Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 7 December 1938 — Page 20

attitude taken by so many of the zealots in his Administra-

los

|

. TAKING TURNS

The Indianapolis Times

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

ROY W. HOWARD LUDWELL DENNY MARK FERREE President Editor Business Manager

Owned and published Price in Marion Coundaily (except Sunday) by ty, 3 cents a copy; delivThe Indianapolis Times ered by carrier, 12 cents Publishing Co., 214 W. a week. Maryland St. ~~. Mail subscription rates in Indiana, $3 a year; outside of Indiana, 65 cents a month. =~

Member of United Press, Scripps - Howard News- . paper Alliance, NEA Service, and Audit Bu-

reau of Circulations. Riley 5551

Give -Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

‘WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1938

~ CONGRATULATIONS TO THE NEWS!

THE Indianapolis News today celebrates its 69th birth- ~ day. It is a newspaper of a great tradition, an admirable present and a splendid future. The Indianapolis Times - joins with the many other friends of The News in extend- . ing heartiest felicitations on this anniversary date.

ROOSEVELT AND THE WAGNER ACT

NOTHER phase of Mr. Roosevelt's future course, and on the question “Will he consolidate his gains ?”: © The Wagner act was advocated as -a “labor court,” to _ assure collective bargaining, establish industrial justice and industrial peace. It’s purpose was all good. Achieved, it ‘would contribute probably more than any other single thing to the happiness and prosperity of the nation. Its author is about the best friend labor has in America." But what of its operation when the test of results is applied? Has industrial peace been established? It has not. Pick up any newspaper any day and you will find that answer. Read now for example of the thousands recently thrown out of work in the automobile industry; 6400 here, 10,000 there, 3000 yonder, not to mention the currents and eddies and ripples of unemployment that swirl across the continent, from Flint and Detroit to the roadside garages of Jonesville and Johnson’s Corners, whenever the heart of a great industry is stopped. And this, at a time when industrial volume is the nation’s only out. Labor trouble has become the commonplace under the Wagner act. Under it were devised the sit-down and the quickie; under it thrived the jurisdictional strikes and the boring from within of those forces who would destroy unionism while using unionism as a pretext. : : All this does not mean that Labor is wrong or right in any given controversy, or that capital is wrong or right. It merely means that a law, high in purpose—the essential objectives of which should never be abandoned—has not yet been made to function. Up to now it has missed its target. The big idea is to make it work. For it represents in principle a gain—a great gain and a good gain. Will Mr. Roosevelt, in his future course, be realistic? Will he recognize and admit that the Wagner act has not

attained what it set out to attain? Or will he take the

tion, who cry “peace” when there is no peace, who regard the act as something graven in stone, immutable, unchangeable, perfect? : We think Mr. Roosevelt, the idealist, is also a realist; and that he, as head of a Government forty billion in debt, with plenty of chance to pay out if the wheels of industry

can keep turning, but with no hope if there is to be an un-

ending succession of flat tires—we believe he will rate this right at the top of his many domestic problems. We believe he will do what it takes to make the Wagner act, by amendment and by change in its administration, accomplish what it set out to accomplish; to make it do, for example, for all industry, what the Railway Mediation Act

has done for the railways.

CITY MANAGER PROPOSALS

: BACK in 1927 Indianapolis voted more than 5 to 1 for

the City Manager plan, and then lost it through a

State Supreme Court ruling. Since then there has been no evidence that the people

have changed their minds about its advantages. On the

contrary, the evidence indicates they want it. Add to that the recent statement of Mayor-elect Sullivan urging community support for the plan, similar _ pre-election indorsements from Herman C. Wolff on the Republican side and yesterday's story that the Junior Chamber of Commerce is ready with a legislative proposal, and we see no reason why the time is not ripe for definite action. Indianapolis has dreamed of a City Manager plan for more than a decade. Candidates for all manner of offices have paid it lip-service. Organizations of all kinds have recognized its merits. What is needed now, it seems to us, is the widest possible discussion of plans for achieving it. Let concrete proposals be put forward and debated. And, when it appears that a sound, fool-proof plan has been worked out, let’s put ~ on a united front for its approval. :

