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

The Indianapolis Tim

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Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1939

‘THE WATER BILL AYOR SULLIVAN is right in wanting as many safe- : guards as possible thrown around the proposed pur“:chase of the Indianapolis Water Co. . It is, as he points out, a proposition involving many “millions of dollars. : He is unwilling, therefore, to trust either his or the >: Council’s judgment alone on so important a matter. He an wants the collective judgment of the Mayor, Council and “ the Board of Trustees for utilities. | All these checks seem to have been set up in the 3 permissive legislation drawn by the City Legal Department and introduced yesterday in the House. We do not know of any other safeguards needed in the event the City - decides to buy. ; : Indianapolis ought to own its water supply, of course. Private ownership of city water in this day and age is absurd. This newspaper hopes the City can buy the private * company soon, providing the price is ‘fair and no private “political interests are involved. : Passage of the water bill is the first step in this direction. :

>:

- EXTENDING THE MERIT PLAN

“JNDIANA has had a merit plan in operation since July, 1936, embracing the agencies administering welfare laws. It has been described as a “model setup” but too ~ limited in scope by civil service groups studying it.® : Now the Legislature has an opportunity to include under the merit plan 5000 more employees in State penal, correctional and benevolent institutions. The previous law : reached only about 2400 persons. : In general, that plan seems sound. We see no reason | - why skilled employees in Stgte institutions should be . swept out with every change in dministration. We believe - strongly that the care of the mentally sick, the aged and : the physically handicapped should be in the hands of : trained workers rather than persons who are only expert : at getting out votes on election day. . : As a matter of fact both political parties have expressed © themselves clearly ‘in’ favor of the merit system in all : branches of State government. 5! In their last State convention, the Democrats included « the following plank in their State platform: . : “We believe that public positions should be held by % the best persons to be found to fill them and point with = pride to the fact that we have done more for improvement 2 of the public service and public employment through the * merit system than the other political party.” The Republican State platform said: “The Republican Party pledges itself to provide a : good faith civil service, based solely on merit, for appoint“ment and tenure of employees who handle our business affairs and who care for the unfortunate and deficient of Indiana.” ; “Here, gentlemen of the Legislature, is an opportunity to make good on your campaign pledges.

“OFF-THE-RECORD” < NTOT the least of the institutions that adorn the nation’s

capital is the off-the-record conference. It is as much a part of the scenery as the monument, the Memorial, the

Tidal Basin and the cherry trees. Whichever way you turn and wherever two or three are gathered together, or a © ‘score or a hundred, or sometimes a thousand, you find . the old familiar “off-the-record.” E- A recent incident stirs in us a question that has been .latent for some time—whether, in an era where reform “has been in the ascendency, something shouldn’t be done _about this. : We refer to the so-called secret Senate Military Affairs Committee session with the President. It dealt with the airplane episode. Out of the off-the-record character of that has been engendered a national war-fear suspicion i which is by no means good. lt has developed repercussions “not only at home hut. abroad. 5 . Congress is aroused, London and Paris are puzzled, “Germany and Italy are red in the face about it, and around the globe to the Orient the disturbing currents foam. All on account of secrecy—‘off-the-record.” And all because of something which actually checks down to the simple proposition of doing no more than previously had been done, in the open—the sale of aircraft to nations which could pay cash on the barrel-head. The whole off-the-record business is, in fact, phony. 8 8 8 HE purpose is to prevent publication of public business and frequently to send up trial balloons. True to the spirit of the off-the-record pledge, the recipient doesn’t print what he hears, But that does not suspend the workings of human nature. He talks. At the dinner table, or im the club, or on the street corner or in the hotel lobby, “This of course is off-the-record, but—.” The obligation of confidence is diluted at an amazing rate. By the time the third or fourth or fifth ear has been bent, the obligation to the listener isn’t existent at all. And so, by word of mouth the tale is spread in a geometric progression, and garbled of course in ratio to the increasing number of raconteurs. It all adds up to the fact that the off-the-record device js a means by which official information is transformed into unauthentic gossip peddled at a speed that would . shame Mrs. Clancy, the symbol of over-the-back-fence _ dissemination of news. The whole thing is founded on the falsity that an item has to be printed to be circulated. ; How much better, and safer, it would be to publish in the first place, to put in type and have a record.

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler Charlie Pyle Died Broke, but

Others Are Profiting Now From His Pioneering Efforts in Sports.

