Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 17 December 1938 — Page 10

Che Indianapolis Tin imes Bo (A SCRIPPS-HQWARD NEWSPAPER)

‘Rov Ww. HOWARD LUDWELL DENNY MARK FERREE President ~ Editor Business Manager

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p> RILEY 5551

Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Wy : : ‘ gui

: Member of United Press, Scripps - Howard Newspaper Alliance, NEA Service, and Audit Bu_reau of Circulation.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1938

MAZING, fantastic, incredible—the words are Yeing worked overtime. There are, perhaps, no adjectives adequate to the story of the man who was. Philip Musica and F. Donald Coster. ‘No novelist would have written this plot. It is too much ‘stranger than fiction. Gaston Means, who died the other day, was by comparison a timid, penny-ante gambler with ‘crime and fate. Musica-Coster must have been touched by genius, His deceptions were on the grand scale, his “success” was spectacular, his fall sudden, swift and complete. 11 A boy immigrant from Italy; a young smuggler of Italian cheeses; a convict persuasive enough to win a pardon from President Taft; a swindler bilking banks of a million dollars in so strange a commodity as human hair; again a convict, again maneuvering his way to freedom; a special “investigator for the District Attorney of New York and caught providing perjured testimony against a man ancused of murdgr—that was Philip Musica. . | Then, some 18 years ago, Musica dropped out of sight. And in 1925 F. Donald Coster appeared—president of a little hair tonic company ; successful applicant for a million-dollar loan with which to buy the solid old McKesson & Robbins .- drug firm; promoter of bond issues to expand the business; figure in Wall Street; director of banks; member of exclusive clubs; yacht owner; subject to a biography in Who's Who, complete with date and place of birth and university doctorates in medicine and philosophy, all false. » ” o 8 2 8 ND now the denouement: A suspicious company official; claimed McKesson & Robbins assets to be fictitious drugs ‘in nonexistent warehouses ; suspension from stock exchange ‘trading; indictments; exposure of Coster as Musica and of two other company officers as his brothers; then Coster, a “igun at his temple, cheating society of its vengeance. : The law did not prevent this monumental fraud. But ‘ut least the machinery provided under the New Deal—the Securities and Exchange Act and its Commission—is serving to minimize the loss to investors. Public confidence in private investments has been shaken, at a time when confidence is most needed. But, whereas such a crash as this ight once have created wide-spread panic, little danger of that appears now. ; Obviously, more postive safeguards are needed. Faith in the auditing of corporation accounts and assets by cer‘tified public accountants must, by some means, be restored. ‘Audits that fail to reveal the truth, as in this case, are -worse than none. And the responsibility of directors for ‘what goes on in the companies they serve may well be more strongly emphasized. i But, under any law and anyls¥Stem, there will be now and then an exceptional criminal liké Musica-Coster. And such criminals probably will always be able to make their schemes succeed—for 'a while. Meanwhile, we may be thankful that most dishonest men are not intelligent enough to do such things as this one did.

‘STOCKS AND STORES

ERCHANTS enlarge their stocks, but not their stores.” In those eight words, it seems to us, Col. Leonard P. “Ayres, the Cleveland economist, has illuminated the fatal defect in the theory that pump-priming can bring permanent _ recovery. Like other economists, Col. Ayres "acknowledges that business activity is increased by increased Government ‘spending. But he holds—and experience seems to support “him—that business activity stimulated by this means falls off again when the Government spending slows down. Perhaps the real difficulty is that human nature has "learned slowly and painfully, through many generations, ‘that the individual who persistently lives beyond his income is headed, not for prosperity, but for bankruptcy. The {pump-priming theorists may argue endlessly that nations are not like individuals, not ‘subject to the same rules. - They may even be right about that. But we doubt whether “any human being ever is quite convinced by their arguments

3

T —ever fully persuaded that a government can go on and on,

no ‘spending more than it takes in, without coming to grief. © The merchant enlarges his stock, hoping for a quick turnover, but 4 doesn’t’build a bigger store. The manufacturer spe up his machines, but he doesn’t place ‘orders for new machinery. The wheels of business turn faster, but the tires slip on the grease of doubt and fear.

