Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 27 August 1938 — Page 8

“: ROY W. HOWARD LUDWELL DENNY ~. President ’ x “hs ; Editor

“dally (except Sunday) by

ye

ih Wd IA TBA WE AarbiiG A fA HPT

* land values, foreclosures and political panaceas. x

- Scripps - Howard Newss

JHE war was over and the country headed “back to

fines 3 i

“The :

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SATURDAY, AUGUST 27, 1938 “DOING FOR THE FARMER

: normaley.” The farmer got there first, tumbling down “from $2 wheat and 35-cent cotton fo ruinous prices and

The Harding Administration had to “do something

“= for the farmer.” If passed the Fordney-McCumber tariff,

Spallyhooed as a measure to keep the

ho

eign peasants out of the American market—a wholly im-

cheap products of for-

saginary threat. The farmers got “protective” rates which

“did them no good, and industry got rates that put stilts

“under the things the farmers had to buy.

rs The Coolidge idea of doing something was to veto all “farm legislation and encourage our financiers in their loans abroad which enabled Europe to continue buying a little

>from us, on the cuff. Everybody except the farmer kept & cool with Cal.

The Hoover Administration “did” for the farmer

> through the Smoot-Hawley tariff, pricking the bubble of

exports on credit, and, through the Farm Board, buying

.* Wheat

+2:Corn ...

bs .

= ~ > ng

surpluses and “stabilizing” prices ever downward. By the end of that decade and a half the farmer had

been “done” to a turn. : : » ®2 = » » 8 : THEN came the New Deal's AAA—dramatized at first by plowing under cotton and killing little pigs, regulated

A %

! later by acreage control designed to balance supply and

demand, at profitable prices. It was a pay-as-you-go plan, financed by processing taxes on the commodities benefited. Mightily assisted by droughts and dollar devaluation, ‘the plan worked. Surpluses melted, prices rose, and farmers _ with cash to spend began buying once more the products of city factories. : : ~The Supreme Court outlawed the processing taxes and production controls. The droughts continued a while longer, pushing prices higher. Then nature followed the lead of the high court. The New Deal hastily improvised a roundabout way of attempting what the Court had said it could not do directly. It dipped deep into the Treasury for soilconservation and parity-price payments. The farmers took these bigger and better payments and proceeded to harvest bigger and better crops. The New Deal put another production-control law through Congress, but not in time

“to stop the big cotton crop of last year or the bumper wheat . harvest of this. As surpluses piled up, prices slid down.

® 8 8 8 8 =

2 HE following table tells the story of effort and frustra-

c tion. It gives the available supplies of the three prin- ; cipal American crops— as of six years ago when - ver was on his way out, as of two and one-half years ago ‘{ when the Supreme Court killed the processing taxes, and +. as of today: :

Mr. ‘Hoo-

6 years ago 214 years ago Today 13,000,000 9,041,000 13,400,000 ~~ (5cper lb.) (llc per lb.) (814c per lb.) vv... 1,182,000,000 774,000,000 1,110,000,000 (36¢ bu.) (92¢ bu.) (60c bu.)

3,202,000,000 2,369,000,000 2,886,000,000 (30c bu.) (5314c bu.) (54c bu.)

¢ Cotton ....vs (Bales)

(Bushels)

~. ~(Bushels)

: = The various AAA programs over this period have cost ~~ $2,600,000,000. The money is gone. And in the matter of

surpluses we are back where we started. As to prices—

~ we're on our way back.

