Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 7 March 1938 — Page 10

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

‘ROY W. HOWARD LUDWELL DENNY ‘President

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A Riley 5551

‘Give Light and the People Will Pind Their Own Way

MONDAY, MARCH 17, 1938

GIMME : T has been 15 years since the Government stopped provid-

ing free garden seed for Congressmen to distribute to |

. their constituents. Yet again this year thousands of letters | are pouring into Washington requesting that largess, and the Department of Agriculture has asked us to say that it has no-geeds. Ra Which ought to prove something about how hard it is to stop, ence a Government starts giving away something to its citizens.

SELF-HELP .

“YT is an interesting thing that self-help seems to be wellnigh lacking from the analysis thus far made of their suggestions.”

Secretary of Commerce Roper wrote that to President Roosevelt in transmitting a report on the study of letters from 1900 “little businessmen.” There must be a reason for the thing Mr. Roper noted —the belief of businessmen, which seems to be general among big ones as well as little ones, that their hope of getting out of their present jam depends, not on what they do, but on what Government does. We think Bernard M. Baruch hit close to that reason in his testimony before the Senate Committee. on Unemployment.

The steam in our engine of production, Mr. Baruch said, is the hope of gain. “Difficult as it may seem,” he added, “I think that the only proper solution of our many : problems is one which admits and adapts to our needs this inherent human force. Recently we have taken too little care for this principle.” : Give businessmen this hope of gain—the reasonable chance of turning a profit—and they will help themselves. That is certain. Why, then, do they now lack faith in selfhelp? We believe that Mr. Baruch’s statement answered the question. It is because they do not know what rules Govern- - ment is going to require them to operate under, and because they fear that some change in the rules will wipe out their prospects of gain. : ’

: Mr. Roosevelt is now giving business an unannounced . . breathing spell, apparently in hope that business will be reassured. Business seems to be gaining in confidence, even from that negative treatment. A positive stdtement of future policies, we think, would do even more to encourage business to go forward—and on a self-help basis.

IS TVA READY TO DEAL? - FAIR settlement of the long controversy between the ~~ Tennessee Valley Authority and. the private utility companies in that area is most desirable. The negotiations now proposed by TVA, through Director David E. Lilienthal, and agreed to by Wendell L. Willkie as head of the Commonwealth & Southern Corp., may open the way to such a settlement.

The private companies, having failed to block the TVA program by litigation, say they want to sell their properties. Mr. Lilienthal wants to arrange for their purchase by cities, communities and rural electrification units “at actual legitimate costs less depreciation.” os

| Agreement to negotiate, of course, doesn’t mean that the negotiations will succeed. :

It is unfortunate that TVA is in the midst of serious trouble at this time when one of the most important steps in its history is proposed. If more evidence were needed that it is ‘impossible for the three directors to work together, it might be found in the pointed announcement that Chairman Arthur E. Morgan was not even consulted before the present peace proposal was made. Whatever is done, the people .of the United States, ‘who have a tremendous stake in TVA, should be confident that it is done honestly and efficiently. We do not see how anybody can be confident until the charges being made by Chairman Morgan against the two other directors, and the charges being made by them against him, are cleared up. A Congressional investigation of TVA is necessary, and it ought to be made now, so that whatever is wrong can be set right before the TVA enters into any big deal.

WATCHDOG OR POODLE?

HE United States Senate is debating a proposal to fire the Treasury's watchdog and put a pet poodle in his place. . This proposal is, in our opinion, the most vital feature _ of the pending Government reorganization bill, and the one which most certainly should be rejected.

