Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 3 May 1938 — Page 12

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The Indianapolis Times

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

ROY W. HOWARD LUDWELL DENNY MARK FERREE President Editor Business Manager

Price in Marion County, 3 cents a copy; delivered by carrier, 12 cents a week.

Owned and published daily (except Sunday) by The Indianapolis Times Publishing Co, 214 W. Maryland St. Mail subscription rates in Indiana, $3 a year; outside of Indiana, 65 cents a month.

E> Rlley 5551

Their Own Way

Member of United Press, Scripps « Howard Newspaper Alliance, NEA Service, and Audit Bureau of Circulations.

| SCRIPPS ~ HOWARD Give Light and the People Will Find

TUESDAY, MAY 3. 1938

ELECTION WARNING! WPA officials in Washington yesterday warned Indiana

WPA officials to take necessary steps to enforce regu- |

lations insuring project workers against political intimidation in the primaries. The warning is needed. Here are two paragraphs we should like to see posted on a bulletin board beside every WPA project in America: “I do not intend to tolerate any political influence in the WPA, 1 do not care how a worker votes but no matter whom he supports, he won't lose his job. I do not have to answer to any politician. “And if any WPA supervisor is guilty of political intimidation or attempts to use relief funds for political purposes he will be fired on the spot.” —HARRY L. HOPKINS, WPA Administrator.

We believe Mr. Hopking meant every word of that statement. The words and the line of action they indicate are just what could be expected from a man of Mr. Hopking’ fine record and known high purposes. And we are confident that he will do his utmost to carry through. But Harry Hopkins, of necessity, ing out of Washington. Ie parcels out the money, but the actual spending of that money—the hiring and firing of workers—by and large, is in the hands of political ward heelers who do not think in the same terms that Mr. Hopkins does. And on election days the WPA’s national administrator can’t be everywhere overseeing everything. Ile will need help. For that reason we should like to see Congress seriously consider a proposal made by Rep. Bruce Barton of New

York—an amendment to the Corrupt Practices Act making | | New York.

it a penitentiary offense for any official in charge of the distribution of Government funds to influence the political beliefs or actions of a recipient.

THEY SHOULD VOTE OES of wage-hour legislation, at the moment, have the upper hand. But if this reform fails in the current Congress it will not be for lack of leadership on the part of the President, At a time when many Congressmen are hoping to avoid a showdown on the issue, to save themselves emharrassment in the coming elections, Mr. Roosevelt has again called for action—this time in a letter to Chairman Norton of the Labor Committee, who has charge of the wage-hour bill in the House. The President recognized that the House Rules Committee was within is parliamentary rights when it voted against advancing the wage-hour measure to the House floor. bill pending. But he pointedly backed up Mrs. Norton's insistence that the whole House membership be given an opportunity to vote on the legislation. After a “full and free” debate, the President said. the House members may decide to amend the bill, or send it back to committee, or pass it, or defeat it. Then, whatever the result, the House members will have met their legislative responsibility, will have made their records to take back to their constituents.

Since there is little chance of the committee changing | its mind, the only way to get the bill to the floor is by | a discharge petition signed by 218 members. That number | of signatures should not be difficult to obtain, for there | are 330 Democrats in the House, and as the President |

pointed out, their platform is pledged to wage-hour action.

The President didn’t mention it, but the 90 Republican |

members also are committed by a platform pledge to do | | the protection afforded others.

something along this line, at least to protect working women and children.

tion, and simply puts a floor under wages and a ceiling on hours, starting at 25 cents an hour and 44 hours a week and graduating in three years to 40 cents and 40 hours. Some Democrats and some Republicans prefer a different type of bill. Some are opposed to any wage-hour legislation. But no action can be taken for or against this bill, or any other type of bill, so long as the legislation is bottled up in committee, Here is an issue that has been long before Congress, and certainly the time has come for the House members to stand up and be counted.

