Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 5 April 1939 — Page 14
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involved in the carnage and destruction “over there.” We
OX Page One of this newspaper today is the story that
PAGE 14 The Indianapolis Times
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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 5, 1939
SABOTAGE? N° legislation took a more thorough kicking around in the last Legislature than that relating to the city manager question. At every turn delays, obstructions, and trickery met those who were sincerely trying to make it possible for cities to choose such a form of government if they desired it. Finally, after it became evident that such a bill could not be passed at this session, proponents of the manager plan agreed to compromise on a plan whereby 2 seven-member study commission would be appointed by the Governor to report on the most practicable method by which cities might obtain the manager plan. A resolution calling for the appointment of such a commission was passed by the House, then in amended form by the Senate and returned to the former for concurrence in minor amendments. Until the other day it was thought the way had been cleared for appointment of the commission. Not so at all. Now we learn that the House had approved the amendments but that the action was never certified. Whose error it was, and whether it was an honest or deliberate oversight, we probably shall never know. But it is hard to believe, looking at the record, that it was anything save deliberate sabotage. If further investigation tends to substantiate this point of view, it should only serve to make friends of the manager plan redouble their efforts. And if the resolution is officially dead, we suggest
that the Junior Chamber of Commerce and other interested |
groups and individuals go ahead with the study. They
full recommendations and legislation. They will have one important bit of knowledge in their favor: they will know next time who their real friends and real enemies are.
OUR OWN TROUBLES ARE LITTLE ONES
OW rapidly our domestic controversies dwindle in importance before the threat of war. Over the last several days there have been numerous | news stories which in normal times would dominate page one and be the subject of leading editorials in all newspapers. But they have been crowded into the background by the overpowering European drama.
. | elected Mayor of New York, Mr. Dewey as District Atmay even wish to ask the same people to make the | appointments provided for in the resolution. In any event, | ™ Sir Simpson has deeply offended the parsisans of they should come before the next Legislature armed with | n
‘By John T. Flynn
In Washington
By Raymond Clapper
Dewey May Be Eliminated From | Espousal of Liberal Cause Fight Against Simpson Succeeds.
EW YORK, April 5.—The slated extinction of the liberal leadership of the Republican Party in New York City is likely. if it takes place as scheduled, to alter the character of the Presidential campaign of Thomas E. Dewey. The Republican Party, nationally, has two courses open to it. One is to make a straight-out conservative fight, bitterly anti-New Deal, completely anti-Roose-velt. That was the policy followed in several states last November, for instance in Pennsylvania and Michigan which elected Governors who were complete reactionaries. The other course is to take a somewhat progressive attitude, roughly that of Theodore Roosevelt, accept a number of the Roosevelt reforms as desirable and concentrate on improving them and eliminating the kinks. That was the attitude of Mr. Ratner, the Republican candidate for Governor of Kansas, and to a considerable extent it was the way in which Mr. Stassen was elected Governor of Minnescta. Both methods have been successful. ” ” 2 HE two leading candidates are Senator Robert Taft of Ohio and Mr. Dewey. Mr. Taft has taken the conservative path, He flirted with the Townsendites, but aside from that bit of demagoging, he stood like a rock on the conservative side, making a straight out challenge to the New Deal. Mr. Dewey, it has been expected, would take the other course, appealing on the basis of a fresh, youthful viewpoint, to liberal-minded voters who want many of the Roosevelt reforms, but don’t like the crackpot stuff and the bullyragging tactics that has accompanied them. In short, there are some Republicans who think the country is hellbent for conservatism and they want to ride in on it as they did with Mr. Harding in 1920. There are other Republicans who believe times have changed and that the Republicans would do well to bring themselves up to date as the British Conservatives did after they came out of the doghouse following the Lloyd George reform period. Mr. Taft personifies the first approach. Mr, Dewey has been expected to personify the second. » 2 » OW, however, it is easily possible that Mr. Dewey as well as Mr. Taft will appear under the auspices of the party conservatives. He may want to ride in the middle of the road and to prevent the issue from becoming clear cut in this respect. But that will be extremely difficult for him if the program now in mind among New York conservative Republicans is carried into effect. These conservatives are determined to eliminate Kenneth F. Simpson, New York Republican National Committeeman and New York County Chairman. He is the man who made the deal witn the American Labor Party and, growing out of that, got Mr. LaGuardia |
torney, sent Bruce Barton to Congress and tipped the balance to the Republicans in the Legislature.
