Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 9 December 1938 — Page 24

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“don’ts” for shoppers.

~ .much as it has.

re Indianapolis Times

LUDWELL DENNY MARK FERREE Editor Business Manager

Price in Marion County, 3 cents a copy; deliv-

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reau of Circulations. Riley 5551

Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way -

1 FRIDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1938 KISSES AND TAXES A SENATE subcommittee has been holding hearings on =" the advisability of “incentive taxation” to encourage corporations to share profits with employees. : ~ Many witnesses have answered many questions asked By Senators Vandenberg, Herring, et al. Some have represented workers who might be expected to benefit from

profit-sharing. Others have been employers who already have profit-sharing plans, and therefore might be expected

c ~ to gain by any tax concessions that may be granted. But

a surprising preponderance of the testimony has revealed lack of enthusiasm for the project. : Labor spokesmen and employes, looking this gift horse in the mouth, have commented -'ieptically— "That workers getting a shore of the profits might find themselves forced to accept lower wages, and end with an annual income no greater and maybe less; That employers finding their tax burden eased at one point probably will find it increased at another, since the

Government has to get its revenues somewhere.

xf 4. 8 8 8 an =n YT seems to narrow down to this: “Incentive taxation” is * one thing, and “punitive taxation” is the same thing by another name, depending upon who is describing the tax

policy. .

Most people who had to wrestle with the undistributed

profits tax thought it was a punitive tax, but there can be no doubt that the authors of that tax considered it an incentive tax. It gave an incentive to corporations to ~ distribute their profits among stockholders; yet at the same time it penalized any corporation which felt ok to set aside a portion of its earnings for plant expansion or for a rainy day reserve. So it is with any tax which has any purpose except the raising of revenue. Of all the testimony of all the witnesses, we think the most expressive statement was that of T. M. Beavers, vice president of the People’s Drug Store chain, which annually distributes 20 per cent of its net earnings in bonuses and wage dividends: | : “Profit-sharing is like kissing your wife in the morning. It improves domestic relations, but I doubt that it would be very effective if you had a Government agent standing _ aver you to see that you do it.” ;

AMPAIGNS for traffic safety usual

jcate that the major part of our ab

. directed at pedestrians instead of moto Well aware that the Christmas shopping we will |

bring thousands of additional pedestrians downt coming weeks, Chief Morrissey has issued a rn

wn in

We reprint - those relating to pedestrians in the hope that the warning may sa from serious injury or death: . | “Don’t jaywalk. Keep your mind on the dangers of traffic while on the street and do your thinking about shopping while inside the stores. |

' “Don’t step from the curb without first coming to a stop. ; “Don’t walk across the street with an umbrella pulled down in front of your face. | “Don’t allow small children to visit the downto : wn section of the city by themselves.” | And this one for drivers: E: “Don’t be too hasty in driving. Remember many pedestrians are elderly persons who are enjoying their

Eas buying and are liable to forget the heavy

MR. HULL'S TASK

W E have only ourselves—or at any rate our recent rore-

bears—to thank for the i ici : : for persistent suspicion amon many Latin Americans that our good-neighborliness : tainted with dollar diplomacy.

That suspicion has receded

e some

greatly in the last six years,

~~ due to the patient diplomacy of President Roosevelt and

Secretary Hull. ~~ The astonishing thing is not that ici : suspicion of the “Colossus of the North” persists, but that it has abated so

Remember Haiti, for i ? : ragua? And Cuba? r instance? And Nica-

- Today at Lima Secretary Hull, abl ; . y flanked by Governor Landon and others, is seeking to make further inBuds tuo the lingering jealousies and animosities that do]-' ar diplomacy and bill-collecting Mari | i a g Marines engendered in

Whatever success he achieves in that direction will be

a better contribution to continental solidarity than a whole

flotilla of hemisphere-protectin i : ) 2 battleships. Every Ameriean—North, South or Central—should wish him id

