Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 11 May 1938 — Page 12

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The Indianapolis Times

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

ROY WwW. HOWARD LUDWELL DENNY MARK FERREE President Editor ® Business Manager

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IN 2 RlIley 5551

Give Light and the People Will Fina

WEDNESDAY, MAY 11, 1938

SAFETY FOR CHILDREN : VACATION for Indianapolis schoolchildren free from accidents is the aim of a program undertaken by school and accident prevention officials. Efforts are being made to encourage childfen to play where recreation is supervised, to prevent playing in the streets and to stress to parents the advantages of promoting safe hobbies for their boys and girls. Officials also are considering a series of safety plays in which vacationing pupils would participate. 3 The prevalence of child accidents of all kinds during summer vacations constitutes a serious problem. Its solution lies in the co-operation of parents, police, school officials and the children themselves.

PERISH THE THOUGHT PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT asked Congress for a ‘short and simple statute” that would— 1. Make the salaries of all persons on governmental pavrolls—Federal, state and local—subject to the same taxes as private salaries and incomes, and 92. Make all future issues of governmental securities, and income therefrom, subject to the same taxes that must be paid on private securities. The President made his request April 25. And not one thing has happened since. Can it be that our fine, patriotic Congressmen, who make such glowing speeches about their love for their home states. are reluctant to take action that would open their own salaries to state income taxation?

THE POWER OF THE PURSE “WW ASHINGTON, May 10.—Rep. George D. O'Brien (D.

the Probate Court at Detroit.” The item is in no way unusual. Many of the same type oo out from Washington daily, naming other Congressmen, other states, other kinds of projects, other amounts. his item only as text for a few remarks about the 3.054,425,000 relief and recovery bill now rough Congress. Congress, of course, never voted to index the Probate Court records at Detroit. Congress appropriated a lump sum for relief. The President decided how much of that sum should be spent by WPA, Officials of WPA, first in Michigan, then in Washington, decided to use $39,804 of it to make jobs tor white-collar workers, indexing the Detroit records. Finally, the President approved the project, as he has approved thousands upon thousands of others. Then Mr. O'Brien (D. Mich.) was notified so that he could give out the news. It may help a bit in his campaign for re-election. This particular project may be a fine one. That’s not the point. The point is that, for five years, Congress has heen turning over to the President huge amounts of money —nearly $18,000,000,000 in all—to spend where and as he pleases, for relief, recovery and other things. And that, since the President cannot possibly give personal attention to the details of spending on such a scale, the actual power to decide how all this money shall be used has passed from Congress to a horde of subordinate officials who were not elected by the people. They can use the money wisely, as they have much of it. They can use is foolishly and wastefully, as they have much of it. They can pour it into’states that seem doubtful in election years. They can withhold it from states that seem safe. They can give Congressmen who support the Administration a share of the credit for projects financed with this money. They can deprive Congressmen who oppose the Administration of any credit for the spending. That is “the power of the public purse.”

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” n » ” o ”n ONGRESS has often abused this power. Witness, many shameless pork-barrels. But it was intended that this power should be, and stay, in the hands of Congress—the elected representatives of the people—as safer there than anvwhere else. “No money,” says the Constitution, “shall be drawn from the Treasury but in consequence of appropriations made by law . . .” And, from: 1789 up to 1933, Congress surrendered this power by making lump-sum appropriations for Presidents to spend as they pleased only to the total extent of $1,687,000,000, and chiefly in emergencies of war. Congress has made a feeble attempt, in the present ©3.054,425,000 relief and recovery bill, to recapture part of this power. The House Committee wrote in a provision appropriating specific sums direct to the agencies that will lend and spend the money, instead of giving a lump sum to the President. But then it nullified this provision. It continued the authority of the President to approve or disapprove the agencies’ projects. The money will be earmarked, not by Congress, but by the President and his subordinates, for a sixth year. This, as in the five previous years, on the plea of emergency. Earmarking by Congress would “bog down” the spending-lending program—would delay the speedy furnishing of work for the unmeployed. So the committee argued. And with some excuse. It would be difficult for Conoress to direct the spending of these billions. But emergency can’t be permanent. Somehow, some time, Congress must take back “the power of the purse,” or cease to be an equal and co-ordinate arm of Government. And each year of delay only increases the difficulty.

