Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 7 January 1939 — Page 10

The Indianapolis Times . ; (A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

MARK FERREE Business Manager

OY W. HOWARD esident

LUDWELL DENNY x Editor Owned and published daily (except Sunday) by = The Indianapolis Times ‘Publishing Co., 214. W. Maryland St.

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«p> RILEY 5551

Give light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

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SATURDAY, JANUARY 17, 1939"

| THE MAYOR'S FIRST WEEK AYOR SULLIVAN is off to a good start. : Within the first few days of his new Administration : he has cleared the way for some of the much-needed re- : forms. This has been particularly true of his appointment : to municipal offices and boards, most of them men of ° superior character and ability. In addition he did not waste : a day in starting the overdue reorganization of the Police i Department. Bein Sometimes little things are even more eloquently : revelatory than such headlined events as major appoint- : ments and departmental shakeups. We are thinking partic- + ularly of the four little rules for municipal employees which » Mayor Sullivan has just laid down. They are: : 1. All city automobiles and similar equipment must i be locked up each night, thus preventing private use of : public property; : : 2. No liquor drinking on duty and no liquor kept in i offices for any reason whatever; : 3. No loafing; 4.)No discourtesy to the public. «Yes, this is a pretty good record in big things and little : for an Administration’s first week in office. We hope Mayor : Sullivan and his associates will keep up the good work.

~~ TOM MOONEY GOES FREE : OM MOONEY is scheduled to be freed today and at : last America’s “Dreyfus Case” is passing into the - archives of history. Pardoning Tom Mooney, as he consistently promised he would, California’s new and liberal Governor Olson does more: than right a 22-year-old wrong against an innocent man. He does more than rebuke the sordid crew of per- ~ jurers who lied Mooney into jail in 1916; more than shame - the four preceding California Governors who lacked his - courage to do a right but unpopular deed; more even than restore his own state’s honor. He does a real service to the cause of democracy, a cause right now fighting for survival in our chaotic world. : ‘Mooney was, and is, a political rebel. In Russia, Germany, Italy, such an “enemy of the state” would have been shot or guillotined with or without benefit of a farcical “trial.” Here, indeed, he escaped hanging only by inter- * cession of the late President Wilson, but the point is that he did escape, and today he will go free—free even to carry on his political agitations under the protection of the Con- _ stitution. : The story of Mooney is one that had better never have been written. - It is-an all-too-human story reeking with fear, hate, weakngss and meanness. It turned Mooney into a white-haired old man before his time. Doubtless it ‘helped turn many other Americans into radicals and cynics. ..... dt has not reached a satisfactory conclusion even today, since Mooney’s fellow prisoner, Warren K. Billings, convicted on the same perjured testimony, remains in prison, = victim of a technicality that requires action by the Cali-

i

: But let it serve our nation and what is left of the demo- * cratic world as an object lesson. Democracy may be slow : to deliver justice, as slow as the very mills of the gods. It : may blunder and flounder. But humans, whether rebels or . conformists, whether Tom Mooneys or you and I, are better off in the long run under it.

SPARE US THIS!

E observe with apprehension that among the bills introduced in Congress is one by Rep. Sol Bloom of New York “to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the First Congress of the United States under the Constitution.” Not that so important an anniversary should be neglected. What we fear is that this bill may be the enter- | ing wedge for a huge Congressional Sesquicentennial Cele- ~ bration, with Sol Bloom as director general. Mr. Bloom, in 1932, directed the national celebration of George Washington’s 200th birthday. That task completed, at greatiexpense to the taxpayers and with a vast amount - of publicity for Mr. Bloom, he consented to direct the national celebration of the 150th anniversary of the signing . of the Constitution. He stretched that out for nearly two - + years and spent on it some $300,000 before it was discovered - that a few of his Tammany supporters had chiseled in. ‘ Mr. Bloom is fully capable of devoting any given amount of money and unlimited bad taste to commemorating the 150th anniversary of Congress. It seems to us, however, that he has done enough for patriotism, and that : patriotism has done more than enough for Sol Bloom. We © trust, therefore, that his bill will die in committee. And . we suggest that Congress observe March 4, 1939 (the anni- - yversary in question) with a ceremony simple, dignified and