It would abolish the office of Controller General, created ~ 17 years ago because the World War-era of big spending had convinced Congress of the need for an agency, inde- . pendent of the Government's spending departments, to - make certain that appropriations were spent only as Congress intended them to be spent. The present Acting Controller is Richard N. Elliott of Indiana. ~ It would give the power to approve or disapprove expenditures to the Budget Director, who is dependent for his job on the President, the head of all the spending de- - partments. Then it would set up a new independent funs- . tionary—an Auditor General—to audit expenditures, but . only after the money has been paid out. ~The Constitution holds Congress responsible for seeing that “no-money shall be drawn from the Treasury but in * consequence of appropriations made by law.” Congress should not surrender this responsibility to any President. * By adopting this proposal, Congress would do just that. We are in another era of big spending. The need is to strengthen and improve the present device for holding nding within the letter of the laws of Congress. The present system is based upon a thoroughly sound iple. The thing to do is to improve the present system, t abandon the principle for one that seems unsound and remely dangerous in its possibilities. Congress should its watchdog at the Treasury—and Congress should

/

him independent of those who want to take money

1

ered by ‘carrier, 12 cent: :

well advertised that doctors with hypodermics were

Fair Enough | By Westbrook Pegler

Flood Had Done Its Damage Before Los Angeles Was Able to Realize The Seriousness of the Situation.

OS ANGELES, March 7.—About a year ago the Ohio River climbed out of its channel, spread over the neighborhood country and brought the Army, the Red Cross, the National Guard and the Naval Reserves rushing to the rescue. Boats were shipped in- from Maine, Chesapeake Bay and Chicago. The local man-power was mobilized for labor and rescue all along the flood area and the whole nation aroused itself over a dramatic disaster. There has been a somewhat similar mishap in this region this week. ow Following heavy rains the local streams, some of which were dry beds at certain times of the year, began to rip and slash along their courses. Wednesday morning word _ began to spread that a flood was forming and by noon at the Santa Fe station the Chief, the fast, nickelplated train from the East, was posted as indefinitely late. The Chief was only a few miles out of town but was stalled at a bridge while railroad engineers walked out to inspect the supports. The Chief : never got across, for the bridge was carried away in sight of passengers and the train was slowly and carefully rerouted over the Southern Pacific tracks for a short journey which took four hours. A By morning a disaster had struck in some vague hinterland described as “back there” and at this writing the blow is something of yesterday. which happened somewhere else. The sun is shining and the streets of the city and Hollywood are dry. . Life has not missed a beat except where the flood actually tore away homes and roads and bridges. The detachment of Hollywood from a major disaster a few miles away almost suggests that it was something done in a studio, like “Hurricane.” 8 # 8 HE wallop fell, but the work on the relief, which 1 being handled by local talent, the Red Cross, the American Legion and the Salvation Army, may be much greater on the far side of the mountains than it is here. In loss of life this flood may out-score the one in the Ohio Valley last winter, for the people there had warning and the danger of disease was so

as common as militiamen with the conventional bayonet. Here the rain washed down the hills in a sudden torrent over ground too wet to absorb any more and the damage was done before the community as a whole could appreciate the seriousness of the case.

” | 2 T is a strange experience to be in a city cut off from the outside by the destruction of great works and surrounded by ruin and tragedy, yet unperturbed and uninterrupted in the routine of life and the ordinary interests. Indifference may not be the word, for that suggests a heartless disinterest in misfortune. Where 1 have been, was no shortage of food or water, no pause of professional or personal rivalry, no sight of sentries or men in sodden clothes heaving sandbags on the main streets and even now the flood, to many who were neighbors to it, is only something of which they read in the papers. : The explanation lies partly in the abruptness and brevity of the blow, which was over and done before it could be talked up in the mass imagination. But another element is the guest or tourist psychology of the thousands who come to this fair but troubled land to get rich and even after years in town still speak of some other where as home and of the community as “they,” not “we,” after all. It wasn’t “our” flood but “theirs.”

Business—By John

EW YORK, March 7.—Everyone is going to Washington telling various executives and committees what to do about business and unemployment. The big businessmen and the little ones have had their day. Now various individual diagnosticians are being heard. Therefore I would like to have & crack at the subject. It will take more than a single article, but here goes. Eid ; All these problems—farm, unemployment, invest ment, security—come down to one central, underlying proposition: How does the capitalist system work? However it may work, it has not been doing so for nearly nine years. Various social engineers have had a try at making it work and all have failed. The businessmen who completely dominated it and made its laws and its culture and its plans in the Twenties certainly made a magnificent mess of it. Then Mr. Hoover ‘had a try for over three years. He ended at the bottom of the recordaN 8 8 HEN Mr. Roosevelt took it on, He tried all sorts + of medicine and now at the end of five years he is almost back where he started from plus a debt of 20 billion dollars. There is no trick at all in creating

