Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 25 March 1939 — Page 10

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SATURDAY, MARCH 25, 1939

DOUBLE HEAT WAVE : IF Indianapolis is running a little temperature today, it is not due solely to the unusual antics of the thermometer. It isn’t every week, after all, that we see a heat wave

-and the finals of the state basketball tournament descend

on the city simultaneously. The latter especially seems able to induce a fever, as witness the fact that 15,000—all that the Butler Fieldhouse will hold—are seriously stricken and the town is full of many others ready to risk their blood pressure and health to see the season’s finest show. : ~ We don’t blame them. There are four grand high school teams here and the winner will be king in a

~ state that produces the finest basketball talent in the United

States. : : ; ; i Hey, boy! Ask Eddie Ash if he can find standing room for two more in an-aisle upstairs. ; ;

GIVE MR. ROOSEVELT CREDIT ;

HE Administration took a courageous step yesterday to help business. It deserves ungrudging praise. : Treasury Secretary Morgenthau proposed that Congress change the Social Security Law, abandon the “full reserve” for old-age insurance, and reduce or postpone the scheduled increases in payroll taxes. President Roosevelt backed up this proposal. So did the Social Security Board. This seems to us tremendously significant. ; First, it will really help business. The present payroll taxes are a heavy burden on employers and a serious drain on the buying-power of employees. Both will be encouraged if assured that at least for the next few years, the burden will not be enlarged or the drain widened. Second, it will not endanger social security. Present payroll taxes will more than finance the cost of old-age insurance benefits until such time as adjustments can be made on the basis of experience with the system in actual operation. : Third, it reveals the Administration in a new attitude, of frank willingness to concede that a New Deal law is not perfect, that criticism has been justified, that the defect should be corrected. . ; : ~ We think Republican members of the House Ways and Means Committee blundered badly in their gloating statement that “an informed and aggressive public opinion at last has forced the Administration to acknowledge an error and modify an iniquitous policy.” + If New Deal opponents sincerely want recovery, they should give the Administration honest applause for admitting and remedying: a mistake. If they only want to make political capital, they can jeer at such frankness as Mr. Morgenthau displayed yesterday, and they can boast that Mr. Roosevelt is “on the run.” But that’s no way to win

. other New Deal concessions. And it’s no way to promote

what everyone, Republicans and Democrats alike, ought to want first of all—better business. rs

THEY'RE FOR ECONOMY—BUT

JEWS out of Washington these days is like an Amos-and-Andy conversation—“two billion, three billion, hundred billion.” 5 Ironically, some of the strongest pressure for big spending is coming from persons who are loudest in proclaiming the virtues of economy. Example: The National Rivers and Harbors Congress yesterday indorsed a program for immediate Federal expenditure of $696,000,000 for 51 navigation, flood control, soil erosion and harbor projects. Who do we find is the new president of this organized lobby? Not some wild-eyed New Dealer! None other than Rep. Dewey Short (R. Mo.), caustic critic of New Deal deficit spending. Then there is the farm bloc of representatives from rural sections. Most of them are fond of delivering unctuous utterances in favor of thrift, but now are banding together to vote $250,000,000 for farm-price parity pay-

‘ments—above and beyond the President’s budget.

Of course, river and harbor projects are fine things. Our Government should go forward with as many of these improvements as the country can afford. And, also of course, cotton prices and wheat prices and corn prices and tobacco prices and rice prices aren’t what they ought to be. The farmers need more cash. A good argument can be made that they need additional purchasing power many times greater than $250,000,000. The only question is: Where’s the money ‘coming from ? Our Government carries on by borrowing; day after day it takes in much less than it spends; day after day the public debt rises to new high levels. : Some place, some time—and we hope soon—somebody will have to guide this spending train to a terminal. That. inevitable day will not arrive so long as the people elect to Congress representatives who talk economy in one breath, and in the next vote to spend.

WE'RE BEWARING

OMEONE in the Navy Department at Washington has ‘dug up and posted an old World War sign: “Beware of female spies!” : .

