Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 5 August 1938 — Page 14
The Indianapolis Times
(A SCRIPPS- HOWARD NEWSPAPER)
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FRIDAY, AUGUST 5, 1938
LONG LIVE J. HAM! : - GENATOR JAMES HAMILTON LEWIS of Illinois says he is going to quit, but we ‘refuse to believe it. : ‘Have you ever witnessed the agony of a confirmed smoker trying to give up cigarets? Well, you haven't seen anything compared to the anguish that we predict will - be Jim Ham’s when and if he undertakes to carry out his intention to retire voluntarily from the Senate. For being in public life is a lifetime habit with him. Ever since Jim Ham’s pink whiskers began to fades ‘ and that's more years ago than many people now alive can remember—we have been wondering about the age of this patriarch of politics. That is one of the few topics on which - the very senior Senator from Illinois does not choose to engage in fluent discourse. Current volumes of Who's Who and the ‘Congressional Directory have yielded only the information that he was “born in Virginia.” But today, stirred by the illusion-shattering news. of Jim Ham’s impending retirement, we reached down through the cobwebs and brought to light a yellowed biographical sketch, prepared in the long ago. when Jim Ham didn't consider every new birthday just another personal affront. And here we find the date: “May 18, 1863.” Jim Ham only 75? Incredible! True, every time we “see and hear him, every time we observe his youthful - gallantry and alert courtliness, watch him part his beard in the middle, are fascinated by the rainbow hues of his cravat, waistcoat kerchief and spats, and charmed by the -resonance of his oratory, he seems a much younger man.
But, only 75? What, then happens to all these old . timers’ yarns we have heard—of how Jim Ham disputed | . philosophy with Thomas J efferson, elocuted with Patrick Henry, trod the boards under the personal direction of William Shakespeare, lent Sir Walter Raleigh the velvet cloak to throw before the feet of Queen Elizabeth? Why those must be nothing but folk tales. Hereafter, we'll believe only what is in the record. 8 ”n » 8 8. 2 : THE record shows that Jim Ham attended universities in Virginia, Georgia, Ohio and Texas; that 50 years ago he migrated to the Northwest (after, not before, the ‘Lewis and Clark expedition); that immediately (you guessed it) he entered public life, as a member of the - territorial senate, as an attache to the Joint High Com“mission on Canadian and Alaskan Boundaries at London; that 46 years ago he was defeated for Governor of Washington State, and 42 years ago was elected to Congress from Washington; that he served as colonel in our war with Spain, in Cuba and in Puerto Rico; that 39 years ago he wa defeated for Senator from Washington, and was twice de
feated, 42 years ago and 38 years ago, as candidate for R
nomination for the Vice Presidency; that at the turn of the century he migrated to Chicago and promptly got onto the payroll here, as City Attorney; that 30 years ago he first offered himself as candidate for Governor of Illinois, and was rejected; that 26 years ago he was elected Senator from Illinois, and six years later again rejected, but, un- . daunted, two years later—18 years ago—ran again for Governor of Illinois and was defeated; that he did a political Rip Van Winkle through the Harding-Coolidge Twenties, but came back to the Senate again in 1930 and won again in 1936. And now, alas, he says he will strive no more. There must be a mistake. A man who has known so many ups and downs of political high adventure, who has enjoyed the plaudits of the multitude and the prime of life for more than half a century, can’t resign. Such men don’t even die in harness. They are imperishable.
A LESSON FOR INDIANAPOLIS
- peries law enforcement has been an important phase of the traffic safety campaign in Columbus, O., which yes- . terday marked its 40th consecutive day ‘without an auto- - mobile fatality.
Public sentiment became aroused in that city of nearly 300,000 after a traffic toll of 92 was recorded during 1937.
MARK FERREE :
ents a copy; deliv-
Mail iin ae in Indiana, $3 a year;:
3
- City officials met demands that the condition be corrected.
