Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 20 January 1939 — Page 18

VERY President and every Secretary

. effective so long

to act. We hope r

- you buy some nick

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The Indianapolis Times - (A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

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FRIDAY, JANUARY 20, 1939

a

. RIGHT, MR. ROOSEVELT : of the Treasury— since the Federal income tax was adopted—has taken the position that| graduated income taxation cannot be s there exists a reserve of tax-exempt - bonds where wealthy taxpayers may seek refuge. In recommending that tax-exempt security issues be ~ forbidden henceforth, Mr. Roosevelt is only reviving a recommendation made by Presidents Wilson, Harding, Coolidge and Hoover, and Secretaries Glass, Mellon, Mills, Woodin and Morgenthau. |(And yesterday’s message was about the fourth time that Mr. Roosevelt himself has asked Congress his time Congress will heed. » ” x ” » : EVER before las the need been so pointed. Undersecretary of the Treasury Hanes stated the case suc- : cinctly : : : “We are confronted today with a great surplus of capital which does not desire to take a chance, and a distinct shortage of that which does.” 52 Some $50,000,000,000 in cautious private capital is tied up in Federal, [State and local securities, wholly or partially tax exempt, - And legitimate risk-taking business enterprises that could provide real jobs at real wages go begging for capital. And who can blame the owners of this cautious capital ? Here is a case: : Suppose. you were in the $150,000 income bracket and a resident of New| York. And that you have $100,000 in idle money to invest. If a businessman asked you to invest the $100,000, [promising a return of 6 per cent, would you be interested? The promised return would be $6000. Of that, the New York State income tax (8 per cent in your bracket) would take $480, leaving $5520. And of that, the Federal income tax (64 per cent in your bracket) would take $3532.80, leaving you a net of $1987.20. Would you gamble your $100,000 on that? Or would ice little nonrisk $100,000 bond issued by some governmental unit, and wholly exempt from taxation -—a bond, let us say, that pays 3 per cent interest and will yield a gross, and also a net, return of $3000?

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»

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AS Undersecretary Hanes emphasized, the wealthier an investor is, t e greater is his inducement to cache his capital in tax-exel pts. A man in the $1,000,000 surtax bracket would be Soft in the head if he did otherwise. Yet such is the nature of our capitalist system that its functioning depends primarily on risk-taking. Every job in private industry owes its existence, and every job to be created will owe its creation, to capital taking risks. It does not make sense to perpetuate tax laws which discour-. age risk-taking by those who can best afford to venture.

SECOND STEP NE of the first| things any dictator does is to take over control of the channels of information. An absolute ruler, if he is to remain absolute, can afford to let his people read and hear only those things which exalt his rule. So in a dictatorship—whesher it be Communist, Fascist or military—one of the first steps is to put censors in control of all “information” dispatched to the outside world, : In Mexico the Cardenas administration, having already “applied the muzz inside the country, is now apparently undertaking the second step. It has just expelled from the country Frank L. Kluckhohn, Mexico City correspondent for the New York Times. Mr. Kluckhohn’s offense is that he uncovered, and reported, the fact that the Mexican Government had made a deal with Nazi Germany, bartering oil which it had con jscated from American and British cor- | porations. It is embarrassing to Mr. Cardenas to have Americans and Britons read what has been done with their - property. - i | : : I There is no reason to be surprised that this has oc“curred. It is mentioned here only as a reminder that such are the processes of dictatorship. wie

1100 BUYERS |

(CHEERFUL news for the whole country is an item in the : — New York Times, reporting that listings in its “Buyers’ Arrival” columns have just broken all records. On one day more than 1100 out-of-town buyers were

listed as in New York. They were attending the conven-

tions of the Wholesale Dry Goods Institute and of the Na-

tional Retail Dry Goods Association, at which Theodore B.