So the European

secrets, but if female spies are around again we can always hope that one of them will try her wiles on us. And being

exposed to the wiles of a female spy, judging by all the

books, is not at all unpleasant—although, naturally, we should finally feel compelled to repulse the temptress with

stern, patriotic indignation.

DO YOUR PART = : just a week the Indianapolis Public Schools will order “spring recess. That means there will be 60,000 children playing out of doors.

_ And it means, too, that every one of us will have to

drive that much more carefully, = J . We hope that not a single child is injured by an auto-

Mail subscription rates |

crisis has its compensations. Of course | - we're not in the Navy and we don’t know any military

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler

Capek's Fantastic Plays About Robots and Insects Come True, _ Ironically, in Author's ‘Homeland.

EW YORK, March 25.—A few years after the last World War there appeared at the musty old

a Theater Guild production of a play by Karel Capek, of Praha, called “R. UI. R.” or “Rossom’s Universal Robots.” It stormed the imagination of those who saw it and gave us the word “robot,” meaning a more or less faceless industrial slave. In Capek’s play the robots were flesh and blood

creatures without souls of the power to reproduce themselves, being manufactured by science through

_some extension of the Lindbergh chicken-heart-in-a-

test-tube process, but with a sort of intelligence. They were great workers, and everything looked easy for the human race until science got too smart, en-

take, as it made the great hordes of the powerful brutes revolt. : Had Capek lived a little longer he.would have seen his own people reduced to the condition of the robots

later. In this country this play was called “The World We Live In.” :

8 & =» »

I traits of butterflies, beetles and ants, and in a terrifying climax showed the insect world going to war

“again to the clang of steel and the blare of gun

foundries in a dispute about the pathway between two blades of grass.

Capek continued fo live in Praha to the end of his days, and when I interviewed him there about three years ago nobody could have believed that any tyrant in this day would have the stupid effrontery, to say nothing of the fiendish. cruelty, to attempt the enSiavetnent which Hitler now has decreed for Capek’s people, ! “R. U. R.” was absurdly improbable, it was impossible until the brown ants of the Nazi Army, the faceless’ men in dehumanized form, strutting in the step that human beings never were meant to walk, descended on the helpless Czech republic, seized everything and combined the powers of both of Capek’s plays into one ghastly reality.

» ” » HE people, by Hitler's decree are now not even full citizens of their own country but subjects, serfs or, much more aptly, robots condemned to work for the Germans under German masters and without even the small rights and privileges that Nazi citizens enjoy in Germany. It flatters the condition

of Capek’s people to say that they were captured. Capek scoffed at the thought of an invasion of Czechoslovakia by the: faceless men from over the mountains, and, although he recognized that the country formed a pathway between two blades of grass, 50 to speak, he thought this war would never come. He counted on France and Balkan politics to preserve his country, and it was plain that in his mind none of the fiction of his two great plays applied to the nation of which he was a citizen. But the play is not over. There were two armies of ants in the war over the pathway between the blades of grass, and the robots, be it remembered, rebelled and took horrible revenge. :

Business By John T. Flynn

Appointment of Douglas to Court May Contribute to F. D. R.'s Fame. EW YORK, March 25.--Tt is entirely possible that

throughout his whole term of office President Roosevelt has made no appointment which will re-

-dound more to his fame than the appointment of Wil-

liam O. Douglas to the Supreme Court. Douglas is only 40 and, .in the ordinary course of events, he should be sitting upon the Court 30 years from now, long after the debates and storms and passions of this day have had plenty of time to cool and grow dim. Supreme Court Justices haveithis quality which be-

‘longs to few other public ‘officials—thet they carry

into the future. the influence of the President who appoints them. 'But also men of the future years watching the performances of their Justices will be swayed in their opinions of the Presidents who. appointed them by the character. and behavior of the Justices. : How. many times have I heard liberals speak with grievous doubt of the true liberalism of Woodrow Wil- - son because of the performances of Justice McReynolds. And how many times have I heard other liberals set off against McReynolds’ intransigence the great services of Justice Brandeis. 2 There is no man at the bar to whom a President could more safely commit his fame in the future than Douglas. One of the qualities which is so important in the newly nominated Justice is’ the attribute of high spiritual and mental integrity. This is one of the great rare virtues of men. Money honesty is common. Mental and spiritual integrity are so rare as to be positively scarce in public men.

