Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 20 May 1939 — Page 9

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~ daily (except Sunday) by

- ROY W. HOWARD RALPH BURKHOLDER

RREARL 05 I LP Ae

PAGE 10 The Indianapolis Times

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

MARK FERREE Business Manager

— tt —— cn rs Bt

President

Owned

Editor

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

and published

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Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

SATURDAY, MAY 20, 1939

HARD TO BELIEVE

I Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler

American Reporters Broke Down British Resistance to Giving Out Important News During the War.

| EW YORK, May 20.—Although the porch-climb-ing school of journalism has died of disrepute, reporters still have a duty to get the story and photographers the picture, in spite of difficulties and social exclusions. It was the enterprise and direct approach of American newspapermen which broke down the stupid reserve of the British bureaucrats in Whitehall during the war, when a group of them went direct to the

home office and bullied their way into the presence of Sir Francis Younghusband, the home secretary, to obtain permission to visit Dublin while the blood and ashes of the Easter Revolution were still warm.

TEAM of Army cooks has won a cooking contest at the New York World's Fair, and all we have to say | is that those babies certainly must have improved a lot since 1918,

MILLIONS SAVED SINCE the Government now is financing all extra: expenditures on borrowed money, the defeat of the Florida | ship canal may be no matter of great moment to the taxpayers of today. | But the taxpayers of the future, upon whom the ex- | travagances of their fathers will be visited, will have reason to rejoice that at least one project was disapproved—espe- | cially since it is a project of slight value and one which would have cost from $200,000,000 to £500,000,000 to construct and countless more millions annually to maintain. Those millions, plus interest to the day of reckoning, would amount to big money in any generation.

CANNED BEEF AND TRADE T a time when so much hubbub is raised over the Navy's order of $7000 worth of Argentine canned beef,

“we think at least some attention should be paid to another |

news item. A dispatch from Buenos Aires tells how General Motors at last has broken the Argentine exchange control and obtained permission to ship $2,800,000 worth of automobiles into Argentina. The two incidents aren't connected, unless possibly | President Roosevelt's good-neighborly gesture in authoriz- | ing the Navy to buy that Argentine canned beef had some | influence on the Buenos Aires officials who gave the clearance on the General Motors sales. But they serve to illustrate the workings and blessings of foreign trade. The Argentinos produce the best canned beef in the | world and sell it at the lowest prices. We manufacture the best automobiles in the world and | sell them at the lowest prices. We buy some of their surplus canned beef; they buy some of our surplus canned transportation. The workers on assembly lines in American auto factories will get good wages turning out the 4000 auto- | mobiles that are being sold in Argentina. With those wages the auto workers can afford to buy fresh American beef—something superior to any canned product. The two transactions call to mind the best definition of trade we ever heard: Trade is a process by which two men get what each man wants, both parting with what neither needs, both profiting by what neither loses. The definition applies to trade between nations as well as between individuals.

PROHIBITION—AGAIN

N almost forgotten face reappears in the public scene. It is a long face, stern, thin-lipped, and is topped by a stovepipe hat from which a black ribbon drapes. Its entrance is accompanied by figures for some time quiescent—the Anti-Saloon League, the W. C. T. U,, the Methodist Board of Temperance, Prohibition and Public Morals, and all that caravan of do-gooders who once imposed upon the nation the experiment which was called noble but which instead brought corruption, racketeering, hijacking, poison liquor, paralysis, blindness; which made | jakeitis a common malady and Al Capone a millionaire, | It is prohibition trying again for a toehold: seeking once more to legislate morality; te regulate personal habits | by statute. It is the shade of Wayne B. Wheeler, in a flank attack. It shows up wearing congressional labels S. 517 and S. B75, being the Johnson and Capper bills dealing with the sale and distribution of alcoholic beverages, which were legitimatized by repeal; beverages put into the normal flow of commerce and taxation after a decade and a half of bootlegging and speakeasies; after the experiment had been so thoroughly weighed and found so fatally wanting. With crisis piling on crisis, at home and abroad, with wars and rumors of wars, depressions and debts and strikes and unemployment, must we once more wrestle with an issue that was decided so positively so short a time ago? Do we ever learn? ” n ” ” 5 . 517 and S. 575 would ban the advertising of aleoholic beverages by print or by radio. Being in the publishing business we admit we are selfishly interested. Please make your discounts for that.

