Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 16 August 1938 — Page 11
ie The
‘ ROY W. HOWARD
President
‘Owned and published daily (except Sunday) by The Indianapolis Times
Publishing Co, Maryland St.
. Member of United Press, Scripps - Howard Newspaper Allignce, NEA’ Service, and Audit’ Bureau of Circulations.
. - Give
-
Indianapo
J amd OX Sr mE
Frisia
(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)
L.UDWELL DENNY MARK FERREE Editor
214 W. & week.
outside of Indiana, 65 cents a month.
A Rlley 5551
Light and the People Will Find Their Own Woy
*
. TUESDAY, AUGUST 16, 1938
FRANKFURTER AND THE SUPREME COURT . FREQUENTLY mentioned as a Supreme Court appointee
> to succeed Benjamin Cardozo At each mention is proclaimed by
those who don’t likethe idea the implication that this man | is the creator of all that is radical
impression conveyed being that | - influence only with Franklin Roosevelt, carved out a War- | wickian role for himself, and went, ardently to work to upset |
Harvard law
is Felix Frankfurter, professor.
Frankfurter came into
our form ef government.
In the interest of fairness mation, and of an appointment which the very best that could be made,
made would be one of
should. be stated. , They deal with a modest man who for many years
has not held
officially in the public eye, brilliance of mind and personality
public office and who therefore has not been | but who, nevertheless, by sheer |
has continued to stamp
his influence on his time.
Frankfurter’s part in the New Deal
has been no more
and no less than the part he played for a quarter of a cen-
tury preceding the New Deal—running back through the
administrations of Hoover, Coolidge, Harding, Taft and | Hight of free speech 127s a Sila SHlIaaion ol os
Theodore Roosevelt. The essence of Mr. Frankfurter’s achievement—apart
from his fine
service before 1914 as a public official —has
been the supplying of talent to the legal profession, private
and Governmental. He was once called by the magazine |
Fortune the
most famous legal employment service in
America—famous because his activities were unofficial, unpaid, and disinterested. Fo
Young men recommended by him—to those who asked |
his judgment—went into important places in such great New York corporation law firms as Sullivan & Cromwell; Simpson, Thacker & Bartlett; Davis (John WwW.) & Polk; Root, Clark, Buckner & Howland; Cravath & Henderson. And so, too, in government are Frankfurter men. * The point seems to be that recommending young men of ability hardly classifies him as sinister.
8 8 = =
” X . FELIX FRANKFURTER’S first public appearance was + with Elihu Root’s law partner, Henry L. Stimson, later
Taft's Secretary of War and Hoover's Secretary of State. Theodore Roosevelt had induced Stimson to. become District | the Southern District of New York. Frank-
Attorney for
- furter was two months out of Harvard law school. Stimson
hired him. Other youngsters were needed because Stimwouldn’t permit gray-haired ‘and high-priced
son’s budget
help. Frankfurter picked them.
Such men as Winfred
Dennison, later Philippine Secretary of the Interior; Gold-
thwaite Dorr, later president of the Cotton Textile Insti-
tute; Emory
Buckner, later of the Elihu Root law firm;
Wolcott Pitkin, later counsel for International Telephone. Frankfurter was honored by Taft, by Wilson, by Jus-
tices Holmes
and Brandeis, by Wickersham. And during
the war he became Assistant Secretary of War under New-
ton D. Baker.
And it was not F. D. R. but Eugene Meyer, |
who, as Hoover's Federal Reserve Board chairman, brought Tommy Corcoran from a New York corporation law firm
into Government service — at Frankfurter's suggestion
made at the request of Mr. Meyer. And so on into the New Deal.
Those scattered items, culled as typical from the long
“and important story of a brilliant life, are vital to an understanding thas Felix Frankfurter is no flash in the
pan, no brain
good selection that could be made.
truster on trial. ‘We don’t think he is the only But we do believe that
he is one who, if named, would do honor to the nation’s
highest court
as the direct successor to two of the greatest
of the nation’s justices, Oliver Wendell Holmes and Ben-
jamin Cardozo.
“A TERRIBLE WASTE”
T last we've found one thing on which we can agree with Tom M. Girdler. When Senator La Follette, clos-
ing the Civil
Liberties Committee’s investigation of last
year’s “Little Steel” strike, asked Mr. Girdler to sum up his reactions to that bitter labor struggle, the reply came: “I think that it was a terrible waste of everything.” So it was—a waste of 16 men killed, of more than 307 persons injured, of nearly $2,000,000 spent by Mr. Girdler’s Republic corporation to fight the C. I. O. union. Last year, before another Senate committee, Mr. Girdler submitted evidence designed to show that his. company was blameless and that the union had been guilty of
atrocious violence.
