Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 14 May 1938 — Page 10

PAGE 10

The Indianapolis Times

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

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RY Riley 5551

Give Light and the People Will Finda Their Own Way SATURDAY, MAY 14, 1938

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

THEORIES AND THE SLUMP (CHAIRMAN ECCLES of the Federal Reserve Board yesterday told a bankers’ convention in Atlantic City that Mr. Roosevelt's new $4,512,000,000 relief and pump-priming enterprise is “modest” in view of the gravity of the economic crisis. In explaining how we happened to get into this slump, Mr. Eccles stressed two things—that the pump was primed a little too fast in 1936 by payment of the soldiers’ bonus, and that buying power was siphoned off a little too fast in 1937 through collection of $1,000,000,000 in social security taxes. Mr. Eccles is a great student of curves and charts and he can draw a picture or evolve a cold mathematical formula to illustrate almost any argument. But somehow he is not so good at getting the human equation into his calculations.

We recall that in 1932 and 1933 Mr. Eccles was one of the first and most persuasive exponents of the theory that economic peaks and valleys could be leveled off by heavy Government borrowings and spehdings in hard times and by stiff Government taxation and retrenchment in good times. We recall also that early in 1937, when business was moving along at a merry clip, Mr. Eccles decided that the depression, as such, was about whipped, and that the big problem coming before the country was how to control the recovery to keep it from getting out of hand and turning into another boom and bust. True to his theory, Mr. Eccles thereupon announced that the time had come to start taxing the profits and incomes which recovery had brought, balance the budget, stop increasing and start decreasing the public debt, and thereby get the expiring depression paid for before another one overtook the country. And right there Mr. Eccles’ immutable laws of economics ran smack up against the immovable exigencies of politics. Congressmen who had eagerly embraced his bigspending advice in the bad times were not at all enthusiastic for his big-taxing advice as times got better. That might lose votes. And pressure groups which had crowded hungrily to the public trough were loath to leave, and insisted they had a vested right to permanent feasting. The result was that Mr. Eccles’ borrow-and-spend-then-tax-and-pay-back idea remained a theory. It is highly possible, we think, that one big cause of the recession which followed was the fact, that a lot of businessmen and private investors began to realize that Mr. Eccles’ program wasn’t going to be carried out. They began to doubt that the Government ever was going to balance its budget and start paying its debt. And doubting that, they were unwilling to risk their money on building new enterprises or expanding old ones. So the recovery turned into a bust before it had time to become a boom. Perhaps we are as guilty here of oversimplification as Mr. Eccles was in ascribing this slump to poor timing on the bonus and social security taxes. But inasmuch as the amount of private capital lying idle—which could have gone to work but hasn't, for iack of confidence—is many times larger than the bonus and the social security taxes, we think at least we have made a point.

“OUR FIRST SOLICITUDE”

Y a vote of 17 to 1, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee yesterday shelved the Nye resolution to lift the embargo on arms shipment to Spain. The committee is to be congratulated, both for the promptness with which it acted and for the decision itself. To have acted otherwise would have tended to reverse American policy in the middle of a tricky war in order to commit a violation of the whole spirit of neutrality. The Spanish imbroglio has proved to be one of the most dangerous the world has seen in many a day. Again and again it has come close to spreading over the rest of Europe. Nor is the peril over. “We do not know what lies ahead in the Spanish situation,” Secretary of State Hull warned in his memorandum to the committee. Hence “any reversal of our policy of strict noninterference . . . would offer a real possibility of complications.” That is expressing it mildly. To facilitate arms for one side as against the other at this stage would be to court grave danger. Should we do that, and should the war then become general, we would be sucked in on the side we happened to be helping. To try to jump back to neutral ground afterward would not only be cowardly and unworthy, but, in practice, virtually impossible. Secretary Hull, too, deserves high praise. Not since the World War has a Secretary of State been subjected to so many pressure groups as he has been on this issue in recent months. But through it all he has maintained his traditional calm. His recommendations to the committee were a model of brevity and statesmanship. “Our first solicitude,” he observed, “should be the peace and welfare of this country.” Which is something that very much needed to be said. Most of us are for neutrality until our own ox is gored. Then we want intervention.