¢ HE 22-point traffic program outlined the other day by +i the. Citieg ns Safety Committee is the most forceful

Br oe in the traffic division of our police, calls for io hiring of a competent traffic engineer and lists almost

~~ With the spirit and the purpose of the report we are 100 per cent agreement. But we wish it had emphasized more vigorously the need for a traffic engineer and ‘demanded the establishment of a» court whose sole and exclusive function would be the handling of traffic cases. °° No large city we know of has been able to reduce

‘greatly its toll of dead and maimed without one or the |

ther. And the most successful campaigns are being made such cities as Evanston, Milwaukee, Detroit and leveland, which ‘have both competent engineering and pirited enforcement. : > When we get those, Indianapolis will begin oRing

)R GILDING THE LILY

see that loud Speakers are to be installed in the Horse)

investigations showing millions of dollars of |

= Fir rcugh

By Westbrook Pegler - J

¢

Thurman “Armold Sais. About Advertising but Makes Sure His Own _ Activities Get Plenty. of Publicity.

EW YORK, Dec. 17 ~Thurman Arnold, Assistant. Attorney General and, next to J. Edgar Hoover, the best self-advertiser in the Department of Justice, recently propounded an idea which may be admirable as fostering humility but calls for a challenge, nevertheless. Mr. Arnold says advertising promotes monop-

rival dealing in the same product or service. If the second company decides to advertise line for line

olize the business. Well, modesty is a very nice trait, but I disbelieve that Mr. Arnold ever made a practice of telling people,

to ball up any job entrusted to me.” - And, although I have listened to most of President Roosevelt's radio chats, I have yet to hear him say that the New Deal

to vote. Republican next time around. From the professional technique in. Mr. Arnold’s own publicity I: take it that he is & first-class circus. man. himself

experts, paid out of the people’s taxes, to 24-sheet him before the public and in the normal course of things will acquire & reputation with a high cash

value when he return to private life,

2 8 = : ! E never see Mr. Arnold designated as No. 6 or ‘his outgivings sitributed merely to the Depaitment of Justice, nor does his contention harmonize with the engagement of *“a thousand paid publicity agents daily and hourly to praise and color and sell

the official acts” of tlie Administration of which he is a part. This quote, iacidentally, is from a pious little address about normiility in public office, delivered several months ago by’ Herbert Hoover. :Mr. Roosevelt, enjoying the services of “a thousand press agents,” is inclined to sneer at “freedom of the press” as a phrase invoked to conjure up bogies. Yet the proposition advaiiced by Mr. Arnold contains the germ of press regulation by some lawyer-politician or any embittered failure at the newspaper business who may be taken on in Washington as moderator of advertising with power. to avenge imagined wrongs suffered at the hands of editors and publishers and heal “the sting of his own incompetence.

Cie wl. HO would say how much advertising was enough in a given case and what better way could a government punish, eéven supress, a hostile press than by limiting the best advertisers to the lineage bought ‘by the least of their competitors?

If one cigaret company buys a ralt-page and a competitor buys none, both cigarets being equal and preference a matter of mere taste, would the halfpage company be altogéther forbidden to advertise? And, assuming that the mnonadvertising firm were financially ablé to advertise but simply preferred not to for reasons of its own, would the advertising client be required to drop out of print, its business policy subject to veto by a competitor? And, touching on unemployment, how many artists, writers, compositors, printers, salesmen, reporters, telegraphers, clerical workers and circulation men would be unjobbed in the fulfillment of a plan to adjust competition to the speed of ine: hindermost laggard in commerce? :

Business By John T. Flynn

Incentive Tax Worked in N. Y. but May Be: Impractical on Broad Scale.

