Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 13 April 1938 — Page 9

Vagabond

From Indiana — Ernie Pyle

Sure, This Story About the Aim of Billy the Kid Is Hard to Believe, | But That Doesn't Worry Mr. Griggs.

QLD} MESILLA, N.' M,, April 13,—George Griggs sat at the fireplace in his rocking chair and said: “Reach up to that third

gun on the wire there.” “This'one?” I asked. He nodded. It was a small pistol with a short bar“rel, and the barrel was split open on top, ‘about an inch back from the nose. ‘“How did that happen?” I asked. “Well, there was a fellow that kept trying to pick a fight with Billy the Kid in a saloon. Billy the Kid was tough, but he didn’t want to hurt this fellow, so he just kept | telling him to go away. But the fellow was bound to pick a fight. Finally the Kid gave him a shove and told him to get out of there, and then the fellow started to pull his gun. “Well, Billy pulled quick. and fired. He didn’t want to hurt the ; fellow. So he fired right into the Mr. Pyle muzzle of his gun, in order to stop his bullet. “That split there, that’s where the Kid's bullet - going in met the other bullet coming out. It just split the barrel wide open,” George Griggs got up and fumbled on the mantel. “Here are the bullets,” he said. “See how they're all twisted. up.” I looked a long time at the pistol’s split barrel.’ And at the deformed bullets, which were too big to go . in either the split or the muzzle, and then at George Griggs. - “Do you believe that?” I said. - He answered: “Well, I don’t know much about guns. I'm not really very much interested in guns. I'm interested mostly in Mexican blankets and pottery. I don’t know whether to believe it or not. I guess it’s true.” : This “Billy the Kid Museum” is famous all over the Southwest. It isn’t like a museum at all. It’s just a hodgepodge of stuff in an old adobe house. Mesilla is an old, old town. It is as if you were dreaming of old Mexico. The streets are of dust. The buildings are of red-brown adobe. Flat. Colorless.

Tourists Don’t Bother Him

George Griggs was born here. He has traveled far; was educated highly. But he has been back in Mesilla for a long time now. He lives alone amidst his collection and he fits into it.’ He makes a bare living out of this museum. He charges the tourists a quarter. But not all tourists bother to leave the main highway and come over here. "But George Griggs is independent, and a little temperamental. If the wind is blowing, or he isn't in the mood, he won't go to the door when tourists knock. The truth is that George Griggs doesn't’ give a hoot about Billy the Kid. He just has that stuff here for tourists.” Most of his collection:is old pottery and blankets from Mexico. The paramount interest in George Griggs’ life today is whether the Gadsden Purchase of 1853 put * the line eight miles north of El Paso or 48 miles north. It is not my privilege to be able to state which side of the argument Mr. Griggs is on. He has all kinds of documents to prove his point, provided you. know the point. He has uments to prove that the Nslional Geographic Magazine is either a liar or a champion of his belief, one or the other. Showing of these documents is Mr. did favorite pastime.

My Diary By Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt

Sees a’ Ring Around the Moon for First Time, but There's No Rain.

EW YORK," “Tuesday—My knowledge of astronomy is confined to finding the Big and Little Dipper and the North Star, so I was much intrigued last night 16 notice a very wide circle surrounding the moon at ‘some distance and a haze around the. moon’ itself. When a child, I was always told this meant rain was coming. I have never seen just that effect before and I have no jdea what caused it, but it was very lovely and sent me to bed feeling I would not regret leaving a rainy countryside this morning. Alas, the old wives’ superstitions were incorrect, for the morning dawned perfectly clear! I longed to stay in Hyde Park and try my horse again this morning to see if we could not establish a .better ‘understanding. I rode him yesterday afternoon and found a smooth place in a field and went round and round trying to get the rhythm of his gaits. I hope when we are in Hyde Park this summer for a number of consecutive days, that I shall get the feeling for him which I have for Dot. We drove as far as. Harmon this morning and caught a local train there for New York City: I had hoped to be able to go this afternoon to the Herald Tribune clinic on housing and air-condition-ing. Anything that has to do with housing interests me and this clinic. was to be held where one could see some new wrinkles on air-conditioning.

Back to Washington

Frankly, my chief concern at the moment ie how we are going to get decent low-cost housing. One woman wrote me from Washington the other day and - asked if I thought it was possible for a family of four people to live decently in two rooms. Another woman tells me that right in the city of Poughkeepsie there are people living under conditions which - would not be considered sanitary for animals. I am doing a little shop today, having some fittings and at 4:30 am going to speak for Miss Ruth Hill to the personnel group which is working with clients receiving old-age assistance under the Social Security Act. Tonight I shall attend a small dinner given by Mr. Myron Taylor in the interests of the Todhunter School. Then I take the midnight bain back to Washington and a very busy life. _

New Books Today.

