Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 4 January 1939 — Page 14
“he Indianap olis Times
a aianap NEWSPAPER)
LUDWELL DENNY i Business Maneger
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«Po RILEY 551
Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way
Member of United Press, Scripps - Howard News‘paper. Alliance, NEA Service, and Audit Buveau of ‘Circulation.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 4, 1039
THE RECORD IS COMPLETED
OW comes the opportunity to complete the vecord, Last June, Thomas L. Stokes, reporter for the ScrippsHoward Newspapers; went into Kentucky to write about the primary campaign of Senator Barkley and Governor Chandler, He reported that the Chandler state machine systematically was shaking down state employees for contributions .and compelling them to support the Governor. Those findings never were denied. Mr. Stokes also reported that the Barkley :Federal machine was shaking down Federal jobholders and resorting to widespread coercive practices to compel WPA relief , workers to support Senator Barkley. He listed 22 specific instances of WPA-in-politics. |
Those findings created a considerable stir. WPA . \d- |
ministrator Harry Hopkins put on a great show of WPA investigating itself, and then issued a press release taking up those 22 instances and proclaiming that in only two > of the 22 could WPA investigators find evidence to support “what Mr. Stokes had reported. Then Senator Sheppard’s Campaign Expenditures Cor me . mittee took up the trail. Over the months the committee “has released preliminary reports. Now the committee has turned in its final report. And here is the score: Mr. Stokes reported 22 abuses. Mr. Hopkins denied 20. ‘Senate investigators sustained Mr, Hopkins on only four “counts. - Considering the time the WPA chiselers had to cover their tracks before the Senate investigators got into Kentucky, we think the final reckoning looks pretty good for Tom Stokes—and pretty sad for Harry Hopkins.
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RENTUCKY was only one of the many states where the Sheppard committee investigators found WPA up to its ears in politics. Wherever they went it was the same sordid story: Politicians on the public payroll devoting their time not to public service but to political campaigning. Wanton misuse for political ends of Government funds and labor and materials furnished by the Government. Unfortunate citizens, working on WPA for a meager livelihood, herded and _bossed and intimidated by political wardheelers. WPA ditch diggers fired because they wouldn’t promise to vote for certain candidates. shaken down for campaign contributions—ad infinitum, ad nauseum. Vote right or starve! The Sheppard committee report is perhaps the gyeatest indictment of mass political prostitution the country ever has seen. ' And we’re not forgetting the callous days of Boise Penrose and Mark Hanna when the bosses posted notices on factory doors. Admittedly it may be that what was done in WPA only seems worse because it was done under the cloak of humanitarianism. 2 : " * ELL, a lot of water has flowed under the bridge since the elections. In many states the WPA highbinders found their technique didn’t work, once citizens got inside the voting booths—just as the old-time partisan Republican employers found they couldn’t scare their workers by post.ing notices on factory doors. : The difficult and important task of restoring WPA to what it was originally intended to be—an organization to provide jobs for unemployed men and women—has been turned over to an Army officer, Col. Harrington. And the Sheppard committee has recommended that Congress enact a great number of new laws “to make impossible, so far as legislation can do so, further offenses of this character.” That gigantic task of reform lies ahead. All citizens who cherish our democratic form of government should insist that on this issue their lawmakers stand up and be counted.
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"HAGUE’S FLORID EPITHETS THROUGHOUT his battle to retain an unchallenged grip on Hudson County, New Jersey, Mayor Frank Hague has shown as little care for accuracy as for variety w hen hurling epithets at his opponents.
Whoever they may be, he calls them Bolsheviks and’
Reds. That settles it so far as he is concerned. Does a man ~ refuse to bow to Hague domination?’ He’s a Red. Does he stick up for his liberties and those of other American citizens? He's a Red. If Mayor Hague hasn't so labelled Shirley Temple it means she hasn’t gotten in his way. Just at present Mr. Hague is smarting under a brief condemning his violation of constitutional rights, filed with ‘the ‘United States Circuit Court in Philadelphia by the ‘American Bar Association. According to Hague logic, there can ‘be no other explanation; the Bar Association and its former president, Arthur T. Vanderbilt, have turned Red. : It merely goes to show to what extremes Mr. Hague has been pushed and what a frenzy he has developed under Pressure of outraged public opinion.
