Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 12 April 1938 — Page 10

LU man - -

VYagabon

From Indiana—Ernie Pyle

"Las Cruces, N. M., Wouldn'’ t Have Any Part of ‘the Ugliness Typical Of Court Houses fe Country Over.

pas CRUCES, N. M., April 12, —The Coun-

ty Court House situation i in America has always ‘had an awful fascination for me. 1 doubt if anything in this country’s history ~ has.been so consistently ugly and unimagina-

- tive as its County Court Houses. From coast to coast, most of them are just alike.

Most of ‘them are square, cupolaed, standing straightmouthed and ‘old-fashioned in a sHabby town square. : So, with that Court House phobia as a background, I want to tell you about the most beautiful Court House I have ever seen. It is here in Las Cruces, and it follows the new Santa Fe architecture, which is nierely a modernizing of the old Pueblo style of building. The Las Cruces Court House is neither square, round, rectangular, nor straight up and down. In some places it is three stories, in some places two. There is no regularity about it at all. It has balconies, and patios. The walls slant inward

Mr. Pyle. as they go up. The building is

- white as snow. The ends of dark wooden beanis stick

out in rows from the outer walls. In two or three

“places you see a wide ladder, made of poles tied to-

gether, leading from: a balcony to the roof of the floor above, -- “In their own Plcblos the Indians used these outside “ladders ‘to get up to the next floor. The white man, ‘in his modern Santa Fe architecture, goes up by a stairway or elevator, but wisely leaves these old effects for a decoration of authenticity and beauty. New Mexico has something in this Santa Fe architecture that fits the state's character. New Mexico is a state of deserts, rocky mountainsides, mesas and buttes and long views. It is high, dry and bare, It has a personality of overwhelming distance just lying there: asleep in the sun. On a + like that, a square two-story frame house : is1 jcrous. .. * Of course you can’t keep either an individual or a : communit from building something ugly and completely in bad taste if he has it in his unimaginative + head to -do so. . But New Mexico could, by education, get more Pearle and towns to ‘build everything in this pueblo . style; And if they did, I believe that 50 years from now the cities and towns of New Mexico would be’ the ‘most. beautiful in America.

Jail Bars Are Hacksaw-Proof

‘The Las Cruces Court House is the only one of its’ kind in:the state. There are other public buildings in this style, but only Las Cruces has built something that doesn’t look like a Court House. . The men who had this idea were E. G. Shannon, a Las Cruces lawyer, and Sam Klein, who runs a furniture store and is chairman of the board of commissioners. “The building was finished in February. It is of reinforced concrete. The walls are covered, inside ‘and out, with pure white cement plaster, which can be washed. ~The entire cost was $168,000. Had it been built . in the usual Court House style, it would have cost twice that sum. It is fireproof, will last 100 years, and has enough extra space to care for growth dur"ing that time. "The county jail is on the top floor. You wouldn’t ever know it if you didn’t go up there. Can’t even notice the bars on the windows from the outside. ‘The jail has a little hospital, cells for the insane, air cooling for summer, a big kitchen, bullet-proof windows for interviews with prisoners, and bars made of a new steel that can’t be cut with a hacksaw.

My Diary ‘By-Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt First ‘Lady Is Tempted to Write

Poem of Joy as Weather Improves.

YDE PARK, Monday—If you have not read Phyllis Bottome’s “The Mortal Storm,” I think this is the time to read it. She has lived so much in different countries, that she seems to understand the psychology of many European people. She not only describes events, but her narrative shows you the why and wherefore of those events.

I. feel as though I ought to write a poem of joy

because the weather has changed. Of course, the wind yesterday was more like winter than like spring. Every time I looked at the water I felt that instead of being April, it was October. Even small bodies of water were blown almost into white caps and looked steely eold. However, there was a blue sky and we stayed out on horseback for a long while, keeping mainly to the woods in order to get as much protection from the wind as possible: Yesterday for the first time, I explored a. farm which adjoins some land which my husband has had for some time. An old man lives in the house all by

himself and he stood at his fence and looked at us.

as though he thought we were not entirely on pleasure bent and might even have evil intentions. I called out: “Good morning,” but I think he was too suspicious of us even to answer, or, perhaps, I could not hear him,

