Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 12 August 1938 — Page 14

ROY W. HOWARD

ES

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Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

FRIDAY. AUGUST 12, 1938

A WIDER MERIT SYSTEM QTATE WELFARE officials deny that their move to place employees of the State hospitals for the insane under the merit system was prompted by the recent deaths of three patients. Nevertheless: those unfortunate deaths and the one yesterday have shown the dangers of a personnel selected from patronage lists with little regard for qualifications. : ‘ "The announced merit plan is expected to be in operation within two months. Although regulations defining eligibility for employment are to be worked out, it is assumed the program will insure that the hospital staffs are qualified in handling and caring for patients. Present and future attendants are to be given tests and rated. Indiana’s merit plan, in operation since July, 1936, has covered the agencies administering the welfare laws and has been described as a “model setup” by Public Administration, Inc., of Chicago, as far as it goes, but it has been too limited. : This extension should improve materially the administration of these institutions. Its extension to other State

agencies would be equally beneficial. 5

MR. ROOSEVELT’S RISK : RESIDENT ROOSEVELT certainly told the people of Georgia what he thinks of his “personal friend,” that “gentleman and scholar,” Senator Walter F. George. We see no reason to be shocked or surprised. It’s true, as the President said, that Senator George is as conservative as many a lifelong Republican. He and Mr. Roosevelt don’t speak the same political language. It was daring for the President to ask Georgia to repudiate Mr. George, and to send Lawrence Camp to the Senate. But after all, he took the risk on his own shoulders. It looks, from the distance, like a pretty big risk. Georgia, apparently, has thought very well of Senator George. It has kept him in the Senate for 16 years. Up to the time Mr. Roosevelt spoke at Barnesville, most political observers seemed to believe the Senator was in the lead for renomination and that Mr. Camp’s chances were slight. Maybe that will be changed now. If it is—if Mr. Camp wins—the President can claim credit for a decisive victory. But if Georgia's Democrats, by reason of affection for Senator George, or of home pride and anticarpetbagging sentiment, renominate the Senator, it will be said, with justification. that Georgia has rejected Mr. Roosevelt and his objectives. Mr. Roosevelt, himself, has asked for a test on that basis. ge TL Well, as we've said, that’s the risk he assumes. Time and the voters of Georgia will tell the story. What we hope is that Mr. Roosevelt’s boldest venture to date into a Democratic state primary won't result in the nomination of forther Governor Eugene Talmadge, which seems not impossible. Mr. Talmadge is conducting a demagogic campaign, making absurd and impossible promises, and thundering against the New Deal. His presence in the Senate would be unfortunate for Georgia, for Mr. Roosevelt and for the country. ; : And regardless of who wins in Georgia, Mr. Roosevelt has earned the enmity of Mr. George’s friends who will remain in the Senate where they can do great damage to the President’s program. That, too, may prove to be un-

~ fortunate for Mr. Roosevelt and for the country.

SNOOPING ON “UN-AMERICANS”

EP. MARTIN DIES of Texas, head of the new Congressional investigation of “un-American” activities, announces that his inquiry will be conducted on a “dignified plane.” So saying, Mr. Dies arms his committee with a Presi-

: dential order, authorizing the committee chairman, or any

member, or any agent under order of the chairman, to examine the income tax returns of any individual, any corporation or any private organization, from 1932 to date. : We have yet to see a “dignified” investigation into the political beliefs and activities of private citizens. We'll not soon forget the didoes of Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer's celebrated Red hunt. Nor the similar fiasco, conducted by Rep. Ham Fish—you remember the one which blew up in Rep. Ham's face when he personally led a raid

on a Baltimore warehouse, to seize some “seditious litera-

ture,” and seized instead a crate of crunchy lettuce. Mr. Dies is getting ready to stage a Nazi-hunt, a Fascist-hunt and a Communist-hunt, a three-ring circus, so

~ to speak, with license to do a lot of clowning around the

sawdust fringes. Indeed, any person or any organization

whose ideas of Americanism do not coincide with those of |

Mr. Dies may be cathechised by the committee functioning both as prosecutor and jury. Not content with the ordinary methods of Congressional committee harassment, Mr. Dies’

investigators will have resort also to the spicy suspicions

and innuendoes that may be ferretted out by confidential income tax returns, the prying to be limited only by Mr. Dies’ sense of discretion—if any. . Judged by its advance billing, this latest investigation of “un-American” activities promises to be itself a considerable exhibition of un-Americanism.

