Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 15 October 1938 — Page 10

The Indianapolis Times

ROY W. HOWARD LUDWELL DENNY MARK FERREE President Editor Business Manage»

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Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Woy

Member of United Press, Scripps = Howard Newspaper Alliance, NEA Service, and Audit Bu-

reau of Circulations. Rlley 5851 .

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1938

NATIONAL DEFENSE RESIDENT ROOSEVELT yesterday let it be known that he is having made a detailed survey of national defense problems with a view to making the country more secure against war. After all that has bien happening in Europe he would be remiss if he did not take some such step. For weeks Germany kept the world teetering on the edge of war, and it was only averted at the price of the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia and the humiliation of Great Britain and France the effect of which no man today can foresee. As long as Britain and France remained stronger than, or as strong as, Germany, there was no danger of a general conflict. But the moment the position was reversed the die was cast. Europe faced inevitable war or else handing over to the Nazis whatever they wanted. This newspaper has never been an advocate of unlimited armaments. But there must be and is a sane middle course—a. course to be determined by the armaments of others. If they insist upon arming more, we must arm more, If they arm less—and we should never cease trying to induce them to arm less—we can arm less. There is no panacea for peace but a relatively strong national defense as the best available insurance against war or humiliation. Within the last year that has been pretty conclusively demonstrated. Whether we like it or not there exist today certain actual and potential outlaw states ready and prepared to take what they can from their weaker neighbors. Might is the only thing these aggressors "fear or respect and in default of an adequate, functioning collective security system; each nation or group of Rations has got to look out for itself. Certainly if there ever was any merit in the Monroe Doctrine—and every President from Monroe to Roosevelt has upheld it—there is merit in it now. If China were to suggest disarmament today, she ‘would be laughed at, yet she is the most populous country on earth. But back in 1920, when Uncle Sam had what was by way of becoming the most powerful fleet on the seven seas, the others came running when he suggested limitation.

MIGHT WORK TOO WELL

FTER five years of having his farm program kicked around by Congress, the courts and the weather—and being still plagued with crop surpluses and low prices— Secretary Wallace can hardly be blamed for clutching at straws. And this latest plan he is fondling sure looks like a straw. The scheme, as reported in the news columns, is to go a step beyond the free distribution of surpluses through relief channels and set up a two-price system for persons not on relief. A low price for poor people, and, as we understand it, the market price for people who can afford to pay what the retail merchants ask. Without wanting to prejudge the plan, some questions naturally arise. For instance, how will the Secretary segregate the under-privileged consumers from the wellheeled? A domestic servant earning only a few dollars a week would surely be classified as belonging to the “lower onethird” and thereby be entitled to purchase her wants at the special Government-subsidy discount. But what would prevent the frugal housewife from sending her maid out to buy the household’s supplies? And if enough housewives did that, who would be left to buy the goods on the merchants’ shelves; and then what would prevent the merchants and their clerks from gravitating into the “lower one-third” ? And it seems to us a very probable “if.” For though the copy-book maxim tells us that Americans cherish equal opportunities, candor compels us to admit that most Americans have an even greater preference for special privileges. How frequently we hear the statement: “I can get it for you wholesale!” If the Government starts a special bargain counter, won’t we all be there, each clamoring for a little more than his share? No doubt about it, the scheme is sure-fire for disposing of those evil surpluses. Just give away enough through relief, and sell enough more at the way-below-cost prices which all of us will pay. Presto! The surpluses disappear —and the loss is charged to the taxpayers, meaning all of us. But what then of the even greater evils thereby set in motion? And how will that make people richer and more able to buy next year’s crops?