A True Conservative

The mass of men understand deeply a few simple virtues. Loyalty to friends, courage, generosity, pa-triotism--these are the virtues most common and most admired by all. They are found often in the most corrupt politicians. But that virile and uncompromising coming to grips with the rights of other people singly and in societies, while it is the least observable, is also the most essential to the preservation of democracies. Intellectual and public integrity like Douglas’ is often mistaken for radicalism. Men who denounce dishonest bankers and predatory brokers are often called Socialists. Reactionary judges who wink at the depredations of great corporations and bankers may be looked upon as “conservative” by some, but the true conservative will be the man like Douglas who can see beneath the surface the corrosive and destructive energy of dishonesty in high places.

A Woman's Viewpoint

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

HE discourtesy of clerks is still a chief source of complaint by American housewives—or so a survey, conducted in several cities by the ScrippsHoward Newspapers, tells us. : Now it is unlikely that men can be wholly blameless of the charge, but it seems to me women are our chief offenders at this point. After some lengthy study on my account in local fields, I have decided that a good many girls fail to make good behind the counter because they are so intent upon impressing the customer that they haven't the wit to find out her wishes. They can smile, but they can't suggest. .You can spend an interesting and profitable afternoon going from store to store studying the behavior of salespeople. No doubt a good many are tired, worried and unhappy. : Cn : . 1 suspect ill health prevents at least 25 per cent from . greeting their customers with eager looks and glad smiles, although Dan Cupid must also be included as an accessory before the fact, Te Sometimes the youngest and most vigorous girls are puried in day-dreams. They look as if they hate being bothered by a buyer who might disturb their meditations. The taste of last night's kikses seems literally to linger upon their lips, and their smiles are. for someone invisible at the moment to the customer. You can't help loving them, even when they exasperate you, and to me they are the mosf pathetic of all our working sisterhood, because they sre so obviously marking time until their Romeos appear. 1 am convinced also that merchants lose large sums yearly because they do not take the trouble to

ile during spring vacation. We are just echoing the

study feminine psychology as carefully as they do their financial reports, If they did, they'd soon find

Garrick Theater, well below the theatrical deadline, |

dowing the latest model with ambition—a great mis-{

depicted the human race in the garments and | :

in “R. U. R” and the terrible fulfillment of another | | prophetic horror of his which was produced some time |

es

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$57 : oi

Gen. Johnson

i Torper of America Stirred. by Hitler But If Reason Prevails U. S, Should Not Be Dragged Into War,

| XX7ASHINGTON, March 25.— Something sounds

fuzzy in the “stop Hitler” lineup in Europe by

agreements among the nations which he threatens.

The threatened nations have little reason to trust each other's word. Why should either Rumania or Poland, which seem to be in the path of Hitler ambitions and Russian resistance, stick its neck out for or against: either in dependence upon promised or suggested aid from England or France. I They have just proved to the small eastern Euro= pean nations, both at Munich and Czechoslovakia, that, if they don’t like the looks of any war as it approaches, they will probably run out and heave their little partners: to the Nazi wolves. It is net even altogether clear that either England or France is content to go to sleep with a thumb in the other fel-

Ԥ {lows mouth. If France settled with Mussolini by

giving up Tunis, where would that leave England? If those so-called democracies, won't join to defend their own sacred rights, who dealt us a hand

