Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 9 June 1938 — Page 15

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PACE, ii The Indianapolis Times (A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

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

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Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 1938

SAFETY ZONE DEATH TRAPS

N incomplete traffic reform here has backfired and increased the pedestrian hazards which it was designed to eliminate. We refer to the removal of so-called unprotected traffic’ safety zones and the failure to replace them with zones having permanent guards. The Safety Board last March, in ordering elimination of the yellow line unprotected zones at streetcar stops, acted on the urgent recommendation of Chief of Police Morrissey. He reported that “unguarded zones are death traps for pedestrians.” Records of the Police Accident Prevention Squad show that eight accidents resulting in injury to persons waiting in the unprotected zones occurred between Jan. 1 and March 8. Unfortunately, however, the Safety Board failed to complete the reform as recommended by Chief Morrissey. The plan called for the construction of safety zones with permanent guards on main streets where large numbers of persons must board streetcars or busses. Though the Safety Board approved this plan no action has been taken because, it is said, no funds are available for this purpose. As a result thousands of citizens every day are using the old, obliterated, unguarded safety zones at the risk of their lives and with the mistaken notion that they have some protection against auto traffic. The danger is increased by the failure of the Works Board to burn off the old yellow paint lines which in many cases continue to show through the black paint used by the police to obliterate the unsafe zones. This whole problem—involving as it does the daily safety of a large part of the population of the city—calls for immediate remedial attention by the City authorities.

MOTORISTS AND CHILDREN N early release from the books has been promised 42,000

Indianapolis elementary school pupils by Superintend-

ent DeWitt S. Morgan. Although classes originally were scheduled through tomorrow afternoon, pupils are to be dismissed at noon today and at 10 a. m. tomorrow for their vacation. With these 42.000 chiidren on the streets we urge motorists to be unusually careful today and tomorrow—and to continue this careful driving throughout the summer.

GOOD—BUT WATCH IT

E are glad to see hindsight functioning. The U. S. Senate three times refused to commit itself against politics in relief. But now 10 Democratic Senators are sponsoring an investigation. This afterthought, undoubtedly stimulated by the returns from Towa, may prove useful. It is especially significant because three of the 10—McAdoo, Tydings and Adams—recorded themselves as opposed to earlier efforts to prevent a superspoils system. The investigation should proceed. But it shouldn’t be a mere gesture, a political defense-mechanism. In view of the size of ‘the task and its bearing on the tremendous question of whether we are going to have government by the people or government by handout, we are suspicious about the $10,000 limit that is proposed for the investigation’s expense. That would hardly cover Kentucky. Since all this involves how billions are being parceled out, and since $10,000 in such an affair isn’t even a white chip, we believe the same open-handed-never-mind-the-cost : policy should apply to the investigation as applies to the thing being investigated. You can’t hurt an elephant with an airgun. Also, the personnel of the probing body will be vital. Three times the Senate has indicated that its heart isn’t in the subject.” And Mr. Roosevelt has said that he thinks it was proper for WPA Administrator Harry Hopkins to take sides in the Iowa primary. With that sort of sentiment in high places, a whitewash committee wouldn't be hard to select. So, while giving full credit to the afterthought, we intend to watch with critical eyes the actual execution thereof.

A SATISFACTORY START

ITH Congress rushing toward adjournment, and the rules of the Senate what they are, a few Southern Senators probably could filibuster the Wage-Hour Bill to death—if they dared. They will be wiser, however, to remember their party pledge and the undoubtedly overwhelming desire of the American people for legislation putting a floor under wages and a ceiling over hours, and to support the compromise which the House-Senate conference committee is working out. The compromise would write into law immediately the proposition that $11 a week is not too high a wage for American industry to pay, North, South, East or West. It would do that by establishing a flat, nation-wide minimum of 25 cents an hour for workers in interstate industries, that minimum to be increased to 30 cents after one year.