EW YORK, Feb. 7.—We saw him cdme and we saw him go, the gay gray optimist who quit the small-town nickelodeon business to become the most spectacular and the least hate-worthy man of his type ‘and time, which was the American era of wonderful nonsense. :

ideas and a casual, inefficient, careless ability. He

balance. ( Tex Rickard had contempt for him because Tex was secretive and a bluffer and a bit of a wolf as well, whereas Charlie would show you his hole-card and bet ‘em high as a cat’s back and didn’t care much whether he won or lost, just so he.got action. He liked to win,

happier than Charlie when he found himself pocketrich for a short spell, and gave a magnificent dinner to the beauty and chivalry of the ringside and Wall Street aboard the steamship Paris at her pier in New York. For a climax, Vincent Richards, then one of the greatest professional amateurs of the tennis business came down the curving stairs with his wife, Gushee, on his arm, signifying that he had turned prp and would tour the country with Charlie’s troupe. » 8 #

HEY dined off the gold service that night aboard T the Paris, and Charlie wrung the necks of many bottles of imprisoned laughter. He said, afterward, that as he sat there in the center of the head table, with his dress shirt creaking and the little bubbles dancing out of his glass, he could not keep his thoughts out of Pixley and Ehler's Beanery on Van Buren St, Chicago, where he had lived on 15-cent meals one cold winter not long before. Everybody knows that Charlie lassoed Red Grange at the University of Illinois in the fall of 1926, persuading him not to wait for his degree, and took him on the road for a professional football career that earned them half a million, all told. And everybody knows that he smashed the amateur monopoly of tennis receipts with a troupe that included not only Richards but Suzanne Lenglen and Mary Brown. But it has been overlooked that Charlie conquered an almost religious prejudice in the public mind against professionalism in both sports. T # # 8

OWADAYS the star football player naturally expects to turn pro for a few years and nobody minds, but-that was a time when Bo McMillin, another poor college star, was moved to arise at the coaches’ meeting in New York to plead guilty, as though to an offense against society, admitting that he had played pro after college, explaining that he had done it to pay his college debts, and promising to err no more. Others have received the profits of Charlie’s nerve and honest originality for he went broke in football, along with Red Grange, and was elbowed out of professional tennis, too. He was a two-headed calf man at heart. He was happiest in later years with the monstrosities of his freak show. We always end such stories with the prayer, “Green be the sod above him,” and this is no case in which to break the tradition. oy

Business By John T. Flynn Insurance Officials Have No Reason

To Worry Over Proposed Inquiry.

ASHINGTON, Feb. 7.—Insurance officials have . expressed great apprehension because of the fact that the monopoly investigation is going to begin hearings on its investigation of insurance companies

next week. ; The SEC, which will guide the investigation, feels, on the contrary, that insurance policyholders have nothing to fear. And that is a fact. While this is called a monopoly investigation it is in fact an investigation into the economic problems of the country, of which monopoly is only one. One of the great economic problems is investment. The failure of investment, the refusal of private nolders of capital to venture new funds into new industries is probably the leading problem so far as recovery is concerned. The insurance companies are the largest singl investors in the United States. Into their treasuries flow daily vast sums of money amounting to billions every year. These funds result in creating large reserves which must be invested. Therefore the investment policies of insurance companies as they bear upon the whole problem of recovery is one which ought to be inquired into. Furthermore insurance officials, by reason of their control over these huge sums, exercise great power in and over corporations which need investment. The manner in which this power is exercised is important.

Study Should Be Worth While

Insurance companies are great holders of the bonds of railroad corporations. When a railroad

goes into bankruptcy or applies for milder forms of reorganizations the officials of insurance companies play a powerful role in determining the future policies of the railroads. These things ought to be studied and that is what the committee will do rather than investigate them. But in no case have policyholders any reason to fear. Whatever may be the fate of the companies so far as their investment policies are concerned, the companies are sound and the policyholders are safe. And in any case it is beyond doubt that the Government would never let the life insurance companies suffer. ‘The investigation may well prove that the companies have been tisely managed in which event no harm is done. It may reveal defects in management, which will enable the Government to further protect the interests of policyholders. In either case the study will be well worth while. o

A Woman's Viewpoint

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

ov of the most charming buildings in the Southwest is the Woman’s Club of Ft. Worth, Tex. It was the gift of a public-spirited member a number of years ago, and since then has been enlarged and improved until today it is a spacious, rambling structure, set amid green gardens, beckoning a welcome to every passerby. Inside, you are reminded that the donor made one. rigid stipulation when she gave her property to the public. She wanted no cigaret smoking on the premises. Consequently in, the large auditorium where luncheons, dinners, lectures and conventions are held one is treated to a rare sight—a crowded room that is not fogged with tobacco fumes. Members and guests do not break the rules. Visitors are quick to laugh or protest when they learn the news. “It all seems so otherworldly,” we say, “so mid-Victorian, so naive.” And since the chief ailment of moderns is smugness, we consider our laughter justified. Nevertheless, it was a pleasant experience to sit through luncheon and a lecture while 250 women refrained from smoking for three hours.