THE SHAKEUP BEGINS
HE much-needed shakeup of the Police Department has been started by Chief Morrissey. In his first move in. ‘this direction, he recommended the demotion of two highranking officers and the ‘promotion of four others. Time alone will tell whether these changes will increase police efficiency, raise morale and reduce the amount of politics. The significant thing at the moment is that Chief Morrissey’s recommendations were promptly approved by the Safety Board. This ought to have a doubly salutary ffect on the department. It means that Mayor Sullivan and the Safety Board are anged solidly behind Chief Morrissey in his efforts to make he department a more effective instrument of law enforce-
MARK FERETE |
Women on WPA sewing projects |
Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler Whoopee ‘Makers Offer a Sorry
Contrast to Those Who Arose the Next Day Fit for Tasks of New Year. EW ‘YORK, Jan. 4.—What a joy, indeed, is his
who can bound from his bed, alert and vibrant with healthy vigor for the glad New Year, a smile
| on his lips, a song in his heart, his spirit as Slean as
a running brook. The clear, cold air blows briskly through the open window, but he has renewed his vitality with eight full hours of untroubled sleep, and the saucy blasts merely tingle his skin, which glows with the warm strength of physical well-being.
up-down, 50 times for & br2ather, and now, placing the hands lightly on the hips and holding the ears at right angles, he bends from the waist, right-left, three-four, and after 100 times bounds into an icy shower, singing, a little ofi-key, perhaps, but with sheer delight at being alive this beautiful morn. He faces ahother year equipped in soul and body for his duty as a citizen, a credit tc his parents and his em-
| ployer and an asset to the world, ; -|
2 82 =»
into the night in sinful reveling, drinking intoxicating beverages which numb the spirit and the senses and corrode the human soul. Not for him the suggestive dancing of those who are erroneously considered “smart” to the strains of sensuous music. Not for him the late hours those who, having greeted the New Year at midnight, then continue the r mocking behavior until 1 o'clock or even as late as ¢ and scrambled eggs contrary to the simplest rules of hygiene and awake at noon on New Year's Day feeling physically and spiritually depressed and knowing they have misused an occasion for fine resolutions.
covers as they stir on New ‘Year's Day, are pitiful in the extreme, but much worse, is the sense of remorse for having wantonly and wilfully rejected an occasion which instinctively calls) men to repentance and reform. They are entered on the New Year steeped in their follies and vices, and the future lowers when, but for their flabby yielding to temptation, it would have dawned bright as the sun in the heavens.
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RETEND, they may, to be content with their way and at peace in their hearts, but they are only
| little boys and girls grown up, and they cannot alto-
gether stifle the feeble chiding of the small, still voice within them. Not sweet and innocent sleep has beeen their lot
the coming of the dawn, but rather stupor and troubled tossing as soul and body rebelled together. Not joy is theirs, but woe and inner shame as feebly they open their eyes and quickly shut them again to exclude the beautiful light of the flaming beacon of a new chance and immerse themselves another hour in the murk of unworthiness. No thrilling health and strength is theirs to bring them bounding to the open window to fill their lungs with nature’s own wine, the crisp, sweet air of morning, flavored with optimism of the new year. No song of virtue wells up from their hearts, no glad brotherly greetings to their fel-low-men are framed by their parched and crusted lips. No zest have they for the fray of life, no simple pride and pleasure in having lived up to the best that is in them. Do they feel lousy! | /