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

FORECASTS WPA AS G. 0. P. VOTE GETTER By Kenneth M. Farthing, Kennard

'. If the Republicans are wise they will never try to alter the setup of the Works Progress Administration one iota, for therein lies their biggest vote for 1940. The certified workers are so tired of nonrelief foremen dictating to them they will do most anything to get a change. Just to show you what I mean here is an example of what happened in the last election. The superintendent of a project decided he wanted to see a certain well-known Democrat beaten, so he had a stooge of his (they all have stooges) 80 around and tell all the men: “The boss is for Mr. So-and-so and he wants all you fellows to vote for him.” The super then went to work: with some of the finest bareback riding on a bunch of men you ever witnessed; consequently the men voted just the opposite of what they thought the boss wanted. Therefore instead of spiting the foreman they played right into his hands.

The so-called bigshot politician who is playing the game of nepotism for all it is worth is sure to find out. in 1940 that you can’t make one fellow happy and 100 men mad and expect to be returned to office. The Democratic organization could have had the greatest political machine the United States has ever known if they would have appointed men who had the ability to make new friends, keep their old ones and influence people in their respective positions of distributing emergency relief and WPA foremen, Ne THINKS MRS. WILSON’S MEMOIRS INCOMPLETE By B. J. R. There are questions that we people would like to see answered in Mrs. Woodrow Wilson’s memoirs. The principal one is this: What about the war psychology and the propaganda that swept the President and the citizens of the U. S. off their feet and made them consent to sacrifice their best boys on the altar of - the cruel monster war? There is no need to emphasize the terrible depression that has been an aftermath, and from which we will not recover in a hundred years. There was a time when looking on the noble picture of the First Lady and the President reviewing the wounded soldiers, our hearts would have thrilled, put now our interest is focused on the broken bodies of our boys and we are certain “someone has blundered.” We would like more information on the

resignation of William Jennings|.

Bryan from the Cabinet as Secre-

(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.)

tary of State. It is our opinion that some day we will be sane enough to honor him for obeying the dictates of his own conscience. These eight years of which Mrs. Wilson writes were the most momentous in the history of the United States. She chose to emphasize her and the President’s great love.. Did that really matter when homes were being broken. up, children ‘made fatherless and gold stars were being placed in the windows? Can it ‘be possible that we who have suffered much can or will do nothing to prevent a recurrence o these past years? : 3 . = : GIVES THANKS FOR ARRIVAL OF SPRING By Leona Scroggs : Spring has settled. over our’ city with peace and calm. Even the noise of the traffic in the downtown district is hushed, Prom my perch on the eighth floor of an office building, I see the brilliant reds, blues and greens, the gay enchanting colors of spring, parading the streets instead of the somber

SPRING BEAUTY By ROSE MARIE CRUZAN The robin’s tweet shows signs of spring, : : Next tiny buds to branches cling; Then blossoms’ fragrance comes to cheer, And new green leaves on trées : _appear.

‘While purple violets bow their

heads “To lilies in the valley beds. Soon lilacs: on their bush repose; A tight bud, then a fullblown rose.

DAILY THOUGHT

For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised: He also is to be feared above all gods—I Chronicles 16:25.

FEAR God, and next to God T ~—Saadi.

chiefly fear him who fears not.|

browns and blacks that have recently been there. There is a lull in the business of the day. It is just before the noon hour. At the last stroke of 12 there will be visible the rushing throng pouring from office buildings and department stores. Rushing only to refresh themselves and. then to hurry back to their: various corners of the business world. Very few will stop to notice that spring has really come. Some will merely say, “Hmph, I suppose it will be getting hot, first thing you know.” Others will remark, “Oh dear, what will I wear this spring? I simply haven't a rag to my name.” But a few will stop and breathe deeply of the sweet cool air and rejoice that spring has come at last, . a FAVORS LEGALIZING GAMBLING : By Mrs. Wynona Allison If we are going to do away with bingo let's make it a 100 per cent cleanup. Ta : Gambling, like liquor, will never be completely abolished. When we had prohibition what was the result? Bootléggers. . And they were a far greater menace to our young people ‘and to society than our saloons of yesterday. : Gambling is in most people's

lood. : : "I think it would be a great thing to pass a law to regulate all gambling and to pay a tax on it. This tax could pay an old-age pension. In this way much good could come out of something that is being done anyway. ” » THINKS BINGO O. K. IF YOU CAN AFFORD IT By Reader ! Speaking of bingo parties, I went to one with some friends one evening and met. some dandy people and had a swell time. It was very interesting but all the time I kept thinking that if I did not win anything I would be spending almost

my whole day’s pay.

