Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 9 March 1939 — Page 16

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RILEY 5351 > Give Light ‘and: the People Will Find Their Own Way

THURSDAY, MARCH 9, 1939

MAYBE THIS WILL TEACH EM

'HILE a labor peace meeting is on in Washington, th.

biggest strike in the history of the nation’s cap ital breaks out. That's irony. But not the kind to raise a laugh. It is too serious and costly a commentary on what is wrong with industrial relationships in this country. The lack of a mediation system once more is hi ge lighted by the episode which, by the way, posed to the author of the: Wagner Labor Act the question of “going through the picket line.” Itis a hotel strike affecting most of Washington’s famous hostelries. : Had the issue arisen in the railroads or the air lines, where mediation machinery exists, the strike wouldn’t have happened. Experience in those industries. shows that settlement is arrived at before, not after, the fight starts. And, bear in mind, there must be a settlement sometime, unless the ‘industry involved is to go out of business, and labor along with it. : Wherever mediation has been evtnblithed it has worked, here and abroad. Maybe this Washington strike will prove a blessing in disguise. Since a whole flock of Congressmen and Senators, Cabinet members and other high officials who live in Washington hotels are being inconvenienced, it may make them rub their eyes and wake up to the fact that there is a way by which peace can be maintained with fairness to employee and employer alike. : All they have to do is to use their great influence toward the adoption of the principle of the Railway Mediation Act for the rest of the nation’s industry.

‘A WINNING COMBINATION

THE most dangerous current delusion, the heaviest Set on that business recovery which the Administration now seeks to encourage, is the Eccles theory that Government spending of borrowed money can restore prosperity. It is misleading to say, as proponents of the Eccles theory do, that Government economy has been tried and has failed as an encouragement to business recovery. : The fact is that the swiftest, sharpest upturn on the business chart since Mr. Roosevelt became President was during the few months in 1933 when he proclaimed | _ determination to “move with a direct and resolute purpose’ toward economy, and actually was taking steps to reduce “the cost of Government. ~The further fact is that the later brief attempt to taper off spending, which Eccles theorists blame for the 1937 recession, coincided with what had every appearance ~of an Administration drive to discourage, not to encourage, ‘business enterprise. Most businessmen, in our opinion, were ready and eager for peace with the Administration after Mr. Roosevelt's overwhelming re-election victory in 1936.. There was the great opportunity to consolidate “reform and promote recovery. ~ But then came the shock of ‘the Supreme Court packing plan and of the Government reorganization proposal in its _original form. Then came the Administration’s stubborn : opposition to change i in the undistributed-profits tax, which practically all experts agreed was killing business; and the savage speeches of Mr. Ickes and Mr. Jackson, seeking to saddle business with the whole blame for the recession. - Now the Administration is on a different, wiser tack.

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler

Some Funny Statisticians Put the Hex on Uncle Sam in This Spending Business, but Showdown Is Indicated.

ASHINGTON, March 9.—Some happy day another ‘generation of Americans will have a cackle at the expense of this one for our gullibility in the presence of a plague of number fakers, calling themselves economists, who persuaded us that wrong was right, that loss was profit and that a crashing failure was equivalent to-a smashing success. ‘They put a spell on us—that’s what they did—and

| convinced us we could spend our way out of debt when

anybody’s little boy could have shown with a pencil ‘md paper that this way was sgainst the rules of thmetic. Af present, after more than six years of changing

on such advice, there comes a warning from Pat Har-.

rison, the chairman of the Senate Finance Commit~ tee, that unless we stop squandering economic chaos is inevitable—which is another way of saying that the Government will go through the wringer. This is the first time since the innocents rallied

| around early in the first New Deal that the “charge

it” school of management has been challenged that loud and the first time in the life of the Roosevelt