» d

and to the situation existing since. : Prohibition sought to abolish the drinking of alcoholic beverages. It was noble in motive, in that drinking does do much damage. But drinking was not abolished, nor even decreased. Instead it continued under circumstances so vile as to cause the blindness, the paralysis, and the corruption which finally brought repeal. Prohibition’s failure was one of the most dramatic in all the history of ill-starred reforms. The greatest graft of all time was ended. A billion dollars in annual revenue was brought into the public treasury—taxation evaded by the bootlegger. Why should the same old group of die-hards be permitted by indirection in any degree to outlaw a commerce which, outlawed once, was then after long trial reinstated by overwhelming popular approval? If the drys want to have another whirl at their cause, that is their privilege. If they want to put the prohibition proposition again up to the voters, let them do so. But they are not entitled to a comeback through any such rear entrance as is involved in 8. 517 and 8. 575. As long as the traffic in alcoholic beverages is accepted as legitimate it should be allowed to pursue its way under the same processes of normal sale and distribution that are allowed to other commerce. © Otherwise, bootlegging will be fostered and the same slimy subterranean system which prevailed before repeal

will gradyally but surely re-establiph itself.

oak i SS aR

But after doing so, consider the | nation’s experience under prohibition as vou remember it, |

He was fair flummoxed by the audacity of this proposal and in a moment of confusion gave in and

| sent them off from Holyhead on a torpedo boat of

His Majesty's Navy to the stuttering indignation of the captouching native pressmen of London, who, up to that time, had been in the habit of inhaling sharply in the presence of the very flunkies lest they contaminate the official atmosphere. = = = HIS gain for American journalism was not entirely profit, however, for the British are not dumb, and they soon developed a system whereby the Americans were calling around in posses on such

| formidable patriots as Admiral Blinker Hall, the Chief

of Naval Intelligence; Sir Robert Cecil, who had foreign affairs; Sir Frederick Maurice, the Army's Chief

| of Operations, and, occasionally, John Buchan, alias

Lord Tweedmuir, the present Governor-General of Canada British, having granted it, 2xploited the opportunity to make propaganda, as the Germans say. But impure news was cousidered to be better than no news. and it could be hoped that the Germans and

| Austrians, on their side. would be smart enough to do

the same so that the American people, reading their papers, would be able to balance one propaganda with another. The London bureaus of American papers and press associations were invited to send representatives to official dinners where the burgundy was needled with hands-across-the-sea orations, and, of course, the head man usually strapped on his funny clothes to go to the more pretentious brawls. 5 & &

N Washington, in recent years, journalism ceased to be strictly stag, and the unpopularity of

Cal Coolidge was due in some degree to the fact that | on one of his tours up in the Green Mountains he | refused to pull up for hours, passing by many attrac- | tive gasoline stations—a lack of consideration which | | was bitterly and outspokenly resented by gentlemen | of the press wha were traveling en famille. } It seems to me that it were better for the American |

press and the people that the reporters covering the

| visit of their British majesties be not invited—and

possibly taken in—as guests at social functions arranged for them. Reporters are human, and social

vanity exists in the Washington corps and might be |

exploited by invitations to royal occasions. If our

| press is so sensitive socially as to resent snubbing and retaliate with disagreeable publicity in the papers,

then it follows that this same press would be equally

| grateful for social recognition and would give the { British breaks they don't deserve.

After all. a reporter or photographer can't expect all his assignments to hold still like barnyard ducks.

Business 8y John T. Flynn

He Frames Some Questions to Ask Monopoly Committee Witnesses.

