Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 23 December 1938 — Page 14
T he Indlanapolic Times
(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER) |
ROY W. HOWARD LUDWELL DENNY MARK FERREE President - | Business Manager
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Ee RILEY 5851
Give Light and the Peorts Will Find Their Own Way
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1938
¥ {
THE AGE OF SCIENCE
season is the one from London telling of the Govern- | “ment’s plan to spend. $100, 000,000 reinforcing private homes |
and apartment houses with steel sheets and girders to: pro- |
ide a part of the populace shelter from enemy bombs.
That's one type of home-improvement boom which we certainly hope our country will never experience. There's
little danger now, for the Atlantic and the Pacific are still:
broad bodies of water. But science someday may develop bombing planes that | can span oceans with almost the speed ‘of insults. | i
| l L -
EXHIBIT Ail | S Exhibit A of slipshod municipal financing we commend the attention of Indianapolis citizens to the story of how they are paying for the present City Hall It’s an old story in municipal finance, and one which can be duplicated in many. cities throughout the United States. It isn’t often, however, that we find a clearer example of how not to finance a municipal institution. The story begins in 1906 when the voters approved a bond issue for a fine new City Hall. To begin construction, the city fathers issued $300,000 in bonds. Later, in 1909, . they issued $600, 000 more to complete the project. As was customary in that period, they issued term bonds maturing in:30 years. There was then no thought of a pay-as-you-go plan, no effort to set aside anything for the principal, no idea of setting up a sinking fund commission to hold funds for the eventual retirement of these ‘bonds. 1 The city just went along paying fnterett for 30 years without giving thought to 1936 and 1939 when the bonds would become due. It paid $945,000 in interest—more than the original issues of $900, 000—but never Sot aside a dime, on the principal. | And so, because no one at City Hall from 1906" on had the foresight to plan for the day of reckoning, recent administrations have had no alternative except to issue refunding bonds, with another load of interest. By 1952, if all goes well, City Hall finally ought to be paid for—46 years after the first bond was issued for its _ constructibn. What a commentary on our so-called “business” gdiinisirgtiond’ i :
INDISP UTABLE 7%
AYBE it’s the season, or maybe just the circuthstances | —anyway we are struck with an impulse for soul searching. The subject has to do with those two widely publicized characters, the indisputable authority and the unimpeachable source. ‘Also might be. included the one Who defies “fear of successful contradiction.” : In recent days, in the public prints, on «indisputable authority” Robert H. Jackson and Governor Murphy have been made Attorney General, and Gevernor Murphy, simultaneously, has been selected for the Supreme Court. Harry Hopkins has been appointed Secretary of Commerce, of War and of the Navy. Both Frank Walker and Aubrey Williams have been put in charge of WPA. Jim Farley and Miss Perkins have resigned. All these events have been learned beyond “peradven- | ture of a doubt” by us wise guys of journalism. . Nowy, speculation on a basis of the best “dope” available is all right—if so labeled. Mr. Hopkins for Secretary of Commerce certainly was the ‘consensus. But there is a ifference between dope and actuality. And we have a unch that our position “in the know” would be stronger if
we indulged in more restraint and parked our indisputable
authorities outside. eH | For, after all, and chviolsly, the only unimpeachable source in such matters can be found just above the ears of one Franklin D. ‘Roosevelt, And it is entirely possible that even he hast’ t yeb. made up his mind. Having thus deposed, we declare that confession is good for the soul—and admit that there is no such thing as a synthetic Ror
WE AWAIT THE COURT'S ANSWER HE Supreme Court has agreed to review a case involving the right of the Staté of New York to tax the $2246 salary which James B. O’Keefe received in 1934 as an attorney for the Homé Owners Loan Corp. ‘Mz. O’Keefe is just one of thousands of New Yorkers
on the Federal payroll, who have been getting by all these years without paying their share of the cost of supporting
the State government. Some of them, including Federal |