A LA NEW GUINEA

BELIEVE it or not, S. Dillon Ripley is not the Ripley of “Believe It or Not” fame. He is a 24-year-old member of the Academy of Natural Science, just returned from Dutch New Guinea, where, he says, white men lad monotonous lives because the native cannibals prefer the meat of dusky relatives.’ a “For instance,” he recounts, “a tribesman steals a fellow tribesman’s wife. The chief calls a council . . . they decide the meat shortage is acute. . . the offender is invited to a big blow-out. Not knowing he is about to be barbecued, he dances with the rest of them. When the dancing ends, the unfortunate is killed with specially selected poles and divided. i gies then roast him to individual taste.” eS pipaiLL ib ? havi taste

in Indiana, $3 a year;.

Washington By Raymond Clapper It's Hard to ‘Make Ary Sense Out

Of These Political Primaries, but |

™]

Our Mr. Talburt ‘Gets. a Cartoon. | i

ASHINGTON, Aug. 13.—If you are trying to : figure out what all of these political primaries

mean, don’t bother. It’s bad for you in hot weather. - vi

Of course a large army of political writers and” press agents have to make. a living and some will tell

you that the primaries are running hot for Roose- | velt while others will say they leave Roosevelt sunk, |

done, finished, washed up and through. It’s a mighty poor columnist that couldn't take either side of this

argumens and haul it to town in 600 convincing words, : ; : 4 - As an old press association political writer who was

“compelled for years to render his political composi- :

tions according to the music as written and not by ear, I bow low over my typewriter to Cartoonist Talburt. He popped out of his office, which is next to mine, and asked: “What do these primaries mean anyway? I'm trying to get a cartoon out of them and they don’t make any sense.” - oe To which I replied: “Brother, I'm having the same trouble. There isn’t any cartoon in these primaries.”

1.°5mo slightly grim, Tal retired to his drawing

board. The next thing I knew his drawing was shoved at me, There it was. He had it all figured out and neatly charfed in ‘one of his masterful care toons, as clear as California sunshine. . The cartoon pictures four fishermen, New Dealer, Mr. Yes Man,

Mr. Yes-But, and Anti-New Dealer. . All four lines were hopelessly tangled and you couldn’t tell whose

“line had which fish. The cartoon was entitled, “Who + Got What?” : .

Henge the Chinese say one picture is worth 10,000 words. Fe Or as a political writer has to put it, political primaries are complicated affairs, in which all sorts of factors, some pertinent, some not pertinent, play a part. Who has the organization? Which candidate is a good stumper? Who had the big money behind him? Who was the most agile demagog? Answer all of these questions and then maybe you know what happened and maybe not. s 8 = tn OOSEVELT is going around putting in an oar. National Administration workers are involved on one side or the other in most primaries. Sometimes these things count, as probably they did in Kentucky, and possibly slightly in Oklahoma. Sometimes they don’t count at all, as in Virginia's Congressional race. In Idaho, Rep. Worth Clark, an independent Democrat, sought against great odds to take the Senatorial nomination away from New Dealer Senator Pope. Young, likeable, smart, Clark put on“a quiet handshaking campaign, kept his head down, tried not to draw the hostile fire of the New Deal, and thanks to a ballot which carried both Republican and Democratic candidates, probably received an important number of Republican votes. In Ohio, Charles Sawyer, & corporation lawyer, was supported by the Demo-" cratic organization and the C. I. O. against Governor Davey for renomination and he won. But probably it wasn’t in any sense a New Deal victory. Rather theresult of John Lewis cutting Davey’s. throat. My judgment is that Roosevelt is still .tremendously popular. But most of the . efforts- to read Roosevelt decisively one way or the other into the majority of the primaries strikes me as spreading the :

butter too thin.

