Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 19 June 1939 — Page 10
POETS — The Indianapolis Times
(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER) ;
ROY W. HOWARD RALPH BURKHOLDER MARK FERREE President : Editor Business Manager
Owned and published Price in Marion Coundaily (except Sunday) by ty, 3 cents a copy; delivThe Indianapolis Times ered by carrier, 12 cents Publishing Co, 214 W. a week Maryland St. Mail subscription rates in Indiana, $3 a year; outside of Indiana, 65 cents a month.
«8» RILEY 5551
Give Light end the People Will Find Their Own Way
Member of United Press, Ser - Howard Newspaper Alliance, NEA Service, and Audit Bureau of Circulation.
MONDAY, JUNE 19, 1939
LIKE CAESAR’S WIFE
E think the “moral climate” has been made somewhat less muggy by the action of Harold L. Ickes in refusing to permit the use of PWA funds te pay a $36,000 fee to L. W. (Chip) Robert's engineering firm. The fee seems to have been all right, legally. But moral climate is made up of the appearance as well as the legal nature of things. And for a firm headed by the secretary of the Democratic National Committee to receive a large sum from a PWA project wouldn't look so good. Accordingly Ickes invoked an order of his that there will be “no inside track to PWA funds,” and neatly passed the buck to Georgia to pay Robert if Georgia thought Robert had 36 grand coming; the Robert contract being between Georgia and Robert, and not PWA and Robert. All this in connection with about five millions for a Georgia insane hospital of which PWA’s share was $2,381,000. Georgia, in the meantime, has investigated and absolved Robert of lobbying. So it looks as if it's Georgia's move to remunerate. Anyhow, we have said-dhite a few harsh words from time to time about Mr. Ickes. But when it comes to moral climate and the spending of public funds, the PWA Administrator gives every evidence of being like Caesar's wife— above suspicion. WPA please copy.
‘GOOD’ WORDS—AND ‘BAD’ HAT which we call a rose,” said Shakespeare, “by any other name would smell as sweet.” But Economist Stuart Chase, being an authority on semantics (the science of meanings), has different ideas. He knows that there's plenty in a name. Mr. Chase has prepared a study of “good words” and “bad words” for the Temporary National Economic Committee—the so-called monopoly investigation—at Washington. It is entitled “Preliminary Suggestions for Standardizing Terminology, or First Aid to the Layman.” But many people suspect that the first aid intended is to the New Deal in its efforts to make its spending policies more popular by calling them something else. “Spending is a ‘bad’ word,” Mr. Chase advises those who are conducting the investigation. “Avoid it like a copperhead. Talk about Government running expenses and Government plant. . . . If spending must be discussed, always remember that every dollar spent by the Government is usually a dollar of sales on the books of some businessman. Keep spending firmly associated with sales, wages, purchasing power—all ‘good’ words.” “Debt is a very ‘bad’ word in the folkways. Yet few people realize that if there were no debts there would be no investments and nothing to be called capitalism. It is important to keep debt and investment closely associated throughout these hearings. Otherwise you are going
AL)
to get stump speeches on the horrors of Government debt
and the sublimities of private investment.” “Economy” is listed as a “beautiful” word. But Mr. Chase warns the investigators to “keep economy and loss firmly associated,” stressing the idea that each economy means a loss to someone in sales or wages. And laymen who have a tender regard for the “good” word “savings,” can be turned to quite a different attitude if the “bad” word “hoarding” is used, instead. This is all very clever. Indeed, it may be a little too clever. If Mr. Chase's counsel is followed by the TNEC, some citizens who hear or read about the investigation may be subtly influenced in the direction desired by the New Dealers who asked him to prepare his study. On the other hand, there may be more intelligence “in the folkways” than Mr. Chase seems to believe. And the impression may get around that this investigation is not a search for facts—a “good” word—but a scheme to put over propaganda—a “bad” one.
