Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 1 May 1939 — Page 11

an a.

PAGE 10 The Indianapolis Times

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

Y W. HOWARD RALPH BURKHOLDER MARK FERREE sident Editor Business Manager

Price in Marion County, 3 cents a copy, delivered by carrier, 12 cents a week.

Owned and published daily (except Sunday) by The Indianapolis Times Publishing Co, 214 W. Maryland St.

Mail subscription rates in Indiana, $3 a year: outside of Indiana, 65 cents a month.

«E> RILEY 5551

Give Light and the People Wilt Find Their Own Way

Member ot United Press, Scripps - Howard Newspaper Alliance, REA Service, and Audit Bureau of Circulation.

MONDAY, May 1, 1939

THE ALLISON EXPANSION HE expansion of the Allison Engineering Division of General Motors in Indianapolis is important both to this city and the United States Government. The company is to triple its plant capacity for the production of the powerful liquid-cooled Allison aviation motors for the War Department. Important as that is on a dollar and cents basis to Indianapolis, it is vastly more important to the Government. For it means that this country has finally found in the Allison engine the key to make its aerial force as powerful « as any in Europe. For some years this country has had the finest aircooled aviation engines in the world. Within their limitations, they were unequaled for power and reliability. But, as Maj. Al Williams and other aviation authorities have pointed out frequently, the United States has lagged far behind in the development of liquid-cooled motors of 1000horsepower or more. As a result, Germany, Italy and England have surpassed us in building fast military planes because they have had motors of great horsepower permitting refinements of streamlining not possible with our air-cooled motors. The Allison engine apparently fills this weakness in our aerial armament program. And naturally we are happy that production is to be concentrated in Indianapolis, where there is an ample supply of workmen long skilled in the production of similar precision products.

RUMANIA’S DEBT OFFER RUMANIA owes the United States Government more than 60 million dollars. She is paying no part of it, either interest or principal. But now King Carols Government says it is ready to submit an “arrangement” for resuming payments. We would be ingenuous if we didn’t wonder whether

the Rumanian offer might n ial balloon, inspired ! ' g ght not be a tria oon, 1nsp | dizzy, cockeyed, slightly mad swirl of the jitterbug.

by other nations whose obligations to us are measured in billions rather than millions. Great Britain and France, our principal debtors, would give a great deal to gain exemption from our Johnson Act, which forbids the floating of further loans in this country by defaulting governments. There are some who think we would do well to spurn any offers of war-debt compromises. They think that we ‘are better off with the debts in default; that the Johnson Act will thus keep us off one “road to war.” But in our opinion this Government should give the Rumanian offer its face value, and accept it—if it is a reasonable one. Certainly the Government could use the money. And we are afraid that the Johnson Act will be a very thin reed if the unhappy day ever arrives when Britain ‘and France, their backs to the wall in a new European war, plead for American credits. Congress could—and, we suspect, would—repeal the law as quickly as it passed it. There is already pressure from the cotton states for its repeal or modification. Let’s take Rumania’s money. But at the same time we should try to ease the process of payment by encouraging a larger Rumania-American commerce. If Rumania’s recent commercial accord with Germany does not stand in the way, perhaps Secretary Hull could negotiate a recipro-cal-trade agreement with Bucharest as a corollary.