EW YORK, May 20.—A group of important businessmen are in Washington before the Monopoly Investigating Committee. They are to tell the committee why private investment was bogged down and what ought to be done about it. This is merely to suggest some questions which might be asked them.

one of two sets of reasons. One set would include the money situation, national policies, international disturbances, tax laws. The other would be more local than national. They would refer to conditions in those industries in which the investment is to be made. Money when invested goes into particular industries. The principal industries of long-term investment are the railroads, the utilities, construction, public works. I suggest that the committee should ask these businessmen the following questions, not to harry them but to get expert advice on these profoundly important matters. Would you put any money as an investment in railroads? If not, why not? Would you invest any in the building of an apartment house? An office building? A factory? A hotel? If not, why not?

What of the Railroads? .

If taxes were reduced, if the war scare in Europe were to disappear, if the Government balanced its budget. would vou then be willing tao build a ‘house or structure of any kind? Would you be willing to put money then into a railroad? Would you invest in utilities of any sort? Would vou invest vour money in a distributing business of any kind—chain store, department store, mail order house? Would vou put vour money into factories? kind? If not, why not? What can be done about the railroads, assuming everything else is straightened out, to make them good investments agein? What can be done about the building industry to make it a good investment again? In answering these questions please be specific. Do not make merely general answers. We want io be helped. What would happen if the Government tomorrow stopped spending money—cut down its expenditures say, by a billion dollars? Describe in detail precisely | what the effects would be and just how investment | would begin? What would happen if Government tried to pay all its expenses out of taxes® Just what taxes do you propose? What do vou think ouzht to be done about monopolies?

What

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

HY is a convention? Nobody seems to have the right answer, although nothing upon the na-

They had asked for this intimacy, and the |

has |

When men with money to in- | | vest do not invest it, the reason must be looked for in

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

SATURDAY, MAY 20, 1939

|_By Talburt ERC =

| activity.

Gen. Johnson Says— .

President's Speech Made in 1932

Quoted in Answering His Question On Lag in Private Investment.

PrSBURGH, Pa., May 20.—The President has asked Senator O'Mahoney to find out why private capital doesn’t begin buying things to promote recovery, Of all the many answers I have heard to the President's question the following quotation is the best. For lack of space the whole text can't be quoted but the omissions do no violence to the central thought. After saying that the gross cuts of all government were almost a third of national in-

come, this great authority wrote:

“That is an impossible economic condition. Quite

| apart from every man’s own tax assessment, the

burden is a brake on any return to normal business Taxes are paid in the sweat of every man’s

| labor because they are a burden on production and caf

| be paid only in production.

If excessive, they are

| reflected in idle factories, tax-sold farms and hence

The Hoosier Forum

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

NOW, IS DEMAND By W. C. W. Jr.

The air in Indianapolis could be | as free of smoke during the coldest winter as it is every summer, if the people who have to endure the ter-| rible air pollution would only make a forceful, consistent and persistent | protest. Now, while most heating plants (are not being used, is the time for the progress of the antismoke movement. Obviously the offenders will not employ smoke-consuiaing devices voluntarily, nor will the thousands of householders guilty collectively of inestimable damage mend their ways because of civic con- | sciousness. Therefore, a law with- | out loopholes (if such a law is possible) consistently enforced, without | exceptions, is the only solution to a | problem fast becoming menacing. | | 5 o 5 THINKS 23 MILLION FOR WATER COMPANY TOO HIGH

By J. F. C.

END SMOKE MENACE |

(Times readers are invited to express their 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.)

views in

approximately the same size as now prescribed by order of the Board of Public Works. They afforded the vendor the opportunity of keeping! on hand a plentiful supply without the necessity of carrying them under | his arm. The prescribed stands are adequate for the purposes for which they are intended and would not be! nearly as objectionable as those now | maintained. Owners of the original small stands were apparently not content with the limited free use of |

this injustice goes into effect unless each standholder can pay $65] for a stand? If these $65 stands are permissible, why not see that these poor souls are provided with | these stands free of charge? Anyone knows with the cmall profits they are able to make they would have no such sum. This ruling appears simply a convenient method of abolishing the stands.

| UPHOLDS RULING | LIMITING NEWSSTANDS

| By Leo M. Rappaport

In your issue of May 15 a cor-

Shall the City buy the Water respondent expressed his disapproval Company? Yes, if it can be bought at the action of city

officials in

‘at a right price. But as to $23,000,000 forcing the removal from the side-

I would consider that rather high.| walks The public should know just what dangerous

the unsightly and “business rooms” that

benefits they are to derive from the have been maintained for the sale of

deal.