THE INDIANS FIGHT ROM all indications Indianapolis has assembled a baseball club that intends to fight it out up to the hilt. Opposing teams have learned that this year’s Indians never quit trying and their record thus far proves it. They have won several games in the ninth and have fought their way to victory in three extra-inning battles, two of 10 innings, one of 13, An extra-inning contest is a strain known in diamond vernacular as the old acid test of a player's courage and fighting heart. Ray Schalk’s Redskins apparently have been trained to be ever alert and on their toes. Admittedly the team is weak in the pitching department. The fact 10 games have been won in 15 starts makes the club’s record all the more worthy of Indianapolis fans’ admiration.

FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES NE of the most effective of Senator La Follette's public services has been the work of the Senate Committee on Civil Liberties. Unfortunately, there may be no complete report of the investigation and no adequate legislative recommendations unless the Senate votes the requested $60,000 for completion of the work. That sum of money is small enough in all conscience considering the importance of the project. If the Senate Committee on Audit and Control listens to the friends of civil liberties, it will stop blocking this small but vital appropriation,

has to do his operat- | ‘ork-relief | work-relief | showing his hosts through his little tree house on | wheels.

| find convenience and | comparable to that of his home or | eggs in the family ice box would seem such Jewelry as | the provisions in the little lockers on his trailer.

He refused to pass on the merits of the specific |

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

Cornelius Vanderbilt Is Somewhat Like the Boys Who Spent the Night Before the Fourth in a Tree House.

EW YORK, May 3.—There is an age in little boys when they like to dig caves and build shacks and tree houses, and one of the most exciting events of my own youth at that stage was a night before the Fourth of July, when I was allowed to sleep at the home of a friend and we sneaked out, after dark, to climb into a big oak, where we had built a beautiful cottage among the branches. We turned in on the hard boards about 10:30, but were so excited that we

could not sleep and were up and out, exploding hombs under the neighbors’ windows long before dawn. We had good enough homes, but there was something

special about that unsightly crate in the big tree, with

scarcely enough room for two, small as we were. All experience is said to add to our understanding, or something like that, however, and the episode of the tree-house on that night before the glorious Fourth explains to me an otherwise strange party which hove up at ¢he door of my neighbor, George

Bye, the writer's agent, the other day, in the far |

suburbs. Mr. Bye and his good wife were about to gnash their teeth at their rations when a motor trailer pulled up and out popped no less than a genuine, first-degree Vanderbilt, to wit, Cornelius Jr, who announced that he had come to spend the night and could they stake him to a small patch of clearing where he might make fast? » » »

ELL, to be sure, they could, for after all one is not descended upon by a Vanderbilt every day, and wouldn't he come in and pass the time while they made ready the spare bed and slaughter another steer for dinner. No. no! Not at all. Thanks, old man, for Mr. Vanderbilt was fixing to dine on his own provisions and, when dinner was done, to pull the disappearing bed out of the bread locker.

All this Mr. Vanderbilt did, and when he drove off | | down tie road the next day a few bent blades of grass

on the far lawn and a note in the guest book were the only signs of his visit. But before he left Mr. Vanderbilt delighted in He showed them the little locker where he kept his suit and coats, the bathtub concealed beneath

| the bed, the collapsible desk on which he writes his | articles on a typewriter which disappears into a niche | | beneath a closet in which he keeps the eggs and bacon, | alongside the compartment where he makes ice cubes { in a refrigerator run by a motor concealed in the

stern. » ” » HIS is the home in which Mr, toured this country and Europe,

Vanderbilt has 1t is not at all

| comparable to the Vanderbilt mansion on Fifth Ave,

or the villa at Newport or even to young Mr. Vanderbill's own ranch house in Nevada or his apartment in

IL were foolish to imagine that Cornelius Jr. could repose in his house on wheels that bacon and

But I have known rich men with spacious and beautiful homes to cramp themseives in moldy quarters below the waterline on little off-shore boats called yachts in which to sleep on hard shelves, two in a room. In the morning they feel like the wrath of God. as I felt that morning of July the Fourth after a night

{ In the tree house and other little boys after tossing

and squirming in pirates’ caves and shanties in the vacant iot a block from home,

Business

By John T. Flynn

Those Who Cry for Laissez Faire Wouldn't Want It if They Had It.

EW YORK, May 3.—Mr. Ford, the eternal individualist, speaks the well-beloved language of Americans when he savs: “Let the Government get out of the way so that business can go forward.” That is a sentiment which most Americans utter with

| approval and in which none believes.