Public Library Presents— :

ROM SPANISH TRENCHES (Modern- Age). Re= : cent letters from Spain. Soldiers, aviators, nurses, war correspondents add their stories to the agonizing

picture of Spain in travail. The compilation’ is by.

Marcel Acier. CHESSMEN GHarsourD. The story of a delight"ful avoeation; the collecting of antique, rare and unusual chessmen, with’ an account of their historical, : Dolifical and religions sigifsance, by Donald M. Lid-

Oe EALTH INSURANCE (Harper). Louis S. Reed presents the affirmative argument of an intensely controversial subject: Is the medical care of the individual the concern of the community? : REBUILDING RURAL AMERICA (Friendship Press). How the church may meet that challenge to mold the social, economic and political life of rural America into a more harmonious unity. Dr. Mark A. Dawber, writes from a broad experience ‘of, religious extension work. A HISTORY OF THE BUSINESSMAN. (Macmil- - lan), by Miriam Beard. A story of businiess $i businessmen, together with an appraisal of their places in and effects pon the culture of their times, from the ‘swordsmen and salesmen” of the Homeric age’ up to the present. THE HIDDEN LINCOLN (Viking Press). A can‘did view of Lincoln revealed through the letters and | Dapers of hus close frierid and law partner, “William H.

Favorite poems hunted out of “that far-flung, multitudinous little desk: drawer” at the radio request of | Alexander Edited by Alice

wWoolicg

Roosevelt Long | which

~The Indianapolis °

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13, 1998

F. D. R's Own Story of the

(Contained in an authorized advance publication of his notes. and. comments to “The Public Papers. and Ad dresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt”)

Article: Ne. 19 "| on The NRA(llI)

ATwo. preceding installments : Have told of the: rapid organi- * zation of the NRA, the basic

principles of its codes of fair competition, .and its first difficulties with enforcing the agreements with industry symbolized by the Blue-Eagle. - In the following, taken from President Roosevelt's own account in his volume of “Public Papers and Addresses,” the _ crucial question of codes for industries wholly contained within a state is discussed. It was partly the controversy over this. problem upon which the Supreme Court based its unanimous opinion invalidating the entire NRA program.)

am Interstate vs. Intrastate

N local industries the code requirements could not, of course, be enforced by NRA. Trade associations usually did not exist in this type of industry, and attempts at self-discipline by the industry were wholly ineffectual.

Very soon considerable public clamor arose against the fixing of minimum prices in the code. The proponents of the code defended it hotly, and organized labor exhibited considerable apprehension lest the removal of price protection should result in further pressure upon wages. After an extended inquiry, which included re-examination of other service trades, an Executive Order was issued as the best working compromise which could be found. It was one of many efforts made to extricate NRA from this im-

possible situation.

The significant features of the

- Executive Order were: (a) reten-

tion af - the provisions governing child labor, maximum hours, minimum wages, and collective bargaining; (b) :suspension of any attempt to regulate prices and trade practices on a nation-wide basis. In place of this, it was provided that such price and trade practice provisions could be reinstated within any locality in which 85 per cent of the members

of the trade agreed to do so;

(¢) the only program of enforcement contemplated was the use of the Blue Eagle. In addition, the various states

were urged to adopt state indus-

trial recovery acts to cover local trades and industries, One unhappy result of this was to cause much duplication and overlapping between state and Federal codes

and between state and Federal

authority.

« Case of Jacob Maged

For example, in the spring of 1934, Jacob Maged, a tailor of Jer-

sey City, N. J., ‘was convicted and sentenced for violating a code which had been adopted under a statute of New Jersey, a counterpart of the NIRA. This code fixed a minimum price for the service of

' pressing, and Mr. Maged’s offense

consisted of doing pressing work at five cents under the code minimum price. He was sentenced to serve a 30-day jail sentence, but after serving three days he was released on his promise to abide by the State code. \ Whether out of ignorance or design, a very large section of the press at the time reported the incident as one occuring under the Federal NIRA itself, rather than under the local statute, and

trumpeted it as an illustration of

the extremes to which the NRA

had gone, and of the way Federal

authority was creeping into local business. Much as I regret the necessity of saying it, the continued insistence. upon this misstatement by a certain type of newspaper owner and columnist, long after the truth had been fully explained that this New Jersey case concerned a violation of the local and not of the Federal statiite, constitutes a glaring example of perversion of news. ." (Editor’s Note--After the reelection of President Roosevelt in November 1936, Jacob Maged sent him a telegram of congratulation.) It had become evident before the

- termination. of. NRA that it would

be necessaiy for it to withdraw as

Acme Photo,

The four Schechter brothers cheer their attorney, hold him aloft, for winning their “sick-chicken” test case which brought the Supreme

Court to outlaw NRA, May 27, 1935.

rapidly as possible from the field of local business and leave all regulatory efforts in this field to state and municipal action. The proposed revision of NRA included such withdrawal.