~ brief, so that the members may lose little time from their

duties.

i

: “MERELY ABUSIVE” : ; AVING been annoyed by a heckler while speaking at a : campaign rally last October, New York’s Mayor La ! Guardia said this: ; : “They are throwing the bum out. The politicians are : not acquainted with these really fine audiences, and they : pick up a bum in 2 gin mill and send him over here to break : up the audience.” : ; The heckler, 2 Brooklyn lawyer, promptly filed a $100,- * 000 slander suit against the Mayor, contending that the effect of the language used was to portray him as “a vagrant and debauchee in the habit of using spirituous liquors to excess or intoxication in-a gin mill.” Now the learned Justice Kadien of the New York Supreme Court has dismissed the suit, holding that Mayor La Guardia’s words “at their worst, were merely abusive and ill-chosen.” So, at least in New York, it seems fairly well established that one who is called a “bum” has no recourse at law. “Merely abusive” words appear to have judicial sanction d 80 does “il-chosen” language, which should be good ye and ol ecig i DV

DEL ner So 3 hy 3 i

- fornia Supreme Court as well as by the Governor in his case. |

Fair Enough By Westbro ok Pegler

Just Another Gentle Reminder That Action Is Long Overdue On Those Tax-Free Public Salaries.

EW YORK, Jan 7.—Well, pals, here we are again, like Johnny Appleseed, to remind the new Congress and those who enjoy the priceless privilege of paying income taxes that there are about four million persons on the State, County and municipal payrolls of the country who contribute no Federal tax on their

pay and almost another million cut-rate citizens on

the. Federal rolls who are exempt from the State income taxes, if any, of the states where they reside. The first group consumes about six billion dollars a year of the tax money and includes, of course, many low-bracket employezs who would be passed over by the collectors even :f the Federal tax did apply to the public servants of the subdivisions. But it in-

cludes also many jidges, mayors, sheriffs, commis-

sioners and teachers, governors, attorneys general and clerks of the court who draw from $60 to $800 a week, a number of whom enjoy also the assurance of good pensions on retirement and sick leave and vacations with pay. In New Zork it includes an uncommonly. privileged set in the education system, those married couples who draw tvo fat salaries and pay the Federal tax on neither. The second group—the Federal employees exempt from the State taxes, if any—take down about half a billion a year.

: gi 2 8. 8 ; | 4 has been impossible to estimate the amount of taxes which would be derived from these groups if the court rulings establishing the exemption were to be reversed or ravoked by legislative enactment. But guess figures have placed the Federal Government’s share at $15,000,000 to $30,000,000—a range which only goes to show that nobody really knows. Still, even $15,000,000 would be worth the trouble of collection; “as many nonexempt individuals have learned from experi¢nce with reviewers from the Internal Revenue Department, who spend many hours going over old check stubs and after the most search-

ing examination turn in reports requiring them to pay

$18 to $150, or even as little as $2.50 extra.

These exemptions date back to court decisjons give long before the Federal Income Tax Ame adopted and are based on a thin theory that, if an established salary of a public position be taxed, that tax is a tax on the agency by which the individual is employed. ‘By the same theory it could be held that a tax on an ordinary working citizen in private industry is a tax on his employer, and the same answer refutes both: contentions. . » ” ” 2 : RESIDENT ROOSEVELT gave the thing a little budge last year when he needled Congress to pass “a short and simple statute” exposing Federal salaries to the state income taxes and State, County and municipal pay to the Federal tax, on the same terms that are applied to nonprivileged citizens. It was argued that this couldn’t be done without a Constitutional Amendmeht, but the President popped back, quick as anything, that the Constitutional Amendment already existed—which was something that nobody else had thought of before.

. That is, everybody knew the Income Tax Amendment existed authorizing Congress to levy taxes on inconfe “from whatever source derived,” but people, including even experts, had come to regard those court decisions as obstacles that could be removed oply by another specific amendment. Well, this little inequality probably will be remedied in this session of Congress. It helps for redress, be-

cause, after all, the mere fact of a man’s giving his |

life to his city in tha role of clerk of the court, for example, shouldn’t impair his right to share the burdens of the National Government. That way lies discontent, disloyalty and rebellion.