EW YORK, Det. 17.—The principle of incentive taxation now being discussed by a Senate committee is, of course, not entirely new. It is almost as old as the Government. Tariff legislation is, of course,

incentive taxation. It is taxation imposed in such a way as to encourage production. But a more direct type of incentive faxation is in effect in New York State and New York City now. As far back as 1921 the City of New York, under a State statute, passed a tax exemption law to encourage new building. At!that time residence building had come to a standstill. The city was faced with an acute housing shortage. But labor rates and labor rackets, material prices and material rackets and contractor agreements had tied up the building business into such a knot that building had ceased. To encourage building the city exempted from taxation for a period of 10 years the improvements in the case of any dwelling structure to the extent of $5000 per dwelling unit. The effect on home building was electric. The day following the passage of that tax exempt law the builders lined up in droves to file their blueprints, The law was far from perfect. It was not passed to stimulate business but. to.get the city out of the most serious housing jam it had ever known. Later it was amended and improved.

Had Effect of Subsidy

The idea, of course, is to extend this plan to other lines of industry. ‘The New York City tax exemption Jaw amounted to a 2! per cent subsidy for 10 years and made a considerable difference, of course, in the: cost of the house. However, one may well doubt if the tax exempt law would have done s¢ much if at the same time Samuel Untermyer. had not broken up the labor and cone tractor rings. that strangled the building business. One idea proposed now for all industry is to divide the Federal taxes into three grades—normal, surtax ‘and superssurtax. The normal and surtax would apply to all.. But the super-surtaxes would be subject to numerous deductions for the purpose of encouraging manulacurers anc builders to engage in new enterprises. - Like the building business in New York, it may well be questioned whether tax relief would do the trick unless many more adjustments were made. And then there is always the question whether a tax exemption on one group of new enterprises would not ‘besa tax penalty on all others who have to compete with them. It is a serious propaga? which calls for much weighing befors it is adopted

LR WL : ° A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

MEMPHIS man wants to know whether I think women work so they will be able to support some man, and if not, why not? According to his theory, a man never works for any other purpose than to provide for a woman’s wants,

To which 1 reply, “Bosh and fiddlesticks, Bir!” In

worked for any such an altruistic motive. Being afflicted with the customary sins of the flesh, they struggle to succeed, not to please the women, but to obtain the respect and envy of their own sex. They marry because they want homes; they have children because they enjoy the pride of fatherhood; and they let the shabby sisterhood prey upon them because they delight in feeling strong and superior and relish petting. In making these statements, I have no wish to detract from the generosity of the average husband and father, who i3 generally a benevolent and kindly individual. I only want to point out that the man who is willing to give up his work when he has no woman to suppor, is as rare as a cat in a dog kennel. In the process of carving their careers, many husbands treat their families ‘with remarkable liberality, providing them with fine homes, gorgeous clothes and

it is not whole- hearted love which prom: these lavish displays, but the desire to be cl as successful and important. If you don’t believe me, ask your nearest psychologist. There's something about that word “support” when -applied to wives that -always.makes me see red. It

oly when one company spends more money than a :

against the first, that, says he, runs: up the cost of | distribution. Otherwise, the first one tends to monop- |

“Don’t hire me, as I am an awful slob and a sure thing |

or commands the services of one or more ballyhoo ot

the long history .of humankind, men have never 5

handsome. cars. But, although they contend otherwise,

has been a deplorable mess and urge the eitizens |--

7 BILLION oLLAR X Eee ARMAMEN

3

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

PROUD OF RECORD MADE BY HULL By. Interested Is it my imagination or is Secretary Hull really changing the conndtation of the word “Diplomacy”? Time was, and not so long ago, at that, when the mention. of the word suggested secret pacts, intrigue and public speeches so ambiguous as to seem like Delphic oracles. Smooth speech to cover havoc-making acts. Secretary Hull seems to have turned the method around. His speech ‘at, Lima was nothing if not forthright and determined on a definite course of action—out loud, mind you. -His' object—peace. The lank Tennessean is making us very proud: of him. #8 ” ”

_|FAVORS COMMENTATOR

ROLE FOR ROOSEVELT By. Roosevelt Rooter

A reporter recently conceived the idea that President Roosevelt might turn radio commentator or newspaper columnist when his term of office is concluded. The idea may never have occurred to the President himself, but I think it an excellent one. Having events interpreted by one of the foremost men of the day, and perhaps of all time, with his keen insight into, and understanding of men and events, would have incomparable value to any student of the times and history. But what it might not do to the commentator business! If there should be a league of radio commentators, especially if it should be led by a Mark Sullivan (who doesn’t even seem to acknowledge that there are any liberal commentators in the business) the protests will be loud and anguished. 3 2 8 = THINKS YOUNGSTERS TOO NOISY AT MOVIES | By Y. G.