Instead of the original AAA program which seemed

to work, and financed itself by raising around $500,000,000

annually, we have a new program which. isn’t working— or at least hasn’t worked yet—and may cost as much as a _ billion a year—all out of the general Treasury and borrowed

money at that. - ” » 8 » # »

HERE do we go from here? : ~ Will our farmers have the patience to wait while " Congress writes and courts approve another law along the lines of the original self-financing AAA, seemingly the

~~ soundest method yet evolved for keeping production within ~ what the markets will absorb? Will they have the further

- patience to wait while Secretary Hull whittles at tariff barriers to recapture lost markets? Will they take the slow road? Or will they marshal “their great political power for a type of offensive which

courts cannot stay—a raid on the Treasury? Such, for ~ example, as the so-called cost-of-production bill which would

‘guarantee 42 cents for every pound of cotton and $1.51 for every bushel of wheat produced for domestic consumption, no limit on production, and the surplus to be dumped on the world markets at any price it will bring? Or a raid on consumer pocketbooks and our whole

~« economic system—monetary inflation?

We might as well get ready for it. The next session will be another do-something-for-the-farmer Congress.

~ HULL REPLIES TO MEXICO

“WE have held conversations with regard to payment ; ~ for many years without result. Seemingly, the Mexican Government proposes to continue the policy of taking ‘property without payment while continuing discussions of _ bast takings.” So saying, Secretary of State Hull bluntly declined Mexico's proffer of further diplomatic negotiations on ‘Mexican seizures of lands which belonged to American citizens—unless there is a prior understanding that if mediation fails the claims will be immediately arbitrated, and unless Mexico pledges its good faith by putting aside money to “pay the claims as settled and by guaranteeing that mean- + ‘while there will be no further expropriations. Mr. Hull is not a man to use strong, uncompromising language in trifling disputes. In his current exchange of notes with the Mexican Government he is fighting for far more than a just settlement of some ten million dollars®

~ worth of American-owned farms expropriated ten years

ago. He is fighting for a principle of international law. ~ Back of his fight lies the question of whether the peo- ~ ples of this hemisphere can continue to carry on with each

other the ordinary business of borrowing and lending, buy- | ing and selling, In short, can we continue to be good in a r 1 2 Tk i

Ri

; Indianapolis Times

‘because Japan was on a martial rampage

. up trouble. :

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler : Columnist's Father Feels That He > Should Have a Little Credit for Writing a Play Still. Full of Run.

EW YORK, Aug. 27—Damon Runyon, sittilg down to crack his knuckles the way he does be-

fore starting his daily story, took a look at a piece: |

about the liquidation of William C. Durant’s art

treasures and horned his A at the point where old

man Durant said he had enjoyed living with these possessions for 30 years and had no regrets. »

Damon said Mr. Durant’s feeling about the loss |

of material possessions reminded him of his old

man's philosophy in such moments. Damon's old

man was a printer and editor out around Kansas and

Colorado, and Damon says that whenever he lost possession of something his old. man would say that the ;

joy of possession compensated the financial write-off. I guess my old man’s feeling would have been

about the same about material possessions if he had

ever had any. He did take a claim to a quarter section of timber up around Hibbing, Minn., one time and:

- put an Indian on it, according to the custom of those

days, but the Indian jumped the fence and somebody

came along to protest the claim on the ground that it

wasn’t being worked, and took it. ” t 8

A NTVAY. my old man didn’t mind. He had felt the pleasure of nominal ownership for a spell, so it was all even with him. You know—easy go. As a reporter in the old get-the-story days in Minneapolis or Chicago he never was much bothered by accumulation, but there was renk and pride in the title of star reporter, and my old man was acknowledged a star by friend and foe. I am not writing of my old man in the past tense, please, but only of those days. My old man is still. in action, writing the story of his life. I think the only pang my old man ever felt over a loss was along with various attempts to cloud his credit for the authorship of a melodrama called “Little Lost Sister.” There is talk: now of producing this show on Broadway, after 25 years. My old man stands to get nothing out of this because he wrote the play in a week and sold it for $100 an act, cash on delivery, at a time when there was bad sickness in the family and he had to get money.