THE AGE OF BEAUTY ANAGERS of the Atlantic City Beauty Contest have ruled that future seekers for the title of “Miss. America” must be at least 18 years old. Does this mean that no American girl becomes beautiful until she is 18? No, for last year’s winner was Bette Cooper, who was 17. And that, it seems, was the trouble. Miss Cooper, immediately after being crowned by King Neptune, took her prizes and went home to Hackettstown, N. J., instead of remaining on display as a Boardwalk attraction. Henceforth, the management insists, all “Misses America” must be of legal age to sign contracts to which they can be held by law. Well, all we can say is that the management is running a risk. First thing it knows, people will begin to suspect that the purpose of the great Beauty Contest is not to find the country’s prettiest girl but to draw crowds to Atlantic City.

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Washington By Raymond Clapper

Roosevelt Applies the Pressure of

National-Defense Needs to Induce |

Utilities.

ASHINGTON, May 14—Since before he was elected in 1932, President Roosevelt has tried in many ways to induce utilities to shake loose and expand. He has scolded. He has applied pressure by telling about operating plants that wanted to expand, but were held back by their financial holding-company overlords in New York. A few times he has set out the money jar and tried coaxing. Throughout all of this, utilities, pressed by high taxes, fearful of Government policies, uncertain of the future, held back. Now Mr. Roosevelt is applying the pressure of national-defense needs, putting the case for expansion upon patriotic grounds. HB? is setting out to build a case which will show that the utilities, by failure to expand, have left the country inadequately supplied with the electric power that would be needed in wartime. The President has ordered a joint investigation by the War Department and the Federal Power Commission. The initiative came from the War Department, which for some time has felt that electric power capacity was dangerously inadequate in view of the industrial mobilization plans which would require the country to go into full war production overnight. Mr, Roosevelt apparently sees a chance in this situation to kill two birds with one stone—to overcome this inadequacy in our national defense equipment and at the same time to induce utility expansion which would give much-needed recovery aid to heavy industries. = ” = NE condition he is striking at is the shortage of electric generating capacity. Three years ago the Federal Power Commission reported that in certain areas electric power capacity was not adequate for a war emergency. Because of huge Government projects the South and Far West were in good shape, but the vital Eastern industrial section was short on power. In addition many plants were obsolete and needed to be replaced. Although consumption of power: has grown throughout this period, except for a drop of some 10 per cent in the last few months, utilities have expanded but slightly. Generators normally held for emergencies have been used for regular output. Last November, in some centers, reserves capacity was dangerously low. Had not the depression intervened, the December peak would have found certain sections using all of their reserve facilities with no margin of safety.

Expansion of Electric

& 4 QUALLY dangerous, in the War Department's view, is the lack of adequate interconnecting lines; that is, high-tension connections between different communities... In wartime, destruction of an electric power plant in a locality which had no outside power sources would paralyze industry there. The War Department is especially interested in rapid development of high-tension power connections between all centers where war materials are produced. The survey has’ just begun and private utilities have not been invitéd to participate as yet but they will be asked to sit in. What will be done is uncertain but probably the Government will, on national defense grounds, feel justified in offering low-interest-rate financing for needed developments. It is possible that the Government itself will construct interccnnecting lines as a national defense measure. It is bound to unless the private utilities

move in promptly themselves.

Business By John T. Flynn

The Government Has to Recognize

That Unemployment Is Permanent.