Observing a news item in The Times of a parent bringing a damage suit against a local movie theater for ejecting his son leaves me desirious of obtaining the opinions of patrons of Ines places. From my own painful experience, young hoodlums have completely

satisfactory pleasure of the working class. I would like to put in a plea to have these abuses stopped. If the youngsters who attend our shows have been so badly taught as completely to ignore the rights of others, why not let the judge of our

work :with a barrel stave? And more power to the theater employees who attempt to correct this vicious condition! . » o VIEWS WAR ORDERS WITH SUSPICION By L. 8.

What has become of the slogan “Take the profit out of War”? Sure-

ruined the enjoyment of the most

Tuvenile Court do a little missionary

(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 wil be withheld on request) -

war orders” sent out by the War Department have been tainted with the slogan. When does the slogan become effective? Are we being committed to war as a way out of depression? Is this the prelude to our embrace of the South Amercan dictators at Lima? De we embrace the European dictators next? : ” ” 8 URGES SHARING OF CHRISTMAS SPIRIT - By Mrs. Lenora M. Everett

How wonderful it is to be able to enjoy the entire year! Each month brings a new interest for the lovers of nature; each week invites enthusiasm from those who are interested in their occupations of earning a livelihood; each day is a renewed blessing for those who ehjoy good health and who - help others to health and happiness; each moment seems as beautiful and fleeting as a gorgeous butterfly to those who keep their thoughts on the success of the hour they are spending. After all, it is the little things which constitute greatness; being able to realize satisfaction from every moment we live is a great reward for all the little efforts we make toward this satisfaction. So let

lus all begin. now to make life a

little happier for ourselves by aiding some less fortunate creature. Aid, not necessarily financial, . but perhaps a kind word, encouragement in some new ‘undertaking, sympathetic understanding of a problematic situation, perhaps even a little physical effort on your part

GIFT SUPREME

By MAUDE COURTNEY WADDELL

When the choosing’s all done, And each gay ribbon’s tied— Then package and leaflet On its journey does ride. What of the gift of love— To One whose bir | we greet? In our hurry, pause to Pray, kneeling at His feet!

DAILY THOUGHT

And they spake unto him, sayin, If thou be kind to this people, and please them, and speak good words to them, they will be thy servants forever.—II Chronicles 10:17.

IN hearts, and you have all men’s hands and purses.—

ly none of the 10000. “trial balloon

Burleigh.

to relieve another of a burdensome

1task.

The person who keeps close count of his charitable deeds does not have true charity, for true charity is constant and allows no time out for tabulations. So if you want greatness from life, give greatness to others and you will be supplied a hundredfold. - Right now many - opportunities are yours. December is here, bringing with it another Christmas to rich, poor, old and young—to some, a Christmas of joy and mirth, a happy, bounteous time of the year; for others a Christmas of: sorrow, disappointment, want and heartaches, Make Christmas 1938 your closest landmark in your journey of enjoyment from life. You'll be surprised how close it brings you to the fulfillment of happiness. 2 2 ® FAVORS MORE MONEY SPENT ON AIRCRAFT By W. Scott Taylor | The practice of taking inven~ tories the first of the year should be extended to cover a list of the things which most of the people have learned since the World War. The newspapers are full of such things. For instance, a little thing was mentioned Wednesday which might determine the fate of sea power | and the which depends upon it. This story concerned an airplane that was accurately guided by remote control. It would seem that a part of the 75 millions spent on a battleship should be devoted to scientific research along this line. Then any international significance of navies like those of Japan, Germany and Italy would be eliminated and the democracies could breathe in peace as long as they kept the secret to themselves, if and when they developed such a device. : ” ” ” NICE GOING, ALF! HAVE A Goon TIME By B. C. Attaboy, Alf. A The wires s » you went Lambeth Walking wi “Senora Carlos Concha, wife of Peru’s foreign minister, at a night club interlude in the Lima huddles. When the boys back . home in Kansas read that ° Alf Landon trucked on down with the senoras and senoritas it may do more for Pan-American accord than all those speeches the wires have been carrying. : Now, if you could just “cut loose and show our South American friends a carioca or a rhumba maybe they'd sign up for. life, You might suggest fo “Cordy” Hull that he break out with a Tennessee jig done to: mountain music if those