Business

By John T. Flynn

German Stocks Drop May Indicate All Is Not Going So Well in Reich.

EW YORK, Jan. 7T.—As the year gets under way \ there is a feeling that it will, in some way, mark the climactic year in the fevered career of that monstrous growth known as Greater Germany. What the climax will be, can he merely a matter of speculation. But whatever form it takes, certainly the economic forces at work under the surface will play a most important part. : Sig. Mussolini onc2 said that statistics are an instriment of state policy. Both the Fascist Governments of Italy and (Germany have manipulated statistics as they have manipulated news to advance the thinking of the people along the desired lines. So, therefore, we may assume such statistics as are given out are as favorable as they can be, yet they seem to forbode trouble. : On the surface Germany seems to be a hive of completely employed people. In 1932 there were six million people out of work in Germany. Today there are but 150,000. In 1932 there were 12,000,000 people working. Today there are 20,000,000. The Government

‘tells us that the income of the German people was

45 billion marks mn 1932 and now it is 75 billion,

Currency Rise ls Strange

But despite this, clespite the fact that throughout the year industries have been working to capacity— night and day; that the Government is talking about extending the workinz day beyond eight hours in key industries; despite the fact that industrial corporations have declared larger dividends this year, the stock market declined during the year. When 1938 dawned -the market stood at 111. When 1938 ended, after what is called the greatest year of territorial and industrial and spiritual expansion in Germany’s history, the market stood at 102. That is its verdict on the year. : More serious, of course, is the strange rise in currency. At the beginning of the year there was about six and a half billior. of currency in circulation. At the end of the year this was nearly 10 billion. Germany has been taxing to the limit and borrowing from the central bank to the limit. Has shé now come to the point where all these are insufficient and she must resort to the direct issuance of money? An increase of over two billion marks in circulation, which means an increase of about 33 per cent while indus‘trial production was increasing only 6 per cent, needs to be explained. Maybe this is the first little seam in the steel armor of the Reich’s economic system.

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

ATS usually come back—and so do ‘expatriates. Right now theyre arriving by shiploads. Men and women who thought they had outgrown plain Amegican homespun are scurrying in, eager to avoid

the woes that go with the wearing of titles epaulets. Once again the "Jnited States is a haven—this time to its prodigal children. First, it offered refuge to the persecuted parents of the pioneers and now it is the last security for their grandchildren, who, bred

and

of Western initiative and well fattened on Western |

milk and honey, hat become too snooty to endure

domestic art or literature and thought they could |

exist only in the ancient and more enlightened centers of culture. : Then, alas, European culture curdled. Enlightment was submerged in barbarism. We have the word of Louis Bromfield, the famed novelist, and of many others, for that. “I've always want:d to come back anyhow,” Mr, Bromfield’ said when interviewed on his Ohio farm. “America is the only logical and fertile spot on earth for a new generation of creative intellects.” Stay-at-homes have believed that sentiment for a long time. Some of the stories of returning natives are faintly reminiscent of the tale about the boy who left the farm because he couldn’t stand the smell of the pigs and came back broke, loudly praising the odor of frying bacon. ’ had

The delectable aroma of our frying bacon now |

encircles the globe ard many wandering former citizens are lifting up their noses afar to follow the scent. And we ought to listen to say. It is thus:

LY

ment was |

what the prodigals have to

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

HE GOT THE SIGNATURES; AND ALSO THE JOB

By Curious

The outgoing Chief Examiner of the Board of Accounts, it is reported, conducted examinations for several hundred applicants at Purdue and ‘Indiana Universities to secure a list of persons qualified to be appointed as examiners, but no announcement was made on what persons were selected. Let me guess why, but first may I tell a little story? I have a friend who was graduated from Purdue’s School of Engineering; when he applied for a job, well recommended by a faculty member, he was. told at the Highway Commission that he had the job if he could get the signatures

