Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 6 April 1938 — Page 9
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From Indiana— Ernie Pyle
If the Mexican Maid Is Up on Her Spanish, Ernie Has an Invitation; Auto Wreck Costs Family Its Home.
EL PASO, 'Tex.,: April 6.—We have some good friends in Phoenix, Ariz, who happened to be away on a visit when we came through that city the other day. So after arriving here we had a telegram
of regret from them, inviting us to come back, and saying they would gusianics us | “abajo descanso y mucho feliz.” Since my Spanish vocabulary consists of the word “adios,” I didn’t know what “descanso” meant. We asked our hotel maid about it. She is Mexican, a very exuberant little old lady who speaks only slightly more English than I do Spanish. But she knew what “descanso” ‘meant. She struck postures, waved her arms, danced back and forth across the room. She said: ° “Like this. You live El Paso. You go San Frisco. Stay two week. : Come back. Descanso!” Mr. Py Pile tion, a rest,” I said. She waved her arms. “Ah! Si! Si! Si!” ; But I forgot to ask her whaf “trabajo” means. Maybe it’s an adjective meaning “lousy.” We were saying as we rode along through Arizona the other day that we hadn't seen an auto wreck for months. We had fio more than said it than we came round a bend and there was an auto wreck. The car was upright, down in a deep ditch, with -the front end torn off. b
A man in overalls, a woman holding a baby, and a little child were standing on the edge of the grade looking down at it. We stopped. “How did it happen?” I asked the man.
“Well, we come over the top of the hill about 35 miles an hour, and she got shimmying on me, and I SOHIgN'S hold i and she Just took right off over the ge ” The car was 4 big old crate, with a covered-wagon effect built over the back. It was the only home for . his family. They were modern gypsies—poor, uneducated, wandering, carrying their home with them.
Car Badly Damaged
This tophea¥y old bus had gone over the edge of a 10-foot grade at 35 miles an hour, had run obliquely - down that grade, surely slanting at a 45-degree angle, and had not turned over.
‘Nobody was hurt. But the axle was snapped, the wheels broken off, the front end: caved in, and _ dirty bed clothing and dishes were. scattered. all over the place. “That’ll cost you a Jot to fix, won’t it?” I asked, wondering where hé would ever get the money. “Aw, I can’t afford {to have it fixed. If I ‘can just get it into town, Ill sell it for junk. I can get a few dollars out of it.” Probably the greatest virtue of this family was that they had not yet had to go on relief. But now, with their home gone,: | what else can there be for them? | On the back roads in the desert, where it’s scores of miles between ranch houses, you now and then pass a wooden box alongside the trail. Rocks are piled around the box to hold it, and painted on the box is “Water—Don’t Waste.” Inside the box is a jug. | I never could find put who fills these jugs. In fact, there wasn’t any water in any of those we saw, but I suppose it isn’t. essary to keep them full in wintertime. The boxes certainly] don’t - look official. Desert dwellers back over the thills, near a spring, must do it just out of the go of-their hearts. A lot of desert people have hear like that.
My Diary
By Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt
First Family Regrets Losing the Chief Usher at the White House.
Ny SHcIoN, Tuesday—We are ‘feeling quite bereft in the White ‘House these days because - the head -usher, Mr. Raymond D. Muir, is being transferred to the State Department, and is now the as- - sistant chief in the International Conference Division of that department. He has been such a good friend to all of us, besides doing a very remarkable piece of work for the White House, that I suppose we might be forgiven if we shed a tear even though we congratulate him. -
Filling Mr. Ike Hoover’s place was in itself a tremendous job, for Mr.. Hoover had created a field of work for himself which has been rather neglected in
the past and many people felt his loss was irreparable.
This made it particularly difficult for Mr. Muir, but undaunted, he took aver: Though we feel that Mr,
“. ~ Howell Crim is a worthy successor, we know even Mr.
Crim is going to miss his chief in many ways. Last nighit we saw a newsreel of the bombing of a foreign city. I .do not know how it affected the - others, hut I felt positively disgusted with human . beings. How can we be such fools as to go on senselessly taking human life in this way? women in every nation do not rise up and refuse to bring children into a world of this kind is beyond my . understanding. There is a poem in ‘the New Yorker of April 2 by ‘Stephen Vincent Benet called “Nightmare for Future - Reference,” which I think should be read by men and women everywhere. Sometimes the poet’s imagination is prophetic of the futures It is strange that Queen Victoria, in a letter written many years ago, should remark that the engines
of war were becoming so dangerous that the continu--
ance of the practice was Suicidal, talk!