: Griffith, vice president and general manager of L. S. Ayres -& Co., was elected a director. Lan y They were crowding numerous trade shows and the display rooms of manufacturers. They were ordering goods to replenish the stocks of stores in every state, in preparabs tion for the spring season—getting ready for a volume of

| : retail business at least 10 per cent ahead of last year.

There were nearly 200 more buyers than there had been on Jan. 12, | 937, the previous peak; 300 more than on the best day in 1 29, when this country was in the midst of the great boom; 400 more than on the corresponding day

Therg could be no better indication that mer-

ONCILIATION IN INDIANAPOLIS HIDDEN away in Federal Buildings all over this country = are a great many Government workers whose usefulness Bes greater than their agility in keeping out of ie public eye. They are the men who make up the pnciliation division of the U. S. Department of Labor.

They have settled innumerable strikes, to be sure, ut their primary interest is in composing disputes before hey reach the [strike stage. There can be no question s to their succe 53 in this respect. It is one of the Governit’s finest seryices. 4 dianapolis should be very happy

SAN

Fair Enough By Wastbrook Pegler

New York Legislator Proposes Lottery Bill Despite Figures Which Debunk Big Profit Claims.

EW YORK, Jan. 20.—I am indebted to the ediNX torial column of the New York Daily News— which, in turn, acknowledges a debt to State Senator Phelps Phelps—for the information that the American territory of Puerto Rico has been running a legal public lottery under Government sponsorship these last five years, which will be a surprise to most of us. So now Phelps, to call him breezily by his first name, is planning to introduce a lottery bill in Albany. The News thinks a state lottery would be a good thing and urges New York [to get the jump on the other states, thus anticipating that the others would be forced to start drawings [of their own in. slf-

defense. A dream book economist could figure out whether this business would starve itself by spreading the money too thin or pauperize the whole people by attracting their money into various public treasuries at. the rate of about 25 per cent at every turn of the wheel. Maybe, in the latter case, everybody could quit

work and live on the Government. | # : | France had one which

# » I BLOW cold on lotteries. finally petered out a shart time ago, apparently for lack of fresh money. And no other country has

State, which drags about 21 million dollars a year out of this country, which has been its best foreign customer since the British silenced the Dublin sweep out of their press in self-protection. You can hear dizzy estimates of hundreds of millions that Americans spend for Irish tickets, but my figure is based on the amount of prizes won here multiplied by the number of drawings per year. This country could not expect to draw any fresh money from abroad, but at the start the pioneer lottery states would bleed nonlottery states, which would be like doing a transfusion from the right arm fo the left. Nevertheless, for a while there would be a nice yield to the pioneers, and it is a wonder that Nevada, the taxless State where there ain't no Ten Commandments but only six or seven, hasn't moved in ere now. . Gambling figures in this country, beyond the official reports on mutuel betting in 16 states, are always hysterical. Imaginative cops and prosecutors pinch a perfumed bum with a Michigan bankroll for selling policy and announce they have smashed another of those rings doing a business of three hundred million dollars a year. And we go for that when a little work on the back of an envelope would demonstrate that a nickel-and-dime racket operating mostly in slum neighborhoods is only a nickel-and-dime racket, no matter what size head you put over the story. When Tom Dewey had Jimmy Hines over a barrel in Mr. Pecora’s court the graft that he was trying to prove would have been only beer money at most, and this was supposed to be the champion racket of them all—the Dutch Schultz store. Time ” ” 8 HE poolroom and handbook play on the races also is supposed to run into hundreds of millions, but the total legal business in the 16 mutuel states in 1938, where a man could march up to the counter and buy a bet in clear, ringing tones, was only $276,333,331. It was a gain of about $19,000,000 over 1935, the last previous year on which I have official figures, and, like the 1935 totals, excludes the take in Louisiana, where the politicians don’t trouble the people with financial details, and in New York, where the Legislature turned the business over to the bookmakers, who make no returns. How much do you want to add for Louisiana and New York? A hundred million? All right, then, say a total of $376,333,331 for 18 states. About a third of a billion this nation of cigar store sporfs bet in the wide open market last year, and will the gentleman who was predicting an annual profit of a billion on an annual handle of 10 billion in 8 national Government lottery just try that on for size?