judges, get salaries as high as $10,000 a year, which, the State has been unable to touch. Mr. O’Keefe’ s argument—and it is the argument of * the other Federal payrollers—is that in examining the home - mortgages for the HOLC he is performing a “Federal function,” and that to require him to pay the same State income tax which is paid by privately employed . New Yorkers would be “an unconstitutional burden on the Federal Government.” It is one of those arguments Which lawyers use and laymen never understand. We don’t know Mr. O’Keefe, and have nothing against him, but we hope he loses. For if he loses all the thousands | of O’Keefes and Smiths and Cohens and Zilches who have ederal jobs all | over the country will start paying State ome takes on the same basis as the O’Keefes and miths and Cohens and Zilches who don’t have Federal bs. And, prestimably, persons on payrolls of state and al governments, whose salaries are large enough to be able, will have to pay Federal income taxes.: - We've never public payroll an inco
[who makes enough money shouldn't have
the same as a person on a private payroll
been able to understand why a person on |
tax to both the State and - the Federal |
To toeeh
By Westbrook Pegler There's No Argument Against Work
For Women as Such but Those Who
Don't Need It Hurt Those Who Do, NT YORK, Dec. 23.—Some of my best friends are
women, but, still and all; they do have a mental attitude which is alien to the normal, or male, view- | 8 | point. :
So when I offered the wistful proposal that women who do not need employment should be eliminated from the job market to enlarge the opportunities for men who do need work, so that they may support their dependent women and children, I expected to
be accused of injustice to the whole race of women. I meant to say also that if employers and politicians
| who control appointive jobs should adopt this policy | ‘| the result would benefit women with responsibilities Qe the most depressing story we have read this |
who are dependent on their own efforts. It was not proposed that ‘women, as women, be
‘barred from employment, but the effect has been the |:
‘same, The most admirable: lacies rush to the defense of the most unworthy even though the unworthy, by the retention of jobs which they do not need, exclude really necessitous women froni opportunities to support themselves and their dependents. 8, # 2 T is argued, in some alarm, that the snployer and the politicians thus would be given an excuse to inquire into matters which are none of their business, but I believe this is a false alarm. Unfortunately, people already are used to intrusion into their private affairs. The Treasury not only demands the most intimate information but has a right to say what constitutes a reasonable salary for an individual and has been known to disallow portions of individual salaries as excessive. This proposed usé of such information would at least have an honest, helpful purpose. The purpose would be to allot the employment to those who need
it, and I think, although I am not good at such
arguments, that it would tend to increase wages by ‘removing from the employer's side of the situation the feeling that he needn't pay a full wage because the new hand enjoys a partial subsidy.. Of course, I didn’t expect that any politician would be guided by any other consideration than politics in selecting women for political jobs. If
she is sent in as a deserving worker by someone who has been allotted a job as his political due she will |
get that job if she shows up at the office in a chauffeur job and all hung over like a handcuff king with diamond bracelets. 2 8 = JOVEER I did meet cone noted stalesman~a Progressive, at that—las; week who said he had refused to give a political job indorsement to his own ‘daughter, a young married woman, because she didn’t need the money—$125 ‘to $150 a month, somewhere around there—whereas it was his hope that the one who would get it would need the pay to live on. _Strange things are happening in the world these days, and there may be one or two others who will be guided by the same principle in recommending people for places on the public payroll. The statesman’s discrimination against his own daughter in this case was a violation of her rights as a woman and a person, and I have him at my mercy from now on because I have only to mention his name to get him licked by outraged ‘womanhood the next time he goes to bat. Miss Dorothy ‘Thompson wants to know what. is to become of women who marry, have children and are deserted or widowed, Well, that type of woman would get some of the jobs vacated by childless women who are neither deserted nor widowed.
Business
By John T. Flynn
Hutchins Action May Mark End of “Friendly SEC-Exchange Relations.
