Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 8 March 1939 — Page 10
(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)
ROY W. HOWARD. RALPH BURKHOLDER MARK FERREE President ‘Business ‘Manager
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op» RILEY 551
Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way WEDNESDAY, MARCH 8, 1939 VOLUNTARY COURT REFORM CRITICISMS frequently are heard of the “law’s delays,” and of its complicated processes. These most frequently are voiced by the, layman, but. occasionally lawyers and} even : eminent jurists: have admitted that our legal machinery, grown ‘ponderous through the years, would be improved with a little streamlining. : It is refreshing therefore to observe that our County judges—the five Superior Court judges, the J uvenile Court and the Circuit Court judges—voluntarily have put into effect certain reforms covering their own jurisdiction. Chief among these are agreements effecting general reforms in court procedure which should eliminate red tape and overlapping of authority and the adoption of a co-ordinated system for investigation of divorce cases. ‘Henceforth . the Superior and Circuit Courts hearing : divorce cases are to have the advantage of information supplied by an investigating staff set up by Juvenile Court ‘Judge Bradshaw. Previously the courts relied solely on information supplied by counsel and witnesses. We can think of no finer reform than this. "General term sessions of the courts are to be held monthly. An excellent start has been made. Undoubtedly as the result of changes are observed, other ways can be found to improve their work. And, ultimately, a very high judicial standard, from the. viewpoint of efficiency and well-founded justice for Marion County, should result.
PERTINENT QUESTION N the course of a 15-minute debate which preceded passage of a half-billion-dollar Army appropriation bill by the House of Representatives in Washington ‘the other day, Rep. Ross A. Collins of Mississippi made an observation that merits attention. - He quoted from a Congressional committee report of one year ago, which said: “There is evidence that, from the standpoint of airplanes on hand, on order, and remaining to be ordered under funds heretofore made available, both Army and Navy, we are only excelled by the British Empire.” ( But now, said Mr. Collins, one power (Germany, of course) is “represented to have a force the equal of almost the combined forces of all the other large powers of the rid. I understand this alleged astonishing superiority + » Was unknown to this Government as late as last ctober. .. + So he asked what our inilitary and naval attaches in uropean capitals were doing all this time. If such a ange in the comparative air strength of the world powers as actually taken place, he said, ‘the attaches who have been asleep on the job should be eliminated from the service” and called before a Congressional committee for an accounting. In short, it's pretty plain that six months ago the War Department thought the Air Corps was in good shape, 5 petiiively speaking, and that today it Shinks quite the
So we suspect that Rep. Collins was perfectly justified in lasking, as he did: “In God’s name, what have these attaches (at our embassies abroad) been doing?”
FATE OF THE PHILIPPINES
HEN we acquired the Philippines in 1898, we walked 1 into something from which it will not be so easy to walk out. | True, we have given the Filipinos their independence. On July 4, 1946, our flag will come down and the flag of the republic will go up. But let us not deceive ourselves that it will end thére. Recently newspapermen interviewed Salvador Araneta, member ‘of the Philippine constitutional convention. The whole world, Mr. Araneta warned, has undergone big change since independence was first agitated. The League of Nations and other peace instruments which might have safeguarded the weak against the strong have proved ineffective. If a small nation like the Philippines is left ~ witheut protection it will be only a question of time before a De comes along and takes it over.
ongress is now weighing a bill to modify the wade:
relations’ between the United States and the Philippines. | The measure was devised to cushion the economic and social shock of separation. After having been completely depende nt. upon this country for more than40 years, a sudden change now would invite revolt and from that to foreign intervention would be only a step. Congress must be generous in dealing with this problem. Some Americans say they are fed up with the whole
Fair Encudh
By Westbrook Pegler
Visitor From a Dictator’ Nation Would Be Amazed at the Riches And Waste to Be Found in Florida.