It is the old story of laissez faire, that strangest of

i all illusions which is supposed to have been the theory | of our economic society since the Government began, | but which really never has been. | all the American, will let nothing alone,

For man, most of

From the day the first tariff duty was imposed the fatal sequence was started, doomed to continue

| and spread until what was began as an effort to help

a few cotton manufacturers ended in NRA and a Guffey Coal Commission trying to fix 450,000 prices on coal. More than a hundred years ago the Government put up the price on cotton goods. This at once affected those who use cotton cloth. So they had to be protected. If it is proper to protect cotton makers ana dress makers it is equally proper to protect wool growers and they will lose no time asking for their law. It will not be long before there is a host of persons who must be protected because others are, or for the even better reason that they have been hurt by Then you arrive at groups who cannot be protected by tariffs, so new

| kinds of protection must be invented to care for . i ' . ‘ \ { them. The bill which Mrs. Norton is now trying to get before | . : the House, in our opinion, is the best type of wage-hour | Supercitizen Created

measure yet advanced. It eliminates bureaucratic discre~ | The Government starts with a simple corporation |

law. But the corporation lawyers invent new parts, new devices to make corporations more powerful,

| more efficient and more immune from the law. Soon

the Government finds it has created a supercitizen. It is too powerful to be governed. New abuses arise and these must be curbed. The very effort at cor-

individualism. Mr. Ford is a super-

The whole structure of the capitalist svstem now is so completely held together by government that if the Government really tried to take Mr. Ford's advice and “get out of the way” he would be among the first to cry halt.

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

ITH the approach of Mother's Day, several cities are pianning to honor some selected individual

in the community. Birmingham, Ala., is really shooting the works, with a contest to select “The Birmingham Mother of 1938.” A number of women's organizations will assist. There are to be four requirements for the judges to consider. Contestants need not have large families, but their children must possess character, personality and have attained a measure of success. The mother herself will be expected to have patience, kindness, understanding and moral strength. She must be able to make friends readily and to meet people easily. And she must have a sense of social and world relationship. I know scores of women who could qualify on the last three counts and whose children, whether successful or not, will have character and personality. It seems to me we are really getting somewhere with this Mother's Day business when we begin to set up a few standards for women to follow instead of talking gush to them. At least we do know that merely loving one’s children isn't enough to Justify a claim to all the maternal virtues. Behind that.love must be sweet reasonableness, sound good sense, patience and, above everything, moral strength.

Perhaps the last item would be enough. cludes so many other fine traits within its scope. The mother who allows her love to dominate her reason does not have moral strength. If she is foolish enough to believe her influence alone can mold her child's character, she lacks that most necessary sturdiness of soul. For truly the world is all about us these days and we are subject to its moods and whims. We can no longer overlook the power of public manners, customs and beliefs upon our sons and daugh-

eed ORS ER

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES ‘Migosh! Who Primed That One P—By Talburt

A hundred thousand Ford employees { { are as much individualists as the bees in a hive.

It in- |

——

A Al A) TY

The Hoosier Forum

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

THINKS EUROPE WON'T | CHARGE FOR ITS LESSONS (By D. F. C. I hear that Mr. Hoover wants to | take the war debts out in trade. The | pian, as I understand it, is to distri {bute Europe's I. O. U.'s among our (citizens who are of school age—let them paddle across the pond--{hitch-hike up to Oxford or Cam- | bridge-——clang the bell on the gate— [hastily blow the last bits of dust | {and cobwebs off that T Owe Youse, | URGES STATE SET EXAMPLE [remove their hats politely and, as|_. . 4 A |the gate swings open, extend their | FOR PRIVATE EMPLOYERS [credentials in exchange for a dash |By A State Employes [of Continental Enlightenment. Our last two Governors of IndiI've heard of worse ideas—but MY. | ana have made a lot of noise in