. THIRD TERM TALK POLITICIANS who profess to be friends of President

Roosevelt, as well as others who are hi i trying to pump up the third term issue. ann i We regret that. No good, and great harm, can come from dividing over this issue at this time when so much important business needs the attention of a united people. + So we resent silly third term statements like that by the scared Senator Guffey of Pennsylvania. What worries the Senator, obviously, is his own fate in 1940. His blast has no other significance. For if Mr. Roosevelt wanted a boom started for his re-election, Joe Guffey-would be about the worst—and probably the last—man he would ask to touch it off. ~ And we resent equally the efforts of those who keep ng to push Mr. Roosevelt into declaring that he won't py for a third term. When and if he does that he will surder most of his power to lead. With two years of his

term still ahead he’s not likely to disarm himself.

ered by carrier, 12 cents.

at least one good purpose.

list of

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler :

Daladier's Seizure of Power in France

Seems to Spike Guns of Those Urging More Power for Executive.

EW YORK, Dec. 9.—~Many Americans calling themselves progressives profess to be shocked by M. Daladier’s use of his powers in France and perceive there the beginning of a Fascist regime. The politics of France are so complex that not even

| Frenchmen know what it is all about, but from this

distance it does appear that, under the pretext of a

national emergency, one man acquired more authority .than a democracy prudently may confer. :

~Had he used this power to promote communism those Americans who claim to be merely Progressives, not Communists, but cannot be induced to say one word against “the greatest experiment for human betterment ever made,” would have been pleased. For, obviously, they could: not be displeased to see France also undertake the same great experiment, .nor could they pretend to be displeased if the Russian experiment should one day be tried here. But when a trusted man uses his powers to try the wrong kind of experiment that is, indeed, alarming and should be a lesson to us all. ® » »

T= developments in France would seem to rebuke the enthusiastic faith expressed by such progressives in proposals to enlarge and solidify the powers of the American Executive, Other Americans who have opposed such proposals have been intemperately denounced as Fascists, but the arguments do not foot up. : ; No Fascist believes in Parliament or in inde-

pendent courts, and no believer in democracy would |

want to hand over to any individual all the power and responsibility of government and abolish the function of Congress. But possibly it will be said that it is all right to confer great powers if you know your man; that it is all right to do it here but not in France, and that dictatorship is not wrong of itself if it is anticapitalist. That does not seem to be the position of those so-called progressives who are otherwise known as “fellow-travelers of the Communists.” But in demanding such powers for Mr. Roosevelt it is possible that they have misjudged their man and that, given

such. powers and conditions similar to those which:

occurred in France, he, too, would disappoint them. 8 ” 2 2

HERE never have been any proletarian Roosevelts, nor have any of the Roosevelts even gone to the public schools, and it was John IL. Lewis him=self who once accused the President of having cursed impartially both labor and its enemies. This Mr. Lewis interpreted as a rather special curse on labor, The showdowns between labor leaders—not labor— and public authority in this country have been mere bullpen exercises to date, and with luck the nation as a whole will never have to engage in varsity competition of this kind. But there is no assurance in Mr, Roosevelt's record that, in the event of such a showdown, he would use the authority which the fellowtravelers have bespoken for him in a manner to

‘gratify those who admire the Soviet experiment.

They may be thinking of a future President who

could be relied on, but that is highly speculative.

All this being so and the risks being what they are, the people are the best guardians of their own power. And those who opposed the court plan, reorganization, the purge and the political use of public money may inquire, with a nod to France, “How am I doin’, honey?” :

Business

By John T. Flynn

Economist Thorp Errs in Blaming Sherman Law for Monopoly Gains.

