Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 14 April 1938 — Page 13

agabon From Indiana — Ernie Pyle

Contrary to Somebody's Opinion, Carlsbad Caverhs Are a Wonderland Which Is Impossible to Describe.

AnLSnAD, N. M., April 14.—For years I've been avoiding Carlsbad Caverns be= cause somebody told me they weren't worth while. Ee I've forgotten who said it, but he must have been out of his head. A trip through

Carlsbad Caverns is not only worth while—it should

be compulsory. It’s useless for anybody to try to describe what

the caverns are like. You have to see them. The nearest I can come in description is to say that you feel like one of Walt Disney’s symphony children. wandering in a dream world of unbelievable beauty. The cavern entrance is out on the desert, 28 miles from this town - of Carlsbad. The country is dry, sagebrushy, rolling and rattlesnaky (no: snakes in the caverns, how- ; ever). oy Around the entrance the Gov- ~ Mr. Pyle ernment has built a group ofr dis- ; tinctive stone buildings—Rangers’ homes, powerhouse, curio store, ticket office, and an elevator shaft building 87 stories high (three above ground and 84 beneath, ha ha!). There is just one trip a day through the caverns. You start at 10:30 and get out around 3 p. m., during which time you walk about five miles. It costs $15¢ to go through, which seems too

high. Not because the trip isn’t worth it, but because |

the caverns belong to “Us, the People,” and the Government makes a profit at that price. The temperature of the caverns is 56 degrees, day and night, winter and summer. The natural ventilation is perfect. The Government has made the caverns one of the best shows on earth. The trails are soft and easy to walk on, and in only a few places do you still have to go down steps. There are no ladders to climb.

Food Served 750 Feet Underground

The entire route is electrically lighted. There are thousands of lights'in the caverns; yet you never see a direct light nor a switch. Rangers don’t bore you to death ‘with lectures every few feet. After an hour of walking, you've seen some wonderful sights. But youre not even yet in what the Rangers consider the cave proper. You hit it about 11:30, an hour before lunch. You walk through a narrow passage, and come out into a big room about 150 feet across. Millions of stalactites hang from the ceiling. Stalagmites by the thousands rear up from the floor. It is a sort of Santa Claus room. : For an hour you wander in this world that surely can be nothing on or of this earth. - Then'at 12:30 you suddenly come out into a big room of civilization, 756 feet beneath the surface. White tables and benches stretch as far as you can see. In the center is a little cafeteria settlement. - You eat and rest and talk for 45 minutes, and then step back into the dream world for two more hours. Continued tomorrow.

My Diary By Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt

First Lady Slips Past Escort and

Arrives Unexpectedly at College.

ASHINGTON, Wednesday—Washington has bloomed considerably in the week that I have been away and it seems much more like spring here than it did in New York state. At 10:30 this morning I went out to the University of Maryland to give a talk. Because this is a land grant college, they have quite a large military force. I drove up to the front of the auditorium mainly because I was impressed by the number of boys in- uniform standing outside the door. Nobody seemed to be expecting me, nor was there anyone to tell me where to go. nally, a very trim young soldier stepped up and said: “I think they are expecting you at the other door” and led me through an inside passageway past locker rooms labelled “baseball” and ‘“‘basketball,” up a short flight of steps. to the rear of the stage. I was still a surprise to the people waiting at that door, so I sat down calmly and waited until the president of the university, Mr. H. C. Byrd, came up to me and told me that Miss Adele Stamp had gone to meet me at the district line with a police escort! Somehow, we had come by gaily and they did not see us and we did not see them: I felt very guilty to have missed a hostess who had gone out to meet me. turned. The hall was packed. I felt quite at home because the invocation and the final blessing were spoken by our own rector, the Rev. Mr. Wilkerson of St.Thomas’ Church. I enjoyed the singing of the sophomore group and the glee club and the playing of the band. I received a most beautiful basket of yellow roses which are now: filling the place of honor in my sitting room.