J ® s

ELL, it didn’t seem much at the time, but it got its second wind after a while, and that play has been running, on the road as long as there was any road, in stock as long as there was any stock, in rep shows and on show boats on the Mississippi and the southern East Coast ever since. For a time nobody else claimed authorship, A woman named Virginia Brooks was named on the billing, but she was just a local vice crusader in whose name my old man had ghosted a series of sensational newspaper articles under the same title. Because her name was hot and associated with the title she was paid more than my old man got. Since then various authors have decided that they wrote “Little Lost Sister,” but the only other who had anything to do with it was a play actor named Rose, who just hopped it up after the opening. Maybe it was a lousy show, as the critical term goes nowadays, but it is beginning to make “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” pant and look back. And my old man has always felt in a quiet way that those who enjoyed the material rewards could well afford to let him have his fair credit for a play which is still full of run.

Business By John T. Flynn

Devices to Solve Farmers’ Problem Have Left Us Just Where We Began.

EW YORK, Aug. 27.—The pound sterling is now ».X_ around its old parity. And thereby hangs a tale. Back in the pre-Roosevelt days the English Gov-

ernment decided to let the pound slip until it got

down around $3.506. The English live by foreign trade. They wanted to stimulate their export trade and build up their domestic markets against imports. The depreciated pound helped them—or at least the English thought it would,

Then the Administration—Mr. Roosevelt’s Administration—decided to rehabilitate the American farmer. This it was going to do by raising the price of farm products. get a larger income-on his domestic sales—provided the farmers’ customers had the money to pay the higher prices. This was easily managed by pouring out billions to the unemployed in cities.

But with the price of farm products increased, the foreign market would naturally collapse. So this the President, with the aid of the late Dr. Warren, found he could manage very easily. How many now remember the President explained the miracles he was about to work. This one he wofked by devaluing the dollar. That made dollars cheaper to foreign buyers. As the foreigners could buy more dollars they could buy more goods, and this com-

‘pletely offset the rise in prices.

Stymied by Other Countries

But the scheme didn’t work. The markets didn’t materialize. Instead other countries quickly devalued their currencies. Now, in spite of all the plans to reduce crops, we are having a larger wheat crop than the nation has known in years. The price of wheat has slipped down to a disastrously low point. But at the same time the pound sterling has begun to slip again. In other words we are back again precisely where we started. Now the Secretary of Agriculture proposes dumping. In other words he proposes to enable farmers to se]l their wheat abroad by having the United States pay part of the price of each bushel the foreigner takes. We try to curtail crops. We fail. We {ry to keep up grain prices. We fail. Farmers cannot sell their grain even at the disaster prices. So we lend them money on every grain of wheat they raise on the acreage which they are permitted to plant. But this is not enough. We pay out billions to our own unemployed to enable them to buy the farmers’ wheat. And now we plan to pay part of the price of the wheat which foreigners buy. The question is—are we solving the farm problem by these devices? Are we even scratching the surace

: : ! ° > A Women's Viewpoint | ‘By Mrs. Walter Ferguson HOPE your memory is not so short that you will have fargotten how much money the last Con-

gress voted for naval defense. You will recall that we were told these staggering sums were necessary

and might any day dash over to annex the U.S. A.

What do you think about the idea now? Do you believe we are in any danger from Japanese invasion? That's hardly likely, since Japan has a full-sized job on her hands looking after her Chinese campaign and keeping the Russians out of her back yard. , Whom are we afraid of then? Germany? Italy? France? Russia? Preposterous! The minute any of them left her own boundaries unguarded the ancient enemy next door would swarm in, 3 These facts were pointed out over and over and over by every peace organization and worker during the Congressional debates on military appropriations. But nothing ‘they said could stop the pressure of the jingoes, who raised the war whoop of a Japanese invasion. : Apropos of the subject, I urge you to read a new book by Bernhard Menne, published by Lee Furman, called “Blood and Steel.” It is the inside story of the rise of the House of Krupp, vast munitions power in Germany, which has sowed the seeds of every war in Europe since 1600. ; aif who want fo sell

Find out for yourself how men around tables and scheme to stir

steel and arms sit Every man who may be asked to die some day

for his country, and every woman who may be vequired to give her sons to the slaughter, should know

the facts. Once they become widely enou we shall agree, I believe, that it is the citizen in i 0.) LC vote

