Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 29 May 1939 — Page 7
-. Hoosier Vagabond
NEW YORK, May 29.—If I wanted to be mean, I could give you hundreds of examples (naming names, too) of what a World's Fair exhibit should not be like. But since I'm not a mean fellow (except when cornered) I'll just give you a few that are what World Fair exhibits should be. One of them is RemingtonRand. These people make typewriters, adding machines and all kinds of gadgets like that. It’s easy to realize how dull a typewriter could be if they just tied a ribbon around one, put it in a glass case, and stuck up a sign: “Do Not Lean Against Case.” But did Remington-Rand do that? They did not. They put as many typewriters as they could find right out in the open, and big stacks of stationery, too, and said, “Hey, fellers, come on and write!” The result is that the place is alive and teeming. I looked over one kid's shoulder and he had written: “Dear Mom—I am having a wonderful time at the World Fair.” He seemed to be stuck there, and the agonies on his face as he tried to think of something else were painful to behold. But the best part is the electric shavers. They have about three dozen stools and mirrors, and you just sit down and shave, by gosh. Either you shave yourself, or a man in a tan jacket shaves you. No charge, ” o n
It’s All Very Human
Boys and girls who look like they're on their first date; good-looking well-dressed couples in their 30's; old grizzled men with fat wives; the men sitting there shaving away, and, without exception, the women looking mighty proud of their men, and grave, too, as if the whole world depended on how this experiment turned out. The nice part is that a spectator like me can go up,
Our Town
Walking around this lavish town of ours, I can’t help noting that women's skirts are a trifle shorter this season. For that matter, women’s legs appear a trifie longer than usual, but that isn’t the point of today’s piece. Far from it. Today's thesis is based on the singular discovery that the period I picked to live in will go down in history, not as the Machine Age as most people seem to think, but as the period marking the progress of the skirt. I'm sure of it. Fact is, I spent all last night charting my past, and what @o you suppose I found? Just this: That almost every decade of my life is characterized by the gradual and progressive inching up of what is technically known as the hem of a woman's skirt, Funny it took a fellow like mie te hit upon the truth. To be sure, abbreviated skirts had very little to do with the first 20 years of my life. So little, in fact, that I counted myself lucky to see a woman's feet. And I still remember the first time I went to the theater and the surprise awaiting me when I learned that a woman gets around with the same kind of limbs a man has. o u
There Might Have Been a Law
I guess it was around the turn of the century that things began to pop. By that time women's skirts were so long and Kicked up so much dust that somebody connected with the Council introduced a resolution to regulate the length of skirts in Indianapolis. Dr. George D. Kahle and Dr. Frederick Heath, on the side of sanitation, came out in favor of it, I remember. So did Mrs. May Wright Sewall and Mrs. John L. Griffiths, but whether it was for the same reason I don’t seem to recall. Isaac Cleaver, who did the buying for H. P. Was-
Washington
WASHINGTON, Mav 29.—The weakness of both President Roosevelt and his critics is that they indiscriminately either champion or condemn public spending. Mr. Roosevelt allows himself to be pushed into blanket defense of spending while his opponents likewise weaken their own case by blanket criticism of spending. The absurdity is clear if you throw together a crackpot scheme like the Passamaquoddy tide-harnessing project and the Panama Canal and say that they are both spending projects and therefore both of them are bad (or good). Moving over to another type of project, consider the hospital. It is supposed to be sound economy if a hospital is built privately, but Government waste if it is built publicly. A. A. Berle Jr., testifying before the O'Mahoney Temporary National Economic Committee, said the Government does create wealth in the form of parks, public buildings, and public hospitals. It is absurd, he said, to say that a public hospital is not “wealth” because it serves the area without charge, and that « private hospital is “wealth” because it charges each patient. n ” 5
The Case of Toll Roads
Toll roads were once private business institutions. They constituted wealth. Take off the toll and let everyone use the road and charge the whole community for it through taxes. That does not change the fact that the road is wealth. You only remove the monopoly character from it, and release the facilities for fuller use. The vital thing about public spending is to insure responsible scrutiny of projects. The attack on spending could be constructively directed to that
My Day
WASHINGTON, Sunday—We left Arthurdale at 11:30 o'clock ‘yesterday morning, stopped at Romney for lunch and reached home at 6:30, in time for a swim before dinner out on the porch. The Undersecretary of the Treasury and Mrs. Hahes were our only guests. They know Mr. [ a a and Mrs. Robert Deans, who were among my companions on this three-day trip and I thought they would all like to have a chance to see each other. I have been going over in my mind, as I always do after these trips, the things which stand out as significant. It is apparent that more and more people are out of work in these mining areas. As I look back, the outstanding picture was the onearmed miner, standing at the top of the hill with his squad of workers who ‘were out planting corn. “Did you have experience on a farm before?” I asked. The face before me was lined, perhaps that missing arm had something to do with etching lines of pain, perhaps anxiety as to where the food for his family ‘was coming from day by day ‘was responsible, In any case, that face showed character and intelligence. The eyes lit up with a curious, faraway.
