Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 14 April 1939 — Page 20

PAGE 20 The Indianapolis Times (A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

ROY W. HOWARD RALPH BURKHOLDER:- MARK FERREE President Edit Business Manager

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FRIDAY, APRIL 14, 1939

HOPKINS UNLEARNS—BUT NOT THE C. OF C. HARRY HOPKINS once wrote a book titled “Spending to Save.” That was in the days when Harry thought there was only one road to recovery, when he thought that if the Government would only borrow enough and spend enough and do that fast enough and long enough, prosperity would automatically shed its blessings over all mankind. But since becoming Secretary of Commerce, Harry apparently has been trying to find out why his theory didn’t work. He has found the gears thrown out of mesh by unwise taxes, the throttle closed by fear, the sparkplugs burned with distrust. ~ How much Harry has unlearned about the business system is indicated by his latest appointment—that of Edward J. Noble to serve as his dollar-a-year executive assistant for the time being and to become Undersecretary of Commerce if Congress will create such a job. There was a time when spender Hopkins appeared to believe that anyone who ever ‘‘met a payroll” was necessarily a bigot. But Mr. Noble qualifies as a payroll-meeter on a considerable scale, having built a one-room candy kitchen into a multimillion dollar confectionery business before he became chairman of the new Civil Aeronautics Authority. 2 = 2 » n HE key to recovery, said Mr. Noble in accepting his job, is to build up business volume. And if that volume rises sufficiently, the tax rates may then be lowered without disturbing the Government's revenue. The first essential, he said, is to give business confidence that the Government wants to co-operate. “I am sure,” he added, “that Harry Hopkins is just as anxious as I am, or any other businessman, to do everything possible to attain that end.” We are pleased to record this latest chapter in the education of Harry Hopkins. And we wish we could report that all those with whom Harry is trying to co-operate had also profited from past mistakes. Reading that Mr. Hopkins is to address the convention of the United States Chamber of Commerce, we thought for a moment that we could so report. But as we scanned the list of the other speakers we realized that it was not to be. They are the same old names that year after year have featured the C. of C.’s annual grouch session, Senator Burke of Nebraska, for instance, will discuss the Wagner Labor Act. Senator Burke spoke at the convention last year—and a hell-roaring speech it was, too, with much heat but little light. Granted that the C. of C. program committee doesn’t want a change in pace, it does seem that, for the sake of variety, it might have billed some other loud-talker, equally conversant with the views of labor—Tom Girdler, for instance.

“BRAGGING TIME IS OVER...” PRONOUNCEMENTS of vital importance to Europe were made in London and Paris yesterday. In a pact almost identical with the one entered into with Poland on March 31, Great Britain and France pledged Greece and Rumania “all the support in their power” in the event of aggression. Hitler and Mussolini, it would now seem, will have to apply the brakes a bit unless they are looking for a fight. The ring about them is taking form. Linked against their cold-blooded acts of aggression are France, Britain, Poland, Rumania, Greece and probably Turkey. On the sidelines stands the Soviet Union, but if she won’t help the democracies, surely the least to be expected is that .she will not side with the Nazi-Fascists. Likewise the positions of Jugoslavia and Bulgaria continue somewhat vague. Be that as it may, it is daily becoming more obvious that Britain and France have ceased their retreat. To paraphrase Newboldt, it would now seem that “bragging time is over and fighting time has come.” It begins to look as if Der Fuehrer and II Duce will not cut very many more slices of Europe, without a war.

ONE FOR THE INDIANS

HE 5000 spectators who attended yesterday's opening game at Perry Stadium were rewarded for their fortitude by seeing the Indians hang up a 5-to-2 victory over Kansas City. It was a satisfying victory, for it came in spite of the fact that a number of the Indianapolis players were making their first appearance in American Association baseball. A few weeks from now, after the nervousness and tenseness of the opening days wear off, baseball followers will be in a much better position to appraise the prospects of the team. This much we know: If the team shows half as much fighting spirit as Manager Schalk displayed yesterday in protesting a decision at third base, the Indians are going to be tough competition for some highly touted favorites.

A FAIR SWAP FOR OUR COTTON OF all the numerous and sometimes fantastic plans dreamed up out of pressing necessity to rid ourselves of at least a part of the 11,000,000 bales of cotton now held under Government loan, the best to date seems to us to be the one announced by Senator Byrnes of South Carolina. With what he says is the approval of the State and Agriculture Departments, he proposes to barter cotton and wheat to Great Britain, Holland and Belgium for rubber and tin, Such a swap would bring to us materials we do not produce, basic staples important to our industry at all times, but especially vital in times of war; strategic materials which we would have difficulty getting if that threatened conflict breaks out in Europe. The swap, we read, is to be based on a treaty which would be subject to Senate ratification. This would give to Congress and to the President a check and double-check on an important experimental venture into international barter, Better, on its face, than the President’s export subsidy for cotton which we opposed in these columns, we be-

In Washington By Raymond Clapper

Neutrality Act Intended to Bar lll-Considered Action Which Might Involve Us in War Accidentally.