Lunches With Congressmen's Wives
Today dawned with a gray sky, but by 11 a. m. the clouds had blown: away and I had g marvelous ride along the Potomac. These perfect days with a horse you enjoy; are memories to be stored up for the future. .. I have just had luncheon with the ladies of the 73d Congress. Miss Gertrude Borzi, who is about to start on a European tour, sang. She has a very sweet voice and I hope she will be successful, I sat next to Mrs. Henry Wallace at the luncheon and asked her what had happened during my absence. She looked rather surprised and said everything had gone on in just the same way and I felt that it was impossible! These lunches with the wives of the various members of Congress are very delightful occasions for the wives of the Cabinet officers and me. Political differences do not enter into them and, as the chairman Said Soday, “Friendships endure regardless of political erenc
Bob Bums Says—
OLLYWOOD, April 6.—The other night one of the ‘greatest physical culture experts in the world gave a lecture here on the care of the human body and nobody came because they didn’t want to take their automobiles out in the rain. I suppose were all purty much alike. We wouldn’t think of putting anything into our cars that might be bad for them but we think nothing of giving our bodies a beatin’, I know one actor that got his stomach in such terrible shape they didn’t think he'd live, but they finally got a diet specidlist- who, aftér workin” for imonths, was finally able to give the actor some en_couragement. The doctor says “If you'll stick with this diet you'll.be as good as new.” The actor says “I know, but how long will it be before I can eat things that don’t agree with me.” ~~ °° (copyright. 1838)
And still we only
“Yes, I get it. It means a vaca-
Why the -
e Indianapolis
Second Section
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6, 1938
F.D.R.s Own Story of the
(Contained in an authorized advance publication of his notes and. comments to “The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt”). Article No. 13 5
On the AAA (I)
(In the hectic, early weeks of President Roosevelt’s first Administration, when it seemed that everything must be done at once to restore the nation’s tottering economic balance, he laid before Conress the first of many messages on the plight of the American farmer. Thus began one of the most famous of New Deal measures. The
Agricultural Adjustment Act, or “AAA.”
The President’s message
of March 16, 1933, spoke of farm relief as “of definite, construc-
tive importance to our economic recovery.”
It foresaw the rocky
road ahead of the legislation in this striking sentence: “I tell you frankly that it is a new and untrod path, but I tell you with equal frankness that an unprecedented situation calls for the trial of new
means to rescue agriculture.”
The farmer’s plight was, indeed, desperate.
passed and signed on May 12, the President found it necessary to
issue a statement urging farm mertgage creditors to abstain fr. possessing indebted farmers until the law’s financing provisio The mood of the farmers in many
be put into effect. was becoming ugly.
discould ocalities
In a radio address in October, he urged farmers facing foreclosure to telegraph the Farm Credit Administration for relief. Responses
flooded its Washington office. were received in a single week.
More than 2200 letters and telegrams
Following is President Roosevelt's own account of the agricul - tural crisis and the dramatic steps taken to relieve it as told in his
forthcoming books.
Succeeding articles will tell of the results of
AAA and its sudden end by a decision of the Supreme Court.) _ ” “ : ” F-
2
UCH thought and many conferences had been devoted to proposed measures to help the farmers of the
nation.
Their desperate plight was not merely a part of
the depression. Agriculture, as a means of livelihood, had been on the decline for years before the crash of 1929. In fact, one of the most important reasons for the depression was the continued lack of adequate purchasing power on the part of the farmer and the rural community in
general. For a decade the farmers had been suffering misfortune: and hardship; and three years of new economic disaster had recently been imposed upon their old troubles. Some new . means had to be devised to rescue agriculture for the millions of people who depended upon farming for a a livelihood.
The farmers were in a hopeless plight because: (1) the total of farm income had fallen; (2) the prices of their farm commodities had slumped; (3) the prices which they had to pay for the things they bought had not declined in a ration comparable with the prices of what they had to sell; (4) their fixed charges, interest and taxes, remained high; (5) the market was glutted with existing enormous surpluses.