This year—the La Follette investiga-
tion having proved that much of this evidence was false and that Republic Steel had conducted warfare with labor Spies, tear gas and guns—Mr. Girdler’s memory became
vague.
permitted to
But he remembered the good old days “when vou were
have close relations with your employees—
now it’s an unfair labor practice.” | Mr. Girdler’s notion of “close relations” with his employees having been fairly well demonstrated, we conclude that the terrible waste of everything has taught him noth. ing. His regret for what has happened offers no assurance
that the same things won't be permitted
to happen again.
DEMOCRACY IN RUSSIA | A UNITED PRESS dispatch from Moscow says that for
the first
time the Soviet Union “approached actual
parliamentary form” of government when the Supreme Soviet, in its second session under the new constitution, “altered cabinet proposals onthe budget.” "And in which direction do you guess this Soviet legis-
lative body moved the budget? Right up. Up one billion rubles ($200,000,000). But we gather that the Soviet Union’
has not yet gone completely democratic. Not only did they boost the expenditures by one billion rubles, buf they also
balanced that
by boosting the tax receipts one billion rubles.
Those Russians apparently haven’t yet learned the tech‘nique of the more abundant life. How can this generation
of Soviet taxpayers ~~ go considerate of
achieve utopia if they insist on being
is Times
Business Manager
Price in Marion Coun- | ty, 3 cents a copy; delivered by carrier, 12 cents
Mail subscription rates in Indiana, $3 a year;
in the New Deal. The
and of more complete infor-
we think some facts
Fair Enough , By Westbrook Pegler In Approximately Minton's Words,
Columnist Doesn't Want to Muze |
U. S. Senate, but Just the Liars.
YORK, Aug. 16—Maybe I shouldn't take two |
bites of a sad oyster but I am afraid that yesterday I didn't touch up all the points raised by Sherman Minton who, as a member of the U. S. Senate, holds a legal license to lie and slander with impunity
| on the floor of Congress and in the columns of the | Congressional Record. For those who might incline | to regatd this as an overestimate of Senatorial priv- | ilege, I call attention to the parliamentary immunity | enjoyed by all members. of both houses of Congress. | This is a legal protection against the just conse- | quences of irresponsible defamation and the wilful
misrepresentation-of the known truth. It can also be a means of blackmail, for a Senator may use his immunity to persecute any individual or any interest having the ill judgment or civic fortitude to refuse financial tribute to the Senator’s political boss back home, or to oppose any advanced by any Senator. Conferred
as the shield of the liar and the refuge of the coward. : 2 8 & pe ENATOR MINTON has been attacking the ve-
racity of the press in pursuit of his proposal to -
muzzle the papers in retaliation for their opposition to the Reorganization Bill. This bill was defeated by a vote of his colleagues, and not by the. press, so the Senator’s wrath would seem to have chiosen the wrong victim. His proposal was what is called a strike bill. A strike bill is a bill offered in the guise of sincerity to harm a person or interest against whom the author
holds a feud, Senator Minton conceded that he had |
offered ‘his censorship proposal merely for moral effect. It was, in general effect, a warning that the American press, in opposing Deal measures, exposed itself to a risk of censorship by the New Deal. He made the proposition t the free press privilege implies an obligation to avoid wilful untruth. I will take him up on that with the proviso that the right of free speech lays a similar obligation on Sen-
| clergy.
“I didn’t want to muzzle the press,” Senator Minton taid in a speech last Saturday. “I just wanted to muzzle the liars who knew they were lying.” 2 8 8 : | J is sometimes hard to recognize a lie and to prove wilfulness but, up to a certain point, lying and
‘slander are punishable even now, except in the ex-
clusive, privileged company which Senator Minton
adorns. The publisher may be sued or prosecuted for libel. And, theoretically, the political windjammer on the stump may be held legally accountable for slanderous remarks. N Judging by his citations, Mr. Minton leans to the radical -press and to radical critics of the conventional press as authorities on truth. In that he seems to disqualify himself as a judge of veracity, for his radieal friends are second only to the licensed liars of the legislative halls in their abhorrence of truth. In approximately the words of Senator Minton, I don’t want to muzzle the U.S. Senate. I just want to muzzle the liars who &now they are lying.
Business By John T. Flynn
Bondholders Probably Would Get Most Aid From Rail Bankruptcies.