Plans to Continue

The original NIRA expired by its own terms within two years on June 16, 1935. After the resignation of Gen. Hugh S. Johnson on Sept. 24, 1934, the National Industrial Recovery Board had been created and had made an ex-

haustive review of NRA opera-

tions. A program had been prepared for legislation and also for internal reorganization of the activities of NRA. ~~ The program of reorganization was intended to provide for a coordination of general administrative policies; to slow down and

Power, Utility -Policies Have Same Objectives

A: Comment of President Roosevelt From His Forthcoming Books

The purposes of proper public power development and proper public utility regulation are. the same; namely, to restore to the people effective control by them over modern electrical services which have become essentials in modern standards of living and to make certain an _ample supply of these services at a reasonable price. (When Governor of New «+ York) I endeavored to lay: ‘down a simple program for: > dealing effectively with the weaknesses of present-day regulation. . Important parts of this .program are: (1) a change in the conception of a ‘public service commission as a quasijudicial body; (2) a new principle of valuation: for rate-making on a prudent investment basis; (3) a new treatment of holding companies; (4) insistence upon an accurate uniform system of accounting; (5) provision for municipal ownership and operation of utilities as yardsticks for reasonable rates. A commission such as the Federal Power Commission should not serve merely as a judicial body to act as an .umpire between persons making complaints on the one hand and public utilities on the other. It should be prepared and willing always to act, upon its own initiative, as an agent of the public to investigate the acts and rates of public utilities in order to protect the investors in their securities and the consumers of their services. I believe that. I can truthfully say that, commencing in 1933, the ‘Commission did begin to fulfill that concept of such a regulatory body.

Ei Congress,

settle NRA operations in order ® bring about a more efficient handling of business; to review and revise code provisions of doubtful wisdom; to work toward a smaller number of enforcement cases by reducing the principal causes of noncompliance, chiefly in unenforceable codes; to eliminate the handling of labor disputes in NRA and transfer them to national and industrial labor boards. The legislative program which had been worked out would have removed a great many of the features of the orginal NRA found to be objectionable or unworkable in practice. Included in it were a more definite statement by the Congress of the administrative au-

"thorization and delegation of

power to carry out the purpose of the Act, and a provision that codification should be limited to those businesses actually engaged in interstate commerce or so substantially affecting it that the protection of interstate commerce required code protection. ‘There was under way a Congressional investigation of NRA, promoted chiefly by members hostile to it. As a result, the hearings, ostensibly called to consider the proposed legislative program to revise the law, were devoted more to complaints about the faults of NRA, which would have been largely eradicated by the revision

which was being suggested by the:

Administration. In the meantime, violations of code requirements and difficulties of enforcing compliance had increased so much that it became

7 evident that it would be necessary ~soon to establish ithe validity of

the statute in the Supreme Court before adequate enforcement “could be obtained. #

The officials charged with enforcement of the . Act strongly

urged that the.Congress should first amend the law so as to eliminate legal weaknesses and impossible burdens of administration. The -demand arose in the “however, that there should be a Supreme Court review of the original law before any enactment of a substantfal revision of it.

Supreme: Court Tos Early in 1935 the famous Belcher case, an important challenge to the coristitutionality of the National Industrial Recovery’ Act, began to receive public ‘attention. The code involved was the lumber code; and Belcher had been indicted for a violation of it. The lower court had held the statute unconstitutional and after the appeal had been filed in the United States Supreme Court, the Department of Justice, for certain legal reasons, .decided to dismiss the case. There was reason to suspect that the dismissal of this case might have a tendency toward ‘letting down enforcement of the NIRA throughout the country. (Editor's Note-—~To see to it that code compliance was main‘tained, the President on March 25, 1935, wrote to Donald R. Richberg, chairman of the National Industrial Recovery Board, stating his desire that “the full power” of the ‘NRA

