Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 11 April 1938 — Page 10

GE 10 : oN The Indianapolis Times | (A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

ROY W. HOWARD . LUDWELL DENNY President Editor

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MONDAY, APRIL 1}, 1938

GEORGE V. COFFIN al og ; (GEORGE V. COFFIN, who died yesterday, was a political leader of the old school. He believed in a Republican organization, based on discipline and reward for party service. Although there was nothing new in that theory, . Mr. Coffin applied it with more success over a longer period of time in Indianapolis than either his Republican or Democratic rivals. | His ability was outstanding. While in' the Army in the Philippines and China, he learned the value of discipline.

With this sense of discipline and of personal bravery he |

became the man of the hour during the great flood of 1913 here. ; His popularity continued when he became Sheriff and * Chief of Police. Then it was an easy step to political control. Mr. Coffin as the ruler of a partisan political organization inspired intense loyalty and bitter criticism. But his supporters and his critics alike paid tribute to his personal charm and his power of leadership. Le

ROOSEVELT AS A LOSER AMONG all the state documents that will tell the story of the critical Thirties we think that short letter from Roosevelt to Rayburn may, as the future views the past, be well toward to the top of the list. . The President had taken a licking, aplenty.” What he had to say was the word of a good sport, a good loser, and a wise man. “Thanks for the fine fight . .". no occasion for personal recriminations, and there should be none.” He could have registered sourness and soreness, as he has sometimes in the past; he could have declaimed that the forces of evil had triumphed, and that all were “out of step but Willie.” But instead, in a note that radiated a spontaneity which made you know that no ghost writer penned it, he accepted defeat, and left the way open to Sgo-from here.” : We somehow feel that this reaction is a flareback to “the real Roosevelt we knew before he acquired the “mandate” fixation. For it was only after that election of November 1936 that-he began to get peevish and punitive, and to indicate on occasion that all who might not agree with him

were running counter to the Almighty. The hardest thing |

in life to stand is prosperity—whether you be in politics, or strike an oil well, or become a movie star. Roosevelt way down deep, we believe, is a philosopher. And philosophers look at their hole card. He has. That letter to Rayburn proves it. And if the letter sets the pitch for the future, as we devoutly hope it will, the nation soon will be in for better days. And no nation in the whole broad world rises more quickly to cheer the man who knows how to lose. | :

JA FOR DER FUEHRER

NSCHLUSS, as we felt entirely safe in predicting long ago, has carried Nazidom by a landslide, providing Herr Hitler with another overwhelming “success.” Until Der Fuehrer took control and set up concentration camps for thase suspected of disagreeing with him and beheading-blocks for those who openly opposed him, the Nazis were never able to poll even a bare majority of the votes in any election. : But not many people are willing to risk their liberty or their lives for the doubtful privilege of writing “no” on an otherwise meaningless ballot. : Thus, for impudence yesterday’s plebiscite reached a peak. As an excuse for his march into Austria Hitler seized upon Chancellor Schuschnigg’s plans to have the Austrian people themselves decide, by referendum, whether they wished union with Germany. That plan, Hitler amazingly charged, constituted treason—treason not to Austria but to Germany! If, this astounding man reasoned, there was to be a plebiscite, he, not Schuschnigg, would conduct it, and 70,000,000 Germans would have a voice in the matter,

not merely the 6,000,000 Austrians most concerned. Which,

we submit, constitutes the biggest and box stuffing job in history. : The Sunday plebiscite was unquestionably farcical. But it was also tragic. Not only was it symbolic of what Nazi-

most brazen ballot-

dom’s colossal power now means to Europe and the rest of

the world, but it offered us an inkling of what may be yet to come.