RED BADGE OF COURAGE

F you are on relief,” declared Magistrate Jeannette G. Brill to a woman defendant in her New York City court, “you ought not to have on lipstick and fingernail polish. You should spend that 10 cents on your children.” And then as a parting blast: “No suffering woman looks like you! 199 Feminine psychology is a mysterious thing, to be sure, and Magistrate Brill may be a perfect Daniel come to judgment. But legally she counts wrong because no law should require sufferers to look as doleful as they feel. More power indeed to those who bear their sufferings with a jaunty air! Lipstick and fingernail polish, we always heard, had a special duty to perform in building up a woman’s spirit, giving her self-confidence and courage to face the world. If she has been on relief a long time we suspect she would need a large smear of lipstick and all the other aids as well.

NO PEACE PACTS POSSIBLE A SPADEFUL of earth turned this week in a beautiful section of landscaped estates near Washington, D. C., is of deep significance in man’s age-old fight against disease and untimely death. There will rise the National Cancer Institute, Govern: ment research center to battle the disease whose origin still is among medicine’s unsolved mysteries. This is the kind of warfare in which Government has engaged too lightly, while ile spoliing billions for battleships and bombers... igh bn Zan i

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler

“When Nations or Pugilists Have Power to Show, They Aren't Going. To Keep It in Hiding, Peg Says.

EW YORK, Oct. 15—If Charles Lindbergh warned the British that the mysterious Russian air force was no good he probably told the truth. There can be no toubt that he knows planes and engines, and he certainly was in a position to make comparisons between the Russian and German material and the skill of their fliers. Maj. Al Williams, who also knows the difference between a German bomber and a mechanical June

bug, confirms the information which Lindbergh is said to have passed on to the British petticoat government at Cliveden. He also was impressed by the excellence of the German equipment and personnel, and no mere accu-

swer his findings, The Russians by their mysteriousness have pre-

rather than strength. The Germans invited the ‘Frénch general in command ‘of aviation to look: at such of their equipment as they cared to show him in return for similar courtesy to one of their generals, and it is ndt unlikely that he came home to report that the Nazis were fixed to give France and Brit the start of the war, ww i.

I= is certain that they: didn’t show him any weaktice of the strong to pretend to be flabby.

nature so frugal and stingy that they doubtless are still flying a few old spit-and-paper kites, powered with clockworks, left over from the World War. Their orchid man, Georges Carpentier, once gave the suckers of this country a memorable lesson in mysterious preparation for a big fight. Georges was only a light heavyweight and over the hill, so he went into private training at Manhasset and announced that he was perfecting a secret punch—a morsel of information which dropped all the experts squawking on the grass in hysterics. They knew that all the punches of which the human fist is capable had been invented and used long ago. There wasn’t a single soul in the whole prize-fight profession who doubted for an instant that he imposed this secrecy because he was so’ bad.

8 J » ET proof was lacking, so one afternoon a photographer stowed away in the haymow of the old barn overlooking the practice ring and remained there when the crowd left; sighting his camera through a knothole, to await the private session in the evening, when the secret punch was to be worked over. He had a long, difficult wait, but about dusk Carpentier took the ring and rewarded his patierice with a magnificent sprawl, smack on the sole of his pants, when tapped on the face by the clumsy Paul Journee. Consternation reigned, and at its height the photographer pictured Carpentier, horizontal with the astonished and apologetic Journee standing over him, but Francois Descamps heard the camera click, and the mob went up the ladder to destroy the plate

‘and nearly destroy the photographer in their panic.

The story was printed, though without the picture, and still the suckers clamored for tickets, hut, after all, that was just a show nota war, ‘and the life of their country wasn’t staked on their gullible faith in some great mysterious power veiled in secrecy.

Business By John T. Flynn

An Apology Is Due the Economist Whose Satire Was Misinterpreted.