ASHINGTON, April 14—It has become the fashion to deride all neutrality legislation. Mr. Roosevelt probably would recommend repeal of the existing legislation if there was not so much chance of arousing a backfire from the country. The State Department would like to get rid of it. But direct proposals to that effect seemed inex pedient, so Senator Key Pittman, Senate Foreign Res lations Committee chairman, has proposed a compro= mise which appears to be an improvement over the existing law while retaining many of its desirable features. If for no other reason, neutrality legislation could well stand on the books because if war broke out it would give Congress an opportunity to reopen the situation and judge then what should be done. Nothing in it interferes with our defending ourselves against attack. The legislation only relates to what we shall do if other countries begin fighting, particularly with the object of preventing us from becoming accidentally involved. ” ” » . HE present Neutrality Act provides principally that ig event of war between other countries, the following are automatically forbidden: Shipment to belligerents of arms, ammunition and implements of war; financial transactions in bonds or other obligations of belligerents; carrying of arms to belligerents by American vessels; travel by Americans on vessels of belligerents; arming of American merchantmen engaged in trade with belligerents, Further, the President may forbid foreign submarines or armed merchant vessels to come into Amer=ican ports, He may forbid the use of our ports as supply bases for belligerent ships. In addition, the act contains the cash-and-carry provision which permits the President to proclaim a list of commodities, raw materials and the like—not including actual war implements and ammunition which are covered by the automatic embargo. On such supplementary materials he could place restric= tions forbidding them to be shipped to belligerents in American vessels and requiring that title to the goods be transferred out of American hands before shipment. 2 2 2 HAT provision expires May 1. If no amendments are passed wjthin the next two weeks, the cash-and-carry provision will disappear and the President will have no power to place such restrictions upon supplementary goods. Senator Pittman regards the flat arms embargo as impractical, certain to be broken down by pressure from manufacturers desiring to sell arms abroad, and furthermore as a meaningless distinction. Why should airplanes be embargoed and copper sold? Senator Pittman would treat everything alike on the. ground that in wartime almost any commodity is a munition of war. And he would save the cash-and-carry provision, but make: it mandatory instead of optional as now. Thus in event of war the United States would permit cash-and-carry sale of both munitions and supplementary materials and would retain restrictions against Americans traveling on belligerent ships as well as the other protective provisions intended to keep Americans from needlessly rattling around in the line of fire.

(Mr. Pegler is on vacation.)

Business

By John T. Flynn

The Issue Is, Shall Roosevelt Have Power to Declare Economic War?

EW YORK, April 14—I think it is a fairly obvious fact that if war breaks out in Europe the American people want to keep out of it. But there are groups which do not entirely indorse this idea. There are men who believe that the American people ought to get into the quarrel-—mot any quarrel, of course, but one involving issues which we are supposed to care about, These groups are, generally speaking, of two sorts. One group believes we ought to do everything short of war to help certain nations now involved in these quarrels. There is another group which would have us tie up definitely to go to the aid of France and Britain in the event they are attacked by Germany and Italy, on the ground that the democracies should stand together. So this controversy gets around to a disagreement between two schools—one which believes that we should resolutely keep away from the European quarrel and the other which believes we should get in either by moral and economic support or by military aid.

Issue Definitely Drawn

The issue is drawn now—and it is drawn definitely between the advocates of staying out and the advocates of getting in. They may not want to get all the way in, but they want to get in far enough to enable them to help by every means short of war their favorite side. Unfortunately, if the advocates of getting in win, there will be no criterion for deciding when we shall get in, under what circumstances and on what side. That is all to be left to the President. In other words, the American people, who will have to fight the war and pay for it, are now asked to so order things that the President may actually put us in on one side in event of war. He may be the judge of what side we shall help, when we shall help it and how far and when the moment arrives when we have gone beyond the point that is “short of war.” The Constitution lodges in Congress alone the power to declare war when military action is the means of war. Should anyone else than the Congress have the power to declare economic war—to litigate an issue of war between two warring countries, decide who is the aggressor and to put the economic and financial resources of the nation on the side of the aggressor's opponent? The President's plan for this jaailavion is to put all that terrible power in his ands.