Business By John T. Flynn Exchange to Hire New Economist and

. Should Engage a-Real One This Time.

EW YORK, Jan. 20.—The New York Stock Exchange is looking for a new economist. This may seem a matter of no moment to anyone. .But it has some public significance worth looking at. Nothing is more ambiguous or even dubious now than the role of the economist in business. Large manufacturing concerns employ engineers, accountants, lawyers. They hire them to advise them on engineering problems, accounting problems, legal problems. ‘When they hire them they want the truth from em. - But economists have seemed to play a differen role in business. Business concerns have a kind of dim feeling that there are some economic factors which they ought to be advised about. But the average large scale businessman regards himself as quite an economist. And along with that he realizes Sat he has another problem. He wants to sell good will. : In other words, the economist too often plays the role of a sort of glorified publicity man. He too often plays the sort of part some of those old-time quack doctors played.

They Just Wanted Writers

If you will remember this you will seefwhy, when the Stock Exchange hired the man who , I believe, its first economist, they went to Yale and ‘employed a professor of English, and when a large New York bank wanted an economist they hired a professor of romance languages from another university. They wanted someone who could write. Wall Street swarms with these kinds of economists. They get great reputations for profound. economic wisdom. But some of these days the American Economic Association, like the Medical Association, is going to pin the name quack on such economists. Meantime, the Exchange, which has done good work lately and instituted many reforms under the leadership of William McC. Martin, has another chance to do itself and the public a favor. It should pick out an able and eminent economist who will honestly conduct researches for it and advise it realistically, but who will refuse to permit his name to be used to back up its trade crusades.

: : : 4 e : . : A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson | PERioDIcatLy there appear raves against wom-

en's hats by gentlemen writers—and we’ll have to admit they have a provocative subject, for the current

millinery modes are signed in’ Bedlam.

However, I often suspect these outbursts are trick to turn public attention from more Gn in-

as crazy as if they had been de-

sanity, which comes definitely under the head of Men’s Business. Perhaps the writers who contemplate daily the ways of politicians and warriors find! relief in blowing off steam over such trivialities as millinery gd he Stok to find fault with women’s | gulli- , rget men’s supine willin and be shot for some oe whim. Shes o.40 ous Whatever may be said of hats—they offer us diversion in a mad world given over largely to persecution, hatred and bloodshed. And I feel that our land would be a drab place, indeed, if women took all the advice handed them by these writers and began to wear clothing as uninteresting and monotondus as that which is carried around by the men. We tried that, if you remember. war the working woman became very mannish in appearance. She cut her hair close, slicked it back to look like her little brother’s and put on severely plain clothes. And the men didn’t fancy her at all. | Almost at once we heard a clamor for more’ frills and femininity. The curlless head didn’t last long. For you can be sure of one thing: Whatever mén may ‘say, they are diverted immeasurably by our swiftly changing styles and kept out of endless mischief because they usually have to pay the bills.

on

done much good with a lottery except the Irish Free |

Right after the |

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BET YOU FORGOT WE HAD THESE

IN TRE

: Gen. J

en. Johnson

Figures Showing Each Reliefer Good For 4 Votes Explains Opposition Of New Dealers to/State Control.

EW YORK, Jan. 20—Mr. Roger C. Du n, an expert statistical analyst, is quoted to the effect

“| that for every single WPA worker, the Administration |confidently can count on four votes. He arrives at

this by breaking down election returns. He| used what appears to have been some variation of the usual method for election predictions. Then he compared the prediction with the result without this WPA ase sumption. Study of the percentage of error revealed

hat, in every case since work relief began, if this ssumption. of four votes for every WPA “client” has been used, there would have been a very small per-

_ ‘|centage of error ang, in some cases none af all.

