Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 31 March 1939 — Page 22

PAGE 22

The Indianapolis Times

(A SCRIFPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

ROY W. HOWARD RALPH BURKHOLDER MARK FERREE President Editor Business Manager

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Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 1939

THEN AND NOW N the mail today came a bulletin from the National | Recreation Association devoted exclusively to an address | given last fall by A. C. Sallee, Indianapolis Parks superin- | tendent, before the Indiana Association of Park Superintendents. The bulletin quotes Mr. Sallee as saying: “The American attitude toward government is changing. The people have a right to demand, and are demanding, the same standards of efficiency in government as Americans have always insisted for the professions and all important walks of life. Why not discard the antiquated slogan, ‘To the victor belongs the spoils,” and substitute the more modern idea, ‘To the victor belongs the responsibility for more efficiency in government? Men and women should

be appointed to public office on the basis of ability, training and experience. Public opinion has demanded and is securing higher standards in the administration of its affairs through the merit system.” But this isn’t what the Indianapolis Parks Board has heen practicing. And only recently we learned that the Park Board decided to select summer park employees from lists provided by the Democratic County organization—in | the face of Mr. Sallee’s own admissions that the old, political grabbag method had led to some shocking incidents. Mayor Sullivan says, however, that the park jobs should go to the people who voted for him—the loyal party | workers. “Public opinion “higher standards.” It still is.

has demanded,” said Mr. Sallee,

EUROPA’S SAMSONS ESS than 24 hours after the speech of France's Premier ~~ Daladier, Premier Mussolini has come back with a warning that Italy does not intend to remain “a prisoner in the Mediterranean.”

And Virginio Gayda, foremost editorial spokesman of |

the Fascist regime, followed this with the assertion that Premier Daladier wanted to “shut tight the half-closed door” to Franco-Italian negotiations. This is not exactly the sort of get-away that the rest of the world had hoped for the beginning of a new attempt

| SO.

at rapprochement between the two countries. It was to be! expected that both sides would make a show of firmness, | but if peace is to be preserved firmness must be tempered with reason. Italy, France and Great Britain have but two alterna- | tives: They must find a way to share the Mediterranean | peaceably as partners, or fight. If they can’t talk it out, they will have to shoot it out. If they go to war, they will do so in the certain know- | ledge that there will be no winners. All three will be licked.

For as Roy W. Howard reports in his series of cables now appearing in this newspaper, every informed statesman | abroad as well as at home is convinced that war now “would | probably wreck every existent government in Europe.” We hope the Samsons now roaming the halls of Furopa’s temple will have brains commensurate with their | power,

HE LEADS FROM THE REAR | QENATOR BARKLEY of Kentucky, who holds the title | "7 of Senate Majority Leader, has outlined a program for | the remainder of the Congress session. As is to be expected from the source, it is an expansive program—ranging all the way from national defense to cotton export appropriations. Notably absent from his list of 10 measures to be enacted are the two which probably could do most good to | stimulate business recovery—simplification of corporate taxes and perfection of the National Labor Relations Act. But businessmen need not be disheartened. They can | comfort themselves with the reflection that at no time in the past has leader Barkiey ever known what the program | And there is no reason to believe he is any better informed now. Only a few days ago, “Dear Alben” stood | on the floor of the Senate and ridiculed suggestions that the Administration was contemplating a cotton export sub- | sidy plan. But nounced the plan. On the matter of revising corporate taxes, Senator | Barkley said several weeks ago that nothing would be done about that. But quickly word was passed out from the White House that work on tax revision was continuing— as indeed it was, and still is, in the Treasury Department | and the Senate Finance and the louse Ways and Means | Committees. So we should say that, long before Mr. Barkley can depart from the Capitol to his home in the Bluegrass, the probabilities are that both the Tax Revision Rill and the Wagner Act amendments will be considered and acted upon | in the Senate. We think this because both publie opinion | and economic necessity demand these to promote recovery | and provide more jobs for the unemployed and more reve- | nue for the Government. And when the time comes, Leader | Barkley doubtless will do as he has alwavs done. He will | follow along.

was.