If it is a New Deal, I will trust newspapers, magazines

and other

it, for I consider that to mean true merchandise. He charges city officials interest and service to the lower-|with being uncharitable in not per-

bracket people.

It might be better | mitting this obvious nuisance to

to have a referendum—but first let continue The original newspaper stands, walks were never intended for such | story will ever learn that it was dubious in factuality.

us have the plan under which it is| to be operated. I hope that the setup will be dif-|

the sidewalks which they enjoyed, and took advantage of their) entrenchment, the same as every other land poacher does, until now | these stands have grown to such | size that they even contain heating equipment. Just why no one has ever thought of installing beds so | that the owners could sleep there) also, I do not know. It is against the law to obstruct a sidewalk, and if a merchant should project his show windows out over the sidewalk line he would be promptly restrained. If it is permissible to maintain a structure orr the sidewalk for the sale of magazines directly opposite a merchant who sells the same type of merchandisc on premises for which he pays high rent and taxes, what is there to prevent anyone else from |setting up a similar booth opposite | the entrance to a haberdashery or| [millinery store and selling similar | merchandise free of rent in com- | petition with that merchant? that side-

| Aside from the fact

inadequate even without these ob- |

in hordes of the hungry tramping the streets and seeking work in vain. Our workers may never see a tax bill but they pay in deduction from wages, in increased cost of what they buy, or (as now) in broad cessation of employment. There is not an unemployed man, there is not a struggling farmer—whose interest in this subject is not direct and vital. . . . : on " 8 “ UR credit structure is impaired by unorthodox Federal financing made necessary by the unprecedented magnitude of these deficits . . . (that) is the more . . . and dangerous. Instead of financing . in the regular way, our Government simply absorbs much of the lending capacity of the banks and by so much impairs the credit available te business . most of this new Government-created credit has been taken to finance the Government's continuing deficits . . . how can we continue to countenance such a conditior.? Would it not be better to. . . secure the one foundation of economic recovery—a complete and honest balance of the Federal budget? . . ¥ ..."“You never can expect any important economy from this Administration. It is committed to the idea that we ought to center control of everything in Washington. . . . « ..I regard reduction in Federal spending . . . as the most direct and effective contribution that Government can make to business . . . a powerful cause contributing to economic disaster has beer this inexcusable fiscal Administration and the ob scurity that has attended and grown out of it.. a veritable cancer in the body politic and economii Is it prophecy to assure that if we remove this destruetive growth, we shall move on to better things? a 8 8 : " O my mind it is so plain and persuasive a¥ scarcely to be open to argument. As I said in the beginning, this is the one field in which business is wholly in the grip of Government. . “By the same token, it is the one field where Gov= ernment can make the greatest possible present cons< sribution to recovery. . .. I am as certain as mortal man can be certain of anything in the future that, from the moment we set our hands openly and frankly and courageously to this problem, we shall have reached the end of our long hard downward road and shall have started on the upward trail. We shall have built for economic recovery a firm footing on a path broad, true and straight.” That sage advice was given long ago but remains unheeded. It was given here in Pittsburgh on Oct, 19, 1932 by Franklin D. Roosevelt as a candidate for the office of President of the United States.

It Seems to Me

By Heywood Broun ; Being Human, We Have More Fun:

In Slamming Than Praising People.