LIGHT ON RELIEF

T was hoped when the Senate created the special committee to investigate unemployment and relief, that Congress would get the benefit of some objective advice on how to establish a less costly and more scientific program. It now appears doubtful that the committee’s report will be finished in time to help Congress write the 1939 relief bill, due to emerge from the White House this month as a “must measure” for passage before July 1. The committee has spent much time listening to busi“ness leaders diagnose the recession, but little studying the immediate needs of the recession’s victims and the mechanics of a better system for their help. However, the committee should give the present Congress the benefit of what it has learned, Its members have been doing some sincere headwork. Lacking more seasoned opinion, Congress should hear this committee's best advice on— . : The needs in-dollars and cents for the fiscal year 1939; - work relief vs. direct relief; the extent to which states and localities can contribute; how the Federal Government can begin putting relief on a pay-as-you-go basis; how relief can be co-ordinated with unemployment-insurance benefits ; how relief administration can be put under the merit system; means of stimulating private employment, and other plans * that might make this huge burden less costly. 1s The Government has wandered through a maze of relief experiments. It has spent more than $14,000,000,000 for relief in the past five years, and the states and localities have spent about five billion dollars. fool Since Congress must appropriate another huge sum it should, ‘at least, have the benefit of what light there is on

UU

NEV YORK, April 11.~Granted that there are

~ great-hearted artistic warmth which melted the dis-

By John T. Flynn :

|

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler

Hollywood Is Hard and Harsh and

Lacks That Comradeship Usually ‘Found in Other Artists’ Colonies.

thousands of failures in Hollywood, ‘it is a strange fact that that community of artists contains few, if any, gay and regardless individuals. The poor are wretched because they are, by comparison, poor and yearning, envious and Jealous. The rich are self-conscious, jealous, worried and the prey of ‘fears, parasites and tax collectors. : : Of course, this is a general observation, and I will grant that there must be a few exceptions, On the whole, however, Hollywood differs shockingly from Paris, Vienna and Greenwich Village as of old. Hollywood is hard and harsh, and suffers from a lack of that bread-and-a-bottle comradeship, that

tinctions between the masters and the unarrived in the Bohemias of which we have read so much. The successful actor or writer reckons his standing by his salary and runs with people whose earnings are ir his own brackets. But the actor knows that his career is short and is constantly fighting with his employers for more money, for better roles, for advantages too technical to be explained in a short piece. . : : 8&8 HE writer's job at $1000 or $2000 or more per ‘ week expires every now and again, and he has an agent to hustle up further short-term assignments. He becomes secretive, defensive, bitter. He fights with his wife and is divorced, and we in the rest of the country read of a settlement which reckons his pay at some stupefying figure and her alimony in proportionate amount. They hate to fail. They fear failure, and a reduction in price may be resisted for many weeks at nothing per week. A man owes last year's income taxes and what can he do if he washes out entirely? Go back to night police or the rewrite battery at a newspaper salary? Unbearable! He can’t tolerate - even himself, whom he admires. preposterously. The parasites who chisel and blackmail swarm like midges on a June night in the woods. One must spend money at so-and-so’s night club or donate one’s services to some broadcast or send Christmas and birthday presents to someone with a column of type or take the risk of a bad report. So they think, anyway. As a matter of truth, the club wielders, all of them well-known to the profession, realize that their threat is largely imaginary.

8 8 8

(CYP ARATIVELY few people hear their’ remarks or read their digs in print, and it is not actually necessary to squander money at their dives, to donate professional services or to send them presents at Christmas or on their, constantly recurring birthdays. But as long as the poor ham thinks it is necessary the take is good. But the Hollywood people are afraid. Without confidence in their ability, they pay, one way and another, and look on aspirants with suspicion and run with their own financial set lest it be thought that they are losing caste.” They know that their earnings are fantastic but, what with commissions, taxes, appearances and all, they come up with little at the end of each yeax. ‘ The harshness, the wolfish Individual suspicion and loneliness of the colony are apparent at

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wn a The Hoosier Forum I wholly disagree with what you say, but will . defend to the death your right to say it.—Voltaire.