24 hours later President Roosevelt an- |

£900 LIVES SAVED "HE country has reason te be very proud of the definite progress in street safety. February was the 16th con- | secutive month to show an improvement over the same month of a year before. The February death toll was 1810, or 250 less than the 2060 lives lost in February, 1938. The National Safety | Council estimates that 8900 lives have thus been saved since | the period of unbroken traffic improvement began in No- | vember, 1937. This record must not be spoiled. Are you annoyed sometimes at what seems over-regulation of traffic? Don’t be, for it is this continual drumming away that | is maintaining the improvement of which we are all proud. | Surely the saving of 8900 lives is worth a little ocea- |

sionak inconvenience, {

| money from this form of advertising.

i rights.

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

Dies Now Charges Some Reporters Jeered Inquiry, but He Should Have Ousted Hecklers Then and There.

ASHINGTON, March 31.—For the first time in |

the long and sometimes acrimonious attempt of the present Government to discredit, if not destroy, the American press, the conduct of reporters has been called into question, the accuser being Martin Dies, chairman of the House Committee on un-American Activities. Hitherto only the publishers have been accused, generally on a charge of distortion, suppression or false emphasis in the interests of their political be-

liefs and of the advertisers from whom they receive part of their income.

Rep. Dies distinctly says that not all the reporters |

who covered his committee were guilty of the conduct or attitude of which he complains in some. But he frankly resents jeers, sneers and audible contemptuous comments on the part of individuals from whom newspaper readers received accounts and impressions of the hearings. He says some reporters revealed hostility in a man-

ner that amounted to heckling of witnesses who

testified as to activities of Communists and “fellow travelers,” and even of the committee itself. u = »

HE Washington reporters are not united on

any political front or even as a craft, and if Mr. |

Dies had rebuked unseemly conduct he doubtless would have found objective reporters to state the facts of the case for the public to judge. In the absence of any positive move on his part, however, the heck-

ling by some journalists escaped mention in the papers because by tradition the side comments and conduct of reporters are not news. The volume of straight news in Washington is so

i great that descriptive or atmospheric reporting sel- | | dom finds room, and reporters never regard their | own kind as figures in the picture. | parently tradition rather than a purpose to conceal

In this case ap-

was responsible for failure to report an important phase of the hearings, By courageous action, Rep.

| Dies could have jogged the press table out of this

tradition, and he has himself to blame for not doing This failure is the more important because of Rep. Dies’ resentful feelings that his committee did get a very bad and unfair press in some respects.

The Shirley Temple distortion still rankles, al- |

though in the end, the committee emerged with the

i

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES Isn’t This What We Want P—By Herblock

SORE EA

~ WILL ACT

AMER!

A

CAN COMMERCE,

CAN CN TI

SHIPS,

CRUB FLOORS AND DO THE DISHES IN ITS SPARE TIME.

victory and those who took liberties with the true |

meaning of the testimony only smeared themselves. = 2 2

HE main fault of the press seems to have been that some executives and reporters, both, mis- |

judged the public interest in the Dies Committee | and, in some cases, precondemned everything that the |

committee might do, on the basis of a low opinion of Rep. Dies’ ability. Some approached the story with the conviction that it was a farce and were embarrassed to discover that the country thought otherwise and wouldn’t be satisfied with light or heavy attempts at humor, which, incidentally, is not a specialty of Washington journalism. Rep. Dies, however, studied his subject and his mistakes of procedure and is now more confident of himself and more determined than ever. If next time he should find the nerve to eject disturbers who abuse their press privileges to hamper the work of a Congressional committee, objective reporters among the many will have no choice but to give honest accounts of the incidents.

Business

By John T. Flynn

Congress Not Likely to Accept Eccles’ Dare on Strict Economy.

EW YORK, March 31.—Maybe we are going to have what might be called “Mr, Eccles’ experiment.” Mr. Eccles, chairman of the Federal Reserve System, has been one of the leading exponents of the spending of borrowed money by the Govern-

| ment.