IAMI, March 8—I would like to hear the private thoughts of some tourists from the crazy countries ater a few hours or days in Miami, the more so the thoughts of some who had had a chance to fly or motor aver the territory that lies within, say, a hundred miles. They would not be entirely charmed, for life ancl administration lack that Army past precision, backed by penalties, which they know at home and without! which, it would seem to them, any country must soon go to rot and riot. Nor would they be pleased by the waste of land and fruit of the land, still so apparent in Florida even after 20 years of exploitation, booms, relapses and cultivation. To people who live on rations and eat bread made of flour diluted with sawdust and buttered with whale blubber the careless, easy methods of the Amerjeans and the primitiveness of the country cabins and leaky town slums should be a shocking sin. Yet they wouid be certain to carry away feelings of envy and awe, for they would have seen nothing on the route of any cruise as lovely as some of the groupings of homes and gardens which adorn the shore of the Florida. pleasure coast, and people of nations
at the riches of a territory which the Americans make use of only around the edges. » » : J
HE boast of the roads which they have built, but Florida has half-forgotten stretches of smooth, paved highways as straight as ruled lines leading off through jungles of pine and vine apparently to nowhere, with occasional vast clearings of oranges, grapefruit, and garden truck, ripe in midwinter. Just the abandoned groves alone, the weed-grown and hal?-blighted trees yielding pinched and speckled fruits, would be worth -the lives of whole divisions of Fitlerized Germans or Fascist Italians. Deserted Florida skeleton villages with paved boulevards, sidewalks, street lamps and sagging portals, some underlaid with water mains and sewers, would ery out for a dictator to take hold and carry through the original plans by forced labor and confiscated capital. The seas and lakes, alive with fish good to 2at, would be worked and patrolled.
noted as a place for frivolity, innocent and sinful, according to taste, but the growth continues in spite of many errors and unavoidable disasters. ” ” »
NREAT flying boats drone over the southerly ¥ suburbs to and from the great Pan-American bie, an adventurous novelty now grown into an amazing system of transportation. Yet the base, with a traffic of 10,000 in international passengers a month, is not very well known to the Americans as a nation, even so. But if this were Hitler's land, or Mussolini's, this triumph would be written in fire in the sky and, no doubt, in the fears of the neighbors as-well. Barring a small proportion of the more recent developmenis, the marvels of Miami and the Miami zore are achievements of private enterprise and private capital. The incidental failures have been private disasters, too, but the success vastly outmeasures the mishaps. Yes, indeed, a German or an Italian must sail away bug-eyed from a touch at the port of Miami, Fla. a casual possession of the Americans and known to most of them only as a place to play.
Business By John T. Flynn
Harrison Faces Great Obstacles In His Fight for Strict Economy.
N= YORK, March 8—Pat Harrison, watch-dog of the Treasury, has decided to function as such. He is chairman of the powerful Finance Committee of the Senate. ‘And he has told the world that when the Government has run its I. O. Us up to 45 billion dollars it will have to stop borrowing and go on a cash-and-carry basis. Congress passed a law some years ago limiting the borrowing power of the Government to 45 billion. Af that iime 45 hillion looked like a fantastic sum. Very optimistic persons then said that they felt no one need worry about the Government's borrowing policy as it could go as far as 40 billion before the danger point would be reached. But then people believed that the borrowing program would start business going.’ If has not. And row we have reached the 40 billion mark. By July, 1940, we will doubtless have exhausted the debt limit of 45 billion. And Secretary Morgenthau, foreseeing this, is asking that the limit be raised to 50 bhillior. Senator Harrison says no. Anyone who has talked to Senate leaders can believe that he means no and that the President will not be able to put this extension over this year. Senator Harrison coupled this attack on the borrowing program with a demand for a curtailment of expenditures and taxes.
Outlook Seems Hopeless
But how this is going to be carried out with the present plans it is difficult to see. If taxes and borrowing are reduced, how is the Government going to pay for its immense armament program? Moreover there is another item of 211 million dollars for processing taxes to pay for farm benefits which has not yet been included in the tax total. To pass this will add rather than subtract from the taxes. If the Government could cut its ordinary expenses by 10 per cent iit could save $550,000,000. That would leave it with a possible surplus of perhaps 300 million dollars. . But there is still over a billion in items such as floo¢ conmirol, public buildings, road building, ete., which would have ‘to be taken care of. ‘Suppose this could be cut in half. That would still leave a deficit of several hundred million. There would still be the item of $3,500,000,000 for unemployment relief. No one supnoses that all of this can be done away with. All this is offered to show how futile is the hope ‘of getting much tax relief. Some relief might be gotten by shifting the tax burdens to other shoulders. But so 7ar es volume is concerned we might as well face the fact that the Administration has carried us so far that we cannof turn back swiftly without a disastrous dislocation.