SECOND-SPLITTER HE Coast and Geodetic Survey at Washington has developed a device which times the swings of a pendulum in ten-millionth parts of a second. It is used in determining the pull of gravity. Here, at last, is a clock delicate enough to measure the 45.053-10,000,000ths of a second that it takes the Government to spend a dollar.

We |

speeding |

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

Isn't It About Time for Minton's Committee to Summon Lobbyists For the Administration's Bills?

EW YORK, May 11.—I should like to indorse Col. Frank Knox's advice to any self-respecting editor to tell Senator Minton and his lobby committee where to get off. But I am already committed to the attitude that, in as much as the committee has been harassing persons who are said to have lobbied against the Administration, the inquiry should now deal similarly with those mysterious messengers, claiming White House Authority, who lobbied for the Reorganization Bill and for other Administration measures. First of all on that list it should summon Jimmy Roosevelt, who was reported to have given private assurance to certain interests that they need not fear that the bill, if passed, would be applied to their detriment. And, in as much as the President himself specifically authorized the examination of the income tax returns of witnesses brought before the committee, Jimmy's own returns should be examined and broken down. ” ” 2 T should be established whether Jimmy did important business with corporations and individuals whose interests were so placed that they might have suffered or prospered by any decision of any Government bureau having to do with permits or privilega2s. And, in justice to Jimmy himself, who, it is to be hoped, would prove himself innocent of such dealings, the executives of such corporations and such individuals also should be called to give an account of their dealings, if any. I have heard such inquisitiveness rebuked as an attempt to strike at the President through the conduct of members of his family. That criticism leaves me puzzled, because it seems to imply that a detailed examination of Jimmy's income tax returns would disclose material which might be used to the President's detriment. I cannot agree with this assumption, preferring to believe that there has been nothing questionable or unethical in Jimmy's business affairs and that he would be able to prove that there wasn't. As to whether Jimmy could be regarded as a lobbyist I see no doubt. Washington is full of lobbyists. Men and women lobby at parties and dinners and, indeed, in the White House. I have seen in the President’s private office Mr. Charlie Michelson, who holds, or did hold at my last information on the subject, a commission from a big radio company. I have to remark that there are many corporations which would wish to place a representative in the White House with latchkey privileges and that at least one citizen questions the propriety of this. u un 2d HIS Lobby Committee is within its rights so far as I can see, but I don’t see that it has shown any intention to exercise the same rights in the direction of other lobbyists who, in consistency, should be called. This committee can’t acquit itself of witch-hanging until it calls up every member of the Senate to teil under oath who lobbied him for, as well as against,

Mich.) today announced approval by President Roose- | the Reorganization Bill. velt of a $39.804 WPA project for indexing the records of | | same jumps that you are trying to put me over. | take any jump he'll take.”

And I would say: “Get Jimmy Roosevelt in here

with his income tax returns and put him over the I'll

Business By John T. Flynn

Chief Weakness of Hoover Program Is That It Won't Bring Recovery.

EW YORK, May 11.—-Mr. Hoover has a recovery program with 11 pianks in it. Ferhaps it is to be the model of the Republican platform in 1940. It is a very artful document, filled with political ability. Its chief weakness, of course, is that it would not produce recovery. Its political sagacity lies in this, that it is in reality a two-point program—one point comprehending all that collection of measures which come under the head of the demand of business to be “let alone.” The other point puts the loud pedal down on the great moral issues—freedom and morals in government. This latter is important in that it seems to point the drift now evident in Washington and throughout the country toward scrutiny of those strange performances of the Administration and its state allies on the ethical side of politics. It would be surprising if the remaining two years of the Roosevelt Administration did not blossom out with a series of investigations, charges, attacks on the morals and honesty of certain areas of the Democratic regime. In certain states this process has begun. In Ohio, for instance, the most devastating attack has been mace upon Governor Davey and the state Democratic machine. Of course it is true that Davey is no New Dealer. But he is a Democrat and the mess in which the whole state administration has become involved will not only reflect upon the party but perhaps deprive the Administration of a valued Senator—badly needed now.