EW YORK, May 14—A wave of criticism has broken out against the policy of pump-priming to bring recovery. It brings up the whole question of the theory behind Government spending. Government spending involves two problems. One is how much and in what manner the Government shall spend money. The other is where the money is to come from. It may be gotten by taxes or by borrowing. The economic consequences will be different according to the source of the.money that is spent, But both these questions can be answered only after we have adopted a definite theory to govern the spending. One theory, of course, is the spending of money merely to take care of the unemployed—to keep people from want. Another theory is to prime the pump. Of course the present Government has adopted both theories. It has hoped that pump-priming would start investment funds floating out of private wells. But you do not pour a well full of water into a pump to get some water out of the well. The other theory is the spending of money to keep back want from the unemployed. Had the Government stuck to this principle of aiding the unemployed it might have spent half as much as it has, or even less than that. Taxes Must Be the Source But even this theory is not a sound one, as the Government has applied it. It has operated as if unemployment were a passing evil which would sooner or later come to an end. The sound course to take is to recognize that unemployment is permanent. This does not mean that unemployment may always be as high as 10 million. But it will always run into the millions. The only thing the Government can do against this is (1) to permit all persons who lose their jobs to go through a brief waiting period on their own resources. That's the first line. (2) Give at least 20 weeks’ unemployment insurance. That is the second line. (3) Then provide work, But the work must be an organized employment system. The Government must recognize that it must be in types of business which private industry does not ordinarily invade. The wages must be the going rate for wages in other Government work, not union building trades rates. This is the third line. (4) The fourth line is relief for the inadequate who cannot obtain work in our existing system, But all this must be paid for out of money derived from taxes and not from borrowed funds. Which brings us to the worst of all theories of spending Gevernment money—to create inflation and raise prices. This should be banned under all circumstances.

’ ‘ ‘ A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

Moopuma fellows, these scientists. They are busy now contriving means to control the sex of unborn children. Gynecologists have announced that parents may soon be able to choose at will whether the infant they plan for will be a boy or a girl, If that day comes, man will have “passed another miracle,” so to speak. We can have our children when we like and order them just as we now choose automobiles for color and horsepower.

I hope I will not live to see the day. Without wish= Ing to take one iota of credit from the doctors, I wouldn't choose to live in a world where such magic was possible. We are regimented enough now without having our babies arrive as if they were merchandise from a mail-order house. Nature may be an old meanie, but her ways still seext best.

I remember so well when the Keyes quadruplets arrived at the little town of Hollis, Okla. Science not being so alert at the time, nobody expected anything more unusual than another child to add to the four already in the household. Imagine then the melodramatic effect of the event! Nature had sprung a surprise on us and how we did enjoy it! While planned economy may be necessary, when it comes to the baby crop I believe Nature should be allowed a few privileges. Besides, fancy how fine such a discovery would be for the dictators who could then send out orders for a new supply of boys every time their regiments started to dwindle,

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THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES Yessir—=Right by the Tail |—By Talburt

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The Hoosier Forum

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

DOGS SHOULD BE KEPT OFF STREETS, READER SAYS By. H. A. There are 12 dogs in our block and nine of them are running wild. The pedestrians here are in constant danger of being bitten by them. When they do bite someone the owner always says, “It's the first time.” I have spent several winters in St. Petersburg, Fla, and find it free from dogs running at large. The owners have to keep them on leashes or in their own yards. There is a couple on the North Side who has just moved into a new home and has gone to the great expense to put a fence around their home to keep the dogs from destroying the expensive shrubbery. Why can’t there be a law for owners to keep their dogs on their own premises, the sidewalks safe for people to walk on and beautiful yards free from fences? I am not a dog-hater, but I do think they should be kept at their own homes, ” ” » SCORES EFFORT TO OUST DOG POUND HEAD By G. P. B, To any and all lovers of dogs, and I am one of them, the action of the Safety Board in its effort to oust Dr. Conger from the control of the dog pound is an error, both from the humane standpoint in the proper handling, and the best interests of the party in power. A policeman has no business in charge of such a place. That was proved conclusively by the action of Chief Morrissey when he put to death the number of dogs he did, regardless of whether they had been there the required number of days, their value, or their breed.