wook ‘as he mnswered: “No, Mrs. Roosevelt, but ‘w Altgins,
{ ¢ £ i i t i
By Ernie Pyle
and stick his head around and look right into the guy's face and see how he’s doing. This is about the most human exhibit I've seen at the Fair, There's hardly anything in the Communications Building yet. Carpenters are busy working in vacant spaces. Signs say “So and So will exhibit here.” Bernarr MacFadden is already in. (He communicates vitality, I assume.) On one wall, a big sign alternately flashes a portrait of the noted physical specimen, and then a diorama of him in various poses entitled “Interests of the Man!” One exhibit did intrigue me. It was one of these rourses where you learn a foreign language by listenint to phonograph records. People tell me they're mughty good. So I inquired about the Spanish course. But it seems one portable phonograph and 16 double-faced records of lessons costs $62.50. I decided not to learn Spanish after all. = ” »
Man-Made Lightning
Most of the science, machinery and chemistry is too much for me. But you should not miss the manmade lightning demonstration of General Electric. They darken the room and charge the coils up so high that lightning jumps across the space in front of you. Better hold your ears, too. The lightning runs about 10,000,000 volts. I asked an assistant if they know how much is in a stroke of real lightning, and he said, “Yes, between 40 and 50 million volts.” They keep a white-uniformed nurse in the room just in case anybody does a nose dive. (There's no danger, but it’s powerful scary.) They've had only one person faint so far. And she turned out to be a] woman who hadn’t eaten anything but hamburgers | for two days, and probably would have fainted pretty | soon anyhow. If you think people aren’t interested in television, just try to get up to the televisors, or whatever they call them. There are several different exhibits. Are you getting tired of the Fair? I'm not. I think I'll move into the Perisphere, and set up house- | keeping. They say the Fair may run three years. | Maybe by that time I could see everything.
By Anton Scherrer
son, was enthusiastic too. “I believe such a measure | an admirable one,” said Mr. Cleaver. “All outdoor skirts from now on will be cut according to the styles from 1%; to 2 inches above the ground.” C. A. Shaffer, head of the ladies’ dress department of L. S. Ayres, wasn’t so sure about it and, pointed out that the City Council might as well regu- | late the length of men’s trousers, as pretty a non-| sequitur as any we have around here. I don’t seem to remember whether the Council passed or pigeon-holed the resolution, but I have a vivid recollection that, as a result of the agitation at the time, we got the so-called “Rainy Day,” a skirt whose length came to about where the knob of | a lady's ankle is supposed to be. It was the first mile- | stone in the progress of the skirt. ” EJ un
The Automobile Settled It
From that time on it was mostly a matter of keeping your eves open. By 1910, without any help from | the Council, the skirt had reached the top button] of a lady's high shoe. That same year the automobile self-starter was perfected. That settled it. Up to| that time automobiles had to be cranked by hand, | something a skirted woman could hardly do. At any rate. not without making herself look unladylike. With electric self-starters the automobile people sud- | denly woke up to the fact that their market might]
be appreciably increased by persuading women that | they could now drive machines. The automobile industry guessed absolutely right. | Women took to driving cars only to discover that to] manage the pedals, their skirts were still too long. | Sure, they inched up the hems, shortened their skirts, | and continued to do so until they had them some-| where around the knees, which, apparently, was the right length to steer an automobile. | I'm now engaged on a work having for its thesis the question why women make better automobile drivers than men. It wouldn't surprise me to learn it's because men still wear long pants.