Pennsylvania Democrats Suffer

In Pennsylvania the amazing two-way barrage of scandals seems to have about washed up the party in that state after its brief career. There are other states, and not a few of them, which stand in line for similar performances. But more serious will be the oratorical indictments of the New Deal in Washington itself. There is plenty which has not yet come closer to the surface than mere whisperings among the gossipers in the capitol. Hoover plainly is aiming at this. It is a powerful weapon against “reformers.” The old-time political machine can take this sort of thing in its stride. People rather expect political machines to turn their attention to a little practical profit. They are tolerant of it and it does not speak well for people. But they are not tolerant of these things in those who set up as saviors. Those two planks which head Mr. Hoover's list —one a demand “to restore common morals in government” and the other about attacks on individual freedom and the courts, will make the window-dress-ing behind which Hoover's old program of doing nothing will be pressed on the country in the next campaign.

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

N the spring a housewife’s fancy turns to thoughts of cleaning. And not lightly either. It's like a virus in the blood instead, this urge to do over the living rooms or paint the closet shelves or redecorate the kitchen. Under its strange spell a woman's eyes glaze, her actions are erratic: she behaves as one who is troubled by insomnia or love. To woo cleanliness, making bright those things which have become dull, is a delight known in its fullness only to feminine hearts. During the process of housecleaning one manages also to get rid of an unbelievable amount of rubbish. Sometimes it requires days to separate the worthless from the still usable objects, and what agonies of indecision we undergo while the task is being done! Saving odds and ends is a housewifely weakness. Whether it’s a form of stinginess or merely a senti= mental reluctance to let go of the past I've never been able to decide, but at any rate spring cleaning brings

out all the parsimony or extravagance in a woman's nature. After much wavering, the sensible one casts away the belongings which she knows will be of use to her no longer. This year, as I sat amid my rubbish piles trying to be sensible, I couldn't keep from thinking how wonderful it would be if we could clean out our hearts and minds as we annually clean out our closets. What a lot of trash we hoard in our heads! Silly superstitions, for instance, petty worries, prejudices, hatreds— ugly habits which we never take the trouble to discard. Moths and rust corrupt our thoughts, and our hearts are storehouses for all sorts of venial sins which we could destroy if we employed half as much energy as it takes to demoth our closets or wash our pantry shelves. »

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

After All, Frank, There Isa Limit—or Is There?—By Talburt

Come ON‘ CEMME HAVE Em 1! WE CAN STILL

OR Nas. a0 x3 CEN SILL ON

—— En A BO RY

The Hoosier Forum

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

RECOMMENDS CHANGES FOR JUVENILE COURT By a Lover of Little Children

When the new Juvenile Court Judge goes into office I am hoping the following changes will be made:

1. That any unjust officers and | investigators will be given their | walking papers. 2. That the court will take the same precaution in placing children in boarding homes as high-class | agencies having children for adop- | tion do. All classes of children should not be placed in the same home—the intelligent with the | stupid, the riff-raff with the clean, the diseased with the healthy. 3. That the court will place each | child in a different home and pre- | vent persons taking these children for an easy living. Let people have them that really love and under- | stand children, not those that wish them for financial gain, ” » n SENATOR MINTON'S BILL DEFENDED By H. E. W,

Your editorial on Senator Minton and a free press is a sample of. wanton misrepresentation. How can you hold the respect of | your readers when you deliberately | avoid and refuse to give facts which | caused the Senator to propose a bill | forcing newspapers to publish facts. | Is it because you believe that all readers are less informed or, per-| haps, not as intelligent as you? You say that Senator Minton pro- | poses the impossible—to go into the! minds of men and prove that they | knew what was true, what untrue. | Or is it, perhaps, his theory that what he doesn’t like must be false? | When it comes to making an at-| tempt to eliminate all things which is found in the path of progress of | the American people he never recog- | nizes the word impossible. You have not been fair with our Senator; you failed to tell the whole story. Is it because you wish to withhold the fact that the American Newspaper Publishers Association's report to curb the use of radio for political purposes is directly opposite of what you preach? ” » ” BELIEVES ASTROLOGERS PICKED AUSPICIOUS TIME By T. E.

