Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 9 April 1938 — Page 9

'agabond

From Indiana — Ernie Pyle

. Ernie Says Tourists See El Paso In the Wrong Season and He Telis The City How It Can Lure Visitors.

EL PASO, Tex., April 9.—El Paso, like all the rest of the West nowadays, is out ~ for tourists in a big way. It is the only city in Texas which taxes its citizens to pay for tourist advertising. And why do they want, tourists? Well, it’s like this: ‘Nearly all the irrigable land in El Paso County is already under the plow. The cattle business is just about at a saturation point. oThe few mines around here aren’t doing much good. So what is there left? Nothing, except tourists. And theyre getting results, all right. They say tourists spend $2,000,000 ‘a year here. Yet the whole thing seems wrong, to me. 1. Most of the tourists come in the summer; but the grand sun-- : shiny winter is really what El Paso has to offer. 2. Only a small fraction\.of the : tourists stay in El Paso more than Mr. Pyle 12 hours; most of them are on their way to California. 3. Those who do stop aren't very excited about

* El Paso; they want to see Juarez.

| The El Paso Chamber of Commerce really splits itself to be nice to these one-day tourist parties. It has a Mexican stringed band at the station to meet them. It has a Greeter to take charge of the party. A Chamber of Commerce man makes them a speech at.luncheon. He shows them around Juarez, and tells them they go through certain tough sections with him at their own risk, because that gives them a thrill. Thousands of these parties come through El Paso every summer. And that's all right. That’s part of what El Paso wants. But what it wants even more is for vacationists to come by the thousands and stay all winter, and pay for some of El Paso’s sunshine. I think El Paso is a good town, and I've thought so from fhe very first time I blew in here 12 years ago. But if El Paso wants winter vacationists—people who come and stay for months, as they do in California—it will have to be more than just a good town. It will have to provide something for its vacationists.

Lacks Miami's Splendor

El Paso hasn’t the dash and abandon of Reno. It hasn't the splendor of Miami Beach. It hasn't the summer sleepiness of Sun Valley. It hasn’t the greenery of California. It hasn’t beaches, nor horse races, nor night places. It really has only two things for vacationists—sunshine and Juarez. Why aren’t there some attractive desert hotels just

- out of El Paso? (A vacationist doesn’t want to stay

in a downtown hotel all winter, and it’s almost impossible to find a house for rent here.) Why aren't there swimming pools, and tennis

courts, an riding stables and all that flossy stuff

out in some desert community, not far from town? Why aren't there dude ranches? And. settlements of tastefully done cottages in the desert for . poorer people? - And night clubs where people can be gay? El Paso’s winter sunshine isn’t a bit overrated, if only a fellow just had some pleasant place to El time while he’s lapping up the sun.

My Diary

By Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt

Believes Courage of Young America No_Less Now Than in Pioneer Days.

EW YORK, Friday—What a warm feeling "it gives you if a really friendly person says good morning to you! ‘As I hurried along the street yesterday, a rather shabbily dressed man said: “Oh, Mrs. Roosevelt, I am so glad to see you. My wife will be so pleased if you will just sign this card, so she'll know I saw you.” I don’t usually stop and do anything of this kind,

! but the voice and the smile were so evidently friendly

I couldn’t refuse. If it made any difference to his wife, I am glad, for it certainly left me a very pleasant feeling. Yésterday I lunched with a friend high up in the Empire State Building. We sat at a window looking ou over the city, which always takes my breath when I stop to realize what a beehive of human bei it is. It is a horrible thought, but I wonder what it would be like with planes flying over it dropping bombs, or with an earthquake rocking those enormous ‘ skyscrapers and fire raging among the

' debris.

‘That, of course, is just the' image of disaster. But if. you stop to think, there are contrasts all about you, sorrow and happiness go on side by side while we remain entirely self-centered. Sometimes only a wall intervenes between us and tragedy or ecstasy. Sometimes it seems a very unnatural way to live.

Entertains Newlyweds

I spent a little while with Miss Cook in her office yesterday and then went back to our little apartment and had a young couple in to tea. They have just been married and both are working. They have wisely decided to live on one salary and bank the other one until they have enough money to buy their furniture and start out free of debt. The courage of young America is no less today than in pioneer days. They take out insurance now, but never enough to do more than bridge a gap if anything happens to either father or mother. Back of these children lies the knowledge of what a child-

hood of hardship means, and yet they don't fear the

future for themselves or for their children." This morning looks clearer and I am on my way to the country. I only hope the cold weather has not hurt the trees and buds so much that spring will be long in coming. I would like to have one of those April week-ends when you think summer has arrived and feel impelled to eat all your meals out of doors.