It would recognize the contention of many employers,

especially in the South, that a too rapid approach to the goal of a 40-cent minimum wage and a 40-hour maximum week might put them out of business or. cause large reductions in employment. It would establish industrial boards and an administrator, charged with the duty of adjusting wages upward from 30 cents to 40 during the next five years. A law along those lines may not be perfect, but it will be very much better than no Wage-Hour Law at all. The biggest danger is in the new bureaucracy which starts functioning after two years—but it need not become permanent. The vital thing is to declare at once by statute that anyone in interstate industry anywhere in the United States who is willing to put up 44 hours of labor a week

is entitled to not less than $11 in refurn,

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler

Perhaps the President Hasn't the Power to Do Anything to Hague, But at Least He Can Say Something.

EW YORK, June 9.—This is the day I eat a

platter of crow. = Frank Hague, the Mayor of Jersey City, is as ruthless as Huey Long was at his worst, and the politicians who serve him in northern New Jersey are the same kind who performed for Long in Louisiana. Knowing that many of the so-called invaders of Jersey City are New York Communists who would assert their constitutional rights only to gain the power to suppress the rights of others, I have given aid and comfort to Hague. I have known him as a political figure for years and have met him a couple of times, and always, until now, regarded him as a familiar type of “dese,” “dose” and “dem” local American political boss. The graft in Jersey City is about the same, in proportion, as that in Louisiana and in Pendergast’s Kansas City. That, however, is not a matter of national concern, nor did it seem to me unreasonable that he should officially forbid speeches and demonstrations which would block traffic and might cause riots in the principal square of the town.

= 2 = OREOVER, his pressure on local property owners to prevent Communists and other Reds from hir-

ing halls in which to hold meetings seemed to be in line with the boycotts and secondary picketing by which some of his enemies punish those who oppose

them. I think this is dangerous practice, and unfair if not illegal, but it seemed inconsistent of Hague's opponents to protest when struck with their own whip. But when Hague turns out the National Guard to march in a dictator’s parade which blocks traffic in the very same public square that he was so careful to keep clear of other blockades he is a worse menace than Stalin's men. It is the custom of some Communists in countries where they see distress reach a certain point to proselyte in the Army and the police force, and they doubtless intend to try that here if they have not done so already. But Hague, like Huey on many occasions in Louisiana, has taken over the troops, 700 of whom marched under arms behind Brig. Gen. William A. Higgins, who acted as grand marshal. Every Mayor is at least titular commander of the local police, and not many Mayors require their cops to keep their tempers when Communists kick them and rip their clothes. = tJ LJ

UT Hague has now assumed command of the soldiers of the National Guard to serve as his personal army. It is a dangerous temptation to a badly balanced politician. By what right, I wonder, were the soldiers ordered out with their equipment, which is Government property, to make a demonstration of armed force for a local Hitler? President Roosevelt has been asked whether, as Commander-in-Chief, he agrees to Hague’s misuse of the armed forces. I don’t know the law. Maybe the President can’t do anything to Hague, but at least he can say something. This man has gone haywire.

He is so thick and clumsy that he had to go completely over to fascism to out-scuffle a few Stalinites.

Business By John T. Flynn

The SEC Offers a Pattern Other New Deal Agencies Might Follow.

EW YORK, June 9.—Of all the New Deal reforms which stands up most stanchly and flourishes with increasing vigor is the SEC—the Securities and Exchange Commission. *

Many of the first spectacular, dervish-like adventures of the early days have been forgotten. The NRA went out in a blaze of disfavor. The AAA was killed by the Supreme Court. The Communications Commission faces investigation. Even the NLRB faces, unjustly, a serious attack. The undistributed profits tax has been practically extinguished.