Business
By John T. Flynn
F. D. R. Seems Wise in Rejecting Suggestions for Peace Conference.
EW YORK, Jan. 4—The National Peace Conference has appealed to the President to take the
initiative to bring the powers of the world together in a peace conference. This body, made up of many sincere workers for peace, states the problem taus: The present course of the world must be interrupted either by war or a conference. This is oversiraplifying the case. Peace conferences do not always produce peace. The last major disarmainent conference resulted in
an increase in naval armaments. Another great peace conference before that one--at Versailles—sowed the seeds of much of the present trouble. Looking over the Lima conference now, it is plain nothing was accomplished worth the steamship fare and that the United States received a setback at Lima. : An international eonteretice now might get us into war. It would be a great show. It could be held here during the Fair. There would be an immense pother about peace. The greatest illusion that friends of peace in America can possibly have is the hope that Germany and Italy can be induced to suspend in any degree their agmament programs. Neither country would dare do such a thing. .
Outcome Would Be Tragic
To divert the attention of Americans now from the true road of peace by engaging in any such futile comedy as a peace conference looking toward dis-
armament or suspension of armament seems worse than unwise—it seems tragic.
A conference now would bring upon the table, not a small group of more or less minor and little understood problems, as at Lima, but a brace of the most explosive subjects that ever negotiators sat down with. The first effect of fais would be to have the United States horning in on the negotiations and, inevitably, taking sides. To suppose any agreement would be reached in a conference at which Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin were among the parties is innocence itself. And when such an impossible conference had ended with nothing substantial agreed on, we would be found deeply enmeshied in the interests, plots, controversies of Europe and Asia. The only effect of a conference would be to get us in deeper.
A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson
BAP news for the New Year, girls. In Ohio the telephone company is experimenting with devices which cut off conversation at the end of four minutes, although they can be set for a longer period if desired by local subscribers. They're called automatic shut-offs, and no doubt were thought up by some fiend in male form to plague womankind. We are warned to expect them to come into general use, if they succeed in rural and downtown districts. The information only s to show Rs ungrateful big business can be and ‘how shortsight I daresay the telephone companies would ni that the feminine love for palaver and small talk has made them what they are today, or at least helped greatly. They have opened up avenues of vocal escape for multitudes of lonely women, especia. country areas,
They must realize, too, that their profits depend partly on feminine gregariousness, yet there they go putting’ bridles on our tongues and cutting their revenue at its very source—the home. I don’t care how well the device works, I'm against it. It smacks of regimentation, and you might even go so far as to say it is & suppression of free speech. And think of the blow it will deal to love's: young dream. Imagine the feelings of a fellow who steps into the drug store to call his sweetie ros him short few minutes hears the click which warns he is about to be cut off.
It’s enough to sour the sweetest disposition.
as the present three-minute distant limit does for me, I'll never get caught up on ny talking. I'm against anything - will sacrifice more simple human pleasure to the greedy demands of business. When the telephone becomes only a public
OT for him the sad fo lies of those who sit far |
and ill-advised diet of |’
| or 4, consuming sausage
Their pains, their ill-at-ease tossing amid the |
since at last they ceased their wicked revelry with |
.jownership. The bondholder:
t deny |
Moreover, if the device slows down brain action;
“One-two, one-two, one-two, up-down, up-down, |
ORRELARES _ PROJECTS
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PUTTING MONEY AT WORK HELD BIGGEST NEED By H. L. Seeger : If Mr. Hopkins is to locate the impediments to employment, he may readily ignore the factor of inadequate facilities, or the willingness of labor for jobs.
What makes the mare go is money. The problem is to get money lin the right place. The 30 billion of “demand bank deposits” might as well be in the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean as in the banks, if these dollars do not go to work. The most important problem is— where shall they go to work? Ours is a profit motive economy. These deposits -are idle. because they can find no income paying jobs. Their only outlet today is in more interest bearing debt of the Government. These deposits represent an attitude as well as a condition. American business has gone soft; its venturesome spirit has disappeared. Money is looking for a sure thing; it has crawled into interest bearing bonds and mortgages, seeking sheltered positions, instead of going into capital stock where it assumes risk and management responsibility, with a chance at profits, which come from business ability.