EW YORK, Oct. 15 ~—Recently I. reported here that Dr. Paul Nystrom, a well-known marketing economist of Columbia University, now president of the Limited Price Variety Stores Association, had advocated a plan to have the Government buy up the unsold stocks from merchants’ shelves so that the merchants could start buying from the manufacturers and thus start the wheels of production moving. : Dr. Nystrom’s speech ‘advocating this was reported in the newspapers. a complete copy of .the speech: It is a relief to find on reading this that Dr. Nystrom was not making this proposal seriously, that. he was offering it in the satirical spirit. Unfortunately the reporters in reporting the speech left out the sentences which in-

speech.

strument to play with, particularly in public speech. And in these days when we are accustomed to hear the most grotesque proposals out of the lips of the most eminent persons, no one has a right to assume that a man with a crazy proposal is not in earnest merely because the proposal is crazy. It is only fair to Dr. Nystrom to retract: the expressions of amazement and criticism which I uttered and to say that I am more than glad to find that he was trying to impress on businessmen the enormity of our present trend toward Government paying money to everybody as a means of recovery.

A Souvenir of the Times

A list of the crazy schemes that have flowered in the last five years would make an excellent souvenir of the times. A famous banker in Wall Street in 1933 urged i Government to guaranties a profit to every proucer. Another well-known Betilcor and broker, now a high Government official in the Treasury, recently advocated that the Government lend to all producers and merchants the ‘value of their unsold stocks so that they might keep them on their shelves instead of reducing the prices. : Another high Gevernment - official ‘has a plan by which the Government will underwrite all production and thus guarantee to everybody an income of $2500 a year. There was nothing . in. the scheme attributed to Dr. Nystrom which shocked me since such schemes are suggested weekly. What really amazed me was that it should come from an economist of standing. It is pleasant to Repos. Sherefore that this was an error.

A Woman’ S Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson y

I to her cook. In spite of that, however, there is a tremendous amount of hullabaléo going on most of the time about the mistress who is so mean no maid can put up with her, Less is said. about the maid who

tions of the whole family. That's why I feel moved now and again to write a good word for the housewife. Probably she began life with a ‘reasonably even temper. Perhaps her intentions are still’ of the best. But she is soured on life, soured profoundly by one

the effort to get.a good, plain cook when it’s a good, plain cook she has agreed to pay for. After endless and disappointing experiences of this kind, any woman's temper. is hound to be upset. ; I've said and I say again that there’s more inefficiency to the square inch in the American kitchen than in all the rest of the country put together. Part of this inefficiency is due to shiftless, lazy, extravagant wives and part to shiffless, lazy and extravagant hep. Does anyone, save the domestic worker, expect to get top wages without first having had some training and a certain amount ‘of practical experience in her field? I know of none. women. who apply for housework expect just such generosity from their feminine employers. The insidious disease ‘which-is creeping into every

on the job—is an old- story in- the home, ‘as every housewife knows.

This much is true; the ca ble, hon Bio pa est, willing

domestic

sation of sympathy for the Nazis will suffice to an-.

pared people to believe that they are hiding ‘weakness

tgin a terrible hammering at

ness, for they aren’ weak; and it is not the pracNations strut their power, and the French are by |]

But. now Dr. Nystrom sends me

troduced Dr. Nystrom’s whimsical emphasis into the

Satire is a very. delicate and very dangerous in-

TAKE it we are all agreed that no 'lady is unkind |

is so unskilled at her. job that she ruins the disposi-

of the most embittering of all human experiences— |

: Yet thousands ef girls and

phase of our economic life—the' disease of welching |

Share the Cheer You Rece

1ve—By Herblock ~

| ‘Be Proud | of Your Gift”

Give to the Indianapolis Community

Gen. Johnson Says—

A: Sincere if Belated Column on. The Birthday of Eleanor Roosevelt, - Whom He Would Back for President.

(Mrs. Roosevelt's Column, Page 9)

rASHINGTON, Oct. 15.—This is a rather belated piece on Eleanor Roosevelt's birthday. It was “neither courtly nor kind” not to remember it until I » saw news of it. in her own column, but ‘that makes it none the less: sincere, I hear g lot of knocks about her column as being ' composed of trifling piffie. I have just read her book, “My Days,” which consists of excerpts from that col umn. Such books do not sell well just now but, as

I see it, this book will be treasured and long re- v

membered. It is a sort of daily diary of a woman who is the wife of one of the world’s great leaders in a time of one of the world’s greatest agonies. : . Mrs. Roosevelt well and wisely omits political ref erences in the main, but that doesn’t justify the

[4 | charge of piffie. Her column doesn’t pretend to be a

The Hoosier Forum

I wholly disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.—Voltaire.