. Receives Cartoon on Housecleaning

Only two guests for lunch today. One of them, Mrs. Waterstreet, comes from Wisconsin and does programs which impersonate various ladies who have lived in the White House. She was most anxious to have a more intimate glimpse of the house which she

talks about so often, for you cannot really obtain much -

-knowledge on a mere sight-seeing trip. Our other guest was Mrs. Carl Akeley. She has spent nine years working for the Akeley Memorial in the Museum of Natural History, New York City. Though I did not have an opportunity to go into it very carefully with her, it sounds as though it would be of great interest to young and old, especially to people in this country who are interested in conservation of our natural resources, beauty spots and wild life. Someone has sent me a most delightful cartoon from Scribner's magazine on spring cleaning in the White House. Unfortunately, I don’t direct, this in person but, since I saw this cartoon, I shall have far greater sympathy for those who actually have this work to do. 3

New Books Today

Public Library Presents—

Ci it what you will, the Sunny South, the Cotton States, the Deep South or merely Down South, the fact remains that this section of the United States “is a “worn out agricultural empire,” existing on a vicious system of tenant-farming and near-peonage. Such is the alarming situation -as seen by Erskine Caldwell and Margaret Bourke-White during a recent intensive study of the rural South and described by them under the provocative title YOU HAVE SEEN THEIR FACES (Viking). The concise text is enhanced by more than 60 full-page photographic portraits showing white share-croppers engaged in the hopeless task of attempting to wrest, an existence from land no longer capable of sustaining life and Negroes living under conditions closely akin to slave The book is a pertinent contribution to the lite: ture’ of

sociology. ® 2 2

GATHA CHRISTIE and Hercule Poirot, Ler little “round detective with the oversupply of “grey cells,” are at their best in this opus of the Nile. Cleopatra herself could not have been more luxuriously housed than was this party of tourists sailing leisurely down the mysterious river on the good ship Karnak.

Then death struck. Only Poirot and his “grey cells” -

could straighten out the puzzle. Who shot the lovely Linnet Doyle in the middle of the night as she lay sleeping? Whose were the running feet which sounded so plainly on the deck in the still of the Egyptian night? And above all, who was responsible for the “wrong doings” which transpired the next day? Hercules : Poirot satisfactorily answers everything and leaves the reader convinced that Agatha Christie’s DEATH ON THE NILE (Dodd) isa prise. baftler. :

' proportions.

At last Miss Stamp re-

Second Section

THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 1988

Matter s . Second-Class step

Entered at Postotfice, ‘Indiana

PAGE 13

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

(Contained in an authorized advance publication of his notes and comments to “The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt”) Article No. 20 x

On Holding Companies

(“Except where it is absolutely necessary to continued functioning of a ‘geographically integrated operating utility system, the utility holding company with its present powers must go,” wrote President Roosevelt in sending to Congress on March 12, 1935, a report of the National Power Policy Committee. A bill to regulate holding companies had already. been intro-

duced in Congress. wrote the President,

“I have been watching with great interest,” “the fight being waged against the public-

utility holding-company legislation. I have watched the use of investors’ money to make the investor believe that the efforts: of

Government to protect him are designed to defraud him.

1 have

seen much of the propaganda prepared against such legislation—even down to mimeographed sheets of instructions for. ‘propaganda to exploit the most far-fetched and fallacious fears.” “Unimpressed” by the propaganda, the President reiterated his

recommendation for what opponents labeled a The vigorous note which follows, written

for holding companies.

“death-sentence”

for his books by the President himself and never before published, - makes the Jadicthmom more specific and traces its background.)

HE puslic atility holding company "device during the boom period before 1929 had assumed tremendous

While, of course, the distribution of gas or

electricity in any community as a supervised and regulated monopoly is justifiable in order to avoid uneconomic duplication of plants, there is no justification for an extension of that idea of local monopoly to include the common control by a few powerful individual interests of

numerous utility plants scattered throughout many states and totally unconnected in operations.

Concentration of Power

In 1925, holding companies controlled about 65 per cent of the operating electric utility industry. By 1932, 13 holding groups: had seized control of three-fourths of the entire industry, and more than 40 per cent was concentrated

in the hands of three large groups

—United Corp., Electric Bond & Share Co. and Insull. Even these three systems were not entirely independent. By the same period 11 holding company systems had obtained control of more than 80 per cent of the total mileage of natural gas trunk pipe lines, Through the device of these

pyramided holding companies, small groups of men with a dis-

proportionately small investment “were able to dominate and to

manage solely in their own interest tremendous capital investments of other people’s money. This concentration of power had become a form of private social-

ism as dangerous as Government

socialism.

_ There had been no attempt to

‘build up systems as an integrated economic whole which might bring

actual benefits of economy and

efficiency by relatéd operations and unified management. The large and often unnecessary capi-

talization required the declara-

tion of unreasonable dividends on the securities of the holding companies. The consumer, in addition to paying the high gas and electricity rates for these ‘unjustifiable dividends, had to bear also the

co-operatively.

the incident follows.) -

,ment of this rule.