So I decided to quit right . then before I got it had. We hear a lot about bingo putting money. into ¢ir+ culation but we ought to realize that more money goes into the game than is paid out or else there would be no bingo parties. Auer a Bingo is fine for those who can

afford it but I for one cannot.

INDK BIND IT HARD TO GET RID OF A PERSISTENT BEE SREAE AMAL ASU HF YOU ENO WARD TO GETATEA PES

1 IT INDICATES you are a high- - ly suggestible person and are probably not ‘an independent and decisive personality. Of course, the

LET'S EXPLORE YOUR MIND

-By DR. ALBERT EDWARD WIGGAM.

WIVES PRETEND NOT TO HEAR

BELIEVE WHAT THEY HEAR TER, BANDS?

Po most OR NOT AGAING

BOBS \T STUAULATE ONE TO BETTER 3 ORR GRINDER HATO BECONE CON~ £CI0US OF Hi6 FAILURES? YOUR GOON»

takes a. very positive personality to

say “No,” and put it over. It is

good to have a regular speech prepared in advance to get rid of them J ‘hurting their

ou

‘irect them.

IT DEPENDS on how fond they are of friend husband. If they are in love with him they do their best not to hear” anything against him and if they do hear they tell themselves emphatically it is not true and do not mention it to him. But if they are unhappily married they are eager to get anything on him they can and to.report it to him as soon as possible with full details—enlarged. This is a good test as to whether or not you are still in love. : ; od » * 2

IT WORKS differently with different people. A. now famous study of failure by Dr. Dorothy Gandine-Stanton, English psychologist, shows that failure stimulates only those people who, when failure comes, neither become discouraged nor leap into feverish activity, but who have the ability—and stability —to sit back and think, These people analyze the .causes of their failures and take measures to corpersons are the great achievers, As she suggests, Johnny loses in a game and wants to play something. else; Tom jumps in and plays wildly but without direction; Joe ‘studies: the situation, takes new tacks and keeps at it

eir féelings when

to sit in at their double-crossing contest? § E ee ME: WALTER LIPPMANN, building his argument on the Gallup and Fortune polls, says that the temper of the American people is so aroused that, if Hitler provokes a war in Europe we can’t keep out of it. Therefore, he thinks that “the only legislation which makes it clear before the fatal decision is taken

abroad, that war is too dangerous a gamble to be risked by the dictators.” Snr This seems wrong. ‘These polls have proved pretty accurate in elections where the question is simply “Do you prefer Mr. A. or Mr. B.?” but on the come plexities of European politics and diplomacy,. which change from day to day and which not even our State Department, much less our columnists, understand, these measures of “public opinion” are worthless bee cause most of the people polled haven't the foggiest notion about what is being asked them. ® i » M* LIPPMANN once wrote an unanswerable cole umn arguing that you can’t bluff in modern die plomacy unless you are able and willing to go through, Legislation by us to make it clear “that war is too dangerous a gamble to be risked by the dictators” must either be a bluff or ® sincere preparation for war against dictators with a purpose to prosecute it if they do not comply with our wishes. I think we. have no such intent unless they threaten us. Against: that possibility we must rearm. They cannot believe it to be a bluff when we say that we will defend oure selves. There is overwhelming public opinion for that, But to interpret that as an indication of public opinion in favor of defending European nations who will not defend themselves is, I think, to misinterpret it. None of this is said to condone Hitler’s insane brue - tality. But there are forming here pressure groups mostly of people naturalized or descended from nations threatened by Hitler. They argue along the lines of Mr. Lippmann’s column. It is argument springing from emotion rather than from any reasoning for our welfare, and that is dangerous. Reason could never take us into another war in Europe, but emotion could,