EW YORK, Dec. 23.—Behind the resignation of Robert. M. Hutchins, president of Chicago University, from: the Board of Governors of the Stock Exchange, lies an incident. which may perhaps mark the end of the brief period of good relations between the Stock Exchange and the Securities Exchange Commission. Mr. Hutchins’ resignation came as a bolt from the blue. But behind it is a good deal more than the dissatisfaction of one board member. The incident was precipitated by the SEC itself. In the investigations following the default of Richard Whitney much testimony was adduced to show that other members of the Exchange knew of Whifney’s plight before it became public. Among these were men who stand high in the councils of Wall Street and the Stock Exchange. Among them were E. H. Simmons, another former president of the Exchange. and members of the Morgan firm, which is a partnership firm on the Exchange. According to the SEC, it was the duty of these ‘men, at least one of whoin was a member of the Business Conduct Committee, to notify the Board of Governors of the facts within their knowledge. Ine stead, Whitney was permitted to continue operating.
Incident Seen as Test
Whitney himself was expelled from the Exchange. Later he was convicted and imprisoned. His firm was broken up. The Excliange itself underwent a reve olution. But the SEC has contended that the job had bo been finished. rently the Exchanze was permitting this
To ject down on its doorstep and demanded action. The action considered therefore at the meeting to which Mr. Hutchins refers in his letter of resignation was whether Thomas Lamont, Morgan partner, and E. H. Simmons, a membe¢r of the board and Business Conduct Committee, should have been censured or penalized. Apparently the Commission looked upon the incident as a test of whether or not the Exchange can enforce its rules against its most powerful members. The Board of Governors voted:to do nothing, taking the position that no rule was broken by Mr. Lamont and Mr. Simmons. The SEC, it is said, feels.that the test has proved conclusively that the rules are made for the small fry and not for the big shots. The big question in Wall Street now is, will the SEC begin to turn the screws harder and stronger on the Exchange?
A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson
T last the colleges and universities are doing their utmost to help the student find his real job. It has taken a long time to come to this sensible attitude, and in their journey the professors have had to trample down. battalions of fond" and ambitious parents. Happily, the humanitarian matinet did not stop
them. As a consequence, a quiet educational revolu- |
tion is going on and one which I'm cheering for. Students are not coerced, but trained to discover the directions in which their talents lie. According to my notion, this is the best news we have had from the universities in many a moon. The
trite old theory that every boy can be President some
day if he puts his mind to it, and that every girl can have a grand career if she wants it enough, is one of the fallacies common to the parental mind. Yet the “Hitch Your Wagon to a Star” formula has been the ruination of thousands of simple youngsters, whose talents were only ordinary. It seems fitting then that the first step in schooling is to teach children to recognize their own limitations, so that our wrens will not spend their lives in futile attempts to travel with the eagles. It is sublime folly |.
certainly to tell them they have no limitations, but.
that all things are pcssible to them. For, as “every star differeth from another in glory,” so do Ho talents of men differ in strength and brilliance.
Does this sound like pessimism? Maybe, but surdy IN it is plain common sense. Parents and OI are
wholly without excuse when they encourage the firs , d-rate doctor
ride along until the SEC put the whole sub-
The Hoosier Forum
I wholly disagree with what you say, but will" ~ defend to the death your right to say it. — Voltaire.
FAVORS SOCIALIZATION FOR LAWYERS, TOO By Quizative The A. M. A. trust case is largely the outgrowth of the opposition of the medical profession to co-opera-tive hospitals and group co-opera-tive health insurance. Many doctors do not now earn enough annual income to compensate for their long training period. Socialization of medicine is no more dangerous to the practitioner than the socialization of education which preceded it. It has been socialized in the Army and Navy long ago. .Along with medicine there should come the socialization of the practice of law— most of all the reformation of the practice of law, in terms of speech and forms, to make it understandable to persons of average intelligence. -- What the doctor’s Latin prescription is to the patient, the jargon of the lawyer is to the client. If the closed corporation, er union of the doctors, warrants Federal action, then the closed union of the law profession also warrants inspection. Why cannot they speak our common language in contract forms, or before the “learned” judge?