a »H = PRIVATE INITIATIVE HAS OBLIGATION, READER SAYS

By IL. RH. We need public control of private industry. The present business recession is forcing Congress to throw another five billion dollars on the fire, to keep the American economic machine from a complete breakdown. How long shall we tinker with relief and Federal pump-prim-ing? Will we ever come to our senses before we wreck the Federal credit? If private initiative and private capital cannot find a way to end the necessity for Treasury deficit spending, then it is high time that the Government stép in to direct initiative and capital investment so that further deficit spending will no longer be necessary. All this chatter about the grandeur of bygone days

(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.)

is nonsense, if we cannot today demonstrate that initiative and private control of industry will serve the nation's needs adequately. It was misdirected initiative and

misdirected capital investment that gave us the bogus prosperity of the 1920 decade. That fake prosperity came as the result of Government encouragement under Republican leadership. It ended in disaster in 1929, We must now realize that private property and private initiative have a definite obligation to perform, which cannot be evaded or ignored if they are to retain their privileges. They cannot be slackers and get away with it. If private capital and initiative will not employ the nation’s manpower and natural resources intelligently and adequately at once, then the nation will be obligated to plan the employment of both capital and labor on a scale that will be adequate.

” ” » SAYS IT'S UP TO PEOPLE TO END DEPRESSION By a Voice in the Crowd

Referring to Otto N. Moore's letter in the Forum, it seems that this gentleman would deny us a chance

SONNY

By ANNA E. YOUNG

They brought him home one day, A fluffy yellow ball Of wistful eyes and waggy tail— The folks across the hall.

He was only just a puppy, Yet with romping rollicking glee He always made a daily tryst And came to visit me,

I moved away and time went on And he found me—with a yelp; I thought that I would be consumed By that frenzied fluffy whelp!

DAILY THOUGHT

God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.—John 4:24.

We greater calamity can fall upon a nation than the loss of worship?—Carlyle.

to express opinions on the actions of elected officials. In the first place, officials are not elected unanimously and one of the rights that the Constitution protects is the right of minority opinion. Also it frequently happens that officials are elected on platforms that exist only until the election is over, It can be recalled that the New Deal, prior to the election of 1932, stood strongly on two planks; one was a solemn oath to cut Government costs 25 per cent, the other to repeal the 18th amendment. Anyone who has seen previous depressions and natural recovery knows that there is much about present day politics that can be questioned, We as Americans still have a right to question actions that relate to our tax money, our liberty and the future of our children, When 130 million people believe that one man, or one family, or one group of politicians can cure our depression, then 130 million people are being fooled. We are going to get over our depression by every individual curing his own depression by honest effort at self-betterment and not by hanging on someone else. It took more than 10 years to cause the depression and it may take more than 10 years to get out of it, but what of it? It's our depression and our job to see it through. We got into this thing by kidding ourselves on our paper profits and we won't get out of it by kidding ourselves into believing that the New Deal has magic rabbits in the hat, nor even that the New Deal is new. We are still in the 1929 depression. We let the politicians borrow some money—22 billions—they bought us some pop and peanuts, and now we are just about where we were except that we still have to pay for the pop and the peanuts, and we are still asleep. ¥ ¥ CLAIMS POLICEMEN SLEPT ON ELECTION DAY By H. C. M., Would you please print this letter so Mike Morrissey can see where his big bad policemen spend their time. It was printed in the paper that there would be no school protection by the police election day because they were needed at the polls. I was driving through Garfield Park election afternoon about 5 p. m1. and saw a motorcycle parked behind a squad car. Both doors of the squad car were open and four policemen were asleep in it. A person had to drive past the center of the road to keep from hitting the open doors. I would like to know if the police were on 24-hour shifts and could

not sleep at home?

