Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 24 April 1939 — Page 10

The Indianapolis Times

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MONDAY, APRIL 24 1939

HITLER'S BOOMERANG F' Hitler's reply to President Roosevelt is to be based on the poll he is taking of his neighbors, he may as well skip it. It has been thoroughly discredited in advance. The caucus which Nazi diplomats have been conducting in order to document Hitler's speech before his dummy Reichstag next Friday posed two questions: “Do you ¢onsider yourself menaced by Germany?” “Did you ask President Roosevelt's intercession or know in advance of his plea . . .?” The answers, Hitler figured, would enable him to fling the President’s peace proposal right back in his face. He counted on telling the President that all of Germany's neighbors love and trust her, none of them need or desire the President to speak for them, and therefore the President should mind his own business. In short, it was to have Deen one of those devastating strokes which Metternich or Bismarck might have envied. But something has gone wrong. Amazingly enough —under the circumstances—some of powerful Germany’s little neighbors have taken their courage in hand and are refusing to play Hitler's game. Rumania, for example, is reported to have replied that she did not see “how anyone could feel secure in Europe at the present time.” ’ Switzerland, in effect, served notice that while she expects her neighbors to respect her neutrality, as they are pledged to do, “the confederation will defend with its army” her frontiers against any violation. The Netherlands’ reply was much the same. " & & 2 ® oS THERS, feeling the muzzle of Hitler's guns against their necks, answered, “No, we're not afraid.” But most of them added the equivalent of, “Why should we be? Haven't you formally undertaken not to attack us?” The corollary, of course, being that if Germany does attack, she will be both a skunk and a liar. So the Fuehrer finds himself in an uncomfortable position. To go ahead with his speech along these lines would brand him as stupid. Yet if he doesn’t he will make himself ridiculous. He has maneuvered himself into a trap of his own setting. Hitler, like so many German statesmen during the World War, is no diplomat. His principles and aims are those of a Machiavelli, but his tactics are those of a heavyweight wrestler. He is at his best when he takes a sudden unexpected leap upon some flyweight opponent and flattens him out by sheer bulk. That is precisely what happened to Jugoslavia over | the week-end. Hemmed in by Germany and Italy and too weak to put up a fight, she abandoned France, whose ally she had Deen since the World War, and joined’ up with the Rome-Berlin bloe to forestall possible dismemberment. To win, whether by war or by methods short of war, it now seems clear that the Anglo-French bloe will have to apply similar tactics. This is to say, Britain and France will have to oppose might with might.

AN UNFAIR DEMAND . VERYONE sympathizes with a family trying to buy a home and having trouble paying for it. Everyone agrees that home ownership fosters good citizenship and | should be encouraged. So applause came fiom every side | when Congtess ereated a Government corporation to yescue | distressed home buyers. But lenders seldom keep their popularity long. The Home Owners Loan Corp.'s terms are the most liberal terms | upon which home purchases have ever been financed. But | they aren’t liberal enough to suit many among the million | people who borrowed some three billion dollars. Some of these people have come to regard the HOLC ag a Shylock. There has been organized pressure on Congress to make | the terms still easier. The other day a delegation of some 300 borrowers from several states descended on Washington demanding among other things: Reduction of the interest rate on HOLC loans to 8 per cent (it's now 3 per cent) ; extension of the payment period from 13 years to 30; a two-year moratorium on principal payments where the home buyer pays interest and taxes. Most of the HOLC's borrowers ave keeping wp their payments, but many others are delinquent and there have Deen sone 150,000 foreclosures. The HOLC hag tried hard, | in our opinion, to be fair and to resort to foreclosure only in hopeless cases. The sad truth is that a great many people whom the HOLC attempted to help were trying to buy more expensive homes than they could afford. But it is said to be “disgraceful” that any borrower | should lose his home while the HOLG, itself, ix making a | profit. It is true that, so far, the HOLC shows a small profit. That is because, with both principal and interest on its bonds guaranteed by the Government—that is, the taxpayers—it borrowed its capital at a comparatively: low rate. But there is no certainty that the profit won't be wiped out even if the present terms ave continued, while a huge loss is inevitable if the terms are liberalized to meet the borrowers’ demands. The interest cut, alone, would cost hundreds of millions of dollars. The moratorium would invite borrowers not now delinquent to stop their principal payments for two years. Home buyers who are not HOLC borrowers would suffer through demoralization of the mortgage market on homes financed by private lenders. And, of courte, the HOLC's losses would have to be made good by the taxe payers, It is unfortunate that some HOLC borrowers should lose their homes. But it is not fair to demand that the Government sink all the people deeper into debt in order to save the homes of a comparative few,