‘Constitutionality’ Remarks Misquoted, Roosevelt Says |

A Comment of President Roosevelt From His Forth- ~ coming Books

(Editor's Note—Following a series of Supreme Court decisions disastrous to the New Deal, the President's views on the issue of constitutionality were eagerly sought. Consequently a ° . sensation was created when he appeared to express his attitude in a letter to Rep. Samuel B. Hill on July 6, 1935. The Congressman had written expressing fear that the Pending ‘coal bill would not be held constitutional. Here is the last paragraph of the President’s reply: “Manifestly, no one is in a pesition to give assurance that the proposed act will withstand - constitutional tests, for the simple fact that you can get not 10, but a thousand differing legal opinions on the subject. But the situation is so urgent and the benefits of the legislation so evident that all doubts: should be resolved jn favor of the bill, leaving to the Courts, in an orderly fashion, "the ultimate question of constitutionality. by the Supreme Court relative to this measure would be helpful as indicating, with increasing clarity, the constitutional limits * within which this Government must operate. The proposed bill has been carefully drafted by employers and employees working An opportunity should be given to the industry to attempt to work out some of its major problems. I hope your committee will not permit. doubts as to constitutionality, however reasonable, to block the suggested legislation.” President Roosevelt’s own hitherto unpublished comment on

The last paragraph of the letter to Congressman Hill should, of course, be read as a whole. that the paragraph merely sets forth the traditional rule which the Courts are supposed to follow in determining whether or not a statute is unconstitutional. As a matter of fact, in one of the earliest cases in which the Courts assumed power to pass on the constitutionality of statutes (Ogden vs. Saunders), Mr. Justice Bushrod Washington stated * the terms under which that power would be exercised: He said: “It is but a decent respect due to the wisdom, the integrity, and . the patriotism of the legislative body by which any law is passed, to presume in favor of its validity until its violation of the Constitution is proved beyond all reasonable doubt.” The letter to Congressman Hill was really an understateDuring the past two years certain newspaper publishers and columnists have quoted only the last .. -. sentence of the letter, taken completely from its. text, so as to give - a wholly false impression of the letter. It is perhaps typical of methods now prevalent among certain newspaper owners and publishers.

A decision

When it is, it will be seen

In his first “fireside chat”

panies.

burden of paying rates high

enough to pay for the many fees, '

commissions and other charges levied by the holding companies against their subsidiaries — for management, counting, publicity, legal, tax and other general and special services. The charges so taken by these holding companies from their subsidiary operating companies did not represent bargains freely and openly arrived at by the subsidiary companies in the competitive market. They were dictated

by the few individuals who con-

trol the holding company.

Corporate Insiders

The holding companies acquired new property frequently from corporate insiders at exorbitant prices and issued securities on which interest had to be paid wholly out

of line with the value of the se-

curities acquired.

of 1935 President Roosevelt discussed the legislation that had been . introduced in Congress to regulate holding com‘This was the radio talk

engineering, ac-

in which the

Transactions such ‘as these dis i

courage intelligent permanerit in=vestors, and serve no-useful purpose to the community other than speculation.-and easy profits for

. the few insiders.

We determined that only by

Federal legislation could security :

transactions and investments of

holding companies be adequately: :

supervised and controlled in the interest of obtaining lower rates,

promoting greater and widespread

use of gas and’ electricity, and affording sufficient protection to legitimate investors’ in utility stocks and bonds. Attempts by state commissions

so to protect consumers and in-.. -

vestors from holding company practices had béen necessarily un-

successful, because ‘of the nation- °

wide form whiéh the holding

company assumed. Electric Bond

& Share Co., for example, had op-

erating companies in 32 of the 48 °

states. Many holding companies had affiliations with banking interests, construction: companies, coal mines, newspapers and other

interests throughout the United.

States. The state commissions’ powers and funds were too limited to make thorough and effective control possible over these far-flung holding company operations. Besides, by many devious legal and corporate devices, holding: .companies had “always arranged to keep their org: tion and operations out of reach of state regulation. The only instrumentality for adequate: supervision is the

. Federal Government.

The Democratic National Plat-

form of 1932 stated: “We advocate :

regulation %o the full’ extent of Federal power of (a) holding companies which sell securities in interstate commerce. . , .”

Fight Against Bill

Much propaganda: and misinformation had been spread by public utility interests concerning the effect of the legislation which had been introduced. ‘, The fight waged against this legislation by the public utilities

companies, largely with the money of their stockholders without ob- .