On April 21, 1934, Jacob Maged, tailor, of Jersey City, N. J., was arrested for violation of the New Jersey State Recovery Act—the State’s “NRA.” He was charged with asking five cents less for pressing suits than the 40-cent minimum of the State code. He agreed to conform to the code and a judge suspended a fine of $100 and 30 days in jail. Above; on April 23, he hangs up the Blue Eagle in his window.

be exerted to this end, and that it “bring the facts” before Senate and House committees to accelerate action on the pro- . posed extension of NRA beyond June 16. Meanwhile, a less publicized test of the NIRA, the Schechter . “sick chicken” case, reached the Supreme Court and ass monumental importance far beyond its immediate issue, which was an NRA attempt to regulate the trade among poultry dealers. By unanimous decision, on May 27, 1935, the Court decided in favor of the Schechters, and declared the National Industrial Recovery Act an illegal Federal regulation of industries npt included under the interstate commerce clause of the Constitution, and an uncenstitutional. delegation of legislative ‘powers to the President. Shorn of its code-making and code-enforcing authority, the NRA was virtually disbanded as an agency 'and continued only in skeleton form.) = One of the purposes and functions ‘of the extended skeleton form of NRA after the Supreme

+ Court decision was to review pest

data and to determine what further steps could be taken. By August, 1935, sufficient data had been accumulated to serve as a possible basis for a new leg- . islative program to protect labor standards and to eliminate unfair business competition, Moreover, large groups within both labor and industry were looking for assurance that renewed consideration would be given to these problems. Conferences of representatives

+ of labor and industry were ‘called

in Washington in December, 1935, by Major Berry, as Co-ordinator for Industrial ' Recovery. As a whole, industry- did not respond very cordially; some industries sent representatives, but the major sections of American industry merely sent “observers,” with instructions to watch but not to

. participate ‘in any deliberations. -

Nothing substantial ever came of this third phase of NRA as extended.

Syndi-

NEXT Holding: Companies; :

Frank Finney, Auto License Bureau Commissioner, today said no

the Indiana law requiring automobile windshield title holders from the states which have legislated against windshield obstructions. A recent national survey shows that the following states have adopted “antisticker” ays or regulations: Alabama, Colorado, Kansas,

Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan,

New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin and @ the District of Columbia. “I have cominunieated with authorities in these states, and have been notified that these regulations

apply to comic or advertising stick-

protest had been received against’

Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, |

Finney Says ‘Gadgets’ Legal Under ‘Antisticker’ Laws

ers and not to windshield holders required by law,” he said. “Earlier this year Several drivers claimed they were arrested in other states for using the Indiana title card holder, At that time I offered to pay the fine of any one who could prove that he was convicted for that reason. “On the checkups we .made, we found that these people would refuse to name places where they were arrested or actually were arrested for other causes.” Siok of the states, Arizona, California and Oregon, w hibited windshield ffi ave go.

Specifically exelpted “legal stickTS

The survey showed that automo-| ‘| bile manufacturers : have spent thousands of dollars in recent years for the development of wider and deeper windshields, elimination of corner "posts and other obstructions.

Side Glances—By Clark

Jasper—By Frank Owen :

oo: i 4)

£5 *

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

1-Where are the Chandeleur Islands? 2—What is the political affilia-. tion of Rep. - Lindsay C. Warren of North Carolina? 3—Who was the inventor of the telephone? =. 4—What is the unit of eur- . rency in Hawaii? . In which Canadian Province is Lake Louise? 6—~What is an M.. P. in the

Army? - 7—Who ‘was ‘Samuel “Ruther: + ford Crockett? 8—What does’ leemosynary. mean? ; . # CL Answers : ‘the Gulf. of Mexico, off. ouisiana.

w : up and: says, “You know, Jihere’s a funny fella.

“class, 3 Master

PAGE 9

10ur Town

{By Anton Scherrer

. Mrs. Essie Burke Is a Person Who - Can Explode Your Hopes of Wealth During the Housecleaning Season,

GPRING housecleaning is harder on Mrs. Essie Burke than, anybody else around here. She's the lady in charge of the newspaper room over at the State Library and you have no idea what she has to put up

with at this time of the year. Hardly a week passes now, says Mrs. Burke, but what some Indianapolis attic in the course of house cleaning discloses what the finder thinks is a genuine copy of the Ulster County Gazette of Jan. 4, 1800. If it isn’t a copy of the Gazette, it’s a copy of the New York Herald of April 15, 1865,

or a copy of the Vicksburg Citizen of July 2, 1863. Mrs. Burke gets to see all of them because, eventually, "all of them turn up in her department. Up till now, Mrs. Burke ‘hasn’t run across a genuine copy, she says. That's what makes Mrs. Burke's job so trying. She has to tell people the bad news, and it wears her down, she says, to have to send so many away who came in the hope ‘of collecting thousands of dollars for their finds. Mrs, Burke guesses that since her connection with the library, she’s had to tell 500 people that their house= cleaning wasn’t worth the trouble. Some take it philosophically jenough, she says, but some go off in a huff. Why, just last Thursday a man brought what he thought was a genuine copy of the Ulster County Gazette of Jan. 4, 1800, and when Mrs. Burke told him the truth, he turned on her and said she was ignorant and unco-operative. It’s just a sample of what she has to put up with.