Now the germ of economy has infected not only Washington politicians but the country as well, or

| so we are told, and critics of the Administration are

demanding that we cut down spending. Mr. Eccles, recognizing the depth and breadth of the demand

| for this, suggests to Congress and the economizers

that they try their medicine. It is difficult to escape the feeling that the suggestion is a little impish, but certainly it offers the gentlemen in Wash-

| ington an opportunity to test out their principles.

To be sure, it tends to treat the population as guinea pigs and it implies the suggestion that the

| guinea, pigs be put for a space into a particular sort

of atmosphere—the atmosphere of economy—and see what happens. This debate about the effect of Government spending has been going on for a long time. It may well

. be that for a certain type of pragmatic mind, noth-

ing will settle this debate but an outright experiment and here is a grand chance to do it. All Con-

| gress has to do is to stop the spending and ihen | sit around and see what happens.

Of course, I am

quite sure what will happen. The sound of the

| falling pieces will be so loud that it will be heard

around the world. Of course, Congress is not going to do this. And therefore this experiment is out, but it might try a milder one. It might try, let us say, cutting surplus expenditures in half. If it does, I am equally sure that this will be followed by a crash.

People Being Fooled

But IT am also equally sure that the Government cannot go on spending as it has in excess of its revenues. And therefore I am sure it must do two things.

| It must increase its revenues by taxation and reduce | its spending of borrowed money, which means in re-

turn the politicians must stop fooling the people by

| talking about tax reductions they have no intention

of making. But I am also sure of another thing and that is

| that before it can do any of these things without in-

viting a great crisis, the Government must make certain other dispositions which will make private investment possible. There must be a Congress and a President with the courage to say with absolute definiteness that there is going to be no monkeying with money. Second, it must deal with the serious problems which are found in the great areas of investment such as building and the railroads.

A Woman's Viewpoint

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

ARDEN CLUB members all over the country are neck deep in a campaign to banish billboards from the highways. In this effort, our state president tells me, they are joined by the Safety Councils, the General Federation of Women’s Clubs and the Parent-Teacher Association. I suppose there is bound to be a certain amount of opposition, since a good many people must make And one is reluctant to ruin the livelihood of another these days. Nevertheless, it can scarcely be denied that most of

{ our highways are an affront te any lover of beauty. | More than 800 billboards shut off the view on one of

of the main artries into our city—we counted them.

Some of the sights the billboards shut out are not particularly lovely, which makes me feel more than ever that if they could come down we might be moved to do something to improve our suburbs. Our Garden Club president also says that if these signs are read they constitute a highway menace, since motorists have no business taking their eyes off the road; and if they are not read they serve no good purpose anyway—which sounds like a pretty good argument any way you look at it. Whatever happens, the ladies are within their It cannot be consistently charged that this

The Hoosier Forum

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

FLOWERS RUINED, BLAMES ROLLER DERBY FANS By I. F, H. I for one would like to go on record as strenuously objecting to the Roller Derby. I can’t sleep for it and after last

year, when my flowers in the front yard were ruined by people driving right up to the front door to park,

It's a shame that these events can’t have some restrictions placed on them, ” x # ‘UNCLE MIDAS’ AND THE GOLDEN TOUCH By W. T. Once there was a king in Thrace {called Midas. He loved gold, not because of what it would buy, or for the good he could do with it, but for itself. Dionysius, spirit of spring and youth and gladness, granted him a wish—the power that would cause everything he touched to turn to gold. As Dionysius vanished, Midas sank into a chair. It turned at once to gold. Enraptured, he walked through his halls, turning every object to golden splendor. Even in his garden he walked down the rows, [turning each blooming bush to gold. Soon his daughter came running to him, crying, “Look, father, someone has killed all the beautiful roses.” “No, child,” he said, “I turned them. Are they not more beautiful so?” “No, no!” sobbed the child. “Turn | them back!” And she flung herself into his arms. He felt her stiffen,

little daughter was only a golden statue. At that point Midas began to realize that there was something wrong with the Golden Touch; that some things are better than gold. He found that gold is in itself nothing. Only its uses are of value. Unless something is done shortly, Uncle Midas may find out the same thing. For the stocks of monetary gold in the United States have now crossed the 15-billion-dollar mark, 57 per cent of all the visible gold in {the world. Why is this gold of any value at all? Because peopie have always been willing to give useful things in exchange for it. And yet, if Uncle Midas’ Golden Touch continues to draw to him all the gold in the world, it is possible that many countries having none, will say ‘“Hereafter we do not want gold, and will not take it.” Then Uncle Midas might wake up to a realization that gold in itself is nothing. Only in its use as

I really am rabid on the subject.|

[and in a second his dearly beloved !

{Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns, religious con troversies excluded. Make your letter short, so all can have a chance. Letters must be signed, but names will be withheld on request.)

a medium of exchange is monetary gold valuable. We can see that some of it gets to friendly countries which will use it to keep trade and money tied to gold. In short, we can use it, which is the only way to prevent our Golden {Touch from becoming the curse of Midas.

~ ” » AMERICAN EMIGRANTS INOW A POSSIBILITY {By Ralph Weber | The whole history of the United | States has been a history of immigration. | The gradual filling of the vast spaces of the country by streams

of people coming from all the world have made up America’s story. Now it is possible that another chapter will be added which will be quite different. Brazil may open

EASTER MORN By EDNA JETT CROSLEY Again the Eastern sun draws nigh, la golden disk hangs in the sky, | [And in dawn’s early morning light The open graves reveal God’s might.

The earth did quake, the rocks gave |

vent, [In twain the temple's veil was rent; 'And sleeping saints arose and walked | Upon the earth again, and talked.

|An angel rolled the stone away Which stood before the well-sealed | door. "Twas meant to keep our Lord for aye ‘From us, forevermore. | His countenance with light did glow [As he sat in raiment white as snow | And cried aloud, "Tis not a vision, ! Behold, the Crucified is risen.

DAILY THOUGHT

i And he said unto her, Daugh- | ter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.—Mark 5:34.

AITH is the eye that sees Him, the hand that clings to Him, the receiving power that appropri- | ates Him.—Woodbridge.

its gates to immigrants from the United States. Thousands of letters have been received asking about living standards, climate, opportunities, "and plans are being made which may open free land grants in the states of Sao Paulo and Parana to farm immigrants from the United States. While it seems unlikely that any |large number of Americans will | turn immediately to Brazil for their | future, some may do so. If they do, we may in our own time witness the turning of the tide of population flow, and watch it recede from the shore where for so long it rose higher with the years. = » » HOPES WE HAVE SEEN THE LAST OF BINGO

By Mrs. B. L. I am quite happy about the closling of the bingo games. I believe they encourage widespread gambling. I admit that those who are incurable gamblers will find other ways of gambling, now that bingo is unavailable, but many people who hated gambling went to bingo games and thought nothing of it. With bingo in practice many mothers, {who would never think of gambling in any other form, attended bingo games and took their children. I have known many hard-working people who went regularly, not for the fun of it, but on the chance that they might double their money. There is not so much happiness afterward as some people would lead you to believe. People in this city took their bingo games seriously. Many of them did not go just to play for a while; they made a job

land staying all day.

leg” bingo. Bootlegging has to be on

ers to make a good bingo game for the promoters. There are enough ways to gamble now without permitting bingo to be legalized. So I hope this is the end of bingo.

” ” PREFERS WAR TO CONCENTRATION CAMP By a Youth Hitler has definitely proved his imperialistic ambitions in these last few days. We should prepare for any eventuality in spite of certain orators preying on our fears of

“sending our youth to be killed.” Chamberlain hoped Hitler would stop at Sudetenland. If Chamberlain doesn’t try to frustrate Hitler after knowing his true character, we must suspect Chamberlain of ulterior motives. Personally, I would rather fight than be in a concentration camp.

»

LET'S EXPLORE YOUR MIND

By DR. ALBERT EDWARD WIGGAM

is none of their concern, since cleaning up is a sort | of passion with women. Certainly we have plenty of |

| unfinished business in that line in all parts of the |

country.