THE NEW BRITISH ENVOY
THE 11th Marquess of Lothian as British Ambassador to the United States, vice Sir Ronald Lindsay who is to retire is an excellent choice. Indeed, a better would be difficult to find, especially in times like these. Born Philip Kerr, but heir to titles and riches, Lord Lothian might have been just another playboy. Or a dabbler with no particular aim in life other than to adorn decorative positions. But he has a mind of his own. He wants to find out about things for himself. He refuses to be a drone. So he jumped at the chance to serve as secretary to Prime Minister Lloyd-George. He has edited a newspaper, also a magazine. And he has held political office, traveled much and learned by studying conditions on the spot. At Mr. Lloyd-George’s side during the Paris peace conference, he came to know and greatly admire Woodrow Wilson. To this day he is a Wilsonian type of democrat. He has labored ardently for world peace—at first through the League of Nations and afterward, when the League had shown its impotence, in more practical ways. He believes the war debts should be paid and told the House of Lords go last year in no uncertain terms. He knows the United States and the American people well—and likes them, not condescendingly, but really. . Thus when the new British envoy comes to Washington, he will be in an exceptional position to interpret the people of Britain to Americans and the people of America to Britons—today one of the most useful jobs left for diplomats to do.
AT LAST
HIS week's national hero should be James Boyd, chairman of the high school board of trustees at Willows, Cal, who announced the name selected for the school’s new athletic grounds. Is it to be Boyd Field? No. Is it to be Trustees’ Field? It is not. Said Chairman Boyd: “The taxpayers put up the money. and it’s time they got some sort of recognition. We'll call it Taxpayers Field.” ‘
¥
7
Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler
Corrupt Marseille Taken Over and Run Directly by Paris, but in U. S. The Interference Is More Subtle.
EW YORK, June 19.—(In France, the national government has become receiver, so to speak, for the City of Marseille, a municipality so corrupt that even the French people, who prefer their politics strong and smelly, were scandalized by disclosures of high and low thievery, debt and degradation. The city has lost its right of self-government for the time being on the ground that this right is accompanied by certain responsibilities which were not discharged. The French may be, as the soldiers sang, a funny race, but they have here used the direct approach and a forthright declaration of purpose to obtain an effect which, in this country, is being developed quietly, indirectly, even insidiously, for better or for worse, by Jeans which Harold Ickes would describe as the flank attack. ; Kansas City is an example of civic failure and the infiltration of the Federal authority into municipal affairs. In Kansas City a particularly greedy and notorious old boss oppressed the town for years and, through his control of the police and all other forces of local government, had become a dictator beyond challenge from any local opposition. 2 2 2
N this situation the Federal Government began. hacking away at his power by prosecuting his subdictators for election frauds, which were Federal offenses, and finally got Boss Pendergast himself on a charge of defrauding the United States Treasury of income tax. He is now in prison. This was a case in which a big city had to admit that it was unable to do its own police work and has been glad to have the Department of Justice step in. There are reasons to hcpe that Jersey City will be similarly favored as a result of the investigation of the interstate horse-betting traffic which operated from a cepter on the Jersey side and followed up only recently when Treasury men began to prowl through the affairs of a system which bore itself with the arrogance of the Capone rackets. Miami also would be an interesting field of investigation, as, in fact, would every city in which rackets operate and politicians sell criminal concessions, for the income tax law gives the Federal Government an interest in graft wherever it is received. It confers a power on the Federal Government which can be used to an effect never before anticipated and the danger is that the state and local authorities will become so reliant on Federal investigation and prosecution that they will just yield up their responsibilities to Washington. = » 2
ow fact, the states and cities have been doing this in other ways for years but particularly under the New Deal. They have failed to perform their duties as states and cities toward their people, sometimes through no fault of their own but in some cases obviously because they preferred to pass the buck, and the effect of all this crying for help and defaulting has been to place them in the relation of a shaky creditor to a bank. Thus the Federal authorities may intervene as advisers, unofficial managers or receivers of the subunits of Government, and the tendency is to surrender responsibility and independence in return for money and other help from Washington, not openly and temporary, as in the case of Marseille, but unconsciously and forever,
Business By John T. Flynn
Roosevelt Plays Ace by Demanding New Taxes if Farm Bill Stands.