Mrs. Burke says the only genuine copy of the Ulster County Gazette of Jan. 4, 1800, is the one in the Library of Congress. It’s the issue commemorateing the death of George Washington, who died on Dec. 14, 1799. Shows how long it took the news to reach Hudson Valley. The real copy is printed with worn type on coarse, brownish rag paper and looks pretty old, but even that can fool you, says Mrs, Burke, because some of the fake copies brought to her look older than the real copy. Browner, too. Mrs. Burke says a lot of the reprints got into circulation in 1876 when they were sold on the Fair Grounds at the Philadelphia Centennial. Still later, in 1906, a printer in Decatur, Ill, got out an edition as an advertising stunt.

Readers Had to Guess

As for the New York Herald of April 15, 1865, ‘that, of course, was’ the number announcing ths death of Abraham Lincoln. You may recall how the Herald people prepared their customers for the shock—just ‘put the word “important” at the head of the columns, and let them guess. It’s the alle time prize example of literary understatement. Mrs. Burke says most of the Herald copies are reprints issued by the Kitchel Liniment people who did a nice business selling a spavin cure around the turn of the century. That leaves the Vicksburg. Citizen of July 2, 1863, the day the city surrendered to Gen. Grant. It’s the issue printed on wall paper. They ran out of regular paper—see? Mrs. Burke says the last fake copy of the Vicksburg Citizen brought to her to buy must have ‘been printed some time around 1908 because-the wall paper was exactly the design of the one she had in her bedroom at the ‘ime.

Mr. Scherrer

1 She remembers the date, she says, because it was the

year Fred Merkle made his bone-head play at sece ond base.

Jane Jordan— Difficult to Pass Judgment on Boy In Jail Once, Jane Advises Girl.

EAR JANE JORDAN-—I am a girl of 17 and a senior in high school. I am quite popular but I am crazy about one fellow. He is very nice looking and I have gone steady with him for a year or more. Not long ago he got into trouble and was in jail - overnight. He told me that he had nothing to do with it and I believe him, but my mother has asked me not to see him again. When I have the opportunity I sneak out to see him. I have been told by his best friends that he absolutely refuses to go with other girls. I am sure he cares for me. He never has enough money to even fake us to the show but this doesn’t bother me in the least. Mother says I should go with boys who can afford to take me places. Please tell me what to do. FRAN. s ” s Answer—I do not know enough of your boy friend to give a dependable opinion. A boy who was as innocent as the dawn might be obliged to spend a night in jail but somehow I doubt it. At least he is guilty of keeping bad company. Perhaps the exe perience wiil keep him out of trouble in the future, Perhaps 't is only the first step in a series of mise demeanors. + About the only thing you can do is to suspend judgment ‘until you see what the future brings. If he is a sensible chap he will recognize the justice of your mother’s distrust and try to win back her respect. His attitude toward her disapproval would be very instructive as to the kind of stuff he is made of. If he only feels injured and abused and refuses to cope with the social approbrium which he has incurred I should put him down as a weakling. It is fine to be tolerant and sympathetic with people who make mistakes, provided that they learn enough from them not to repeat the same thing over and over again. I am glad you do not wish to kick the boy when he go down. It is all right for you to help him if you can, but he may not rate all your time and attention. You can be just . to him without feeling that you have to save him, At 17 you ought to divide your time with other boys anyway. ; JANE JORDAN.

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

Bob Burns Says—

OLLYWOOD, April 13.—It must be terrible to live in one of them foreign countries where you can’t follow your own religious belief and customs, Over here the quickest way to lose respect is to profess other people’s belief to gain favor. One cold winter night a political candidate stopped at my uncle’s house. After supper grandpa pulled his chair up to the fireplace, knelt down with “his elbows on the chair, and his back to the fire and “went to bed. . The candidate thought grandpa. was. prayin’ ‘so he ‘did the same thing. After he'd gone, my cousin "58 bis.pants Jest

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