A little effort and co-operation would make it |

possible for all our highways to be beautiful and every city suburb appear less like a slum district. If our City Fathers would join our City Mothers in a ES mpasan, we might get the whole coun= {ryside 1doking decent. i

KER AN" HOOLT SHE DRESS IN BRIGHT C on 1 CERTAINLY. Every normal man likes gay colors. If he doesn’t either he is a great artist or something else is the matier

SP YOUR QPINION cssinn

NOTED WRITER SAVS "PRIVATE ENEMY NG 1 15 NEITHER SIN NOR SOP ROW

BUTLEAR. ov omnia

THE STOR ¥ OF EvomonM aur DO MOS ENTS TRY TO MAKE THEIR CHILDREN LIVE THE LIFE THEY DID NOT LIVE BUT WISH THEY KADY YOUR OPN/ON oe 3

EOIVAT

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with him. The natural brute man {delights in colors and delights to see hys female strut in them. nature it is a good deal the other

ok -

way—the male is usually the bright colored one, for reasons that are still not clear to the biologists. ” ” on

I CERTAINLY AGREE with

4s this writer, Rev. Joseph Fort Newton, who writes thousands of letters to people to aid them to overcome fear. Of the thousands of letters I receive from readers of i this column, they are mostly con-

| problems—nearly always mixed up with fears and inferiorities; how to choose a vocation, also usually mixed up with fears and feelings of inferiority; and special fears, usually fears of other people. ” ”n »

EVERY PARENT tends to do this very thing because no one has lived up to his ideals and when he has a child to rear he feels—unconsciously—“Here is a chance to develop in my child that ideal life I wish I had lived, but failed to do.” Every parent should guard against this because no child is like either parent and no amount of environment is going to mold it into such & likeness. Give your child the environment that will cause him to live a life he will be glad some day

jh|he did live, because it was the life

he—not you—wished to live.

In Washington

FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 1939

By Raymond Clapper

Farley Has Strong Grip on Powerful State Bosses and Must Be Listed Among Leaders for Presidency.

ASHINGTON, March 31.—Personal | Democrats: Don’t overlook Jim Farley in the Presidential picture. The idea has been spread that all he wants | is second place on the ticket. But the fact is that | Mr, Farley is running for President, not for Vice | President. Twice he has worked hard for Mr. Roose- | velt. This time he will work for himself. > Mr, Farley isn’t getting a fair break in this situae | tion. Were he not a Roman Catholic, he would be regarded everywhere as the inevitable candidate for | President. Politically many things are in his favor? Practically no one else who has been mentioned would be as acceptable to both .factioils of the party. There isn't a professional New Dealer in sight | who could possibly make the grade now. And alg though Mr. Garner is riding the crest at the mo- | ment, with a well-financed crew going hot after | delegates, don't forget that Mr. Farley has the | closest links with the state political machines which in the aggregate control the convention celegations}’ Eventually they may have to choose hetween Mr, Garner, who has led the Democratic rebellion against Mr. Roosevelt, and Mr. Farley, who as Mr. Roose~ velt’s political manager has played their game thesa six years. Don’t think that Mr. Farley will not call upon the politicians in the party to reciprocate. » ” ” F anyone can break down the prejudice agains? a Roman Catholic, it is Mr. Farley. He has been | in office six years, dealing out patronage all over the country, and so far as 1 know the religious question never has been raised against him. > Although the religious question definitely acts as a brake on his progress it is far less likely to have the same explosive effects which it had on the occasion of its last appearance in politics, when Al Smith was running. For one thing the Klan activity in thd years preceding the 1928 campaign had fanned up the religious issue. Again, times are different now. Con- { ditions in Europe have made it important to emphasize | tolerance here. *

memo ory

” ” ”n R. GARNER'S strength is greatest among tha Southern members of the House and Senate, | who in many instances have controlling influence in

| selecting convention delegations. Mr. Farley's strength | is greatest among the state bosses in the North and | the Federal machines built up in the big cities during the last six years. | at the last convention and is not likely to be re® | stored, so the South no longer has the absolute veto power which it formerly enjoyed. The big Northern

The two-thirds rule was abolished

states will be as powerful now in Democratic conventions as they always have been in Republican conventions. Mr. Farley has deep roots in the organizations of most of these states. At this early date it would be foolish to fry to guess the outcome, but I suspect that at the moment Mr. Garner's strength seems greater than it really? is and that Mr, Farley's is greater than it appears to be

Mr. Garner’s public popularity comes largely from those who read that he is opposing Mr. Roosevelts Mr. Farley's strength is among organization poli ticians who work quietly and whose first principle is loyalty to the hand that feeds them. It was through Mr. Farley's helping hand that the vast; majority of them got up to the feed trough. I want to see a poll of party workers before I

| write Mr. Farley off the Presidential slate.