A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson ih
business. ' But that is no answer. Congress should have thought of those things back in 1898—as many Americans did. :--
- IMPOSSIBILITY?
INCE the: great radio scare last year, we fave fallen behind i in our worrying over invasion by, monsters from Mars. So it is nice to have assurance from Dr. F. R. Moulton of the American Association for the Advancement of Science that this probably isn’t one of the things we need to worry about, anyway. Still, we're not going clear out on the end of that Jimb with Dr. Moulton. After considering various methods “of buifing and powering space ships and rockets, he confades hat all of them are impractical for interplanetary rave Perhaps. We're inclined to hope so. For; we suspect, all we could find on Mars is more trouble, while the Martians might be even more .unpleasant visitors than H. G. Wells and Orson Welles have led us to fear. But - Dr. Moulton may not have thought of all the methods. We can't forget that when Prof, Langley’s airplane did its second ridiculous flop on Dec. 8, 1903, many very wise De ople said the impossibility of human flight had been ved. And nine short winter days later the Wright lew at Kitty Hawk, :
T the Houston Flower Show we encountersd thousands of schoolchildren of the “brat age,” being herded through by their teachers. I use the uncomplinentary term with no intention of casting insults at the kids. Instead they have my profoundest sympathy. My heart is always torn between pity for them and anguish for their elders. Being no longer babies, these children have come into a sort of twilight land, the half-world of preadolescence, and whatever word we use to describe them they are at their worst and suffer accordingly. The day I speak of, hordes from the various city schools were being inoculated with a large dose of horticultural‘ learning and it was our good, or ill, fortune to be present for the occasion. So far as I could see, it didn’t take. : A man at the loudspeaker, which hung high overhead among the rafters, kept booming advice to them. “Will the little girl in the blue sweater and red skirt stop leaning over the flower beds? Please don’t push. Be careful how you move about, children! Please, plesse, little boy in the corduroy suit—watch your step! Kindly refrain from shoving. Someone might fall into one of the beds. Don’t touch the flowers!” : And so on, with the regularity of a tolling bell, the warnings were sounded and apparently not one little girl or boy paid the slightest attention. Shooed
giggled and minced and trod upon one another's toes meet them. En masse, they moved around the mon-
girous hall, a seemingly unending stream of squirming juveniles 3
many of its aspouts,
which are mad from ambition and want would marvel.
This land, this city and its near surroundings are .
along by ‘heir teachers they poked and shoved,
in the irrepressible manner of children wherever you |
YOUR FooT \ Sup! )
3
The Hoosier Forum
I wholly disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.—Voliaire.
DOUBTS HARRISON'S PROPOSAL IS PRACTICAL
By Gentleman from Indiana
Let's. cut out the ballyhoo. Sen-
the tail, What he left out of his
what he said. The whole government deficit spending program is due to our policy of supporting American business with Federal credit. Does Senator Harrison propose to take business off relief now? We tried that in 1937 when we dropped one half million men off WPA, with a result that was staggering. We are not over it yet. Is Senator Harrison ready to let American finance and industry write off the billions of excess capital structure and overindebtedness that cannot earn its way? All past depressions were cured by wholesale bankruptcies., We need it again, and will get it if Government will quit supporting capital and private debt that cannot support itself. Is Senator Harrison willing to let Mississippi cotton growers hold the cotton bag, instead of making the U. S. tke great cotton bag holder with five and a half billion pounds on its hands? : Has Senator Harrison : a practical plan to stop the American scarcity system of business? Is he ready
make itself supporting instead of staying on relief? » » 2 URGES DEEPER THINKING ON PART OF READER
By E. R. N. Is it not possible for us average] - readers who, according to advertising and publishers’ surveys, have the mental age of 14 years, to lift our mental status a little? When reading an impressive arti‘cle for instance in one of the various weekly publications, study the magazine a bit—notice the advertising. This supports the magazine with three million circulation, a magazine which costs something like 17 cents and sells for 5. If we, the readers, are mentally 14, then who is it that dominates the educational and political policy of the magazine?
