they could not defeat us until they could occupy the country and set up.a gov-

earnest about fighting fascism the

way to fight it is to build up the health of our own social body and not to weaken our social body by. exhausting it in' futile and foolish. lita Sploits ; against ; some ‘imaginary enemies.

a aa

~ASCISM came. into: Ttaly pa and into

/- Begause the social

It will enter France’ and England and ‘the United | erer States when our swial: 2 Systema: |

: independence of

Just recently the will of the peo-

ple strongly protes ed against the appointment of Judge McNelis, but it was. overruled. | Later a sop was thrown .to the

public in the way of edicts against

county chairmen i ‘the liquor business holding both Posts. The will of the people, it would seem, is paramount only when it coincides with the will of the Democratic administration. Senator VanNuys deserves as fair a break as can be given him. His batting average in| Congress is as good or better than the batting average of the Administration. I wouldn't, be surprised if he hadn't been more closely following the will of the majority in opposing the Supreme Court Bill than otherwise. However, the President won his fight for a liberal Supreme Court and that is not now the issue. It

never was, as anyone knows who is

at all interested in Indiana politics. Yveryone knows that VanNuys’ repudiation by the Governor occurred because. he dared buck the McHaleMcNutt machine. There is much to commend ‘the senior Senator from Indiana, besides his record. That 5 per cent in--dependence finds favor with most Hoosiers, who are noted for their mind. His five years’ experience in the Senate and his service on the Foreign Relations Committee tannot be lightly disregarded when we think cf the crucial years ahead of the “nation.

| 8 t » ECONOMY SEEN IN TOWNSEND PLAN By W. P. McFarland You stated in The Times recently that without the pressure of the

Townsend Clubs there might be’ ‘no Social Security Act today.

The

2 per cent transaction tax might be cheaper - after all, for the Social Security Act has taken nine and a half million dollars out of circulation in Indiana alone during 1937. What will be the cost:by 1949 when each side’ pays 3 per ceut—and the employers pass their 3 per cent along to the consumer? * There are about 10 times more persons who pay under the act than would be eligible under the Townsend plan; $87 is the limit’ per month if a man works from 21 to 65 years of age, and it will be 30 years before anybody is retired on sufficient pension to live on. If we retired the five million people over 60 years of age which the 1930 census listed as working

SOME LITTLE WORD By ROBERT O. LEVELL Some little word from a friend, To cheer someone along; °

Might encourage other men To try keep pushing on.

Some little word you might say, With hope and cheer for him; Might bring him a brighter day: When started out to win.

ASEINGTON, Feb, 28.—An

* gpeech and academic freedom has appeared in Kansas, and when such ‘things turn up in that “ypi- | cal prairie state” the same’ tendencies are apt to be, coming. toward the surface elsewhere. Which ma it of national interest that former Governor ‘Landon | has taken his stand in ‘the Kansas eontroversy on the

side of iree Speech,

‘pay the ever-increasing taxes, &

enthusiastic

machinery,

for wages and the three million old people from poorhouses and gave them $100 per month paid with 2

per cent transaction tax, the in-

creased : buying power would end the depression and it would be cheaper in the long run than the Social Security Act. se B'S IMPRESSED BY EDITORIAL ON INCOME TAX EXEMPTION By P. R. H. :

Your editorial, “Ides of March,” published recently in The Times was impressive and reminded me of a recent magazine article, which I quote: “While the common people "are sweating as to how they are going to ere are 4,000,000 jobholders, Federal, State, County and City, many of them with huge salaries, that pay no income taxes at all. , . , Moreover many of these have pension protection, are safe in their jobs, get sick leaves, vacations, traveling expenses and fees on top of their salaries. And they don’t seem a bit about helping ° their fellow men bear the burden of Gov= ernment which they administer.”

: 2 8 = ELIMINATION OF RENTING AGENTS ADVOCATED By R. B.