TAXES THAT DEPRESS

XPERTS ofteh disagree, but there is now a surprising unanimity of opinion as to what Congress should do about the Federal taxes which are impeding economic recovery. The U. S. Chamber of Commerce, starting its annual convention in Washington today, kicks off with a report of its finance committee, recommending some of the same tax reforms that were proposed over the week-end by the National Association of Manufacturers. These tax statements naturally reflect the views of the businessmen and industrial managers who are members of the two organizations. But on many points they fall directly in line with suggestions advanced earlier last week through two independent studies—one by the Brookings Institution, which specializes in nonpartisan exploration of economic problems, and the other, published in the magazine Fortune, a consensus of a round table of tax authorities, including independent economists, college professors and representatives | of labor unions and farm organizations as well as of business. N In these four sets of tax recommendations, there is variation of emphasis upon the reforms considered most urgent, but all appear in complete agreement that certain { of the present taxes definitely hinder economic progress. { ® 2 = » of { AMONG the needed changes, on which there seems to be | J little dissent, are these: A That the capital stock, excess profits and undistributed profits taxes be repealed; | That in computing their taxes, corporaticns be permitted to carry over losses of lean years as offsets against profits of fat years; That intercorporate dividends be relieved of the present double taxation, and that affiliated corporations be permitted to file a consolidated return; That the upper bracket surtaxes on individual incomes be reduced to more rational limits, inside the point of diminishing returns. Three recommendations which are emphasized by the Fortune round table group—and not dissented from by any other study—are special pets of ours. They are: Stop the issuance of tax-exempt bonds; repeal the hidden sales and nuisance taxes, so burdensome to the very poor, and obtain more revenue from middle-bracket incomes through a broadening of the base and an increase in the individual income tax rates. We plug for these reforms at every opportunity. But our purpose here is to call attention to the few business-tax reforms which expert opinion overwhelmingly supports, and to remark once more that Congress should not adjourn until it has done everything in its power to whip the depression, promote prosperity and increase the

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES a

In Washington

By Raymond Clapper

Unhappy State of World Reflected In Washington Where Old Game of Politics ls Facing Tough Sledding.

(Mr. Pegler returns from vacation tomorrow)

ASHINGTON, May 1—The American Red Cross was in session here and its vice chairman in charge of domestic operations urged the membership to be prepared for a world of shrapnel and steel and inflammable bombs. Next it may be overseas ambulance units. After that—what? Roosevelt won't send an army across the Atlantic. Wilson wasn’t going to send one either. For some inexplicable reason, there comes back into memory the moving scene in “Journey's End” which I saw in London years ago. They are waiting in the dugout, braving the final tense moments before going over the top in a dangerous night raid. Some will not come back. They talk of a whimsical fragment from “Alice in Wonderland,” of England and home, of quiet walks through the woods, of the soft feel of the grass and the sweet breath of the flowers. They are in desperate flight from the death's head which peers in through the dugout door. So it must be with many men today. What can one think? Of what can one be sure? New York, opening its great fair of the World of Tomorrow! The ultimate in optimism. Among State Department experts, half think it’s going to be war. The other

half think it won't be war. 2 2 2

re are dreaming their dreams. They are trying to practice politics as usual. But once war comes, nothing will be normal. They're all worried. But they're trying to make light conversation, like the doomed men in the dugout of “Journey's End.” Senator Taft says Roosevelt is putting on a war ballyhoo for political purposes. Senator Vandenberg, who recently was talking about retiring from politics and going back into the newspaper business, says it isn’t so. He hasn't said he won't take the Republican Presidential nomination. That's going to spike—as was intended, no doubt—the neat litile scheme of Tom Dewey to put one foot out into Michigan where his father was a Republican county politician. Garner thinks a cabal is at work here to knock him out of the Presidential picture. There are 28 conspirators. You can’t get 28 people in Washington to agree on anything. ‘ i N EW Dealers were supposed to have had a meeting to lay plans to make Bill Douglas—the Supreme Court Justice—their Presidential candidate. Hooey. New Dealers are torn between Frank Murphy, Bob Jackson, Douglas and Hopkins although they are disturbed ebout the latter’s health. Even if they could agree they couldn't put any one of these across. They're afraid they'll have to take Farley. Friends ask Ken Simpson, who has been Dewey's political intimate until recently, what Dewey’s convictions are. “Well,” says Simpson, “his convictions are Jimmy Hines and several others.” As if affected by the hysteria of the world, tense in its dugout, American politics is pictured to the

It doesn’t mean anything and doesn’t make sense. The realities—whatever they are—are not here. They are around the corner. We can only wait for them and pass the time in small talk.