The 250-billion-dollar debt structure which rests upon American business has become the old man of the sea to American enterprise. Railroad and utility. financing is topheavy with debt, topheavy to the point of danger. Rate making
turns, which are always allowed to be higher than sound bonds yield. The result is new financing on a debt basis with fixed returns. That
collapse. America’s big headache is bondholder ownership versus stockholder aust be driven out of their sheltered position, which demands interest\on bonds, without responsibility as to earnings having accrued from operations to pay this interest. If the U. S. Department of Commerce under Mr. Hopkins will make stockholder ownership more attractive than bondholder ownership by taxing bondholder interest as income of corporations, subject to the 19 per cent corporation tax as is done with dividends, then we may put
earn profits instead of leaning on Government and corporate bonds.
a 8 3 RESENTS LAYOFF OF OLDER MEN BY WPA By W. C.
I am writing to the Hoosier Forum in Yegard to the old folks past 65
is based on stock ownership re-
is the cause of railroad earnings’|’
American labor back to work tof!
; : ; : The Hoosier Forum I wholly disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.—Voltaire.
(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.)
who were laid off WPA by Mr. Jennings. He said we were entitled to a pension, but how can we live, pay rent and keep our children in high school on that? I have one in school. Well, we don’t forget so easy. When our time comes we will remember—, just like we remembered Mr. Hoover. 2 8 = HOPES CITY SOON HAS CITY MANAGER. By Reader : It’s commenting on the obvious but I would like to voice what must be the thoughts of a good many citizens: The predicament of our City Hall still unpaid for and its messy financing is the best argu-
THE SEASONS By RUTH ESTELLE MULRYAN Whirl irses and flowers begin to d
On hillsides soft and green, Of all the seasons that we love We're sure it is the spring.
When summer with her glorious
ays Unfolds such beauties rare, We change our mood and once more think It’s a time beyond compare.
But follows autumn bright with hues, And fruits are ripe and sweet, Again we feel that we are sure This season’s most complete.
Old winter with her snow and ice All sparkling in the sun, Adds jest and sport and beauty too, And fun for everyone. J
So while we share the pleasures Each changing season brings, Let us not forget Him who gives
them : our God—the King of Kings.
DAILY THOUGHT For when he ‘dieth he shall carry nothing away: his glory shall not descend after him. Psalms 49:17,
EN fear death, as if unquestionably the greatest evil, and yet no man knows that it may not be the greatest good, Mitford.
*| They want to make it unlawful for
|such “workers” showering him with
{vote, just as these last-minute par-
ment we have for a city manager system of municipal administration. The so-called business administrations have apparently not known their own business. I hope that after the Legislature makes it possible that there will be little delay in installing such a system of trained management. - 2 a =n
LAUDS MOVE AGAINST POLITICAL SLATES By Hurray! May I give three loud cheers for the groups which will sponsor a bill in the Legislature designed to
break up control of primary elections by a few machine politicians?
bosses to issue slates. Cy That’s really getting to the root
eliminating .the practice should do a lot to clean politics of its unwholesome aspects. Nice work, boys, and I think the Legislature had better pass the bill if the criticism of a voter means anything to them, And while Mr. Bert Wilhelm and his group are at it, I trust they will also include inthe bill a measure which will deprive candidates of issuing slates, too. I happen to know first hand, that candidates make plenty of dickers for support among themselves and when in office, crack down with the power they achieve. They might also do something about stopping the nuisance practice of candidates to line up “workers” at the polls to hand out slates, candidates’ cards, and such litera~ture to the person going in to, cast his ballot. It would make it uch pleasanter for the voter if he didn’t have to pass a block-long gamut of
pasteboards which he never looks at and has to put into a receptacle before entering the polling place anyway. The practice doesn’t influence a,
ties and rallies don’t, although they do help printers to stay out of the red. 2 8 =» THINKS BROTHERHOOD OF MAN ALSO IMPORTANT By E. F. 8. Gen, Moseley apparently has forgotten one of the cardinal principles of Christianity, the brotherhood of man, which includes the Chinese and not their murderers, the Japanese Emperor and his colleagues. He says the New Deal has brought ruin to the country, but the poor have always been “ruined.” He calls Communists “traitors.” I wonder if we couldn’t call those politicians who have fostered depressions and never strived to perpetuate security—economically—for the masses, also Jenttors.