2 8 = RESENTS CHANGE . IN TEXT BOOKS By M. T. H.
I see that the Board of Education owned and operated by the McNuttTownsend machine has ordered new school books for us next September at a price of 4 to 28 cents more for each book. That means we are going to buy about all new books. That alone means something, not considering the raise in price. And remember, too, there will be no swapping or purchase of used books. We also must remember that the Republican we voted in this last November had nothing to do with this raw deal. It’s going to take a lot of money for Mr. McNutt’s advertising agents to sell the show to the nation. Why couldn’t they have told us this before election?
2 8 = THINKS PEGLER RIGHT ON JOBS FOR WOMEN By Irving Kiotz
I think Westbrook Pegler should be commended on his article on married ‘women working when they are already well taken care of by their husbands. These women are taking away jobs from thousands of needy men and women who are forced to go on Teliel,
~
(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)
THINKS THESE BOOM DAYS FOR DEMAGOGBy B. C. It seemed as it the calendar had slipped back a decade or so the other day, when the papers announced that the original “Big Bill” —Willilam Hale Thompson of Chicago—was going to run for: Mayor once more. Big Bill used to be a habit with Chicago. The city made noble efforts to conquer its craving: every so often and periodically succeeded; - but each success was followed by a backsliding, somehow, and the habit was never entirely broken. All of this was part of that decade of the gaudy ’20s when almost anything was okay. New York blew itself to Jimmy Walker, in that period, and was quite happy to support him—on the ground, apparently, that if a Mayor was only picturesque eno] h his other: shortcomings did t matter. And Big Bill was fully as picturesque as Jimmy Walker, if not more so. His shadowboxing with the King of Egnland harmed no one and made for lots of laughs, and if Chicago didn’t mind paying for him ne one had any kick coming. But this decade is different. Neither the country nor any individual city is rich enough any
CHRISTMAS SEASON
By ROBERT O. LEVELL
The Christmas season filled with charm, In glamour all so bright, Is sounding out the glad alarm «To bring the heart delight.
Old Santa time is here again; Renew your happy way, 3 For all the joy that can extend For you on Christmas Day.
DAILY THOUGHT He answereth and- saith unto them, He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none; and he that hath meat, let him do likewise:—Luke 3:11.
JFURST daughter to the love of God, is charity to man—Drennan. e
longer to be able to afford a funny man in high office. So Big Bill's return to the wars looks anachronissic . until you ‘stop to reflect on one of ‘the queer, little-noticed laws of politics. There seef to be two: setups under which the _tub-thumping demagog can be elected to high office. One is an era of happy-go-lucky prosperity, in which the voters may. be willing to forget about serious things and elect the man who puts on the best show. The other is an era of depression | | and doubt, when people are ready to listen to. everything and believe anything. So the political funny man, amusing enough in time of ‘high pros-
perity, is. something else again when}:
times are bad. ' For-he represents a channel through which: legitimate
public discontent. with: bad condi-f : -
tions can be diverted and -be made to produce. effects which. can only | make a bad situation worse, Like all other. big. cities, Chicago |. faces tremendous er lems which demand thinking on the part of. electorate and public officials alike. All political campaigns under such circumstances ought: to be exercises in. public. education; they ought to.raise real issues and cause extended debate.on them, so that in
the end the election may represent
a step toward Solution of ‘the city’s troubles- : But suppose such a campaign is made to hinge on an entirely extraneous issue? Big Bill announces; for instance, that he will campaign on a no-foreign-entanglements ise sue That certainly -is an issue worthy of debate—but it has no-con-ceivable place in a municipal- election Raising it there can only mean that the energy which ought to go toward solving Chicago's problems will be diverted And that is the real harm done by the demagog. By appealing to prejudice and fear, he keeps us {rom concentrating on the things we {ought to be concentrating on, In times like the present, thai is a real danger. $a = 8 AT LEAST THE BOSSES HOPE THIS IS TRUE
‘| By Daniel Francis Clancy, Logansport fs
The straightest thinz in an American election is a party worker’s ballot. ; 2 = » ‘DON'T LET ‘PALS’ DOWN, IS PLEA. By J. H. Quire, Vallonia 7 Every man is some boy's hero. Every woman is some girl's inspiration. At this particular time of the
year let us [so conduct ourselves so. as not to let these "pals" d down.. -
HR.