ACTION SOUGHT ON WEST SIDE TRACKS. By Thomas F. Scanlan Thanks to the efforts of Mr. Toney Flack of the West Side Messengér, the very much needed subject of track elévation for the West Side was brought up. Track elevation for the West Side is more necessary than for the South Side,

{where - they have only the Belt

Railroad, We have the Belt Railroad, too, and we will gladly eliminate it if we can have track elevation at Warman Ave. and Michigan St. and at Holmes Ave. and Michigan St. There have been many fatalities at both these crossings in the past and nothing has been done or said about it. Traffic is frequently held up at these crossings from five to 20 minutes at a time. We know how many fast trains go through these crossings every day and also the number of slow freight trains. What is the matter with the West

‘Side? And what is the matter with

all of us that we let this very important matter slide by? This is in Wayne ‘Township, which is the

County, ‘excepting one. We should wake up and do things. I'm for more comment on this subject followed by co-operative action to remedy a very needy situation, : men GIVING THE INDEPENDENT GROCERS’ VIEWPOINT

By B. L. Tharp, Secretary, Indiana Retail Grocers and Meat Dealers’ Association

The Messrs. . Hartford in the Statement of Public Policy of the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Co. make a very strong case in their own favor, but one familiar with conditions in the retail food industry can readily see the inaccuracies and misleading statements. The Hon. Wright Patman is labeled as a very able lobbyist and propagandist, but as a matter of fact he is a very

Congress. The voters of Texas demonstrated their belief in Mr. Patman and his policies by renominating him by a majority of three to one against a very popular and able opponent. Mr. Patman carried his opponent’s home town by a major-

{ity of two to one.

‘They state that food through A. & P. food stores was sold to the public at prices averaging from 8 to 10 per cent lower than the prices of the average individual grocer and that millions of sales were made

highest taxed township in Marion:

respected member of our Federal

{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.)

at prices 25 per cent lower than those of the average individual grocer, Many individual stores are operated on a cash-and-carry basis with prices averaging as lew or lower than the chain stores, and many supermarkets which claim to sell lower than chain stores are operated by individuals. They state that in the last 10 years, during the greatest period of chain store growth, the number of individual grocers has increased rather than decreased. This is also true of the chain stores. They attempt to justify their alleged saving of 8 to. 10 per cent by citing the services which some individual grocers give and the cost of these services. Their statement as to savings effected and intimated much higher cost is very effectively answered by Government figures. The Federal Trade Commission reported several

years ago that prices in a group of

leading independent stores offering credit and delivery service average only 1.7 per cent higher than those in either of two leading chains, The Farmers’ Interests They make much of their interests in the farmer and the fact that they help to move surplus crops. They

NATURE'S LULLABY ' By H. B. SWAISGOOD

We love to hear the whisper of The wind among the trees, The gentle murmur of the leaves ‘That flutter in the breeze.

It’s sweet and soothing music as Upon our beds we lie; We'll soon be sleeping soundly, This is nature’s lullaby.

We'll soon forget the cares of life, Its trials and its pain, While being comforted and soothed By nature’s sweet refrain.