delegates are too hard to crack.

HA ET06 G0 INTO "DIRTY BS; YES OR NO an

$ »

1

Hnplie So.eny insulis pushing it speak: thet the |s lever

1€6, WILL IN Sere, PURIFY po ow :

LET'S EXPLORE YOUR MIND

By DR. ALBERT EDWARD WIGGAM

T PEOPLE PRIDE “i ELVES On he

YES oR: NO eae

i

| ‘THEY surely will. That does not |preaching: T mean they. will have to play dirty two ;

‘| ete.

litically and socially conscious. Parents and schools should spend a lot

young people from the eighth grade up ‘the ins and outs of the politics of their city, state and country. 2 8 8 YES. It makes. such | fine. alibi for their laziness -when called upon to remember -some fact that they are expected to know. Instead of saying, “I'was just too lazy toc pay attention so I am ashamed to say I don’t remember it,” they laugh and say, “Oh, that's Just my poor memory. I guess I'm 1 F my. mind,” ee. NO. Just the opposite. Bors civilized human being knows aud Sera in Napoleon Bonaparte and

| [most of them equally honor Caesar

British Empire

of time and energy in teaching the

Coen. dehvison Says—

- None Can Deny. Roosevelt Propetly Diagnosed Nation's Ills but Trouble Is Wrong Remedies Were Applied.

YY ABINGTON, D. C, Dec. 17.<In the postwar dislocation of the world and all its old traditions there were five things that had to happen in this country to prevent an internal explosion: (1) Recognition of the economic inequality of agriculture and legislation to adjust it; (2) recognition and remedy of the disadvantage of labor without collective bargain ing by representatives completely free from employer

of the nation to regulate interstate commerce and

to relieve the human suffering due to faulty working of the national economic system; (5) cutting out ancient abuses in the banking system and the various

‘stock and commodity exchanges.

To Mr. Roosevelt and his various Néw Deals must and will go eternal credit for the first national recognition of all these puzzles and for an earnest, vigorous and sincere attempt to solve them. To the extent that his political opponents seek to belittle or to frustrate that, they are living in prehistoric times. They can never prevail. No group of any importance wants to

# ® =»

B= Wien you have said this you must stop. The New Deal recognized, vitalized and made these problems plain but in the practical solufion of any of them, except perhaps that of the changes—and there only partly—it was fumbled, blundered and bungled in every department. . Right here looms the greatest political issue of our times, If the Republican Party or any group within the Democratic Party can. offer a practical approach to these five problems in opposition to the amateur, fumbling Third New Deal efforts which have kept re turning prosperity stalled so many years, it is as cere tain as sunrise to win. . Perhaps no blue-print of a precise solution is possi« ble. It is possible that ‘the people are so sick of ths pills of the doctor who diagnosed their disease but, after six years dosing, couldn’t cure it, that they would welcome another who sincerely agrees with the New Deal diagnosis merely because they would think him ‘to be more practical and reliable,

” ® ©»

-essarily require a change of doctors. It would seem fairer by far if the man who had the vision to see these national enemies clearly and the courage to

edged conqueror. This, as it seems to me, would only require a change in method rather than a change of aims. If somehow it could be certified to our people that the first concern of government is to activate, rather than to restrict, the incentives to production and profit and to promote class good-will and unity, rather than class war and hatred, I believe that every one of these problems would fioat to- solution on an unparalleled wave of prosperity. For the first time in years there are many signs that something of this kind is in prospeet. They have been noticed on almost every editorial page in this country. This writer devoutly prays for it. For one who owes his Government so Zhueh, 1 is a lot more fun to praise it than to pan i

It Seems to Me By Heywood Broun

Lindbergh May Be Unhappy Because He Failed to Be as Great as Dad.