Ends Up in Pine ‘Woods

In any case, we circled his house ‘and were interested in it, for it must have heen built some time ago. I hagen't been inside, but I am sure it is arranged as all these old houses are, with a corridor down the middle with two rooms on either side and a tiny, steep stairway leading up to two rooms under the sloping roof with very small windows just under the eaves front and: back and narrow windows at the ends. : Through the field, we followed a road which wan.flered down by a brook and I had the thrill of ‘adventure I used to feel as a child when I started out to follow a new brook as far as my legs would carry me. I thought we were going to go into new country for miles, but very soon we ended up in a pine woods -so thick that there was no going any further. Back we came along accustomed roads to life without thrills. .This morning I went out alone and tried to grow really well acquainted with my horse. TI still find his gaits : very different from Dot’s. But then you can’t have one horse in two places and 1 should be more. adiustable. :

New Books Today

Public Library Presents—

T= trial of Kaiser Wilhelm II by the Allied and ,~ Associated Powers, as projected in the Treaty of- Versailles, was never held. George Sylvester Viereck, however, who has known the Kaiser and his household personally, and who, he claims, is the sole agent through whom the Kaiser has released maJerlal for publication since the beginning of his exile, in THE KAISER ON TRIAL (Greystone ) an imaginary trial of Wilhelm II, trying him the charges of deliberately bringing about the World War and- betraying and destroying the Ger-

Empire. Public defender and prosecutor alike call up witstatesmen and diplomats,

. nesses—royal personages, military dignitaries, both living and dead. From their

* sestigmnny the defender draws the portrait of the Emof a throne established less than 50 m heliever in the imperial divine right and “adherent to Germany’s constitution, )¢ nation and his people, but power-

in his early youth, -

But from the avail-

F.D.R’s Own Story of the

ndianapolis

TUESDAY, APRIL 12, 1988

( Contained in an authorized advance publication of his: notes and: comments to “The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin Db. Roosevelt”) Article No. 18

On The NRA (I)

(In yesterday's installment, the purposes, basic principles: and j rapid organization of the National Recovery Administration were de-

scribed.

In the following, taken from President Roosevelt’s notes

and comments to his volumes of public papers, the creation of the Blue Eagle, and the early development of difficulties in enforcement, are told in the President's own words, never before published.)

» » 2

8 8 »

/ ALTHOUGH there was quick and widespread response on the part of industry in submitting proposed codes, I thought that a strong impetus should be given to the re-employment program in order to get as many unemployed back to work as quickly as possible. The President’s Re-employment Agreement (PRA) was devised to be signed by individual employers of labor. The agreement dealt only with wages and hours and not

with trade practices, that workers were entitled to a more just percentage of them in the way of wages. The re-employment agreement was also necessary in order to bring all labor under the same rulings, in order to protect interstate commerce from the competition of intrastate manufacturers, and to arouse a more widespread public opinion in . Suppor of the plan. In connection with this agreement the Blue Eagle was devised as an official symbol to be used only by those’ who were operating under approved codes or who had signed the President’s Re-employ-ment Agreement. Patriotic citizens were expected to patronize only those cancerns which displayed the Blue Eagle. The withdrawal of the right to display the Blue Eagle thus became an important method to enforee compliance. Over 2,300,000 of these individual agreements were signed with

the President, covering approxi-

mately 16,300,000 employees. The agreements also had the effect of causing the submission of a deluge of codes, increasing markedly the administrative difficulties of the NRA.

Major Problems

By the end:of the first year of NRA code administration had developed several major problems, particularly in the matter of enforcing compliance with the codes. : . In many instances, Code Authorities were able to maintain a

high: degree of voluntary com-’

pliance. In others, Code Authorities frequently exceeded _ their proper function in efforts to, enforce compliance. It was realized at - the outset that code requirements, particularly as to wages ahd hours, would result in price increases, although every effort was made to:provide against. any rises in prices not made - necessary to meet code requirements or justified by actual costs. Particularly in the President's Re-employment Agreement an effort was made to avoid price increases by a specific agreement to limit such increases to those made necessary by increased cost. It was inevitable, however, that prices would rise as industrial recovery took place, since one certain effect of the depression had been to drag prices down below profitable levels. To meet a rising volume of eonsumer complaints, public hearings were held in January, 1934. These hearings uncovered some legiti-~ mate complaints of efforts at price

. control. under the codes; but in

the main they showed that price changes had generally followed naturally upon an improved market and upon rising labor costs,

“and that there had not been any : substantial amount of profiteering

under the aegis of the NRA. These price hearings developed discussions of major price problems which persisted through the NRA. Foremost among these was the effort to control unwarranted price cutting by requiring in codes that products should not he sold below cost. But a definition of what was “cost” proved elusive throughout NRA.