Income Cut in Half
(1) In 1932 there was
Farm Relief Nation's Not State's, Problem
A Comment of President Roosevelt from His Forthcoming Books
Even before I was inaugurated as Governor, 1 appointed (in 1928) an Agricultural Advisory Commission to formulate a program for the relief of farmers in the State of New York. ‘In most respects a farm ‘relief program for an individual state must perforce be a limited one, for an ade‘quate farm program must disregard state boundaries and deal in national terms. Not only is there the factor of competition from the farms of other states, but the whole agricultural problem is so tied in with the activities of every group of the paiiong pepulation and every section of the country, and is so closely bound up with such Federal matters as the tariff, the currency, and foreign trade that treatment by any one state alone must necessarily be inadequate.
falernatic 1938; SopyHieht; under ernational Copyright Union;
dicate, Inc.
we have records; it had fallen /
to $4,377,000,000 from its 1929 level of $10417,000,000, a drop of 58 per cent. The per capita cash net income. hac decreased during those three years from $162 to $48. (2) As to farm prices, there had been an average of 55 per cent decline from 1929 to, 1933. The severest price declines were suffered in products . which the farmers of the United States exported, such as wheat, cotton, pork, rice and tobacco. (3) The prices which the farmer paid for things he bought did not decline as rapidly. In contrast with the 55 per cent decline in farm prices from 1929 to 1933, the prices of things he bought fell only 30 per cent. Whereas in 1929 the farmer would have to give two units of his ‘product for a given article at a given storé, he had to give slightly over three .of the same units in 1933.
4) Dwindling farm prices and
farm income were only a part of the crisis. The farmer's fixed charges for taxes on his farm and interest on his mortgage re-
the" mained almost constant. smallest cash farm ingdme dur- .- ing the quarter century for which’
“The burcaegp of the farm mort-
gages was taken up by me spe“cially in my message to. the Con-
gress of April 3, 1933; ‘the mes-
sage of March 16, 1933, was de-
voted chiefly to means of raising agricultural income. Hopeless Future
5. To make the future for the farmer even mere hopeless there
were accumulations of enormous
surpluses of farm products which hung constantly over an already saturated market and over annually recurring crops which could not be disposed of. One cause” of these unprecedented surpluses was that the foreign market for our export farm commodities had disappeared or had been severely contracted. From a postwar peak of $3,452,000,000 in 1920 it had sunk to a low of $662,000,000 in 1932. The movement for national
"economic self-sufficiency abroad,
the meny foreign quotas and. exchange barziers, the system of Smoot-Hawley protectionism which prevented foreign countries from exchanging some of their products for ours—were all helping to bring about this collapse in our farm. export business. ) The second cause of the surpluses was a weakened domestic market. The depression had reduced the purchasing power of so many people in the United States who bought: the farmers’ products that the domestic demand for cotton, wool, hides and tobacco had fallen tremendously. Although the consumption of food-
Side Glances—By Clark
cos 938 NEA SBRVICE ac ges. Y.8. Mr orl
When the bill was |
. Entered as st Postoffice.
Unfortunate plight of the farmer was due in a large measure to huge crops when prices were low, leaving enormous surpluses to be carried over and depress prices in ensuing seasons. Here are picturs taken during a farmers’ strike against low prices in 1932. Striking farmers are shown above as they halt a
creamery truck en route to market to Sioux City. A group of pickets (center) patrols a highway, attempting to prevent any farm produce from moving to market. Lower left—Two of the strikers take time from their picketing to sleep. Lower right—Map of the area in which the strike was conducted by
; farmers. : : pl
stuffs remained fairly stable, that of other farm products reflected the continued depressing effect of bad business and diminished wages. The third cause for growing surpluses was that agricultural production, in spite of the loss of foreign markets and in spite of diminished domestic markets, continued in high gear. :
During the years of the de-
- pression, industry helped itself to
some extent by restricting pro-
duction. Bus the individual farm--
er, trying to meet his fixed charges of interest and taxes and seeking to get whatever purchasing power he could, sought to grow more .and more of his farm products. Acting alone and individually
there was little else that the farm-
er could do.
‘Novel Action' Called For
The result of all of this had brought about a condition in which the 31 million people, constituting our farm population, and the other millions whose income ‘depended upon them, were unable to buy the products of our industrial life, and were thus forcing additional millions of industrial workers out of employment.
More and more fariers were:
going into bankruptcy. Bank fail-
ures in rural communities were:
increasing. Farms were being foreclosed by the thousands. The situation called for drastic and, if need be, novel action. I pointed out in the message of
: tions ‘for a bill. «drafted and introduged in January, 1933. It was opposed by the then Secretary of Agriculture:
March 16 that the means which I suggested were new and untried,
‘but that something had : to be ‘done in an unprecedented fashion
to meet the unprecedented plight of agriculture. I stated : that ‘if
the proposed new means to rescue .
agriculture failed, they would be abandoned. Fortunately, the suggested means did succeed. In my speech- accepting the nomination for the Presidency in Chicago in ‘1932, I indicated the necessary objective of reducing surpluses; and pointed out that, as to the actual wording of a plan, we stood ready to be guided by what the responsible farm groups and leaders agreed. upon.