But the SEC grows in power and favor even with the fraternity in Wall Street which it is called on to regulate. It is respected, which is more than can be said for any other New Deal commission. And it is beginning to attain some of its objectives. The ®&ld guard, the die-hards who helped to ruin the stock exchange in public estimation have been driven out of power and a new crowd—rebels among the brokers themselves—have assumed control. And this new regime is prepared to set out on an experiment of genuine co-operation with the commission. Oddly this has been achieved not by surrender, by continuous yielding by the commission, but by a policy of resoluteness. In the first three years of the commission, it had weak chairmen, one a former Wall Street operator, the other a former law professor. Neither did anything. Then William O. Douglas was named chairman. Douglas was in earnest. He believed Wall Street needed a washing and he meant to administer it. What is more he made Wall Street understand that. He was resolute, but intelligent and reasonable. And when the exchange realized that it began to be reasonable too, for after all it must live.

Die-Hards Defeated

Douglas’ attitude, in contrast to the general New Deal attitude of playing hot and cold, shifting from right to Teft, strengthened the hands of the group of intelligent and objective brokers in the exchange and enabled them to win a smashing victory over the diehards. This is a good pattern for other sectors of New Deal activity and other scctors of business. IL would be good policy for business. The exchange is an exaniple. There are things it needs. It is in real trouble. Its business is profoundly hit by the depression. The SEC can help it to recapture that business to which it is legitimately entitled. It can get that help by revealing a genuine desire to cooperate with the SEC. That desire it has manifested. The rest of the business world might do well to come out of its pout and look realistically at the problem which faces it.

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

HERE was a great lump in my throat. I felt sad enough to drip tears as the high school graduating class filed by for diplomas. As motley a crowd of youngsters as you could imagine, but set apart from the audience by that intangible quality of youth, so moving to those who have lost it. They were going forth into life—or so the speaker had told them. One could see that they were fortified for the journey by the admiration of proud relatives, the well ‘wishes of the community, and their own spirit. They had been prepared to meet success. They anticipated it, hoped, prayed, yearned for it, and probably each imagined he knew how to meet it. Yet how unprepared most of them were for defeat, I thought. For neither schoolteachers nor parents are quite willing to prepare children for that. Yet, in the face of world events, does not common sense tell us that success will come to few and defeat to many? Millions of this year’s graduates will meet disappointment and the destruction of their ambitions and hopes. In current opinion, success is seldom defined as the way of making a life—always as a way of making L a living. We have come to have too much respect for money and not enough respect for the ability to get along happily without large sums zf it. Yet all the truly great of the earth have done: so. They have succeeded even when they seemed to fail becnuse they took more joy in doing their work than in the material rewards

they expected to get from it, Surely to en

DON'T YOU THINK

T's.

BEGAN CONTRIBUTING A LITTLE SOMETHING TOWARD THE HOUSEHOLD EXPENSES ?

ABOUT TIME THEY

The Hoosier Forum

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

SCORES OPPOSITION TO WOMEN IN POLITICS By Feminist Your editorial on Postmistresses, pointing out that only 27 per cent of the appointees are women, and that this does not represent equality of opportunity between the sexes, is just another illustration of a wellknown fact. Your concluding statement provokes an answer, though: “Perhaps, also, time could be assisted if there were as many active politicians among women as there sre among men.” Well, why aren't there? The biggest reason, as every woman knows, is not the fact that she is too busy with a 24-hour job at home or that she lacks understanding of public problems. What prevents is man’s own opposition. It’s getting more subtle these days, but for that very reason it is harder to overcome. It seems to be partly compounded of prejudice, jealousy to maintain superiority, perhaps a shade of contempt for an “inferior” sex and a profound distrust of woman’s mental ability. Farley's Attitude Helped

Since Jim Farley told the Young Democrats to trust the women and

listen to their counsel, women have

been given a bit more recognition. But you'll notice they are made to do the hack work, with the glory going to the men as usual. Perhaps man’s opposition to women in politics is because women have a way of being fairer and more honest, and less greedy for personal power, for which reason they are less willing to make concessions to another’s ambition when ideals of public welfare are at stake. For all our American ideals of democracy and equal opportunity there is still much of Nazi despotism and “kinder, kirche, kuche” philosophy in the makeup of too many of our politicians. In a recent letter to me Mrs. Walter Ferguson summed it up very well when she said: “When I hear women and men say that it is possible for women to change the world I always wonder why they don’t explain how we can get around our first barrier—man’s opposition. Whatever we try to do, there it stands like a stone wall before us.” » u ”