EW YORK, Aug. 16—1It is being said in Wash- ~ ington that ‘the monopoly investigation headed by Senator O'Mahoney is going to have a look into the aftairs of the insurance companies. By this it is
meant, I presume, that the probers will examine the part-played by life and fire insurance presidents in helping bankers to dominate industry. ; If such a study is started surely an effort will be made to clear up the part played by insurance presidents in blocking sound railroad reorganizations. The insurance company, of course, is the richest pool of virgin money available for investment in existence. Naturally promoters who are interested in selling securities to investors keep a close eye upon: these vast reservoirs. This is not new. The present distinguished Chief Justice of the United States made his first entry into fame by exposing the scandals of the old insurance companies in this field. What is the status of this business today? At the present time the railroads are utterly crushed ‘under the vast weight of bonded indebtedness. The insurance companies are large holders of these bonds. Every effort, therefore, to force the roads into bankruptcy in order to simplify their capital structures is opposed by the insurance companies because it is said their bonds will suffer.
Complete Exploration Necessary
But this is not true. Bankruptcies of railroads will probably aid the bondholders more than any other group. All that the bondholders have as security is
‘the roads themselves—the physical properties. At
present the physical properties are slowly crumbling away in many roads for want of adequate maintenance. The real sufferers in the case of railroad bankruptcies will be, not the bondholders, but the stockhqjders. In many cases the stocks are utterly worthless. They are good for one thing only. In the hands .of promoters or promoting groups they give the holders control over the property. Honest bankruptcies would wipe out the stocks of many roads. This would wipe out the control of those who hold them. As for the bonds, they could be converted into new issues of bonds, preferred stocks and common stock. The common stock could then be sold and the insurance companies could get out of the hole they are in. If insurance presidents thought im terms of the interests of their policy holders, this is what they would seek. But they are too closely tied up with the banking groups interested in the stocks to think straight about the interests of their policy holders.
It would be a great misfortune if this whole aspect
‘of railroad control were not fully explored.
A Women's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson
other can teach her daughter? A. correspondent sends me that poser of a question and asks for an answer without trimmings.
Perhaps by passing it on to other mothers we can
get replies that will be better than mine, for I confess
my brains were somewhat addled before I arrived at a conclusion. And here it is.
The most important thing for a girl to know nowadays, it seems to me, is how to keep her wants.some= where within the limits of her possessions, and thus find out how to be happy and useful in her own particular place in her own particular-way.
It is safe for us fo skip the usual alarums about |
; nally in the interests. of freedom of debate, the immunity has been used
WWEAT is. the most important lesson the modern | m
‘| others. It-could be shown with sufficient force that
7 4 vo * 5
x: What Is. Reason or. Roosevelt's. “= Party. Purge? Apparently It Is "To Serve as a Warming to Others,
| TYETHANY BEACH, Del, Aug. 16~Why is a purge— ‘| 42 particularly the present purge of Senators? The
feason given in Georgia was to insure a “liberal” Con-
| gress. ‘Buf’ in Kentucky and Olio both boys were
“liberals.” In Missouri, where the srgument made in Georgia ‘was equally applicable to Bennett Clark, there was. no purge. The argument against Mr. Tal madge in Georgia and Gomer Smith in Oklahoma was “too visionary.” In other words, they were too “lib-
LR hae : N guessing the real reason it seems significant that, nearly always, the purge is being used only Where the political advice is that the purgee would: get licked anyway. | « : i And what is the real reason? It seems fair to guess that it is the same as one of the reasons for ‘a man—as an example and te
‘it-is ‘equivalent to a sentence of political death to vote against any such revolutionary change in Govern-
| ment as was contained in the combined effect of the ‘| eourt and reorganization plans as they came from the
. “| White House. If that would not take the relationship
~The Hoosier Forum Fh ~ I wholly disagree with what you say, but will Ad Aa defend to the death your right to say it—Voltaire. ci
AGREES WITH ROOSEVELT’S SON ON TAX LAWS By W. 8S. \ Jimmy Roosevelt says that he gave his wife half of his interest in his insurance firm, thereby reduc ing the income taxes which he had to pay to Massachusetts and to the Federal Government. ;
Jimmy to divide with his wife. It was a husbandly thing to do. And typically American, The law permits such an arrangement as he made— at least, the law clearly does not prohibit it.. And in so ordering his affairs as to give the tax collectors not ene penny more than the law required, Jimmy was doing only what most ordinary citizens do. I never have regarded such matters in the same light as. does Jimmy’s father, the President, who in June, 1937, sent ‘a° message to Congress calling attention to methods by which certain citizens were avoiding taxation-—on advice. of their lawyers.