ket. It is all business, naturally— hardly charity or patriotic impulse. The clever writer knows how to create an impression upon: the credulous mind without actually laying himself open to a libel charge. If you find yourself agitated, reread the article, reason the thing out, before accepting it whole,
visitor to Germany reveals the fact that the largest of, these oe
ator Pat Harrison has a bear by|
speech was more important than|
to offer a plan fo business that will |’
- Writers must live; they are anxious to suit the highest paying mar-|’
A casual comment by a recent|
(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.
happens to be the only American publication permitted upon the newsstands of Germany. Read the magazine consistently, notice the continuous insinuation, even abuse of the President| of the United States, his family and the Administration in general. There you have it—the Naazis| like it. # ® = OPPOSES RESTRICTIONS ON OLD-AGE PENSIONERS By Edward F. Maddox . It seems to me that old-age pensioners are being subjected to several unwarrarited injustices. What other group is forced to sign over its property, or life insurance, to the Government in order to draw a pension? There is a decided sentiment in favor of petitioning Congress and State Legislatures to repeal the parts of the old-age pension law which -deprive the old people of their small: properties and life insurance policies. THis pension is a gift of the people to their aged poor, who have no other means of support, and there should be no strings attached. Who is responsible for this outrage? My opinion is that the old-age pension should begin al a minimum of $20 a month, with $40 a month for a
THE RETURN
‘By HELEN LOUISE QUIG
No blade, has hraved, the lingering chill, No eager bloom unshesthed its head, Beside the Snow yet
But, ah! “wind, Jl - Love-bidden, : lowly listening, A dear, familiar step has heard + And southward Spegete meet the spring.
DAILY THOUGHT
" When I consider thy heavens, ‘the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, ‘which thou hast ordained: What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son .of man, that thou visitest him?— Psalms 8:34, \
ET each man an think himself an 4 act of Ciod; his mind a thought,
fce-imprisoned stream quilts the violet’s bed.
the fond, impassioned
his life a breath of God —Bailey.
married couple—with the right to own and retain a home, free of taxes, and life insurance policies up to $500 for two or $250 for single persons. Why persecute and discriminate against the old-age pensioner? » 2 = FACTS SHOW TOWNSEND PLAN SOUND, IS CLAIM By G. W. Sharkey "A recent attempt was made to discredit the merits of the Townsend Plan by quoting testimony of two eminent economists. One Dr. Moulton of the Brookings Institute, tried to leave the impres< sion, by the mention of 20 billions as being needed. for an annual outlay, that the idea was “fantastic.” Just a plairs case of evasion instead of sound theory. The other, a professor of economics at New York University, deliber-
. |ately sidetracked the issue and drew
an irrelevant comparison to make the Townsend Plan appear ridiculous. He made a statement so juvenile that one could not believe that a professor had made it. He pointed out that if $200 a month would do the good claimed for! it, then $500 a month to a larger group
professor knows that he is overdrawing the picture and ignoring the principles of economics that he teaches in the classroom. Economics demands harmony and balance. The Townsend Plan is not only economically sound, but is humanitarian. If the same plan were proposed so that the money changers could administer ‘it,. and: enrich themselves with the usual “take” we would see some very strange reversals of propaganda.