The traffic patrol force was increased nearly 50 per cent and the motorcycle equipment was doubled. The accident investigation squad made many more arrests.
Moreover—and this was largely responsible for Columbus’ showing—traffic judges put their support behind _thedrive. A halt was ordered on the fixing of traffic vioN Jations, formerly the rule rather than the exception. As an Jexample. of how efficiently the law has been enforced, the “ “average enforcement index” was raised from 3.6 to 26. An index of 11 is considered good. - Columbus is the latest in a growing group of American 2 cities to get results from their traffic campaigns. In each * case better law. enfarcement | is s chiefly responsible for those | safety. results. : “Improved law eiforisingt ‘would. reduce automobile a fatalities in Indianapolis, too.
THE LAST PERIL
JEATH, which she had escaped in a hundred horrible ~forrns on niillions of feet of ‘celluloid, came to Pearl : White yesterday i in ‘a. Paris hospital. i %The Perils of Pauline”—How far away and long ago : ¢ they seem. Actually, less than a quarter of a century has “passed since Pearl White won fame and fortune by risking ¥ + her life and limb to make those serial thrillers: that gave & America the weekly shudders in nickelodeons: throughout { the land. She really risked them, for in that simpler day 3 the business of .a movie star was thought to be to act— ito do everything the script called for. No stand-in, no x Sdouble for Pauline. 1 ~The fame faded.
“The Perils” are July. a memory,
ln Washington
By. Rodney Dutcher Prediction of Dr. Stanley High,
Once Sensational, ‘Now. Stale News; Ja
Guffaw Brings Rebuke at Hearing. ASHINGTON, Aug. 5—A prophet usually lands
; in the doghouse in his own ‘country. “That was |
exactly the fate of Dr. Stanley High, who was pub--licly. booted from the White House inner circle when he wrote a magazine article predicting a liberalconservative battle for : control of the Democratic Party. ‘But Dr. High knew what he was writing abbut,
1“ and events he predicted have come to pass. His piece
. “Whose Party Is It?” appeared Feb. 6, 1937. He had prepared it weeks before without knowing President ‘Roosevelt would pop his Supreme Court plan on. the eve of publication, and would depend on conservative politicians to put it ower. ‘Mr. Roosevelt had no foreknowledge of Mr. High's “article, Although he wreaked his wrath on Mr. | High, he finally has said the same things Mr. High ; said—and. publicly. ‘The issue, Mr. High wrote, was whether the Demo-
«economic salvationists” and “restore the inoffensive Democracy with which they were familiar in ‘the traditional era before Roosevelt.” _ - Sensational ‘at the time, but stale news 18 months later, was Mr. High's prediction. “It seems probable that the engineer of this movement of restoration will be the Vice President, Mr. Garner. Hopes of the old-order Democrats are pinned on him . . . the one man who can set the 1940 party stage for a candidate to their liking—Paul McNutt, Harry Byrd or Bennett Clark . . . Mr. Garner has undertaken his job with relish.” s ” 2
ENATOR JOSEPH C. O'MAHONEY of Wyoming, chairman of the Temporary National Economic Committee (monopoly investigation committee to you), selected as his assistant Prof. Arthur R. Himbert of the University of Wyoming, a specialist on corporation law, business units, public utilities and public administration. Mr. Himbert for three years has worked with Senator O'Mahoney on the latter's widely discussed plan for & Federal incorporation law. Mr. Himbert collects unusual air mail stamp covers, and, in autographing one of these, Mr. O'Mahoney recently wrote - the words: “There can be no political liberty without economic freedom.” | - 2 8 = x to coach them on appearances before Senate investigating committees. Vice President Charles M. White of Republic Steel didn't. = Citizens and police of Canton, O., had been testifying before the La Follette committee that squads of Republic armed guards had tear-gassed school children, unarmed strikers, and spectators, and had beaten women and men with iron bars, shooting several. Then Bus Driver Darrell Smith told how he had been attacked and had managed to get away. At this point Mr. White leaned back and guffawed. “I will ask Mr. White to restrain his levity,” said Chairman La Follette. “I don’t think anyone: else is “impressed with it.” Then the committee heard the Republic Steel had been so impressed with Smith's evidence as to pay him $500 damages, and that Herbert Blazer, nonemployee, had got 400 buckshot in his back, with photographic evidence. By that time Mr. White had received so much attention he was trying to sit in the back of the room.