work and profits by pumping huge floods of dooved 3

Government money into an economic s

been done over and over again. It works, just as paying a subsidy to a man while he is looking for ve

breaking depression of all |

] 7

TRIBUTES TO ROBERT P. SCRIPPS

NEW YORK TIMES—He was always modest, courteous to the opinions of his associates, though never yielding his own on a matter which he regarded as one of right and public duty. That duty he always sought .to do. In the course of it he seems to have hidden himself as far as possible, not merely from the curiosity of the gilded, but of the “plain people” whom his father bade him serve.

NEW YORK POST—His (Scripps’) tragically untimed death at 42 takes from the American newspaper scene a figure at once powerful and modest, forceful but considerate, competent yet self-deprecatory.

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH— Robert P. Scripps, controlling stockholder of the Scripps-Howard newspapers, is dead at 42. Inheriting the wealth and power of a great chain of newspapers, he enjoyed the wealth without ostentation and exercised the power wisely and democratically. In the control of the newspapers, he steadfastly avoided the limelight, but his hand was on the helm none the less, holding to a course of frank, bold journalism, alert to translate into terms understandable to the man in the street the news of the complex affairs of the day. To say that he carried on in the ‘tradition of his father is to confer the praise that doubtless he would have liked best. >

BUFFALO EVENING NEWS—Son of a man who was noted in his day and generation as an aggressive exponent of personal journalism, Mr. Scripps worthily maintained the family tradition. . . . Fellow: craftsmen will regret his untimely death and remember his unfailing courtesy ahd consideration.

NASHVILLE BANNER—The newspaper editorial profession and the world it serves lost a distinguished leader in the death Thursday of Robert P. Scripps. To his father goes credit for shaping Scripps’ journalistic career . . . but a share of the joint achievement is rightfully his. He assisted in building wisely on a foundation his father had laid. OKLAHOMA CITY TIMES— Death plays the field. His latest take is ruddy, bluff, bearded Bob Scripps, 42, son of one of the new world’s greatest newspaper geniuses. Young Scripps has done a swell job of carrying on the iradition of the expanding Scripps-Howard chain. What a pity he had to go just when] he was mastering the intricacies of driving a many-headed hydra. DALLAS DISPATCH — Robert P. Scripps bore a. heavy torch, but: he bore it high. His passing is a blow but his record an inspiration to all. DR. T. WAYLAND VAUGHAN (recently retired director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography)—I am deeply grieved. He has been the principal supporter of: the Scripps Institution. He was unswerving in his loyalty. :

the

rience to

versity.

critic.

orary

T. Flynn

Now Is the Time to Sit Down Calmly and Attempt to Find Out How This Economic Machine Works and What Can Be Done to Start It Again.

does not give him work his plight is as bad as ever when the subsidy is stopped or cut down heavily. Now all this is important, I urge, because it suggests to us that the moment has come for all hands to indulge in a little humility. It is a good time for the President's supporters to stop that every critic of the New Deal is a public enemy and a tory. It is a good time for the Hooverites to quit thinking they have the formula because Roosevelt hasn't. And it is an excellent time for the businessmen to make an end of their fiery hatred of Roosevelt. In other words it is a time to 'sit down calmly and objectively as possible in a serious attempt to find out just how the machine works and what can be done to start it up . :

"I HE first. proposition is to recognize that the sys-

The next. proposition is to make up our minds what

vhile ; vel while he is getting th

the subsidy, but it it |

INDIANAPOLIS NEWS — Robert P. Scripps, who died on his yacht off the coast -of Lower California, had, at the age of 42, become a powerful influence in the newspaper world. On the death of his father, E. W. Scripps, founder of Scripps-Howard chain, which. includes The Indianapolis Times and Evansville Press among its 24 papers, he was prepared by previous newspaper expeon the greater re-| sponsibilities that had fallen on his shoulders. He was at the time of his death president and treasurer of the E. W. Scripps Co., director of the Newspaper Enterprise Association Service, the Newspaper Information Service and of the United Press, and a trustee of Miami UniHis newspaper work began at the age of 16 at San Diego, Cal. Successfully undergoing the experience that newspaper work demands of its followers, he became editorial director of the ScrippsMcRae newspapers in 1917. His skillful administration made it natural that he should continue to advance and be ready to carry on effectively the affairs of an established newspaper chain on the death of his father who had organized it. When a man has achieved so much so early in life it is all the more distressing that death should put an end to activities that gave every evidence of a , future that would be as successful as his past.