Many of these citizens, doubtless, were acting ih the same good faith
assured me that proper.” $ But, as T have said, I don’t feel the way Jimmy's father does. Rather, my attitude is the same as Jimmy’s, that it is the duty of Congress and the legislatures to write the tax laws, and the. duty of the
it was perfectly
require—but no more. : PE ASKS REPRINT OF . EDITORIAL ON PURGE BYE.P.F.
Please reprint the following ediJoris] from the Baltimore Evening un:
God liferal. God bless you, Walter, you voted for the NRA. But you are no liberal.
bless you, Walter, you are no
for the AAA. But you are no liberal. : God bless you, Walter, you voted
liberal. God bless you, Walter, you were in favor of the cancellation of the gold clause. But you are no liberal. God bless you, Walter, you thought it a good idea to overhaul the procedure of our securities exchanges and put them under Federal control. But you are no liberal. God bless you, Walter, you are one of those who voted the Reciprocity Act and who favors Sécretary Hull's trade agreements program. But you are no liberal.
voted for the WPA. But you are no liberal. : : God bless you, Walter, you voted
I think it was quite all right for | —
as Jimmy, who explains: “My lawyer |’
citizens to pay every cent the laws}:
God bless you, Walter, you voted |:
for the TVA. But you are no|
God bless you, ‘Walter, ‘you have
(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, lout names will be ~ withheld on request.)
for ‘the Wagner act, commonly calledslabor’s Magna Charta, which established the NLRB. But you are no liberal. Walter, you poor sap, don’t you know what a liberal is? Walter, a liberal is a guy who shuts his eyes, closes his mouth, and swallows everything I choose to give him, even including such indigestible items as the trippling of the Supreme Court. - So I‘say, Walter, let God you. I won't. . 2 s =» ‘CAMPAIGN SCHOOL’ TERMED STEP FORWARD By a Voter Perhaps the most significant piece of news-I've read recently is the announcement of Miss Marguerite M. Wells, national president of the League of Viomen Voters, that
branches . of the organization throughout the country will conduct “campaign schools”! These one or two-day schools for voters anxious to cast an intelligent vote but bewildered by slogans and shoddy campaigning will do much to enable us to get a clear, impar-
bless
‘great step forward in helping "us citizens to perform our jobs as vot-
tial and dispassionate picture of is-| [sues and candidates. It is a very
is always blamed if poor officials get into office. But the really significant point to me is that such a movement, if kept up, will do more to bring about the reforms in politics we nieed so badly than any laws a minority could push through legis~ lative mills. ® ” ATTACKS FRANK'S FARM THEORY By a Times Reader How is Glenn Frank's: “Republican Propagandist” theory working out for the farmérs? Rotten, if you ask any farmer with any sense. Frank's theory seems to be plant more and lose money. Look at the farmers’ prices of today. I sm not such a farmer, but I would like to see farmers make money. : : 8 ® =» SAYS WPA INVITES BEST AVAILABLE TALENT By F. M. Kirkendall A salesman toddy told me that the graduating class of a Western college came to commencement headed with this banner: “We are on our way to ‘the WPA.” Is this a reflection upon our economic condition or of high grade scholarship of the class? The cay has come that this field of labor and skill calls and invites. the best available talent that we have. ; This New Deal innovation is the test democratic achievement since the adoption of our Constitution. ; Si When business, big and little choose fo enter the productive field they will bid from a clientele of workers and not from a congested
ers more intelligently than ‘we have | breadline.
in the past. For in the end the general public
SUNSET By KEN HUGHES have watched the rim of leaves, Golden from the light, Change into the evening red Before the fall of night; I have kept another day Living in my heart,- . the edge
Yet you have dimmed it the seedlings start.
Before DAILY THOUGHT Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve Him, and shalt swear by His name.—Deuteronomy 6-13. :
OD should be the object of all "our desires, the end of all our actions, the principle of all our affections, and the governing power
3
#
of our whole souls.—Massillon. i * : : ;
A friend gave me 500 stamps with a personal ‘request that I send this article to the editors of 500 publications. il : £ ss = = READERS ENJOYED PEGLER'S VACATION By M. and O. B. : How we did enjoy Westbrook PegJer’s vacation and wish it could have been extended. No, we were not his guests but we enjoyed The Times so much more while Raymond Clapper’s articles occupied the "space usually allotted to Mr. Pegler. Bh We have long ‘been boosters of
The Times as our city’s best paper and feel that Raymond Clapper and
Rodney Dutcher’s articles make it |
even better. They have the unusual virtue ef presenting facts instead of . opinions which
too frequently are based upon prej-
udice, not fact.
