Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 9 January 1939 — Page 10

Indianapolis Times

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’ W. HOWARD LUDWELL DENNY - - MARK FERRER ident : Editor yo Business Manager

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MONDAY, JANUARY 9, 1939

RECOVERY IN THE CITIES

is good news that many of the country’s big cities are.

better off financially than they were a year ago, as a survey by the New York Times reveals. . Philadelphia and St. Louis, to be sure, are gloomy ex- _ sceptions. Both started the new year with large deficits | and prospects of acute fiscal trouble. But New York City | “faces a new era in city finance” as a result of a sound fiscal position, improved credit and ‘Increased tax collections. ~ Chicago has reduced its funded debt and outstandings bonds and has restored its employees to pre-depressiop pay scales. Miami, for the first time in history, has finished a year with ‘ a balanced budget. Cleveland's operating budget is balanced and its bonded debt is being reduced. This i also true of Boston, Atlanta and Indianapolis. In some cases, no doubt, the improved Liositions of the city governments are due largely to better, more economical municipal housekeeping. But in all cases, we suspect, pending by the Federal Government has been an important factor. Few big cities would be solvent if they had not een able to depend on help from Washington in supporting their unemployed citizens. And, obviously, help from Washington will have to continue, so long ‘as unemployment maintains anything like its present proportions... Those who advocate “returning : Telief to the states” will hardly contend that the states and their subdivisions can possibly provide all the money necessary to prevent great suffering. For months, perhaps Years, the Federal Treasury will be the source of a large share of the funds spent for relief. ‘ Whether the spending of these funds—the administrafion of relief—should be turned over to the states is another uestion. We hope to see it debated thoroughly. |.» But it seems clear that many cities are increasing their 5 ability to bear a larger portion of the cost of the WPA pro‘gram. We believe that Congress, taking notice of the improved financial health of numerous cities, should insist that “gach city contribute to that program in full accordance Avith its ability, and should provide a formula to insure fhat such contributions are made. ~~ Local taxpayers, at present, are not as interested as they ought to be in seeing that “money from Washington” is spent wisely and economically. They will be stimulated to greater interest the more clearly they are made to understand that each dollar from Washington spent in their communities is costing them a definite and certain number of cents that must be paid to their local tax collectors.

YEAR WITHOUT STRIKES

[uN interruptions of rail or air line service occurred during the fiscal year on account of labor disputes.” —From the annual report of the National Mediation Board. HERE were many labor disputes—more than there had been in the previous year. And two of them involved Store carriers and more workers than any others since the Railway Labor Act was passed in 1926.

EE: -- But the basic purpose of that act—“to stabilize labor ‘relations on the railroads and the commercial air lines” — ‘Was carried out. The National Mediation Board, faithful to ts major responsibility—*“the mediation of issues growing but of the making or revising of labor agieements’” under the act—brought about more peaceable agreements than ‘in any other year of its history. ©“ And, since the end of the fiscal year covered by this weport, the machinery provided by the Railway Labor Act ‘has prevented a threatened nation-wide railroad strike.

& ~The board spent less than a quarter of a million dollars in a year. One railroad strike might have cost the country many times that. Here, surely, is one of the most profitable investments of public money, as well as a fine demonstration of how labor controversies can be adjusted peacefully and

QUEST TO PROSPERITY

$QAID President Roosevelt, in his address to Congress on i+: the state of the Union: $i “Certain expenditures we cannot possibly reduce, such Ws the interest on the public debt.” hs Next day he sent to Congress the budget, containing the following figures: | #3 INTEREST ON FISCAL YEAR “PUBLIC DEBT 1981 ........... $ 612,000,000 1932 ..iiveveeee. 599,000,000 1933 ... 0000000. 689,000,000 1934 .seiiviiseeo 157,000,000 1985 .cevieeene. 821,000,000 | 1936 .i..iv0iee.. 749,000,000 = 1987 ciiiieeniese 866,000,000 E1988, .......4. 926,000,000 bs 1589 (estimated). 976,000,000 41,132,000,000 (estimated) , 1,050,000,000 44, 458,000,000

t left-hand column gives the. catgying charge which

“the President, rightly, says “we cannot possible reduce.” The right-hand column is the reason why.

