Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 17 March 1938 — Page 16

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The Indianapolis Times

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Give Light and the People Wii Find Their Own Way

THURSDAY, MARCH 17, 1938

DE MOCRACIES AT BAY LOWLY, but apparently definitely, England’s diplo‘macy is stiffening. Two developments yesterday showed her growing distrust of the promises of dictators. One was England's pledge to join with France in naval action in the Mediterranean if France’s North African communications are threatened. by Italian and German forces in Spain. .The other was Viscount Halifax’s explicit warning to Hitler to abide by his assurances to Czechoslovakia if he wishes “to see IJuropean peace maintained.” What is happening in Spdin may soon prove to be more significant than what has happened in Austria. The Austrian coup to some extent has been discounted. Although the brutal outlawry of the seizure stunned Europe, Austria after all was a Germanic state, long subject tothe dominance of Berlin, or Rome, or both. And all considerations of a prospective Fascist front in Europe had placed Austria in the lineup of the dictators. But to British and French statesmen there his not been this feeling of inevitability with respect to what now appears to be happening in Spain. For decades the Iberian peninsula has been to England a friendly back-country to her Gibraltar, and to France a weak neighbor south of the It has been a.comfortable arrangement to have Spain occupying that strategic position at the head of the Mediterranean, across which extend the empire life-lines of both Britain and France. :

At the outbreak of Spain’s Fascist rebellion.some 20 months ago, it was generally believed that England and France would take a strong stand-in support of the established Spanish Government. But England, not caring much for the political hue of the Loyalist crowd, guided France in a policy of enlisting Hitler's and Mussolini's promises of nonintervention. They tried to “quarantine” Spain’s war. But somehow promises failed to check the flow of outside support to Franco’s armies. :

So today, at a time when France has need of all of her power to check a threatened Nazi invasion of her ally, Czechoslovakia, she finds herself menaced by a prospective Nazi-Fascist base on her southern frontier. And Britain finds herself in great danger of being deposed as mistress of one sea that is vital to her empire. It begins to look as if, while Britain and France were blowing hot and cold in their dealings with the dictators, Hitler and Mugsolini were planning it that way. .-The stiffening ‘of England's diplomacy, the unifying of British and French policy, the show of willingness to meet force with force, may yet check the spread of Fascist-Nazi terror. ‘But the gruesome danger is that the dictators may underestimate British and French desperation.

A DANGEROUS FRAUD

E believe the profits should be taken out of war. | » But ‘we do not want to see Congress pass a law which. while pretending to take the profits out of war, does nothing of the sort. The May bill (formerly the Sheppard-Hill bill), which a majority of the House Military Affairs Committee has reported favorably, would be such a law. Its first paragraph asserts that its purpose is “to prevent profiteering in time of war and to equalize the burden of war and thus provide for the national defense, and promote peace.” The May bill, in our opinion, would not prevent profiteering, would not equalize. the burden of war, would not promote peace. It would give the President, as soon as a war is declared, a great many absolutely unrestricted powers. He could fix all prices and all wages. "He could put all resources, industries and public services under Government contrel. He could shut down any sort of business or industry except newspapers and magazines, and he could make it practically impossible for newspapers and magazines to publish. He could draft into military service all “members of the unorganized militia” —which means all men and even possibly al women—between the ages of 21 and 31. It is barely possible to imagine a war emergency so great that a Congress would have to give a President powers almost as unlimited as these. But certainly this Congress is not justified in attempting to give such powers to Presidents not yet elected, to be used in wars not yet in sight, fought nobody knows where. Price-fixing -by the President would not abolish war profits. ‘For war demands would increase production, and increased production at fixed wages would mean increased profits. It is significant that while labor, which sees the very rezl threat to its liberty and its earning power, is protesting vigorously against this bill, we hear no such protests from: industry, which apparently knows that the threat to abelish its profits in a sham, but has not yet awakened to the threat of dictatorship.

It is a deceptive and dangerous bill, and should he,

defeated. : ’e

ANOTHER PLAGUE “ A PLAGUE on both your houses!” That, said President Roosevelt last June was what the country as a whole was thinking of the battle then raging between independent

steel companies and the C. LO.