EW YORK, Dec. 9.—The prolog to the swelling theme of the monopoly investigation has served It has helped to show what at least some of the monopoly investigators have:in their minds, | . ! Most important in| this respect, though least help-

ful of the three performances, was the dissertation

submitted by Willard Thorp of the Commerce Department. ; Mr. Thorp put his chief emphasis on the fact that there is, outside the aluminum industry, no real monopoly in the United States. What he meant was that in no industry save aluminum did any single corporation enjoy a complete monopoly. Of course it was not necesary to have Mr. Thorp spend six months in research to tell us that. Every student of the subject knows that the problem of monopoly is not and seldom has been a problem of attack upon some single corporate giant. Even in the case of monopoly by agreement we have had few cases of 100 per cent monopoly—that is, monopoly of every feature of the industry. There have been cases where every. producer in the industry has been found in an agreement. No one will doubt this is monopoly. But usually the agreements have covered only certain features of the industry.

The Incentive Was There

Mr. Thorp said the Sherman Anti-Trust Law had been the chief cause of combinations. Because independent industrialists could not get together and make monopolistic agreements under the law, they united into single corporations within the law. Of course to say that has been the chief cause of combinations is to ignore the whole history of core porate development. There have been such cases. But it is incredible that a man who has taught economics in college can make so egregious a misstatement of history. The process of combination had proceeded to the most dangerous and destructive lengths before the anti-trust law was passed. Since that time the enormous advantages of combination in the corporate form for financing purposes, to evade all sorts of laws, etc, was all the incentive to combination that was needed. : Mr. Thorp has been loaned te the Government gratis by the Wall Street firm of Dun & Bradstreet. What he believes is that independent enterprisers ought to be allowed to get together and make agree= ments without the hindrance of the anti-trust laws. He has a right to such views and to work for them, But he ought not to be “inside” the Government working from within as| a representative of the Government, }

A Woman's Viewpoint

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

HIS is the season for “Shop Early” editorials, I used to read them with admiration and credulity —until I married an editor and found out that, by and large, editors seldom practice what they preach. Most of ‘the excellent hurry-up advice you women will be reading in your papers and hearing over your radio from now until the 24th will be offered by men

who haven't the slightest intention of doing their own :

shopping, if any, until 10:30 Christmas Eve. The germ of this particular notion sprouts in newspaper offices at the beginning of the football sea= son, and it grows most lustily in the masculine brain, which is always so alert in thinking up noble ideas for women to follow. On dull days, when inspiration lags, any of them can dash off a grandiose space filler about the mercy, wisdom and virtue of getting the gifts bought, wrapped and mailed early. These are salted, too, with the tang of tears, for they sob over the tired salespeoples until you'd think their hearts were made of mush. :

Inspired by these admonitions and examples, wom- |

en all over the United States will hurry to make up their lists and to hunt for suitable presents for the family and relatives: Of course, we'll all forget a few items until the last day, which gives us a fine excuse to mingle with the mad throngs who stampede the shops during the final rush, : Not many, however, will put off buying those few items until after dark on Saturday the 24th—if they did who do you suppose they’d stumble into? The writers of all those wonderful editorials, of - course, 0 are n

or adr wi A,

Smear Ze oO, (CBU) RS

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

INVESTMENT SPENDING HELD GREAT NEED :

By H. L. : : Business has a bad case of anemia. It will take a good deal more than mere revision of the Wagner act to put this country back on its feet. We got the big blowout in 1929, without a Wagner act, and we are still on flat tires, in spite of that and many other props the New Dealers put under the tumbling house of cards. We will continue on flat tires unless capitalism in this country assumes its historic role of investment spending. Not gambling in investment certificates, but shooting the works in new construction, expansion of production, modernization of equipment, more intelligent marketing, lower interest rates and less squawking about Government spending while business is on a sit-down strike. Unless capitalism can get itself together, wake up and perform according to its tradition, it won't oe long till regimentation will catch up with it, like it did in Italy, Germany and a few other hot spots. If private business fails intelligently to organize its functions as the master developer of our economic system, through constant investment expansion, then Government has no alternative other than leaping into the gap and assuming that function of development and investment. : One thing is sure; that is that Government cannot continue as the wet nurse of business, pouring pillions into relief, while business fiounders on the job assigned to it. Our best bet is to call immediate conferences of local and national organizations of labor, farmers, business and finance to map out a program for immediate advance to wipe out unemployment. Let each group state what it can contribute and will do to co-ordinate a national expansion program. Dabbling with the Wagner act will not wipe out unemployment or develop the necessary investment program to stop the need for Government relief. Can we do this now under the democratic form of Government—or must we wait till a crisis arrives, with a strong man to dictate and regiment us all. Can we be patriotic enough to safeguard our liberty by intelligent co-opera-tion?