By Raymond Clapper
question, not to mention the importance of taxation, | which the Administration has neglected and which it] is being forced to take up in Congress now. We'll all be talking about taxes very soon. | But before leaving the subject of spending, note the | distinctions made by Dr. Alvin H. Hansen, Harvard | economist, before the same committee, He said the ordinary run of Government expendi- | tures, operating expenses which in modern times must | include social service, relief and welfare expenses, | should be balanced by tax receipts over an entire] business cycle, This portion of the budget should be | balanced, in other words, not necessarily every year | but over a short span of years. ” ” »
Back to Fundamentals
But when public investments are made in long- | term durable projects like a bridge, it is sound, Dr.| Hansen thinks, to borrow if provision is made for | amortization and interest charges within the lifetime of such projects. Again I cite those historic attacks on proposals to! establish public schools, those editorials in the Phila- | delphia National Gazette in the summer of 1830. “It is an old and sound remark that Government cannot provide for the necessities of the people. . . . Some of | the writers about universal public instruction and discipline seem to forget tne constitution of modern society, and declaim as if our communities could re- | ceive institutions or habits like those of Sparta. The! dream embraces great republican female academies | to make Roman matrons . , . the scheme of universal | equal education at the expense of the state would be! a compulsory application of the means of the richer for the direct use of the poorer classes; and so far an arbitrary division of property among them.” Now there's an issue for those who are alarmed about present tendencies. Go back to fundamentals! and get rid of this government spending for public | schools. It is competing with private schools. If! public money shouldnt go into hospitals, why should | it go into schools?
By Eleanor Roosevelt
are in the machine-age now, and some of us have got to go back to the land.” Up those little hollows are shacks built of boxes and tarpaper. They call them “hide-outs.” ‘They are places you build for yourself when you have to get out of the company house. The mine which owned the village of Jere was taken over by the bank. The bank sold the village to the junk man, except in the case of a few houses which ‘were owned by individuals. That is one reason ‘why for nine months there was no water in Jere except ‘what could be taken out of the creek into which all the drainage owed. The co-operative has put in a spigot for the families who still live there and pays the water tax. The families have been able to pay the small amount necessary a week until about a month ago, but lately a good many families are off WPA and on relief,
and to earn 25 cents is a real problem when there is no work, As one woman told me: “Mrs. Roosevelt, how do I live. My husband is sick, I have three children. I get $10 a month on relief.” Oh, IT know the usual answer—if you need ‘work badly enough, you will find it, but up Scotts Run unless the co-operative can make ‘work, vou don’t find It and I am going to watch that self-help co-oper-ative with the greatest of interest and I hope that many people are going to help them ot lily ar ~ help co-operatives need a ‘great ‘deal of rom ‘outside people ut the start, \
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By Dr. George Gallup Director Institute of Public Opinion
NEV YORK, May 29.— In spite of the attack on the Roosevelt Administration made this month by the United States Chamber of Commerce, a majority of the American people are blaming businessmen as well as the New Deal for the delay in national recovery today. While a majority of voters believe that the New Deal has been “not friendly enough” toward business, an equally large majority say
business has also been too harsh toward the Administration. Both business and the Administration are delaying recovery by their attitudes, a majority of the voters say. These facts are indicated in a nation-wide survey by the American Institute of Public Opinion which comes after weeks of heavy firing at each other by prominent New Deal and business leaders, and after the tacit scrapping of the Administration's “business appeasement” program which has been fostered by Commerce Secretary Harry Hopkins and Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau Jr.
The New Deal has complained that “big business” has been staging a “sit-down” until after 1940. The reply of the U, S. Chamber of Commerce is that the New Deal has fettered investment and destroyed “confidence.”
Such charges and counter-charges will be vital issues in 1940. To discover how the general public is judging them at the present time the Institute put a series of questions to a representative cross-section of American men and women in all 48 states. Interviewing in the survey was completed early last week, just before President Roosevelt's speech before the country’s leading retailers in which he defended Government spending. The first question was:
“Do you think that the general attitude of the Roosevelt Administration toward business is too friendly or not friendly enough?” The largest single group, a majority of those with
opinions, said the New Deal had not been friendly enough:
New Deal’s Attitude Not Friendly Enough ........
Too Friendly ..
terest
RDott RIFHE 00 hv NN Ae 35
The Institute has asked this question thrice before, and a comparison of the results shows that an increasing number of voters think the New Deal has been too harsh with business. The trend of the “not friendly enough” vote has been as follows:
Not Friendly Enough November, 1937
terete RrTRER te
March, 1938 ........
There is political dynamite in this attitude as 1940 approaches. Successive Institute surveys have shown that while a majority of voters are supporting Roosevelt as President, confidence in “business” and “businessmen’s ideas” is increasing. ” ” ” UT this does not mean that the public sympathizes with everything businessmen have done. In a second
| question the Institute asked: “Do you think the general
attitude of business toward the Roosevelt Administration is too friendly or not friendly enough?” The answers in today’s survey are.
A & v - .