Conferences Held
During 1932 I held many conferences with farm leaders. In December, 1932, at Washington and at Warm Springs I had several conferences with Congres-
_ sional leaders and. representatives
of farm groups to work out a farm bill; substantial agreement on the main outlines of a bill fashioned on the voluntary domestic allotment plan was reachied, ‘A large and important agri-
cultural conference was held in
Washington, Dee. 12-14, 1932. It
. agreed unanimously in the formu-
lation of specific recommendaThe bill was
Hyde, and although it was passed in the House, the Congress ad-
° journed before the Senate took
final action upon it.
Jasper—By F rank Owen
"My cook makes me mad. She has so much better kitchen equip" - ment than we could afford when
id the cooking.™
. year’s erops.
* Four days after my .inauguration, Secretary of Agriculture Wallace at my request announced ‘a meeting of representative farm leaders for March 10, 1933, in or“der to agree upon a farm: program which would affect that Speed was essential in order to avoid additional surpluses being accumulated by the 1933 crop. This conference of 50 farm leaders agreed on recommendations for a bill, which were presented to me at the White House on March 11 by a committee of the conference, who requested me to call upon the Congress for the same broad powers to meet the emergency in agriculture as I had requested for solving the banking crisis. - Three days later I sent the proposed bill, which had been drafted in accordance with the recommendations of the conference, to the Congress. > ‘It was the most drastic and far- ‘ reaching piece of farm legisla.ion ever proposed in time of peace. The bill was passed on May 10, 1933, and signed by me on May 12. In the meantime, in anticipation of the passage of the bill, in conferences between Administration leaders and farm representatives, the organization and setup of the Agricultural Adjustinent Administration were decided upon.
Copynght joss he oRys yright unger Internanion; Tight S Te+8 J * Inter-Américan opyright on pion (191! 0 by Franklin D. Roosevelt; distributed by United’ Feature Syndicate,
NEXT—Setting up the AAA,
‘SCIENCE TODAY
By Science Service
EW YORK, April 6.—As a life- - saving . measure, demand of any and every physician you call to treat you when you are sick, that a post-mortem examination be made on your body if you die.. That is the
advice given by Dr. Alan Gregg, di-
rector for medical sciences of the Rockefeller Foundation, at the meeting of ‘the American College of Physicians here. Grim and frightening advice it is,
‘but well worth following.
Every physician knows that any mistakes he makes in diagnosing or
‘| treatment. will. be shown up at the .| post-mortem examination.
Consequently if he knows that thet# is to be such an examination, he will be
| |on his toes to avoid mistakes. Hel
will not hesitate to call on better trained or more experienced phy-
| sictans for advice or aid.
You might think that after you are dead a post-mortem examination
Iwill be of no use ‘to you, so why,
when you are ill and apprehensive anyway, should you worry about arranging for one to’ be performed. Dr. Gregg, however; thinks that you can safeguard your health and life to some extent and at least insure your getting the best that medicine has to offer if you take the precaution of arranging in advance -for
such an examination if the ‘worst
befalls. At present most laymen object to
the very idea of a Post moiem exand | recently that the new slogan | around the corner.”
Second Indianapolis.
ssmmyw PAGE 9
Our Town
By Anton Scherrer
City Has Had About 38 Inches of Snow in the Last 50 Aprils, and That Doesn't Include the ‘Traces’.
CAN’T understand why the snowfall last Saturday had the whole town talking. A snowfall in April isn’t anything out of the ordinary around here. As a matter of fact, it’s so common that we ought to be used to it
by this time. Here are the facts. With exception of maybe halt a dozen springs, we've had a snowfall every April since 1884 which was the year the Weather Bureau people started measuring the snow. I don’t : know why the weather people didn’t get around to measuring snow until 13 years after they started operating in Indianapolis in 1871. Maybe it is none of my business, but I am going to keep on until I find out. To tell the truth, I don’t intend to drop my investigation until I have flirted with its last mystery. For the present, however, I have all I can do to stick to my original thesis, namely, that a snowfall in April isn’t anything to get excited about. To be sure, some Aprils (17 out of the last 48, to be exact), weren't so bad. They didn’t have anything more than what the weather people call a “trace” of snow. I don’t know what a trace of snow means any more than you do, and since I don’t, I'm going to be charitable and give those springs the benefit of the doubt. ‘On the other hand, I can't dismiss the other Aprils. They were too mean.. For example, there was the April of 1896 with 6.9 inches of snow. The April of 1897 was vicious, joo—5 inches. The Avril of 1891 had 3.8 inches, and those if 1893 and 1920 had 2.9 inches apiece. As a matter of fact, when you get right down to it and do a little figuring the way I have, you'll discover that the Aprils of the last 59 years or so have delivered something like 38 inches of snow to Indianapolis. the Aprils which delivered only a trace. I i I was going to be charitable.