{of the city, county, district and

state chairman, and perhaps some others I have forgotten, on the petition he was given. After chasing around for a week or so, he got those signatures and also the job. Now he pays 2 per cent of his salary to the State fund, makes his contributions to County and other funds as they come up and follows the “suggestions” of every politician in the machine to appear in parades, meetings, rallies, and work at the polls, which work merely ‘consists in standing around and looking wise. He used to have ideals in government learned at school, but now since his job and welfare of his family depend on it, he’s a very loyal Democrat. He's got to be. If there are some selfish, unfair practices among the bosses that should be changed to allow for better government administration he

head about it or find himself with the WPA. Can it be that applicants for the Accounts Board are not selected until they can come through with their petitions signed by the proper political bosses? How silly, one -might say, to Pequire such nonsense when the person is qualified for the job. Ah, but you don’t know politics. How else could the state machine muscle in on those salaries, and how else can those employees be made into unswervingly loyal Democrats? ” 2 ” . DENIES LIQUOR TRADE ANY LEGAL RIGHTS By H. 8. Bonsib

No doubt the drys will ask the Legislature for a local option law at this session. - But it seems to me that the quickest, cheapest and most successful way would be for each county to file an injunction

that the traffic has no moral, legal or inherent right; that the Supreme Court has declared again and again that the traffic has no rights whatever; that it is here by political ac-

had better keep a still tongue in his

against liquor traffic, setting forth

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

tion and by political permission to license the traffic and that it is not constitutional—but that prohibition is constitutional and according to U. S. Supreme Court decisions no Legislature has the right to barter away the health and morals of the people. Neither Legislature nor the people themselves have that right, according to the Constitution of the Ynited States... [aio Tene

~The liquor traffic is 1ibt a business

but a crime, and long ago should have been put in the category of dope, morphine and cocaine and dealt with in the same drastic manner. What can’t be mended should be ended. Scientific tests will bear us out, that alcohol has no place in the human stomach. It iS a poison.

J 2 ” ” BLAMES COMMUNISM FOR ILLS OF WORLD By Edward F. Maddox :

Mr. Sprunger takes me to task because I defended Mr. Chamberlain in his refusal to plunge the British Empire into war to save Czechoslovakia from dismemberment and asks me if I would be willing for Mr. Chamberlain to decide on the proposed ‘internationalization” of the Panama Canal. The Allies created the new state

A WINTER DAY

By MARY WARD

On hilltops over east, Near Millersville, The snow lies softly creased, And white and still. : And ice blankets the creek Beyond the mill, Where not a shoreline bleak Reflects a rill, :

The road winds on around, And miles from town Frozen is the ground, And cold drifts down— But rippling waves will flow And snowbound hills The breath of spring will know, And daffodils.

DAILY THOUGHT The adversaries’ of the Lord shall be broken to pieces; out of heaven shall He thunder upon them.—I Samuel 2:10.

E smile of God is victory, —

Whittier,

of Czechoslovakia after the World War and had the right either to maintain or abandon it. They created it and were responsible for it.

“| Therefore, they had a certain au-

thority in the whole case. .

The Panama _ Canal is different. We built it and we are able to defend it. England has no responsibility in this case; she did have in the other. But to get at the root of the whole European struggle and to understand its implications we must first admit that the whole mess is a result of Communism with its fanatical zeal to conquer the world, its antireligious and barbarous methods, its cruelty, crime and immorality. Communism has given Europe, Asia and almost all the rest of the world the jitters. Nations about to fall victims of the Red menace have, in their desperation,

Communism was threatening England, France, Germany, Poland, Japan, China and Italy as well as the United States and all other countries. I believe Herr Hitler has convinced England and France that he intends to crush communism in Russia and thereby remove the Red menace. fe All of the recent political crises in Spain, China and Czechoslovakia have been engineered by the agents of Russia and the Fascists in their final preparation for war. Fascism is closing in on communism, Russia is desperate and frantically seeking allies. Leon Blum of France revealed the Socialist point of view when he asked for a coalition of England, France, Russia and the United States to fight fascism. That is the Socialist plan in all the . world— they naturally want to save the Socialist fatherland. But real democracies will not fight to save dictatorships. The only hope for peace now is for Russia and other countries to abandon communism and return to civilized ways of living. If communism refuses to repent and cease its drive to destroy faith in God and Christian civilization, I predict, on the authority of Divine revelation, that Russia will suffer an awful calamity. ® 2 2 PLEASED BY ATTITUDE

OF JUVENILE JUDGE By Hopeful The new Juvenile Court Judge announces that he'll require juvenile officers to attend night classes of social welfare and that he'll do the same. He has the ambition to make it the best Juvenile Court in the country. Attaboy, Judge! We evidently elected the right man. They do say that when you admit you don’t know it all and are willing to

learn, there'll be progress.