THE WEATHER HAZARD

THE week-end turned out to be the nicest pair of days we've had since last summer. Today the headlines say that two persons are dead in Indianapolis ag the result of automobile accidents, that one is dead in another Indiana city and that several are injured. Summer weather unfortunately holds more hazards than sunburn. Automobile traffic is the biggest danger.

Drive carefully. You may help save a life. ‘ .

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In Washington

By Raymond Clapper :

©. O. P. Spekesmen Appear to Be Playing Dangerous Gare in Making An Issue Out of Our Foreign Peliey.

ASHINGTON, April 24. —In the very process of charging Roosevelt with drumming up war hysteria, Republicans themselves aré acting like jitterbugs. Roosevelt's public alarms over Hitler are outdone in shriliness by the alarms which Republicans aré sounding over Roosevelt. Senfitor Taft says the Administration is ballyhooing the foreign situation to divert attention from New Deal failures at home. Rep. Hamilton Fish, deploring Administration hysteria, indulges in some of his owh by calling Roosevelt a Wwarmohgeér who is “leading the American people to & rendezvous with war, death and bankruptcy” to cover u liane of the New Deal. These are sampies. Alt some Republican Rep 1H n Sart Se ey are ee Republican to Take a sue of it—or are at least trying it ou to see how i s. : ; It is fikely 1 g6 quite well. Tt plays demagogically on the fear of war, on the desire of the country to escape another war, and does it by imputihg the most sinister and despicable motives to the President. That's & popular combination. People dont want to get into a war, and if they can be ade to think that Roosevelt is scheming to pa oft a war so he can be re-elected for a third term, it will bring a lot of people to vote for the i & & UT it is a serious thing to make such a charge against a President of the United States. This is one of those charges that can’t be proved of disproved. It implies reprehensible character in the President, accuses him of a crime as bad as treason, and if true, renders him unfit to be President. To use such a grave charge as bait for votes is daring politics. And it might work—you can fool the people

for a while. oy If Roosevelt were playing short-term politics as the would be

Republicans are with this question ballfhooing isolation and pushing the Ludlow referens A he he would be hitting wore closely to the ular mood. Porat it’s dangerous to play this kind of question by ear, because far moods change quickly. In shaping foreign policy, & statesman must try to visualize what his country, 50 years hence, wil have wanted done. He can be out of line with opinion on the first reaction. What he wants is

vindicated when the nation makes its second guess,

after the thing is done. 2 & &

E have two primary concerns in the game of world power. One is the imperative protection of the Western Hemisphere. : The other is the interest which we have in the preservation of British seapower. It polices most of the world for us. Roosevelt thinks of what kind eof world it would be for us if British seapower were transferred into the hands of a German-Tralian= Japanese fleet. How would it be for the Japanese to control Singapore and to control the rubber and tin from the East Indies which are essential to our economy? I suspect the questions like that—rather than who is going to be elected in 1940—are in Roosevelt's mind as he tries to figure out how we can give breaks to the British and ch without having our own tails caught in the wringer.