IT WAS HIGH TIME

UOTED from President Roosevelt's special message to Congress on relief; “No one wishes more sincerely than I do that the proam for assisting unemployed workers shall be completely free from political manipulation. . .. - «Tt is my belief that improper political practices can be eliminated only by the imposition of rigid statutory regulans and penalties by the Congress, and that this should ie Fine! The Administration is making progress on this sroblem. As long as Harry Hopkins and Aubrey Williams gre running WPA they wouldn't admit there was any polies whatever in it, even when specific proof was placed be~ them. Mr. Roosevelt has wisely taken the step that is in the solution of any problem--recognizing that

GROSS PUBLIC DEBT

$16,801,000,000 19,487,000,000 22,539,000,000 217,053,000,000 28,701,000,000 33,778,000,000 36,425,000,000 317,165,000,000

|Fair Enough

% Wesibsronh: Pegler

“We Assail the Naiis for Their

Treatment of Jews, Yet Negroes

In U. S. Do Not Fare So Well, Either. |

EW YORK, Jan. 9.— We have.in the United States a minority of native Americans who are victims of discrimination as follows: They live in segregated districts, and when one of their familfes buys a home in a white neighborhood the white neighbors ar: indignant and real estate values suffer. They are barred by force of custom, according. to locality, from theaters and restaurants

or, if not barred from theaters, are segregated from

the whites or; if not segregated, are made to feel un~ welcome and uncomfortible, In certain parts of the country they are segregated in public conveyances and are forbidden to be abroad in certain areas after sundown.

In certain sections they are barred from public | 3

schools to the support of which they contribute. their

‘taxes according to their means.

s: s s : ? T is true that the National Government dis-

approves all or most of this discrimination and has | & :

adopted lk ve intended t¢ mitigate it in time, and that is’ the great, moral difference between the conduct of the American Government toward the Negroes here and the conduct of the Nazis toward the Jews in Germany. But, in practical effect, this large, native American minority is n¢ better off then the minority wn Sermany. They are not hated; they are Just exclude Nevertheless, if any foreign nation were to Hake diplomatic representations in Washington lookin a “rescue” of this minority, the United States wo w deem that an impudent interference and rebuke the meddler severely. In fact, when the Communists, act= ing under remote contrcl of Moscow, go among them and steam them up, white Americans are “indignant and want to do something to them for creating discontent, The Germans, of course, have been more brutal about their minority, for their course has inflicied a sudden denial of libertics to which that minority was accustomed and the.theft of property and violent treatment of the whole group... Our minority is so lately out of bondage that a few individuals still live who were born slaves, and the trend has been toward greater freedom of opportunity.

8 8 =

HE Germans also hive invented a ransom scheme

by which other nations would be required to pay for the chivalrous privilege of relieving them of an unwanted, and by now a hated, minority which is a burden and problem to them. "The Americans have not attempted to impose on the humane instincts of other peoples by beating, robbing and terrorizing their minority to the end that those other nations would be moved to offer them asylum. The Americans have somewhere in the back of their minds an unformed intention some day to inake conditions more pleasant for their minority and enlarge their opportunities, but progress toward that goal is as slow as the workings of evolution. The Nazis, on the contrary, have no intention even to improve the condition of their minority. Their policy is to inflict pain and make life so hideous by abrupt contrast that they will either cease to breed

kill themselves, die of want or escape by the gener- ;

osity’ of humane peoples elsewhere. There is a distinction between the official and popular attitudes of the American and Nazi majorities toward their respective minorities, from which the American majority msy derive a little, but only a little, moral satisfacticn or face. We are not pure posely, suddenly cruel, and we hope to do better,