New Books Today Public Library Presents—

Tead an account of the life of John Knox, that fiery, stern, and ruthless supporter of' the

Protestant faith, is to read also the political and re- -

ligious history of Scotland in the 16th Century, for to a great extent the religious wars then prevalent over all Europe determined the governmental policies of the nations. Throughout his life John Knox was in the thick of the long struggle in Scotland. His was a sincere and honest belief, and he was deter-

. mined that everyone should share it, even if it meant

on and death to nonbelievers. As he gre older, he grew more violent, hatred laid hold of wig and he broke with old friends and made new enemies: constantly, : - A recent Biography, JOHN KNOX (Hodder) by. Lord Eustace Percy, gives a clear and. fair account oy the life of this fanatical partisan, whose prejudices

and beliefs were. ifitterpreled in his own dey and

te 6% 1iow hard fo. understand. * = =» lovers of the Victorian domestic traditions,

Second Section

As ts

| SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 1988" 5

F.D. R's Own Story of the N

(Contained in an authorized advance Sublication of his notes and com--ments to “The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin .D. Roosevelt”) ‘ Article No. 16

On Compulsory Crop ‘Control

(The New Deal tackled farm relief on several broad fronts. One. was to alleviate the distress of heavily indebted farmers by sub-~ stituting long-term government loans for private mortgages they could no longer meet. Another was to ‘adjust the size of - crops to

existing market conditions.

The latter, under the AAA, was attempted by voluntary agreements between the farmer and the Government for the purpose of /

adjusting farm prices by adjusting production.

When AAA was

invalidated, the Administration tried voluntary agreements for the purpose of preserving the soil itself from exhaustion.

74 third method of crop adjustment was compulsory control. .

This principle was applied in a number of measures, each governing a specific commodity, the first of which was the Bankhead act for

cotton,

In the following article, derived from notes to his “Public Papers,” President Roosevelt discusses the special conditions in the soston and sugar industry which led to compulsory control.) "

® ” ”

” » ”

'HEN the Agricultural Adjustment Act was s signed on May 12, 1933, there was an unusually large crop of cotton in prospect. This new crop added to the existing ‘carryover would have increased the surplus to an unpre-

cedented total.

It. was evident that drastic and immediate

steps would have to be taken to prevent a further sharp

decline in cotton prices.

The world carryover of American cotton in 1929 was less than 5,000,000 bales; by 1932 it had increased to

13,000,000 bales. Although

- the acreage planted to cot-

ton in the United States had decreased from 1926 to 1933, the economic situation in the Cotton Belt by May, 1933, was desperate.

The average gross income per farm family from cotton had slumped from $735 in 1928 to $216 in 1932. The cotton which sold for 28.7 cents in 1923 and for 18 cents in 1928 sold at 4.6 cents: in June, 1932.

Cotton Plowed Under

+ At a conference held on May 23 1933, between representatives of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics, the Extension Service and the AAA, it was decided that the minimum objective for 1933 must be the elimination of 10,000,000 _acres or 3,000,000 bales of cotton from the crop there growing. . Extensive interviews held throughout the South with hundreds of farmers, and expert calculations of the farm value of the prospective 1933 crop, led to the conclusion that it would be necessary to make payments of about $11 per acre in order to induce cotton farmers to plow under this amount of acreage. It was decided to give farmers

_the choice of accepting an amount

in cash as payment for acreage shifted from cotton production, or a part payment of cash plus an option on Government-owned cotton at 6 cents per pound, as authorized by the Agricultural Adjustment Act. The plan was calculated to pay to those who voluntarily cooperated ‘a reward, consisting of benefit: ‘payments and option profits slightly larger than the value of the cotton they would have otherwise raised. In this way the nonco-operators were deprived of the opportunity to reap a benefit at the expense of their neighbors, The program was to be carried out by means of contracts to be éntered into by individual farmers with the Secretary of Agri-

- culture.

The plan was announced June 19, 1933, and was opened to all cotton farmers, whether they owned the land they had planted or were only farm tenants. By July 14, 1933, the objectives of the campaign had been attained.

Emergency Plan Only

. It was on this emergency program in the spring of 1933 that

. the careless and misleading state-

ments were made in later years to make people think that the permanent policy of the Government was to compel the plowing-tuinder of cotton already planted. Only the economic crisis of 1933 and the fact that cotton was already in the ground before it was humanly possible to pass the necessary legislation, made: the drastic method pursued during: that spring an absolute essential. Careful historians will note this fact and the further fact that no.

cotton was plowed under during the subsequent years when plans could be made before the cotton had actually been planted.