(Mr. Pegler Is on vacation)

Business

| By John T. Flynn

The Question ls, Can World Accept | Dictators’ Pledges to Keep Peace? |

EW YORK, April 24.—One of the questions which

obtain from Hitler and Mussolini a promise of peace for 10 years fs—what will a promise from these statesmen mean? They have made promises before. And one of the nations which was the beneficiary of these promises in abundance was Austria.

The first promise was of the Teague of Nations | which guaranteed the independence of Austria. Ger- |

many and Taly were parties to that guarantee. Wn 1933, Traly joined with France in a joint declaration guaranteeing Austrian independence, and this promise was renewed at Stressa a few months later, On Feb. 12, 1038, Hert Sehuschnipgg and Chancellor Hitler entered into an agreement. Schuschnigg, une der pressure, made certain important concessions to the Reich. And Hitler, in a solemn compact signed by him, not only promised Austrian independence, but actually entered into vely fie te to ve-

engagemen frain from all interference in Austrian affairs either |

directly or indirectly. This was just a month before Hitler sent his troops into Austria and destioved her independence.

Mussolini and Austria

But what of Mussolini? On May 20, 1095 Nussoling in a speech in the Tralian Chamber said: “Traly Will never permit such a gross breach of the treaties as the union of Austitia and Germany.” Of course that was far away in 1825. And surely statesmen are not expected to keep in 1039 made in 1925. But long after that—after Chancellor Dollfuss had bedn murdered in his office by the Nazis=Mussolini declared again: “Austria's in dence is a principle which Traly has always « of special crisis Traly will defend with even stronger determination.”

So when Mir. Chambe lain accepted Ritlers assur | ance that there was no other territory in Burope that | Germany wished after obtaining the Sudetan area of |

Crechostovakia, he had plenty of history to teaeh hith not to accept that ye. One of the first important agieements Hitler made Was with Poland when he entered into a nonaggression pact for 10 years. Yet at this moment he is ate Sh ing to recover Dancig and the Corridor or part ° 4

Which was the very problem covered by that | : the he but have no voice in that

would a promise by |

pact. . mm view of this history, what Mir. Hitler mean to keep the peace for 10 years? It would mean that every nation, mistrusting the prom= ise, Would continwe ite furious armaments as long as its resources hold out.

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

A the year, four famouk women have theif autobiographies. And what yevealing things autobiographies are! Lets stand those four women up and take a look at their self portraits. Bleanor Roosevelt J vies

nocent. I am not acquainted with Ferbers life save one=her visit to she got the material for her novel “Cimarion” Recause in her last en “A Peculiar Treasure” she denies the source of such material, I am inclined to wonder whether she deals wholly in half-truths, Several of the incidents ia the first part of “Cis ? ue. They © my own mother

ular

| parents ean well

ed and which in times |

The Hoosier Forum

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

PROTESTS TEST FOR TECH GRADUATES By Mis. 0. B. W.

As a mother of one of the 1939 class of graduates at Tech, I want to voice my protest at what I believe is a gross injustiee to the class. They have received notice of a 3=hour test to be given (one hour on each of three subjects). If they fail the test they cannot graduate—regardiess of their having the necessary credits.

Now why should the largest group be selected. Why not Manual er Washington, both smaller schools; or Shortridge of the new Irvington school, both in districts where the afford another year? So many Tech pupils have had to work on NYA to help themselves in school. Parents have skimped to make this last year by a tremendous effort. I have paid senior fees, had pictures made, paid for class papers, have made graduation clothes, and now am faced with the possibility of another term in sehoel, or, I fear, not graduating them at all. Why was this not brought up at the first

has been asked about the proposed conference to | of the year or even the first of the

last semester? #8 ® @ U. 8. MUST SHARE BLAME FOR UNREST, IS VIEW By & W While Wwe await another Sarajevo to start the second World War, we might reflect that no small share or responsibility for the present eondi= tions in Euiope belongs to us. Aft=

jer the war of 1918 we turned to

normaley; that is, we reinstated the Republican Party to power with its

“sure eure” for depressions—highey and higher tariffs and exporis on . Twelve years of one-way

the cuff. world trade! We flew in the face of natural law in economies. Retaliation by the vietims, by more tariffs, embargoes, import que-= tas, eurreney devaluation, was only natural. ° now the cauldron presents us with the prospect of another World War. Why ask if the so-called aggiessors will pledge peace, until we offer to remove all the barriers that have created intolerable restrictions on