I feel sure the self-discipline was good for us, who discipline ourselves so seldom. Not being much of a smoker myself, I'm really in no' position to make these statements. I can go without a cigaret as long as a camel can go without water, but in the hall there were scores of other women who prefer a smoke to a meal, and so I knew for them the act was one of abnegation.

If seems to me there are many occasions whe: smoking is out of place. Those who scoff at the value of such small acts of self-denial forget, I

That certainly is being demonstrated in the French

En Li

1

that strength of character

Charlie Pyle, dead now in Los Angeles, had big |

would have been a Barnum if he had had in his make- || up a little of that ingredient that you might call 1

naturally and no kid with a new red wagon ever was |:

el

he Hot Seat—By Kirby

The Hoosier Forum

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

PRAISES COMPULSORY VACCINATION MOVE

By W. C. Gulick I am only a layman, not a doctor, but will attempt to answer C. F. T. on smallpox vaccination. About 1899 1 went through a smallpox scourge. Our family and all neighboring families had smallpox. Many died. Others, though they recovered, were horribly pock marked. In 1924, while living in Minneapolis, I again went through a smallpox scare. My business required weekly contact in many homes. Vaccination was discussed and urged by me. Many refused. Daily, smallpox quarantines appeared on homes—without exception on homes where vaccination was refused. Then funeral wreaths. At least -one died in each block I worked and from that up to three and four. Not one died in vaccinated families, and the vaccinated and nonvaccinated lived side by side. Too bad there was no authority there to compel all to vaccinate, for many lives would have been spared 2 t 4 8 $ THINKS MR. HOOVER UNDULY EXCITED By Cynio _ Why does Mr. Hoover get so excited about the French airplane deal? We have been selling the socalled dictator nations the sinews of war ever since they went on a rampage against the democracies: Japan bombs hospitals, schools and homes with bombs made in America. We are not in the war in China —oh, no—we only deliver the means to slaughter the Chinese, while we express our “so sorry for you” blah. Who but. America furnished Italy with the means to carry on the conquest of Ethiopia? From where does Herr Hitler get his scrap iron for his war machine except from America? And where have the shiploads of scrap iron we allowed to [go to Japan gone, except ints cannon to kill Chinese? So what, Mr. Hoover? Since war is a shoddy business and we are in it for profit, why not sell all our friends and potential enemies war materials? The international munitions industry knows

be too bad if some day these guns are turned the wrong way. i ” 2 8

APPLYING RELIEF ECONOMY BY STATES By Sigmund Silver Eo I suggest that the cut in relief should be made first in those States where the Democratic Senators who voted for the cut in relief appropriation come from. For all we know, they don’t need any relief, since their own Senators voted against it. | 82 Ss " OPPOSES PROPOSED STATE BAR BILL : By Ernest E. Cummings, Sullivan

The Indiana Bar Association does not represent more than 2 or

no national boundary. But it will}:

(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.)

3 per cent of the lawyers in Indiana. Its active membership consists of attorneys on the retired list or those who have no legal business with which to occupy ihemselves.

The integrated bar would make the lawyer in Indiana subject to the courts. Do you want to employ an attorney who is subject to the court

‘in which he is going to represent

you? Or would you rather have an attorney who is not subject to the court and one who would give the court the law as he thought it existed rather than an attorney who, through fear of being disbarred, was giving the court the law the attor-

{ney thought the court wanted to

hear? There is provision at law now for the, disbarment of attorneys. That law is in the hands of the people where it belongs. We do not want a dictator in Indiana, even a good one. Let’s kill this bar bill and keep the attorneys in Indiana free and answerable to the people only.

2 » 8 DEFENDS CELEBRATION OF FIRST CONGRESS By Rep. Sol Bloom

I appreciate your giving me the]

opportunity to explain that my resolution (referred to in your editorial “Spare Us This”) is to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of the meeting of the First Congress of the United States under the Constitution, March 4, 1789. This resolution, which” has been adopted by both the House and the Senate, simply

provides that a joint committee of five members of the House of Representatives and five members of

I WONDER WHY By VIRGINIA POTTER

1I wonder why I dream of you

And paint the future as I do; Why can I see a bluer sky When I'm with you? I wonder why.

Why do I like to see you smile ° And have you tease me for awhile And when we say each fond “Goodby,” I'm blue and, gee, I wonder why.