Business By John T. Flynn

New Type FDIC Report Gives Clear Picture of Bank Operations.

EW YORK, May 1.—The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has just issued a report which calls for the highest praise. It has issued similar reports before, but this, so far as I know, is the first in which it has been enabled to give a full and enormously important statistical picture of our American banks. In a bank, more than in any other form of enterprise, every transaction is accompanied by a written entry of some sort. One would suppose, therefore, that of all our economic activities, there would be more vital data available about banks than about any other. But this has been far from the case. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has now remedied this very serious statistical gap. There are some facts in it which will interest those who think that the way to hurry up prosperity is to have the Government create more money—more of our circulating medium. This report reveals that at the beginning of this year the banks carried an item of cash at 17 billion dollars. But this report reveals that the actual cash in the banks was not 17 billion, but only 970 million. One explanation of this is seen in the fact that the panks have more than eight billion dollars on deposit with the Federal Reserve System, In other words the banks, at this very moment, without any act of the Government, could increase their cash by many mil= lions by merely drawing on the sums they have on deposit with the Federal Reserve System. They find that they do not need any more cash—coin or currency—than this 970 million.

New Money Wouldn't Help

If the Government were to put out new issues of money tomorrow, as the inflationists demand, this money would quickly be deposited in the banks. And as soon as it hit the banks the banks would send it to the Federal Reserve System, where it would pass out of actual use. Bank loans decreased by more than $700,000,000 between Jan. 1, 1938, and Jan. 1, 1939. But this whole decrease is accounted for by the decrease in real estate loans. Another fact is that while a billion dollars in loans is outstanding to brokers, there is another $885.000.000 in loans to security holders directly to enable them to buy or carry securities. In other words, almost as much in securities is being carried by the banks directly as by the brokers. But still the most significant fact remains that out of 50 billions in desposits, 38 billion or 76 per cent are invested in either cash or securities of all sorts and only about five billion in commercial and industrial loans.

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

S a typical expression of the Fascist mind, I offer a letter which came this morning. It is from a man who thinks pacifists—and especially women pacifists—should be barred from the newspapers. Here he goes: “I don’t often read your gush, but when I picked up a paper and noticed you were airing your views on national defense, I wrote a letter to the editor, advising him to drop your column. Women don’t know anything about war. It is presumptuous of you to express opinions about matters beyond your comprehension. The world would be in a fine mess, in deed, if your kind managed its affairs. Just what would you do if you had the say-so, Mrs. Know-It-All Ferguson?” Ordinarily letters of that sort go into the waste basket. But it seems a good thing to air the views of this gentleman. If only for one reason; it gives us leave to toy with an alluring idea and in turn brings up a question. If women actually had the

power to manage world affairs, what would they do

about war? I don’t pretend to know. However, my knowledge of feminine nature leads me to surmise that they would sit down and figure out just what they were getting in return for: the money required. I don’t believe for one minute they ou Fh raw away cash, credit, trade, ree no purpose wha Rene done : purp tever, as is now , the cost of new armaments f nations amounted to 18 billion dollars. So the a Policy Association figured out. And what is the world gecung for such an outlandish sum?

at LS SY RE TA lari

‘Boy! Did WE Tell ’Em !—By Talburt

The Hoosier Forum

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

MERCHANT PROTESTS REPAIRS ON ROUTE 40 By M. Campbell, Bridgeport

By your recent editorial, “An Invitation,” I think you agree that small business has its place in the present economic structure. By investigation you could easily prove that hundreds of places in Marion County, after 365 days of long hours, after gross income, County and Fed-