Business By John T. Flynn

WPA and Other | Relief Acitvities Must Be Divorced From Politics. |2

EW YORK, Jan. ¢ —The Sheppard Committee of the Senate, reporting on WPA political abuses and making recommendations for reform, singularly leaves out the most important recommendation of all. That is to take the WPA and all of the recovery and relief activities of the Government lock, stock and barrel out of politics. It is all right to prohibit politicians from solicting funds from relief workers and other persons on the Government payroll; to prevent politicians from get ting their names and addresses, and so on. But the place to strike is at the root. First of all, the entire administration of recovery and regulation and relief must be taken completely out of the hands of political employees. As early as December, 1934, the present writer observed the amazing cegree to which the old spoils system was being revived. There was some criticism of it elsewhere too, but it was all blamed on Jim Fare ley. Then I wrote: “Nobody knows Farley better than Roosevelt. Since the partnership was-formed Farley has been nothing but a messenger boy.” Every man knows the weaknesses of human nature. The: President knows them. He knew as everyone knew, what the writer tried to point out in that 1934 article—that you carnot spend billions of public money and entrust it to political appointees all over the map. It will be used for politics as surely as fire will burn wood.

Merit System Needed

The first thing to do is to reorganize the entire WPA and all relief agencies. It is not enough merely to appoint another Administrator, with the same philosophy guiding the man who dominates it all. The men who rule the "WIA should be chosen on a merit system. Promotion saould be on a merit basis. What has happencd in relief has happened everywhere in the Government. Thousands of men have been employed under the spoils system and then the President, with a picus gesture, oh announced that they should be put vnder civil service. Not only are his spoilsmen put into jobs but he attempts to keep them there forever by a spurious civil service. Why does not a Senate committee send out a questionnaire to all smployees of the Government in Washington and ask how much they have contributed to the various campaigns since 1933, and whom the money was given to, and who solicited it? The public service has been combed and hounded for political contributions just as the relief workers have. Congress should investigate the whole subject.

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson |

ORE men and fewer women are needed in the American educational system,” says Mrs. Evelyn Mills Duval, who bhsars the heavy title of executive director of the Chicago Association for Child Study and Parent Education. She believes we're up sissies, who are injured by feminine school teacher

“influence.

I can think of g thousand reasons for disagreeing with the lady, the chief one being that I like the United States of ‘America. I believe it’s by far the best large country on earth. Where else do you have such a mixed group of citizens whose idesls are finer or whose hearts are kinder? If we except the small democracies, name me a land where greater progress -has been made along humanitarian lines. You can’t! ; And that’s why it doesn’t make sense to say we should begin to change our system in favor of those now in use in Germany, Italy and other hard-fisted countries where ths male dominates and destroys. It seems to me we could use many more intelligent men in our éducational system, but we could also let our school teachers be people, like the rest of us, by permitting them fo live normal lives. When they happen to be women, we could let them fall in love,

get marriett and have children of their own, without |

disqualifying them for a work they have spent years and money fitting themselves to do. The worst handicap to education in this country are the hundreds of “V. n” sighs we've stuck up to Prevent feache’y trom beng happy as well as usef : 1 am in favor of giving women a lot more authorty. our schools. Feminine influence may be I hope real

UNRELATES

PROJECTS -

The Hoosier Forum

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

DOUBTS GROUP AIMS AT ELIMINATING BOSSES By Disappointed. Am’ I disappointed! A group of Democrats announced they were going to introduce a& bill in the Legislature to prevent . political bosses from issuing slates. It was going to “give the Democratic Party to the people.” But it develops that they are simply trying to make bigger and better politicians of the small fry. Their big aim seems to be not to eliminate bossism, but.to make small bosses of all precinct committeemen by returning patronage - power to them. If that's getting the party back to the people, it’s no wonder the rank and file of voters say, ° plague on both your houses.” In centralized: patronage a voter at least knows just where to lay the blame. Patronage power spread out among precinct committeemen will simply mean that bigger bosses can ber developed without responsibility to voters. And voters, in trying to place blame, will find politicians again playing the old army game. The idea of taking patronage out of politics is apparently too utopian to be considered. A politician by all accounts, will sooner give up his