morality. Each generation has its own codes anyway. |
Right and wrong are terms that have different mean= | ings for different age groups. i He
Our girls are growing up in a world where materialism has run amuck. Too many of us waste our lives in a vain longing for something we haven't got
and never can have. Isn't it significant that the most |
overworked word n( strictly defined, glamour means “some charm chantment operating on the vision and causing thing: to seem different from what they really are.” In
Isn't it time, then, that our girls learned that the smart person in any age is the one who knows how to get every drop of joy out of today? = : Only the rare few see the real beauty of y and glimpse the glory of the human soul, beneath drab outside of ordinary people. Without
ingthe language is “glamour”? And | or en- [7
i plain terms, to be glamorous means to be arti- fT
LET'S EXPLORE YOUR MIND
By DR. ALBEET EDWARD WIGGAM—
"| would go-a long 1] - woul d: be
| - between President and Congress all the way to the
domination by Hitler of the Cierman legislature, it way in that direcion. The executive
| legislators. how to vote for laws,
wh 2 ='s KX 7HAT laws? What are the objectives in which
© VV. Senator George, who voted for nearly every Roosevelt thing, does not “really in his heart” believe?
|.~ We can only guess, but there are good guides in
the form-in which recent White House legislative
|| ‘proposals have been made—the court, reorganization, ‘I ‘wages-and-hours and “7, TVA’s” proposals—the “lump
sum” relief grab from Congress of its constitutional power of the pursé—the Nazi farm bill and Mr. Wallace’s insistence that industry be similarly goosestepped. There been no Administration proposal in two years tha# did not trend toward concentration of Governmental power of both states and nation in the hands of one man. There has been no hint or action by Mr. Roosevelt that he knows of any but himself who could be entrusted with such power. This observer believes that he feels there is no such man. What are the objectives in which Mr. George does not “in his heart” believe? What do you think?
It Seems to Me By Heywood Broun. i A
If Hamilton Really Wanted F. D. R, To Run Again He Wouldn't Say Seo.
EW YORK, Aug. 16—John-D. M. Hamilton and LN other spokesmen of the Republican Party are said to be secretly praying that Franklin Delano Roosevelt will try. for a third term, : And, according to this same “secret” and “undercover” gossip, they desire a ‘successful drive for the naming ‘of ‘Roosevelt in the next Democratic nomination on the ground that F.D. R. would be much easier to defeat than any other New Deal candidate.
One never knows just how far a8 Republican leader will go in deluding himself, and Mr. Hamilton is quite capable of major errors in political judgment. But in nis case I think he should be absolved from ine eptitude. !
His prayers for one more crack in the arena at Franklin Delano Roosevelt are not very secret any more. They have become public property and are, I gravely suspect, a part, and a wholly legitimate part, of the Republican strategy. : If John D. M. Hamilton actually believed that the renomination of Roosevelt would be a boon to the Republicans he would keep that opinion to himself instead of whispering it so widely behind his hand.
It is a party practice to take any advice from the opposite side and interpret it in.reverse. If Hamilton says that Roosevelt would be the weakest of Demo“cratic candidates the strategists of the party in power have every right to assume that he actually means the President would be the most powerful. : Speaking as a Republican partisan, and even optie mist, Hamilton has said that it is easier to defeat an individual than to upset his policies. He assumes: * the attitude that a New Dealer, other than the President, might run better because he would not be chal lenging what has been called the third term “tradition.”
Measures and Not Men
Tt would be an excellent thing if American voters concerned themselves more with policies and less with personalities. But they never have done so as yet, and it is unlikely that any switch in public psychology will come about immediately. : The third-term issue might cost Roosevelt some votes, but most of those who will oppose him on that ground never were for him in the first place. : Nor can any very eloquent appeal be made to the intention of the Founding Faihers. If the framers of the Constitution had felt that anything more than two terms would be. fatal to the republic they would “have placed a prohibition in the law. : ‘Many things may happen between now and the ‘ convention and the election of 1940, but from ‘the neutral point of view of an aged, although amateur observer of American politics, it is -my opinion that right now Franklin Delano Roosevelt is far and
. away the most effective candidate the Democrats can
Watching Your ‘Health
\
By Dr. Morris Fishbein
: is the time of year when doctors more and more often see a disturbance of the knee joint that is the result of indulgence in athletic performe "The usual cause of trouble with the knee joint is generally a violent twist or wrench of the knee, or a sudden movement on rising from a squatting or kneel-
| ing positi
“In this derangement of the knee joint the patient usually feels a sudden and severe pain which is often accom by a the joint, so that the
The cartilage is usually one on the inside of the knee rather than one on the outside. Very soon after the ‘pour into tie knee joint and it ‘18 the mecha for protecting