The American Federation of Scientific Astrologers in convention a® Washington had many interesting subjects to discuss, including horoscopes of President Roosevelt and of the United States. The astrologers fixed this time for their convention last August, having studied the planets and stars and determined the day, hour | and minute that would be most | auspicious. Auspicious? We'll say so. The United States Chamber of!

THE STORY OF HEREDITY) THE SMITHS

U' IBLE, DICK, CH. SE aN oF P OUT. CHE eNUSES

CRO! £6 ARE N GENES. OPINION ——

Lavery p80 WN BALE ca

GENIUS is just as clearly inherited as is stupidity or the| shape of your nose, although it is | vastly more complicated. Many experimenters have selected the two smartest and two dullest rats from a litter, and mated them, then

| time,

(Times readers are invited to express their views in ®, these columns, religious con-

Make

your letter short, so all can

troversies excluded.

have a chance. Letters must be signed, but names will be withheld on request.)

Commerce was winding up its con-

vention in Washington at the same | The wise men of business |

were orating solemnly about what's |

ON NONRESIDENT By C. G. T.

SAYS HE SAW ASSAULT | |

I witnessed the brutal assault of | the police officers on the gentleman | from out of the city the other night. | As a matter of fact I went home | with the story that I had witnessed the arrest of a gunman. The truth is the police did not show any badge but administered | a terrific beating to the man. When | he protested they said, “Can that bull, we hear that every day.” Apparently the police do not realize that this man had the right] to resist, even to the point of Killing | the officers if necessary.

MAY BLOSSOMS By M. P. D,

They bloom in light, Blossoms of May. In pink of apple bloom And calla lily white. And in the heart Of peony bright Blooming in light. All nature lives And ever gives Its glories bright In blossoms of the May.

DAILY THOUGHT

Take heed now; for the Lord hath chosen thee to build an house for the sanctuary: be strong, and do it.—I Chronicles 28:10.

HE brave man wants no charms to encourage him to duty, and the good man scorns all warnings that would deter him from doing

| doesn't | doesn't need much.

it.—Bulwer.

MNT

EN wore erento pe PERSONALLY ATTRACTIVE THAN MEN ? YES ORNO cs -

ARE

A HIGH SCHOOL CLASS ASKS, ‘WHICH | CAME FIRGT- THE BRAIN OR

INTELIIGENCE Poo oman

mated the two smartest and ‘wo dullest of their children, etc. Soon a whole race of “genius rats” and feeble-minded rats is produced— some too stupid to feed themselves. All experiments also indicate that mice, rats and men inherit their

URGES BUSINESSMEN TAKE SMALLER PROFIT By D. H. H. “The love of money is the root of all evil.” I wonder {f that is not what is the matter with the whole world today. J.T. Flynn said in his column that the benefits to be derived from the different programs submitted by the New Dealers, Old Dealers, Progressives and Liberals, and I would add the Reds and Socialists, are greatly exaggerated. I believe he is

right. I wonder ‘if the Golden Rule is

not the solution to the whole prob- |

lem. With that idea practiced by all mankind, any system of government will work. Without it no system will endure; civilization itself will not last. With that idea practiced no man would accept a million dollars, a hundred thousand dollars or even 10 thousand dollars a year from the

labor of employees making less than |

two thousand dollars a year. with that idea practiced, employee would not shirk his work

and do just as little as he could |

get by with, There would be no need of time clocks and efficiency systems. Why do we have a depression? Because business cannot operate and make as much profit as is demanded by so called efficient businessmen. There is plenty of work to do. Thousands of people need shoes and clothes, good housing, bath tubs,

radios, furniture and all manner of | The city and country need |

things. more good roads, parks, public buildings and many other things. Why don't we do the work? Because there must be a large mone-

the |

| | | |

tary profit to business or business |

is not interested. There 1s work because there for the product of work. There is no market because there is no money in the hands of the people who need the product of the work. There is no money in the hands of the people because business has accumulated most of it, and business spend much because it