DAILY THOUGHT

Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.—Mate= thew 5:7. :

HE greatest attribute of heaven

is mercy.~Beaumont and Fletcher. ,

‘|laws to govern ree people.

tthe Senate be appointed to make

arrangements for a fitting observance to be held jointly by both the House and the Senate in the Hall of the House of Representatives in the Capitol. : Very few legislaiive bodies in existence in 1789 ere still enacting

On March 4, Congress will be 150 years old. In these days of political unrest and unstable jovernments, that will be a memorable attainment which should not ))e allowed to pass without appropriale celebration.

This resolution :5 in no sense an entering wedge for a huge Congressional Sesquicentennial Celebration. It carries no appropriation and could not if there had been any desirp that it should, and there is noth in its text or in Speaker Bankhead’s acdress to justify any such assumpiion as you are pleased to make concerning it.

These are days > unlimited appropriations for. ractically every purpose, and it is easy for newspapers to be critical when desirous of being so; but surely you and your

readers will agree that money pent

in bringing childsen, and adults also, to a better appreciation of the history of their country and of their responsibilities as citizens of a democracy is money well spent. I claim that every dollar expended by either of the commissions of which I have been head has been used for this purpose. chon ee U. S. INVOLVEMENT IN NEW WAR FEARED By Worried Wife : England’s Mr. Chamberlain says he thinks Germany wants peace but at the same time announces that England will go fo war if ‘Hitler makes another bil for it. Bluffs will be called from now on. Well, history ceriainly repeats itself and England i: doing what she has always dong, ir. the past—stall-

ing as long as possible by pitting|

enemies of her weliare against each other while preparing at home by gathering to herself a lot of allies to help her pull her ‘chestnuts ouf of the fire. oe It certainly looks like this country will be snagged in tc, in case of another debacle. Tle slogan again will be, as Presdent Roosevelt

enunciated some weeks ago, “saving| .

the world for demacracy.” Funny how we think we learn something only to find we a’e treading the same ground over again. Plenty of voices are still trying to stem the rising tide of war hysteria but. they are alreacy thinning out. How long now befcre mothers and wives will be asked to give their men “with a smile,” to satisfy the ambitions of the warmakers. Victory for England would be safe to bet on, as always, but victory is a two-headed coin. For such as us,

the real victors :ire destruction, disease, disaster anc. death. :

|

{ —

1 =n + Ey A BOY CHARA OLR cee Gs siccece YOUR OPIN/ON ee

1 0. Nine times out of 10, if ally [] ng, it weakens his char aCe t d decreases his chances of

Of course

is’ the result of |lief

succ BSS . e UH He a

IF APEREON 16 PERGISTHae MIND? VERS :

{ |out th

i 1

necessity,

an

the popular. be-|his 8

LET'S EXPLORE YOUR MIND

By DR. ALBERT EDWARD WIGGAM ed

the brave boys whe do it, but the notion that it incr ases their grit and determination is strongly discounted by a number of investigations that have been made. It is the gritty, determin:d lads who do it, not this that gives them the grit. Vast numbers of these heroic lads should receive help. ; vs we YES. One of he outstanding characteristics of all great men and persons of genius is persistence, especially against obstacles. + True, sometimes you see a cockroach or spider persist hundreds of times in trying to crawl up something with 1e_ slightest hoje of success. is due to shuer saplue.

|Gen.

manner may result | bronchitis, pneun

Johnson Says— "vii Being a Friendly Message Yo the Bictators Reminding’ Them Not to Take This Family Row Too Seriously. NEW YORK CITY,

Feb. 7, 1039. HITLER, MUSSOLINI & CO,

_ROME-BERLIN AXIS, %| CONTINENT OF EUROPE.

EAR HIT AND MUSS: 4 You may have heard quite a shindy that is now going on in our backyard. People are throwing things

at the President in a way you wouldn't permit. He is | throwing things back but in a way you wouldn’t under-

stand. He hasn‘t filled anybody with castor oil or bee headed or shot a single critic or even sent anybody to a concentration camp. j ; We are having a typical American row over just how and when we shall get ready to break our nec

[if you try to start anything that really inteyferes wit!

our. people or our institutions. There is a good deal of argument over method but what is important for.

‘you to understand is that there is none whatever over

purpose: It is just the way of a democracy to let every conflicting point of view have .its expression before

deciding on a course of action.