; HARLES SAWYER, recently defeated Democratic can- ~ didate for Governor of Ohio, has been down to Washington telling the newspapermen that he’s sure the Democratic Party will come back in 1940—that “no party ever stays licked.” It seems only yesterday that Ohio Republicans were talking the same way. In 1936, after President Roosevelt had carried Ohio by 600,000 votes and more, sweeping Democrats into control of the state government and many local and county offices, the Republicans whistled through the graveyard of defeat. Their party was down, but not out, they said. It would come back in 1938. : And it did. And maybe Mr. Sawyer’s party will in 1940. These are times of political change—and, as the cperience of Ohio indicates, rapid change.

TEMPERANCE ADVOCATE THE Women’s Christian Temperance Union of Queens - County, New York, voted to send a letter congratulating dolf Hitler on his temperance views—especially for urging people to drink no stronger beverage than unfermented le juice. LI 2 a It may be just as well that the ladies decided later not mail the letter “because the public might misunder- * Praise from American women for the views of Herr er, who preaches temperance and practices intemperate who urges the drinking of apple juice and causes le to forget the milk of

human kindness, would be | the

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler Young Daughters of Rich Pal With

Barflies as New York Goes in For The Debutante Racket in a Big Way.

FW YORK, Dec. 7—I don’t know how it is out around the rest of the country, but here in New York some people with dough have developed the most curious notion of social life for a young girl Some of our very best families—“chauffeur families” they are called—think that a -kid of 15, 16 or so is missing life and’ opportunities to marry well unless she is encouraged to hang around saloons at night dressed up like a prosperous alimony job and feel that she is struggling on the grade if she gets home much before the old man gets up to go to work. They are called debutantes, which means that the family has hired a big hall in some hotel and tossed an enormous drunken party for a kid by way of announcing that she is. now on the market for her first husband. The original intent of the debut was to present a little housekept chickadee for the inspection and appraisal of society and place her in circulation. But there is no society any more, and, anyway, these young ones usually have jumped the gun by a year or two and know and are known by most of the more prominent saloonkeepers, bartenders and barflies long before the old gent and the old lady formally slip the leash.

i

. » # ” ; LADY journalist on the society run tells me that it ‘has become necessary to import young dress suit stags from colleges to drink the wine and scuffle with the young ladies in the dance numbers, with the old man paying their expenses to and from. She says there is a regular debut agency which supplies such stags in any desired number.

But the net result of the debut is nothing more |

than an epidemic hangover and a deep wound in the old man’s roll because our social belle already knows most of the guests anyway. The true object of the debut seems to be to obtain publicity. Publicity in the daily papers is good, publicity in the Sundays is a little bit special, but publicity in the society slicks, those magazines of no circulation which advertise jewelry and expensive saddles and country estates that nobody ever wants to buy is equivalent to mention in the British court circular, The publicity is no good to the debutantes or their parents but they think it makes them very social and imagine that everybody is mentioning their names enviously, and that makes them feel good. But actually, this publicity about little, immature kids is about 99 per cent wasted because it goes out to an audience composed of all classes and sums up as mere notoriety. : ” » ” T might be interesting to wonder why the papers make so much publicity for such a very few individuals, but I just can’t guess as to that, because in the beginning practically all of these kids are total nobodies and the daughters of nobodies, and it would be just as sensible to cover every bar and grill, every dance hall in New York and nearby New Jersey and run paragraphs and pictures about young girls ‘out for a little fun who work in offices and factories. Do you suppose we can be snobs in this business and believers in our own glamorization of the saloon life of the very few? But to get back to the original idea, most of us have always felt sorry for the little daughters of the poor who are forced to frequent saloons for the social side of their life. The sociology blokes always told us that was too bad, and yet wé now find some of our very best families, judged by their street addresses, sending og fairest and tenderest buds out dramming until all hours. ; >

Business By John T. Flynn

Monopoly Probe Has Revealed What Any Schoolboy Could “Tell.