"The 1933 voluntary cotton re-

duction program under AAA was a complete success. When the cotton farmers began to sign their contracts for 1934 cotton reduction, a strong sentiment grew up in favor of a supplementary kind of production control, which would prevent non-co-operating farmers from increasing their individual planting in order to take advantage of the price advances which had resulted from the 1933 reduction in pro-

duction and from the revaluation .

of the dollar. Accordingly, there was introduced in Congress a ‘bill, later commonly known as the Bankhead Act, designed to use the taxing powers of the Federal Gov= ernment to keep total cotton production within the limits of a fixed national quota..

Results of Ballot

While this bill was pending, the Secretary of Agriculture in January, 1934, sent out more than

" 40,000 questionnaires to represen-

tative cotton prdbducers and farm leaders to obtain their views as to the compulsory features of this legislation. Nearly 25,000 questionnaires were

returned, indicating an over-

whelming desire’ on the part of cotton producers for some form of compulsory control.

The bill was passed and ap-

proved by me on April 21, 1934. Its effective period was to be one . crop year, namely, June 1, 1934, to May 31, 1935. The Act set a national maximum quota of cotton for the 193435 season of 10,000,000 bales of 500 pounds of lint cotton each. It levied: a tax which was fixed at 5.67 cents per pound of lint on all. cotton produced in excess of that maximum. Each farmer received a tax exemption certificate for his quota, which entitled him to have his quota ginned without tax. Tax exemption certificates could be sold by one farmer who did not raise his full allotment to another farmer who had raised more than his allotment. ; The sale of these certificates provided income to farmers who had suffered a partial failure of crop; and in this way provided an effective form of crop insurance. price ‘of certificates was not high

enough to make them a profitable |

commodity so as to influence producers to plan to sell certificates rather than cotton.

End of Compulsory Control

When the crop year 1934-35 was over, the compulsory control features could be renewed only if the Fresident found that the economic emergency with respect to cotton production and marketing continued and if two-thirds of the cotton producers were in favor of such renewal.

A referendum was held by :

secret ballot at’ more than 8000

‘On the other hand, the |

The Bankhead bill, passed in Apri, 1934, was designed to use the Government’s taxing: power to limit . cotton production within the limits ‘of a fixed na-

. polling places to determine farm-

er sentiment. About 90 per cent

* of the votes cast were in favor of :

continuation for another year.

By proclamation on Feb. 28,

1935, I declared that the emer-

A gency continued and that the pro- -

" taken to improve the condition of

visions of the Act would, therefore, remain ih force for another year. After the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, Jan. 6, 1936, in United States vs. Butler, declaring the production * control features of AAA unconstitutional, I recommended the repeal of the Bankhead Act because of the invalidity of the voluntary AAA program: to which it was supplementary.. The Bankhead Act was only one of several contemporary measures

the cotton farmers specially. The

voluntary crop-reduction agree-

ments and benefit payments under AAA and the Government cotton loans were all directed toward the

same general objectives. The suc- . cess of the program, as a whole, °

is shown by the fact that cash income from cotton rose from 464 million dollars in 1932 to 915 million dollars in 1936. :

Jones-Costigan Act

(Editor’s Note — Other acts similarly controlled sugar, ‘tobacco and potatoes. In the case of sugar, there was the : added complication of a protective = tariff which had wrecked - -Cuba’s sugar industry .and thus destroyed the Cuban market for American products. . The tariff also had greatly increased production of duty-free sugar in American insular possessions, and domestic pro-. ducers. were facing collapse in 3 The terms of a marketing agreement under the AAA could not be ingly, the President a compulsory system of Suotss, This resulted in the passage of the Jones - Costigan Act on ‘May 9, 1934. Following is the President's comment on the results of this legislation and of its subse~ quent repeal.) During the. period ot. approximately. 18: months in which ‘the full sugar: program operated under the. Jones- Costigan Act, real results: were accomplished. The large surplus of sugar was practically The income of growers was marially improved with higher beri for sugar beets and sugar cane, resulting from marketing stabilization = supplemented by benefit payments. The income of field laborers

was raised, partly through the in-

creased ability of producers to

pay better ' wages and partly

through the : establishment minimum wages by the a

. Child labor was pracuically elim.

agreed upon. Accord- Ls

entirely eliminated.