Mr. Hoover who are extremely powerful in this situation. Mr. Dewey himself was appointed to the U. S. District Attorney's office under Mr. Hoover and some associates of the Hoover Administration are in close contact with Mr. Dewey now. Eventually Mr. Dewey will have to make his position known because the time is likely to come when Mr. Simpson will press the issue and demand a show- | down. (Mr. Pegler is bn a hrief vacation)
Business
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THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES Didn’t Know It Was Loaded !—By Talburt
NOW WRAT Do You BOYS
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The Hoosier Forum
I wholly disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.—Voliaire.
PROTESTS RECENT RULING ON WPA By Sagie Stewart, Brazil I wish to register a loud and long protest against the recent WPA ruling. How men elected as the representatives of a free people could show such a lack of political foresight as to put themselves on record for such an outrageously unfair, unAmerican and undemocratic resclution is almost unbelievable. Why deprived of the ordinary political rights of the citizen? All of us know that the majority of the men and women at | the head of WPA are good citizens | and would not even try to coerce voters.
Germany Abandons Borrowing for Plan to Spur Private Investment.
Recently Congress passed a Government Reorganiza- | tion Bill, yet the final disposition of that issue—which a | year ago prompted the sending of hundreds of thousands of telegrams to Washington—caused scarcely a ripple. A special joint committee of Congress, after months of investigating the Tennessee Valley Authority, submits its report. The findings of a majority of the committee give general and specific approval to the conduct of that great experiment in the development of flood control, navigation, fertilizer and electric power. But the newspapers and the public show slight interest. It no longer seems of paramount importance whether A. E. Morgan or Harcourt A. Morgan was right. It is sufficient that, in the language of the majority report, the TVA | is “‘a settled and established institution in the valley.” And, | since the TVA and the private utilities have reached a basis of agreement on the electric power market in that area, the controversy, for the moment at least, seems but a dim echo of the past.
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» x ¥ FEDERAL COURT in Philadelphia turns in an unprecedented verdict of $237,310 damages against the C. I. 0. Hosiery Workers’ Union—damages to machinery, equipment and merchandise, incurred during a sitdown strike. But the public reaction seems to be: “Oh, yes— sitdown strikes. They were the plague of the class warfare of 1937. But the courts have branded the sitdown | illegal, and the labor unions wisely have abandoned that | self-defeating technique. When we get time we may want | to look further into this application of the Sherman AntiTrust Law to labor union activities. But right now we're worried about how far Hitler and Mussolini will go in provoking Chamberlain and Daladier.” The United Mine Workers and the coal mine operators | are deadlocked in negotiations for a new contract. Three hundred thousand union miners remain away from work. It is truly a situation which can lead to trouble with a cap- | ital “T." But at the moment we are morbidly fascinated | by the thumbs-to-noses across the sea—nervously awaiting | the fateful hour when the guns boom, men march, and another generation goes to spill its blood in the mud of Europe. | Employer-employee differences become fewer and farther between. Congress takes steps to check excessive! Government spending and to remold the tax system. They | are developments which normally would stimulate business | recovery. But the stock market goes down, down, down, as the good news at home is more than offset by bad news from abroad. Is history repeating? The new freedom of Woodrow Wilson's first Administration marked a period of great social, economic and financial reforms—attended by many and bitter controversies. But all that was forgotten, oh so quickly, when we became
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thought then it was not our war, and that we could keep out. We are sure what Europe is now brewing is not our
war. And we hope we can keep out. But we don’t know. We don't know!
LET'S DO OUR SHARE
President Roosevelt has urged the states to halt their | tariff wars. Indiana should be and willing to do its i: a ¥ - : b : 2 4
| structure. ! financial plight of Germany. Because of Germany’s|
| come exhausted.
| to. After all. the government is in complete posses- | sion of the central banks and completely dominates
| leave them to private industry and to do Government
| hundreds of babies in
EW YORK, April 5—One of the mysteries of the | situation in Europe is the disturbed economic And nothing is more mysterious than the very serious economic embarrassments, observers have! been continually speculating on how long the present | regime can last. Many economists have insisted that the situation is a novel one and that it cannot be! judged or tested by the ordinary, normal criteria of] economics. Nevertheless, in spite of all this, at intervals signs| appear which reveal that at least some of the devices by which the state is kept floating financially do be-
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For instance, recently it was announced that Germany had invented a new kind of currency. The! finance ministry will henceforth use script to pay all! government bills save salaries and wages, this seript to be accepted by the government in payment of taxes. | This is so drastic, so extreme, indeed so desperate
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a device, that one asks at once why it was resorted
the banking system. Tt can force the acceptance by the banks of government paper almost without limit.