Hoveh: (oto, Sas Doe Consiysred | their talks about backing President {never counsel that we give .'em back | Roosevelt and the New Deal, but

their I. O. U's—worthless as they |action speaks louder than words, may be—for, of all things, schooling. One of the first things our Presipo Tper all, it’s a gtrer of higory |dent did was advocate shorter workthat the Europeans have always |; re ww] ’ ; | been glad to ops us a lesson every | ing hours with a living wage, and is now and then—with no charge. And, | Still fighting for it. |since they seem to enjoy it, I don't Governor Townsend, like McNutt, [think they'll ever demand payment | has his nerve asking private indus[for their pleasure. Let's buy some- try to co-operate in the fight for (thing we can’t get for nothing. better working conditions while ¢ Nn » State employees are forced to work CRITICIZES DISTRIBUTION as long as 14 hours a day. OF WPA WORK Very little, or nothing, has been { done for employees of State institu(By G. C. tions in the last five years in reWhat does a man have to do to 8ard to working conditions. At get on WPA? I have tried a dozen | least the amount deducted from |times and can’t because I have $6 a | salaries during the last Republican | week coming in. administration’s economy drive But I know a truck driver who

could be restored. Why does not [has a truck working a contract every the Stats sei an example for pris (month, and he has allowed a man

vate industry to follow? (to have his truck. Now the superin- yn = | tendent of the WPA job, who has a |

(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.)

SAYS ENGLAND PROVIDES

| son, bought the truck and is putting | EXAMPLE IN HOUSING [this truck driver to work, so his son ls y M. 8.

{can have a job driving a truck. What would you do if you had a Sir Harold Bellman, head of the | wife and three children and couldn't | British National Association of Buildget on when a man with a wife can | ing Societies, is telling this country ‘hold two jobs on WPA? how England has helped rehouse her 3 #2» workingmen’s families in 3,500,000

Sinins ; new homes built since the Armistice. WANTS OFFICIAL CARS It is interesting that more than | TO OBSERVE SIGNALS

By W. D. E. STUMBLING BLOCKS

When is our big country city go- By JAMES D. ROTH {ing to grow up? Another headline: : “Man Arrested for Failure to Give | It's in your heart, { Right of Way to Sheriff's Car.” al- | That feeling for a soul though the driver had the green! Who made a valiant start light with him. a shunbied Short his goal. hy " : i. 1 me, and yes alas! Why dont the fire, police and Brave souls are wont to falter;

her emergency cars go through {hes Feil gi pi Rts eh Many thorns we all must pass 3 ) x ira To worship at life's altar.

caution. By that I mean slow down DAILY THOUGHT

[to a speed at which it is safe to How shall we sing the Lord's

[ Cross. I would appreciate The Times song in a strange land?—Psalms 137.4.

(checking other large towns to see | how they operate. I am sure that | | City machines can not even gO | — through a red light in Cleveland. | E is the happiest, be he king It is time that we stop this foolish- | or peasant, who finds peace in ness. j his home.—Goethe,

2,000,000 of these homes were built by private capital organized into building societies. These far-flung enterprises construct little two-story villas of brick costing around $2500. A down payment of $250 buys them.

Interest is only 4'2 per cent, and amortized payments about equal to

20 years. The building societies also [attract the small investor by paying | dividends of 3': per cent. Sir Harold thinks that low-cost home building is lagging here because “there is a tendency to expect the Government to supply the money.” In England, apparently, lenders, materials producers and | workers are satisfied with smaller returns on a mass basis. Certainly, under our own FHA formula of { guaranteed mortgages, private capital could work out a similar system here. According to Sir Harold, England is enjoying more labor peace because workingmen are beginning to own their own homes. “We are converting our people from a race of tenants to a race of small home-owners,” he said. Why cannot America do this too? n n ” FRANCO'S BOMBARDMENTS CALLED ‘LOGICAL’

By G. H. T. Over the signature of Alfonso someone has written in this column criticizing a cartoon in The Times, and defending Franco's bombard-

ment of Barcelona, on the ground that there are 180 military objectives there. Alfonso is too conservative in his estimate, for he has clearly not counted the number of women and children in the city. And under the theory of totalitarian war, as favored by the Nazi-Fascist forces whom Alfonso is backing, practically all things and people are military objectives. Women are military objectives because they can do the civilian work of men and thus release more men for actual fighting. Children are also military objectives because they may grow up to fight against fascism and it's slave psychology. The destruction of a hospital lessens the efficiency to be attained in caring for the wounded. The sewers, if broken may spread an epidemic that may do more damage than bullets. Cats, dogs, and horses must be destroyed for they may become a source of food when siege is laid to the city. Above all, terror must be spread.