EW YORK, Dec. 7—It is difficult to see what has been added to the sum of human knowledge by the opening statement with which the Ilongheralded monopoly probe has been launched, The statement was made by Dr. Isador Lubin, Commissioner of Statistics of the Labor Department, and it has been understood that he has been working on this for some time. ; Dr. Lubin revealed that our rate of population growth has been diminishing; that our rate of production goods has been diminishing and that wages and employment have diminished. From all this he drew the profound conclusion that employment has decreased because business has shrunken. He added the further conclusion that because of technological evelopment less labor was required to produce more goods. ' There is scarcely a schoolboy who would not have been able to duplicate these revelations. were other statements which leave much to be desired on the score of illumination and, to put it mildly,

precision. . Dr. Lubin informed the committee that:

this was a durable goods depression. That, incidentally, is not a new pronouncement.

Another Odd Statement

However, the chief criticism of this statement is the use of the term “durable goods.” Occasionally writers refer to it as -a “heavy” goods depression, meaning the same thing. The use of the term “heavy” and “durable” goods is quite inadequate to describe the phenomenon in question. Dr. Lubin has included automobiles as durable goods. But this is not an “automobile” depression. While automobile production suffered along with every kind of consumers’ goods, it has done better than many. 3 This is a capital goods depression. It is a depression caused by the falling off in the production of goods, whether heavy or not, durable or not, which are produced on long-te:m credit, such as buildings, plants, machinery, railroad equipment, utility equipment, houses, etc. Another odd statement was that in the depression years we “lost” 133 billion dollars. Dr. Lubin concludes that if we had gone on making what we made in 1929 we would have made 133 billion more than we did make. This he calls a loss of 133 billion. Thus if John D. Rockefeller made 10 million in 1929 and no profit in 1930, Dr. Lubin would say Rockefeller lost 10 million in 1930. This is one of those statements which have no place in a supposedly scientific study of our economic situation.

A Woman's Viewpoint

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

HAVE a mother-in-law and a ‘daughter-in-law, and I feel rich in those possessions. This attitude, I well know, is entirely at odds with current opinion and puts me with the vanishing minority of moderns who regard relatives with tenderness and jove, even those relatives who have married into the amily. :

It seems to me time to spike the notion that all.

“in-laws” of the feminine gender are natural-born trouble makers, bent upon persecuting young people. In self-defense; the women of the United States ought to rise in rebellion against the insulting idea. The build-up against mothers-in-law has amounted to deliberate propaganda for a long time. .It began harmlessly enough as hints to the inexperienced, hut gradually the hue and cry increased until viciousness now marks the chase.

Something resembling hate has seized hold of the} ° public mind so that nowadays multitudes of good-/

hearted, well-intentioned women are made to feel like rascals when their children. marry, and comments upon the subject have degenerated into pure drivel. Not only has this campaign become vindictive, but

I am convinced it has done more harm to our society!

than any program the sneaking Communists or Fascists could have thought up. For we have delib-! erately fostered suspicion ' against her husband’s mother in every girl's. mind and started boys off in life with the notion that a wife’s relatives are bent upon breaking up hig marriage. . gh Instead of teaching confidence, we have planted seeds of distrust and hatred—seeds which are bearing bitter fruit. = : Sh = The women in SUF Sainily ate friends, because from b decid Fhe tt:

And there |b

WE AY; D

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

AVORS MORE THOUGHT N DOMESTIC ISSUES By Voice in the Crowd

| Strange indeed is the public mind ~now so wrapped up in foreign ffairs and how we can settle them that our own affairs are absent from ur daily thoughts. ; : | It seems that when the public mind is not desired at home, political utterances and the public ress act in unison to waft it across the ocean to dwell on matters abroad, about which we know less, if possible, than we do of what goes on here. The plight of the suppressed minorities in Europe is indeed a sad affair. How to relieve their suffer-

ing, and where to colonize them is

grave problem. But it isn’t entirely our problem, { Much closer to us is a much raver problem that is our own and demanding our solution. That problem is the making of jobs for 12 to

14 million American citizens that

they may rehabilitate themselves. We are not going to ship them away 5 shift for themselves on some Godorsaken island. We have to take care f them here, if we can just get it nto our heads that our first probems to solve are at home. If we cannot do our home work we are not ble to solve the other fellow’s problems anyway. | The quickest way to put 10 million men to work is to encourage several million businessmen with he knowledge that public opinion favors their enterprise, guarantees them the right to operate their own business, and acknowledges that they too are entitled to peace of ind and a reasonable profit. It is igh time that some consideration e given to those men whose courge and initiative have led them to build establishments that would give comfort and security to other en. These men can do more to relieve the unemployed than all of the politicians in Washington, or all the fiat legislation ever written. | No one can do more for labor than the men who create labor’s jobs. 8.8 8 INQUIRY FAVORED ON SCHOOL BUILDING CHARGE By K. P,

The Dec. 2 issue of The Indianapolis Times reports that “Trades Council Charges Inflammable Material Used in City Schools,” and in the same issue shows a picture of a wreck of a: school bus and train under ' the: heading “School B Death Toll Mounts to 24.” If the charges of the Trades Council are true it is high time that the

(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.)

citizens of Indianapolis. investigate their own situation lest some day a similar caption be placed above the wreckage of a burning schéol. Safety of our children during those hours in which they are in attendance at school is of utmost importance and certainly there are City or State codes to guard their safety, and they should be strictly enforced without the necessity of a group of building tradesmen requesting enforcement. There is no excuse for school officials making the statement that they have “no comment” on these charges. Certainly they are aware of whether they are true or false and should have courage to affirm or deny the charges, or anticipate that parents will investigate for themselves. : 8 '®n » TERMS PROSPERITY AND SLUMP PSYCHOLOGICAL By Charles Makinson, Youngstown, O.

In a recent article, Lee G. Miller of the Scripps-Howard staff states that the committee investigating monopolies wishes to discover

SKY HIGH

By ROBERT O. LEVELL

Fair moon of the night, Far above so high, Made a mighty light Shining in the sky;

Far away up there, - So that I could know, There was love and care In the shining glow;

Where the clouds of blue Were gay as could be; All because they knew They were glad and free.

DAILY THOUGHT

Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.— James 5:16. :

HE confession of evil works is the first beginning of good works. —Augustine. :

“what makes the wheels go round in the American economic system and what makes these wheels slow up at times.” I had not thought that one of the tasks assigned to that committee, for the answer is so simple—so simple that it is almost unbelievable. Mr. Hoover stated in the beginning, “this depression is purely psychological” and true it was; and no one has yet shown any cause more logical. It was true because the preceding period of prosperity was also psychological, not real, not material. ty Many decades ago we began a systematic practice of thrift; to put away a part of our earnings in savings. With the remainder we proposed to buy the products we had been paid to produce, bul of course could buy only a part of it for our purchasing-power had been reduced to the extent of our savings, which left our employers with a surplus or the alternative of selling at less than cost. - To overcome this condition we adopted the credit system, or promised to pay the balance later, and also to pay a profit; more than we had received, and more than we could ever receive. So, by this psychology of (over) confidence we attained a psychological prosperity; not a real prosperity. ‘ But, our employers, having less working capital to the amount of our savings, were compelled to borrow them in order to continue operating, and while we were in debt to our employers for products advanced, they were in debt to us also. It is said that more than 60 millions of us now hold liens against the future production of our employers. By this practice debts soon piled up so high that we developed a psychology of fear; those having purchasing-power feared to continue paying out borrowed money and we had a psychological depression. Then began a series of foreclosures and bankruptcies and confiscation of savings and other forms of psychological wealth until they were reduced to a level that in proportion to our actual wealth enabled us to develop a new confidence and begin a new upward turn. This is the history of every depression and of every period of prosperity we've enjoyed in our land; a psychology of fear and a psychology of confidence; and we have never experienced a period of real prosperity. 2 = BELIEVES LECTURE PICKED RIGHT PLACE By Daniel Francis Clancy, Logansport