eral taxes (if that lucky), were extremely fortunate to show an even balance. Our great belief in American ideals spurs us to carry on despite dilatory action by the people we choose to represent us in the various governmental positions. We don’t care in the least whether a member of the Legislature gets the goat of a fellow member or if a party caucus gains a great political victory. Results count. After a year of small turnover, hope eternal, expecting a chance, we are again rebuffed. The merchants of the old National Road, Route 40, are now confronted with the pleasant prospect (with big expositions at the ends of our country and a chance at some business) of the main East-West routes being closed for repairs—in the name of progress. They don’t do it in Michigan. It would be sacrilege in Canada—but this is Indiana. The great truth is that the holders of these offices of public trust, our servants, hold us in contempt, ignoring the small fish and angling for the big ones, which usually get away. 2 2 ” SEES LONG-TERM BONDS AS INVESTMENT EVIL By K. K. “Confidence” has been definad as: “that state of mind so much desired by the economic ‘chiseler,’ in which the ‘sucker’ has forgotten how he was trimmed the last time.” This type of confidence seems never to desert the proverbial “sucker,” not even in these days. For example, the record of bond sales on the New York Exchange, one day recently, shows 12,000 shares of a certain 4 per cent bond, due in the year 2360, at $49.50 per share, or 422 years in the future. If and when all the interest, including the principal, has been paid, the investor will receive $17.80 for each dollar of original investment! In the same list, I find 26 other bonds, with due dates in the years 2000 to 2360. Who says we haven't “confidence” in the future of this country, when on one day $590,000 is spent to buy ponds representing an original investment of property that will have

(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.)

disappeared from the face of the earth, several hundred years before the principal is to be paid off ? Is this an example of the “long term investments” that Liberty Leaguers believe will “save our economic system? ” » ”

SUGGESTS VACATIONS ON WAR DEBT COLLECTIONS By John J. Henry With spring one’s thoughts veer towards the “good ole summertime” and where to go for a vacation. I figure that when one thinks of vacation time, one must also start thinking about funds with which to make one's hopes come true; but instead of just thinking of one’s self, 1 decided that everyone in America should have a

vacation, so I have devised the following plan:

Have the Scripps-Howard papers use their powerful editorial pages to campaign on behalf of we Americans who loaned the “democracies” about 20 billions of dollars during the World War. If Washington heeds your advice and collects this amount, I figure that this total will give each and every man, woman and child in Amer-

I WALK WITH YOU By ALBERTA DUNCAN STIER I walk with you again today, You come to me it seems. And though your path leads far away, You are with me in my dreams.

Again I hear the notes of birds, Their tender, mating call in spring. For us there were no words, It seems our hearts had wings.

As I walk among the flowers, I pray you'll hear my plea, Come to me across the hours, Return again to me.

DAILY THOUGHT

A little while, and ye shall not gee me; and again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father.—John 16:16.

ATIENT waiting is often the highest way of doing God's will. -—Collier.

ica about $160 with which to go on a good and much-needed vacation.

8 8» FAVORS TAX ON IDLE FACTORIES AND MEN By Chatles A Hubbard, Martinsville

Dr. Gallup asserts that 52 per cent of those who work in cities and towns are less than six months from the bread line; and one out of six is now actually on relief. The latter

alone is enough to indict and condemn our economic system, which has been described as a jumble of tradition. The New Dealers go back to the Miracle Age when water turned into wine and loaves and fishes were multiplied without the elements of time, labor, nature or private capi= tal. The New Deal seeks to create wealth by nonproduction and destruction, thus going the Miracle Age one better. Since before Shylock, certain groups have sought to create or acquire wealth by lapse of time (interest), without the elements of nature or labor, forcing liquidations and sell-outs, causing the loss of untold millions by their demands for the pound of flesh. The Socialist and Communist go back to the primitive communals for their inspiration (Plymouth Rock, New Harmony and elsewhere) and seek to produce wealth without private capital. The miracle man, the banker and the Socialist seek to produce wealth with an incomplete formula—they omit one or more of the necessary factors—time, nature, labor and capital. To promote recovery Wwe bust trusts and tax the producer of jobs and wealth. A more logical plan would be to tax idle capital, idle factories, idle acres and idle men, putting the latter in work camps or in idle factories. Modern economics produces wars, depressions, unemployment, distress, revolution, etc. The initiative of man is his most valuable attribute, to preserve which he must keep the right to have, hold enjoy and bequeath property. However, production is preliminary to having or holding. Abolish income from lapse of time (interest), compel capital to take profit and income, all it can earn, but only on a participating or common stock basis, all of which must be spent for consumer goods, or be reinvested in productive enterprise, or be subject to an idle capital tax. The promoter and the investment banker would have the time of their lives. The conventional bankers would become depositories, public bookkeepers and dealers in exchange, charging for their services. It matters not who owns the capital if the income is spent for consumer goods or reinvested in productive enterprise,