"EW YORK, Dec. 17.—Col. Lindbergh has been fervently praised and bitterly criticized by his countrymen. Probably at no time has he been understood. Even men.who have been much in his come pany do not profess to know him well. rather plausible explanation can be found for the strange career of the Colonel. However, it does necessitate the use of a phase and a theory which have been used so lavishly that they are currently outmoded. There was & day when that good old friend “an inferiority complex” served to explain the problem of every individual. Life is more complex than that, and we all grow weary of being taken in by each other’s wishful think. ing. But in the case of Col. Lindbergh I would like to take the old phrase down from the shelf and send it out for another airing. Charles A. Lindbergh, the

to America wher. he was a year old, and he is still

pioneers in progressive politics. The elder Lindbergh's platform included “a Federal financial system that is independent of private moe nopoly control” and Government ownership of transe

panies. As a boy Col. Lindbergh vastly admired his father. Indeed, he undertook to take him by airplane to a political rally in Minnesota some 25 years ago. The plane cracked up in a farmer's. ditch, and that was Mr. Lindbergh’s first and last flight. His son, of course, did continue to maintain an interest in aviation, ' : - oe

Retreat From Reality

But the flying Lindbergh must have realized from the beginning that he could never hope to be as great a man as his father. No opportunities for important pioneering such as the elder Lindbergh had done were open to him. And so, as frequently happens, Col. Lindbergh in approaching maturity made no attempt to emulate his father. Instead, as a sort of selfs defense, he took precisely the opposits road. The very fact that his father had been a radical moved. Col. Lindbergh to espouse in all things the conservative point of view. It began with a mild statement in support of Herbert Hoover for the Presidency and.has developed into close contact with Chamberlain and the Clive» den school of politics. To cap the climax, Col. Linde bergh accepted a decoration from Hitler. Today the world identifies Col. Lindbergh merely as a highly competent flier who happens to be the husband of one of the most sensitive prose stylists now writing the English language. And so I think Americans should feel sorry for Charles A. Lindbergh Jr. °

Watching Your Health By Dr. Morris Fishbein a,

. GOODLY number of workers have estimated the number of calories that the human body takes in with various foods. We know, for example, that a slice of bread may contain from 75 to 100 calories and that ‘an egg may provide a similar amount. We know also that various human activities use up the calories. It is important to realize that the average human being today consumes 1000 calories less of food than ‘was eaten by the human being 25. years ago and that the coming of the machine age has greatly lowered the requirements for calories in people in various classes of occupation, For example, a lumberman may

shoemaker or a bookbinder 3000, and a tailor 2500 calories. perday. “Among women, a hand seamstress will use 2000, whereas a machine seamstress will use 2400; a woman bookbinder will use up 2000 per day, whereas & house~ hold servant: kept reasonably busy ‘will use 3000 calories per day and a washerwoman working eight hours a day will use 4000.

0! SBE to nave these Agus its ting fo fis amour of food that you take

domination; '(3) cutting out the court-built no-man’s land between the power of the states and the power

industry; (4) recognition of the national responsibility

go back to i Deal days on any of these matters,

N the other hand, a change of dosing doesn’t nece :

charge them headlong, could also be their acknowl-

And yet one .

Colonel's father, was born in Sweden, but he came"

remembered as one of the earliest and most valiant |

portation systems and telegraph and telephone come

use 6000 calories, a stonemason 5000, a painter 3500, a’

: An average man asleep is using 65 calories per lin, | hour; awake and lying still, 77 calories per hour, and ule sing at rest 100 galories beat hows. fa

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