SAYS VOTERS TO BE OFFERED LOTS OF TEMPTING BAIT By J. 8. : Sometime ago in this column “a mere voter” suggested the employment of a Sherlock Holmes to steer us clear of political humbuggery. No doubt we are regarded as fish and if so, it's open season on us until Nov. 2, and no doubt that mere voter contemplated that before that time a large variety of very alluring bait would be cast at us. But up to

once and hard to understand at first. Only a few “Fhow I think we have been able to

great souls with great earnings have the bigness and courage to be kind to a newcomer who may: want no help. Successful men and women fear, hate and suspect one another. 5 - eis We have all read of the Brown Derbies, but there is no Bohemian ease and fun anywhere. : TE S—" .

Business

Insurance Firms Would Not Lose

- Heavily in Railroad Bankruptcy. EW YORK, April 11.—The President has wisely shaken his head at the proposal to have the Treasury dig up yearly profits for the railroads. Thus we see there is not much difference between the farmer and the rail magnate. When the farmer yells for money out of the Treasury the businessman thinks it is a form of radicalism. But it seems that when tHe businessman’s ox is gored he can holler for money from the Government as lustily as his brother in the field. The President very properly suggested that many of the roads should “go through the wringer.” But he added an observation which needs investigation. He used the usual argument that if railroads should be put through real bankruptcies the insurance com--panies might suffer seriously, it not fatally. But this is one of those statements which continues to be made without too close examination. It is true that insurance companies are heavily invested in railroad bonds. But it is not necessarily true that bankruptcy of such roads would cause the insurance companies any loss or very much loss. Bankruptcy does not mean that inevitdbly the bondholders will be wiped out—certainly honest bankruptcy does not mean this. But the kind of bankruptcies and reorganizations we have under existing laws frequently do rob the bondholders.

Government Might Escape Cost

Insurance companies hold large blocks of prime bonds which are senior to all other obligations. At the present time such bonds are actually threatened because the roads—or some of them—are going to rust so fast that presently, unless something is done even these bonds may suffer. Hohest reorganization would in many if not most cases, restore these bonds to sound investment positions. It would pay the Government to examine this proposition—first, study carefully the stake of life insurance companies in the shaky roads. Study also the effect upon such companies of honest railroad reorganization. ‘And finally examine the question of whether it would not be immeasurably cheaper for the Government to. guarantee the insurance companies than to guarantee the railroads. It is entirely possible that the insurance companies, even if they were threatened by railroad reorganization, could be guaranteed by the Government without ever costing the Government a cent.

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

T one who loves the democratic ideal, it is a privlege to hear the voice of the great Thomas Mann because that voice, reaffirming the right of individual liberty, will echo down the ages and in the end, I am convinced, silence forever the noisy tyrants who despise mankind. ha As I looked at the slight, modest man, the thought kept recurring: “Here is the greatest literary figure of our time, a true intellectual, a person of profound wisdom who has been exiled from Germany, his homeland, because he refuses to subscribe to the ideal that men should be used only as racks for the wearing of uniforms.” : an : Suddenly, too, I felt a great surge of pride in my country that now gives him refuge. :

What difference does it make about empire and |

power and the glory of conquest when such personal-

ities as Mann, Einstein and Sigmund Freud have to |

flee a country which their ancestors built and upon which they have bestowed everlasting honors? A midget Hitler driving away the men who have created a Germany for him to ruin is a ludicrous and tragic sight, even if he conquers the earth. When today has passed, the Thomas Manns whom he persecutes will cast their long shadow over history, blotting out the intellectual dwarfs as a mountain hides shrubs at it: feet. hh od : ; To us Mann says: “War is always a shirking of the tasks of

of sentimental nonsense, ; At no time has there been greater need for us to

welcome one who comes remin used and appreciated. “Liberty is never lost because its $hose who love

peace.” The individual who refuses to face || the tfuth of this opinion is not a realist, but a vendor |

disappear if it is not |.