Business By John T. Flynn

Government Cannot Be Blamed for The Railroads’ ‘Condition Today.

EW YORK, Aug. 12—A barrage of attacks on the Government’s responsibility for the plight of the railroads marks the beginning of the battle which is developing over the railroad crisis and which will certainly break like a sform over the next session of

Congress. 5 ‘ It would be a great misfortune if the idea were to get imbedded in the legislative consciousness that the railroads are the victims of the Government. It would be easy to pick flaws in Government regulation of railroads. The Government has erred on the side of severity to the roads and on the side of generosity. It would be easy to point to losses here and there suffered by the roads as a result of Government policy. But this would still leave the present plight of the roads to be explained. I have just been looking over the condition of one road, for instance—the Erie. Projected in 1832 and finished in 1851, this road for nearly 50 years was the victim of a long series of scandalous speculations by private financiers. The only damage done the road in that period by the Government was in not stepping in and sending the whole pack of marauders to jail. It was reorganized in 1895. That was 43 years ago. In all that period marked by the most amazing industrial development in history, this road, running through one of the most populous and thriving industrial centers, has never paid a cent in dividends to its stockholders. How much, then, is the common stock of the Erie worth? As an investment, utterly nothing, for now at the énd of that long trial the road is again in bankruptcy. Yet that stock was care ried as a liability of $150,000,000. :

Road Loaded Down With Bonds

If you owned a first preferred share in that time you would have collected dividends from 1901 to 1907 and in 1929, 1930 and 1931—10 years out of 43. On second preferred you would have gotten dividends three years out of 43. The road is loaded down with bonds—about $250,000,000—which have drained it for decades. There is a mounting mass of current liabilities which have . accrued during the years and can no longer be called current. : x7 aie There is nothing the Government can do for this road save to furnish it with a bankrupt law which would wipe out its stock and convert most of its bonds into stock. Private operation has made a gigantic" failure of this road. The Government may have stuck a pin or two in it, but the real sword thrus came from those who controlled it. :

A Woman's Viewpoint ||

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

r our arguments regarding the desirability of a |

woman’s having a career and children at the same time, we go apparently upon the supposition that all females are endowed by nature to be good mothers.

This, of course, is a mistake, Degrees of maternal in- | telligence may be observed even among the lower |

animals. oy I remember very well a red cow we used to have. She was noted in the village for her irresponsible gerenial behavior, yet regularly each year produced a fine calf. : bs

It would be folly to argue that this cow wanted a

Sey

valim—

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

PROTESTS POLICE ACTION IN STRIKE ZONE By C. L. ° - : Labor won a great freedom some few months ago with the Supreme Court’s declaration that the Wagner act was constitutional—a freedom which the reactionary forces since have made a continual, concentrated battle to render powerless. I wonder when the law enforcing

agencies of this nation are going to start protecting labor's right to the freedom they supposedly won. Saturday, Aug. 6, I-witnessed the demonstration at-Mahan Box Co. of this city. Even though a City ordinance says pickets must keep moving, it seemed quite’ all right for police to stop the picket line long enough for a load of nonunion workers to drive through. Not one of approximately 50 police present. could see that this. was violating the Jaw. ~ : .. : * I wonder if this is the kind of action for which the police force ‘has been so many times complimented. I also wonder if this is protecting those workers’ rights granted them by the Wagner act. ® ” ” SAYS ‘OLD GUARD, LIBERAL DEMOCRAT VIEWS DIFFER By G. J. B. See The pretense on the part of the “Old Guard Republicans” and other economic royalists that they see eye-tu-eye with certain liberal Democratic statésmen is surely farfetched. as ‘ ‘For example, Senator VanNuys was against the Supreme Court bill because he regarded it as endangering the Constitution and as setting a dangerous precedent for other congresses and Presidents. The “Old: Guard” was against the bill because they were opposed to all New Deal legislation and saw in the the Supreme Court, as it was then constituted, an agency to nullify this legislation, “i : Again, liberty of the press can always draw the protective vote of the liberals as well as of the “Old Guards.” As the liberals see it, it is. better to tolerate a certain amount of intentional misinformation about the Government than to permit a censorship. The censors might use their powers not only to eliminate falsehoods, but also to eliminate facts which might not be creditable to the Administration, but which a free people should know. The “Old Guard” on the other