DAILY THOUGHT

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.—James 4:17,

TRENGTH alone knows conflict; weakness is below even defeat, and is born vanquished.—Swetchine,

admit that 70 per cent of the farmers’ products are sold through individual grocers and intimate that if the chain stores were eliminated the farmer would be unable to sell the remaining 30 per cent. This is obviously untrue, as either group alone could move all of the farmers’ products; nor do they tell that when they help to move surplus, they buy it at their own price. They state if either failed to function the farmer would be faced with tremendous

surpluses and heart-breaking losses. The chains have consistently attempted to monopolize buying, whereas the individuals buy on an open compéstitive market. It is easy to imagine what the farmers would get if they had to sell all of their merchandise to, any one buyer. As evidence of this, witness the many decisions rendered by the Federal Trade Commission. They make much of the fact that there are approximately 900,000 workers directly employed in the chain store industry and intimate that if the chain stores were wiped out this 900,000 would immediately go on relief, This great interest in the welfare of their employees is not borne out by their actions in opening several supermarkets, where a minimum number are employed, and closing their outlying stores. Also the sympathy for the unemployed is unnecessary, as experience shows that in practically all cases where a chain store is closed, an individual opens up there or nearby. A report from Charlotte, N. C., states that 10 individually owned stores were opened in former chain store locations and five new individually owned stores were opened. The public is the jury, let them hear both sides. ” PRAISE FOR REP. DIES By M. R. McCall I would like to commend Rep. Dies for the good work he is doing in showing. up those un-American activities. It is about time we Americans woke up and ceased being so indifferent. It is about time we had some laws controlling these associations, with their foreign loyalties.

THANKS FOR FREEDOM OF THE COLUMNISTS

By a Reader Many thanks, in these days of suppression and dictators, for your fearless, honest and straight-to-the point columnists, Westbrook Pegler, Hugh S. Johnson and Heywood Broun.

PEOPLE will pride themselves on anything that will attract attention to themselves and make

them. feel important—ay operation

BO SOME PEOPLE PRIDE ba, SRE ON BEING

LET'S EXPLORE YOUR MIND

By DR. ALBERT EDWARD WIGGAM

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time sleeping—and say nothing about it—but you often hear people telling the most harrowing tales of their lying awake and of what they ‘did

more it rouses your sympathy. If you should suddenly tell them of a sure-fire method for going to sleep they would be the most disappointed persons in the world. ® = = YES. One of the best signs of a really fine mind in a child is when he constantly asks “Why do things happen?” Some psychologists believe curiosity is a native instinct and that animals also have it. They believe that a great deal of the sniffing around of dogs, cats and other animals is just sheer curiosity. It is this passion to find why and how the wheels go round that has made all sciéntific discoveries and explorations. When you cease

asking “Why” you're about through,

mentally and spiritually. 8.8 = YES. Adaptability is the most important ability we have. It is largely what psychologists now call “social intelligence”—the ability to size up other people, their feelings and attitudes and adapt ourselves to them. Adaptability also applies .to sizing up hard situations

and Atting our behavior to the King like

shade more than what its title indicates. It is my information that, no matter what the men-folk think, among women it is the :mosb popular column in the # press. Why wouldn't it be? What could be more . interesting’ to women than just what the President's wife does day by day and hour by hour? f J ® 2 .

MONG the Roosevelts and they are all engage ing, my idol has always been Teddy. He “was full of faults, but they were all distinctly American , faults. Except perhaps for Alice, Eleanor Roosevelt comes nearer being a replica of the old Teddy than any in that numerous tribe. Boiling with energy, ine terested in everything, afraid of nothing, she is al- __ ways “in to the eyeballs” in whatever she tries. From * faulty memory, I recall that, in one of her columns she quoted somebody that the greatest gift was “a portion of thyself.” That is what Eleanor Roosevelt is trying to give in nearly all her waking hours. To this country it is not only that she has given five fine, distinctively American children but we should never forget the valley of the shadow of death in which she sat so long to encourage her great husband to believe that what seemed to be unmerciful ” disaster was really conquerable. . I happen to know that the decision on which the whole career of Franklin Roosevelt turned-—his con=

| sent to leave his apparently successful cure at Warm

Springs to run for Governor of New York in 1928— was Eleanor’s. Johnnie Raskob put it up to her bee fore he put the heat on her husband. 2.8 ”

URTHERMORE, during all those ¥neetlaln years, three people—Eleanor, “Missy” (Marguerite Le Hand) and Louis Howe, kept the torch burning. Bee fore the cocky usurpation of the present Hopkins-Corcoran-Cohen janissariat, this was the real" and only palace brain trust. Under its loyal, loving and benign influence not & single major mistake was made —literally none. That was because it was utterly devoted, wholly ¢ selfless and informed by but a single hope—advance= ment of the name and fame of Franklin Roosevelt. It was an evil day for this eountry when Louis Howe died and when the avalanche .of monstrous problems pushed the President further and further ¢ away from these homely influénces. : I don’t know whether a woman is ever going to be President but if that happens, I have my candidate.