The quotation, we suspect, has rankled in the memory ‘of John L. Lewis. Without using Shakespeare’s (and the President's) words, the C. I. O. chairman now calls a plague on the houses of Government and industry. His speech broadcas’ to Great Britain depicted an America threatened, not by a foreign foe, “but by the more fearful enemy of domestic strife and savagery.” Mr. Lewis painted a gloomy picture. . Certainly, as Mr. Lewis said: “It is time for Americans to.co-operate.

existence.

it is time for 1; _ Americans to recognize each other’s right of individual

It is time for capital to recognize labor's right | ©

DON'T TELL ME == LET - me guess!

By Westbrook Pegler

First: Lady Knows Country Better Than Any Other Pérson and Can Be Called America's Greatest Woman.

AN FRANCISCO, March 17.—Mrs. Roosevelt came to San Francisco from Los Angeles hy train. to deliver her lecture on peace at the very hour when the heads on the bulldog editions. were yelling “Hitler defies the world!” “France threatens war on Germany!” She arrived at noon and was taken over the usual jumps by the inevitable committee. . . Some time during the: day she had to bam out her

_ syndicate copy, and presumably she took a few prac-

tice swings before her mirror at the hotel before advancing to the pulpit in the Civic Auditorium to say her say on a subject which, in the present state of the world, only a brave and honest person would attempt. She spoke for an hour and 15 minutes to a crowd almost entirely made up of people over the combatant war age. It had been another routine

.day in the -life of one who is

stingily described. as the “most remarkable” and “most energetic” woman of her time in this country, but who deserves more than that. I think we can take the wraps off and call her the greatest American woman, because there is no other who works

Mr. Pegler

‘as hard or knows the low-down truth about the

people and the troubles in their hearts as well as she does. ” ” a"

HERE was no style about her audience for the lecture on peace.

but the spirit of the gathering, if it is. possible to describe a spirit—was one of earnest hope for .some cheerful news, some discovery of a formula that would touch the soul of the monster who had just kidnaped a whole country in Europe and threatened to kidnap another as soon as he got his wind. Of course the Communists were out, as usual, trying to thumb a’ ride. Outside the hall they were distributing a tract by Earl Browder advocating cooperation of the peaceful countries. With Moscow to boycott the Reich and Italy and in the hour of victory leave Russia great military power and her colleagues push-overs for the Browders, the Soviet Union, he said, is fully prepared to defend herself, but “pfeparedness” for this country he ridiculed as warlike and reactionary. Mrs. Roosevelt's effort is the more creditable because she works in the strait-jacket of diplomatic and political restraints. She nevertheless got home her argument that peace now is not the exclusive business of some distant government, but the personal con= cern and duty of every individual who must be affected by war. # ” #

OW peace, then? Well, by tolerance, hy the sacrifice of minor differences, by a sincere effort to know and respect the ood in other people, by teaching the kids in the family circle to get on together without resort to fists on the slightest. provocation. Futile, perhaps, and even pathetic to realists, Mrs. Roosevelt's argument. Nevertheless, it followed the line of truth, for all other formulas think of peace through war; which has never succeeded yet, except Browder’s, which is, of course, a trap.

Mrs. Roosevelt has been before us for five: years.{

now. We khow her better than any other woman, and she knows the country better Hen any other individual, jpeliging her husband.

Business—By John

Fritz Thyssen's Riches and His Influence on His Fellow Steel Magnates ‘Made Possible the Nazis' Rise, to Power Five Years Ago.

YEW YORK, March 17.—If you read the feverish, ominous news which floats to us daily from Germany, you are aware chiefly of marching brownshirts, multitudes roaring under ‘the spell of the Feuhrer’s oratory, the conquest of Austria. But you never see and seldom even hear of a human money-bag who has exercised a profound influence over all movement. . 3 He is about. 62, rugged, yet 'stpoping and looking more like a herr professor than the most powerful industrialist in Germany. He is the great steel-master, Fritz Thyssen—Ilord of the Ruhr. He is the man who made Hitler's regime possible. Thyssen dominates the great German Steel Trust (Vereinighte Stahlwerke: A. G.. He rules 175,000 workers, all’ Germany's harbors, | banks, Thyssen did ‘hot: invent Hitler or discover “Him: Thyssen picked him up when things were so black for Thyssen’s Germany that he saw in Hitler his only escape from extinction.