|undied men 2ra women, Ww
tests of Posi to several
LET'S EXPLORE YOUR MIND
By DR. ALBERT EDWARD WIGGAM
2 IL DREN.
RE IRRITABLE D NERVOUS, WHICH 1 Hy Jol E20.
on onion: Eo
HIGH SCHOOL CLASS | iG, "BG NoT nn Lape
SYM MPATHY®
Yés ORNO
drunken. man, ete., and he found
acquired,
sensitive make-up—both. natursl and
. 8 8 THE STUDIES in the nutrition laboratories -of Yale by Drs.
Haggard and Greene, show that the best remedy for irritableness, tired feelings and general nervousness in
{both adults and children is more
often food than anything . else. Weariness, blues, depression, feel-
ing of exhaustion, etc. are. very| |often due to lack of nourishment, |.
especially starches and sugars and, at such times, nothing peps one up as does a banana and glass of milk or a leafy salad and bread or even
‘a good beef stew. The: efech is ery ;
quickly felt. ; ” * ot "A LOT of them do. Curiously, many. people thrive both on giving sympathy. and in demanding it.
on plants.
Gen. Johnson : Boye
Real Mystery of Coster Scandal Is - That Fake. Inventory Which Recalls Some Similar Episodes in the. Army,
: N=V YORK CITY, Dec. 23. ~The real mystery of-
the McKesson-Iobbins scandal has . not’ been
| solved. It is as incredible as the career of the Coster-
Musicas, and that i¢ a record in incredibility. The
real mystery is an Inventory shortage of 10 to 18
million dolars, It is a matter of history that Potemkin made the
|| Empress Catherine believe that she had a Prosperous,
province under his governorship by building fake
pasteboard villages cn the one-sided plan of . Holly= . wood sets. That we can understand because we see
: the same kind of thiag in the movies every day.
It has been done before in the Army’s great Stofe age warehouses whe'e inventories have to be taken ° continuously. I know of two cases where sucha thing was done on a much smaller scale. In the Presidio commissary scandal, petty thieveries had gone on for years. It was a sort of home base of supplies for the Philippines. In its v/arehouse were mountains of 13pound cans of bacon, cannistérs of SoRees and the like, . » » - i . HE officer charg:d vith taking the. inventory ole. : served that the piles ‘were square, coutited the number of cans on one side, the number on ‘the other, and the number of tiers. -He then multiplied the: three figures and called thie result the number of cans on the pile. It was discovered finally that the moun-
‘tains of cases were hollower than a volcano. ‘Courte
martiall Scandal! Ruined reputation! Jail sen-
| tences!
One of the undiicoverable shortages was in beef. Thousands of pounds were bought every day. In the investigation it was found that the cutter who re-’
-ceived and stored tiie carcasses had contrived a ‘de-
vice by which he weighed a 20-pound steel hook every time he received a quarter of beef. He was efficient and ‘had been offered all kinds of promotions. Each * time he refused, saying that he loved his job and his old hook so much that no chevron or advancement. was an inducement, He stole so much money that he - owned several San .Prancisco apartment houses. ‘Upon’ his court-martial, lie deeded them to his wife. Be-
.| fore it was over, slie had eloped with a handsomer
man, 5 » é ) ‘w ® s : : - - nim : SIMILAR ‘thing. “happened. in ‘the . Philippine Iga.
lands.” That cne was never discovered officially; '
| A loyal, if not honest, coramissary sergeant found it
out. To save his beloved officer, he arranged a neat series of arsons ‘ard shipwrecks without. loss of life .