EW YORK, June 19—We are beginning to perceive now the poisonous character of the deficit form of financing governments. The chief poison lies in the ease with which governments
Spend money and the difficulty. of resisting demands for subsidies.
It is only a few months ago that the Senate and House were basking in the bright sun of fiscal re-
form—economy was the watchword. The economy practiced was economy on WPA which spreads its pleasant fruits in the cities. Strangely enough none of this saving of money on WPA had the effect of lightening taxes since all of the costs of this government enterprise come out of borrowed funds. But in the very midst of the Congressional reform suddenly it went berserk and provided for 400 million dollars of farm subsidies. That outlay was voted because the pressure for it from the farm districts was applied and the men from the farm districts who found it so easy to be economical in a city subsidy plan found it equally impossible to resist the farmer. And they found it easy not to resist because they didn’t bother about the means of raising the funds. Borrow them!—that’s easy. That imposes no burden on anyone, For reasons of his own, doubtless for trading purposes and for its political values, the President has now called a halt. He has told Congress that if it wants to pay out 400 mililons in farm benefits it has got to provide the money by taxes. But that's a horse of another color. Because to do that Congress will have to load further levies on the taxpayers and that will bring a yawp from them as loud as the paeans of thanks from the farmers.
Strong Protest Likely
There is only one piece of territory left for the Federal Government to tax—and that is the incomes from $5000 to $26,000. Taxes on these brackets have felt the tax raise lighter thar any other and on many of these brackets there has been no increase at all. But if you will stop to think about it, the people who inhabit these brackets are numerous and powerful. They exercise a tremendous influence in the nation—perhaps the greatest single influence. No tax gatherer can pounce on them without giving an account of the reasons for the new taxes. If they are for sound government purposes he can get away with it. But I doubt if he can get away with it for making gifts to farmers. The President is playing wise politics here. He takes the wind out of the sails of the economy clamorers. At the same time he will impose on them the odium of levying new taxes. It is to be hoped he will continue to insist on taxes for these benefits rather than borrowing.
A Woman's Viewpoint
By Mrs. Walter Ferguson
ONESVILLE is a mythical but typical city, with its Kiwanis, Lions and Rotary clubs and a splendid Chamber of Commerce. It boasts of its schools, churches and homes and is inhabited by the people like you and me. Jonesville comes to our attention through a correspondent who is outraged at the lethargy all of us display at the misery in our midst. Let's listen to a specific case she relates:
“Last fall hot dogs were served at a campaign meeting. I noticed three little boys in overalls who were darting in and out of the crowds like rats, cramming food into their mouths as if they were starving. I inquired about them until! I found they were three of five brothers living in a one-car garage on a vacant lot at the city limits. The mother had died at the birth of the sixth child, which was taken by poor neighbors. I gathered clothing for the family. They had been blue with cold and when I took the. things out found the 11-year-old boy, the oldest, did what cooking was done. “The night I first saw them I called the judge, asking that they be looked after. I was referred to the Child Welfare Board, the judge telling me to have a special investigator see about the case. She did, but nothing was done. The father spends part of his WPA earnings on a woman friend. The boys can’t be placed in homes at county expense without the father's consent. The case is ‘stil pending,’ after more than six months.” Multiply that story by a thousand and you get a faint picture of what goes on in practically every American city. Prosperous citizens are smug; boards and organizations work with snail speed, as children starve or develop into full fledged the averagq, citizen goes about
Has Someone Fed the Rabbits
% *, JK
/
Raw Meat?—By Talburt
ie
The Hoosier Forum
I wholly disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.—Voltaire.