It Seems to Me

By Heywood Broun

Founding Fathers Bookish, but Now Brains Seem to Be in Disfavor.

EW YORK, March 31.—According to propaganda the cloakroom of the House or Senate is a great educational institution, while the universities of America are places where men get book learning which renders them not only useless but distinctly dangerous in any governmental function. America was distinctly in that mood at the end of Woodrow Wilson's second term. Overwhelmingly ths country decided that it wanted to sond to the White House a man of very slight formal education who got along with his fellow Senators in a smoke-filled room | and could be trusted to take care of the boys back home, There was no nonsense about that crowd. They were all practical politicians. And yet the administration of Warren G. Harding has not been generally considered one of the brightest spots in our nation’s history. a The vital value of learning, book learning if you please, has always been close to the heart of American leaders. Jefferson rated as his two major achievements the fact that he had written the Declaratio

?

of it, going early in the morning

Contrary to what some people be- | lieve, there will not be much “boot- |

the quiet and it takes a lot of suck-|

\cerned with three problems: love|

of Independence and founded the University o Virginia. If the scholar is a contemptible figure in the political scheme of things, then our tradition has been | wrong from the start, Franklin I. Roosevelt is by nd means the first American President to surround him=self with brilliant men from the colleges and law schools. He has scouted deans assiduously and drawn the head men of many of our leading 18gal institutions into public service at one time or another.

Cross-Section of the Best

I think, offhand, of Garrison of Wisconsin, Jas of Yale and Rutledge of Towa. Bill Douglas and Felix | Frankfurter were law professors, respectively, at Yale and Harvard. Benjamin Cohen was a student who set new scholastic records at the University of Chicago and Harvard Law School. Thomas Corcoran workec his way through Brown beiore becoming an honor man at Harvard Law School. Henderson came from Swarthmore and later did economic studies for thse Russell Sage Foundation. Msgr. John A. Ryan is president of Catholic University. Tugwell, Moley and Ber! were from Columbia. In all, it is a brilliant array which the leader of the New Deal has managed to muster into service, past or present. They stand as a fair cross-section of thd best which America has to offer in law and the social sciences. Of course, they are not always right, but speaking as one American citizen, I would much rather have, counsel offered to the President by such as these than by “Cotton Ed” Smith, Governor O'Daniel or any member of the hill-billy band.

‘Watching Your Health :

| By Dr. Morris Fishbein

WELLING of the ankles as a result of accumula= tion of fluid may be due to a variety of causesd In many instances the swelling is not the first evie dence that something is wrong. However, it may be the first indication that comes to the attention of the person afflicted. The most common cause of swelling of the ankles: is, of course, standing up for a long time. People who are overweight frequently have swollen ankles at night. The swelling tends to disappear after they have rested in bed When varicose veins occur, there may be swelling of the ankles as a result of the failure of the fluid to be carried upward. Varicose veins usually occur in older people. Inflammation eof the lining of the blood vessels in the leg, such as may occur from many different causes, may also interfere with the flow of fluid from the legs and thus result in swelling. When swelling affects one leg only and not the other, it is necessary to look for some special cause. affecting the circulation of that side alone. When, however, there is a consistent and even swelling of the legs of both sides, the cause is probably some general condition affecting the heart, the liver, or the kidneys, or even the lungs. Whenever the heart is damaged so that it is une able to push the fluid matter through the circulation, there may be a tendency to deposit fluld in the tissues of the legs. The heart may be damaged by ine flammation affecting the lining of the heart, by harde ening of the arteries, or by inflammation of the sac surrounding the heart. In any event, the physician will want to make a special investigation to deter-

mine just what may be the nature of the damage and also its extent. Sah

PF