EW YORK, May 20.—A denial very seldom catches up with the original affirmation. 1 am looking at a newspapey head which reads, “Admits His WPA Charges Untrue.” The story goes on to: say that a witness took back certain testimony he’ gave before a House committee. He had originally. stated that WPA had built a lot of lakes in Ten-” nessee to benefit various individuals who had political pull. Upon his second appearance the witness stated, according to the press association dispatch, that his testimony was “largely hearsay and that some of his statements had been shown to be erro-. eous.” Not 10 per cent of the people who saw the original-

many years ago, were small and of use, and that they are frequently Cartoons, editorials and big type proclaimed the hear=-

say. The softening of the original charges are more

[company that sold it. |

lwater company is to set its own price |

ferent from that of the gas com-| pany. I fail to see any great benefit in that purchase — except to the

MY KETTLE By JAMES D. ROTH

Are we to understand that this early morn and have us accept it without a ness of the hour:

thatite to know ils true value? II Another day for it and me is born .» my children and grandchildren| ary kettle spouts its

My kettle sings a merry tune at!

While sunlight melts the dark- |

cheery. |

structions, these structures on our 4 4 sidewalks have proved to he a traf- modestly displayed. fic danger. They obstruct not only the space which they occupy, but obstruct the view of street crossings at increasing angles.

versity.

traction.

I am not attacking the press or citing it for per« It is literally true that there is much more. news in a good whacking accusation than in a re--

I defer to no one in my interest Brickbats Are Plentiful

in the needy and unfortunate, but I could never countenance turning!

I think that any analysis of either Broadway or. Washington columns will show that the brickbats are

are to pay for this utility, I insist that we understand the details fully. |

Just a handpicked committee to put| a; dav

this deal over is not enough. Let us all have a voice in this matter | and we should elect the parties on|

steaming power, my faithful kettle waits for me, silence the dawn.

In it has rested since

this committee to represent our class Then at eve it is my friend for

of taxpayers. . . . Let's look and

check the records. | ” ” OPPOSES RULING ON NEWSSTANDS

By Businesswoman

Where are all our big business- le

men who started their business careers selling newspapers—when this “No Mean City” is taking the livelihood away from those who are incapable of making their living in any other way, by abolishing newsstands from the corners? Cannot some action be taken before the 22d of this month when

tea— Oh, please protect my kettle when I'm gone.

DAILY THOUGHT

Thou which hast shewed me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth —Psalms 71:20.

T is not the will of God to give us more troubles than .will bring us to live by faith on Him; He loves us too well to give us a moment of uneasiness but for our good. — Romaine.

over to them our public thorough- | fares for their use and private gain. | | Except for the restraining hand of | | public officials, our downtown streets | would be littered with itinerant | merchants maintaining their trades [under the guise of charity. * ¢ = INO LAW NEEDED FOR DAYLIGHT TIME, IS CLAIM By One Opposed to D. L. 8. T.

It seems there is someone very | |anxious to have daylight saving time | {in Indianapolis. Well, anyboay can | | have daylight saving, anytime, with- | [out any law or changing of clocks. Those who want it can get up one hour earlier and quit work one hour | | earlier. | Why give the rest of us something | we don't want? It's a lot of bunk anyway. Moving the clock doesn't] change the time. Leave the clocks alone,

LET'S EXPLORE YOUR MIND

By DR. ALBERT EDWARD WIGGAM

| tional scene is so typically United States as these!

gatherings of the trades and professions,

Some of the |

boys are always rolling in ready to be entertained and

most of them looking forward to a good souse.

Now the girls are at it, too. Only don't think for a | moment they go in for any rough stuff. No, siree! |

Women are never more ladylike than when they are

| convening as members of a strictly feminine organiza-

| tion.

| and their behavior is as decorous as that of a bunch of deacons debating moral issues. They attend these affairs presumably in order to dispatch the business | of the organization and to get inspiration for more | hard work in the future.

With the boys, it's different. The average fellow entering the host city makes a beeline for the nearest bar.

tion to a few secretaries and elected officials, while he circulates through the erowds, renewing his acquaintance with Tom, Dick and Harry. hoping they will give him some orders later. If business is bad he weeps into his beer: if it is good he celebrates with highballs. For him. the point of having a convention is the holiday spirit which prevails. When it doesn’t prevail he manufactures it. Anyway, it's a liberal education in the psychological pattern of the sexes to go from a feminine to a masculine meeting—and you can’t quite make up your mind which is the more admirable, Maybe if the girls Saye mere and the boys drank less both busi-

pee a ER

They get right down to serious business at once |

He willingly turns over the details of the organiza- |

EGAN YoU % INFLUENCE A

PgRsON AIT HIM;

YES OR NO.