( (overnment that the people have troubled their

thoughts with the truth. : 2.» . 8 : ACK in the early stages there were many who had their doubts but waived them without much resistance in the presence of the depressing fact that saving and economy in their own affairs had left them broke in the great crash. That experience was said fo prove that saving and thrift were folly and extravagance and waste new virtues, Meanwhile, from time to time, businessmen were still compelled to do business by the old arithmetic and threatened with jail for any resort to, the new, and uneasy mention of such little bothers as taxes and costs was met with scornful oratory about well-fed clubmen, Copperheads and Tories. The cost will be high, but one result will be the exposure of the frauds who came into Washington disguised as minor statisticians and office managers and presently were imposing on the affairs of the American Government their personal interpretations of figures and debating on truths which were not arguable but fixed. Simple realities of mathematics became subjects for whimsical ruling to the contrary. There were no rules, and individual authorities often disagreed with each other ‘and both disagreed with obvious facts, but

the hex was on the people and they could not even

question, much less argue. 2 2 2 ; LL this has been accompanied by a sneering and domineering demeanor tfowart any who pre-

| sumed to mention old fundamentals, but the time has || come now when a stand is being made not so much, | immediately, against further spending as against the

philosophy, so-called, of irresponsible mischievous and cynical world-shakers come to power quietly and almost secretly by casual appointment. : Mr. Harriscn’s declaration—which represents not Harrison alone but the whole “anti” group of the Democrats—calls for a public understanding of the feet that, if the spending continues, -then the nation must go broke and, in the way that nations have when broke, bail itself out of debt by repudiation. Senator Harrison hasn't said the nation will go broke. That would be unstatesmanlike and alarmist lariguage, but that is the common man’s interpretation of what he meant.

Business By John T. Flynn

1100 Pension Bills In the Legislatures of 42 States.

great biennial flood. Forty-two Legislatures are in session. And to date 1100 plans for giving us bigger and better old-age pensions and unemployment benefits have been introduced in these Legislatures. As befits its record, California’s Legislature has received 135 such measures. The desire of Legislators to do something for the pensioners is brilliantly evidenced by the action of Nebraska's famous onehouse Legislature. It passed a memorial to Congress in favor of the Townsend Plan. The next day, upon second thought, it rescinded its vote for the Townsend Plan. Then the Townsendites got busy, put on the heat, and the Legislature once again ‘reversed itself and passed another resolution to Congress for the Townsend Plan. However, it added a phrase or two to Congress to the effect that the resolution must not be taken as meaning that the Legislature favored £ plan

Mr. Roosevelt, we think, recognizes at last that business

recovery is the only way of salvation for the New Deal and for the country. We hope he will try what never yet has been given a fair trial,” namely, encouragement to business combined with an effort to Tedice spending.

THE BETTER WAY - JL LMER ANDREWS, Administrator of the Federal WageHour Law, has been doing his job without much fuss, but doing it, we think, very well indeed. Naturally, he has run into some perplexing problems. One of them is what to do about well-paid “white collar” workers who don’t " really need, and in many cases don’t want, the protection of the law’s overtime pay provision. There are two ways Mr. Andrews might tackle that “problem. For one, he might take the position that the law itself mustn't be changed, but that he will issue an administrative ruling defining | the conditions, as to salary and ‘working standards, under which certain employees need not be paid for overtime. In that case, of course, Mr. Andrews would actually be functioning as a legislator, as many Government bureau chiefs and department heads ‘have functioned in similar situations. And that i is what he first considered doing.

. But, after thought, Mr. Andrews says he is now dis-

posed to follow the other way; that is, to ask Congress to amend the Wage-Hour law, writing its own definition of the terms under which certain workers may be exempted from overtime pay. That, we think, will be sound procedure and a fine example to other Administrators who have followed ihe policy of interpreting laws to mean things never written into them by Congress,

~ “HELLO YOU 1” »

HE New York Court of Avgesls has decided that calling people bad names over the telephone is no crime. A woman in the Bronx, it seems, got mad at a woman in Harlem and made it a practice to ring her up many times