SAYS LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR WILL BE ‘KICKED UPSTAIRS’ By Ironic It must be extremely edifying to the voters of Indiana not belonging to the state machine to know that Lieut, Gov. Schricker will definitely

(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.)

be nominated as Senator at the Democratic State Convention. Because the convention is so well controlled by the State House organization as to be “in the pocket” of its head, Governor Townsend. Consequently there is something funny about our pity for the Nazis who vote “ja” or “nein” but for us Hoosiers to think ourselves as in-dependent-minded, just how much does our democracy count for? Pity also the plight of the poor Lieutenant Governor, who because he “has ideas of his own” is to be “kicked upstairs” rather than be allowed to take a chance at the State House reins in 1940, Much &s he may want to serve out his term of office as he took oath to do, he must abandon his oath to the people if the state organization tells him he must. The New Deal clique has been crystallized with all others barred, but it seems to be a bit short of Charlie McCarthies who are at the same time able and available.

ou ” ” CLAIMS PRESSURE IS USED TO PERPETUATE NEW DEAL By E. F. Maddox : Your editorial “Mr. Hopkins Dives In” is a fine, courageous, liberal opinion. We, the common people, need a champion to save us from

LITTLE HOME CHURCH

By ANNA E. YOUNG We have churches of structure both noble and grand, Massive pillars of gold and silver they stand; Yet in all of this splendor I am plainly at sea, For my little home church is the one meant for me.

DAILY THOUGHT

Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. — I Corinthians 10:9.

EMPTATIONS are a file which rub off much of the rust of our self-confidence.—Fenelon.

coercion, regimentation and political slavery. Is the relief worker a political slave? Do the relief workers of Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky and the other states tremble when the President, Harry Hopkins and local state and county officials suggest which candidates they prefer for office. Any denial that both political and economic pressure is being freely used to perpetuate the New Deal dictatorship is hypocrisy. Gen. Johnson's remark that because businessmen had “bucked” the President, they would have to come to Mr. Roosevelt on their knees, is an example of New Deal tyranny and despotism. LJ ” » POET TELLS WHY HE FAILED TO MAKE BROADCAST By the One Who Was to Have Read It is gratifying to know that one of your readers appreciates poetry to the extent of listening to it when it is read over the radio, but I would correct Mr. Daniel Clancy's misunderstanding about my failure to read at the scheduled time. Along with other poets, I had gone that morning to Riley's home Greenfield, but had car trouble on returning and was forced to telephone the radio station from somewhere on Road 40 that I could not make it to the station in time to read. The newspaper discrepancy of which Mr. Clancy speaks had nothing to do with it. I read 42 minutes the next day, and hope Mr. Clancy was privileged to hear it.

» ” ” THROUGH WITH POLITICS, READER DECLARES By a Reader I just want to give my side of the story once. I'm one of those fools who worked 12 hours at a voting place, standing out in the hot sun.

About 6:30 or 7 a. m, some woman got out of a car and handed me a stack of cards and said, “Pass these and I'll see you tonight.” Well, I'm still looking for her to bring the $3 she owes me, Talk about your back-slapping big shots, that is how they treat you afier they are elected—"I don't know you.” I guess it’s an old story to all of you. This teaches me a lesson, so I'm hot going to mess around in politics any more, I've lost all interest in it, and I'm not going to vote any more for either party. So good luck to Otto Ray and Al Feeney, may they come out on top.