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

OME day when they aren't busy, I hope St. Paul, the two Johns, Calvin and Knox, and the Wesley brothers will be leaning over Heaven's ramparts, so their eyes may fall upon a sight which is common these days upon the earth—women in aprons working for the Lord. I name these particular men because they lived during periods when no religious importance was ate tached to our sex. They, and others like them, considered women temptations of the flesh to the sainted sex. When we were good, we obeyed the commands of God as they were interpreted and preached to us by men, hoping always for the forgiveness of our original sins and a slender reward for our virtues, if any. In some ways, the housewifely group still feels about the same. Certainly no other in the church does more or asks for less. The most popular method of raising money is to turn domestic talents to the Glory of God. For that reason, the church kitchen becomes sometimes a financial prop to every denomination. The last big eating function I attended was as-

tonishing in several ways and proved once more that mothers put no money value upon their time. The occasion was a play review luncheon served in the basement auditorium of a large church, whose mort gage is almost as big as its flour space. Superdelicious food was dished up to 500 guests, with the review following, and all for the magnificent sum of 50 cents. Such functions are a continuous part of every parish program. When extra money is needed, the women get out their aprons and begin cooking. And each donates her service and her talents

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES g Back to Our Own Knitting? By Talburt

“ - SBR : 5 7

How About Gettin

FRIDAY, APRIL 14, 1939

The Hoosier Forum

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

DEPLORES EXCITEMENT OVER ALBANIA By Warren A. Benedict Jr.

Albania’s fall is deplorable. But does it warrant the banner headlines, market crashes and jitters that we have witnessed in the last few days? Haven't we some important problems right here at home? According to statistics in the current World Almanac, our own state is three times the size of Albania in both area and population; has 40 times the miles of paved highways, and in 1937 spent more for highways alone than the combined exports, imports and budget of Albania amounted to for the same year. Could you logically expect such a poor, small country to maintain its independence with a powerful and ruthless neighbor close by? To me it seems of more importance that we have in this country millions out of work; a Congress supposed to be in session and doing something to get us out of our mess, and farm and factory surpluses because we can’t get our economic machine in order. What is happening in Europe is beyond our power to help. What's happening here isn't. Let's show a little less interest in other nations’ affairs and a little more attention to our own business.

” ” » INSISTS CAPITALISM MUST BE REPLACED By R. Sprunger

In reply to Voice in the Crowd, if man is selfish, lazy or cussed, the environment of capitalism from the cradle up to get something for nothing in the form of interests and profits and live off the labor of others and do your neighbor before he does you, what else can you expect him to be? I see no reason why capitalism “must” remain. Labor is prior to and superior to capital for the simple reason that labor power applied to natural resources produces all wealth. You say political interference with trade promotes trouble. I notice that politicians “jump through the hoop” when “Big Biz” says 80 because it furnishes campaign funds and expects special privileges. I did not say world trade causes war but that the capitalists’ desire for supremacy in trade does. In plain words, the capitalists’ covetous desire and jealousy in one nation for the wealth and trade of an-

(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.)

other leads to international clashes and war, As sure as stages of savagery, barbarism and serfdom have run their coursg¢ and gone, so shall it be with capitalism. There is only one solution to chaos brought about by capitalism and that is pure social and industrial democracy to produce for use and service instead of profit and give each man full value for his labor. Until that time there is no assurance of security and peace, EJ ” o URGES CENSORSHIP ON WAR RUMORS By Edward F. Maddox . Roy W. Howard reports Lord Beaverbrook as stating: “There isn't going to be a European war just now.” Then why keep the people of

THE LESSON SUPREME By F. F. MACDONALD

The Master taught love unselfish and strong, Love that can rise above insult and wrong, Love that can serve with no thought of gain, Love that can know little else save pain, Love that when wronged, still proves kind, Love that all seek, but few mortals find. He taught love ideal, howsoever little known, And how futile remorse when Love's spirit has flown The lesson supreme we may learn from the cross; Love is life's gold . . . all else is but dross!

DAILY THOUGHT

And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.—Luke 2:52.

GRACEFUL and honorable old age is the childhood of immortality —Pindar.

the United States in a continual ferment of nervousness and fear? There is no doubt that the big war scare headlines have caused undue fear and excitement, so it is about time for a self-imposed censorship by the press to tone down its war propaganda and change to a less dramatic attitude in its news of foreign affairs.

s Bn THINGS ARE HAPPENING OVER HERE, TOO By Observer The raucus screaming and the steady beat of drums from Europe drowns out the small voices telling that momentous events are happening in this, country, too.