| NO, it takes in too much territory. Nothing is wiser than to
resolve to. reform ‘this or that habit, ub d habi
LET'S EXPLORE YOUR MIND
By DE. ALBERT EDWARD WIGGAM-
[6 IT BECAUSE Wi NEN THAT THEY HAVE NE
Po FOSTER CHILDREN TEND FOSTER ER PAREATS THAN. > THEIR TRUE 5?
YOUR oPNION
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cies to slice, pull, top, dig up the turf, force, etc., etc., all at once, you
defeat all chance of improvemen e ith
|the second place, women have only
‘ |never seen, more than their foster
t.| The latest Sey a that by Dr, A.
Wa 7 makes 156 per year and, at that rate, You soon be Teady to consort} th angels. 2 s 8 : NO. In the first place there is no experimental evidence that women are less dependable in keeping secrets than are men and, in
recently become = emancipated enough fo enable them to form sociefies of any kind. Since they now have more opportunity to get together and doubtless have vastly
will .go in for forming secret societies is in the realm of We fourth or fifth dimension. ® = 8 NO. Numerous studies of this ) question have all, with possibly one exception, tended. to show that heredity is stronger than environment because these children tend on the average to resemble their true parents, many of whom they have
parents with whom they had been reared. The possible exception is a study by Dr. Frank Freeman of the University of Chicago, who conciuded environment was a stronger factor than did the other investigators.
of the evil in party politics and |.
. pessimists, young or
Watchin
more secrets to keep, whether they| :
| across after the fee
hildren in
chemical compound;
rt | (San, Johnson | £ Says—
Indians Strong indi vidualists and Opposition to Community Property Reform Therefore Seems Absurd, Suvitrs onli Jan. 4—Down here in my boy= hood home of Okmulgee, in what in those days,
used to be the Creek Nation of the Indian Territory, I see by the papers that there is some. objectidn to
improvement in laws | and regulations governing the
holding of real property by the Southwest Indians, The change is to make clearer the right of groups of Indians to hold property in common. The objec tion is that this would “encourage communism.” Boy that’s a hot one. So far as land and water is concerned, the Indian tribes always held property in common. But it was about as different from Mr, Stalin’s communism as-is pure democracy. There wasn’t any regimentation of opinion, speech or action among the Indian tribes. They were the gréatest of individualists. Even in their war movements they did not march or fight as organized units, They followed a leader, but only so long as they thought he was the best man, and each warrior pretty much made up his mind about that. : The constant policy of this Government has been to break this system up, to allot the land to individ- . uals and to make citizens of the United States out of Indians, who were formerly citizens of their own nations bound to the United States only by the obligations of treaties, -
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T= ‘process has led to pathetic results. I saw -
part of it here in the Creek Nation. At about the time it started, oil was discovered all under the place. This enriched some Indians whose allotments hap pened to be lucky numbers, but they didn’t know how to handle private property. There are very few rich Creeks now. The new order also required Indians to get rid of surplus wives, sélecting one and letting the rest go to live on their own “allotments” of land. It was my brother’s job to enforce this. He wasn’t successful with one old buck. He had four wives who refused to be liquidated. This irritated Washington. They sent out a beaming bureaucrat to argue the old man into getting rid of three of his wives. To every urging that he explain to his rejects the beauties of citizenship and get rid of them, he answered with a single word, “how” over and over again. In exasperation the official finally almost screamed, “explain them, tell them.” The old man slowly shook | his head ‘and said “you tell ’em.” It isn’t ensy’ to change the immemotial tribal customs. os 8 8 ET the Indians were as jealous as anybods of private ownership of personal belongings. ‘In the Pershing Mexican expedition we had a platoon of Apache trailers, all old men. Trailing is a vanishe ing art. I spent some time with them. Their letters home were all written by their commanding officer. Here is a verbatim copy of a letter from one old bronze savage to his squaw in New Mexico. “I hedr you lend my buggy to Cochise. You dont lend noths ing. I hear you cry all the time. You stop that, crying.” It was signed “Chicken,” for such was actually his name. Indians are fiercely possessive of their own trappings. There was no such thing as Marxian communism among them. For the few remaining Redmen who still live in tribal communities, recognition of these ancient com= munal customs is a belated piece of simple horse sense. It no more encourages communism in the mods ern meaning than it encourages savagery to permit’ them to Join Wild West shows.