_ (Times readers are invited to expreds their views in these columns, religious cone troversies excluded. . Make . your letter short, so all can have a chance. Letters must be sigried, but names will be withheld on request.)

curb put on the press in any effort ‘to “smear” the Administration. Can anyone deny that: the “fathers of. the Constitution” had in. mind: the three branches of the Government, the executive, the legislative and the judicial, working together as a team, rather than against each other, as antagonists? Yet the “Old Guard” press is filled

with expressions such as “rubber

stamp Congress,” ‘‘Yes-Legislators,” etc, the idea being that a Congressman who works with the Administration, who was elected because his views were liberal, has ‘either sold cut or has heen intimidated by the Administration. The “Old Guard” view is that independence of thinking and action means bitter-end opposition to all liberal or New Deal objectives. The liberal view is that independence may mean opposition to certain details, but an agreement with the main objective. : There is no unity of thought between the two groups. The “Old Guard” opposes everything New Dealish and Rooseveltian because its conception is that Government is for the wealthy and for the powerful. The other believes that Government is for the people. :

_ EVENING PRAYER By ALBERTA DUNCAN STIER

God, grant me strength that I may.

Complete my tasks from day to

day; : Give me vision that I may see Good in those speaking ill of me.

God, grant me as years go on, Wisdom to know the right from . wrong; : To know that daily cares were meant to be

The means of attaining eternity.

DAILY THOUGHT

Seek good, and not evil, that ye ,may live: and so the Lord, the God of Hosts, shall be with you, .as ye have spoken.—Amos 5:14.

X TE can do more good by being

hand is more interested during the present campaign in having no

good than in any other way. —Rowland Hill,

THINKS FATAL ACCIDENTS DUE LARGELY TO DRINKING By A. P. M. ; It seems that each Sunday we have quite a few accidents that have

by one of the parties involved being intoxicated or at. least feeling. quite reckless, .

Two automobile deaths in - our neighborhood have been caused by

1 men who were trying to win bets

made in a tavern and who were feeling very bold. :

by our chief and the papers why doesn’t he clamp down on the illegal sale of liquor or think of some way to prevent driving. by men anc women who have a habit of overindulgence in hard drinks. fi gos oo8 SEES CAPITALISM’S DEATH THROUGH PRICE CONTROL By 8. H. . Henry Ford said on his 75th birthday that prosperity could only return if prices for goods declined and wages increased steadily. Capitalism was successful until it dropped that formula for controlled prices; that is, prices pegged by producers by various devices against the interest of the consumers. Continued control means death to capitalism as free enterprise. The consumers are the-only support of industry. Higher prices and also artificially fixed higher wages destroy the consumer’s ability to support the capital owners and labor organizations. Capital and labor can only be supported if they supply increasing consumer values at lower cost to consumers. There is the oil in our system. The lack of it is causing the present loss of employment.

“8s. PROTESTS WPA WAGE CUTS By a WPA Worker

There are wage cuts on WPA. Form-setters on street work were cut from $85 to $65 per month effective Aug. 6. It seems there are plenty of places to reduce expenses on WPA without cutting the underpaid

‘| employees, especially on contract

street work. This and several other things will certainly change a lot of votes this fall. Why don’t the labor unions do something about organizing these men? These men are human if they are on WPA, which is certainly not

treated as ‘such.

LET'S

career, but her case is analogous to the question, I | =

think. At any rate, she was not a good mother. I feel that many modern women resemble her in that respect. . They can produce healthy offspring, but

have not the ability to take proper care of them, In | , {

fact when the mother instinct rages at fever pitch in a woman, she is likely to be a bad influence on her children, because the traditional idealized, type tends

' to be overemotional.