LET'S EXPLORE YOUR MIND

By DR. ALBERT EDWARD WI1GGAM

— > pn n Ee Are ORC: GE i AND OCCUPA

COLLEGES are doing a pretty fine job—better than ever before

_& FITTING

Nothing but | &

t here is one problem they have

FREER,

mands for these careers.

College of the City of New York during the last 85 years bear no relationship to the then current de1 That is,

not cnosen because there was more opportunities at that time in these fields. Choices have all been haphazard. Some colleges are trying to take advantage of economic surveys and fit their graduates for the opportunities that exist. What could be more sensible? ® a =

THEY should be the worst “fraid cats” in the world. Auto drivers should be afraid of defective prakes, icy roads, steep hills, sharp curves, railroad crossings, back-seat drivers and a lot of things no one had to be afraid of before autos were invented. Airplane pilots should be afraid of storm clouds, planes improperly inspected and a thousand other things. They should, of course, be cool-headed in emergencies, but afraid of taking chances of any sort whatsoever, ” s s

I DISAGREED with a lot of the jate Chesterton’s brilliant paradoxes and theories but this is one which I think has a lot of meat in it. A man wants a woman and home and children but he also wants worldly success, wide business contacts, a lot of friends and the like, Most women do not care much for these wide contacts k

more to.

la

‘MONDAY, MAY 1, 1939 |

Gen. Johnson Says—

Leiserson and Marshall Ideal Selections and Will Bolster U. S. Defenses if Emergency Comes.

EW YORK, May 1—The President has made

two ideal appointments to positions which are just now of first importance in Government. One is William Leiserson to the Labor Board. The other is George Marshall to be Chief of Staff. In a world ringing with alarms of war both will contribute greatly to the defensive strength of this country. An upset labor condition is a menace to any nation in modern war where industrial efficiency is as important as military efficiency. Our labor situa=tion is far from harmonious in the relations between labor and management and also within labor itself due to the unsettled argument between C. I. O. and A. F. of L. At this moment: there is no prospect whatever of closing this breach. Many observers, including some closest to the situ ation in management and on both sides of the dis pute in labor feel that the Labor Relations Board, instead of congributing to disentangle this multiple snarl has done much to complicate it. Donald Smith, whose place Mr. Leiserson takes, is thought by some to have been largely responsible for this failure, but better informed people say that the other Smith—the one who remains on the board—is the real marplot. ” ” 2 OWEVER this may be, the influence of a man like Leiserson can be very great to offset such influences. What the Labor Board needs is not hote eyed Savonarolas or new editions of Peter the Hermit. It needs men with judicial calm and fairness and with a passion only for peace. That spells Bill Leiserson. He and Edward Mce Grady are the greatest labor conciliators our genera tion has produced. Both clicked in their calling for just one reason. They instantly inspire confidence of both sides of any dispute in their fairness, their good= will and their common sense. The best proof that Gen. Marshall's appointment was equally wise is that, although he is being jumped ahead of most of the high-ranking officers in the Army, you will find few of the latter who will not say it was the best appointment—except one—that could have been made. The circumstance that he is not a West Point graduate is, of course, a help. It proves the injustice of the complaint that there is a controlling West Point clique in the Army. Gen. Marshall was the choice of both Gen. Pershing and Gen. Craig —the two greatest West Pointers and soldiers since the Civil War crop. 2 ” ” HERE is no flash or “side” about Marshall. He is that rare combination of good brains, hard work and excellent judgment which is precisely the perfect specification for a Chief of Staff in times like these. That post might become overnight second in importance only to the Presidency to the safety and welfare of the United States. It is a comfort to know that if that misfortune should happen, you couldn’t have sifted the country with a fine-mesh ° sieve and winnowed out a better man. In this case the President kicked politics right in the shins. Gen. Marshall would have treated political pressure in his behalf just as Gen. Craig did when he forbade any legislation to make an exception to his retirement. But there was plenty of it for another candidate—which Mr. Roosevelt politely ignored.

