Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 1 August 1938 — Page 10

AGE, 10 _

The Indicmmpolis Tir imes (A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

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

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MONDAY, AUGUST 1, 1938

SEASONAL RELIEF ONLY.

AY what you will against summer, this season deserves some credit. City Building Commissioner George H. Popp reports that a total of 443.30 tons of soot fell on In- ~ dianapolis last month, which was 110 ns less than the fall in May. : : This decrease, says Mr. Popp, if seasonal. In other words, the summertime, which brings fewer fires and less smoke, was solely responsible for the decline. Now we wonder just how much greater this decrease would have been had the City really enforced its antismoke ordinance during June.

HAGUE’S SENATOR . OHN MILTON of New Jersey was appointed to the U. S. Senate last year because Mayor Frank Hague wanted him appointed. » - Mr. Milton has been Mayor Hague’s friend, attorney, financial agent and political adviser for many years, a iid man in the dictatorship of Jersey City. Mayor Hague now wants Mr. Milton to be the Damo cratic nominee for election to the Senate in November. The Mayor-says Mr. Milton is being urged &éo run by New Deal‘ers—for instance, by Senator Joe Guffey of Pennsylvania —and that the New Deal will be for Milton. How can that be? . In his fireside talk last June 24, President Roosevelt said: : : “And I am concerned about the attitude of a candidate or his sponsors with respect to the right of American citizens to assemble peaceably and to express publicly their views and opinions on important social and economic issues. There can be no constitutional democracy in any community which denies to the individual his freedom to speak and worship as he wishes. The American people will not be deceived by anyone who attempts to suppress individual liberty under the pretense of patriotism.” If Mr. Roosevelt wasn’t referring to the denial of constitutional rights in Jersey City, if he wasn’t talking about Mayor Hague and Hague's candidate for the Senate —then, pray, about what and whom was Mr. Roosevelt speaking ? :

CURTIS H. ROTTGER CURTIS H. ROTTGER, retired Indiana Bell Telephone Co. president who died yesterday, achieved prominence through his ability and initiative. Recognized as one of the leading figures in the communications business, he started his career as a night operator. He came to Indian_apolis in-1920 as vice president of Indiana Bell after serving in various executive positions. A ear later he was appointed president. Although his first interest was the telephone industry, Mr: Rottger took an active part in local civic affairs. He served. as director of the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce, as director and president of the Better Business Bureau and was active in several clubs. The city has lost an ‘able businessman and an’ out- . standing citizen.

TVA’S PRECIOUS PHOSPHATES “HE TVA paid $680,000 for 550 acres of phosphate lands in Tennessee which the seller a short time before had "bought for $125,000.

And TVA Chairman Harcourt Morgan testified before °

the Senate Investigating Committee that at the time the TVA board approved the purchase from the International Agricultural Corp. he was not aware that the corporation was turning such a handsome profit. But he would have approved the deal anyway, Chairman Morgan said, because “the purchase of phosphates Js a transaction in tons of minerals and not acres of land,” because TVA’s chief chemical engineer recommended the purchase, and because the deposits were needed in the -TVA’s fertilizer program. Assuming that the phosphate lands are worth all TVA paid, still it seems altogether probable that the TVA might have made a better bargain if it had shopped around a little. ~ Phosphate deposits, we understand, are rather widespread in that region, and even if this particular deposit was the most desirable, it seems not unlikely that the price might have been whittled down a little, if the TVA board had just taken the customary let-the-buyer-beware caution of finding out what the “prudent investment” value had been before the TVA entered the market as a well-heeled bidder. Anyhow, there was no reason for making a hurried ; purchase. President Roosevelt, who has taken quite an interest ‘ in conservatjon of phosphates and is himself something of

-an authority on the subject, sent a message to the last Con-'

_ gress saying that the country possesses known deposits of _ that soil-enriching substance sufficient to last 1100 years, most of these deposits being owned by the Government. We think the Senate Committee should learn more - about how the International Agricultural Corp. became an early beneficiary of the TVA’s more abundant life.