~ . <a day and deliver a tirade of epithets, ranging Yyrongh

- language not printable in this family newspaper. The Court of Appeals, freeing the Bronx woman from a disorderly-conduct charge, held that no breach of the peace could have been caused by insults via telephone at a range of three miles. : That, we should think, might deve. There’s no danger of physical blows being exchanged over the wires. On the other hand, what’s to keep the insulted party from walking, running or riding three miles and arriving still hot enough to breach the peace plentifully? But, if the urts will: guarantee protection, we can see great possibiles in this decision. Boy, hand us the phone book; we've lot of calls to make,

Most of the proposals, of course, se¢ek to liberalize the pension laws. ‘Some seek to reduce the age limit, even as low as 55 years. But best of all are the plans to raise money for pensions. Of course the money prohlem is not to be sneezed at. In Nebraska, for instance, the Governor lectured the Legislature by telling them they ought to have the courage to pass a Townsend Law themselves, instead of sending a memorial to Congress, and then face courageously the task of finding $250,000,000 a year to pay the bill. Some bills propose taxes on gross income, some add another tax on cigarets, others think the money can be raised from a tax on horse racing, others from slot machines, lotteries and on liquor to be taxed by the glass.

Low Water Mark in Maine

In Maine a proposal is made to put a tax on wages, which seems to mark the low water. Various amounts are proposed, mostly in states that cannot now meet the smaller payments. The Penkion amounts range all the way from $45 a month 0 $2 - The pension bill has become a sort of political football, The old folks want pensions. The states cannot give them and neither can the Federal Government, But the législator can give them a bill. It costs nothing and makes a lot of good will. Fooling ‘he old people has become almost an industry. In the meantime, one state, which has been a gen’ral promiser of pensions, has found it necessary to withdraw a little of its generosity—South Dakota. It fas had to tighten up its law. Perhaps the best way o bring the whole old-age pension movement in its nectic phases to an end is to pass all the laws and see whaf happens.

A Woman's Viewpoint

By M:s. Walter Ferguson

A¢ 'ORRESPONDENT, who has helped her husband : in his suburban office for 25 years, calls attention [to the fact that her type of feminine worker is seldom mentioned in the labor statistics, She’s parttime wife and part-time businesswoman, and her success or failure at both jobs depends upon what kind of man she’s married to. Let me quote from the letter: “Eight out of 10 of our nearby business places have Friend Wife on the job all or part of the * Da These p2ople are my associates and some are our best friends, so I really have a chance to observe them and I doubt whether many of the men would be generous enough to admit it but they actually do prosper because their wives gre helping them. |

“Qur cleaner, for instance, with three children, has.

begun to get on his financial feet only since his wife came in as mender, office girl and bookkeeper. He doesn't seem to resent her presence. - “On the other hand, the owner of a nice, big, prosperous drug store looks as if he'd like to throw his wife out the window at times and many other men also recent her. Etill, to my certain knowledge, she really puts things over and it would be folly to conclude she

is not, partly responsible for. the success of their |.

bu sine 38." Isn'{ it true that a great many of our conclusions about women and work are foolish? Those whose memories go back two decades remember well the many we knew who stabilized family fortunes and carried on successful commercial enterprises. For men failed in business long before the Machine Age, and i oe ten pulled Sus of financial holes by the

Introduced

1 I GAN

The Hoosier Forum

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

CHILDREN SEEN AS GREATEST SUFFERERS By Ralph Weber The greatest reproach to civilization today is the things we are doing to the children.

If the world is a madhouse, full

of insecurity, and want, and the fear of war, grown-up people have no one to blame but themselves. It is their world. If they do not personally make it the way it is, they at least are the only ones who can change it. But children are innocent. It is not their fault that they die under bombs in China, that they starve in Spain, or that they are clapped into uniform in a dozefi countries while they are yet babies. Britain, which had none last September, is now providing gasmasks for children. Officials tell people that every effort must be made to

: : accustom babies to the helmets. EW YORK, March 9,—This is the season of the |

They suggest that mother play peek-a-boo. with their babies through the mica windows. =. Ten thousand years of human progress—so that mothers in 1939 may play peek-a-boo with their

babies through the mica windows of |

a gas mask! "eo.