Tex,

; at PILL

e N ew Deal

tional quota. This view shows part of a record yield of 11,000 bales of cotton on a farm near Big Spring,

J. I Herroid, first to register his vote in Herrold; Iowa, as a poll was taken in October, 1935, among producers of corn and hegs for or against. continuation of the AAA adjustment program in the coin belt. The vote heavily favored continued adjustment,

inated in the continental United States. as a factor in sugar cane and sugar beet. produetion, .

In the interests of consumers,

"the price of sugar was. stabilized . at “levels comparable "to prices

prior to the’ depression. = The ‘Cuban income from sugar sales in the United States increased by 125 per cent from 1933 to 1935. This, together -with- the reduction of Cuban duties - on American imports under the reciprocal trade agreement, resulted in an. “expanded ‘Cuban market for American. agricultural. and industrial products. In fact, United States. exports to Cuba increased 140 per cent from -1933 to 1935. : “The decision .of the. |

Supreme Court of the United States in the

case of the United States vs. Butler, on Jan..6, 1936, invalidating - the tax and produc-tion-control = features of AAA,

brought to an end: the sugar pro-

gram except for the’ quota ‘provi-

sions. To remove any So doubt about the quota provisions, the enacted a statute approved June‘ 19, 1936, reaffirming the quota powers previously. granted to th

Unfortunately, experience since

" the decision of the Supreme Court has shown that sugar price pro-

tection, based only upon a quota system, falls far short of the achievements of the more comDiet program Comigen 4 it sxisied ‘under e Jones n A ._ Betievment, of laboring condi-

+» justment powers;

Congress

explains the Security Bill

tions became Spossible 1 with the removal of the production-ad-tne consumer has not benefited materially "in priée by the removal of the proeessing tax; considerable revenue

has been lost, and the processor

is receiving Substantially. the

* same price for sugar without hav-

ing to advance the amount of the , processing. tax. :

opyright under Internaon; all rights Ie. ght Union: ail Copyrigs (1910) by Franklin Roosev be uted by Uni ted ‘Feature Syndicate,

Soh

President ‘Roosevelt's ‘Comments Next Week

The steps taken by the Administration to save capital and labor from themselves and each

- other ‘and, ‘at the same {ime, the

measure ‘adopted to protect . the consumer and the. general pub- “ “lie,” form: the basis for .the next part of President Roosevelt's -OWh ‘story of the New Deal next week. In the first ‘three ‘articles for

the coming week Mr. Roosevelt.

discusses the aims, objectives and accomplishments of the NRA. On Thursday, President Roosevelt describes the abuses which led the Holding Company Bill. In day’s article Mr. Roose yelt an the establishment of the Securities ‘Exchange Commission. Saturday the President discusses ‘the New Deal's measures to improve the plight of the Indians,

d-Class Matter EF ApAToils, Ind.

. 24 and he is 28.

Side Glances—By Clark.

| Jasper—By Frank Owen

| + 7—For what is

TEST YOU R - KNOWLEDGE.

1—Where“did ad Caps Columbus die? - _2—Which state is nickiiaméd ; The: Voluntéer State? - 3—Who won the recent Great- ; er: Greensboro Open Golf Championship? ? 4 What is another name for

al | On what rt river is the city of

Berlin, Germany? For what degree do the ini= tials J. C. D. stand? - — Henry Bes- : semer famaus? ET » » ®.

Answers

: aw =

ents.

- that when they're runnin’ for a

| PAGE 9

Our Town

By Anton Scherrer

A Batch of Cleveland-Indianapoli s - Correspondence Brings Information About the Old Military Park Area.

T wasn’t until the other day, so help me, that I got wind of the fact that Mrs. Carrie Morse Clifford and David Gibson (now of Cleveland) were carrying on a furious correspondence. I can tell you all about it. It started with Mrs. Clifford’s curiosity concerning the people who used to live around her in the Military Park area when she was a little girl. She remembered almost everybody and everything that

had anything to do with her childhood, but to clear up some vague points, she wrote to Mr. Gibson. Sure, he was the little boy who contributed to the gaiety of the neighAorhood back in the early Eighties. ybe you don’t know it, but back -in the Eighties, the Military Park