INDIANAPOLIS STAR — Robert P. Scripps, controlling stockholder in the 24 Scripps-Howard newspapers, which include The Indianapolis Times, inherited those properties on the death of his father 12 years ago.: He took his responsibility seriously and set about learning at first-hand all details of the business. Although still a young man, only 42, he had made an enviable record as an executive. is an interesting coincidence that he died aboard his yacht as his father had done in 1926, having the latter's liking for the sea. Mr. Scripps was a retiring man who was known to many by name and not in person. He had definite ideas and progressive policies which he advocated in his papers and through which he wielded a real influence in the cities where they appear and the country at large. He was generally liberal in his attitude on questions of public import and unafraid either as g champion or a

The death of one so young and apparently with so many years of usefulness before Scripps had is tragic. He was respected by his associates in the newspaper fraternity who appreciate what he was accomplishing and realize the. opportunities that were before him.

DR. WILLIAM E. RITTER (honScience Service president, University of California biologist and former head of the Scripps institution at La Jolla, Cal.)—The death of Robert P. Scripps is sure to have considerable repercussions

to pop him

tem is not working and has not been since 1929; 55 2 Han Pog Gr.

'We want to do business with. I am in com- 5

on science, especially on those scientific enterprises in which his father, E. W. Scripps, was interested.

Of these enterprises, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography has a very definite program in which Robert Scripps was keenly interested and which he was promoting in the way that his father hoped he might. Much the same can be said for the foundation for popular Reseateh at Miami University, Oxord, O.

Science Service in a way -was much greater in conception and consequently less defined in scope, organization and policy. In consequence, the departure of Mr. Robert Scripps from the board of trustees leaves the future policies somewhat more of a problem. In particular, the relation of Science Service to the humanistic sciences and to democracy, which were cardinal aims and interests of E. W. Scripps, still remains to a considerable extent unsolved. The absence of the son Robert will be seriously felt by those on whom the future of science serv=ice will depend. In tribute to Bob as a man, I mention my privilege of calling him friend from the time he was a little boy and my admiration for his desire and ability to meet the re-

newspaper

as heir to his father’s fortune and the great institutions which the father had built.

DR. EDWIN G. CONKLIN (Science Service president, who is executive officer of the American Phil‘osophical Society, Philadelphia, and professor ‘emeritus of biology at Princeton University)—The death of Mr. Robert P. Scripps is a great loss to Science Service. He has been an active trustee of this institution for the popularization of science which his- father founded. Scientific men will join the newspaper world in feeling the absence of his influence and action. } WATSON DAVIS (Science Service

director) —Mr. Robert Scripps was one of the quiet, effective liberal

It

timely passing robs our civilization of an influence for constructive progress. The world of science as well as that of public affairs and newspapers mourns Mr. Scripps,

FALLIBLE LENS By ANNA E. YOUNG

We should be so very certain That the glass we're looking through Is entirely free from blemish, That it brings a perfect view.

him as Mr.

Sometimes we. see some object Through a glass that magnifies, And many things should be made smaller bite : Instead of brought to giant size.

Which goes to show that sometimes We do not really see The thing we are looking at The way it should be.

sponsibilities that came upon him |.

leaders in American life. His un-|

‘Gen. Johnson

Says— : Gen. Pershing Made First of Great Contributions to His Country When

He’ Succeeded in Pacifying Moros.