Business ‘By John T. Flynn
In Spite of Government Planning Wheat Problem Now Is More Acute.
EW YORK, Aug. 5—Wheat is in trouble again. /¥ For those who do not follow the changing for‘tunes of that commodity which plays so large a part in the nation’s economy here are a few facts.
out the wheat farmers of the country. Generally the basis of all the planning was that farmers raise more wheat than they can sell in.the United States and abroad. The program for saving them was (1) To
curtail domestic production of wheat; and (2) to increase the foreign market. Curbing the domestic production was to be accomplished by paying wheat growers to reduce their wheat acreage. Increasing foreign markets was .to be accomplished by the devaluation of the dollar. By reducing the gold content of the dollar, prices of American goods to foreign buyers was decreased. This would encourage them to buy wheat here. For a while wheat production was cut. But it was cut largely by the disastrous droughts which" burned up the dust bowl. © The farmer did a great deal better. His improvement was due to three things. (1) The drought which cut the supply and raised prices. (2) The Government’s vast spending program which enabled the workers to pay the‘increased price. (3) The Government’s payment of vast sums to farmers under various pretenses, first as a reward for reducing acreage under the AAA and then under the soil conservation program,
Large Crop tn Prospect
The ‘nation is about to see the largest wheat crop in many years—estimated at 950 million bushels. Curtailment has produced nothing so far as crop re-
started. But we are really a little worse off. For now we ‘are building up a great surplus. Last year we carried over to this year 180 million bushels. This year we are expected to add to that another 180 million. As for foreign markets, they are at a low point.
cents as against the dollar wheat ‘of last. year. No one can be severe upon the honest efforts of the Department of Agriculture to solve the grave and seemingly insoluble farm problem. But t has happened has seemed to give good ground for believing that what it has done has not been the right thing.
A Woman's Viewpoint
By Mrs. Walter Ferguson N war, as in everything else, styles change. Once
hot after power, eager for attention. At any rate, these men did fight face to face with
1914, when trenches came in and soldiers began to live lke rats and to fight, ‘not like heroes of old, but like emons.
about it also has to be changed. The average
doesn’t take the trouble to study present trends, is likely to have mistaken conceptions about its honor, glory and victory. These conceptions- are - lands; by military organiza democratic countries, by dictators and monarchies and republics, elsewhere by the tradi-
tion which pictures war as a noble conflict, in which | { one side—our side—fights for the right and the. enemy ¥
fights for the wrong. and Victory are obsolete when applied to this’ par-
| ticular subject. Those in the know have long since there is little honor among nations, because | the es change with every whim of the voters. or he ni. be. glory in th ine, ere e women and | be n starving } innocent Yom :
cufidren, in oncombatants . by 3K wide
cratic Party was to become the liberal party in. 1940. 'Old-line Democrats were ready to ease out the
OME industrialists and financiers hire specialists |
' Five years ago Washington set out to straighten.
duction is concerned. We are right back where we.
‘And as for price—wheat has gottén down to 67
upon a time fighting was a glorious enterprise.’ Brave knights went crusading—or were they brave? Maybe they were just show-offs, too, craving thrills, :
their enemies. Such was the fashion of war before |
Because styles in way change, all our thinking person who .hasn’t served time on any battlefield and who .
efully fostered in all | { snd _profiteers. in |'{ 36 generals in
As a matter of fact, the: three ‘words Honor, Glory
CAT'S JUST.