{= 12 JOKES (ONE OF WHICH 16 POINTLESS) ARE SUBMITTED To A GROUP, WILL THEY ALL AGREE ON WHICH 1© THE POINTLESS ONE YES OR NO a

LET'S EXPLORE YOUR MIND

By DR. ALBERT EDWARD WIGGAM

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IN THE STUDY of sense of humor ‘by Louise Omwake, mentioned the other day, she submitted 12 jokes to 400 students for them to rank on their degree of funniness. One of them was pointless—that is, one of the jokes. Not a single student saw the point of ®

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all the jokes, although one-fourth had rated themselves as being “very

superior” in sense of humor. Even this one-fourth did not agree at all on which was the funniest and which the least funny joke and only 133 of the 400 discovered which was the pointless joke. Some thought

it the funniest one, and every joke in the list was marked as the pointless one by somebody! I'd say that was the funniest joke of all. Just try this out—it makes a fine game for a party. » ” ”

FOR GOODNESS’ SAKE don't let me encourage elopements, but Dr. Paul Popenoe presents a study of 738 marriages that could be classified as ‘“‘elopements”—meaning “runaway marriages,” “sudden, impulsive weddings” and the like. Well, 356 (48 per cent) (a surprising number) turned out happily, 66 (9 per cent) doubtful, and 316 (43 per cent) unhappily. Probably most couples try to make their marriages a success if they can—no matter how it started.

YES. Dr. W. H. Thompson, Municipal University of Omaha, has made a study of the intelligence test scores of the freshman classes of 188 colleges with 385,153 students. Of these, 157 colleges showed definitely “igher intelligence scores, 29 showed no variation and only two showed a loss. Dr. Thompson sug= gests various possible causes of this upward swing, namely, that the tests are easier--which seems un-likely-—or that it is the abler famiplies who still have money enough to send children to college, or that the lower grade high school gradu-

ateg are not attending.

Gen. Johnson Says—

Your Columnist Quickly Discovers

That Knoxville, Tenn. Is Not a Healthy Place to Criticize TVA.

NOXVILLE, Tenn, May 14.—People in other parts of the country don't cheer very loudly for TVA. They see it as a forced contribution from the whole country to make a paradise of a particular favored part. The controversy over the yardstick theory has left it in considerable doubt. But here, within the TVA area itself, the sentiment is naturally quite other wise. I do not refer merely to the quite understandable willingness of a favored area to be favored. I mean a sincere conviction of people who are not particularly benefited and who are accustomed to view the eco nomic, social and political aspects of such a project impersonally. To the argument about the Federal Government so lavishly favoring this particular area, their answer is that Federal tariffs have literally kept it in the dog house to the advantage of Northern industry and that freight rates discriminating against the South have added to their burden in favor of other areas. Those are facts, however difficult it is to go from these facts to the conclusion that Western farmers and Northern workers ought to pay for remaking Tennessee. A better way would seem to be to remove freight discrimination and alter the tariff, » n ” O the criticism that TVA is no true yardstick to gauge a proper rate for electric energy privately generated elsewhere, because the cost of TVA elec tricity does not include the actual costs of the facile ities to produce it and an equal burden of taxation, the only answer I got was: “How else can the exe tortionate costs of artificially inflated values in private companies be forced down?” That answer seems to me the fuzziest of all. The answer seems to be: “Why not move against those un« doubted abuses by Federal legislation? Why at tree mendous expense, do we have to stage a colossal, fake demonstration, that really doesn't reduce the extore tions elsewhere at all? Why don't we move directly against those abuses on a definite clear-cut process of immediate attack?” I have heard no satisfactory answer to that from any TVA enthusiast.