. 8» THINKS PROHIBITION LACKED FAIR TRIAL By H, 8. Bonsiv Replying to your editorial on Five Years of Repeal, permit me to say that the majority did not vote on the question, : Prohibition did not have a square

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

deal—it was a good law in bad

a prohibition law in the hands of a party not in sympathy with, prohibition? Prohibition is coming back with a party which is in sympathy with it. As to the revenue derived from the liquor traffic—it costs the Government far more than it gets out of the traffic, so where is the harvest? 2 2 8

URGES EMPLOYERS CONFIDE IN WORKERS

By Small Busines..nan

I wish to refer to a letter in last Tuesday's Times on profit sharing. That is a point worth considering but. the writer fails to cover the main point of what he was trying to prove. : : I belonged to a labor union more than 40 years and never failed to pay my dues; but in that time I never worked for an employer who raised my wages without all of us

FIRST SNOWFALL By HAZEL TROUTMAN HORICE

I was wandering in the gloaming Through the dead of autumn past, And the rustle of each footfall Gently brought sad memories fast— : How" I watched the gayest colors Fade and finally disappear Leaving every glade and woodland - Trembling, naked, brown and sear. Then, I felt the white snow falling Fluffy flakes so soft and light, And they covered all the branches ' Making bowers of sheer delight. * Adorning all the trees and shrub-

bery " Making all the forest glow . In a sparking dress of winter And a cloak of glitiering snow.

DAILY THOUGHT

For we are strangers before Thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding.—I Chronicles 29:15.

NE life; a little gleam of time between two eternities; no

hands. What could you expect from

fighting for it. We always got the same old story—he could not afford it. It was the same story when he cut wages. An employer seems to think it is his right to tell an employee what he can pay, without opening his books and showing whether he has made or lost money.

| That is not his right or any man’s

right. If he can show that he must cut wages or quit business, no employee is so small-minded that he

together, : 8 » » DENIES REDUCTION IN LIQUOR CONSUMPTION By Lafayette Perkins

Replying to your editorial of Dec. 5 entitled “Five Years of Repeal” which said among other things that the net result has been all to the good and that the per capita consumption of legal intoxicants has

fallen to about two-thirds of what it was before prohibition, I desire jo call your attention to the followng: The records of the United States Internal Revenue Department show that the withdrawal for consumption of intoxicating liquors during the past five years has been as follows: ; Fermented malt liquors 6,277,728 barrels in 1933; 32,266,605 in 1934; 42,228,831 in 1935; 48,750,000 in 1936; 55,924,264 in 1937. Still wines 1,801,647 gallons in 1933; 14,525,688 in 1934; 35,416,512 in 1935; 47,474,404 in 1936; 62,035,287 in 1937. Distilled liquors, 6,118,326 gallons in 1933; 42,414,551 in 1934; 82,457,338 in 1935; 110,631,778 in 1936; ~36,859,616 in 1937. . You can readily see from the above that the increase in United States consumption of intoxicating liquors since repeal is so much greater than in any similar period in the nation’s histery that there is practically no reasonable comparison. The natural result has been a big increase in drunkenness, automobile accidents, and crimes. More than $5,000,000,000 was spent for liquor last year.

8 8 8 AGREES WITH PEGLER ON CORRUPT OFFICIALS By Ross H. Reuning I agree with Mr. Pegler that all corrupt public officials ought to be hanged or at least get life, but it

{would only take one good hanging

or life sentence to create a lot of new respect for public honesty, for the sanctity of the ballot and respect for the responsibility of

second chance for us forever more. —Carlyle, :

public office.