WoLiono BECOME COMPLETELY EMANCIPATED, - WOULD THEY CEASE TO MARRY? YES OR NO 1

LET'S EXPLORE YOUR MIND

-By DR. ALBERT EDWARD WIGGAM.

: eel WILL A PERSON ALWAYS DO RIGHT IF HE ACTS ON EVERY GOOD THOUGHT THAT COMES INTO HI® HEAD? YOUR OPINION aes

| to ; # | |occasions—this “belongingni

women of the United States and Canada are the most emancipated of any in the world and they are ‘about the most married women in the world. Sa : 8 = 8 ; NOT necessarily. It depends on - whether this thought ever struck him before and how he acted at that time. If he acted wisely, then he will tend to do so again because of the old “response-bond” between the good thought and the good act on the former occasion. But if he acted unwisely on the former occasion this same response-bond will tend to “throw” him for a bad act now. It is this powerful tendency in our minds for acts and thoughts tie up together for future ess” of thoughts and acts—that almost entirely fashions our character and carries us on to our destiny for better or worse. : 2 2» : ~ THEY should have their way only in co-operation with, first,

their grades third, their lik

| lite and study

set up a countermovement—fascism. |

.some. glandular disturbance.

the boy’s or girl's ambitions, second | for the kind of

Gen. Johnson

Says— ‘Science and Intelligent Policemen

~ Have Put Crime in the Doghouse and New Pevice Portends Added Curb.

HICAGO, III, Jan. T—I never come to Chicago | that I do not learn some new wrinkle about modern police work. Three of my best friends are on the force, Andy Barry who, if he notched his gun for every dead gangster and gunman, would have more scores than Billy the Kid; Inspector Eddie Daly, in my experience at least, the perfect cop, and John Warren, who is an expert on con men and the slicker forms of racketeering and can tell more stories about grafting than O. Henry. :

I like to ride around the town in squad cars after midnight with one or more of these streamlined bulls and race to the various radio alarms that keep coming in constantly. : : It is a marvelous system that directs a police pa. trol instantly to the scene of any. reported disturb-

ance. Just now in Chicago they are perfecting it on . A

a two-way basis. Formerly only the police central radio could talk to the roving patrol cars. Now the cars can report back, which will much improve the system. a et : » ” ” HE march of science has done much more to aid ' policemen than to aid criminals. It is getting difficult to the point of impossibility to be an outlaw, and wholly impossible to be a successful one. Nobody has done more*to make crime unhealthy in this country than the retiring Attorney General, Homer Cummings, and J. Edgar Hoover, whom I regret to learn is thinking about following his friend

‘and chief into private life. They improved the laws

and perfected the system that has put interstate crime in the doghouse. 2 The police are playing with a new device which it seems to me is going to make crime even more difficult. It may make other assaults on privacy which will not be so desirable. It is a tiny radio trans mitting set operated from a battery. It projects cone versations for short distances—a kind of wireless dic~ taphone. It works so well over several hundred feet that it is not necessary to tap any telephone wires or rig up any complicated mechanism to learn what is going on behind locked doors. 2 = 8 T is small enough to be packed in a brief case

and left in anybody’s room or automobile, Listeners with a receiving set in another building or

| following in another car can hear low-voiced con-

versations quite easily. The policeman who told me about it. said: “The only safe place to hold a conversation now is in the middle of a cow lot with no object in sight nearer than 30 feet—and even then, you had better poke the ground with a stick ‘to see that there isn’t one of those things hidden under the grass.”