‘| shirt than his chance at patronage

and power. But until spoils are taken out of politics, I'll always believe there will be too much underhanded dirty work to obtain power by the ambitious in a way that's unfair to the great mass of voters. We say that business should clean

capitalism” in order to make democracy work. So should politics completely clean its house of those elements that encourage evils. We need enlightened politics, too! 8 8 = LAUDS VANNUYS FOR COMMENT ON ICKES

By Watcher An orchid to Senator VanNuys for his sane common sense and his ability to keep his feet on the ground when the fog of battle begins to dizzy the senses. I refer to his com-

ment on Secretary Ickes’ speech which provoked Herr Hitler to such

thing so terrible but when tension increases with every sharp word, he really should not have permitted himself to run off at the mouth officially.

are best ignored after due precautions are taken for one’s own safety. Sticking out one’s tongue at them is the best way to start getting embroiled in the fighting. Wasn't it

its house and become “enlightened

fury. Secretary Ickes didn’t say any-| Squabbling, quarreling neighbors;

Secretary Ickes who stirred unnec-

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

essary feeling with his “60 families” speech? Perhaps his New Years’ resolutions ought to include a pledge to cultivate official restraint. This is no rebuke, for I admire. the Secretary’s boundless enthusiasm-—it belies’ his years. But considering the A | times, caution should be the official watchword. ; » ” : 8 i EXPLAINS ACTION OF Le ALCOHOL ON A1'ISSUES By Lewis E. Fraseur. The constant dropping of raw alcohol on a frog's foot will cause the tender cells of the web. to slough away. Bathing with alcohol retards the formation of bed-sores by the same action on the cells of the skin, Like lime, alcohol has a tenacious affinity for water. It dries the cells of their moisture and also “smothers” or “suffocates” them by its narcotic action. - Thus the cells of the cuticle are artificially and unnaturally toughened before the body sheds them. * Within the body, the impairment of cell structure and cell vitality is proportionate to the alcoholic content of the blood stream. The visible

BABY’S SHOES \ By VELMA M. FRAME They’ 7s og a wee bit soiled and

“His Majesty 's” little shoes, Of neatness they have long been

shorn, Their charm they'll never lose. There's jiny wrinkles

ther A ig " where a toe pushed through; Two little feet just seemed to dare Two shoes that never grew!

here and

DAILY THOUGHT And if Satan rise. up against himself, and be divided, he cannot stand, but hath an end. — Mark 3:26.

EN’S hearts ought not to be set against one another, but set with one another, and all against evil only.—Carlyle.

symptoms of alcoholic poisoning, commonly called drunkenness, are most conspicuous while the alcoholic

* |content of the blood is the highest.

This fact has been established by testing the uitichanged alcohol in the blood. Oxidization .of alcohol proceeds in the bodily tissues at the rate of approximately 10 cubic centimeters per hour. After the alcohol

tem, nature requires. a period of sobriety to repair the damage and restore vitality. Habitual drinking, by subjecting the system. to a new

drink is worn off, may set up a condition of alcoholic poisoning. Home brew, beer, hard cider, or wine of four or five pér cent alcohol, is sufficient to maintain a con-

tem. - No ‘beverage containing it is fit for indiscriminate human consumption. Even liquor dealers admit that certain types of individuals should never use it. Total abstinence is the safest and wisest course for everybody. “ ® 8 8 : RAPS DOCTORS’ STAND ON SOCIALIZED MEDICINE By LF Perhaps we should be grateful to Dr. Morris Fishbein who, by his opposition to socialized medicine, has unveiled the medical profession as a gang of gougers who had their fingers crossed when they read the Precepts of: Hippocrates.