This of course would help the farmer to

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

SAYS NEW DEAL OF GREATEST AID TO THOSE ATTACKING IT

By Robert K. Taylor

One of the peculiar things about the current scene is the businessman’s hostile attitude toward the New Deal. It may well be argued that the New Deal has aided the business class more than any other. Quite favorable fo the businessman has been the stabilization of employment, the reduction of seasonal and cyclic unemployment. One of the pet peeves of the capitalists is the WPA system of relief, but it seems obvious to me that this has operated entirely for the benefit of those who denounce it. First, if there had been no large-scale relief program, as before 1932, many unemployed workers would have left the cities. As it is now, a huge labor market, both skilled and unskilléd, has been retained in the cities ready for private industry at all times. On many WPA projects the workers have been trained and may now be classed as skilled workmen, whereas before they were unskilled. The WPA wage is everywhere lower than current union wages; thus the workers rare ready and waiting for private employers. Second, while everyone is taxed for the relief burden, the businessman stands a better chance than the rest of us of getting return in excess of the amount he has paid in taxes. For WPA workers are paid only enough for subsistence, so that every dollar must be spent. The businessmen reap heavily from this great market, one may be sure. If you're a businessman, you'll do well to recognize that Roosevelt is the best friend of business and labor alike that we have had in the White House, he Sh oe. PUZZLED BY VIEWS ON POLITICAL MORALITY

By George Morris

‘There are two sides to every question, including that of morality. Public sentiment determines what is moral and what is immoral. Persons in different localities may have entirely different viewpoints. French women paint their fingernails with no thought other than to enhance their natural charm. German women are cautioned not te paint their nails lest the public receive an erroneous idea of their profession. Country churches have been known to split over the question of morals in raffling a sewing circle quilt for the benefit of the parsonage, while some city churches sponsor bingo, bunko and bridge. ° Recently the country was treated to simultaneous lectures from opposing viewpoints by two leading exponents of political morality, At

(Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns, religious controversies excluded. Make your letter short, so all can have a chance. Letters must be signed, but names will be "withheld on_request.)

the time President Roosevelt was telling reporters at Hyde Park that it was immoral for Republicans to vote in Democratic primaries, Senator Berry laid before Senator Sheppard’s committee a complaint that “thousands of men and women who had not heretofore voted in Democratic. primaries, presented themselves in the primary booths,” and were denied this privilege and illegally disfranchised. : Neither advocate of his viewpoint on political morality had any selfish motive. It was “a matter of principle.” President Roosevelt warned the reporters to take note that he mentioned no candidate. He wanted Republicans kept out of Democratic primaries to prevent destruction of the primary system and return to the old boss-controlled convention system. Senator Berry did not particularize as to the ultimate fate of the Democratic Party if Republicans are denied the right to participate in Democratic primaries. He only gave his personal word, which is as good as his lease, that the complaint. is “not because of any disappointment upon my part as a candidate,” but because “the unnatural and inde-

GRANDAD’S DREAM

By PEGGY ANN COOK

I'd like to make a pilgrimage Just somewhere to enjoy The memories of happy days, When I was but a boy! Away from noisy traffic— Somewhere where fish will bite, And I could go in swimming, Where I could fly a kite! Somehow I've grown old quickly And my only joy is wishing; Yes, and dreaming now Of the time I was a boy!

DAILY THOUGHT

Woe to him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbor’s service without . wages, and giveth him not for his work.—Jeremiah 22:13.

TT generous who is always just, and the just who is al-

approach the throne of Heaven.— Lavater.

ways generous, may, unannounced,

cent procedure involves the moneys of the United States paid in by the taxpayers.” i These powerful and conflicting briefs in defense of political morality leave the average citizen in a quandary. He cannot accept both. He might cleave to one and abandon the other. Or he might, in his extremity, apply the rule of other kinds of morality to political morality and decide that morality consists

getting caught.