‘area represented a strata of so-

ciety unlike anything in the world, unless perchance it was something like that of Grammercy Park, N. Y. Mr. Scherrer Well, with the help of the Clif-ford-Gibson letters, I'm in a position to tell everything concerning :the social and cultural nificance of the Military Park milieu—-at any ny that part of it around West and New York Sts. For instance, at the northeast corner of West and New York Sts. stood the Werbe house. It was a kind of architectural curiosity around here, because whoe ever designed it took a notion to: build it with the exterior boards laid vertically. Up to that time, all the weather-boarding in Indianapolis had been laid horizontally. Indeed, the carpenters of the Werbe house went even farther and introduced batten boards, a cleat-like construction to cover the tjoints. where two boards came together. It was a dandy decoration, and I never could understand why its functional beauty didn’t impress more people around here. - North of the Werbe house was the Julius C. Walk home where Carl spent-his boyhood—at any rate, up to 1890. Almost next door—there was a house in between, I believe—was the home of Thomas .J. Morse, Mrs. Clifford’s father, who was a big contractor at the time. Many of his buildings in the wholesale - district of S. Meridian St. are still standing. It turns out, too, that once upon a time, the whole block bounded by West Vermont, Missouri and New York Sts: belonged to Mrs. Clifford's grandfather.

Neighborhood Had Its Santa Claus’

On the other side of West St. in the same block, were the homes of Joseph Gardner and Frank Fauvre, of the old Maus brewing family. The Fauvre house was practically a duplicate of one still standing on the west side of Delaware St. near 12th St. The Delaware St. house still attracts.a lot of attention not only because of its architectural content, but because, once upon a time, it was the home of Myron Reed, one of the grandest preachers Indianapol's ever had. Later it was the home of Mr. Jillson (Knight & Jillson), and still later that of John L. Griffiths who ended up as Consul General to London in the Administration of President Harrison. Directly across from the Walk house—to come back to Military Park—was the home of George Merritt who, with William Coughlin, ran the big woolen mill. on W. Washington St.. The Merritt ‘house was very pretentious with a fountain and cast iron deer. set up in the lawn. Mr. Mertitt had a

| long white beard and nearly always wore a shawl-like

cape. All the kids ofthe neighborhood, including Mrs. Clifford, Carl Walk, Joe Gardner and Dave Gibson positively believed he was Santa Claus. Shucks, I thought I'd get around to telling you about New York St. too.

Jane Jordan—

Girl Can Do Little to Break Boy's Dependence on Mother, Jane Says.

EAR JANE JORDAN—Last summer when I was

at the lakes I met a fellow. He has been to see me five times. He invited me to come to see him and I went twice. On my first visit he wanted me to

meet his folks, which I did. When I came back the second time he told me that his mother didn't live me. He didn’t say why. I asked him whether this would make any difference to him and after hezitating he said no. Since my last visit Christmas, be has called me once, but I wasn’t home. I have write to him twice and haven't received any answer. 1 love this boy. Please tell me what I can do. I am J. D. Answer—I think that the mother’s. opinion did make a difference, otherwise he would not have msntioned it to you. I imagine that she wouldn’t like any girl in whom her son was seriously interested, although I do not know, of course. When a man of 28 still takes his girl home to meet his mother and then says, “My mother dcesn’t like you,” we have the right to suspect that he is still pretty much tied to her apron strings. There really isn’t anything you can dec about it any way since a girl cannot take the initiative in courtship without losing the respect of the man. If he doesn’t come after you, give up and interest yourself in someone freer from maternal Peston,

2 ” ” EAR JANE JORDAN—I am nearly 1 %.v6ars old a allowed-

and a high school senior.’ to go with the boys, or even to - ‘them. I have been slipping 0 not often, but once in a while” I have talked to my parents about this, but I no satisfaction. I have a twin brother who is allowed to go with girls and I do not think this is fair. .I would like to know whether I should slip out or just go out and then tell them about it. a JANET. . Answer—I'd Ary defiance first and “deceit second and adopt the method that worked the best. It is‘ part of your task in life to get acquainted with the other sex. You have a right to resist the obstacles put in your path by Yol-meaniig but mistaken pare JANE JORDAN.

TE ne tan avo answer your questions in this in this ‘column daily. .

Bob Burns Says—

OLLYWOOD, April 9.—It's a ddrned poor politician that can’t please somebody. I've term or for. another office they point with: pride to some of the

| Jondertul Wisies Wheyve accomplishen during. Uele

+ pessinds mb of Aunt Boo. braggin’ Show 1 Uncle house I ever knew. He took a top off & awe

:| the legs off the washstand and took a

{oe To of She asiaiana tht Cok 3 peel or yo. (Copyright, i A85 Fx ;

| Walter o Kesfe—