ANNOT THE EVERY DAY CN AGE SOCIAL ENS, S01¢

H 1ST INNIS LABORATORY ? YOUR OPINION ae

MORE BS NING CHI ARI TH= Shu PHYOR

YOUR OPINION eee

YES, only you will not be likely hiring, or would engage him in an to influence him the way in argument, trying to make him reveal

which you wish. All great executives, his true self. They did not like a

such as Carnegie, Field, Hill, Harriman, Morgan, Seripps, Atterbury of the Pennsylvania Railroad, ete., have

“yes” man who would not stand up for his point of view. Scripps is said to have hired Roy Howard, the chain

been great students of men. Some newspaper builder, because he called them would

alhim an old fogie and ing of ‘he was one on the

showed him

in controversy. Both men understood each other and became warm friends. You can always influence other people by understanding them.

” n »

VERY often he can. He solves his problems as much by feel{ing as by thinking his way through them, But the laboratory scientist can help him because he thinks his | way through them undisturbed by| his feelings. Also he uses much | more exact methods and much wider information. It is only when the two work together in a give-and-take spirit that they really solve social problems instead of make a lot of veople think they have solved them,

IN SOME schools where they nave taken even third grade children about the town and into the stores, banks, factories, fire and police departments, instead of con-| fining them all the time to their] |desks, it has been found they, first, develop vastly greater interest in their studies and, second, much more of a sense of good citizenship. In fact, it is one of the best ways to teach them geography and arithmetic, as it gives them social and business problems for using arithmetic and a chance to learn local geography. Life is always a better teacher than school and when you tie the

t ther in this way it is a combination that Just cant be beat.

| are given prompt treatment,

just about twice as numerous as the bouquets. And I do not attribute this to some sort of special malice

lin the gentlemen of the press. I'm afraid it's all pars,

of the Original Sin of Adam. But something should be done about it, just the same. Even at the ex=pense of boring the readers newspapers and newsspapermen ought to go against the grain and give the public more stuff about persons who perform their jobs with fidelity. For my own part I intend to start on this reform almost immediately, but IT think I may need a couple of weeks of training before giving myself wholly over to the new dispensation. There happen to be several public figures I want to swat before I take on too heavy a load of sweetness and light. In the matter of unfounded political accusations I think the blame belongs to the politicians rather. than to the journalists. Congressional investigating. committees are extremely prone to permit a witness to lay it on pretty thick without ever checking him - by cross-examination or even the mildest form of corroboration. But even here the fault may be sheer: dumbness rather than intellectual dishonesty.

Watching Your Health

By Dr. Morris Fishbein

WO new advances in medicine accent themselves among the more than 300 discoveries announced by doctors gathered in St. Louis this week at the

| annual convention of the American Medical Associae

tion. They are: A new treatment for sudden hemorrhage caused by ulcers of the stomach. Revelation of the beneficial effect of sulfapyridine in treating pneumonia. The method for treating the hemorrhage involves administration of small feedings of gelatin, transfuesion of blood directly into the veins and repeated light feedings a few days after the hemorrhage has stopped, The effect of sulfapyridine, a derivative of the sulfanilamide “wonder drug,” is hardly short of amaze ing in treating pneumonia. Uniformly it was reported, that this drug produces a prompt fall in the fever: and that patients feel better. ~ If patients are in fairly good condition and if they - the recoveries from pneumonia under this new. method of treatment are remarkably numerous, Specialists in diseases of the eye are now greatly. concerned with glaucoma, an insidious condition in which the drainage of fluid through the eye is blocked with increased tension and eventual loss of sight. Nowadays, we know that early detection is of tha utmost importance if sight is to be saved. Eye surgery.q specialists have developed new operations which cary be applied with little danger. - The problems of the care of the aged receiv jal attention when Dr. E. L. Touhy pointed t the diet of older people needs even more than the diets of younger people, Ne Bil

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