This bedlam may pain you with its apparently une plénned inefficiency. But, in the interest of the peace

of the world and for the sake of your own hides, don’t let that fool you. :

, 2 8 ©»

HE Kaiser heard the same kind of row and made the same kind of mistake. He was told that the

«| American people were hot sufficiently united to fight that if they did declare a war, a democracy is too

blundering and inefficient to conduct it—that the Americans were unprepared and that it would take so

. long for them to get ready before they could attack he

could conquer Europe—that the German-Americans were so large a population and so disloyal that they could and would sabotage any American effort. You know what happened. A few weeks before we declared war we were fighting among ourselves) like Kilkenny cats. Mr. Wilson had the barest majority for election and none af all for war, Almost immediabeiy after arrogant German action against American lives forced us to fight, we united on a common front that * adjourned politics. Mr. Wilson’s hottest critics became his warmest supporters, The tremendous wealth, manpower and productive capacity of this country were switched: almost overnight—from the uses of peace to the uses of war. None were more efiient than Ger-man-Americans. In a few months an apparently victorious Germany had been battered, kicked, strangled and starved to her knees.’ ° : : : 8 8.» HIS was done through development of an amazing unity and efficiency in a democracy—both on the economic and military fronts—which contrived to out-Herod Herod in the day of the Kaiser!s empire. Make no mistake about it. We know so much more about exactly how to do it now that, if the need is forced upon us, we can and will out-Hitler Hitler in the day of the Third Reich. * We have most of the world’s gold. We are the only solvent nation. Our supplies of everything needful for war are inexhaustible—including a system for manufacture and distribution that could equal all the rest of the world. Through our wealth and economic controls, we could strangle you in the world’s markets. > : As for political disunity, at the first gunfire, this country would support Mr. Roosevelt as it supported Mr. Wilson—and that means unanimously. This is no jingoism. We don’t want to fight. It is just a timely warning. :

| Aviation

By Maj. Al Williams "Ferdinand the Gull' Gets Earful

About ‘Those Planes for France. (Heywood Broun Is on Vacation)

‘A GAIN I bumped into my fictitious pal, Joe . A. Pelican. He was sitting on a box in the hangar at Washington Airport, and he greeted me by waving & newspaper. “Look at that,” he blurted. “Neither you nor I, Al, can get into an American factory where they are making a new spray-gun for painting Army and Navy ships, and here a French Air Ministry guy gets himself busted up riding in a secret, three-wheeled land. ing-gear bombing plane.” ; “Well, Joe, he had permission from Mr. Morgen=thau and the President to get in that plane, so it must have been all right,” I replied. “What's that got to do with it? The Army and Navy people turned down the request of the French Air Ministry to see our latest fighting ships, and then someone pulls a squeeze play to get the Frenchman in where no American citizen can. go. There's some= thing screwy about the whole affair, AL” : I nodded, and that was all Joe needed. But beforé— he.could get started I slid in & fast sentence: “Joe, you've got to look at this thing carefully. There's a law against exporting fighting airplanes until they have been in service at least a year, and this bomber had not even been submitted to our Army eople.” P “Mister” said Joe in withering tones, “you’ve got a new name. You used to fight at the drop of a hat. You're Ferdinand the Gull and this newspaper busie ness is taking the sap out of your spine.” ;

He Enjoyed the Oratory

“Why,” he gasped, “do you mean to stand there and tell me you approve selling the latest products of American brains in fighting ships to a foreign nae tion for money, and on a technicality?”

Enjoying Joe's oratory, I edged in: “But Joe, Sen —

ator Sheppard of the Military Affairs Committee said the committee was relieved to find that there had been no secret bombsight on the crack-up bomber.” ~The color rose to Joe's ears, and I backed up. “Holy smokes, Al, are you completely crazy? Why, letting a foreigner see the structure of the ber was a darn sight more dangerous than giving hima at the bombing gadget.” \ Took 2 break the ell. 8 interrupted, “Joe, let's ou and me get a cup of hot Java.” : y thing doing” he growled, “darned if I will You're a flying man gone ‘ypewriter'—and I won't even drink coffee with you.”

Watching Your Health

By Dr. Morris Fishbein

A FIDE from the pain, the chief symptoms of neue L\ ritis are those associated with either loss of mo-

tion because the nerves which cause the muscles to act are paralyzed, or loss of sensation because the nerves which transmit sensation to the brain are

paralyzed. . . If the cause of neuritis is found early, the patient recovers frequently without any permanent damage. If, however, the cause runs for a long time, the damage may be so serious that complete recovery does not * In cases in which inflammation or destruction of the nerve extends to those parts of the body concerned with breathing or with the action of the heart, neuritis may cause death. There is also the great danger that failure of the tissues to act in a normal in secondary disturbances like eumonia or a one 2 lung act properly. Another danger is secthe kidneys in cases of pol-