BILL GREEN’S POLITICS

: WILLIAM GREEN'S gleeful comment on the defeat of Rep. Maury Maverick of Texas is a strange performance. Maury Maverick, by. all standards we know to apply, has been the most forceful and effective champion of organized labor the South ever sent to Congress. Labor's right to organize and bargain collectively, labor’s right to a decent ‘minimum wage, the right of workingmen to exercise the civil liberties which are freely accorded to wealthier citizens -—all these rights have been forwarded by Rep. Maverick’s fearless championship. He has fought knowing he would. not receive the demagog’s reward of votes, for labor unions have practically no polifical strength in his Texas district. He has fought because of his sincere belief in unionism’s social and economic purposes. Yet Mr. Green recommended his delont’. And Mr. Green gloated when that defeat was accomplished. And ‘the reason he assigned for his Tejoicing, was that Rep. ’ Maverick had been indorsed by the { y ;

In Washington By Rodney Dutcher Crowd at La Follette Committee

Hearing Has Hard Time Spotting |

Labor Spies Before They Testify.

yASHINGTON, Aug. tee, through ‘Which labor spies have been in-

troduced to the public for the first time, dug up a

couple the other day and put them on the stand. . Scanning th committee room crowd, you oan%: spot spies from the rest.

Chairman La Follette, white-ciad, sunburned, be-_ .spectacled snd wearing in lapel the circled cross emblem of the new La Follétte ‘political party, looks.

over the crowd. Then he calls Harold F, Vargo, who promptly ad-

-mits such aliases as Ira Albert and Richard Brooks. Yes, indeed, he was employed at the Republic

plant in Youngstown in 1936-37 as Ira Albert, joined

the union and organized workers. The boys elected a

him financial secretary and he kept frack of all records and dues for a lodge of 1800 to 1900 members, Kept tHe records at home for safety. Just before the big strike his resignation was asked —apparently, said he, because he wasn’t “commu nistically inclined.” At this point only a few in the hearing room—including Vargo—know he’s a spy. ’ 8 ” 2 1: FOLLETTE calls other leaders of the union lodge. Charlie Fagan, boyish-faced, swarthy Irishman who was fired before the strike, and Ed Valesky, soft-voiced, wavy-haired Pole, once a steel inspector, and others. Yes, rumors had come that someone was “turning in” names of new union members, wha were being fired in different parts of the plant. Albert alone had the names of duespayers. Albert, without suffering, spent much time away from work at meetings, at union headquarters. He ‘was

red-baiting. (described as a company antiunion tactic).

Albert would say, referring to Republic cops, “Let's go up and clean 'em out.” Explained Fagan: “A good union man never Says that . . . We took steps to eliminate this gentl@nan.” It took a week to get the union safe from Albert. : * Suddenly La Follette pops an affidavit from the lady with whom Vargo previously lived in Buffalo. They were “getting along very well” when: Varga became discontented with $25 a week, became a Republic guard and went to Youngstown. “That's what I told her,” snorted Vargo, denying Republic employment in Buffalo, but admitting under questioning he had gone to drive a cab during a Cleyeland taxi strike. fe 8 - ® ITHOUT warfting, La Follette demanded to know all strikebreaking and undercover jobs on which Vargo had worked. Vargo, dropping a pose of innocence, revealed a series. . At this point Joseph Vamos, a swaggering, self-contained fellow not quite as smooth, was called to say he had gone to Youngstown with Vargo and had worked with him on previous jobs. .... Vargo said he had “worked on the picket line” after the strike began. He had been on both salary and expense account, merely telephoning Butler for cash when he needed it. The last payment was $300. Then he was sent to work for Republic in Buffalo.

Business By John T. Flynn

+ Price-Fixing Mania Spreads Under Influence of Private Businessmen.

EW YORK, Aug. 1.—New Jersey, famous as the battle ground where, in the old NRA days, a little tailor was hoisted into jail for pressing a pair of pants at less than the trade price, now has another price-fixing law and a victim.

New Jersey has, I believe, jts version of those two laws which have spread around the states so generally since the NRA days and the furor for price control. One, of course, is the price-maintenance law and the other is the law intended to hit at socalled loss leaders—to. prevent chain stores and popu-lar-price markets from underselling their smaller competitors. Now a -grocer in Hackensack has been hailed into court charged with violating one or both of these laws—the fair trade practice laws of the state. Fair trade practice laws, of course, are always enacted in the interest of the consumers. In some mysterious way it is supposed to be in the interest of the consumers to keep prices up. In this particular case the grocer under charges says he is a little puzzled to know where the consumer comes in. He asserts he can buy a bottle of Scotch for $2.19 and that under the law he is compelled - to seli it for $3.29. That makes a profit of more than 50 per cent. The law compels him to make a 50 per cent profit on this transaction. But he says he doesn’t want to make 50 per cent profit. He insists he cannot understand why the state should undertake to say he must make 50 per cent profit and that, above all things, he cannot find out how this is in the interest of the consumer.