THE BEST authority in the world is Dr. Paul Popenoe, founder and director of the Institute of Family Relations in Los Angeles—where a very high percentage of married couples are at

_& tobe always wi

and enrich our world is better than | some time divorced. He says in

ga

— PLAYED DURING

K HELP a He Hie ATTEN YOUR OPINION to little things—the husband is careless and scatters his clothes over the house, the wife is untidy at breakfast, the husband comes home at night and wants to put his feet up and rest while the wife who has been shut in all day wants : and

LET'S EXPLORE YOUR MIND

By DR. ALBERT EDWARD WIGGAM

etc, ‘etc. Most husbands, he says, expect after marriage to “settle down” and “enjoy life” and their way of doing this is to neglect all the little attentions of courtship. He says this is sure to put the marriage on the rocks.

NO. A smie ought to come out of a face that is serious—

otherwise it is meaningless. I heard a psychologist recently read a highly technical paper and he smiled all through, Nobody understood why and it got on everyone's nerves. A smile means something only when it comes out of a serious -not necessarily a solemn—{face,

~ » ”

TWO NEW studies of this important subject are reported, cne by G. M. Tyndall, psychologist, entitled “Rhythm for the Restless,” in the Personnel Journal and one by some English psychologists in “Psychological Abstracts.” Both find that music is a great aid in workshops, especially where the jobs are the kind that require continuous repetition of the same movements. Phonograph records were used—the type of pieces determined by the mutual pleasure of the boss and the workers. The Jargest increase in output developed ‘when the music 76 minutes in the

| split. | state, is temporarily Democratic with its tongue in its

in |

a

YWuREPEY. TONE 9, 1038 Gen. Johnson Says—

With His Overwhelming Support, Why Does Roosevelt Permit This Interference in State Primaries?

WASHINGTON, June 9.-~The Benzine Board for the Eradication of Senatorial Vertebrates—or whoever it was that ordered Harry Hopkins to stick his neck out into the Iowa tall corn, showed consider ably less on the ball politically than Jim Farley, who had been similarly bum’s rushed with a somewhat similar result in Pennsylvania. As this column ree marked earlier, Tommy the Cork is a brilliant lawyer, but that doesn’t equip him to slap down the ears of

a brilliant politician like Jim. Nearly three weeks ago, even before Mr. Hopkins was ordered into error, and I believe before other com« ment, it was said here of what Mr. Corcoran was doing in Towa: “Mr. Farley never would have invited such a Agricultural Towa, a traditional Republican

cheek and only by virtue of Mr. Wallace's gentle rain of checks. Mr, ‘Corcoran may here turn in another Pennsylvania.” » " ”

THAT isn’t to say: “I told you so.” It is merely to suggest that-—notwithstanding Mr. Corcoran’s brilliance and hard work-steamrolling the Supreme Court, plus bulldozing the United States Senate or peopling it with echoes when added to the job of ‘oust ing the leader of a great party and running it himself ~is just too much of a job for any man single-handed. It spreads him too thin, Perhaps not much harm has been done to the third New Deal. If that lesson has been learned. But about that there seems to be grave doubt, The war in Ken« tucky will be worse. Apparently Mr. Hopkins used only his voice In Towa for Mr. Wearin. But, according to all reports, he is not using his voice but is using WPA money for Senator Barkley, who makes no bones about that. He made an impassioned speech in favor of it on the ground that patronage is used in every state. ” = 'd

IT would be smug hypocrisy for any politician to deny that. But if these gentlemen can’t see the difference between the customary use of the porkbarrel and political preferment and the diversion of public money, appropriated to feed the hungry and shelter and clothe the homeless, to force poor people by a threat of starvation to vote other than their convictions, they appear to have less humanity and morality than I know they possess. This campaign has only started, but it shows signs of being the bitterest and most degrading of our times. And why? In the name of sanity, why? This is no interparty strife. Mr. Roosevelt has the overwhelming support of both Congress and the country. Any danger he may have of disappointment, much less of defeat, can come only through fratricidal feuds among his own followers, This literal self-disembowelment of a great liberal party is a threat to all the social progress it has made, The truth is even more astounding. This isn’t even a fight within the party as such. It is an ate tempt to capture the party, reverse its principles, and control it dictatorially by a very small group of headlong and ambitious men, many of whom do not even belong te the party. What party they do belong to would be difficult to discern from their past political records coupled with their present pronouncements and attitudes.