‘OF THAT
" MOONSAINE. Foi 0
_ MYEYE -
KENTUCKY, Moon SHINE
INVESTIGATING COMMITTEE
: ’ : The Hoosier Forum 1 wholly disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.—Voltaire.
INDIFFERENCE TERMED BIG THREAT OF DEMOCRACY By N. A. : Do you tire of the continual talk these days of the various “challenges to democracy,” the “threats
‘| from within and without”? = Don’t
let yourself. | Are the frequent admonitions to concern yourself personally: with public affairs and keep your inter-
est in government constantly alive
beginning to leave you cold? Don’t let them. The democracy you enjoy will not survive without your personal concern. Your boredom or indifference is one of the gravest of those “threats from within.” A dictatorship is a lazy man’s government. A democracy is most decidedly not. One of the best imaginable reasons for the maintenance of your interest in your - government be« comes clear with a little reflection on an observation made by an educator during a recent teachers’ conference in New York. The constant danger in a democracy whose citizens are not alert, he said, is that the people will not know in whose hands the power lies and what is ‘being done with that power. If you lived under a. dictatorship
it would be crystal-clear where the |g presentment | or indictment of a
power lay. Your obligation as a citizen of a democracy is to keep informed. 2 2 2
HOOSIER DEMOCRATS TERMED “M’CARTHYS” By A. 8. ‘Faulkner, M. D. Not long ago Sinclair Lewis wrote “It Can’t Happen Here,” and we smug Americans read of the completely controlled deliberative assemblies of Germany, Russia and
Italy, and thought, complacently, it |
can’t happen here. Well, it did happen at the State Fair Grounds
in Indianapolis, July 12, last, and under the name of a Democratic convention. More than 2200 supposedly average citizens of Indiana, 75 per cent of whom were opposed to the naming of Fred VanNuys for Senator allowed themselves to become Charlie McCarthys, and Adolph Joseph Benito Paul Bergen in
Manila furnished the voice and
manipulation, thus laying Edgar Bergen completely in the shade. Why all this? Not for party harmony, but to say to this country that Indiana repudiates the present Democratic Administration and is swinging to the Liberty Leaguers, thus to weaken FP. D. R.’s influence in the 1940 national convention. The Times, Arthur Vandenburg, Henry Marshall, Jouett Shouse, Burke, Holt, are all delighted with the work of the McCarthys on July 12. I have voted with the Democratic Party 47 years, but in
(Times ‘readers are invited to express . their views in these columns, religious con. troversies excluded. Make your. letter short, so all can have a chance. "Letters must be signed, but names will be withheld ‘on request.)
the absence of a real Democratic convention this year, I have no party to vote with. So I suppose for the first time in my life I.shall pull the Republican lever when I enter the booth in November. ‘. = = SEES EARLE SETTING DANGEROUS PRECEDENT
By E. F. M, Governor Earle of Pennsylvania is certainly setting a dangerous precedent. If he can get away with stch dictatorial, high-handed ‘pro-| cedure, how are we, the people, going to protect ourselves from the machinations of corrupt politicians? The Constitution says: “No person
shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless
grand jury ...” The passing of ex post facto laws, or laws to cover up or at least prevent an investigation of open charges of criminal conduct, after the criminal actions occurred, is an open and. brazen attempt by elected officials to prevent the orderly process of justice. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania has a solemn duty to perform
YOU WERE BRAVE By ALBERTA DUNCAN STIER
‘You were brave, possessing -
Power to hide : Grief, grimly walking by your side.
Eyes facing a future now dimmed, Once bright; Sorrowing soul groping blindly for lig
Tears welling from some hidden
depth; Upward as by command. To gently fall upon your empty _ hands.
DAILY THOUGHT
Ye know in all your hearts and in all your souls, that not one ‘thing hath failed of all the good things: which the Lord your God spake concerning ‘you -rjosius 23:14.