Whom Do The Voters Blame for Delayed Recovery — Business? The Administration?
Business’s Attitude Not Friendly Enough
About Right ........
Too Friendly
In both questions the same number of persons (16%) said they were undecided or without opinions. But the majority attitude of the country in the dispute between business and the New Deal seems to be: “A plague on both
Where Public Stands in Business-New Deal Feud
With business and the Roosevelt Administration still apparently far from a friendly understanding, the latest Amertean Institute of Public Opinion survey shows the following public attitudes throughout the United States:
1. Do you think the general attitude of the Roose.velt Administration toward business is too friendly or not friendly enough? Not Friendly Enough Too ‘friendly ..... coddvddivdvied. About Right “ono 000 vasniaannaiy, 35
. Do you think the general attitude of business toward the Roosevelt Administration is too friendly or not friendly enough? Not Friendly Enough ... Too Friendly About Right
3. Do you think the attitude of the Roosevelt Administration toward business is delaying business recovery? YES -. ‘oo dddds atv ddd dite 1830, NO aadade dd dias FE SON 3
. Do you think the attitude of business toward the Roosevelt Administration Is delaying business recovery? YES ‘.. NO
Serre Bees 0
PAGE 7
Public Frowns on Recovery Feud moans] HOlds Both Business and New Deal Responsible for Lag
A majority of Americans are holding both business and the Roosevelt Administration responsible for delayed business recovery in the United States, a nation-wide Institute survey shows today. group of 90 leading newspapers of all shades of politicol belief, shows that the public thinks business has been “not friendly enough” toward the New Deal's recovery efforts, while the Administration has also been too harsh on business,
The survey, conducted for a
your houses.” The public fs calling in effect for concese sions and “appeasement” from both groups. This attitude is brought out clearly in the comments of the voters themselves. The three most frequent come ments, in the order in which they are mentioned, are:
“Business has lost confidence in the Administration and has become afraid.” “Business fs antagonistic to the New Deal and hasn't co-operated enough.” “Excessive taxes on business are holding up recov ery.” Although the questions divide Americans along party lines to some extent, it is significant that 54 per cent of the Republicans with opinions say business has not been friendly enough and a large percentage of Democrats (437%) say the New Deal has been too harsh, The actual party vote is: New Denl Business Not Friendly Not Friendly Enough Enough 79% 54% Democrats NT 7” Third Party Voters .... 40 68 The greatest criticism of the New Deal on this point occurs in New England and inh the business and finaficial Fast, while the greatest criticism of business for being “not friendly enough” also comes from the East and from west of the Mississippi.
Republicans
Serer LEERY
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” ” ” N its final questions the Institute asked “Do you think the attitude of business toward the Roosevelt Admine istration is delaying business recovery?” and “Do you think the attitude of the Roosevelt Administration toward buste ness is delaying business recovery?” The national ‘vote is:
Business Attitude Delaying Recovery. ....69% Business Not Delaying Recovery........ 31% New Deal Attitude Delaying Recovery... .63% New Deal Not Delaying Recovery
In its recent Washington convention the U. 8. Chamber of Commerce went on record as opposed to a long string of New Deal measures including the principle of work relief, the Wages and Hours Act, securities exchange regire lations and extensions of old age pensions; but the fact Is that a majority of Americans {nh both great parties have approved these measires in recent Tnstitute surveys. Some business complaints against the New Deal do have substantial public support, on the other hand, They include charges nf “politics” in relief and excessive govern ment spending. A majority of voters have also approved changes inh the Wagner Labor Act,
TEST YOUR
Side Glances=By Galbraith
Everyday Movies=By Wortman
KNOWLEDGE
1—In astronomy, what is occultation? 2—Is Lower California a part of the United States? 3—To which committee of the U. S. House of Representatives are bills for raising revenue referred? 4—What is the correct pronunciation of the word heraldic? 5—What does “boxing the compass” mean? 6—In which state are the Catskill Mountains? T—Does long residence in the U. S. alone confer American citizenship on aliens?
» = » Answers
1—The hiding of one celestial body by another passing in front of it. 2—It belongs to Mexico. 3—The Ways and Means Committee. 4—Her-al’-dik; not her’-al-dik. 5—Naming the points of a compass in their proper order. 6—New York. 7—No. It is necessary to obtain naturalization papers,
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ASK THE TIMES
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"Well, 1 'want fo go to the Fair soon. "I'm going to ask the boss for a raise tomorrow. What do you
think | should wear?"
| don't want everyone fell. |
ing Te about it==| want fo tell them,"