tell what looks like, but isn’t, the real thing without a Sherlock. We are tossed a bait which says VanNuys. ought to contribute $1000 to have his excommunication confirmed in the State Convention and ought to sit down and talk things out with the political dictators. We don’t like that bait—and we think the Two Percenters have enough cash already, and that VanNuys ought to talk it out.with us. Stalwart Shay would look more stalwart to us if just once he would bristle up to the President or somebody who has authority to do things for him. The way it has been, we fish can’t be certain about his being stalwart. We can’t tell whether Shay represents us or just Shay, but we're just fish, not politicians, and will probably be biting at artifical minnows before the season is over. : . #2 = TITLE HOLDER LAW IS DEFENDED ; By Mrs. Nellie Donham, Corry If there is anything I get tired of seeing among : contributors to the press it is the never ending kicking of some people about the so-called Gadget Law. : <2 I would like to see some of their

possibly the rear glass are covered with stickers of all places they have had an opportunity to see. Along comes a law to try to stop so much auto ‘thievery and they shout to

on their windshield. ! If that were all this old world had to worry about we would be fortunate. Let's not clutter our minds and papers with such petty stuff. we must worry, why not about some of the serious things that are happening in the world today.

” ”8 8 LISTS QUALIFICATIONS OF HISTORIANS . By W. L. Ballard, Syracuse, ind.

ference between fact and opinion should not essay to write history. The world has been deluged with “history” lately; history of individuals ‘and of nations. Much of it is written with a bias or to give the subject an O. Henry kick. When

‘| tant progeny, Josephus, a historian of the- first

cars. No doubt the windshield and

high Heaven over one small sticker )

If

Those who do not know the dif-|-

(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.)

such a history book “goes over big” we know a new historian has emerged for the moment and thas later he will be invited to address clubs—and so will a new theory of history be born! I have just been reading what a standard authority has to say regarding the qualifications of a man who presumes to write history. “... Every one who undertakes to deliver the history of actions truly ought to know of them himself, or be informed of them by such as knew

them. . . . This digression I have

been obliged to make out of necessity, as being desirous to expose the vanity of those that profess to write

histories.” Evidently then, as now, “eternal vigilance” was the price of liberty and of the knowledge of the .truth. When time has melted and blended our own era into the tradition of a vague past, the authority quoted will doubtless remain an everyday necessity for our disFor he was Flavius

century. ® = = CENTRALIZED CONTROL OF CIVIL SERVICE URGED ByF.B.R. ‘ooo

How can American citizens suspect the Reorganization Bill of being a step toward dictatorship when its two most controversial points were proposed in 1832 by

SWEET PEAS ; By E. A. I see today Fresh tendrils shoot forth— ° Eager to cling— Eager to grow. Soon they will bloom Near my window pane! Gaily they'll blow In wind and rain. Sweet peas hold peace, Though short their life!

DAILY THOUGHT Let all your things be done with charity —I Corinthians 16:14.

OTHING is more pleasing to God than an open hand and a

closed mouth.—Quarles.

President Hoover, and when those

| same two points are really checks

on the power of the chief executive? = Under the present plan the President appoints three ' Civil Service Commissioners without regard to any definite qualifications, and he may remove them at will. Under the new plan he would appoint one Civil Service Administrator. He must make this appointment from among the three highest persons to pass a technical examination in personnel management held by a special examining board. The Federal Government, being the largest employer in the United’ States, should have the most highly developed personnel program; but it is as impossible for a tripleheaded commission of laymen to administer such ah energetic and technical program as it is for three persons to drive one modern automobile, There is, however, need for an advisory board of laymen to represent the public interest in Government personnel and to criticize and appraise the work of the personnel office. At preesnt the Civil Service Commission does both the work and the appraising, which is inconsistent. The new plan provides for a lay board of seven members to act as a “watch dog” of the merit system. In other words, the new proposal is not only more efficient but more democratic than the present system. ss & ® SAYS LAWS F. D. R. SPONSORS POINT TO DICTATORSHIP

By E. F. M. : ~ Mr. Roosevelt may or may not know that he is sponsoring laws designed to set up an executive dictatorship, but the evidence is plain that the laws he fights so hard to force through Congress lead in that direction. Many of the President’s friends have become alarmed at the revolutionary nature of the New Deal program, and the unwholesome . methods used to coerce Congressmen to line up, and wonder what will happen if the Administration gets all the power it seeks. .