..~ Rep. Sam Rayburn of Texas (rear), majority floor leader of the House, chats with Senator Glass of Virginia, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and member of the To Mr. Rayburn, President Roosevelt addressed his letter urging a compromise between the two houses

Committee, at a fiscal conference. on ‘a holding company bill.

taining the consent of the stockholders, continued for several months. On April 28, 1935, I discussed the matter in a radio talk with the people of the nation. :

+ (Editor's Note—This was the first “fireside chat” of 1935, in which the President said “Fear is vanishing; confidence is growing . . . faith is being restored in the democratic form of government.” In Congress the fight on the holding company bill continued, with the House refusing to accept a more drastic measure

.' ~ passed in thie Senate. On Aug.

21 the’ President addressed a letter to Rep. Sam Rayburn urging that the House agree to a compromise offered by. the . Senate conferees. This © was . done, and on Aug. 26 the measure became law with the Presi.dent’s approval.)

- The Public Utility Holding Act provides in general for the regu-

: lation by the Securities and Ex- . change Commission of the finan-

cial practices of interstate holding company systems controlling

gas and electric - utilities. The

holding companies are now required to register vith and make reports to -the Commission; and, with certain exceptions, cannot issue or sell securities or acquire securities or utility assets without the cohsent of the Commission. _ Intercompany Jransactions are Swietly regulaied and supervised.

President said “Fear is vanishing; growing . . . faith is being restored in the democratic form of government.” tured delivering one of his “fireside chats.”

regulation.

vent the many abuses which. led

_caused not only great loss in investors in public utility stocks but

eal

confidence is

The President is pic

| Circle where it was nice and cool.

nking and Currency

The Act also ‘calls -for simplifieas tion of the corporate structure of utility holding companies and the confinement of their business with certain exceptions to an economically integrated system, beginning Jan. 1, 1938." Such a system is defined in the Act. as one whose assets are physically interconnected -or capable of being so connected, and which under ‘normal conditions may be economically operated as a single interconnected and co-ordinated system confined to, a single area not so large as to impair (considering’ the state of the art and the area affected) the advantages of localized management, efficient operation and the effectiveness of

The holding-company industry has made a bitter and protracted legal fight against this legislation. As of Dec. 1, 1937, only slightly less than one-third of the industry (on-the basis of consoli--dated assets) had registered in accordance with the Act. ; It is expected by this Act to pre-

to its adeption and which have

increased rates to the consumers of gas and electricity. .

NEXT—The SEC,

Side Glances—By Clark |

|Jasper—By F rank Owen

“I'm afraid ‘we’ re 0 spoiline him.

When he waits ‘a new toy he -

just calls up ‘and charges. it,

TTT TTT TTT

L11l IR 11 To

E 325,000 miles.

TEST YOUR

KNOWLEDGE

1—What is another name for ‘the game of draughts? 2—Who was recently Sppeinied: “¢ounselor. of the U. 8. Em“‘bassy in ‘Moscow ? 3—What is the’ apbroximate’ circumference of the earth?" 4—-Can women vote in the U. S. at the age of 182 . | 5—Where is the: volcanic crater Kilauea? : : 6—In the manufacture of what commodity is chicle «used? : 7—What is the poetical name for Ireland? 8—Who was Ernest Crofts? ty ® x & Answers . 1—~Checkers. : -2—Alexander Kirk.

4—The voting age or ‘both males and females is a years in all states. - IRA 5—Hawaii. : $-Chewing sum.

# » ‘#

ASK THE 1

‘Washington ' Ser 1013 13th St, N..

ton, D. C. Legal

Our Town

By Anton Scherrer.

It's a Bit Hard to Understand Why Mr. Reagan Opened a Butcher Shop, Or to Figure Out What He Sold.

I DOUBT whether adequate analysis has yet been made of the part Wilkes Reagan, our first butcher, played in the development of Indianapolis. He came here in the summer of*1821, and set up shqp in the grove in the Apparently he made a go of it right from the start, and that’s’ exactly the point that’s had me worried all these years. With the country full of game wo be had, for the killing, I never could understand what inspired Mr. Reagan to start a butcher shop. Even more disturbing was the fact that I never could figure out what he had to sell after he got started. Well, it turns out it was pork. Seems we had a lot of hogs around here in the beginning—enough, anyway, for the times. Some of the hogs were brought by the settlers, .and the Indians furnished the rest.