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

FAVORS OVERPASS AT BELT INTERSECTIONS By Indianapolis Citizen

The Belt Railroad track elevation program could be solved more readily by building overpasses over the city streets. The cost would be much lower, as only the main traffic streets would need overpasses, and the overpass would give an unobstructed road, whereas the track elevation opening would necessitate center supports in the highway. If the overpass is best for Road 52 with its fast intercity traffic, then our city streets could copy the program. : - Let’s have an estimate for overpasses on Shelby, Madison and W. Washington Sts. Track elevation would depress property valuations all along right-of-way of the railroads. The Belt Railroad on W. Washington St. is especially well suited for an overpass due to grade cunditions. Underpass openings then would provide accessibility to present grade levels. Railroad spur tracks would remain without change under this plan.

; # 2 =a WARNS AGAINST DANGER INHERENT IN DEMOCRACY

By C. B. :

Now. that ‘so many are concerned —and rightly so—in protecting democracy against threatened dangers from without, it is well that the people be reminded once more that the greatest danger that can befall a democratic ‘government arises from within and is inherent in democracy itself —the ever-present possibility that it will fall complete'y into the hands of the incompetent. Whenever a majority of the people falls for such things as Towntendism and Ku-Klux Klanism, then indeed will government of the people, by the people, and for he people, be accounted a dismal failure,

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8 8.» MAYBE LIFE REALLY DOES BEGIN AT 40 By Observer

“It’s a young man’s country,” we carelessly say. “Youth will bke served.” But is it? Not if the National Association of Manufacturers is right. There has been no decline in the percentage of industrial employment at the age 40 since 1923, a survey by the N. A. M. indicated. Not only that, but the association found that industry rates its older workers “very highly.” In 1938, the percentage of workers

~

| between 40 and 49 actually showed

a gain. Of total employees reported, 20.43 per cent were in that age group. Even between 50 and 59, the older workers were still accounting for 10.43 per cent of total employment, Z " Is it possible to get a pew job after

(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.)

40? The same survey had returns from 750 companies indicating that workers of 40 and over added to the payrolls in 1937 accounted for 84 per cent of their total employment. “Steadier,’ “more regular in attendance,” “more pride and greater interest in :their work,” were some of the bouquets tossed at older workers by the companies reporting. Any insurance company will verify that people live longer, on the average, than they used to live. Any social statistics will show that a greater proportion of the population each year is made up of older people. Nothing could be more natural than to find great numbers of these people between 40 and 60 still engaged at productive work. But in the meantime what is happening to the multitudes: of young people who leave school every year? ; - Many of them are finding it hard to get their first job. Some young men reach the age of 23 or 24 with-

TO CONOWAY BROWN By R. M. L.

If she were yours And said shed like to celebrate some evening after dark, You'd groan youre much too tired and worn to go out for a lark; You'd start right at breakfast with complaints about the toast, And dine with nose in papers with no word for her or roast; And as for hair and form that make "a universe stand still, You'd never even notice save to grouse about the bill. For days when Sieur Villon had ¢ promised Katherine “Were I King—" Those sweet and lovely: sentiments that do not mean a :thing— Like flakes of snows of yesteryear : are gone for oh, so long, And 50 million Americans have . - proved a Frenchman wrong. And when the girl is yours I hope she frames your little verse, And. pointedly reminds you when you take your turns for worse, When she is yours. a :

DAILY THOUGHT

The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness: according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me. .— II Samuel 22:21.