DESCRIBES WPA AS HE SEES IT By Roscoe Smith, Sheridan, Ind. I wish to describe WPA as I see it. On one hand I see WPA giving work to deserving men, men who before the depression always had work, and men who are now earning their money, even on WPA, and
spending it on things that benefit their families. In this case WPA is deserving and a Godsend to laboring men. But many men with small children are turned down because of a lack of funds. Another WPA employs men who never did work, even before the depression. These men are on WPA but are not working, and some of them spend little on their families. In one case, a man who never did work is on WPA. He owns an automobile and is driving it almost every minute that he isn't working (?) on WPA. Once in a while he drives up and sits on his front porch and watches his neighbor working in his garden after working hours. This man has a job that pays about half as much on the hour as WPA pays. He couldn't buy gasoline to run an auto even if one were given him. I fancy when Mr. WPA is watching his neighbor work, he says to himself, “Look at that poor fool work trying to make a living for himself. Doesn't he know he has a rich Uncle Sam who will keep him without all that backbending and sweating?” Might not this “hit and miss” policy of conducting WPA be one of the factors that might cause about 46 other states to join with Maine and Vermont in 1940? = = 2
OPPOSES RESTORATION OF ROAD PATROL By John Taxpayer According to an article in the June 16 Times, Sheriff Al Feeney expects to ask funds in his 1940 budget estimate to re-establish the County Highway Patrol system that was abandoned some five years ago. This would require the acquisition of
at least 15 or 20 new cars and their maintenance at a high expense to the citizens plus salaries to an equal number of deputies. And for what? I travel the highways, county and state, almost every day and feel perfectly safe except from possible incompetent drivers. In more :than one-half million miles driven over Indiana, and particularly Marion County highways, in the last 20 years, I have never at any time been molested by any lawless individual. My real interest is as a home
(Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns, religious cons troversies excluded. Make your letter short, so all can have a chance. Letters must be signed, but names will be withheld on request.)
owner in Indianapolis. I bought a home about 25 years ago and paid for it out of my savings over a period of years—possibly the entire savings years of my life. The taxes on this property have steadily increased until they now amount to almost five months of its rental value per year. JIn addition other taxes such as gasoline, sales, etc. have increased until the real threat to the home today is not unlawfulness, but too much law and too much government. And this highway patrol is just one of the frills we can do without. Make it easier for our citizens to maintain homes with a reasonable standard of living and much of the law enforcement will take care of itself in a constructive instead of an enforced manner. # # 8
RECALLS OTHER SLUMPS NOT DUE TO WAR By H. W. Daacke In the June 13 Hoosier Forum,
“Voice in the Crowd” . . . accuses me of placing my own construction on, or misunderstanding, his former article. He evidently did not mean
what he wrote, or did not write what he meant to convey, as I see that K. V. C. in a later Hoosier
Forum came to about the same conclusion regarding V. I. C.s article that I did. One ,of V. I. C's statements: “World economics are distorted as the fruit of the World War.” If he thinks this is true let him explain the causes of ‘the panic of 1837, immediately foilowing the bank credit land boom of 1835-36— the debt repudiation depression of 1842-43, immediately following the cotton boom of 1838-39—the panic of 1857 following the California Gold inflation boom—the panic of 1875-76-77, following the industrial over-expansion boom of 1872-73— the depression of 1884-85, following the gold resumption boom of the early Eighties—the panic of 1893— 1896-97—1903-4—1907-08. V. I. C. identifies himself very efficiently in the very last sentence of his article when he writes “If I am wrong in this I will remain so.”
2 2 2
REPORTS CONFUSION ON MARKET ANALYSIS
By J. C. Johnson
The analysis of the City Market by Mr. Brinkman seems to be clear as mud. If the City Market earns “a neat balance in the general fund sufficient to lower the taxes in Indianapolis almost one-half cent” why isn’t some of this profit used for advertising? » Who does this “neat balance’ help, the one-third ill fed, ill housed and ill clothed (too poor to own property) or the other two-thirds?