A Return te Orthodoxy
It has, doubtless, practically exhausted the resources of direct borrowing out of the cash reserves of the people. But the availability of bank credit to the government is still open on a large scale. Why, then, | does Dr. Funk, the successor to Dr. Schacht, announce | that direct borrowing and the use of central bank credit will be abandoned and that henceforth all financing will be done exclusively by the issuance of tax certificates—certificates against future taxes? Dr. Funk supplies the reason. Germany, in spite of the absolute dictatorial powers of the Fuehrer, has | to recognize that somehow the capital marksts for pri- | vate industry have been paralyzed. After all, Germany is still doing business through private enterprisers. And these private enterprisers in both the consumptive industries and the investment industries have to have capital. But they cannot get it or they do not seek it. ; Thus an essential function of the economic system is paralyzed—private investment. Therefore, the only thing Hitler's advisers can think of doing is to abandon the capital markets for Government financing, to
financing through the short-term process by drawing on the taxes of the next three years. Thus economic Jaw can assert itself and assert itself in the most orthodox fashion.
A Woman's Viewpoint
By Mrs. Walter Ferguson
A~% abandoned baby always makes the front page. And is it any wonder? No news is more shocking than that which tells the story of an unhappy or evil mother creeping furtively through the streets in search of a cranny where she can hide her newly born, unwanted child.
Front page news indeed! And thousands of eager readers pore over the paragraphs, puzzled, conjecturing, exclaiming, wondering what manner of woman the mother could be and what set of circumstances forced ner to such an unnatural deed. _ In the meanwhile, the baby is rushed to the hospital. Every device of medical science and skill comes to its aid. Daily bulletins of its condition are issued. dg we follow them. The child in danger. as a hting chance. It is improvme will live! us e public sighs with relief—and promptly forgets the whole thing. Yet, even though it ic Nr — into the limbo of the unnoticed, the child itself may come out of the drama with a new set of parents and the excellent chance for living a useful life. These human interest stories are very good for us, I think, for they call loud attention to the fact that the average being reacts nobly to specific calls upon his charity. The truth is that most of us are ready to go to extraordinary lengths to help others. Our instincts are kind even though our emotions are of the runaway sort. Only when we are faced with great groups of unfortunates do we seem heartless. One baby in danger moves us powerfully, whereas peril leave us cold, sipping our bridge hands, or engrossed in our
tea, dealing our
money-making sche .
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| duty
The G. O. P. moguls from the very | beginning of Federal relief projects opposed them bitterly. The WPA,| because of the number employed in this group was their especial | point of attack. They saw in this a powerful weapon against the greed | and arrogance of the preferred in-| terests and special privileges which | they so long possessed. They tried | but failed to destroy it and now are | trying to destroy its effectiveness by | slandering the men who are at the | heads of the various projects.
"> # = AMERICANS URGED TO EMULATE FOREFATHERS
By Edward C. Ray Our country is suffering today| and its perpetuity threatened by unholy and corrupting influence. The cries of the unfortunate and poor are asking relief, many who see and know the course refrain irom
giving expression to thoughts and feelings which should fill the breast and actuate every intelligent person now living in the land consecrated to freedom by the blood of true patriots. Our country is full of spies looking for a place by which they may start a war. Our country has prospered beyond the expectations of the most sanguine. But in prosperity we have as a people grown selfish. Dissensions have crept in and today we are standing upon the brink of a precipice which may prove fatal to our liberties if we persist in that course. Read the lessons given by the fathers of our country, honor, emulate the sincerity, patriotism and many virtues of their lives. Then will we rise above the stream of corruption that is sweeping over our land. Then and not until then can we sing with the spirit and understanding that soul inspiring song, My Country Tis of Thee, Sweet Land of Liberty. Grand and glorious would be the present time were there honesty in|
ordinary American |
{tentially
(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.)
Americanism, enemies of all progress and decent standards of work or relief to the unemployed. As long as we operate under the present economic system, the WPA and relief are absolutely essential, but they are a palliative which reactionaries assent to on a subsistence level in hopes of averting a social revolution. Thomas Mann well emphasized the danger of taking democracy for granted. A new social order which |
Instead of strife and bloodshed
(there would be fraternal feeling and should the WPA worker be Social gatherings in all sections of
{the land instead of increasing alarm
our country.
” » » URGES NEW CONCEPT OF DEMOCRACY By Mrs. H. F. W. I have just finished reading “The Coming Victory of Democracy” by Thomas Mann and I wish all Americans could read it. ‘It would help elevate the American concept of democracy to a high plane.