Dr. Rustem Vambery, Hungarian scholar, is in the United States to lecture on human stupidity. Hum-

um~—he picked the right place.

a OPINION —

LET'S EXPLORE YOUR MIND

By DR. ALBERT EDWARD WIGGAM

soptohe ,"1 JUST NATUR

Y HATE" 50 AND $0-

OP a

|p rom omion—

in old age when millions of persons who have made enough money for a comfortable, old age find they have not saved it by wise spending.

8 = =

NO. It is a crime against childhood. The stutterer, especially a child, suffers sheer agony because others laugh at his mistakes. Stutterering is not merely a defect of speech or breathing—it is a profound disturbance of the entire nerv-

ous system and personality—often |:

brought on by parents who punish and ridicule the child for not “talking like other children.” I earnestly: recommend to all stutterers, their

| parents and teachers, a wonderful

story of the cure of stuttering=—*“And; the Stutterer Talked,” by Kanter and Kohn, Your public library probably has this book. ea

® 8 8 Xen

NOT OFTEN. Nearly all our likes and dislikes, our preferences and aversions are not natural

‘|but. due to our rearing and experi-

ence—especially in childhood. Farm boys and girls are scarcely, if at all, afraid of, or have an aversion against, snakes, bugs and the like

because they have handled them

| formerly given little attentio

| in

Gen Johnson 7 Says—

Probe Hasn't “Revealed Anything New: and Prosperity Should Retura _. If Sniping at Business Is Stopped,

ASHINGTON, Dec. T—The “overture” tese : ‘timony in the monopoly investigation showed ‘how much Had been “lost” by everybody because business never recovered its predepression level. Lack of purchasing power as compared with 1929 was shown to be a reason for lack of sales. This seems as guile~ less as Simple Simon's famous dialog with the piema=, The rate of business in 1929 and before was th) result of a free economy acting as the American sy: tem had ‘always acted during the 140 years durin’ which it built up the most prosperous community. in* the shortest space of time in history. It came an awful cropper due to the excessive .private lending, | spending and debt. In 1933 came the dawn of the first New Deal. It didn’t propose to take that system apart and put it together again. It didn’t suggest an orgy of public lending, spending and debt to replace the private debauch. It proposed anly to cut out principles and to strengthen it. Its effect was gal. vanic. Within: four months it ‘had produced the greatest recovery in the shortest time on all our charts back to 1789. : ase HEN suddenly came the second New Deal—budget unbalance, monkey-business with money, the principle of unlimited taxes, debt and spending, tha practice of badgering and bulldozing business and—

‘| kaplopsky! - The indices all turned down.. ‘There has

been no sustained recovery since and after five years, employment has stood still or declined and spending and the relief load continuously have increased." The principal dynamo of business and employment activity is the profit motive—that a man can make a reasonable amount of money and keep a reasonable part of it. : : . .. This Administration’s policy has been to take a large part of profits for redistribution, with taxes on even the poorest up to 20 per cent of their income, and to treat business in general—as the Supreme Court once said of the liquor business—as a “barely tolerated industry.” . Coe Ci ike . gy 8» 8 : Vi N this changed scene there is here a hinted res proach to business for not returning to 1929 prose perity, when the truth is that nearly everything the Government recently has done and most of what it ‘now proposes has had an-effect, if not a purpose, to prevent business from doing that by crippling, or hampering, or preventing the operation of every prine