LET'S

00,

YOUR OPINION === 4

CEOWVOHT I9BE JONN O1LLE CO.

WOMEN change scarcely at all, but men change a good deal. Dr. Harold Diehl, of the University of

EXPLORE YOUR MIND

By DR. ALBERT EDWARD WIGGAM : stop growing almost entirely at 16

: ION LATE IN LIFE al : YES ORNOan s

[IS THE EACT THAT SOME PEOPLE HAVE MO ACCIDEN

- RS ENTIRELY TO iy ora THEY DO AND

lutely no growth in the women, but the men grew more than an inch in

whereas men continue to grow to 2 and possibly beyond. 8 o » ! YES. A lot of men who hav “ succeeded have done so solely because they did change their jobs.

Dr. Harry D. Kitson, Columbia psychologist, studied the lives of 164 notable men and found more than

| two-thirds of them had succeeded in

some work or profession wholly different from the one in which they had started life—and had often worked for many years. One had changed when past 60, three per cent when past 45 and one-fourth between 25 and 35. A man can succeéd at any time of life as far as

NO. Two psychologists, Bingham and Slocomb, studied the employees of a big street car company and found most accidents happened to “accident-prone men.” The doctors in one hospital got so they knew most of the accident cases as they came in, because many of them had been there often. Some people have 10 or 20 times as many acci= dents in a lifetime—even around the house—as others. Indeed, it is posidangerous to associ with

height and increased about seven

| vengeance in WPA-—$60.50 monthly relief wages: in

can’t see they must pull and work

age is concerned because mental | ‘| powers never decline with age.

en. Johnson

Says—

Senator Byrnes Delivered Effective Argument Against Spending Policy In Talk to Southern Society. ASHINGTON, Dec. 9.—Recently, Senator James Byrnes made a striking speech before the New

York Southern Society. His theme was the President’s assertion that the

South is the nation’s economic problem No. 1. Before

he finished, it began to appear that governmental policy toward the South might possibly be economic - problem No. 1. Admitting that the per capita income of the South compares with that of the North as about 1 to 2, he proceeded to ask why. He found part of the answer in the protective tariff which forces the South to buy from Northern industry at a tariff-protected price, . and to sell its surplus agricultural products and hence | its whole crop at prices fixed in world competition with

| no protection at all.

He showed that Southern freight rates for equal . mileage are nearly double those in the North and . how it is as effective as a tariff to protect Northern . industry and agriculture against Southern compe- . ition. Then he took a crack at the Wages and Hours Bill which ' refuses to grant any Southern wage differ= entials in spite of these great handicaps. Yet he cited figures to show that while Mr. Andrews can't permit» them in industry, Mr. Hopkins applies them with. a ~

iil ie

New York City against $30.80 in Aiken, S. C. : 8 8 2

E blew the insides out of the claim that ‘he South benefits relatively hy relief payments. He . showed that the State of New York alone is getting -. nearly as much relief money as 13 Southern states— that with 9.6 millions population against their 33.7 millions, Pennsylvania got 455 millions against their 737 million. - : He disputed the argument that New York is ene titled to it because she pays more taxes, by showing that New York, as the commercial metropolis, sits at | the receipts of customs, skims the cream of the na= * tion’s business and takes tribute from every state. On this ground he argued for what this column frequently has urged—that Congress cease lump-sum appropriations which permit the nation’s revenue to be divided up on the political whim of individuals. He wants that done by Congress. : He showed the demoralizing effect of the present system on independent representative Democratic gove ernment and also on the solidarity of the states, 3

“CVOME people,” said the Senator, “believe that to be liberal means only to be liberal in spending other people's money. If that be the correct definition, - then the political leaders of the South are not liberals —the farmer of the South knows what debt means—"

'| the small businéssman of the South knows that no -

individual can daily spend more than his income with= out winding up in the bankruptcy courts. They both know that government is but a collection of individuals—" ; : He wound up by reciting the recovery of the South . through courage and self-denial from the collapse at Appomatox and predicted that it would repeat that. kind of comeback, but not—and this was the subject of his speech—through politics or politicians. Here spoke one of the Senate leaders of the Dems ocratic Party—a most effective supporter of Mr, . Roosevelt. It was a declaration of independence—re=. strained, but determined. It reflects a growing opinion in the South. . .