Thyssen saw Germany drifting to revolution, Hit- | ler, roving over the land pn his brown Shire, talked |

the language of

to live ard participate in the increased efficiencies of | in.

dustry and the bounties of our national resources.” And fim, it should be added for aed labor to |

1 litical machines make the candi-

- | democracy.

Undoubtedly there were some. mere fans and some more or less deserving Democrats, .

ore REPAIR

7

“«

The Hoosier Forum 1 wholly disagree with what you say, but wil defend to the death your right to say it.—Voltaire.

POLITICAL JOB SYSTEM COMPARED TO CHINESE PLAN By H. S. : The Chinese are said to have auctioned off their public offices to the | highest bidder. Is there any analogy ‘here to that system, where our po-

dates lay it on the line before they -can go before the state conventions for nomination? Here the candidate fills the bag before he can bag the honor. The assessment of candidates smacks of job buying. And the “selection” by the organization with approval of business organization also limits our ” 2 : ” READER DISAPPROVES OF LASHING SENTENCE By An Interested Reader. Shoals / . = Referring to the article entitled “Wife Beater Faints at End of 20 Lashes” in a recent issue of The. Times: Before reading this IT had’ a very good opinion of the judicial officials of this country, but now I have had this faith blasted. . I have always been interested. in the advancement of justice, but in this case I can’t see that justice was given the upper hand. I am not in favor of wife beating; but I still do not approve of the punishment given the husband. I had always thought that this country was very much advanced, but the article mentioned shows me that there are .still some parts of it that are holding up progress as well as forestalling justice. ‘a on #8 RAPS CONDITION OF WEST SIDE STREETS By Disgusted Taxpayer Why do we Southwest Side residents have to put up with the poor conditions of our streets? I don’t believe the Street Commissioners know there is a West Indianapolis. Where the West Indianapolis streetcar line runs at Pershing and Howard, the streets are in a deplorable condition. Water stands in the streets,. unable to run off as the culvert or sewer is stopped up at that "point. I live on Howard . St. but would prefer to walk a few blocks rather than ride over either Pershing or Howard: A trackless trolley passenger cannot. get off the car without sinking ankle: deep in mud. I also hope a safety zone can be placed at South St. and Kentucky Ave. :

» 8

OF STREETS By a Taxpayer’

The Street Commissioner speaks of weather conditions as being the

T. Flynn

‘pieces.

(Times readers are invited to 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.)

cause of our streets being torn to Weather conditions “may make holes worse, but if it had not been for the WPA tearing up streets and trying to improve them, their condition would not be so bad today. f I*suggest that the Commissioner look over the three blocks south of English’ Ave. ahd east of Sherman Drive. You ‘can’t drive three

squares from the grocery without breaking eggs or bottles or an axle.

WORKS BOARD PROMISES REPAIR By Works Board Officials A new grade. was’ stabilised on these streets requiring considerable excavation. The condition com-

plained ot is a natural result of the spring thaw to a new .street. The Street Commissioner, of WPA will correct this condition as soon

as ‘possible. Ee 2 8 8 SEES AID FROM PROFITS OF CITY-OWNED LIGHT PLANT

By Cc. J Johnson, Business Agent. Local 18990, A. F. of L. = Voice in the ‘Crowd said in a recent Forum letter, “Let's. not kid ourselves about taxes,” and that the.

‘difference between costs of privately

and publicly produced elécttic’ cuzrent “arose entirely from: tax ‘costs”

TIME MARCHES ON By "EUNICE REDENBAVGH | Today is done, + Work is through; We've had our fum, ° We start anew.

Tomorrow will. bring Sorrow or joy; "Let all of us sing, Best efforts employ.

"DAILY THOUGHT o death, where is:thy sting? o grave, where is thy. victory ?—1 Corinthians 15: 85. Sa 2

EATH has nothing od which life has nos, made s0.— Tyron. Edwards.