» ” ” NOXVILLE, is not a very healthy place in which to criticize TVA and when, in answer to a ques tion from an audience, I did make some of the crite icisms just discussed, the Knoxville paper that carries my column ran assertions that I believe everything Roosevelt has done since 1936 is a racket, that we need to take business back te the good old days of Coolidge and Hoover and destroy Cordell Hull's reciprocal trade agreements, Of course, most of that simply is not true. Some= body may have fought business abuses harder than I did in NRA or tried to get further away from the good old days of Coolidge and Hoover or more consistently supported Cordell Hull--but what's the use? Try to take a bone away from your own collie and you will get at least a growl if not a snap in the arm. Itisn't good sense for an independent commentator to air independent opinions in a hostile camp, but I am go ing to go right on doing it or shut up shop,

It Seems to Me By Heywood Broun

Both Comedy and Tragedy Suffer When Pulchritude Takes the Stage.

EW YORK, May 14—Two of the younger Broad way dramatic critics are engaged in a publie controversy, It is an issue which has been debated many times, and yet never settled wholly to eVerye body's satisfaction. Dick Watts says that it is “nice to have good-looking women appearing in plays from time to time.” John Mason Brown doubts it, Of course, the argument could be carried on more scientifically if the young men would define their terms more accurately. After all, a thing may be “nice” and still destructive to the best interests of the American drama. As a man who has known Mr, Watts for many years I feel certain that he has his eye fixed on the greater good.

He would not, I feel certain, sacrifice the dramatio unities for the smile of some pert baggage. And the. word is used advisedly, for beauty, save in the written phase and the painted drop, is excess baggage in the playhouse. There are countenances so fair that they tend to make the tired businessman forget the plot, and at times they even confuse the more captious critics. And yet, on the whole, pulchritude is less destruce tive to tragedy than to comedy. Sad plays can be carried on with a dead pan which may be regal or noble, or even regular, and no great harm is done, But nobody can sit so hard on a comic scene as a pretty woman. She knows her best expression, and she is prepared to fight it out along those lines if it takes all evening. And this is natural enough.

A Nevada Landscape

And so good comediennes are almost invariably drawn from that large group of girls who haven't quite made up their minds which is their best exe pression, if any. They are trying to find out. A face which may have been no more than a Nevada landscape can upon occasion blossom like

a Connecticut meadow when irrigated with a smile. And in the theater the alert critic and the self-reliant spectator should not want to have full, complete and finished beauty thrust at him from the minute the curtain goes up. The true lover of the drama will prefer to view in the first scene some countenance which leaves him in suspense. None of this mere theorizing. Rejane, who was by most accounts the greatest comedienne of her day, was certainly not a beauty. And here on our own stage I could name half a dozen American actresses who belong close to the top, and all six are decidedly plain, except when they are illumined by the spell of the theater, Of course, I could name them, but I am not going to be fool enough to do so.

Watching Your Health

By Dr. Morris Fishbein

ORTUNATELY, few of us are so introspective that we constantly analyze the way we feel and why. Very few of us, for example, ever feel really thirsty, Many of the forms of fluid are taken for the pleasure of the added ingredients rather than primarily for the fluid, But a man who is really thirsty knows it as the result of a series of sensations that cannot be overlooked. Dr. Cannon tells of an army officer who got lost in the “Llando Estacado” of Texas. The record of his sensations shows that on the third day food taken into the mouth could not be swallowed. The first stage in the sensation of thirst is a sense of dryness in the mouth and a craving that develops for fluids. The next stage is the feeling that the saliva and mucus in the mouth and throat is getting less in amount, thicker and sticky. A few drops. of fluid put on the tongue in this stage will give tremendous relief. In the last stages, however, as described by an American geologist who observed such cases in the American desert, the eye« lids seem to become stiff. The eyes are fixed in a stare in which the person sees nothing. The tongue seems to harden and cannot be moved. The physiologists who concern themselves with the mechanisms that control various human funce tions have given much study to the question of just where in the human body the sensation of thirst arises. Some believe that lessening of the saliva is of first importance, but others insist that this sensa« tion comes from the interior of the body,

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