THINKS PRISON SYSTEM DESTROYS INITIATIVE By Observer Let's cut the crime bill of 15 5 billions a year. With the passage of the bill prohibiting the sale of prison-made goods, we have solved the “competition” prison labor with free labor.

© We are not as smart as we think we are, in regard to the prison population. A prominent employer writing in a magazine stated that he wanted none of these ex-prison-ers in his employ, giving as his reason, that the State always destroys the. spirit of its prisoners. He said the first thing a prison does to the prisoner is to destroy his personality, his initiative, and his will power. Our idea in penology is to inflict vengeance upon the offender of our laws; the primitive instinct of retri-

of

bution for a wrong done is upper-|.

most in our. sentencing people to terms in prison. Social conditions contributing to the production of our crime bill are ignored. Therefore our solution of the crime prob-

lem does not contemplate recon-| struction of the mind, attitude and|

habits. We destroy every possibility

for reconstruction of the personality |:

in our method of penology. Si 8 8 8 FAVORS REDUCTION IN AUTO LICENSES By Mrs. J. W. Felton Let’s not fool ourselves. If there is no demand for lower priced auto license plates in Indiana now there never will be. What with the maJority on the low income side, the

think * we |

+ 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:)

resson there was no demand voiced for lower priced plates is that the very ones who need the reduction mest have less time to make noise. They are busy trying to make an honest dollar, Any T-year-old knows a 1-cent raise on gasoline makes a difference only with- some few who are too

lazy to walk to the corner store or who have time to take long trips. A 5-cent gasoline tax won’t hurt anyone who lives in his house and ‘not his car. ‘Too. bad the bill was killed.

: P o o FINDS PROPAGANDA TWO-EDGED SWORD By Ww, Tr. HL : One of the dangers of propaganda is that it usually is a -two-edged sword. Swung just right, it cuts in ‘| the right direction. But swung with the slightest inexpertness, it may lop off things never intended by the man who wields it. Italy has found that to be the case in its ‘broadcasts to South America. . At least that is the implication of remarks by Philip L. Barbour of the international division of the National Broadcasting (Co. Barbour told New York ad-

vertisets that Latin-American indifference had ' caused Italy to

IS IT TRUE? By ANNA E. YOUNG Is it true that some of us find In this business of living today That somehow life was more ‘worth while: In the days of our yesterday—

Also true that some of us find . And : through living are able to know That today is a day just as priceless As that day of our long, long ago!

DAILY THOUGHT

- But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, till there was no remedy—II Chronicles 36:16.

OD governs the world, and we have only to do our duty wisely, and leave the- issue to Him.—

John Jay. :

‘|ionary and idealistic reason.

imurdering American citizens,

abandon her efforts to woo Central and South America via the ether. Germany continues - her efforts with six hours a day of solid propaganda, Barbour said, but is getting surprisingly small results. American broadcasting southward, Barbour indicated, was less spectacular but more effective, being based on giving the listeners what they want.” And they don’t want, any more than anybody wants, a mess of sheer, undigested propaganda. . It would have been, and it is now, a mistake to {try to launch a counter-propaganda forward in South America. Offer them good, amusing programs of the kind they prefer. The good-will follows as a by-product. g 8 =n WAR REFERENDUM NECESSARY, IS VIEW By Philip 0. Johnson > : Your editorial “Handicapping Ourselves” does not correctly convey the picture of the present (amended) war referendum up for discussion in the Senate. It is necessary. It’s a good thing, because it correctly defines our sphere of foreign influence. That will not be invaded or threatened. But it will prevent our President, who has been the greatest failure in American history, from taking our country on a “foreign junket.” Whether that junket is justified, as he sees it, or not, does not matter. We do not care to go to war in behalf of foreign minorities. We will not. They will have to shift for themselves, and the people of foreign countries will have to be responsible for the form of government they have. : 2 2 = DENIES WE FOUGHT TO SAVE DEMOCRACY By C. B. * There is not a shred of historical evidence that this country has ever gone to war “to save the world for democracy,” or any other such visIt is true, of course, that this and other slogans were bandied about during the war with Germany. But they had no mcre to do with starting that war than “Don’t give up the ship” had, with the War of 1812. In April, 1917, Congress convened (at the President’s request) and declared almost unanimously that a state of war in fact already existed between this country and Germany. Why? Because Germany persisted in unarmed on the high seas, and declared her intention (February, 1917) not only to continue doing so; but:

‘to intensify her efforts. This, and

only this, caused the war. That we were allies of France and England

was merely incidental.