4

which the publicly owned plant was not required to pay. Where does the profit from a privately owned light plant go? Often it goes out of the city, out of the state, and into some neighboring

state. Where would the profit from |:

a municipally owned light plant go? | To help pay taxes and enable us to eat pork chops. In extreme cases, profits from | municipally owned light ‘plants have been great enough to pay the entire taxes of a community. os # 2 Cy PROPOSES MANUFACTURERS BUY OLD CARS By Kenneth Van Cleave ; x It has been suggested that the Government buy up all the used cars and scrap them. Here is a

chance for the big automobile com- |. panies ta do something for them- | selves and their country. They spend’ :

thousands of dollars on radio ballyhoo—why not stop this and use the money to buy up the antiquated cars on dealers’ lots? “When anything is wished off on the Government, you can bet there

is a joker somewhere. The mass |

production men have got themselves into a jam. If people are not finan-

cially - able to buy the used cars, |

how. in. the. world .could. they buy new: ones? Maybe the production engineers can figure it out.

2° 8 8 CLAIMS NEW DEAL HINDERS NATURAL ECONOMIC LAWS By BS. 8. Swinney, Los Angeles The ‘first: New Deal experiment turned: out to be a big flop. Cast-

ing to the four winds all natural

economic laws, the New Dealers undertook to revamp our entire economic structure with a mass of impractical; artificial legislation, The only’ thing that- saved us ‘was ‘the edict of the Supreme Court declar-

| ing it ‘unconstitutional.

_ But under the cloak of soil conservation and other makeshifts, the boys are still at their old tricks. They would repeal the natural laws of supply and demand; competition; etc., and set up a complicated, artificial, impractical hodge-podge of laws just as certain to work :as. Sh sttempy tochange the course. of ol star ; What. i need mot of all is to clear. away the obstacles that now

. strangle’ the free ;operation of na- ‘| ture’s economic laws.

Abolish the tariff that ‘now prevents the free flow of trade between nations and reform our land policy so as to eliminate gambling and racketeering in the natural resources. With these two basic ‘reforms, prosperity will return before you can say Jack Rob-

"“inson.™ : ee

According to Heywood: Broun—

Gen. Johnson

| Says—

The Magazine Editor Was Correct In Saying the-Air Commerce Bureau Is Stifling Aviation Development.

ASHINGTON, March 17.—Wayne Parrish, editor of American Aviation, made a speech in Oklahoma City last Saturday that needs publicity. It engaged in my favorite occupation of taking the Department of Commerce Bureau of Air Commerce apart: “The last bureau administration was known from coast to coast because it did nothing. The current administration is known because it has tried to do ‘far too much. It has strayed away from its original concepts, and is obscuring a few important fundamentals for a plethora of things. : ; “Both manufacturers of new large transports and of the smallest of the light planes are being obstructed and frustrated by whole squadrons of inspectors.. Some very serious situations have developed and it isn’t overemphatic to say that the bureau is playing with: dynamite. Inexperienced inHugh Johnson spectors demand arbitrarily to ‘test<hop’ milliori-dollar ships and at least one large new -and costly plane was refused by the prospective. purchaser because a bureau inspec tor aye it a ‘terrifically hard landing.

2 ” » NGINEERING inspectors who have very limited engineering training, make official engineering inspections of new craft without knowing a fraction

“of what is known by the highly trained engineers

and designers employed by the industry. “American aircraft. manufacturers are supreme throughout the world. They have hired the best brains and skill and talent obtainable anywhere. It stands to reason that every manufacturer will pay any price to bring out a perfect product. He doesn’t need so much Commerce Department policing, If there ars any flaws, the industry engineers will catch them.

.. When a new ship is test flown, the manufacturer hires

the best test pilot he can find. For economic reasons the best engineers and the best test pilots are not in the Bureau of Air Commerce. Yet the bureau is, une -wittingly, perhaps, raising the cost of aircraft by hune dreds of new requirements and obsolete tests

8 2. 8 \ESPITE the fact that there is no national aviae« tion policy, despite the fact that aviation has been the football and stepchild of polities, and despite the fact that. its orderly advancement is being hindered by the arbitrary government practices that come near to being: psychopathic, the outlook for civil aviae tion is. bight: Legislation is nearer now than at any ‘previous time. Federal airport aid on a national scale is also nearer reality. Private flying continues

the splendid growth it experienced last year. Despite ‘accidents, the air lines’ have gotten off to a fine year.