Once a guiieless public took them at their own valuation—members of a noble order motivated solely by

, |humane instincts. Now we see them

in technicolor as a lot of Scrooges who are glad to place a cool paim upon the fevered brow — providing the palm is cooled with a sufficient quantity of silver, Far better disease and suffering should flourish than

‘|the privilege of charging fat fees

should be jeopardized! It is the province of the physician to alleviate suffering: The source of his payment, be it the patient himself or some other agency, is none of the doctor’s business so long as he is paid. Conditions menacing the health of a community certainly come under the regulatory or police powers of the State. It the doctors are uns able to adapt themselves voluntarily to changed circumstances which have made group health insurance desirable, then they should he subjected to stringent regulation by the State in the exercise of its police power to the end that welfare may not be affected by the

interests of a minority.

For, when all is said, it’s still the men ho fun,

LET'S EXPLORE YOUR MIND

By DR. ALBERT EDWARD WIG GAM

Hien THE E POSITION OF BEEN THE CHIEF oBTAC

fe

N

Igoe SAARTEST AA ; i. g

- | politics, . social Philosoph y.

music are as wide. as the poles on religion, recreation and

NO. Their sates obstacle has been their own lack of seifconfidence and, the feeling drilled into them, as much By their own sex as by the male, that they are the “inferior sex.” Had women throughout the ages asserted themselves as they do now, they: would long ago have overcome all obstacles. Of course the progress of science and

to discover they are not inferior

|mentally and that men are in

‘|.of our own people.”

J time it looked quite possible. nomic blockade of the Central Powers did starve them to their knees after military force alone had failed, |

is entirely eliminated from the sys-|

dose before the effect of the iast

stant alcoholic content in the blood. “| stream, if drunk freely. - Alcohol is -1a narcotic poison to the human sys-

education which has enabled women | *

Preptiee of the t

. . Economic Intervention Is 2 Not Neutrality and President Should ‘Not Have Power to Take Sides. NHICAGO, DIL, Jan. 9:—Part of the President’ message on the state of the nation was taken to

mean in Europe, ‘by both the dictatorships and the democracies, that the United States, is again going to

. take cards and a stack of chips in the international

‘Ib didn’t exactly say that, ‘but it came close. In talking about the threat of war in the world, it

| correctly stressed the fact, too often forgotten, that

| modern war and weapons are both. “mili economic.” ary, sud

Then, in talking about what steps we might {take to horn into the world’s shindy, it said: “. .. They must proceed along practical, peaceful lines. . . . The mere fact that we rightly decline to intervene with arms to prevent acts of aggression. does not mean

all. . War is not the only means of commanding a decent respect for the opinion of mankind. There

‘jare many methods short of war, but stronger and

more effective than mere words of bringing home ‘to . aggressor govertiments te agree sentiments en roceeded to suggest that laws requiring of us strict te might result in our aiding: aggressor nations and

hurting nations we really wish to help.

® a.» Tours is a fair condensation of that part of the It amply justifies the world in bee ET that, so far as the President is concerned: (1) He doesn’t want this country to be neutral in any ‘war in which he believes one side to be the ageressor, (2) That, while we will not take sides in foreign wars by using arms, we should use “many ‘methods short of war” to aid the side we favor. : This confuses the use of the term “war.” As the ealiy part of the message suggested, war is both tary and economic. Sometimes economic war is as deadly and effective as military war. Germany's great submarine campaign in the World War was intended to starve England ‘into submission. At one Later the Allies’ eco-

This country controls so much of the world’s wealth and resources that; even though we “rightly decline to

intervene with arms,” we might intervene with eco- |

nomic weapons and give victory to one side or the other. But this is not’ proceeding along “practical, peaceful lines.” This. is not neutrality. It must be so regarded by any nation sore beset in a military struggle. against whom we practice any such economic strangulation from the sidelines,