8 8.2 “i OBJECTS TO ROUTES MAPPED FOR STATE FAIR VISITORS By One Who Knows the City * Take a look at the official map for State Fair visitors. Who would ever come in on Road 29 and go to Noble St, and by that death trap at Washington St.? Only a crazy man would do or ‘suggest that when he: could turn off at

Sherman Drive is safer than Arlington Ave, for traffic from Roads 40 and 52, and also for Road 31 traffic from Raymond to 38th St. There are a dozen other ways for a stranger to get “to the Fair Grounds more safely than by jamming into the regular city ‘traffic, which is about as unsafe as that of any city in the U. 8S. 2 = = URGES ELECTION OF KEALING By R. C. Hensley ~~ vi To Marion County voters I want to say in behalf of your next Sheriff, Edward Kealing, that'I have known him for 25 years, and defy any man to find g black mark against his record. Look up his record as City Councilman and see what: he has done for the people of your city. Ask any streetcar man. if he ever got a raw deal from Mr. Kealing. Mr, Kealing has friends all over the State—friends who will back him to the limit, because he is honest. - You can depend on him to do just what he tells you he will, ER

» » » 1 TFRMS DIES COMMITTEE'S ACTIVITY UN-AMERICAN By M.B.T. ! The Congressional Committee investigating un-American activities probably doesn't realize that ‘its own activity is un-American. Amer-

herent in our political philosophy is the belief, expressed by Jefferson, that whenever our Government becomes destructive of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, we may change it. Everyone of, the millions unemployed- knows how fallacious capitalism is. Perhaps we

do need communism.

LET'S EXPLORE YOUR MIND

ones and neither can ho

THE STORY OF HEREDITY

*DAD, DO YOU THINK WE COULD GER

W AFELY ON RE AE oF LVL HO WHERE *NO, ’, be 4 i Re - | BETTING ON SUCH AN ON Tie es ERED!

NO. BECAUSE school teachers | given can’t tell bright pupils fm aul

‘tests are of el

By DR, ALBERT EDWARD WIGGAM

“Novropion_— | |

Other experiments have shown.similar results. 2 iE . = » ® IF THE heredity were completely. known, I think Dad

| Gen.

in doing the things he can get by | with, and immorality . consists in

Sherman Drive- and go to 38th St.

iea was born in revolution and in-|

Say— =

‘Without the Closest Supervision

Prison Atrocities Like That at Philadelphia Can Happen Anywhere,

ETHANY BEACH, Del, Aug. -27.—According to press reports, discipline at the county prison in the City of Brotherly Love: didn't exclude the use of hot steam—either to roast four human beings to death or to make them so desperate that they bashed their own lives out against the walls. while

more than 20 others were suffocated to the ‘point of collapse. ’ 3 % ¥ CR

‘There is such a thing as ‘mollycoddling prisonersp

" but any executive, from the President down, whose

duties include the care of men “put away,” should

know that, without the utmost care, atrocities like .

this may crop out at any time, anywhere. i : There exists, unrestrained in some men, une suspected and latent in many more, a streak of almost sadistic savagery that makes them unfit to be keepers

| and masters of others. There arises perhaps in a

majority of men’ who are responsible for prisoners, a contempt for them. In that state of kind, if occasion comes, that animal streak will disclose itself among men who possess it—and some of the. mildestmannered do. wk ‘ » ” ” : 2 PRISONER is a nuisance and a constant danger L A to his keeper. It becomes easy to hate him. No gloss of good surroundings and watchful care can quite erase the degradation of prison life. A man in prison tends to become a dangerous animal. The

marvel about abuses is that they are not 10 times

more frequent. There are many more of them. than

~ the public ever hears about.

In war, there is a popular belief that prisoners are respected by their captors as equals in valor, but un-

fortunate. As every professional officer knows, the .

problem is to keep them from being slaughtered on the sly and sometimes openly. oe

The old plebe-system at West Point was a very

| different thing from the horseplay of college hazing.