. Already many Democrats who have dared to oppose the will of the New Deal clique are marked for a political purge. : So much power has already been given the President that he is held responsible for everything that happens in the Government. But it is a physical impossibility for any man to examine and understand all of the legislation he has adopted as

his own.

LET'S

enemies can destroy. it, but because it careless gifts. The tasks

EXPLORE YOUR MIND

By DR. ALBERT EDWARD WIGG

1

the emancipation

+ world th

AM

{they need is | tunity 1 ; ~ |a day of } | breaks you. |ecan sell

with, instead of domination over, the feminine sex. If men show this spirit 1 think women will always be content to let it be essentially a man’s world. ” # ® # : A STUDY of this important problem was made by Dr. John G. Darley, Minnesota University psychologist, and he found that radical men in this group (326 men) had grades about in accord with their abilities, but radical women (217 women) were making grades below what would be expected from their abilities. There was a general tendency for the badly maladjusted

| _|students to make grades somewhat | belowetheir abilities. :

oe 8 B® s - W: J. CAMERON, executive of the Ford Motor Co, said in Think, paraphrased, Many think all opportunity bu ruins many. Opportunity is nt,” it makes or | ny a young fellow himself but -he nothing to deliver.

De ai

n (he has {learns

the right stuff in

ning of the nose, when he isp

p

Gen. Johnson =

] Says—

There Is a Real Danger to Freel Speech in the Attitude and Power:

~~ Ofthe Communications Commission. _XR7ASHINGTON, April 11.—If there were no inter-

v ¥ ference between powerful broadcasting stations on the air, what justification would there be for regulation of radio by a political Federal bureau? Especially what justification would there be for any regulation whatever of what can be said over the air?

Perhaps the greatest single essential of democracy is free press and free speech. - What more justification is there for the Federal Communications Comemission, by any device or invention, to control what may be said on the air, than for the War Department, for example, to control what may be said on a street corner or what opinion may be voiced in the editorial columns of a newspaper: There isn’t any such justification, argues William Paley, Columbia Broadcasting System president, in a remarkable annual report to stockliolders, brilliantly addressed to this growjng danger. The Federal Communications C

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ommission was an

absolute necessity to assign the various wave-lengths:

to particular stations to prevent the air from becoming a pandemonium of bedlam and ‘assure of orderly, receivable programs. 38 pubis

: is AFT whether it has done that job impartially and well there is a great deal of argument, but how can anybody successfully refute Mr. Paley’s argument that the necessity for doing that does not confer any right or justification for censoring speech or programs, 5 sods ee speech and free press are property restri by the laws and remedies against libel. a rhered and indecency. These have served as well as liberty can permit them to serve in relation to both the printed and the spoken word. They serve equally well in relation to the broadcast word. The eternal. vigilance, which is the price of liberty, requires that no Federal bureau be permitted to sneak up on them by any such device as beginning to decide whether what is spoken is “in the public interest, convenience or necessity.” Is there danger of that? Danger? A broadcasting license has already been threatened because the commission thought a particular program was not in the public “interest, convenience or necessity.”

8 8 2»

HERE is just one development of radio which Mr. Paley correctly concedes restricts its freedom considerably more than that of newspapers. It must have no editorial page or policy. Why? Because the national air channels are so few that there is not the same opportunity that the great diversity of the press affords for the expression of contrary opinion. But this is a very different matter from saying that the FCC can condition a license on what is said over the air by an individual. The company’s policies should be, and I think are, to encourage debate on controversial subjects so long as the program gives absolute equality of opportunity to both sides. The danger of radio violating these rules is more than sufficiently controlled by the licensing provisions which are far too drastic and which I think have been arbitrarily used with too little goldfish bowl publicity. But I believe there is a real danger to free speech in the general attitude and tremendous powers of this commission.