In the case of the retail trades .

8 strong effort was made to elim-

| man,

. that the relaxation of the

Prices were rising and 1 believed

inate the so-called loss leader, a method of ‘enticing customers by advertising standard articles at

practically a cost, or even below- °

cost, price. The elimination of the loss leader proved very helpful in some lines of business, particularly where small independent retailers were: suffering from big-

store or chain-store competition.

The Darrow Board

In order to have an independent study made of complaints which were coming in about: monopolistic practices resulting from codes

under NIRA, ‘I set up. the Na-_ tional Recovery Review Board by"

executive order. The Board, by reason of the: name of its chairClarence Darrow, became known as the Darrow Board.

Unfortunately, the Board, in its

| investigation, proceeded rather as

a prosecuting agency to prove a

| case against big business, than as | an impartial investigating body.

Little evidence was produced of increased monopolistic power. On the other hand, it was established that the NRA on the whole had not interfered with the existence of legitimate competition. Most of the monopolistic conditions uncovered by the Board were found to be based either on control of certain,natural resources or patents, or in the inevitable power inherent in vast industrial organizations to dominate in the

price and marketing policies of

an industry, I do not think it can be proved

trust laws during the NRA, to permit co-operation between businessmen, did in fact develop any additional monopolistic controls pver trade and industry. ~On the.contrary, it was a demonstrated fact that innumerable small and ‘independent businessmen were greatly helped in their struggle to survive by the establishment of fair competition and the elimination of such monopolistic practices as destructive price cutting. It is true that many smaller businessmen, who had been able to survive. through sweat-shop . practices of long hours and. low wages, were handicapped by the labor provisions of their codes. Many of the complaints .of monopoly came from some businessmen who were thus compelled to pay decent wages for decent hours

of labor, and who sought by such,

complaints to cover up the reasons for their resultant distress.

Consumers Protected

Of course the real victims of monopolies are always the consumers, who are forced to pay excessive prices unless the Government itself protects them. “The rebuilding of the purchasing power of all classes of our population was the cornerstone of our program of recovery from the very beginning. This required first the raising of income. But the which a larger wortion of the population could obtain larger incomes would not be effective if the increase in the cost of necessities of life proceeded at a taster pace.

The farm and industrial pro- :

grams of the = Administration which were building up the incomes of producers and workers could result in a general in-

Side Glances—By Clark

LEO 1908 87 wes Semi 06 3 I.

" y figure we can’ with

Ske this ip unless we can get the Biltans to go ‘share the Sxpenses-.-shd. I'm:darned: if I'lig

anti-

Critics of the. NEA had 3 a “field day” in ‘Washington when, in five simultaneous hearings, spokesmen for labor, . consumer and the small business. : man voiced their objections betars NRA Admijnis-

pire enthusiasm : for. NRA, Sept. 13, 1933, made” - Day; when employees and employers marched side by side. in vast parades throughout the country. Above is the reviewing stand in New York, where. 250,000 marched from early. morning to

creased capacity . to ‘consume only

at: ofr”

trator Hugh S. Johnson. The only critic who stood in “basic disagreement with the NRA” was Robert Minor, Communist Party: representative, who . is shown _tright) telling. Gen. Johnson why. a

midnight, as 1,500,000 marched. Left fo right: Sen-

ator Copeland of New York, Mayor John P. O'Brien:

of New York City, Administrator Hugh Johnson, ‘Governor Lehman of ‘New York and Governor Cross

of Connecticut.

were directed to remedying the go restaurant proprietor, the sarage-

fered as Secon ass Matter = SE. Tod,

al Our

| By Anton Scherrer

creation of conditions by:

if they were used iin: such a ‘way!

as not to inflate prices unduly.