We should not lose sight of our own affairs behind the European smoke-screen, Looking back a few days, these would have been front-page news at any other time: The pale ghost of a Government reorganization bill has at last been passed. The TVA has been given a clean bill of health by Congressional investigators. An award of damages against a sit-down-striking union makes certain a Supreme Court appeal on which the whole future of unionism may depend. . The Supreme Court reversed its 120-year course in regard to mutual taxation of Federal and state salaries. If Europe would only be quiet, so we could attend to our own business! 2 ” ”

FAVORS MIDWESTERNER FOR PRESIDENT

By John Elder The Government is the mechanism. The forces of life make it go. There is a fitness of things that brings good to the most. That is the object of politics. The plains of Texas and the marble of Vermont combine with the tropical splendor of Florida and the salmon of Oregon to make life in America. The United States is strong because of its diversity. Upon the Supreme Court today sit men of the Bast. The future will see a majority of the House from the North. The South will still have the lead in the Senate. After 1940 there should be a man from between the Alleghenies and the

Rockies in the White House.

3 0 NORE WOMEN THAN MEN DO SHOPLIFTING BECAUSE

THEY ARE MORE TEMPTED THAN MEN BY JEWELRY, PARTLY THIS. There are a

thousand gewgaws and accessories that tempt the very hearts

CLOTHES FETC? YOUR OPINION me

and souls of women that men not only care nothing about but can’t|Some men from one of the New York

understand why women care for|® them. However, another strong the Daughters of Eve

LET'S EXPLORE YOUR MIND

By DR. ALBERT EDWARD WIGGAM

MERE WORDS OFTEN LEAD

Bo NATIONS INTO 2 YES OR NO mt WAR;

[IF You MOULD DECIDE TO SAPPEAR ey NEVE ND, INK 20 CouLD _ DOITP YOUR QANION —

COA RON IOBO JOM

bustles and balloon sleeves they could hardly hide a grand piano but one was shoplifted some time ago by

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lead their people into war by such words as “national destiny,” “national grandeur,” “our ancient rights,” “race superiority,” etc. You have to condense the national wrath into some word or phrase so it can be hurled at something or other in one great big wad. The main thing that got us into the mess with the Philippine Islands was the phrase, “manifest destiny.” I saw an audience of 10,000 rise and cheer that phrase for 10 minutes back in 1899 when Senator Beveridge of Indiana shouted it. Another phrase that brought them to their feet was “The American Ocean—hitherto known as the Pacific” My that sounded grand—but in all soberness who cares what we call the, Pacific Ocean?

8S 8» WELL, the chances are four to 3 one that you couldn't make a go of it. This is brought out from the years of experience of Daniel M. Eisenberg, founder of the SkipTracer Co. of New York, which finds lost persons all over the world. He seems to make good because his successes are amazing. He locates most of the persons who try to lose themselves from the world “before they are lost.” I'd been thinking of disappearing—from my creditors—but after reading his book I find every

Gen. Johnson Says— Roosevelt's Foreign Policy a}

Last Has Been Made Clear, but It / Seems Like a Desperate Gamble.

ICHMOND, Va., April 14—Months ago the Presi dent was going to “quarantine” the aggressor nations. That didn’t go over so well and for a time seemed to be forgotten. Then he began to talk about measures more than mere words but less than war, That seemed to mean economic but not military war, That didn’t click, The next glimpse at possible policy was more obscure. Did ‘some boob” mistakenly think he heard in a confidential White House conference that “our frontier is on the Rhine?” or did Mr. Roosevelt never say it? It doesn’t make much difference. It is clear now what the President has been planning. The Warm Springs farewell—“If we don't have a war (hefore Thanksgiving) "—has been interpreted by Mr. Eugene Meyers’ Washington Post to be a warning to this country and the world that the President's policy is forceful intervention, if necessary, on the side of Eng land and France and against the gangster nations, This interpretation the President has specifically in dorsed as “very good, very clear and very honest.” ” » ”