It Seems to Ne
By Heywood Broun
ogged the Stage in 1938, Year Should Be Different.
TAMFORD, Conn. 4.—Nineteen thirty-eight ) was a year not only to be rung out but also laundered before it is fit to be placed upon the shelf with its fellow fugitives from the present. In the life of living generations it will be remembered as soiled linen. But I am not in the slightest accord with old, who look upon the future
Puppets H But New
Jan.
with forebodings.
The brook which turhs beside the road was only recently alive. Now (it is icebound. The big maple had its turn to be gay in green and later on in russet. Now against a sullen sky it thrusts out black fingers of bone which tremble in a palsied way as the bitter wind whistles in mournful numbers. And yet I know. that the brook will laugh again. . The gay raiment of the maple is gone only for a little while. These are signal fires giving word to the forces of life to prepare for the day of resurgence. Growth has not ended, even though it has been driven underground. ' And as sure as spring and summer sun and autumn glory man’s hopes ‘will come again to bloom and flower. Not without struggle will these things come true. But even plant life has to fight to achieve. its fruition. And so it will be with us. We have only begun to fight. We shall attack at dawn. And it may even be that the very fierceness of persecution has stirred a quality of struggle in ‘many who were by far too smug or too humble.
Time for a New Act
The year 1938 w! forces of iniquity set up many. puppets of power both at home and abroad. But now it is our .turn to answer. Some man| with the might of Moses will rise up to deliver his people out of the hand of Hitler, Out of the stock of Garibaldi will come one to take the measure of Mussolini. The aspirations of British labor are too broad and deep to be covered any longer by the feeble shadow of Chamberlain's umbrella. And here in America there are those among th living ready and eager to face the challenge to. de mocracy offered by Martin Dies and all the stooges of reaction. Not in a day or in a year will all things be accompli ‘valley of despair and the slough of despond. Buf America has leaders already whose feet stand upon the solid rock of lib win the fight for human rights. Ring in the new! All peoples and all races stand upon the threshold of the brave new World, F |
g Your Health
By Dr. Morris Fishbein
T least one-fifth ger’s disease who had’ developed gangrene had to have minor operations on their feet in relstionsiip to tiny infections around the toes. The investigators recommend that patients with this disease should be taught to avoid crushing or bruising the feet or toes and that they should be ine structed in the proper care of bruises, cuts, corns, scratches and similar injuries. « ew shoes should be worn only a half hour to an on the first day and plenty of time should be every pair of shoes. In cold weather soft woolen stockings should always be worn. Care of the toenails is especially important and becomes more important as trouble with the blood supply develops. The toenails should be cut straight have been soaked in warm water and carefully clean Corns, callouses, and bunions should be suitably protected against further irritation but should not be cut.
ho spent in breaking i
Dr. Bayard ‘T. Horton who has studied these oases; |
likely to have injuries than other people because of the. poor blood supply. In the care of the feet, the tissues should always be washed carefully and dried with a soft towel, Especially must perso: s afflicted be careful in drying the skin between the to Cases were reported in which rubbing briskly wi a rough towel has produced an ulcer. If the feet are excessively dry or if the skin has a tendency to ci ment may be rubbed on gently to soften the However, ointments containing strong Sainte or corn
emphasizes that fe with this disease are more
a span of time in which the
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