New Books at the Library
URING the tense summer months that intervened between the fall of Austria and the capitulation of Czechoslovakia, Maurice Hindus made’ his head-
quarters as foreign correspondent in Praha. From there he traveled through the land, visiting city and village, factory and farm. A newspaperman of long experience, well acquainted with the European countries and their problems, Mr. Hindus is well equipped to bring these sturdy, reasonable, and at times fiery people to the world in his book, WE SHALL LIVE AGAIN (Doubleday). He tells how during the last 20 years they have gone quietly and determinedly about
Side Glances—By Galbraith
criminals, while
b-I8
"l used to could imitate lots of animals before they took my _ @&denoids out."
sisi
their business of building up their land, of developing industry, opening schools, erecting defenses. He pictures a land essentially of the middle class, with little of the extremes of either poverty or wealth, where the people live comfortably, work hard, eat well, drink heartily, sing with pleasure, and ask only to be let alone to work out their own destiny. ; And over this sober but bright picture hangs the menacé of the Nazi “pincers.” The Czechoslo® vakians knew that a crisis would come—but they were ready for it, with their fortifications, their great munitions factory, and their confidence in the friendship of France and Britain. The author’s story of the fateful September has both pathos and drama. We see the city at night, lights out, tensely waiting for the hum of German planes. The foreign correspondents argue among themselves as to what the Great Powers will do. Munich comes, the people are uneasy, defiant, in turns despondent and hopeful, and, at last, when the terms of the Munich agreement are told to them, futilely angry. This book was written before this last spring brought with it the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia. But still, even with the news of the activities of the German police, of the occupation by Germany, the tenacious and indomitable spirit of the people promises that perhaps Mr. Hindus has not chosen his title mis takenly.
MY NEED OF YOU My ALBERT DUNCAN STIER
It seems I have a need of you, The hours we spend apart Rise and stretch far away, Your going leaves a lonely heart.
Through hours we do not share I come to know my need of you, « Your love surmounting earthly things, , Keep faith, my dear, through years too few.
DAILY THOUGHT
Honour thy father and thy mother, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee; that thy days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with thee, in the land whieh the Lord thy God giveth thee.—Deuteronomy 5:16.
TEXT to God, thy parents.—
a severe strain on the heart and on the other im~
Gen. Johnson Says—
Government by Boards Inevitable, But Appeal Should Be Possible From Rulings of Little Dictators.
EW YORK, June 19.—“The insolence of office and J law’s delays” have been principal afflictions of mankind since long before Hamlet talked about killing himself to escape them. They are multiplying like guinea pigs. As Government regulates more and more of daily living, more and more “authorities” have to be set up. They are little oneman governments in which an administrator or a small committee, usually dominated by one man, really makes the law, executes
the law and judges the law. This is a violation of our basic constitutional prine ciple of Government that liberty depends on keeping these three powers separated and in different hands. But nobody has yet discovered a way to do it. Regulae tion has become so complex and covers a field so wide that Congress can’t possibly legislate in detail and the courts can't adjudicate in detail, But we certainly need some kind of instantaneous check on arbitrary abuses and other “insolences of office.” They are happening with increasing frequency. Perhaps the most flagrant example is the National Labor Relations Board whose Chairman seems recently to have admitted that, by an administrative decision, it has nullified the Congressional intent of the law of its creation. & ” 2 td
HIS column recently discussed and condemned an absolutely illegal and plainly unconstitutional rule of radio censorship laid down by the Federal Communications Commission.’ That little tyranny raised such a storm of protest that the Commission is apparently back-tracking. But essential liberties should not be left to any such hit-or-miss defense as public clamor. Another example of an even more flagrant type is the runaround that is being given Bob Moses and the City of New York in the matter of the Battery-to-Brooklyn bridge. Bridges can't be built across navigable rivers without the consent of the Secretary of War on the advice of the Chief of Engineers. But their only authority in this matter is to see that navigation is not obstructed. The proposed bridge is necessary to relieve the traffic congestion of the great sprawling metropolis. To its original plan the Chief of Engineers objected on the ground of obstruction to navigation. The plans were changed to answer all objections on. that score. 8 ® 2
HE city is now entitled to its permit. But all it gets is the old army game of passing the buck. The War Department doesn’t say “no,” probably because it has no legal right to say “no.” But it doesn’t say “yes.” It just remains busy tying its shoe and looking the other way. We can't escape the development of administrative law and commission government. But these little dice tatorships could be subjected to some kind of tribunal of appeal. They should be responsible to something above their own discretion. Theoretically they are responsible to Congress and, for flagrant abuses of authority, to the courts. But politically and practically that doesn't and couldn't possibly work. There should be and there surely will he—worked out some form of swift, impartial, informal and inexpensive tribunal and proceedings to keep these rapidly multiplying and potential tyrannies in line.