LESSINGS ever wait on virtuous deeds, and though a late, a sure

reward succeeds.—Congreve.

a

out ever having had a regular job or learned any trade. The end of school, a couple of

years of loafing, a year at a CCC

camp. two or three or half a dozen little jobs at which they learned no skill, nothing of value, and a young man is in his mid-twenties before he has a start. His grandfather was often a solid businessman or a well-grounded: workman at his trade by that time. Life ' begins later today than it did for grandfather, but it also ends later. It is just another of the readjustments which apparently must be made in a changing world. : » » ” WARNS OF HYSTERIA ON DEFENSE PROGRAM By P. L. ; The one thing to avoid in the pending rearmament © program is hysteria. i It is quite possible, the world being what it is and not what it ought to be, that it is desirable to build up a larger fighting force. If that decision is made, then nothing but the best will do. Not necessarily the largest, but the best. Better no army at all than a secondbest army. : Size of military. establishment is no guarantee of anything. More and more it becomes apparent that modern. war is a business of training and equipment. In Spain, such advantages as the Rebels have gained have been won by tanks, air supremacy and equipment against the devoted heroism of a Loyalist army which had to be improvised from scratch. In China, the millions of defenders availed little before the mechanical efficiency of the Japanese. In Russia, the armed forces are vast, but doubt as to their efficiency led several countries of Europe to question Russia's value as a prospective ally. - Ten thousand planes? Perhaps. But are they the best Blanes the fastest, the newest, mannediby pilots who have had the thorough and exacting training which modern air warfare demands? An panded navy? Perhaps. But is it the best navy, ship for ship, and in maneuver training and gunnery? A bigger army? Perhaps. But has it the tanks, the improved small arms and machine guns, the thorough training and | discipline, the modernminded leadership that modern war demands? These are questions more important than volume-expansion. What good are 10 slow antiquated planes manned by novice pilots against one new ship, 50 miles an hour faster, piloted by a veteran who knows every, trick? | More armaments if we must, but let them be designed to accomplish what we wish to accomplish, and no more. Let them be, as far as they go, the best in the world. In fields like this, partisans!

politics have no place, ip no voice.

_ LETS

We must have something to laugh at, mustn't we? |

EXPLORE YOUR MIND

By DR. ALBERT EDWARD WIGGAM

@AN APERSON BE HAPPY WHO THINKS A GREAT DEAL JIMGELF 2 2 YES ORNO ee

‘he is me | others, 3

and on what the future would mean without their lover’s love. Of course there are exceptions where a man cherishes his love wounds longer and m deeply than would a woman, # 2 8 : NOT UNLESS he is an angel or th he is one. The worst business | one ever got into was thinking about himself.. This ® does not mean he should not think about his fortunes, his future and all that; but to think about himself—whether king a good impression on r has this or that of body or mind, or whether k

is better or worse than

.| technics.

‘I realize that this sounds pretty technical and ine volved but it seems to be a sound theoretical formula. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. If Mr, Dunn’s published figures on predictions and results are correct, if is also a sound practical rule. | » . J - ; ; : 2 ‘# 8 * : : \HERE is nothing new in the idea that about 90 4. per cent :.of WPA workers are pretty apt to vote for what they think will continue WPA, Mr. Hopkins

| has said as much. Furthermore, experience with all

political pressure blocs such as employees of cities or counties: has made it clear that the families and

‘| friends of people on the public payroll will vote te

keep them there. But if anybody before has reduced this effect to any such persuasive and apparently accurate argument in arithmetic as Mr. Dunn's, I haven't seen it. . On the basis of 3,000,000 WPA “clients” that means 12,000,000 votes. How many of them were Democratic votes before WPA, there is no way of knowing, but it errs on the side of safety to say 50 per cent. On that assumption, WPA bought: for this Administration 6,000,000 votes. : : : Many people have wondered why Mr. Roosevelt is so firmly set against letting the states have any control of relief, why he insists on “work” relief rather than “direct” relief, why the South, which is heavily Democratic should get so much less than the Northern States which are either Republican or doubtful, why relief expenditures go up just before elections and why relief “clients” do not reduce in numbers in step with increases in private employment. !