Feeder lines are beginning to be talked about.”

Aviation is not merely a coming. industry to help take up the slack in employment due to automatic machinery. Its development is also a vital necessity

to national defense and the growth of commercial

aviation is an important factor in national communications. Wayne Parrish knows what he is talking about.

The Bureau of Ax Commerce never has been 1 Fight.

* Darrow. Posed: as a Materialist, but He Really was a Sentimentalict; Enthusiasm Got the Best of Him Once After His Promise to Speak Briefly.

isave the Steel Trust. The Government, then headed ‘by. Bruning, bought half the shares of the holding’

put ‘all his resources behind Hitler.

. small companies of the Thysserf group were delivered.

steel, half her coal, owns 14 | : 60,000 dwellings, power stations, factories, Joa ve

as we had in 1933. The state had to step in and

company which controlied the trust. that ‘moment the state controlled the Steel Trust.

Thyssen needed to control the state. Hence he

N= ‘YORK, March 1%. —T not, going to write anything about Austria while that werld-shaking incident is still on the wing. Something nearer home

"appeals to me. + I used to know Clarence. Darrow: well, but we met

that the last time we were together the circumstances were propitious

When Hitler was elected the Nazi Covertient carried off a piece of skullduggery which reminds one of Wall Street—1929 model, A new corporation | was form the state in the Steel Trust. Also shares’ of certain But to Thyssen and his friends were issued 40 per cent of the SeReTORing | shares. The stats got 22 per

A “saw ‘German industry and, finahe bag. And he meditates more ambitions his world. . Meantime, how fares the Fatherland?’ Germany seemingly leads the ‘world in recovery, . but people have less to eat and- wear. ( unitions plants, -

To it were transferred the shares of |

| my assignment to invite

The League to to Abolish Capital Punishment had sent me as an. emissary to. get Mr. Darrow to come over and speak at a mass. ‘meeting in. a Broadway

t to have better sense than to ask me | “Im all for what the League |.

{ w said. ‘is trying to do, but I'm past 70. ‘My doctor tells me I must take things quietly. . diet. Speaking before an audience is a terrible strain. ‘By how every speech takes. 10 years off my life, You ‘shouldn’t ask me. 1 told him I was sorry. t pressing ‘the matter. There necessity of doing that. The old fire horse pa couldn’t get it out’ of his mind + He talked about gen“eral subjects for a couple of minutes and then said, “They weren't Svesting me 19 wiaks a Tong: spegeh, | were. Shey?” : . i) .

TOLD him E53, Soir ¢ dat o 2 I'S SRE i over

YS death

only fugitively in the last few years. It cheers me to: remember

put me on a sfrict | shoulders up lke an embat ed eagle as if he

that after carrying out. - I had’ no_intention of ;

Ne, Just came | 0

question of months new-maybe days. ' Still I don’t suppose there ‘would be any harm. in my saying ‘Hello,’

~and letting it go at that.”

+ .And-so we got in a “taxicab, and when we arrived at- the theater the place was pretty nearly: full. ..Mr, Darrow got a fine hand when he got out on the stage, and so he talked for one hour and 35 minutes. He had one of the strangest speaking mannerisms I have ever seen. Like John L. Lewis, he was fond of the oratorical pause, but his attftude:during the silent. period was defensive, while Lewis can almost

knock an DppeinenYe head oft by glazing a him and

sayirg 8 8 8

~NLARENCE'S method was, to say something of very -challengitig ‘nature and then’ Jieh bh £ Srpatiea to throw a brick. There had ‘been ‘a

some

‘tible Semops in those old shoulders when he

Vas he. got ti Inughs and. pplsuse

0 necessity of doing | &'eaping

rn es to Ein know of aSt. AE EL Tan

jab morning “He was feel ve another. sever vears and