As a ‘protection’ ‘against this: ‘frustration of the 'récovery pro-,

gram, the Administration at an

¢ early period created several new

offices charged “with the specific duty of safeguarding the interests of consumers, not only in the mat-

ter of prices, but of policies affecting the quantity and quality of.

goods. . The: creation. and operation of these consumer . agencies : repre-

sented a new principle in gov-:

ernment. It was the recognition

of .the right of consumers to have

their interésts represented in the formulation of government: policy

and. administration of laws -af-: fecting the production and .dis-*

tribution of goods. I think it can ‘be safely ‘stated

that never before had the partic-

ular problems of consumers been

so thoroughly and: unequivocally accepted as the direct responsi-.

bility of Government. The willing-

ness to fulfill that responsibility was, in essence, an extension and

amplification of the meaning and

content of democratic Sp

ment.

initiative in code-making, an

the administration of rey

‘codes remained in the hands of | organized producers and sellers. The natural result was that codes

As has been solnted ot, the.

evils most “observed by such groups rather than the ‘evils suffered by consumers. protection of purchasers was one ‘of the functions of the: NRA, little could be done affirmatively. - The Board: did maintain: con-

stant vigilance ‘for consumers’ in-

terests in the formulation and

"administration of codes. Proposed

provisions which would lead ' fo price fixing or price maintenance were closely examined. Only when facts and circumstances showed a

clear necessity for: price 'mginte= -

nance clauses and only where a

. maximum amount of consumer

protection was provided would the consumer adviser approve the

code. NIRA, in seeking ‘to’ improve business conditions and ' wages and hours as a whole, had made no distinction, as to codification, between interstate and intrastate ‘commerce. The law ‘did’ provide that, when codes were violated,

penalties should be attached only -

to : transactions in and affecting interstate commerce.

Confusion was inevitable be-

cause all businesses of: all’ types were subject to voluntary codification, and particularly because the President’s Re-employment Agreement could be voluntarily signed . by businesses which were purely local—the local cleaner and dyer, . the barber, the laundryman,. the

Jasper—By Frank Owen

“While the °

-approved on Nov. -8, 1933.

Served ‘Union + (1910) by Fran dis

man, ete. ‘Although these so-calléd sesvioe trades are ordinarily thought of as insignificant in. comparison with such industries as steel, oil ‘or

automobiles, the number of persons employed therein is actually as large and in many cases larger. Moreover, some of the worst labor

- conditions existed in these ‘trades,

which were likewise beset in many instances by various kinds of racketeering. In consequence, labor groups and the trades them-

- selves: clamored for codes of fair

competition. The code, which became, in a sense the typical case was the code for the cleaning and dyeing trade, ‘The code - contained provisions ' for - minimum wages, maxiinum hours, collective bargaining, and the fixing of minimum prices.’ ‘When the problem of enforcement came, however, the statute required that the line must be drawn between interstate and intrastate transactions. This was a difficult matter to explain and a difficult policy to maintain.

nion; all rights re Inter-American opyright®

n D. Roosev tributed by United "Fu ture Syndicate,

NEXT—Service 1 Trades Create “Impossible Situation”; the Supreme Court Decision. :

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

1—In what country was John Paul Jones, famous naval officer in the American . Revolution, born? : 2—Name the U. 8. city directly ‘ opposite Juarez, Mexico. 3—Name the chairman of the © Securities and Exchange Commission. 4—What is a corduroy road? 5—What is the name for the ceremony of: crowning the “sovereign of a monarchical country? 6—Who was Samuel L. Waldo? 7—Where is the: geographic center of the United States? 8 8 p ; : Answers -1—Scotland. | 2—El Paso, Tex.

- 3—Wwilliam O. Douglas. 4—One built of straight: logs,

. round or split, laid side by. |

side across.the ‘5—Coronation. 6—American painter. - 7-15 (ho ealiem par; of Smith Coun ’ : ” 2 ®,

ASK THE TIMES inclose a 3-cent Maump foe.

roadway.

rom when of

Second Section hs

“PAGE 9

own

Vegetarian Hiawatha" s Bout With ‘Mondamin Serves as Inspiration For a Herron Art Student's Wark.

J PICKED the coldest (34 F.) day last week to call on Robert Pippenger, a fifth-year sculpture student at the Herron Art School. Despite the disagreeable temperature outside, Mr. Pippenger was in his shirt sleeves hard at work making a plaster cast of a clay model. He expects to have it in New York by May 2, in time for the annual Prix de Rome. competition. It’s the fattest ($4000) prize open to art students and

enables the winner to spend two - years at the American Academy at Rome. There's a catch, however, several of them, as a matter of fact. For one thing, the winner