Townsend Plan can be had for those interested -in- the truth. Why not let the people know and judge for themselves. They will. eventually anyway. : ! 2 ”
VACCINATION EXPENSE A BURDEN, IS VIEW By Taxpaying Parent Has it ever dawned on you that maybe the parents of these children who are being Kept out of school because of the vaccination ulti-
and the children are too proud to admit it? S I know this to be a fact. It is a great injustice to the middle-class people who seem to have money and apparently good-paying jobs. But don’t forget it takes a lot of money to keep one, two or. three children furnished with carfare, lunch meney, books and clothing, with perhaps only one source of income. Someone had better think this over before ‘children stay out of school a few days, get behind in their studies and do not care to re-
i
sume thelr school utiles;
© CONIRIGNT 1989 SOMN DILLE <B.
ves, in a y large’ Sercentagh of cases, Some criminals, of ceurse, come from the finest environmeént
land are college’ graduates, but as
cok av a
But why carp? The millrun method of education |and saddening Thi
VENTING SR DANGEROUS NEG BERTH &
ers EXPLORE YOUR MIND
By DR. ALBERT EDWARD WIGGAM
"iF a a ROE MOTIVE WER ELIMINATED? Cw YOUR OPINION ees. ,
PER
=e |
’ —
into crime from poor environment as from good environment and nearly all ps have a little education. No one in his senses would claim
fied
that the boys in the ums with poor
a
borhoods are naturally five times as good as thos€ in the bad neighborhoods. In addition to poor neighborhoods a high percentage come from broken homes. : Environment, which of course in-
er than heredity in turning lazy, neurotic gay -tresmers into crime,
I THINK. it depends largely on what you mean by the profit motive, If by “profit motive” you mean that we could not organize our big corporations were
it not for the greed ‘for money of
selfish owners, I think such an assumption is nonsense, because most of our big corporations are managed by executives who work for: salaries and owned by absentee stockholders who do not work at all.
If by “profit. motive” you mean.
that we would ‘not work unless we were paid for it in goods that we want-or need, or in money that we can exchange for goods, the assumption is Perfectly sound. :
IT DEPENDS | somewhat on the
situation. If success means only] {indulgence in daredevil feats that
bring nothing ‘but public applause, I Should say they are quite justiin pointing out that home, children, social life, ete, may have far greater values. If the adventure to bring scientific human
would do so much more good. The]!
The facts of the results of the
matum may not have the money,|
In Washington 8 By Raymond Clapper
New Deal May Be Trying to Appease Business, but Fertilizer Men,. Whose
Offices Were Raided, Can't Agree.
r ASHINGTON, March 8.—No use trying to sell the Administration's: "business - appeasement policy to men in the fert: industry. ‘Ten days ago the future looked rosy. Spring business was on and nobody was cutting prices. The new Secretary of Commerce, Harry Hopkins, delivered his maiden appeasement speech on Friday night a wees ago and fertilizer men knocked off for the weeksqmg with Washington’s friendly words ringing in their ears. Charles J. Brand, secretary-treasurer of the National Fertilizer Association, had slipped away for a shert vacation. On the following Monday morning, Mr. Brand's vacation was rudely interrupted by frantic longsdistance telephone calls from his fertilizer manufaeturers a over the country. J. Edgar Hoover's FBI men were a their offices, demanding to go through their files. From New York to San Francisco came the same cry. More than 150 agents of the Department of Justice struck, simultaneously, without warning. * 8 = Rts NE New York manufacturer happened to have his lawyer handy when the FBI agent telephoned that he wanted to come over right away and go. through the files. The lawyer wanted to know what it was all about. The FBI agent evaded an answer, Was it for the monopoly committee? No. Was it for the antitrust division of the Department of Justice? Well, the agent wasn’t going into any explanations. He had his orders. So iti went throughout the whole fertilizer industry. This new zero-hour strategy was employed in order to prevent any fixing of office files. Every precaution was taken to insure against an advance tip-off. “The Government is entitled to find out the facts, but it didn’t need to be so provocative about it,” said fertilizer spokesman Brand, who claims to be a New Dealer himself. “I was a co-administrator of AAA in 1933 and I even went along on the Supreme Court thing. Always before when the Government had anything up, we sat down and talked it over. But in these raids they treated us as if we were part of gamblers’ row or the red-light district.” ‘ FJ n »
OR 30 years, man and boy, I have heard complaints that the fertilizer trust. was robbing the farmer, But Washington waited to spring the trap until the week of the business-appeasement drive, when Secretary Morgenthau was distributing to his Treasury staf blue placards reminding them to judge on all ques-
| tions by asking themselves, “Does it contribute to re-
covery?” Apparenily they haven't any new motte cards at the Justice Department. 3 Thurman Arnold; assistant Attorney General—{p charge of antitrust prosecution, explained that for many years there have been complaints of monopolistic practices in the fertilizer industry and that these complaints had come from sources so reliable that they could not be ignored, Prices are so uniform that he finds it difficult to believe them the result of coincidence throughout, a 200-million-dollar industry. Piecemeal investiga of the industry in the past has been fruitless, therefore simultaneous investigation throughout .the country was determined upon. No charges have heen filed pending study of ths evidence resulting from last week's nation-wide action of the G-Men. Ci
It Seems to Me
By Heywood Broun
Ruth McKenney, Noted for Humor, Writes. Moving Novel About Labor. .