‘but with greater ‘loss™ -of * nonexistant commissary:
storés. The office)’, who probably never knew what: was happening, was one of our leaders in the World -
- War.” A good thieving supply Sergeany was a necessity ;
in the old army. “* The McKesson-Robbins improbability will reveal no such easy explanation: I used to run an industrial .
‘company with an :nfinite variety of produets-and :in--
ventories of several millions of -dollars. Once a year the auditing firm’s employees moved into -the ‘plants, physically to observe the count by. our own men. Naturally the auditors -could- not count everything but -
-|. they issued “invenjory slips” to our men -who -did the -
counting. They Wize as careful about these as if they were money.
They collected the slips of the counters and then
proceeded to the clifficult task of pricing each bin or - pile or box—all of which they did or checked them-: -
‘selves. With sucla-a method any :serious -inventory - shortage would bg. impossible—certainly ‘any -short--age running into ‘he millions. Auditing ethos are: ‘the real Sestion bilo} of inquiry here. . .
It Seerns to Me
By Heywood Broun
Ickes’ Counsel Against Silence Policy * For Anti-Semitism, Should” Prevail. - EW YORK, Dec. 23 —Harold Ickes is a man ‘wha ;
speaks his mind, In addition to being forthright - be is shrewd in the ways: of politics. And 50 I Hope -
that those who heard him at the dinner ‘of the Cleve- h
Jand Zionist Society ‘will heed his wise words, Secretary Ickes discussed, among otHer things, the hush = hush policy which has been commended in some quar=ters as the part which Jewish leadership should play in’ the fight against ira ‘He mentioned the’ fact that a certsiin number of prominent Jews have joined. in giving counsel that those who suffer most should say .the le ash. It has never seemed to me that there could be utility in’ such a policy, and the arcimest for such a procedure was bssed upon a prerhise which is past. It was said that since anti-Semitism has been no mare than a smoldering thing in America, it would be un--wise to have those who oppose it fan sparks into flame, But while the opponents of this ugly thing have been’ biding their tim¢ and guarding their words the proponents have brought it out into the open, fi
Pilate Woulcin't: Understand
“I have been dismayed,” said Secretary Tckes, “to. hear that the suggestion has come. from Jews of wealth that the President should not consider for appointment to the Supreme Court one of the ablest
:and most outstanding legal statesmen of his genera-
tion because that appointment might arouse prejudiceagainst their particular. group.. Money. that - is: cowardly enougli jo do this, is money that should be’ cast away.” Harold Ickes may well have had in mind the wolia® spoken by a grist leader of Nazareth to a certain: rich. young mar. who went away sorrowful when he: was told to give Away that which he had. -I like ‘to
imagine that Pilate, the great executioner, may have-
talked .to the young taxpayer and asked him incredu= -
‘lously whether he had seriously considered following
the advice of Jsus. ‘And I think the young man re=-"’ plied that he hid been almost persuaded and that: he”
. proceeded to explain to Caesar’s procurator:
“The heroes of my people: ‘have always been’ : prophets. They have denied ‘themselves substance in the search for the spirit. - They have ‘stripped them= selves naked and gone hungry into the desert in order * to see God. ‘Out of parched mouths have come the lessons for all mankind. But you are a Roman’ gover nor; you. would; n't understand. IN Gn
Watching Your Health
By. Dr. Morris Fishbein ‘i Ai
NEVERE poisoning with carbon ‘monoxide w, ‘ot 5 course, existaingly dangerous and may resul
corners may aiale enough carbon’ monoxide )
velop symptors. = i
Housewives may also develop such defective 200k utensils and
symptoms in those who work
It is belied that such x
monoxide for ine sna Ss Eve
Without realizing it, many people| air
give to charity and visit sick peo-
pie in homes and hospitals and send |
flowers because it gives them a fee}ing of both self-approval ‘and of
‘{ | achieving the approval of others. |And when they air ' |and bid for sympathy they are doing
their troubles much the same thing—seeking to become important and solicitu their fell
an. or of |
PE canaries
succumb muciz m
4
mec ie RAD