1 don’t know what the law, which tends to dis-

courage wire-tappings as an unreasonable search and seizure forbidden by the Federal Constitution, is going to say about this new addition to the art of crime control. I doubt if it can say anything. Outside of crime and police circles the possibilities of this gadget are appalling—lovemakers, gossipers and all people who knock others behind their backs

will never feel quite secure unless they confine their -.

activities to tennis courts. No businessman can permit a caller accidentally to leave his brief case in a chair. Even deliberations of the Supreme Court might have to be conducted in a vacuum. The Washington keyhole and gossip columns may at last become infallible.

lt Seems to Me By Heywood Broun

Socialists Help Rule Connecticut As Veteran Wilbur Cross Moves Out.

"JARTFORD, Conn, Jan. 7—New York may be the nation’s melting pot, but Connecticut is the crucible where Greek meets Greenwich and becomes Republican. i ) : Ak A highly respected Governor who was untouched by any hint of corruption steps down after four consecutive terms, but since Wilbur Cross is only 76, all his supporters confidently expect him to make comeback two years hence. A Yale Demgerat gives way to Mr. Baldwin, a Wesleyan Republican, but the political picture is actually more complicated.

Dean Cross, who is locally known as Uncle Toby. |

would have won easily enough but for a leak engineered by Jasper McLevy, journeyman roofer anc Socialist Mayor of Bridgeport. He ran up the amazing total of 164,000 votes. ;

In the last campaign Mr. McLevy, the taxpayers’ |

friend, was aided and abetted by the. Republicans. Through his kindly efforts they gained election.

permit the inauguration to proceed. And so when the guard marched, all in gold and scarlet, it was by the permission of Jasper, the accommodating proletarian. It would not be too much to say that he has given to the masses, braid and caucuses. And yet though

no one crosses over from the right bank of the |

Rubicon by pulling down a lever for Connecticut So~

cialism, I think it does represent the process of timidly |

putting one toe into the water. The men and womer: of the industrial areas are on their way.

Statue of-Hale Inspiring

Hartford is also the metropolis of the insurance | world. Its modes and manners are set by a Samural | group. known as actuaries. These Mandarins of mor | tality can figure out expectancy to the decimal point, | I stood and watched the farmers, the artisans and |

the lawyers taking their places in the lower or uppe? chamber, and my faith in democracy was rekindle!

because they trooped by the statue of a great Amer. | ican, Nathan Hale, of Coventry, Conn. who was i |

good citizen and ac brave soldier.

He stands with his back to the insurance building. |

In | secret party sessions recently it was decided that the | two Socialist Senators should play ball with the | G. O. P. in order to organize the upper house and |

On the front of the pedestal is that famous utterance .

of his, so often misquoted. that I have but one life to lose for my country.” Thera

are militant emotions not touched by the philosoph;’ # of the actuary, and I doubt that the workers of Con» ungroan: |

survive in a decimal Sys |

necticut will be forever content to sit at the ing tables of expectancy. Democracy itself cannot tem. Now is the time to shoot the works.

Watching Your Health

By Dr. Morris Fishbein

EPEATEDLY I have pointed out in these columns |

said, “I only regre; |

that for most people a reduction of weight de- |

pends on good physiologic bookkeeping. This means

that the amount we take in must either be used up |

and exercised or else it remains in the body in tha |

form of tissue which adds to weight.

Recently a physician in New York reported the case of a woman who weighed 396% pounds and who |

reduced her weight to 15614 pounds in 20 months.

Her health improved steadily throughout this !

period and has been excellent since. The woman wes

32 years old. She had been married when she was 17 | and at that time weighed 260 pounds. ‘The most she |

had ever weighed was 402 pounds. :

Her father was normal in weight but her mother | weighed almost 300 pounds and her brothers and

sisters were also around 200 pounds most of the time, This woman who weighed almost 400 pounds was only |

5 feet, 3 inches tall.

The first step was to determine whether or not the condition was due to overeating or the result.of

mined there was no definite deficiency in her glands and decided to treat her as simply a case

weight due to excessive food.

She was given a diet which approximated abot

600 calories a day since her habits of life were such as to use up much material by way of work. study of her basal ‘metabolism showed a tende

The. physicians dete» i

of over. |

| {