EW YORK, Match 8—When a slow-ball pitcher blazes a fast one across thé plate, that's news. |And it is equally exciting when one of the leading hu‘morists of our day publishes a full-length novel which pins your ears back with its passion and purpose. Ruth McKenney reminds me a lot of Johnson, and I mean Walter and not Samuel or “rare Ben.” She gets her effects witheut strain or waste motion. And she does not telegraph her intention. If you liked “My Sister Eileen,” you might like “In~ dustrial Valley,” but there is no proving that, since the two books have nothing in common buf an author. It’s my notion that Miss McKenney quite possibly had more joy writing her serious book than she got out of her merry one. While “Industrial Valley” must have required a lot of time in preparation, it reads to me like a book which marched along without pause or hesitation, once the time came for the telling. The reader who gets started with this novel is ale most certain to stick all the way through the valley. + It is generally an unjust thing to speak of a book you like as “serious.” To many, the adjective suggests “tough going” or “somber” or “solemn.” Well, “Industrial Valley” is not one of those three things. It is the story of the creation of a labor union in Akron, and the chronicle of the fight of the rubber workers is told in terms of personality and semidetached incident. Here satire comes in and not always effectively. ‘When Ruth McKenney writes about things close to her heart, she loses a large measure of that light touch which animated “My Sister Eileen.”
Serious, but Not Gloomy .
And yet this isn’t in any sense a gloomy book. You go through deep shadows and bitter incident, but it is a road which keeps climbing. This is a tale of triumph. And it is written as a sort’ of collaboration between a poet and a practical organizer. Miss Mc~ Kenney happens to be both. It may be that she will be’ aceused of oversentimentalizing or becoming too romantic. concerning the embattled workers of whom she writes. That's on the knees of the critics. But it is well to point out that Ruth McKenney is no lady with a lorgnette, ‘or week.end tripper. She knows her stuff. I think she is both romantic and sentimental ab several points in “Industrial Valley.” I'm all for it. “The emotion is: wholly honest: and wells. out of an insider’s information. oo “Industrial Valley” ranks ‘high ‘among Armerioan
‘labor novels,
Torti Your Health |
By Dr. Morris Fishbein
HE “professors”—or medically untrained advisers who guide the public with health hunches—have certain rules of hygiene which’'they regularly recommend. They have to do with diet, with rest, with ex-
cludes education, is probably strong-| €rcise, with the care of the teeth, with sleep, with
chills and drafts, and with many similar topics. Living by rules, however, becomes exceedingly monotonous. Frequently even the professors theme. , selves realize that they gre not following their own advice. This applies not, only to the sound advice, but .: also to the kind of preposterous health “information” iL circulated by health fanatics, : “For instance, there is the suggestion that a cold bath every day will guard against all sorts of respiratory: infections those courageous persons who indulge in this performance. This notion ‘has been so persistent that scientists in several laboratories have made careful tests of the effects .of plunging a warm body suddenly into a cold bath. There are some reports that the ‘immediate after-effects are a lessened resistance to infection
and, in fact, a gradually lessened number of the pro-
tective cells in the blood, ; | Experiments have hardly been _sufficiently extensive or well-controlled to make certain that they re correct. There is plenty of evidence, however, on the Yazis of good experience, that the people who are strong enough to stand a persistent indulgence in ice cold baths are strong enough to resist almost else as well. There is no evidence hat 33 Neak :