It Seems to Me

By Heywood Broun

Disagrees With Author on Use of Humor in Treating Serious Cause.

EW YORK, May 1.—S. N. Behrman, the play=" wright, has something on his conscience, ail apparently he thinks it is a light comedy. Be on he is wrong, for on several occasions he has en=deavored to disown the albatross by kidding it gently in three acts.

vt His newest effort is called “No Time for Comedy,” « \ |

and it is an amusing and annoying offering. As the title indicates, Mr. Behrman is wrestling with the problem of whether a creative artist has any right to gaiety in the middle of a tragic world. All of his re= cent plays strike an autobiographical note, and the last one might even be called “The Importance of Being Behrman.” He accepts, without question, the popular fallacy

that if a man has a concern about world affairs he

must state his case in the grimmest possible terms. The field of effective satire has hardly been touched. I do not think that “Pins and Needles” (rechristened “Labor’s Irish Rose” by Otis Ferguson in the New Republic) digs in much below the surface. However, it is a step in the right direction. I still think that Marc Blitzerstein’s “The Cradle Will Rock” stands as the best theatrical éffort to employ hard-biting humor for a serious cause.

Who Loves Life?

But the point where S. N. Behrman and this particular auditor split asunder is in the final scene of his comedy. It is here that the author's wife, an actress, begins to preach a doctrine which seems to me almost topsy-turvy in its fundamental error. The young lady argues that clowns and comedians are ° in actuality those who love life and cherish joy and : kindliness on earth. More serious-minded people, she seems to say, get that way because they have become overpreoccupied with death and destruction. would have us believe that there is a true rove-of” gaiety in the tunes which one whistles in passing graveyards. Now, I think the precise reverse of this is true. It is no longer customary to introduce a death’s héad at a dinner. Instead you run across some young man who is called, quaintly enough, “the life of tha party.” From him you may expect nothing but quip, quip, quip, all through the long evening. And you go away very much saddened and convinced that many things in the world are monstrous. The man who truly loves existence wants to know it entire. Surely nobody gives very convincing proof that he loves life if he always insists on turning his

back upon it. 4 Watching Your Health : 8 TT rapid progress of medicine, parsicularly in ree

By Dr. Morris Fishbein lationship to the control of diseases caused by germs, has brought into common use a large number

of strange materials and new names for them. These 3 .§

are frequently misunderstood. : We talk about serums and vaccines, blood trans= fusions, inoculations, toxins and antitoxins. Many people use the terms serum and vaccine as if they were the same. Actually, these terms represent mas terials entirely different from each other. i A vaccine is made out of bodies of the germs thems selves. The germs are grown cn mixtures of blood or

fnilk or broth. Then they are destroyed by heat. The dead bodies of the germs constitute the vaccine, Sometimes, however, live germs are used to make what is known as a “living vaccine.” ig A serum represents the fluid material of blood of an animal, including the human being, wh has been previously inoculated either with the es of living germs or with the poisons developed by germs, and which has developed in the blood mas terials to resist such germs or their poisons. \ Sometimes it is possible to develop protective ma terials without actually having isolated the act cause of the disease. This is, for instance, the relationship to vaccination against smallpox. We have not isolated the germ or the o which causes smallpox. We do know, however, gowpox is a similar disease, much milder in ch Therefore, material is taken from the erupbi a case of cowpox and scratched onto the skin of human This p is known as va AT ET in J

She ,%*