GP is a spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. ~Catathism. >
for the American people. Governor Earle is a New Dealer. He has set before this nation one of the worst examples of dictatorial, executive
high-handed political jugglery. He |
does not belong in the United States Senate. 8 8 *
WHY NOT PUT AGE LIMIT ON SUFFRAGE, READER ASKS By a Reader Here is food for thought from a reader, a few suggestions or rather, questions to ponder on. Why can’t the voting age be limited? Twenty-one years is the start-
ing age. Let 60 be the limit. Why not limit the number of lawyers?
Why is it that the general public.
takes so much interest in sports and neglects interest in politics? Give these questions and suggestions your consideration from a social and economic viewpoint. . » ss = DEPRESSION CURABLE, READER MAINTAINS By Edward Barker { _ Open letter to John T. Flynn: If your reputation did not carry such weight to all your readers, I should not write this letter to question the wisdom and logic of your column. in The Indianapolis Times of July 30 in which you discourage the hope of discovering the cure for our greatest economic disease, depression and poverty. The Henry George Modern School of the Science of Political Economy differs with you and counts its membership among the leaders of social philosophy in every civilized country. Its members are mostly cultured scientific students, and they are agreed that this monster disease of depression and poverty, being man-made, can be man-cured. It is man-made in that we have transgressed the law of economic equality in our denial of the inalienable right
‘of all men to equal use of the earth,
which is his.natural’ habitat and God-given heritage. This modern and intellectual school of economists draw their support from the highest scientific authority and should not be classed with the differing emotional groups; each having varying artificial plans to offer—none of which are basic and fundamental. These are times ‘that try men’s souls and test the intelligence of mankind, in the discovery of the ceuse and cure of unemployment and poverty. Yet because the natural laws of our universe are founded in justice, it becomes man’s task to find those laws and obey them. This is a task which can be accomplished if the statesmen and philosophers can but join forces to this sublime end.
LTS EXPLORE YOUR MIND
By: DR. ALBERT EDWARD wicoam
do not think we
THIS CAN BE argued endlessly but in my belief the de-
velopment of great cities has brought to men a kind of cosmic loneliness—a feeling of helplessness
1in a great world that is beyond | human control~—certainly beyond
any individual's control. True, we can now eat breakfast in New York and dinner in Los Angeles, but. I ‘can control our’
Gen. Johnson Says—
We Can't Stop the Shongos in Our Government, but Can Seek to Keep, Them in the Bounds of Necessity
ETHANY BEACH, Del, Aug. §—Our constitue tional theory of divided powers was intended for
just one purpose—jo. prevent one-man Government
or anything resembling it. Many of the colonists had come here to escape arbitrary powers over the afe fairs of their daily’ ives. Wisther religious, non or political. : They had. hardly well established themselves when they felt the force from which. they fled fole lowing them: In the end they revolted. When that
revolt succeeded, they set about by experiment and
trial to find some form of government under which it would be impossible for the old evil to appear agdin, So they divided tHe power of the Federal Govern
ment up into three counterbalancing authorities—the -
Congress to make the laws, the courts to judge. the laws and the executive to enforce the laws. This was directly aimed at any kind of Sictatorship or per< sonalized government. ; » » t a TOVEL and good as that seemed, it ar nowhere near enough for the founding fathers. So they
“created the two-in-one government of states and
nation. It preserved the old Saxon idea of local selfs government—any kind of government the statey want if it is republican in form,
Briefly—and as every high ‘school student Crows such has been our system. Well, we are gradually losing it. Part of this is nobody’s fault or design. The complexities of modern industrial life are too great to be regulated by Congress. There must be come missions and bureaus to legislate in detail. They pub« lish regtilations. They execute those regulations. To a certain extent they judge violations and rights une der them. This concentration of power was exactly, what the Constitution was written to prevent. Yet it is growing with astonishing rapidity. : The same thing is happening to the division of powers between the states and. the nation and in part, is equally unavoidable. Control of. agriculture, labor relations, industry, banking and internal ime provement have been taken from the Sie to a re= markable degree. i * 2 8
I" is probably bootless to oppose so much as is & IL natural and, unavoidable outgrowth of changed
_ conditions. But every such transfer should be ex-
amined and permitted only to the extent of its necessity. Within the Federal Government itself, the tre« mendous field of government of such, oligarchies as the Department of Agriculture and the Interstate
Commerce Commission, might well be split up iuto
legislative, judicial and executive departments to pre_serve the principle of divided powers, or there migiis be a separate informal court to judge all adminis trative law and a clearing house with: some repree sentation to scrutinize all administrative legislation,
. Certainly the state institutions for local self-govern«
ment should be interfered with as little as possible, Just the reverse of this preservation of principle is now the rule. Nearly every recent suggestion of governmental change has been for greater concene tration of political power in fewer ‘hands. ol
It Seems to Me
By Heywood Broun
Pun Is All Right for Visit, buf Who Would Like Living With One?