I would like to quote a little from this great lecture or essay: “The
greatest power, the essential fasci- |
nation of the ideas and tendencies which threaten democracy today and render it problematical is their charm of novelty. Upon this Fascists place their emphasis. And what seems to me necessary is that democracy should answer this Fascist strategy with a rediscovery of itself. It should put aside the habit of taking itself for granted to renew and rejuvenate itself by again becoming
‘aware of itself.”
We have taken democracy too much for granted. We have achieved political democracy but certainly not economic or as Mann calls it social democracy. The many unemployed and on relief are poreceptive © to fascism, especially when their plight becomes prolonged or tends to permanency. The worst enemies of democracy in America today are the reactionaries seeking to preserve their own selfish privileges under the guise of
REFLECTION
By KEN HUGHES Stars point heaven with flame As we stand in reflected light. You are the glorified name— Love remembered bright!
DAILY THOUGHT
Wisdom is before him that hath understanding, but the eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth. —Proverbs 12:24.
i HE wise man endeavors to shine
in himseif; the fool to outshine
all the departments of human life. others.—Addison.
Songs of peace would be heard, in{spiring and exalting to human souls (attracting them away from earthly cares to revel in spiritual joys in
will guarantee economic freedom, the ,/right to a decent standard of living for all, would in my estimation do more to preserve democracy than all .ithe adulation of freedom of press, speech, assembly. religion and culture, although this freedom is vitally necessary for its preservation. » o 8 FAVORS FINGER-PRINTING IN WAR DEPARTMENT By W. T. The War Department is now reported finger-printing all its employees. Already 30,000 of the 70,000 civilian employees of the de-
partment have recorded their prints, and all but temporary unskilled help will soon be included. There have been in the past many instances where employees of the War and Navy Departments turned out to be not only aliens, but even men definitely unfriendly to the Government they were “serving.” The business of finger-printing them will not weed out all undesirables, but it ought to get some, and should help in locating others in the future. Even civilian workers about arsenals, the Canal Zone, air bases, 'and coast fortifications, to say noth-
Gen. Johnson Says—
Leon Henderson, Rumored as Nex¥ Head of SEC, Not a Dangerous ‘Radical,’ Exchanges Are Assured.
ASHINGTON, April 5.—It is pretty generally believed that the new head of the SEC, to ree place Mr. W. O. Douglas, now gone aloft to the Sue preme Court, will be Mr. Leon Henderson. Leon has been razzed in this column by being called Leon the Hen, in the President's favorite pastime of nicknaming his associates, like Tommy the Cork and Henry the Morgue, by using parts of their real names to em= phasize their funny failings.
The head of the SEC is the tsar of Wall Street. Many informed observers believe that upon its polie cies depend the restoration of an investment market and that, upon that restoration, depends the return of prosperity. Mr. Henderson may thus become a very important official. » ” ” EON served in my division of the general staff dure * ing the World War—the Division of Purchase,
Storage and Traffic. I don’t remember much about that, but when he again popped up as a critic of some NRA policies, I was interested. There was a vacancy in the office of chief of research and planning. There
‘were too many purely theoretical economists around there. Mr. Henderson didn’t seem to me to be an economist at all, but a good figure man. Also, on tha practical points he was advocating, I thought he was right. Moreover, since he was standing up and fighting, I thought he was no “yes” man. So I surprised him by offering him the job. I have had many differences with Mr, Henderson and could fill this space with sizzlers. Stories about his prophesying books and depressions are mostly bunk. But criticism is not the purpose of this piece. Some of my business friends are in a sort of St. Vitus dance with jitters over reports that Mr. Henderson is a vicious business-baiting radical and that, as head of the SEC, he will complete the ruin of the ex= changes. I want to give them such assurances as are possible. It is true that, like many of these New Deal man= eaters, he is less of a radical than a lad looking for a career with all his hopes in the New Deal basket. If he is told by the steering committee to eat broiled broker for breakfast, he will make it a meal. But hs won't do that on his own motion.
” » » PUT him in charge of a great many hot New Dea} negotiations with several industries. I think that business leaders who recall those days will remember that he was fair, anxious to be helpful, and that he filtered fast on practical problems. He knows little about business and considerably less than that about
the stock exchange, but he can learn quickly. I wouldn’t go to sleep with my finger in his mouth —even on what appear to be merely cold statistics. He can make figures talk and sometimes tell fairy, tales. But he likes to argue and is fair in argument. If he is proved wrong, he is prompt to admit it and that is distinctly something. If I were doing the picking, I can think of better men than Leon. But I could also think of many who might just as readily be picked who would be infinitely worse. On the whole, I think the exchanges can calm their fears, i
It Seems to Me
By Heywood Broun Fy
Maybe It Would Clear Things Up If Mr. Dies Took the Witness Stand.