| cipal force that made prosperous business activity

possible. This very investigation and this particular approach with its broad threat of a mew attack to discredit the ‘business system and a greater attempt than ever to break it up and make it over—all this has an unmeasurable but powerful effect to prevent investment and to cause all business to defer plans for a forward movement until it can see what the new rules of the game are going to be. I still believe that business has nothing to fear from this inquisition. 1 think it will prove what we all know—that, except for the “10 per cent chiseling fringe” and a few sore spots, the organization and practices of business are bétter for our people than any theoretical or political sube stitute possibly could be. si Just the same, until that is clear, business will ree main stalled. The answer to’ the question: “Why | doesn’t business resume 1929 activity?” is easy. It is:

“Because Government won't permit it.” It Seems to Me By Heywood Broun ~ = G. O. P. Content to Call Old-Timers

Into Lineup for 1940 Campaign.

EW YORK, Dec. 7.—Republicans cannot. seem to get over the delusion that they can win with a Chinaman. This must account for the strange selec= tion of a Mandarin for the missing post on the executive board of the National Committee. Often have I listened with rapt attention to Senator Hastings during the days when he was serving the public and Delaware. : Ss : : Not for an instant would I cast any aspersions on Senator Hastings who, like Lazarus, has been brought back to political life to make manifest the rebirth of the G. O. P. * 3 I trust that in returning to party leadership, ex= Senator Hastings will display the same agility which was his when he performed before fascinated galleries in the upper House. He was assigned to Babe Ruth’s old pasture, and no Senator of our generation has ever played a deeper right. A middle-of-the-réad Republican who took care of center field had to cover more territory than usual, because Mr. Hastings could not go a foot to the left. But anything hit along the right-fleld foul line was. duck soup for the Delaware demon. : : il

Hoover Warming Up, Too J In fact, the big league race in 1940 seems to shape up as a noble experiment. Under the management of John (Muggsy) Hamilton, the G. O. P. Old Orioles are prepared to scrap all the new-fangled stuff which is known as modern baseball, and go back to the days of sideburns and out on the first bounce. Indeed, it is even possible that the Republicans intend to revive ‘rounders. Certainly the party scouts appear to have | been under instructions to be on the watch for noth ing but ancient soupbones. You. can’t even qualify as a “Young Republican” until you have passed 55, And in the home office there is great delight over the fact that a man called Taft has been dug up in Ohio, They are advertising now for a fellow named Faire panks to put the perfect battery in the field for a campaign under the thrilling cry of “Back with” the ‘clock and forward to victory.” Even Dewey might be available in spite of his adolescence, because his name would fit so neatly with the slogan “Remember Maine and Vermont.” Indeed, I learn from reliable sources that Herbert Hoover feels that he can satisfy the mood of the Republican upsurge and present himself as a possible candidate. He has gone into temporary -retirement r meet the exigencies:of type casting. He is growing a long, gray beard. - A a

Watching Your Health

By Dr. Morris Fishbein |

I¥ planning\the National Health Program .authorie 1 {ies endeavored to estimate how .much in the way of facilities would be required for the increase in cases of mental disease.’ Today patients with mental disease occupy 47 per cent of the total avails able hospital beds in the United States and ‘the annual cost for their care is betweeri $150,000,000 and $200,000,000. oo a The number of people in hospitals for’ mental. disease increased more than 40 per cent from 1926 io 1936. All sorts of explanations are offered. Acco rde ing to Harold F. Dorn of the United States Publio ‘Health Service, the apparent ‘increase in m ental disease is usually credited to the complexity and

.

strain of modern life. This increased 's turn, associated with the tendency of more more people: to live in cities where the speed c is far greater than in rural areas. .. * A part of the increase is due to: cognize as a i th child ‘guidance clinics and’ the mental ‘problems in recent years our changing point of view. = The only way we have of d of mental disease is by the humber of to hospitals for the care of the ment the insane. This does’ not include who are on the bord occasional temporary The fact. that the cities wit!

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