N= YORK, Aug. 5.—The battle of the right and left banks about Krum Elbow seems to me a most curious contest. * Mr. Spencer's passionate opine jons about the iniquities of the New Deal have their counterpart among other landed gentry along the Hudson, but the owner who has just ceded his estate to Father Devine is more original than: the origina anti-New Dealer. If I remember correctly, his: battle for a copyright title for his castle began long before any of the neighbors started referring to the President as “that man.” - Even if there were : no pump- -priming or NLRB, Mr. Spencer would still be anti-Roosevelt. Indeed his language would not be a whit less emphatic if he were talking about a private citizen instead of the President of the United States. To me this fury becomes even more strange when 1 read that the angels have been called into residence largely because Mr. Spencer cannot nail down the full sign: “Krum Elbow-on-Hudson.” Surely there must be shorter and more snappy titles for a country lace. P By now it is too late, but if Mr. Spencer had come to me I would have suggested that he transform his manor ‘into a camp for budding novelists. And had he been accommodating enough to ask why, 1 would have added with a straight face, “Since you can’t have Krum Elbow, you might at least get yourself new writers.” Since the embattled antiquarian does not seem to ‘be too quick on the trigger in the matter of smart cracks, it might have been necessary to spell it ous for him, viz, “n-e-u-r-i-t-i-s.”
The Pun in Passing a
But putting levity aside, it must be said ‘that Mr Spencer has a right to say that even though the name for which he fought is not so hot, the competi tion in ‘country nomenclature rarely reaches a high level. Houses out ‘where the pavement ends are sel= dom christened any more cleverly than the taverns, For every Dewdrop Inn it is possible to produce a private residence quaintly called Wit’s End. I speak as one who has high respect for puns and a great envy for: that dwindling- group of men and women who are able: to play upon words by ear. Bt these very experts realize the limitations imposed upon this type of humor. George S. Kaufman once ‘explained his feeling in the matter by saying, in effect: “No play should ever be launched under: a punning title unless the producer expects nothing more than a short run. A dramatist ‘who has a good pun will do better to use it in his play rather than chalk it on the wall outside. the theater.” In other words, & pun is all right for a visit,. but nobody would like to live with one. And, personally, 1 would not care to go home every night to an Elbow, even if it happened to be on the Hudson. = °,
Watching Your Health
By Dr. Morris Fishbein -
[ryEsTicATORS from Great Britain found that in the smaller towns and in rural Scandinavian’ districts the free treatment of venereal diseases was being given by practicing doctors who were employed by the town, and that it was customary for municipal health officers ‘to employ special health doctors for this purpose. Special fee tables’ were set up for such venereal disease treatment given to the poor. The state also paid the cost of all drugs and of the neces sary Wassermann tests.
SE ge te