Alert Dealer Gains Nothing

One of these laws prohibits him or any other merchant from selling an article below cost. What is cost? On the, fifth of the month, let us say, he buys a shipment “of -goods at a given price. On the seventh the price goes up. The cost of the goods on which he is supposed to figure his selling price is the cost over a 30-day period. The fact that an alert merchant buys at the right time and gets a low price will mean nothing to his customers. He must charge them a price based on what he would have paid if he had had his eyes a little less open. While this is being written the typewriter companies are planning to get together under a_ similar law in New York to fix the, price of typewriters. The mania for price fixing, which is anotlier way of saying price boosting, spreads. And this is being done, not by the Government,” but by private businessmen who are always talking about Govern-

ment interference in business.

A Woman's Viewpoint

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

O men of prominence ever realize, I wonder, what “a powerful social force they are, and how greatly they influence the characters of the young. When the daredevil Corrigan, after his wild plane trip to Ireland, explained that he had always worshiped Charles A. Lindbergh, we saw tife lure that had beckoned him to a mighty adventure. Probably the thought of his hero held Corrigan through days and nights of doubt, because he knew well that the same doubts had also been suffered by the man in whose footsteps he wanted to travel. He wouldn't give up, because ‘the person he most admired had refused to give'up. And so, mounting his

rattletrap steed, he galloped the skyways, led by the

image of the one who had gone before.

Young men worship older men for what they are

—and not for what they have. I wish ous leaders would never forget that, for it seems to me very important. Boys pattern their behavior upon that of Individ-. uals who act, and not upon those who merely ace

1.—The La Follette commit

228 FIRST Six,

MONTHS OF 1938 AS gl

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

POET ENCOURAGED AFTER VERSE BATTLE By Virginia Potter Since I am included in the recent controversy on poetry, I might as well join in the battle. I am, however, at a loss to know: whether to feel flattered or flattened. Thanks for the nice things said about my attempt at poetry. Like the other crestfallen poets, I

a few people whom ong can satisfy. It has always been impossible for anyone to please everybody, But I do get a lot of fun out of trying and so I go on my merry way hoping some day I may learn by constructive criticism.

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CIVIC FEDERATION GROUP COMMENDS RAILWAY CO.

By Indianapolis Federation of Community Civic Clubs, Public Utilities Committee: ‘John F. White Harmon A. Campbell George Q. Bruce Charles H. Strouse Oscar F.. Smith C. C. Livingstone We have read with particular interest the newspaper accounts trelating to “Ceremonies marking the completion of the Indianapolis Rail-

. | ways’ modernization and rehabilita-

tion program and the dedication of the Indianapolis Railways shops, service and transportation buildings,” which took place July 18. The ceremonies incident to this dedication included a nepon luncheon attended by several hundred Indianapolis citizens, who were entertained by a series of congratulatory addresses, including the Governor of the State, a representative of the Mayor, and the president of the Chamber of Commerce, concluding with an interesting and illuminating review of the accomplishments of the company by Charles W. Chase, president of the company, not omitting the squeezing of $11,000,000 of water out of the capital structure. Mr. Chase, the board of directors, and the railway organization, have done a remarkable piece of work in rehabilitating the street railway system of this city, and Mr. Chase is to be commended for the generous praise he gave to all the factors entering into this accomplishment, in management and skill, not forgetting the manual workers’ useful contribution. But the most remarkable thing about these dedication ceremonies was the absence of any representative speaking for the patrons of the street railway system. In the final analysis it is these patrons that have made this rehdbilitation possible and on whom all future success

feel a mite better to know there are | 8 management with vision and un-

(Times readers are invited to express ‘their views <in these columns, religious con- : froversies excluded. Make your letter short, so all cen have a chance. Letters must be signed, but names will be withheld on request.)

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depends, after giving due credit to

derstanding. It is merely with a sense of the equities that the Indianapolis Federation of Community Civic Clubs calls attention to this failure to include this factor so vital to the success of the Indianapolis Railways. . Represents Patrons

The Federation, through its affili= ated neighborhood clubs in the residential sections of the city, is .distinctly representative of these patrons of streetcars and busses. The downtown office and retail store employees ‘and the factory workers must use this form of transportation going to and returning “home from their work. It is true that the federation is not a mere yes-man for the utilities, and advocates public ownership as a final solution of the utility problem. But it also recognizes the realities and the need of friendly co-operation in the development and the utilization of utility services however owned. Whatever dispute arises is not primarily with the operating companies, as such, but grows out of an antagonism to the financial Insullizing of utility properties. We believe the Indianapolis Railways is free from such manipulation. . It has borrowed money for rehabilitation . purposes from the public treasury, and. as an operst=

IN AUGUST By M. R. D. The grass lies sere and brown, The tall sweet: corn Is shining in the heat; The shocks wheat Rise amber in the light; And summer skies of blue Look down in glory true; All life transtigured in the sight Of golden summer August light.