®

WIFES EARNINGS? YES O

THINK of no reason should, yet, in this so-

son BD ro i A "HAVE LEGAL C OFHI5

LET'S EXPLORE YOUR MIND

-By DR. ALBERT EDWARD WIGGAM-

hn EUS PE PERSONS WHO BRANES RODUCT BE

PEP rp. Tae

ES OR NO eemea” COT 1939 Soni Dvisd cB. .

union . the husband has complete control : his wif

states he ‘has control of : more than half of the earnings of their children. Barbaric, seemiw me. 2 1 ALWAYS wonder. about any product indorsed by ‘g movie star, prize fighter, mountain climber, aviator, or by Mrs. X, who has saved her own or her child’s life with one dose. Their indorsements of many products are absolutely worthless, at

{least to me, because they know no |more about the products than I do.

It would be different if they were compelled to show they have used the products and know something of their basic merits and the reasons

for same. 3 YES. The other day I went to : sleep listening to a speech—not my own, T leave that to others—and Sydney Landon, the impersonator of

4 * =

year from this condition in

“ln Washington

By Raymond Clapper

Agriculture Department to Test New Plan for Financing Surplus Crop Sales Through. the Grocers.

ASHINGTON, March 9—Having learned by bite * ter experience, Department of Agriculture: offi cials are moving with extreme caution and conservatism in their new plan for financing distribution, of surplus food to reltefers ‘through groceries. They have big dreams, to be sure, because the inost important constructive things in this world grow out of dreams. But this time the Government intends to try a small step first and see how the going is. It will be a modest experiment, conducted in half a dozen small to medium-sized cities. During three or four months’ trial, it will be demonstrated whether the scheme: is workable or whether it ought to be thrown away. It isn’t going to be rammed down anybody’s throat. If it works, the demand to spread it across the country will be irresistible. If it" fails it" will be

scrapped. The idea is simple. Persons on relief, Federal or

local, will receive—if they wish—part of their relief, sufficient for food costs, in the form of small orange Government stamps. These will pass for cash with grocers for food, soap and other necessaries—but not for tobacco or tiquor. These orange stamps, for the food budget, will be simply payment in another form, of relief now being received. . le 8 WHE every. ‘dollar in orange Stamps a reliefer will also be given 50 cents in blue stamps—an extra subsidy payment. These subsidy stamps can be used only tor purchase of certain surplus commodities to be designated by the Department of Agriculture— : probably eggs, butter, citrus fruits, prunes, raisins and a few other commodities in which unmovable sur-

pluses exist. At present the Government buys up carload Tots of these surplus products and gives them away to reliefers. Instead of that the Government will distribute stamps to consumers on relief and permit. them to buy the surpluses through regular retail food stores. In-

stead -of a dead purchase at the consuming end, the 4

customer will be financed and will suck the surplus through the ordinary business routes, thus stimulating, it is hoped, general food buying. Grocers will adver-

*

tise these surplus commodities as special bargains, and ”

not only reliefers but other customers can iske dvantage of these sales. ! » » ” oO inspection, regulating, or auditing -of groters is involved. Wholesale and retail grocers will operate as usual. The only difference will be that some customers, instead of’ buying. for cash, will use the colored Government stamps, which the grocer can

cash at his bank or postoffice." Department of Agriculture officials have heid wily consultations with men in the food trade and think they have most of the bugs out of the plan. Trade people thus far consulted have indicated favorable reaction. Why not? The scheme does nothing to them except to subsidize customers and increase volume. The plan is intended to use up surpluses, to put this surplus food into the hands of people who need it, and incidentally to increase the volume of business, Some Left-Wingers in the Department of Agriculture are slightly snooty about the scheme because business would draw some incidental benefit from it. But it is going to be tried nevertheless.