EW YORK, April 5.—I have been reading recently of the tribulations of Martin Dies. It seems to me that he is sore at heart. And there are portions of his estate which are calculated to enlist the pity even of those who- have criticized him. It is said that certain ones have smeared him. This may be so. The fact still remains that in other quarters he has been buttered. Washington had his Valley Forge, and the Congressman from Texas must learn to accept the bitter with the sweet. Still, there is cne factor in his situation concerning which he has reason to complain. “The Mikado” has been with us much of late, and so we are all ree minded of the unfortunate plight of the lord high executioner who was embarrassed by the fact that he could not very well execute himself. And so it is with Rep. Dies. As chief investigator he is under the handicap of being unable to submit himself to crossexamination at his own hands. But I think a way out could be found. Mr. Dies could ask to be relieved of his duties, only tempo=rarily you understand, and in this interval he might
ing of those working in the department at Washington, ought to be of unquestioned loyalty. Any government which permits any other con- | dition is not being liberal, but stupid.
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MAYBE THIS WOULD SOLVE TRAFFIC PROBLEM
By A. B. C. The crusade against traffic deaths is going forward this year in earn-| est, spurred by the splendid results achieved last year. To Scranton, Pa., goes the honor of the most ingenious plan thus far proposed in 1939. The idea is to embarrass reckless drivers by marking their cars, painting a yellow ring on the rear end of the offender’s car after the first offense, a red ring after the second, a blue one after the third, each to remain 30 days. The legal department, reports the International Association of Police Chiefs, is studying the proposal. The Constitution provides that “cruel or unusual punishments” may not be inflicted. This one is certainly unusual. But | lis it cruel? Possibly only a trial will tell.
to make every
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LET'S EXPLORE YOUR MIND
By DR. ALBERT EDWARD WIGGAM
Poes iTsTR GIS
WEAKEN A BR AE SKIP GRADES IN Shon. YOUR OPINION esis , |
and holes that jolt the money right out of your pocket. ” ” » AS COLLEGE students over the country see it, as announced in a recent survey, the trouble is mainly between the wife and the husband’s mother, This attitude is gathered from the numerous courses now being given in
3
NO. According to a legal adviser |is located. The only valuable I ever | the finder is the keeper until the [found was a bright new dime as I|¥ rightful owner is located. It is your
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pick a member of the House of his own faith and kidney to act as substitute. Then without fear or favor Martin could: step into the witness box, and answer some of the baseless rumors and charges which have been bruited about.
An Elastic Phrase
The public is curious to know, and I am sure he is anxious to answer. It has been said that the reluctance of the Dies committee to make anything mors than a perfunctory investigation into Fascist activities in this country lies in the fact that the chairman himself is sympathetic to Hitler's conception of Aryan superiority. Mr. Dies could answer that. And possibly the chairman might suggest some check upon his admirers who say that the committes discovered Communists in high places in the New Deal. : No such material stands upon the long record. T be sure, there were those who were stigmatized as “communistic,” but that loose phrase covers many sins and also many virtues. It is rather more wide than a barn door, and steeds of many colors can be driven through the entrance to such an all-embracing barn, Indeed, a Philadelphia speaker recently declared that Monsignor John A. Ryan and Mrs, Roosevelt were “The reddest of the Reds.” Martin Dies should be glad to submit to questions so that the people of the United States can learn from him whether in his eyes a “Communist” is a member or close follower of that party or merely a New Deal Democrat whose views are not in accord with those of John Nance Garner, the distinguished leader from whom Martin Dies accepts all definitions as to what constitutes Americanism.
‘Watching Your Health
By Dr. Morris Fishbein
ATEST among the developments of research in the chemistry of drugs is the new product called sule ine tis new drug is introduced into medical science nowadays, it is customary first to study ita chemistry and then to test its usefulness on " Once the limitations of the drug as to its toxicity are established, physicians are given opportunity to test the preparation on patients in hospitals, where the
safety of the patients can be maintained and where
the reactions can be carefully measured. Under the new Food and Drug Law a new remedy
cannot be released for general use until such tests have been made. Early in March the Food and Drugs
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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 5, 1939 ,
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