Frost Problem Discussed
I don’t want to alarm you unduly, but whilc I'm on the subject, I might as well add that even May acted up on one occasion. That was back in 1897 when we had a snowfall of 2.4 inches. While I am on the subject, I might as well discuss the frost problem, too. The Weather Bureau started distributing frost data in 1874. That spring the last killing frost occurred on April 29. After that, it took all sorts of queer emotional jumps. stance, the last killing frost turned up as early as March 10. It’s the record for spring around here. The latest a killing frost was ever known to show up here
was May 25; 1925. On three other occasions it happened in May—in 1891 (May 7), in 1878 (May 13), and in 1895 (May 21). With those exceptions, howaver, the date of the last killing frost always showed up sometime in April—sometimes as early as April Fools
Mr. Scherrer.
(1874 and 1885), I bring-up the subject of the last. killing frost be=cause I distinctly remernber the occasion when father said it s the height of folly to discard red flanncls in Indianapolis before May 7. He. knew what he was talking about all right. :
Jane Jordan—
Youth Can Become independ nt of " Family Without" Leaving Country.
EAR JANE JORDAN—I am in my early teens. I
had a violent longing to go to a certain country, However, I can’t leave my mother. What I must| do lics in that certain country, but I can’t move myself to
a clue. However, I would find a way to inform my mother as to my well-being. If I should tell anyone there would be no peace only g—continuous hunt ior me. As I said, I am in my young teens and |I need help and sturdy advice. SOMEONE BLSE.
Answer—Do you realize that you haven't told me whether you are a girl or a boy and that your sex certainly would have a‘bearing on whether you could stand to sever all connections with home and disappear into a foreign land? Neither have you fold me what country you want to adopt nor what it is you hope to accomplish there. How can I give you intelli= gent advice when I do not know whether your proposed adventure is a sound project or just a wild goose chase? Your reasons for wanting to live in another land would be very enlightening, but you withhold em. As it is your letter sounds like that of a boy trying to break his emotional bondage to his mother and not receiving one particle of help from her, On the contrary the part of your letter which you asked me not to publish indicates that your mother has laid her plans to tie you at home far into the future. I suspect that the other country serves as a mother-symbol or mother-substitute to you. In losing yourself in another land, you -would separate yourself from your mother in the flesh only to find her again symbolically in a mother-country. A wise move for you to make would be to leave home as soon as you are able to earn your living, Live in another city away from your parents. Even though you are obliged to hurt them it is your right, even your duty, to break your emotional dependence on your family and vice versa. Perhaps this can be
Let your first break be less drastic. > ? # 8 8
EAR JANE JORDAN—I am a boy of 18 and ge with a girl, 16. I tell her I love her but she doesn’t believe me. Every time I kiss her goodnight she says, “Always glad to get rid of me, aren't you?” Some ‘people tell her things that aren’t true. Do you think that is the reason she says that?
Answer—Probably the young lady says that you do not love her for the pleasure of hearing you deny it. If you want to cure her do not respond to the bait. JANE JORDAN.
Put your problems in a letter to Jane Jordan, who will’ answer your questions in this column daily.
Walter O'Keefe—
FOLLYWOOD, April 6.—Herbert Hoover may have lost the United States in 1932, but he just won over Europe after all these years. . Those on the inside now say it looks like a return
16 medals on his European trip, and he’ll probably run on the platform that he managed to get back some of that gold we sent over to Europe. © During the last few months Mr. Hoover has done much more traveling than he ever would have done as a postage stamp. He's been | jo nan countries
found {he SOT fo. leysfiie’ him. tr “the "Wiiite House now because they believe it would be economical
of those “Hoover for President” buttons since the
3932 campaign.
Mind you, that doesn’t include °
In 1929, for in °
Day (1876) and on two occasions as late as April 29
love my mother, but for the past few years|I have
leave or stay. If I would go, I'd tell no one, nor leave .
achieved without fleeing to the ends of the earth,
bout between him and F. D. R. in 1940. He collected
“Hoover's just
‘to run him. Tou sos Shey Sill nave lek over wilions
Se
5
cay
59