(world trade? That would be a sign (of strength, not weakness. Treat (all nations as good neighbors. Ree

ognize them as equals, not inferiors. Cultivate their good will, for peace on earth. America can demonstrate democracy in world affairs. * @ = CONTENDS PUBLIC NEGLECTED IN COAL DISPUTE By WW. Collective bargaining does not seem to include the public ia the present eoal dispute. Is it nok time that the public be yepresented in our industrial conflicts? We pay

form taxation. It is that sort

of thing that causes dictatorships. |

Every other type of dispute is

alied in court. Yet here we submit

| that is a violation of democratic

e pot has boiled, wll

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

to “right is whoever wins,” While we lose e¢onsigtently. We have enough unemployment without lockouts or strikes. These bargains should arrived at in publie, with the mal consideration given to the public in the deal. : Why not set up an Industrial court to hear the proposals as a matter of public record? Secret negotiations are a good deal like secret treaties. The public has a right to know who is back of the stage scenery in these industrial conflicts. 8 8 ® PENTES CAPITAL AND LABOR

LIKE “SIAMESE TWINS” By R. Sprenger Voice in the Crowds statement that Labor and Capital are Siamese twins is laughable. It is like saying a mother is a twin of her offspring. The workers of hand and brain with the aid of natural resources create both capital and wealth. So Labor is prior, superior and inde= pendent of Capital. Capitalism yobs men of full value for their ereative ability and gives it to those who do nothing to earn it just because of thege parasites’ ownership of the tools of production and distribution. When an individual of a group is allowed to control the economie life of another ag under Capitalism,

Justice, The human race has passed through the individual stages of savagery, barbarism and serfdom. But Capitalism is an obnoxious mix= | ture of all three and if V. I. ©.

PRAYER DOROTHY JEFFERS COYLE Dear Lord who dwells above, we

pray With humble contrite hearts; That thou will lead us onward Past false and feeble starts.

And though we oftimes stumble Help us to rise again, And press onward, ever upward, Toward Thy throne—Amen,

DAILY THOUGHT

For Moses said, Honor thy father and thy mother; and whoso eurseth his father or mether, let him die the death—=Mark 7:10,

NBLESSED iz the son who does not honor his parents; but if reverent and obedient to them, he will receive the same from his own children. —Euripides.

would visit a library and read up on the origin of family he would perhaps learn something. To defend the eause that creates the chaotic conditions of today and then complain of them is like deliberately burning one’s fingers and then erying about the pain. It is foolish to underestimate the ereative ability of the Oriental mind and anyway why go to China to look for backwardness and ignoranee when we have plenty of it here? I am for pure social and indus trial democracy with democratic Justice to all and special privilege e.

® » =» CLAIMS ROOSEVELT UNFAIR TO DICTATORS By E. H G. Although our President may have had the best intention in making a peace proposal to Hitler and Mussolini, he evidently overlooked the facet that he has disqualified himself to act as a mediator. The United States with its for-

tunate location, 3000 miles of ocean from troubled Europe, would have been an ideal country to lead a peace conference if Mr. Roosevelt's attitude in the last two years had not been one-sided. Do we recall his Chicago “quarantine” speech 18 months ago, his varioug comments and condemnations of Germany and Italy, the exclusion of Germany from Ameriea’s favored trade treaties, the recent 25 per cent duty increase on imports from Germany? If we are fair and open-minded, we must admit that Mr. Roosevelt does not possess the most vital qualification to lead the proposed conference due to his prejudice and one-sidedness. We should therefore not be sur. prised if Germany and Italy will reject Mr. Roosevelt's offered leadership (although they might accept the idea of a peace conference with an unbiased referee), especially since Mr, Wilson's promises in his famous Fourteen Points and its ruinous results are still too well remembered in Germany.