It Seems to Me
By Heywood Broun
Macleish Should Be Confirmed in Interest of Cultural Renaissance.
EW YORK, June 19.—~The complaint has been advanced that Archibald MacLeish, the poet, should not he confirmed as librarian of Congress bee cause the appointment should not go to “a figure=
head.” It would be hard to find a phrase less suitable to the personality of MacLeish. Technically there may be something in the contention that librarianship is a highly specialized craft and that the man or woman to take the post in Wash= ington ought to go through the mill of preparation. But at least some of the persons who advance this point do so without sincerity. There are men in the Senate who are willing to seize upon any pretext to oppose the President. And this is not a time for techhicalities. Right now it seems to me that the appointe ment by every right should go to an outstanding liter ary figure. A competent librarian unknown beyond the borders of his specialty won't do at all. It is well to remember that our first line of defense against any potential threat from abroad is not our armed forces but our champions of arte. We must strengthen our cultural front, which of late has been cruelly sabotaged by the solons of reaction. The appointment of a man as distinguished as MacLeish will be in part an atone= ment for the cuts in Federal Theater and Writers’ projects. Better than an atonement, it will be an earnest of governmental recognition of its necessary relationship to the aspirations of our own people. Unless we cherish beauty and truth we will have nothing worthy of defense.
His Work at Harvard
“Peet” is an honorable word, but when I see many references to “Archibald MacLeish, the poet,” I think the title may begin to take on the nature of a crack. Gravely do I suspect that some of the politicians are trying to convince the public that MacLeish is a young meg With long hair who doesn’t know what it is all about. His hair isn't long but his legs are long enough to touch the ground as well as to ride Pegasus. MacLeish, in addition to being a distinguished man of letters, has just finished a year’s work on a job requiring skill, knowledge, tact and executive ability. He has been at Harvard in charge of the small group of newspapermen who go to Cambridge gash year under the terms of the Nieman fellow ships. It has been said that librarianship “is not a literary pursuit.” It ought to be. We should put our best forward. MacLeish is about as good as they come. It will be a distinct triumph for democratic gove ernment if a man of his caliber can be enlisted for public service. Clear the tracks. Let's get going on our own national renaissance.
Watching Your Health
By Dr. Morris Fishbein
HENEVER one reads a list of the symptoms of people in association with various diseases, one is likely to be struck with the fact that two of the most common symptoms of all sorts of disease, including diseases of the stomach, are nausea and vomiting. These conditions occur not only in infections and disturbances affecting the nervous system, in diabetes and in kidney disease but in all sorts of conditions generally. 3 Obviously, therefore, it is not desirable for a doctor to try to treat nausea and vomiting as if they were a disease in themselves, but rather to attempt to handle these conditions merely to bring the patient comfort while determining exactly what is wrong. If a person vomits, it is probably an indication that the stomach is.trying to be empty. Not much is to be gained, therefore, by pouring a lot of things into the stomach. Most doctors are likely to recommend to patients first of all that they do not take any food for at least 24 hours and sustain themselves with warm fluids. The pérson who has been vomiting a great deal loses fluid from the body. The loss of fluid may in itself produce serious symptoms. The doctor will en deavor to give this fluid in various ways. The doctor is not likely to recommend the giving of action of the bowel. Neither is he likely to recommend the giving of narcotic drugs to quiet the action . of the stomach; the use of such cathartics in order te speed up the drugs will tend to mask symptoms- . which may tend to indicate the real responsibility for the condition. Obviously anyone who has been vomiting and who is dizzy may do himself severe harm unless he is in, bed and under control. Symptoms of this type place
+ - TR