8 ” #

T is well known that the President would like to have the neutrality act amended to permit him to

intervene in just this way by proclamation and in his own discretion, But again, this is war.

duty of the Congress under the Constitution, and not of the President, to declare war. Just now when there is a growing, and I believe

unwise, demand to limit this power of Congress by ree |

quiring a popular referendum, it is going to the other

extreme to give a single individual power to mix this, .

country up on one side or the other in the bestial and

insane slaughter that is going on in so many parts,

of the world today.

An overwhelming majority in this country does hot,

want to sit in on any international poker games. We never took a hand before that we didn’t come home dressed in a barrel. It is time we stopped being the international fat boy with the bag of candy and be=: gan minding our own Buginese, i

It Seems to Me By Heywood Broun -; :

Hitler Probably. Pleased to Lost Some Laughed at F. D. R.'s Speech,

EW YORK, Jan, 9.—The message to Congress, in my opinion, was a magnificent speech by & great American. Franklin D. Roosevelt moves at the moment into the most courageous and farsighted leadership he has shown -since he was first elected to office. It has been said that we have been fortunaie throughout our history in the fact that every period of crisis has produced some man capable of meete

ing the situation when danger threatened our ire

stitutions It is not a defect of democracy that many mediocre persons find their way to high office. Ade

_mittedly a number of our Presidents have been

figures of small stature. But under the stress of exceptional circumstances our annals indicate that there has always been availablé ameng us one ‘0 play the necessary-role. We know that Americans who are ‘now universally honored were bitterly attacked while still alive, But this does not reflect upon. the savage critics of Lincoln, of Jefferson, Jackson and Washington. Even our established heroes were not without fault.

An Inalienable Right

Democracy cannot function if any call ever comes to temper the wind to the man in power, no matter how grave the situation may be. Conflict itself should invite the cleansing force of comment rather than the imposition of censorship. In a democracy there should never be hour or a split second in which any ine dividual ould be denied the right. to state his opinions clearly, loudly and in- public. Everything that Mr, Roosevelt. said in his message should be subject to examination and debate and criticism as pointed and sharp as an opponent cares to make it. But it puzzles me a little that jubilation should be expressed in some quarters at the fact that certain members of the Congress chovse to greet our national executive with burlesque applause. I am even more bewildered when I note the high glee ¢xe pressed in a newspaper editorial (the New York Mire ror) over the circumstance that some of our dulye elected legislators undertook to laugh loudly, for stige effect, while Mr, Roosevelt was pleading for the de. fense of democracy against all aggressors. It is the right of any Senator or Representative to pour water upon Hitler's wheel. But I remain cutious

as to why any American should care to do so.

Watching Your Health

By Dr. Morris Fishbein

Oy among the lending captains in he men \A of death in medicine today is pneumonia, “Heretofore the most serious of the types of pneumonia so far as death is concerned were tipes 2 and 3. If, however, all of the other types are grouped together, they : account for a great. many cases and many deaths. “It has been said that one of the greatest advances in the past few years as far as pheuimonia is sone cerned is the appréciation by the medical profession

and by various community and public health on and |

izations as to the seriousness of this disease also the recognition of the manner in which. special serums are helpful in its control. In several states pneumonia control services Mave

‘special ES roth wl

can make efficiently, comes he Oe Peay leveio particularly for that'type of pneumonia. ok HE, Whereas most serums used in medicine are pre. from the blood of a horse which has been

tten| pared ine jected with the organism responsible, the serums f types of pieumonis, arp \

many of the extraordinary types the .blood of & rabbit. Today some a Sik ooeLy maiata Ae

War, y

that we must act as if there were rio aggression at

This is war. |

Such a | proclamation would be a declaration of war. It is the |