It Seems to Me

By Heywood Broun Japanese-Chinese War Stood

For Great New Book by Pearl Buck. ,

EW YORK, March 9.—The Nobel experiment hag not been invariably successful as far as litera-

ture is concerned. Upon several occasions the prize *

winner has proceeded to go into retirement and let his fame have a chance to catch. Bp with him before he set other words to paper.

But in the case of Pearl 8. Buck the swan: has » 3

been distinctly stimulating, Her newest novel is practically “just off the boat,” and its final chap= ters press hard upon the newspaper heddlines Sie ing with the Far East. : It is possible that “The Good Farth” will tang” as Miss Buck’s best book, but I think “The Patriot” deserves a place beside it. Material is haturally. important to any literary craftsman, though some seem very meager allowance of ee But when Pegarl Buck builds a tower to the sky she needs to get her capable hands around substantial blocks. My

secret feeling is that she has évery attribute needed

by a truly great novelist with one exception. * It doesn’t seem to me that she writes very well. Possibly this isn’t a matter of vast importance, Upton Sinclair and Dreiser will be remembered when many who could write rings about them are gone with Scarlett O'Hara. Maybe the world has had enough of needlework. The story teller of today and tomorrow is perhaps the fellow who goes Jack Horner one bet

ter and sticks his fist into the subject in hand. ®

In “The Patriot,” Pearl Butk writes of the cone flict between human relations and national relations, Personal Union Is. Doomed

A sensitive young Chinese marries a Japanese girl ’ who belonged to the “moga,” or female group, in-her own land. They are devotedly happy. They raise

a family and neither one has any sense of disturbe .

ance about the mixed national strains embodied. in the children. Then, through ‘no fault of their own,

China and Japan are at swords’ points. There ig no way in which the personal union can be presestisd, v The conflict makes division inevitable. Miss Buck says, and eloquently, that fellowship is a simple and an easy fact between individualssbut that in some way it is lost in the transition belefien the group and the nation. In all truly vital and damental things men and women of all lands sare much alike. But leve does not conquer all. It ‘tan be thwarted by some, trivial ‘governmental quibble about a little island or .a crooked boundary line. Tragedies come out’ of the trivialities. It is hot thin blood but unstable, ‘water whith keeps a Hive

hatred and _suspici for, 8 Yn

Watching Your Heal

By Dr. Morris Fishbein :

NFTY- TWO years ‘ago an emipert Boston phiysician, Regingld Fitz, studied infections within the abdomen and: d the nature of appendigitis so definitely that it ‘has since that time been regog=

nized as a special disease. “Today it is estimated that 20,000 ‘people die ory e United States. Thotigh we now know much more a oui it and how to take care of it than formerly, im ‘seems to be about 15 times as much appendicitis as was recorded in 1885. According to Dr. D. C. Coll the. number -of Sega has increased during the last guarter of a cen Of course, many cases are now. ‘recognized as’ p=

' pendicitis which formerly would

nosed and in which the deaths would have | cored as being due to. peritonitis or so: mi 3 the on. For this reason hospitdls and smstitutions throdighout the country are constantly studying the causes of appendicitis which come to their attention “and also the reason for the deaths which occur. Without any Ye one of the important

famous writers, sitting next to me,| at let out a combined cough and sneeze | hi

that sounded like a- bomb" explosion. | |I woke up instantly, but in that split| second I dreamed I was in Japan,|

fighting on the front with Kaishek; we marched for miles and were under: cannon fire’ all the way, | . passed long lines of troops and tanks and were just about to drive thej

Japs into the Yangtze River when - I wish I could think

pendicitis is the. taking ofirritate the bowel:

‘and tend AA of the appendix. Ihe.

to slide by with a ®

as medians ORME ark

SRR