Nazi-fascism has planned, but all

logical. All due honor to those who accept it!

LET'S EXPLORE YOUR

INGTEAD OF ESTABLISHING NURGERY SCHOOLS WOULD IT BE BETTER 70 GIVE THIS MONEY TO TH MOTHERS SO THEY COUL 1 KEEP THEIR BABIES UNDER ; THEIR OWN CARE? YOUR OPINION ee

PeEpATE QUESTION: WHICH MINALS Soe Ci CRIMINALS BLT iE Taek OR THE ELECTRIC CHAIR? LET'® HEAR YOUR OPINION

Coby, on IB P Jorn BrLLE ed 3

a I= AFTER THE HONEYMOON, N88 MARRIED COUPLES EXPERIENCE A A FEELING OF MARKED DISAPPOINTMENT poke IT INDICATE THE MARRIAGE WiLL BE Aree AILURE ? YES OR N

1 GLADIS GROVES, sociologist, the excitement and romance of the of Duke University, says in a honeymoon. She maintains it is leading magazine that all brides {a natural reaction, when the happy, and grooms experience this letdown |irresponsible first days and weeks and feeling of disappointment affer (are over, and the couple must settle

By DR. ALBERT EDWARD WIGGAM

MIND

down to life's practical problems of paying the rent, keeping their jobs and the like. If they weather this period—as they can easily do—the marriage is extremely promising.

” » Ld

EMPHATICALLY NOT. If there is any one who needs education in the rearing of children, it is the average mother, and nursery schools educate the mother about as much as the child. Nursery schools have proved long ago they can be of enormous value even to the wisest mothers and for the average mother and for all children the value of the well-conducted nursery school is beyond all calculation.

I'D CHOOSE the electric chair, for no “reason” at all—it’s just my emotional reaction to the thing. We do not reason much about such things; our attitudes are mostly the result of life's experiences — books we have read, stories we have heard, our physical and emotional habits, etc. No one can tell just “why” he would choose one or the other—I hope to escape both: but if I escape only one, I won't mind the other. Personally, I don't see whv they don't give criminals a dose of morphine when they do not know it. For heaven's sake, make it as

| easy &s possible,

rent pay for them over a period of |

This is not a pretty scheme that

must agree that it is complete and |

Gen. Johnson Says—

All of the La Follette Proposals

Are Obscured by One Sentence on The Control of Money and Credit,

EW YORK, May 3.—Much of Governor La Fole lette's five philippics might have been copied di= rectly from this column. Yet I am in perplexity as to what he really means. He flatly condemns the Roosevelt Cave of Adullam strategy of making a party out of all discontented

classes. He repels the third New Deal “economy of scarcity” and insists on more and not less production. He sels aside the demagogery about sharing our wealth and putting shackles on human initiative and the hope of gain. He recognizes that the millions of efforts which are activated by that hope are the effective moving force of American progress. He recognizes the excellence of the great first New Deal reforms, but thinks that among the old leaders of either the traditional Republican or Democratic Parties there is not what it takes to carry them through. That, he thinks, requires his proposed new party. " nN ” ITH the first part of that there is not 10 per cent of my acquaintances who disagree. But— as to the second half of Philip's proposition—it obe viously is not true that it did not lie in the leader ship of the old Democratic Party to recognize this need and to march to the sound of the guns. Not one of this crop of third New Dealers had anything whatever to do with the invention of the first New Deal. Practically the whole program was explicit in the 1832 Democratic platform. The platform was the work of such Senators as Walsh, Wheeler, Harrison, Byrnes, Pittman, Glass and several others. They and old leaders like them constituted the campaign policy committee. All that was before the appearance of the third New Deal strategy of creating a new party on the nucleus of the old democracy—a thing of shreds, patches and contradictions stuck together with political hairpins. The first New Deal was built on orthodox ideas of fiscal management, taxes and economy. As I read most of the Governor's proposals they might be sloganeered: “Back to the first New Deal” But ( for me al least, they are all obscured by & single sentence,