OU may or may not agree with Mr. Roosevelt in this pronouncement for posterity. You may not agree, but you must admit that at least it put an end to the long guessing contest or the game of missing words. It is frank and fearless—‘verv clear, very honest,” if not “very good.” It says right off the reel that, if war starts in Europe, the President, proposes to put us in it—not merely on the business front but on the bloody front. There are many who believe that this is a bluff. You can’t bluff in international relations in these days unless you are ready, able and willing to make good your bluff. If this bluff works and Hit and Muss back down, Mr. Roosevelt will gain great kudos, If it doesn’t work, we have bought a war. That is some gamble. But Mr. Roosevelt is a great gambler. He has shot craps with destiny ever since 1933—20 billion dollars worth of debt and experimentation for the stake of recovery and prosperity—and lost every time! : This is the greatest gamble of all—20, 40, 60, God knows how many more billions—the very heart of all that has been won here in wealth and welfare by 150 years of toil and sacrifice—a possible mountain rance of human wreckage so great that no one can measure it. ® 2» I puts a columnist on a tougher spot than Mr. Ickes could in his most vengeful dreams. When the responsible head of the nation begins a gambling game with a bunch of gangsters with guns on both sides of the table, what does a man who doesn't believe it is time either to gamble or to bluff going to do? Should he support the gesture on the long chance of its working? Or should he tip off the hand by pointing out there is nothing in it? Forcible intervention is war—and it is nothing less. Mr. Roosevelt can’t take this country into war unless it wants to go. No man can take a democracy into war unless it is excited almost to the point of a frenzy to attack. We are very far from that, Once the die is cast—once this country is engaged in modern war, no citizen, whether soldier or scrib= bler, has any choice—he must support the President's words and actions as though they were his own. But, until that time of dictatorship to the uttermost, there ’ is no such duty on any man,

It Seems to Me By Heywood Broun

He Has a Suspicion Garnerites Are Behind Comments of Son Elliott.

EW YORK, April 14.—Recently the opinion was stated in this column that no father had any right to expect a son to share any or all of his own beliefs, And that would include even those things which the parent happens to hold most dear. At 21, or thereabouts, a young man comes of age, and it is not only his privilege hut his duty to follow his own intellect and his own conscience. As a small boy it may well have been that he wore the old gens tleman’s trousers conveniently cut down to measure. Quite possibly the lad resented that, for in many ine stances the fit was not too good. So when maturity comes along the voung member of the generation is on his own and done with hand-me-downs. And yet, granting all this, I think that the recent course of Elliott Roosevelt has been unseemly, In the beginning when he declared that Garner was sitting in the driver's seat as far as the 1940 nomination went, young Roosevelt had a technical out. He explained that he was not stating an editorial prefer ence but merely, in his capacity as radio repdrter, broadcasting a news fact. By now he has gone much further. He is quoted as saying that the President's suggestions about the South were “vague and distant,” that pump-priming was “abortive” and that tax bills “are defeating their purpose.” Now these statements are correct or not so good according to your own political and economic philosophy. But in any case, the youthful Ft. Worth commentator is now barging boldly into the field of dogmatic opinion and getting well off the shore of simple factual comment.

Pathfinder vs. Deerslayer

And, to some extent, my irritation at the manner of his performance is based on a surmise which may be wholly unfounded. It is my kelief that Elliott is not alone in the boat in which he has set sail. I am not even convinced that his hand is at the tiller. If that is so it isn’t quite cricket. Or, to put it nearer our own vernacular, it is something less than sportsmanship. When John Nance Garner goes ouf to mow down a savage deer in the Texas cattle country he respects the rules. But if Elliott has definitely abandoned the banner of the Pathfinder and enrolled under the leadership of the Deerslayer, then let him go the whole hog. IT will wait with interest for the broadcast in which he tells Texas that Franklin Roosevelt is a dangerous Red and that all patriots must go back to good gove ernment and Garner.

Watching Your Health

By Dr. Morris Fishbein

EES have been about with mankind a long, long time. The Bible tells how the brothers of Joseph took honey along with them to Egypt. No description of an ancient Roman feast falls to include honey ampng the delicacies that were en= joyed. Few people, however, stop to think why the taste of honey is so pleasant or exactly what place it occupies in the diet. The chief recommendation for honey, of course, is its sweetness. Modern refined sugar was not known to ancient man. The fundamental tastes are sweet, sour, salt and bitter. Human beings have always craved both salt and the taste of food that was sweet. Sweets satisfy the appetite more than other foods. Chief among the ingredients of honey is the sugar that it contains. The bee gets the sugar from the nectar of the plants, sipping in this way but a tiny amount of all the sugar that the plants provide. Plants produce tremendous amounts of sugar through the action of the sun’s rays on their tissues, The bee visits the plants and pumps the nectar into its own honey stomach. This is like the crop in other insects. When it gets back to the hive the bee regurgitates the nectar, and then the younger bees ripen it. This is accomplished first by reducing the water content which may constitute four-fifths of the honey as first delivered by the bee. Some of the bees fan dry air into the hive and other bees fan damp air out, and

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‘one leaves a thousand clues he Dever

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with the damp air goes the water. ; : ’ There are also. changes in the sugar brought about

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