DAILY THOUGHT

“The ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in: them: but the transgressors shall fall therein ~—Hosea 14:9.

PF you do what y you should not, you must bear what you would

not.—Franklin.

ing company is led by a wise management and is operated by a body

of - trained experts, efficient work-

ers, with courteous service employees. The federation is, therefore, happy in extending its congratulations on behalf of the patrons for these excellent accomplishments in promoting and - extending the city’s system of street railways to better serve the people of this city, and in particular wants to commend Mr. Chase for his vision and broadmindedness in carrying. out. Wis constructive plan. ” ” * - SAYS IT'S PROBLEM NOW TO DO THINGS LEISURELY

By a Reader It is a little bit late in the day to remark that the automobile is remaking American life. The change began a quarter of a century ago, and we are all used to it by now. But it is still ‘going on,

and every now and then some little thing is a forceful reminder of it. Two minor news items pointed it up lately. ‘One was a story .an-

nouncing the discontinuance of the} ferry boat service across the De- |

troit River, between Detroit and Windsor; the other, a story telling of the abandonment of service on a lengthy branch line of the New Haven Railroad in Massachusetts. Now these things are of no. importance to anybody except the people who will be ‘inconvenienced by tite change; there aren’t many of these people, and they will soon get used to the new order, and probably there isn’t much sense in dwelling on the matter. But such things do stick in the craw a little, just the same. The auto has been an immeasurable convenience—but by speeding up the pace of daily life it has made us more dependent on it than we might like to be. Which means that something leisurely is going out of life, We like speed, and we are getting it in steadily increasing qudntities; the only trouble is that the slower pace is becoming impossible for us. We

have to use speed whether we like

it or not. We'll live through it, of course, without much trouble. Bui we might live a trifle more pleasantly | if we could manage to save a little of the old way of doing things. It isn’t altogether a good thing to rely too much on any one of our machines. We are placing ourselves more and more at the mercy of the automobile. It is a priceless servant—but it may turn out to be

a rather exacting master.

cumulate. They can love those who go down to

glorious defeats, as generations of | boys, ‘have’ loved Robert E, Lee, :

In the story of aviation, the fact of Charles Lind-

bergh ‘will always be its most inspiring chapter. But Lindbergh justifies the worship he

high character and noble motives. Now, more than at any time in history, heroes. Yet it is hard to avoid 2 Sonciusion that many notable men So not paliz actions their v

has received. His | subsequent , behavior proves him to be a person of: |

boys need |

their | ¢ SRT

C " YS NOTED 1 | DiSeNeR

J THE SBLLI

LET'S EXPLORE YOUR MIND

By DR. ALBERT EDWARD WIGGAM

WOMEN

DAT) JT Fi%o BE

’

properly dressed-tar more important? When mere physical comfort becomes the sole aim of women’s clothes I'm going to: the South Seas.

i » » # . TIME AND AGAIN this old ~ notion that you can judge people’s character by their faces has been exploded by experiment and yet “character readers” still get money from a new bunch of suckers. |,

Recently two psychologists gave the

photographs of 10 men whose selling

ability was known—same good, some bad — to 50 men and 50 women

execu o Li b result tives. oT ous o tended

Says

Johnson

Ig True the Republicans Failed fo Aid Farmers, but the New Deal Has \ Mede No 'Glorious Achievement."

ETHANY BEACH, Del, Aug. 1~—Henry Wallace,

temporary chairman of - the Iowa "Democratic convention, said that the Republicans refused to do anything for the farmers in the years following the war, but that there had been six years of “genuinely. glorious achievement” for farmers by the Democrats. :

. Mr. Wallace is right in the first part of that states ment. The tepublicans took the farmers for granted for just. f years too long. It was their biggest blunder, During, the whole post-war period .of agricultural distress, . Democrats and Republicans battled for “equialit} for agriculture.” They took the first farm-relief bill through two enactments— and two vetoes. It was a long, bitter battle, in which

. those .of us who fought take great pride. But among

those veterans of the old wars was not. Mr. Wallace, 2 =z = : HE second part of Mr. Wallace's statement is not correct. As far as any fundamental solution of the farm problem is concerned there is no “glorious achievement.” Through artificial price manipulation, plus direct subsidy, farm prices have

been maintained on the domestic market above world levels. The:result has been to destroy a large part of the farm export market. The basic agricultural situation is far worse since Mr. Wallace took it over

. and began to mess it up.