. a.» VISITOR RESENTS SO MANY “NO TURN” SIGNS By J. Gale

The writer recenily spent twe days in your eity, aad as I travel widely I feel T am yualified to say that your traffic policemen should yegeive highest praise for abiltly in keeping so many automobiles in the smallest possible area. What with “Ne Left Turn,” “No Right Turn” and “Ne Turns” at all, I had to drive eight blocks in order to 88. 5 1 pO ome Dick: fom starting point. Is it for safety? My home is Cleveland, a larger eity, where in spite of only two “No Turn” signs, we have a better traffic accident than yours,

LET'S EXPLORE YOUR MIND

By DR. ALBERT EDWARD WI1GGAM--

im-

| | makes him feel terribly unimportan

ing is an excellent personality ime prover and fear conqueror. Also, for both men and women, fencing, daneing, tennis, swimming, hiking are unsurpassed in building happy, fearless personalities, LJ » - NOT UNLESS you are the wife or husband of the chestnut eracker, Possibly a parent or brother or sister can risk setting one right who tells old jokes but ordinarily the best thing is to grin and bear it and make your grin lock and sound as nearly like a laugh as you can. It deflates a fellows ego more to find he has told you a story you know than a fact you know, It

t and it is a pretty eruel thing to make another person feel unimportant, The strength of democracy makes every person feel important and totalitarianism makes him feel he is a’ worm. \ ® » =» NO. One's experience should be of some help cisions, but if one on that he will his ways,” land to gro One

» W.

Gen. Johnson Says—

Bill Admitting German Children Should Be Amended to Include Orphans from Spain and Russia.

ASHINGTON, April 24. —Asked to testify before Senate committees on both the Neutrality bill

and Senator Wagner's bill to admit, within two years,

20,000 German refugee children, I found that I couldn't work both appearances in with my schedule and I had to ask to be excused from the latter. I don’t want that to argue opposition. Therefore, I ghall try to say here what I couldn't say on the Hill. In the present distress of our people, we can’t throw down our immigration barriers. There is so much suffering everywhere that victims would come by millions each year. ¥f we had places for them— as we had once—we would say: “Let them come — as we once did. But with our economic system working so badly that a third of our own people are not now securely provided for, it is not even selfish to refuse to receive more. Here is the last stronghold of liberty and selfsufficiency for millions. It helps humanity not at all to dilute our strength with the world’s weakness. It

is up to us to preserve this stronghold as an example,

if not as a haven, for ether peoples. 2 ” »

BT little children present a different problem. Though not necessarily legally adopted, someone, under this bill, guarantees the support of each. More children in each family are a benefit to all. One of our principal troubles is that our generation does not produce enough children, My grandfather had eight, my father three. I have one. The importation of adult aliens involves a plain problem of political indigestibles. The most irritating spectacle of our day is people who can’t speak English without an accent advocating the overthrow of our

institutions in favor of European revolutionary exe .

periments. Men and women whipped from their own homes by intolerance, who should be on their knees kissing the soil of this country in gratitude for their liberty, abuse it by biting the very breast to which they fled for refuge. When these children come, they should be taught not by such as these, They should be taught reverence for the country that rescued them and not reasons why she should be revolutionized.