Some people now go so far as to say that career women make the best mothers, because their work forces them to leave their children alone most of the time. Fannie Hurst, the novelist, leans to this side of the question, although she has been accused of speaking out of turn since she herself is not a mother.

Managing- Mamas are generally regarded these |

days as a national pest, in a class with the boll weevil | -*

and fruit fly—which is a good thing if we don’t run

too far in the other direction, - {| 2 hood get alo rection, Careers and mother- i| 4

ery well together; it’s the

EXPLORE YOUR MIND DF. ALBERT EDWARD WiGGAN >

UKELY THAN NON-A! “ANTS TO HAVEA .

Ent on

A ED LIFE? 10s YESORNO.. i

strength for o

gists thought of that to, so they had hundreds of couples rate their degree of marital happiness on a very exact scale, and the Sunday School couples rated unions at the top. Re-

| ligion is the surest guarantee of

married happiness because it is the surest guarantee of character.

2 ® =

|" THIS column stands for toler- | Selves |“ ance of all races, faiths and

creeds. Pope Pius deserves the

.| praise of the whole world. Teachers

of every faith should refute such a ‘destructive doctrine, Such an aim

, | for education would destroy all true "| education, which should be to teach

human brotherhood. It is only as

| this doctrine of brotherhood lays

‘hold of the lives of men that we

‘| shall ever nave a real civilization or

world peace.

: 3 NO. The person who empties

his purse or gives more than his thers is not generous in a true sense because he is failing

| to apportion his resources—physical,

financial and spiritual, so he can

“in the end give even more geper-| the rate

is in reali

caused injuries and quite often | deaths. - Many of these are caused

Instead of all these safety drives

er than from

Gen. Johnson

a We Might See the Start of Real “Recovery This Fall if This Rise

In Confidence Can Be Kept Alive.

JRETHANY BEACH, Del, Aug. 12—The Consumers’ Goods Industries Commitee has just reported ‘that business is getting better fast with a fine fall

I got a big kick out of this for four reasons. First, these first<stringers cover a wide field and know what they are talking about; so this is a dependable forecast of a real advance, Second, that NRA Committee

survived the death of the Blue: Eagle and, under the skilful leadership of Mr. George Sloane, has done much to prevent departures from high code standards. Third, it is precisely what this column began

. saying three months ago—"I told you so.” Fourth,

this business enthusiasm comes in an election year largely from antithird New Dealers, and refutes the

‘traces of recovery to embarrass the Administration, The report covers a wide range of business—prac-

tically all except the capital goods industries. It tells a consistent story throughout—stocks low, demand

‘and activity increasifig. ‘There isn't really a sour notemnit, = ; ‘sS. 8 8 ?

‘is true that there can be no real recovery with out the capital or heavy goods industries and these cannot stage a comeback without a restoration of the flow of new private money into the investment

market. But if this -kind of rise in confidence can

be kept alive and growing, we might see the beginning of real recovery this fall,

It is also true that part of this activity is due to the prospect of a new colossal Government spending spree and that we are getting toward the end of our rope on that. But that is the precise reason why, regardless of political’ or economic prejudice in an election year, business leaders generally are pushe ing the idea that all should get on the crank of this engine with a mighty yo-heave-ho and try to get hitting on all cylinders even if this is an artificial starter, That is far from being an impossibility. The mere rise in the stock market has created billions of dollars of potential investment and buying power—many times more than all the Federal spending. This thay be called “paper” wealth-and mere “bookkeeping entries”—but so is a Government bond. The stock market rise increases by billions the borrowing or ‘buying power ‘of millions of people. It does more than that. It releases their confidence. 82 ® 8 ; er HERE is nothing so conducive to rising business A and if that tide of confidence should ever'go to the height of releasing for investment the stupendous hoards of frightened, hiding, idle private money, we could have full recovery with a dangerous rush. This flood might install the third New Deal in

| perpetuity notwithstanding that many of its own

policies have prevented it thus far. But nothing—not even that—would justify. anything but the utmost encouragement of the present trend. : Rh . This depression has gone on too long—far beyond the danger point. This may be a way out. : “There is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and miseries.” oe : 3

lt Seems to Me By Heywood Broun or

stot tos cd

.