We hear many say that because

| a man has worked and saved he 1s |

entitled to all he can get. 1 would not argue the point. All I can say is that we have come to a place in the development of civilization where it won't work out any more. I know that reform cannot come overnight, but let businessmen, who can find a way if they will, start by being content with a smaller profit and give to those who work, and need so much, more wages so they can buy what they need, which in turn will make more work for more people who will buy more things and make more work. It is an endless circle.

LET'S EXPLORE YOUR MIND

By DR. ALBERT EDWARD WIGGAM

TWO studies of this problem by psychologists, one by Symonds and one by Osburn and Murphy, have been made. They asked groups of people to rate 15 areas of life In the degree to which each was a “problem” and an “interest.” These included “health,” “sex,” “money,” “safety,” “manners,” “philosophy of life,” ete. All listed “money” as the highest “interest” as well as the greatest “problem” of life. The women rated “personal attractiveness” higher than did the men and the men listed ‘“sex” higher than the women. As Symonds says, “Interest in sex is direct with men and more indirect with women.” » Ld n THIS MAY seem a foolish question but is discussed in the Scientific Monthly by Prof. W. R. Ritter, eminent biologist. As he says, an organ and its use “grow up together—” as the organ grows, its use grows and vice versa. You can't separate the two. Brain anatomists believe that intelligence depends mainly on the number of sharppointed, pyramid-shaped cells in the brain. In lower animals and imbeciles the cells are mostly pearshaped—with round points. Thus when we say a person is “sharp” we speak more scientifically than we

minds in the same way.

realize.

~ \

no | is no market |

(Gen. Johnson Says—

Business in the South Apparently

Is Holding Up in This Depression, But There Are Signs of Trouble.

HARLOTTE, N. C, May 11.-—It is remarkable how well Southern business holds up in this depression in comparison with the Northern industrial areas. Department stores here in Charlotte show only about 6 per cent to 8 per cent decline as compared with this time last year when business was good everywhere, The feeling is much better in towns than in Northern cities, But there are Indian signs of trouble. Agricultural prosperity is waning. In this hotel is a big delegation of the hosiery workers’ union. They seem amply supplied with funds and are clearly determined to union= ize the Southern mills. The South is afraid of this for the same reason it fears a cast-iron Federal wages and-hours bill. Union success will depend largely ol union wisdom in handling one of the most serious problems of the South—the necessity for wage differs entials permitting lower pay as compared with Northe ern industry. The Southern industrial structure is not entirely dependent on these differentials, but it is so largely SO that any sudden and violent attempt to put both regions on a rigid equality in wage rates would cause explosions which cannot now be clearly foreseen, » n n HROUGH the South there have been many cases of abuses due not so much to Southern employers as to small Northern establishments, Many

have emigrated to the South and set up shop solely:

for the purpose of exploiting cheap labor. They then use the lower costs of their product to compete in the North, That is a dangerous tendency which ought to be checked and will be checked, But whatever action is taken to cut out that abuse, cannot be extended to smashing the whole economic pattern of the South, which would happen upon the application of any inflexible equality whether by Federal law or union activity. As someone had recently pointed out, the availabla wealth from which wages can be paid is from 10 to 40 times greater in the Northern industrial states than in the South, 5 n ”