2 = = ; F Mr. Dunn’s figures are correct they answer every one of those questions. WPA closely held in the control of the executive is the most powerful political machine this country has ever seen—powerful enough to perpetuate the President and his party for as long as it lasts and continues to keep millions of people on the public payroll under the present system. .

Politics in local WPA organizations has been -con=demned by all sides of the political argument, But this petty local bulldozing in a few states and places is just chicken feed compared to this mass produc-

doesn’t have to take on any appearance whatever of playing politics with human misery. It doesn’t have to be backed up with a single political gesture or a single word like Aubrey Williams’ advice to WPA. workers to “vote to keep your friends in power.” Mr. Hopkins was wise in saying that, if he had WPA to do over again, he would make no political speeches:

doesn’t need any urging. It works while you sleep.

It Seems to Me By Heywood Broun

Rescue Effort Fails, So Snowbeund Columnist Goes Foraging for Food,

TAMFORD, Conn, Jan. 20.—It looked like resgue for a little while this afternoon, which marked

called up my sister-in-law and said, “How about a sleigh ride? I will get a horse, some bells, a buffalo robe and a cutter.” The phone in our farmhouse is in the center of the living room, so that everybody not directly concerned can sit and enjoy the conversation. “Don't let that young man get away,” I shouted. “Tell him well go’” ~~ ~~. ad But the young man seemed miffed at the suggestion of a community enterprise. “If your venerable relative is going along,” he said, “I guess I'd better get two horses, and we will omit the bells. I'll do my best.” : i Hours elapsed before he replied, and the answer was unfavorable. “Both the buffalo robe and the horse seem to be extinct here in rural Connecticut,” he said. “I have inquired everywhere, and the best I can do is a second-hand sedan with chains. I'm afraid the roads to your place are impassable for such a conveyance.” : J That was that but I still refused to give up all hope of procuring succor for the little household of which I am nominally the head. I thought, for the first time. of the henhouse. By tunneling for several hours it might be possible to find the coop. We are not desperate enough yet to eat those chickens, for they are both heirlooms and athletes; In milder weather they have track games along the edge of the pend. One of them, called Lena, holds the: 100-yard hen dash record for Fairfield County, and Connie throws the hammer. But a freezing man will clutch

at an egg. S ; He Was Not Too Confident

I did not expect much of the chickens in the spring and summer, since they seemed so preoccupied with their outside activities. One does not look te sprinters for an omelete. : However, it seemed possible that if confined to the henhouse by inclement weather they might, just out of boredom, supply us with a breakfast. And even failing to find eggs; there are provisions near the coop. There is almost a sackful of a prepara tion called Laymora for pullets. : : / At the end of the third hour my shovel bit inte the bag of Laymora, and I knew the henhouse was close at hand. But above I heard something elise moving .in the same direction. Breaking thro the crust I found a gray timber wolf. We eyed each other. Both man and beast were tense, but at the end of 11 seconds it was the beast who fled. I mean 1 am pursuing the wolf. may be that we shall have stew for supper.

Watching Your Health By Dr. Morris Fishbein

UPERFLUOUS hair is most annoying. As a result the promoters of various mixtures for the removal of superfluous hair frequently reap a harvest from unsuspecting people who do not realize the possible

dangers that may be associated with unsafe removal : o>

Some cheinical substances used to remove hair ars so irritating that they damage the skin. The use of the razor is satisfactory but, of course, does not T8=

move the hair permanently. 17 Nad] Electrolysis is commonly advised by specialists for permanent remayal of small amounts of superfluous hair. - This method however, may cause unless it is carried out under the best possible conditions. by someone experienced in this field. * ont i “In the proper use of electrolysis, the patient usually s down. The person doing the work must see the the same type of light at all ti The-ares tatty s oats. foes The. skim substances from the sk sterile gauze and washed

alcohol. The needle must be

tion of political pressure at the public expense, It

It isn’t necessary. The force of this record patronage

our third day of being snowbound. A ‘young man

He looks plump, and it

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