It Seems to Me

By Heywood Broun

Those Who Say the Old Deal Wasn't So Bad Didn't Stand in Breadlines.

EW YORK, June 9.--Those recollections which are beyond endurance we lay away in lavender, And by some strange quirk we are proud of such devious mental processes and sing blithely of “mem= ories which bless and burn.” Nothing else can explain the rising school of thought which begins to contend that maybe the Old Deal was not so bad, after all. To be sure, this is not said much by the men who stood on the myriad breadlines during the winters of our deepest discontent, Nor have I vet heard this gospel preached by any of the raggedy men of the Bonus Army who were scattered by the guns and gas of General Douglas McArthur's Expeditionary Forces. The men who were attacked had committed no crime save that of being poor and miserable and homeless. The action occurred under the Administration of Herbert Hoover in the summer of 1932, at the very peak of the Old Deal. Reporters say that President Hoover did not proe ceed under his own steam but was actuated by the advice of another Cabinet member who felt it would be a shrewd stroke to convince the country that the nation was on the eve of revolution. And, indeed, the country was in very little need of convincing.

‘Wall Street, Too, Was Blue

In the stréets of the City of Detroit thousands and thousands of men stood in sullen silence as the President of the United States drove by. These were the unemployed whose necessities were being taken care of by private charity, But the black mood was not limited to the jobless. One may hear mournful talk from captains of industry today, but it cannot match the dire predictions uttered by these same men in the autumn of 1932. I remember a chat I had with a Wall Street man in that same year. “There is no hope,” he said. “Nothing can be done, Civiliza« tion as we have known it is gone forever.” Two years later he was cursing out Roosevelt and saying that business was quite competent to take care of itself if only the Government would cease to ine terfere. And even in the days of the gold rush, be fore the great awakening, boom times left many comsmunities untouched. A big day in the market meant nothing to the sharecropper. The unskilled worker was not in the balloon when everything was going to 300, I have heard critics say that under the New Deal we have lost our sense of moral values, But just how sensitive were our noses in the Old Deal days when there was cynical administration for every sharp fellow who could rear a house of cards and get the public in before the speculation tumbled? No one man should be singled out as the villain, The fault was systemic. But America was sick in body and

mind.

Watching Your Health

By Dr. Morris Fishbein

NE HUNDRED years ago, doctors were greatly concerned with the deaths of young children and with the epidemic diseases which destroyed life among the young. The diseases which destroy man today for the most part are conditions affecting the heart and the blood vessels, Again and again I have warned in these columns against the dangers of coronary thrombosis, or block ing of the blood vessels which provide the muscle of the heart with nutrition. The condition attacks people most often in the fifties. Perhaps, up to this time, the human being is able to get along without enough rest, but after the period of maturity, when the body begins to break down, it does not have the possibility of repair that exists in the younger ages. Most typical of the changes which occur in the body are those related to the blood pressure, There is one type of high blood pressure which is called essential hypertension. The name, as used by physicians, indicates that its exact cause is not known. This condition is slow in its development and may persist for many years in an exceedingly mild form. Eventually, however, effects of the long continued pressure begin to appear. Such symptoms as headache, transient attacks of dizziness, inability to sleep, palpitation of the heart, easy exhaustion, digestive disturbances, and vague aches and pains occur, There are a good many steps that may be taken by the average person to keep his blood pressure fairly low. The chief one is, of course, relief of nervous and emotional strain. N The diet should be fairly light, simply because an excess of food places an added burden on the organs and tissues. Moderation is the keynote In this condition above