Mr. Scherrer Maybe you don’t know it, but a few

Inaians followed farming rather than the chase, and -

in some way got hold of a number of semi-domesiic hogs which when joined by those brought by the sete tlers, gave Mr. Reagan something to start with. Besides, the woods were full of wild hogs. They were the ones which had strayed away from the Indians. These hogs, both tame and wild, were called “elm eaters.” They were long in almost every dimencion—

"head, body and nose. Indeed, their ears were the only

short thing about them. In the “mast” years they subsisted on nuts, and in the non-mast years they had to do their own rooting. That's why they had the long nose. The principal root which kept them alive was the sweet or slippery elm. So much for the mys tery of their name. The meat wasn’t anything to brag about in the be= ginning. As a matter of fact, the hogs raised in the non-mast years didn’t have any meat on them at all. At any rate, it took anywhere from three to four years to put enough meat on a-hog raised on roots, and by ‘that time he was so old he wasn’t worth butchering, As for the mast-fed hogs, their meat was too oily ard sweet, and wouldn't make bacon to advantage.

He Must Have Found a Solution

I guess Mr. Reagan found a way of solving his problems because as the town grew we had a lot of butchers around here. Most of them did their kiling in little houses on the outskirts of the town, and sold in the East Market which was where everybody went to buy. But even with so many butchers here, a large part of the family’s meat supply was bought. of farmers or raised and killed at home, poultry particu= larly being almost always a home industry. Winter supplies were commonly a family job in the preparation, the whole hogs or quarters of beef Leing bought of farmers and cut up and cured by the united labors of everybody around the house. The smoking was done in the family smoke-house. I don’t repember a real-for-sure smoke-house, but I distinctly recall that when I was a kid in the Eighties, the little shed in which some Southsiders kept their provisions fer the winter, was still called “the smoke-house,” ale though it never had served the purpose of one.

Jane Jordan—

Little Courtesies Very Important For Marital Success, Jane Says.

EAR JANE JORDAN—I am a young man 23 ycars old engaged to marry a girl who seems to qualify as the so-called ideal. I have what I think is a definite musical career ahead of me. As for education 1 completed high school and business college. The girl

is very well educated—much more than I. She has -

a good position which pays her quite a bit more than I make, and wishes to continue working after marriage. In general she is quite superior to me in the business world. She thinks a lot of me and wan:s to help me in every way possible. That alone is an inspiration. I am very observant and if she wears anything new or does any special thing that is nice I never neglect to mention it with appreciation. I sometimes believe that it is the strength of these little things which has kept us together. She is of a

' pleasant nature, has a lot more patience than I have

and is generally easy to please. We never tire of each other, but the question is this: If we marry, do you think it would be probable that it would last?

» ” ” Answer—No one: can predict the outcome of a mars riage. Granted a certain compatibility of tempera=ment, probably the success of any marriage depencs. more upon the ability’ of the partners to co-operate

with others more than any other one quality.

1 think what worries you is thai the girl makes more money than you do and is more of a success in the business world. Moreover, she wants to go on working after marriage because you do not make enough to support the two df you in comfort. This detracts from your masculine prestige snd is the cause of your unessiness, I believe. A marriage can and often does succeed when the husband’s earnings are below his wife’s income. This is possible when :the husband compensates by making some other contribution. You, for example, are preparing for a musical career. If you succeed, doubtless your wife will feel completely repaid for all you failed to contribute in cash. The stress you put upon little courtesies is worth its weight in gold to your marriage for it proves that you can and do think of someone besides yourself, No marriage can be contracted without some element of risk but a generous mutual consideration of each other’s ‘hopes, wishes and welfare, reduces this risk

to the minimum. JANE JORDAN.

i ‘ nmin

Put your problems in a letter to Jane Jordan, whe will answer your ynestions | in this column daily.

| e————

Bob Burns Says—

OLLYWOOD, April 14. —At heart, most actors are

; just real folks and would like to live a simple life; but every time they do or say anything tHe pub-

“licity people start weavin' Some deep Tomantie drama

around it. Not long ago an ‘actor's little son was born and some publicity people called on the actor and says, “I s'pose you'll name your son after something’ that’s very dear to your heart?” and the actor says, “Yes, I've named him Homer.” They all got out their: pencils and said, “We'll write a wonderful story here about you bein’ an

ardent: follower of that Greek poet, Homer.”

The actor says, “I don't know nothin’ about any

Greek poet. . . . I keep homing pigeons

(Copyright, 1938)

Walter oO 'Keefe—

OLLYWOOD, April 14.—The Japanese are: over the U. 8S. Navy, and it isn’t to find: oy Midshipmen are going to beat the