“must promise not to makty until the

‘two years are up. . Mr.. Pippenger . says he doesn’t mind, He's thought the whole thing through, he says, and is going into if. with his eyes ‘wide open. Sit Mr. Pippenger has taken. for his. .. + subject the Fifth Canto of “The Mr, Scherrer Song of Hiawatha.” Seems that when he went to school in Plymouth, Ind, Longfellow was prescribed reading up there. He didn’t mind that, either, he says. Indeed, to hear him tell it, he couldn’ get enough ‘of “Hiawatha.” Ate if up, he says—especially the Fifth Canto. That’s the part. that tells

“ ahout Hiawatha’s fasting and his drag-out fight. with

Mondamin. ‘Hiawatha, you may recall, if you're old-fashioned enough, spent .four. days fasting, praying and -wondering . why the ..“Master of Life” didn’t give his people something in the .way of food ‘without the necessity of destroying - the birds and beasts to. get it. Well, in the midst of his- meditations: Hiawatha tov a : youth approaching” who mirequoed . hime self as: *- “I the friend of man, Mondamin, - « Come to warn you and instruct you, -*How by struggle "and by labor You shall gain what you have prayed for. Rise up from your bed of branches, Rise, O youth and wrestle with me.”

For Four Days They Wrestied

“That was the start of the wrestling match. At the end of four long days, and I don’t know how many lines of prochiac tetameter verse, Mondamin: knew he was going to be licked -and made his last will and testament. According to instructions, Hiawatha buried ‘Mondamin. and watched over his grave, and; lo and behold, out of it, grew the first stalk of corn—*“this new gift of the Great Spirit.” - - Somehow the story: of the birth of corn stuck with Mr. Pippenger, and two years ago ‘he - ‘decided: to- do

~ something about it.

It behooves me to say; too, that while Mr. Pippen-

|. ger was. dramatizing Longfellow the. thought ran

through his head that, maybe; Hiawatha was the first vegetarian we know anything about. Sounds reason.able enough. . (The scholarly reference to prochiac - tetameter verse, used in today’s performance, was furnished by courtesy of Mr. Carl Wilde, Todianapolis School Board president),

i Jane Jordan—

Husband Depending on His Wife's Income Cannot Hold Her Respect.

De JANE JORDAN—TIt would appear that a man of my age (I am 50) would be able to straighten out his own problems, but I don’t seem to do so, and perhaps you can help me. I have been married for nearly 27 years, and up to the last few years my wife and I got along very well. But for the pass tow years there has ‘been nothing but nagging all % e.

I used to have a good Job but recently have had

thy of me as I have “had considerable * experience in my line. My wife works good job. She makes enough money to keep both. > us very comfortably; so when I am not working there is no necessity to pinch the pursestrings. Naturally when I am not working I have plenty of ‘time on my hands. ‘I spend many afternoons in taverns, but . drink only beer, Yet when my wife gets home from work and finds that I have been out she starts nagging me. I try to make her understarid that I have to have some relaxation, and after all I ked: hard for a great many years and deserve some fun. - Do you think a divorce would remedy the sithation? I am-not in love with another woman. BOLITHO. ; ® 8 = it Answer—If you get a divorce you will have to stick to one of those jobs you feel so free to qliit because you will not have your wife’s income to fall back on. Usually this is the warning I issue to the woman who is considering divorce. Directed toward a man such a, remark sounds rather odd, don’t you think? . I mention this point because I believe that it contains the germ of your frouble. i "In a successful marriage the husband occupies the leading role. He is the head of the house and the financially responsible member of the partnership. You cannot live on your wife's earnings and spend your afternoons in faverns while she works without loss of your prestige. When your wife no longer looks up to you as a tower of strength she either will walk out on you or express her disappointment in nagging. There is no way that you can justify your retirement from jobs which you do not consider worthy of you to live on your wife's money. You can’t coast along on your past performance unless you have saved enough money on which to retire. . JANE JORDAN.

Put your problems in a letter to Jane Jordan, who will answer your questions in this column daily.

Bob Burns ‘Says— OLLYWOOD, April 12.—There’s no question abou it, love is one of the greatest moving forces a mankind. Its influence goes so much deeper than the mushy sentiment you hear about in songs, It ne men to do bigger and better things. ° My uncle said that his own boy was one of the laziest men around the dairy. ‘til he fell in love with - one of the milk-maids. He says how his boy keeps the milk-cans shined as bright as a silver ‘dollar. I says, “Well, what has his bein’ in love .got to do with his keepin’ the milk-canhs so shiny?” My uncle says, “Well, he hasta look ‘at’ himself every 1 minutes

I down.” .

(Comsriant: 1938)