It Seems to Me.

By Heywood Broun

It's This 'Yes and No' Mood the Critics Are in That Is Annoying.

EW YORK, Oct. 15.~You might net mind so much if your sister married one of them, and two or three asked in after dinner would not for a certainty spoil the party, but taken as a group the dramatic critics of New York are so much suet pudding. Possibly the fault lies not with the present genera tion but with the very nature of the craff of criticism, Though you deal him from the top of the deck or the bottom. the critic remains a kibitzer. One need not be a hen to know good eggs from bad, but things enter into the philosophy of an omelet which are never dreamt of by the man who downs it. The cry of the critic is that he wants novelty in the theater, but he will slap down any author who utters a sudden boo in his good ear. Look how little “* he did for “The Cradle Will Rock.” The explanation

lies somewhere within the works of Sigmund Freud

and Karl Marx. I'm not sure which one of ‘these sages: said it, but no man can associate with stuffed o shirts over a period of seasons without coming to take on something of thé outward manifestations and ‘the inner spirit of the species. I defy any stranger at a first night to distinguish the tired businessmen from the critics. . During the first intermission of the first show of the new theatrical yéar I ran into a reviewer. He yawned and said, “How I wish the season was over!”

\

| You Couldn’t Blame Him : !

Anybody who ‘knew the poor fellow’s background could not possibly blame him. He had just returned to town after a summer spent in lecturing to women's 4 clubs on “The Development of the American Drama.” There are those, I understand, who find this column dull, but I only wish they could have caught a load of it in my chicken salad days when I, too, was éngaged in carrying culture to Columbus. It embitters the mind. Not for a moment would I suggest that the critics of today are cruel sophisticates. On the contrary, their approach to an art form has all the naive cheers fulness of Little Audrey. It was Little Audrey, wasn’é it, who thought that Rex Beach was a summer res sort? Well, T know a critic who thinks that Clare Boothe is a dramatist. * Modern criticism is indulgent without being gen<« - erous. It neither burns nor blesses. The theater can be killed by “yes-men” and maimed by thosé who must say “No.” But the cruelest and most lingering ‘death to which the stage can be exposed is to pinién it upon Ep oni heap and leave it to the attrition of “yes and The ter can give out emotion only when it faces those capable of rerlving it or of chucking B back. ;

Watching Your. Health

By Dr. Morris Fishbein

| EoraiciTe around the home is a great nel for many purposes, but deféctive electrical ape pliances or defective electrical cords are a hazard. Too many of us think we can qualify as, electricians; such matters are quite as technical ‘as is plumbing. Here are a few fundamental rulés for household safety which have recently been developed: 1. If your apartment is high, bar the windows. - 2. Never allow poisons to be used indiscriminately around the house. 3. Never leave a baby or & young child alone in a bathtub. 4, Never permit a:child to run an elevator, either automatic or otherwise, Firearms around the house. are & constant hazard to every child. : 6. Never use kerosene or gasoline to. start a fire, The explosion will come sooner or later. While the home .is hazardous for. the. child, the figures of a leading. insurance company. show thas men are the chief victims of fatal home accidents. Falls in the home are one-third more frequent among men than women, Oe from Mluminating gas is three. times as frequent among men as among women. Injury by firearms is infrequent as a cause of death for women ‘in the home, but men are getting shot. h. Sonsamy »

which hodld be. a in dents, it is the factor of lighting. Plenty every |