It was conducted with great dignity on a kind of codeduello. While no" upperclassmen ever put a hand on a plebe except in a formal fight, & fourth classman

- was unofficially subject to their orders. The punish-

ment for plebian misdemeanors was either for the “beast” to assume a very exaggerated and constrained position and hold it painfully for many minutes, or it was some form of setting-up exercise continued beyond the point of comfort. : : FI a = Har system prevailed for about a century with no - serious abuses and not much complaint.

| Then there appeared in upper classes a top-heavy

number of influential youngsters possessed of that

| streak of savagery. The old system was retained but

Stepped up to extremes of cruelty scarcely credible. na. ‘abolish West Point and the old system was broken up. * If that kind of thing can happen in such a college, it is a wonder that all prisons and insane asylums are not bedlams or torture chambers. Prevention of this is the duty of the chief executive of the state, city or county, and of course of the wardens or jailers, by the closest kind of supervision and inspection. The thugs who turned hot steam on helpless men should get theirs. But that isn't enough. So also should their responsible bosses,

It Seems to Me By Heywood Broun

Columnist Refuses to be Cajoled Into Attacking Russia's - Efforts.

EW YORK, Aug. 27.—Back in the days when “a fellow-traveler” meant no more than a passen-

«ger with whom you sat in the smoking car I was

traveling in a day coach to Chicago. I was one of the New York delegates to the Socialist convention in Milwaukee, but I didn’t know much about socialism. On the train there was a great deal of discussion about what the party's attitude should be in regard to Russia. Three schools. of thought-were represented. A fellow newspaperman named Joseph Shaplen exe plained the position-of the side which he espoused,

They wanted a resolution saying that Russia had be-

trayed socialism and that everything was all wrong. There: was a middle group which wanted to extend fraternal greetings-and then add some footnotes about mistakes which were being made: The third section urged that the Socialist Party should just ‘extend greetings of good will and comradeship. ra If there were any reservations: they would be kept within the group and not made a matter of public announcement. Hoping to. vote with some intelligence in the matter, I kept running from one group to ane other. ; The man I knew best was B. Charney Vladéck, now one of the ablest leaders of the Labor group in thi New York City Council. I knew that he was Russian born and that, indeed, he had been in Siberia as a revolutionist. He talked to me long and earnestly and. argued for the middle-of-the-road position. Shortly after his release from Siberia he went by a devious route to London, where a little group of men in rebellion against the Tsar had arranged for a meeting.

For Better or for Worse

“That was a convention, Heywood,” he said. “We were to vote for a head man. Lenin was more radical than I, but I voted for him. He won by one vote.” But then Charney went on to tell me of how the revolution had failed to live up to his expectations. And out of a sudden impulse I said, “But Charney, even so, this is socialism, If the Soviets fail, there

. can’t be socialism anywhere or anything like it for

generations and generations. We can’t pat them on the back and slap them in the face at the same time.” {a j And just as suddenly I was embarrassed. “I haven’ any business to advise you because you know so much about it and I know so little.” And Charney smiled and said, “You could be right. Maybe I am too close to see it all.” : . In six years my conviction has grown. Of course, mistakes have been made. There are plenty of pere

‘sons eager and: willing to detect and even to magnify

them, and so I will not be kidded, cajoled or harassed

into attacking the greatest effort for human better<

ment which has been made in history.

Watching Your Health

By Dr. Morris Fishbein

exploded in a scandal that threatened to _

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~HE word “germs” covers a variety of living .,

capable of producing disease. There are not only such living organisms as the bacteria, which are visible under an ordinary. microscope, but also organisms too small to be seen by thai means, For organisms small enough to pass through the

pores of filters which will hold back ordinary bacteria ‘we use the term virus, or filterable virus. ;

Our first knowledge of viruses began in 1898. In the meantime much has. been learned concerning

| them. Among the many acute infections fevers which

..| It has also been shown that fever sores (or herpes),

caused by viruses, we now include , mumps and probably chickenpox,

, yellow fever, infantile