{ insinuation ‘that business is hanging back on the

Lord Beaverbrook Gives America

A Republican Candidate for ‘1940.

N= YORK, Aug. 12—Lotd Beaverbrook has thrown the hat of Frank Gannett into the ring for 1940. The noted American publisher is a house guest of Beaverbrook at the moment. And when he came down to breakfast the other morning there beside his bloater lay the Republican nomination - for the Presidency of the United States. I speak to some

extent in metaphors, for although His Lordship is the n

most powerful of British newspaper proprietors, he has as yet no lien upon the White House. Naturally, I can’t give an exact picture of what happened, so I am compelled to draw upon my imagination for the scene as it might have been and to supply the words about as they might have been uttered.

The grateful sight which met the eye of Frank

E. Gannett as he started to cut his preserved fish was a fresh copy of the London Daily Express, and

upon the front page of that duly premeditated paper

he found a screaming headline which read, “The Life and Times of Frank IE Gannett.” blushed and said, “Your Lordship is too kind.” " “Don’t mention it,” replied Beaverbrook, and: after helping himself to marmalade he passed the jar to his guest in truly democratic fashion. “Read on and see what our Lord Forbes has to say about you.” Lord Forbes, it may be explained, is one of Beaver brook’s rewrite men. The eyes of Mr. Gannett, which are wide by nature, expanded still further as he got into the swing of the article. He found himself described as the leading candidate for the Republican nomination in 1940. He was choked with emotion as he said, “What His Lordship writes is much too much, Your Lordship.”

Hindiana, Hiowa, Harkansas It was rather an awkward sentence, but Frank

Mr, Gannett °

Gannett i¢ not accustomed to titles in the city room,

Mr. Gannett said, “It can’t be true.” “If you see it in the Express it’s 50,” replied Beave erbrook, speaking with severity. : Already -the delighted visitor could almost see the next Republican conclave and hear a delegate get up to say, “Hindiana casts hits vote for the favorite son of the London Daily Express, Frank Hernest Gannett.” With Harkansas and Hiowa to follow, not forgetting Halabama and Hohio, what could be sweeter? Fortunately Mr. Gannett rose to the occasion. He said with simple dignity, “I have never sought office, but no American could refuse.” mn gi “Give me back that marmalade,” said Beaverbrook

to indicate in his. blunt way that the American

their choice. And they are not dncident had been disposed of and that he must now

turn his attention and of Asia.

Watching Your Health By Dr. Morris Fishbein a Sala

Wie a young chauffeur determined a while ago to end his existerice’ publicly by climbing out on a window ledge, where he rémained for 11 hours before he decided to jump, public attention was foe cused again on self-destruction in human beings. Every year about 20,000 persons in the United States kill themselves. That means that about 18

to settling the affairs of Europe

out of every 1000 men who are born, and about 5 out °

ry 1000 themSuicide, as pointed out by Drs. Louis I. Dublin and: Alfred J. Lotka, is not ‘a’'-prominent cause of death. Yet the inherent drama of this means of departing life has a tremendous attraction for public

attention, ea dee 4 ‘There are many. questions to be answered. Why

of every 1000 women who are born, will kill

do three and a half times as many men as women

commit suicide? Why is the tendency to commit con ‘greater among older than among young people NE It seems that suicide results chiefly from the discouragement and hopelessness of the later years of life, according to the distinguished statisticians, raththe disappointments of youth. More than one-half of all suicides in the United States occur among people 45 years of age and over. The tendency to suicide varies at in our . For instance, our suicide rates were higher before 1915 than they have been singe, * Thiele Was & Inaleria ‘drop after 1915.

from 1925 up to 1933, steadily since Som.