The first move to help drive away this depression is to eliminate its cause. Beginning the first part of 1937, - when people were striking to get a few more dollars on the week, certain real estate men were the first to boost rent, not in propor-| tion to our raise but sometimes double. . It would be much better if some law were passed to prohibit such a system where persons collect percentage for your rent. We: would rather pay this difference to the individual. who owns the place. This is just as bad as a broker who would sit in an office and collect a commission from something

we consumers have to pay—some- |

thing he never sees, only the profit. 2 =n 8 TAX ON MACHINES : 1S RECOMMENDED Gy By Curtis Sparks, Elwood

Education and science, with man’s inventive genius to create machin-

|ery and tools that would lighten

his labors, have created a condition

‘whereby capital and the manufac-

turer are replacing manpower with thereby reducing the cost’ of production and enabling Hem to compete with cheap forlabor and at the same time o id labor disputes and the care of their indigent and aged employees. Debts and. foreign trade treaties, and the lowering of tariffs, have flooded our markets with : goods from almost or country ef the world, except steel, tin, automobiles and heavy machinery and furniture. Due to the . inequalities. of our standards of living and’ wages they are unable to buy what we produce and by reason of the fact machinery has replaced our men, they are forced out of work and compelled: to buy the products of cheap labor from abroad.

This. ‘has created a condition in-

attack on free ; someone

when we are

ere is a tree. and,

nomic views. A frank d essen should always be free and unrestrained;

tolerable and unknown to the peg ple. The farmer, factory-and m suffer - alike with the railr labor. and capital. - All are a chars upon the Government, each striving to get the most out of Government in the form doles or subsidies, and each accusing the other of une fair and unjust practices but forcing

.| an unbearable burden upon this and

future generations in some. form of

taxes.

We cannot stop progress, and neither can we, nor should we desire : to retard genius and labor saving devices in any form but as all taxes and in whatever form must be paid ‘by the people or the consumer, let’ the machine that throws thousands of: men out of work be taxed and labeled to the extent that hand= made goods or: wares can compete upon the market. This seems fain because the machine pays no tax when not. in operation while the man must pay the tax whether in operation or not from the cradle to the grave. As a plan of operation, let each: article be labeled as. to the meth od of manufacturing’ so that the consumer has his . choice between handmade or automatic made goods or wares. This will give every man, a right to work in’ competition with modern machinery and preserve. for ; future generations an opportunity fo work at 3 trade instead of depending on the Government. Taxes from automatic machinery to be used in any of several different ways, viz: old-age pensions, relief. ar retirement of puhlic debt. . “os v #2 8 = sis,

wt

PROTESTS PARKING

ON SIDEWALK Nop 2 By Mack Do our City laws permit the sides walks to be used for parking grounds for autos? This condition exists in the 900, block on N. Davidson St. every night. A person going down. the sidewalk has to take to the street. because the sidewalk is blocked by. private cars and taxicabs. This condition was reported fo the Police Department a short ago but no results have been oba tained. Can you please tell me. what method to ‘follow so as to clear the sidewalk at this location?

EDITOR'S NOTE—Chief Mor= rissey said he was acquainted with: the condition referred to above and that several arrests had been made on charges of improper parking. He explained, however, that it would require placing an officer on fulls time duty at that location to keep: the sidewalk Xlear si the time,

TITLE FOR "FARLEY'S MEMOIRS PROPOSED

By Daniel Francis ‘Claney, Logansport Headline: “Japan: Absent - as. British Open New "Navy Base.”: What the British should worry: about is not Japan's presence at the: opening—but will Japan be: there to! close it? “Walter O'Keefe writes in Ris’ col: umn that Postmaster General Far=i ley is, .according to reports, coms; piling his memoirs. With your pers to | mission, I" dig down in my files: - again to bring forth the suggestion: that the. work “be Hiled, “Farley. Tales.” 3

7

Raymond Clapper Says— : ©: Some Members of Congress Might Profit by Reading the. Letter Londons - + Addressed to University of Kansas Students on Freedom of Speech.

. who expresses views which we abhor, “and * wiiling to make the fight to permit the. expression of such views. “Of course, academic freedom. cannot be; stretched to permit a teacher, bounds ‘of decency an ’ properly be taught to an advanced class and in. special - subjects can be questioned if taught toa more. group. But, this does not apply to political and.

of all people, to go outside’ the: good taste. What might very®

iscussion of