HE whole structure and hence the cost as well as the standard of living is on a poorer level, It

would not, as some argue, be immediately lifted for all if the wage structure were jacked up by Federal law, because the living of so large a percentage of all comes from agriculture. Neither by statute nor by any union activity is there any prospect for this segment being lifted. Markedly higher-wage rates in only those industries, “in or affecting interstate coms merce” would simply upset the existing balance and close down the small amount of slowly advancing Southern industrial enterprise. The relative poverty of this section is a heritage of old misfortune. The Civil War was one. Another was the gutting of Southern wealth and enterprise in the terrible 20 years of reconstruction. Perhaps as bad as any of these bad influences was the automatic exploitation which the tariff wrought for generations. A natural result of this relative impoverishment was relatively lower wages. This territorial unbalance must be cured. It is slowly being cured. But wa can't expect to cure overnight a condition created by the play of powerful economic forces over more than half a century.

li Seems to Me By Heywood Broun

It Is Not Likely That Roosevelt Will Lose His Place in History.

EW YORK, May 11. —Every now and then somes body says that if President Roosevelt doesn't mend his ways he will “lose his place in history.” To me that hardly seems likely. I still cling to my impression that the final definite biography of Mr. Roosevelt will be in three volumes. There are those who insist that the power and prestige of the Chief Executive already are ended and that the commentators of the future will have little to record after the spring of 1938. They could be right. It is the privilege of any man to make whatever bets he pleases in the winter book of posterity. But there is such a thing as form in history as well as in horse racing, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt seems to he an assiduous student of past performances. It is my notion that as a close student of American history he has had a concern with what will be said about him when he is done. Indeed, I think he had the research scholars of 20 years or 50 years hence in mind when he prepared for publication “The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt.” To be sure, the estimate to be made by the scholars of the future concerning Roosevelt will be based upon a vast amount of source material. Naturally there will be a careful survey of the journalistic judgments written in Mr. Roosevelt's own time. But even the most earnest searcher after facts will not find it physically possible to read all the editorials of some newspapers or digest the entire bulk of certain columnists’ output,

Lincoln Had His Journalists

Although they spoke to smaller audiences there were famous journalists in the days of Lincoln, and by the time Woodrow Wilson came to office syndication already was well established. And yet the reader will not find that press comment figures vary largely in any biography of either man. But on the whole it is a virtue rather than a fault that a newspaper piece is written for Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning and not for all time. And if it isn't a virtue it is at least a necessity. And so a vast amount of contemporary criticism will be less than the dust in 50 years. Franklin Delano Roosevelt has been assailed beyond truth and reason by the most bitter of his foes, and, I suppose, dverpraised by his friends. The fates are ironists who dote on practical jokes, end it ma’ be that they will take a mean advantage of some over= dogmatic opponent or fulsome supporter and lug the poor fellow. along to vicarious immortality by hitchs ing his forgotten name and lack of fame to an asterisk in the body of the text.

Watching Your Health

By Dr. Morris Fishbein

NE of the most dramatic of the performances In modern scientific medicine for the benefit of those who need aid is the blood transfusion. 80 greatly is the value of this method now recognized that rules and regulations are being developed in hospitals and in various communities to make cers tain that plenty of good blood will be available when

ever it is needed. There are certain facts about blood transfusion which most people do not know. For instance, the blood of a person who is the donor must be coms patible with that of the person who receives the blood, or the reactions which result may be more serious than the disease for which the blood transfusion is

given, : There are several different transfusion technics

that are used, all of which are useful. Many of them involve the use of multiple syringes by which the blood is drawn from the donor and then injected into the recipient. There are also machines which may be properly connected to the donor and to the recipient so that the blood goes almost directly from one into the other, Agencies have been set up in different parts of the country to supply donors. Out of 350 hospitals, 137 have their own lists of people always available for blood transfusion. Most large hospitals now have funds available for supplying blood without cost to people who are unable to pay for a blood transfusion, The cost of blood varies. In most instances if is around $5 for a hundred cubic centimeters, which would be about $50 a quart, In most cases the donation of blood in the quanures required is not harmful to the person who gives

——

v . ss - re WEDNESDAY, MAY 11, 1038" :