The farm problem is a price problem and there is no solution except direct subsidy of domestic cone sumption without any of Mr. Wallace’s Fascist tinke

ering with the operation df every farm.

‘The Secretary seems bemused. He has advocated

' putting industry under exactly the dictatorial onee

man control that has been saddled on agriculture.

“He riow says that it was good that the “Federal debt

Soday was as large as; it is.” 8 =

18 argument is that, by taking over and paying for the functions of the states, cities and counties, the Federal Government kept them from spend ing that money and incurring that increased debt! He lumps Federal, local and private debt together and says that we are better off, because private debt has decreased, local public det has not increased and this justifies the vast increase in Federal debt. The decrease in private debt has been partly through bankruptcy and destruction of values and partly through scaring investment money out of productive enterprise. It is characteristic of the Secre= ta¥y that he can see no difference between Federal debt and local and private debt. The difference is this—-that the credit of the nation, the value of its money, its whole price structure, its strength in war and peace, the purchasing

power of every wage, salary, pension and income and

the security of every savings account and insurance policy depend on keeping Federal debt, deficits and spending within reasonable bounds. This is not true of either private debt or state or local public debt. There is nothing but danger in Mr. Wallace’s plan of shifting state and local powerg and obligations to one-man control in Washington. - -

It Seems to Me By Heywood | Broun

A Lardnér's Testimony. on Spanish War May Have Special Significance

EW YORK, Aug. l.—James Lardner, Ring's boy, has been wounded fighting for the Loyalist army on the River Ebro front. A bomb burst near his trench, and he was struck in the back by a fragment, but they sdy his wound is not serious. Nevertheless, I hope Jom he will be invalided back to his own country, for I think he may have much to say which will be useful to democratic Spain and democratic America. Many American writers much better known than young Lardner have come out for the cause of the Spanish Goverment, and quite a few have. seen some portion of the war. And yet I think that

‘Lardner’s testimony may have a special significance. \

In small part this is personal. I have not;seen James Lardner since he was one of four cliubby children who ‘all looked exactly alike. They lived in a big house in great] Neck across the lawn from the Swopes. It would interest me e enormously to know just how Ring would have reacted to Jim's enlistment with

ine Eb! I suppose everybody would have been

urprised if some soothsayer had pointed. to the

os kid playing Indian and said, “When he is 2¢

he will be wounded fighting fascism in Spain.”

Of course, the word “fascism” would have been

meaningless to us. But I think that in a way which is curiously remote Jim has ‘carried on the tradition of his father. Under an insulation of isolation and indifference Ring boiled with a passion against smug»

‘ness and hypocrisy and the hard heart of the world.

They Run Without Blinkers.

I hope Jim Lardner comes along and speaks his piece. In arguments about Spain one debater always attempts to disqualify the other by identifying him with some political, economic or religious group. But here is a brief biography of James Phillips Lardner, son of our great native American humorist:— He was educated at Andover and Harvard and joined the staff of the New York Herald Tribune, where he conducted a column on contract bridge. Later he became a war correspondent for the Euro. pean edition of the New York Herald Tribune, and “after three weeks as an observer he said, “I think

something has to be done by somebody. I've seen

the front, and I know what I'm going into. This is a fight that will have to be won sooner or later, and I'm in favor of doing it here and now.” You may agree or disagree with the decision at which Ring's son arrived, But nobody can justly say that he was put up to it by “subversive influences.” He saw with his own eyes, and he made his own choice. Ring and the rest of the Lardners always did run without blinkers.

Watching Your Health

By Dr. Morris Fishbein

IT is almost impossible for anyone to swim in a river, a lake, or a pool, without getting a certain amount of the water into the mouth. and swallowing it. If the water is grossly contaminated with the germs of ty-. phoid;, paratyphoid, the colon bacillus, or dysentery organisms, there is great danger that these may set up an infection in the bowel. As long as waste from industrial plants or from houses may enter a pool, the chance of such gross contamination is present. There is also the chance of contamination of the water from the bodies of ‘people who swim and who do not take 8 good cleansing bath before entering the pool. Tho disinfertant whicls 15 set: He swiitming pocls does much to destroy such organisms, but when there is much carelessness, a large dose of ‘germs may pass very promptly from the body of one person to another, The worst menace in the way of infection of the

‘skin from & swimraing pool is the famous ringworm.

‘The mold or fungus which causes ringworm is intich more diffcul: to destroy than an ordinary germ

A al