———

Washington By Raymond Clapper

Attacks Baiting of Jimmy Roosevells Finds Many Hitting Below the Belt.

(Batting for Heywood Broun)

ASHINGTON, Dec. 9.—It didn’t seem. possible - that the popular American sport of picking on Jimmy Roosevelt could reach a new low. But it has. A young preacher, a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, appears as a witness before the Dies Committee and pictures Jimmy Roosevelt as undermining true Americanism because his income tax return didn’t indicate that he gave any money to the church! Se Jimmy, who is showing more patience than he’ ought to, says that he did make church contributions, . but did not list them for deductions from his income tax. Re San What business is it of & young preacher or the Dies Committee or anybody else whether Jimmy Roosevelt gave money to the church? In 20 years of Washington reporting I have seen a vast quantity of = smearing ‘done before Congressional committees, but - none that outdoes this job. Here in America we hold up our hands in horror . at German Jew-baiting. We do our baiting on a less’} wholesale scale, by picking selected victims and riding them down until they drop from sheer weariness. Be Jimmy Roosevelt is no longer a public official. Bub . it doesn’t seem to matter. He went into the insure - ance business before his father was ever nominated for President, but he is still being hounded and cruci=s fled over that. He tried to get into Massachusetts politics, but he was frozen out. He worked as one of his father’s White House secretaries and that wasn't - right, either. !

Playboy Role Won't Do, Either

Now he gets a job in the motion picture industry - and again he is being skinned alive by an army of editorial writers looking for a tired rabbit to chase. « They won't tolerate him in public life and he scems:: unable to find any job in private industry that + pleases them, : If Jimmy stopped working completely and lived oft : his parents or his wife’s folks, then he would be de='~ nounced as a lazy, worthless playboy. i Public officials are fair game. They must expect ° to take punishment, and a lot of them deserve as ° much or more than they get. But Jimmy Roosevelt is a private citizen and if our preacher friend is go=ing to start in smearing private citizens for not cone tributing to the church, he'll have enough names to keep the Dies committee busy as long as Old Glory ’ waves. I can give him a few names myself,

Watching Your Health

By Dr. Morris Fishbein ~~

» a student in college keeps relatively free from sickness, keeps up his work, sticks to his courses, . gets along with teachers and classmates and does not” betray a serious quirk of behavior, he is considered to be a normal college student. Many students vary in some of these particulars. Dr. Harry M. Tiebout points out that these deviations should be looked for by any director of student health because they may ' carry them .on to the point where they will ruin the.. life and the career of the person concerned. Everyone knows that a healthy body is desirable « for @ healthy mind. Enough sleep, suitable diet, ex , ercise and regular living help to make a healthful life, In most colleges there is at least a dispensary and a physician available for the minor illnesses and anything more may be referred to the family doctor. Frequently there are Serious new strains put on the.i student without adequate consideration of the ability 4 of his health to withstand them. The student wha has been compelled to be absent because of illness . may, because of his endeavor to catch up, submit i himself to a mental schedule that is not suitable to ~ health, Sometimes it is better to repeat an entire course than to submit a student to such a strain, =

Among the most serious of cases seen in colleges are those of students who have taken the wrong course of study. There is the boy who has been pushed into medicine and who is not at all interested = in medicine, but who would prefer English literature or philosophy. Frequently the aid of an educator in selecting for the student a course suitable to ptitude brings about & recovery from his

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