It Seems to Me By Heywood Broun |

- -

An Englishwoman's [Election Plea May Become World's Watchword.

NE YORK, Apri] 11.—A certain young Englishwoman named Dr. Edith Summerskill has just won an election which may vitally affect the history of Europe and of the world. It may mark the turning of the tide which will send fascism into ebb. All these things are as yet to be written on pages which have not been turned, and, even so, I think that the significance of this single bye-election in a little drab slice of London town should not be underestimated. : West. Fulham by all accounts is not a trade union stronghold. It is the home of little men and meager - women whose knowledge of world affairs is limited to what it pleases Beaverbrook and Rothermere to tell them. Dr. Edith Summerskill went there and aroused the lower middle class, the backbone of the empire as I have heard, into a repudiation of Chamberlain's policy of seeking English isolation by dickering with dictators and truckling to them. The slogan of the young Laborite was “Back to the League!” which is. another way of saying “collective security.” . Slightly more than 30,000 votes were cast. The district is less than half as large in ballot strength as, let us say, the 17th of New York City. West Fulham has gone Labor only once before. Dr. Summer=skill won by a bare thousand votes but the victory . came right on the heels of the Prime Minister's recent arrogant declaration that he represented the nation and that any party which opposed him was certain to go down to inglorious defeat.

Little Man Has Spoken

But now the little men and meager women of London—seamstresses, small shopkeepers, barbers and waiters—Hhave begun to talk back to Sir Neville Chamberlain. And they have said that they want the true peace of established security and no shaky truce built upon a cringing compromise with the creeping death which the Fascist lords at home and abroad would allow them. And so the Fulhamites paid no heed when Nancy Astor lifted up her lovely head and cried, “Back Neville!” ; : “The people have delivered their ultimatum,” said Edith Summerskill. “Chamberlain’s childlike faith is not shared by the people of this country. They remember with alarm that at the very moment the national government was asking the nation to trust in their negotiations with Mussolini he was boasting about his troops invading Spain. . . . The election has been fought on Labor’s demand that peaceful nations must become a chain so strong that the bullies of - Europe dare not risk further aggression.” And it is my firm faith that what has begun in West Fulham will sweep the nations and the waters of the earth and make us whole again. :

Watching Your Health

By Dr. Morris Fishbein

A LL over the world nations are preparing theme A selves against the hazards of poisonous war

gases. Today there is a variety of gases. Perhaps .

there are many others already known beyond th ‘that were used in the great war. - ; Among the most frequently used gases are those known as vesicants or blistering gases which damage the tissues of the body with which they come in cone tact. The one most widely known is: mustard gas. It is prominent as a war gas because it is efficient. : Its pdor resembles that of mustard ‘hofseradish ‘or garlic. : ; 8 When the substance reaches the skin, its action is like that of a strong acid. . It is injurious to the lungs in a concentration of one part in a million if it is breathed for as long as an hour. In stronger concentrations, it does serious damage. Depending on the concentration of the gas; the effect ranges from a slight redness of the skin to a severe burn. . Because of the sensitivity of the eye, the danger to the eyes may be even greater than that to the skin,

The first symptoms of mustard gas irritation are

smarting and watering of the eyes, then comes runs sneezing, later even retching and

vomiting. Then the eyes swell and close up. . The

commonest complication. of mustard gas is Involve.

ment of the lungs. : Long after the person has been damaged by the gas, he may suffer from recurrent ¢ , of the eye, broncho-pneumonia, and other disturbances It is obvious that the wearing of a ; mask will protect to some extent against fe by mustard gas, but the rest of the body

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