By Heywood Broun Tal Pigeons Balky, Plan to Be First Carrier Columnist Seems Doomed. TAMFORD, Conn. March 25—We've got pigeons. Whether or not they ‘are homing pigeons depends on Garcia, the head bird, and he can’t seem to make up his mind. fs

It’s going to make a lot of difference to me. You see, the original notion was that instead of telegraph-

| ing my stuff I.could just intrust it to a pigeon and

[become the first of the carrier columnists. : The man who sold me the idea said it would .be very simple. “You just strap the precious freight to the bird’s leg and toss him into the air, and neither : dark of night nor sleet nor storm can stay this swift messenger on his appointed rounds.” It sounded a little too good to be true. Of course, my own wing isn't what it used to be, but there have been columns of mine which anybody could toss from Stamford to the office without the help of a pigeon. A gnat would be an all-sufficient carrier. = = | The man tried to disabuse my mind of fears. “To a pigeon,” he explained, “all columns and, in fact, all columnists look alike. Remember, he’s just going to carry your stuff. He doesn’t have to read it.” However, once I got the birds complications set in. Before a pigeon becomes a carrier with a homing instinct one of them must lay an egg. As some poet almost said, “It takes a heap of hatching to make a house a home.” Of course, my plan necessitated a home-and-home arrangement. There would “have to be a town and a country landing field, and so somebody would have to lay an egg in the city room of the paper as well as in the coop on the farm

No Message for Garcia i

I felt this could readily be arranged, but it ree quired more than seven weeks before tht’ lady bird gave any hostages to fortune.up in the country. So I hate to take her into town:and ask her to lay another egg while surrounded by rewrite men and copy readers. I doubt that it could be done, = I don’t think’ I will ‘ever commit a column to Garcia. He's the sort of pigeon you: wouldn't care to trust. with anything which came from the heart, He has a mean and hungry look, and-if Garcia ever did find some little masterpiece strapped to his ankle you can bet your life he'd never fly it to the ‘office, = Instead you'd find him at some feedstore trying to. irade the manuscript for birdseed. - The Shanens are that Garcia will become a pie and‘ not a pilot. TE Ee IL TE a . ‘Perhaps it’s. just as well, for in the range of years one finds that readers are tough, and so are editors. ‘What, then, would be the sense in trying to please

.| pigeons as well ‘as: people?

Watching Your Health By Dr. Morris Fishbein

A SURVEY of all that medical science has found about the effects of tobacco smoking on digestion indicates that little has been done that is really sciene tific to determine exactly what happens in many cases. : Doctors sometimes record instances in which peo ple with ulcers of the stomach or with disturbances of the bowel improve tremendously when they stop smoking.

lessness, irritability or similar symptoms disappear when they stop smoking. But these :are subjective impressions differing greatly from the scientific studies that are necessary to be certain. It occurred, therefore, to physiologists Schnedorf and Ivy of Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago to study the effects of tobacco smoking on 15. chronic smokers and five nonsmokers. oii They found that smoking stimulates the :flow of saliva, due to irritation of the lining of the cheeks by the smoke. Apparently: the nicotine that:is absorbed from two or three cigarets is not significant in relationship to the flow of saliva. Some smokers do not have an extra flow of saliva when they smoke because apparently they have become. so used to it that hey. are masse A nis ER en a human Ag is hungry, -his. stom tracts, and these contractions are called “ pains.” The experts found that the contractions the stomach due to hunger cease after the fii puffs of smoke. Indeed -they will stop smoking of one cigaret and ¥. for from 15 minutes fo an:

until he wins. Watch how your child—and e to. fail-

who. have been

BLil] i 4

People themselves frequently report: that sleep~ L