» 2 ” BITHER on economic, political or racial grounds is there any reason for refusing entrance to little children to the extent of 15-1000 of 1 per cent of our population. But I do have a question on this bill, It takes care of destitute and homeless innocents orphaned by Hitler. How about Franco's and Stalin's output of orphans? If this isn’t dogmatic humanity, let's not particularize. If this bill doesn’t treat alike Spanish, Russian and German children—who are in equal dise tress—then I think it is proved to be a racial pressure bill and I'm against it. “The quality of mercy is not strain’d; It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven.” Let’s have neither umbrellas nor special areas of precipitation for any racial or religious class.

It Seems to Me

By Heywood Broun

Suggests Sending Sally to Duce's World Fair as Good Will Gesture

EW YORK, April 24 —~Mussolini has rejected the President’s plea for pledges of nonaggression. Speaking in the shadow of Caesar's statue, he threw in a number of swinging phrases and a few wise= cracks for good measure. The humor is unconscious and the hope is veiled. Nevertheless, it seems to me that, although Mussolini chose to shout “No!” a whispering thread of assent

runs through his discourse. To be sure, that word “peace” has been most curi= ously defined in recent months, But, at least verbally, there is a promise of nonaggression in the citing of Italy's plang for a worlds fair in 1942 as a “promising indication that we do not intend to attack anyone.” And so, although he stood at the foot of Caesar's heroic figure, it may be possible that Mussolini at the moment is more moved by a desire to grow up into the stature of Grover Whalen, In this laudable, howbeit arduous, ambition there is every reason why II Duece’'s friends at home and abroad should wish him well, Indeed, I think that immediate co-operation should be férnished by Amer= jea to promote the success of Mussolini's Midway.

Profiting by Experience My own attention has been so much absorbed by the imminence of the Flushing enterprise that I admit I had not heard until now that Fascist Italy was putting on a show of its own. Say what one will about 11 Duce, it must be admitted that he certainly got himself front page publicity, ineluding pictures, for the attraction which he is ballyhooing. And yet, as he begins to dispose of this concession and the other, Mussolini will do well to bear in mind the experience of other entrepreneurs in similar vene tures. Experience seems to show that building de voted to art and industry and education are properly the backbone of any exposition. Sut there are other

spines Which seem essential if the excursionists from outlying districts are to be lured into the big tens sessfully. Sues SLY: may find it necessary to ask for both variety ‘and collaboration. All of which reminds me that here may be the great opportunity for Sally Rand. It is said that Sally made the Chicago fair. Now is her chance to go on to bigger and better things. A soft answer turneth away wrath. Accordingly, I suggest that an excellent reply 4o Mussolini's speech might be the appointment of Miss Rand as an Ameri= can ambassador of good will to Mussolini's Midway, Before another three years of destiny have rolled by Benito himself may stand in desperate need of a fan, or even of a bubble,

Watching Your Health

By Dr. Morris Fishbein

ross of the earlier generation always began their examination of a patient by looking at the tongue. Much was made of the various kinds of coat= ings and of the color of the tongue. Indeed, the tongue was considered to be a mirror of the condition of the entire digestive system. The modern doctor still continues to inspect the tongue and can learn a great deal from it, but we, have learned that the conelusions depend not only on the tongue but on the study of the condition as a whole, It has been suggested that today tongues Jrioes 30 much Shs YupiGLy. Shak there is hardly time or them to acq a coating. People who have constant disturbances of intes= tinal digestion frequently have thickening of the. tongue with the development of a coating. Associated therewith, are a foul breath and a constant bad taste in the mouth, The ordinary coating consists of molds and bacteria as well as waste material from food and. from the mouth, Sometimes the surface of the tongue is itself in= fected. This demands most careful consideration with a study of the material bringing on the infection, and with Vii application of washing and treatment to remove {i In certain diseases, particularly in anemia and in the dietary deficiencies such as pellagra, the tongue red and inflamed. % provision of iron and of liver to make up the' deficiency should result in a prompt. vement in the appearance of the tongue. e immediate care of the tongue, when it is ine ‘flamed, may involve the of a

material like petrolatum or vaseline and the use of some mild x ASL

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