” " =

T= first article in his creed, unexplained else where, is: “The ownership of control of money aud credit, without qualification or reservation, must | be under public and not private control.” | What does that mean? If it means what the | words seem to say—the ownership of money must be | under public control—it contradicts at least half of the rest of the document, The Governor is right in refusing to write a pre- | scription of new panaceas and in sticking to a state- | ment of principles, but these could possibly be weasel | words covering a purpose of public rather than pri= | vale ownership of property. If that is what it means, the whole proposal is | pure socialism. If it doesn't mean that but only | Congressional regulation of money and credit, the whole proposal is just a slight modification of the { first New Deal and we don't need a third party for | that.

It Seems to Me | By Heywood Broun

Your Writer Thinks La Follette's Talk Was "Thoroughly Reactionary."

EW YORK, May 3.—There is significance in the fact that some newspapers hail the launching of the La Follette third party as a “deathblow to the New Deal.” And if Young Bob and Little Phil suc= ceed in gathering a large following, they may prevail in turning America back to the days of the Old Deal. This could very well happen, whether they win or lose, because the keynote speech of the Governor at Madie son, Wis., was a thoroughly reactionary utterance. It is the old stuff about how we could all f happy and prosperous if only we would proceed mer

In all fairness to Mr. Hoover it might be said that this carries rugged individualism well beyond his own philosophic concept. I do not remember that he ever suggested that those who fail in the competitive struggle should be allowed to drown without assist ance. But that certainly seems to be the La Follette formula. Indeed, it is amplified in point 5 in the list of basic principles of the National Progressives of America. This reads: “We flatly oppose every form of cod= dling or spoon-feeding the American people—whether it be those on relief, whether it be farmers or workers, whether it be business or industry. No Government on earth can successfully manage, regulate and direct the numerous details that make for healthy families or successful business.”

Mostly Band Music Possibly one may draw too many implications from the words of the La Follette platform. It is all pretty vague and oratorical, For instance, one wonders as to whether Bob and Phil regard a wages and hours bill as coddling and whether the NLRB or the Wag-

ner Act constitutes spoon feeding. In all fairness to Senator La Follette it should be admitted that his committee has done brilliant work in its fight against the labor spy. Still, in the keynote speech of Phil there is small comfort for workers. As a matter of fact, there is the recommendation that everybody will be happier if labor takes a lower wage, Little Phil seems to be wholly unaware of the fact that we are living in a machine age and that new efficiencies of production raise special and serious problems. The problem of distribution he wholly neglects, It seems to be his notion that under the capitalistic system everybody can get an automobile, provided enough cars are sold. Little Phil and Young Bob are certainly galloping as fast as they can to the horse-and-buggy age. I even fear that they have forgotten the horse.

‘Watching Your Health

By Dr. Morris Fishbein

UMAN beings have a variety of diseases caused by infinitesimal living organisms which attack the tissues of the human body. All over the world there has been identified a disease which is transmitted in different places by ticks. Among the diseases now recognized as belonging in this group are the Rocky Mountain spotted fever of North America, the exanthematic typhus of Brazil and what is called boutonneuse fever of southe ern Europe and northern Africa. In the United States several varieties of ticks have been incriminated as dangerous, including the Rocky Mountain wood tick, the American dog tick and the rabbit tick. These ticks carry the virus or dangerous agent of the infection, and when they attach themselves to a human being they may convey the disease. The people affected by Rocky Mountain spotted fever are obviously most often those who live in rural or range areas, but the condition also affects hunters and trappers, prospectors and miners, forest service workers, highway workers, section hands on railroads, and also fishermen, campers and tourists. In the sagebrush desert regions of the western part of the United States investigators have found most of the cases among men, but when families live in the infected areas, women and children are more frequently affected because of their contact with the dog tick. In the western part of the United States most of the cases occur in April and in May, which is the season when the Rocky Mountain wood tick is most prevalent. In the higher areas, as in Wyoming, the condition may appear later in the summer. This condition usually begins with a low fever and a light rash, but in some cases there may be a sude den high fever and a rapid pulse. In the very severe cases patients sometimes die in a few days,

TUESDAY, MAY 3, 1938

rily to cut each others throat in fine, free competition,