WW 2SmNoron, March 7—It was characteristic for Gen. Pershing to turn from death to his barber, Nothing so irritates him as an unshaven officer. As his law officer, in New Mexico, I tried for a mustache. He asked what was on my lip and when I told him what I thought it was, he said, “Raise it out of office hours.” I promised here to recall something of Black Jack’s remarkable early record. He started .active . service near where he is now, chasing an Apache named Mag--nas Colorado, one of Geronimo’s gang. He campaigned against both the - Sioux and the Apaches— once as captain of Apache scouts—the most expert trailers on earth. But it was against the Moros of Jolo and Mindanao that he made his first great contribution to his country. : “Moro” means Moor. These oo. . pure Malay Moslems of the ; southern Philippines are bad Hugh Johnson | ombres. Spain could never subdue them. They were pirates raiding the coasts of even the northern islands, looting and leaving nothing but smoking ruins and severed heads on bamboo poles. 4 i> 8 ” 8 HE other Filipinos were .so helpless against them that sometimes the peace of all the islands was largely at their sufferance. That condition alone would have warranted Japanese intervention at any time. Safely even in the China Sea was involved. "When America became responsible, it was Gen, Pershing’s job to pacify them. One trick they had was to take their women,and children into battle. Their unavoidable killing or"W@tinding made bad reading in the home papers. Another was the “juramene tado” stunt. A sworn religious fanatic insures that he will die from blood-poisoning. Then the priests fill him with hasheesh and visions of a voluptuous

paradise. He mingled with soldiers in crowded places

and suddenly draws a wicked hidden kris or kame polong and cuts, slashes and stabs until he is shot. » ® 8

HERE is a story of.a gunboat that went “jurae. mentado” (cathbound.) One of our commanders complained to a local dato about repeated juramene tado attacks on his men. He was told that such ine sanity was uncontrollable by the chieftain, He gave

his gunboat orders to come full steam over the hori-

zon firing everything in the armory at the village and the crowds on the beach. The dato rushed over to protest. - All he got was that the gunboat was “juramentado.” After that there weren’t any more “oathe bound” massacres. : : Gen. Pershing slowly and painstakingly cleaned up town after town and was the first white soldier to penetraté the interior of Mindanao at Lake Iansao. The climax came in the battle at Bagsak. Gen. Pershe ing had a plan for avoiding the women and children stratagem. He gave a great party which collected all his officers and troops. None suspected his purpose, Entrenched tribesmen were given no time to cole lect their families as shields. ‘The officers were warned between dances and the troops were on the march before dawn. That was the end of centuries of Moro slaughter and the beginning of Philippine tranquillity. Gen. Pershing gave the Moro Empire

its first real white government. The people liked it,

According to Heywood Broun—

He Really Had No Intention of Taking a Punch at Sinclair Lewis,

But He Is Irked by the Latest Efforts of the Author of ‘Arrowsmith.’

EW YORK, March 7—My attention has been called (I believe that is the proper phrase) to an item in a Broadway gossip column. The conductor of the department says that I have stated that I would slug Sinclair Lewis on sight. : Now, I'm not going to pull that old one about be-

ing misquoted. I did use words to that effect in the

presence of the reporter. As a matter of fact, I didn’t say “slug.” right in the nose.” But, of course, I was

speaking figuratively. : Many years ago I retired irom active participation in brawls and fisticuffs. I did not retire undefeated after the fashion of Gene Tunney. My best friends were quite ready to tell me. And the gist of their advice was, “Heywood, you're to slow up, and you never did get going very well.” oi. . That, unfortunately, is true. Bystanders at bouts in which I e used to say that I reminded them very much g an old-time heavyweight called Ed: Dunkhorst. He was known to the sports writers of his ® 8 =

A ¥ own record contained no knockouts on my side

My declaration actually was, “I'm going 4

7

Ernest Hemingway should prevail in the field of letters. Nobel. prizes ought not to be diamondstudded belts. It is his writing which riles me and not his pugilistic limitations. And if Sinclair Lewis had never amounted to s row of beans it would be silly to grow bitter about such a book as “The Prodigal Parents.” But “Main. Street” was an exciting performance, and “Arrows smith” might well be the best of modern American novels if Hemingway hadn't written “A. Farewell to Arms.” ; : $e : ® 8 =» : ND so ‘it is easy to get annoyed at Lewis

he does silly and stupid work. I should he would be sore at himself.

when

think”

Of late he has become a columnist. It seems to

me that his talents lie in other directions. as satirist he is somewhat on the spot. The reader may well assume that Mr. Lewis is trying to be funny when

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