Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 11 July 1939 — Page 12
PAGE 12 The Indianapolis Times
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ROY W. HOWARD RALPH BRURKHOLDER MARK FERREE President Editor Business Manager
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«p> RILEY 5551
Give Licht and the People Wili Find Their Own Way
Member of United Press, Scripps - Howard Newspaper Alliance, NEA Service, and Audit Bureau of Circulation.
TUESDAY, JULY 11, 1939
SHOULD THE CITY BUY? ET'S take the blinders off and take a good square look at this Indianapolis Water Company proposition. This newspaper feels no differently today about the desirability of the City owning its own distribution system than it did when the question was first menticned a year ago. We believe the City ought to own its own water utility, providing it can acquire the property at a fair price. As we see it, that is the sole point at issue at the present time. Very few persons have questioned the right or the wisdom of the City awning its own distribution system and source of supply. Municipal ownership of water plants is now so universal throughout the cities of the United States that,
among large cities, Indianapolis stands almost alone. = \ HAT. then, are the reasons why it would be wise for the City to buy the property at this time? Here they are, as we see them:
1. We do not believe that the City will ever again be able to buy the Indianapolis Water Company as cheaply as
= ” ” » ”
now. If the City turns down the present opportunity, the company will undoubtedly pass into the hands of another private group. Such a group will buy it as an investment, hold it either for appreciation or milk it for profits. If the new owners find profits inadequate, they will have no hesitai.on about trying to put new rate increases into effect. Rate fights are not cheap to carry on. And they are exceedingly costly to taxpayers if lost. 2. We believe that purchase is the safest protection taxpayers have against future rate increases, especially as a hedge against further devaluation of the dollar. 3. We believe that, if purchased at a reasonable price, the Water Company would continue to return the City a comfortable profit above and heyond all requirements for amortization of the bonds and interest for its purchase. The City would, in addition, be building up an equity in the property of well over a half-million dollars annually. 4, This may well be the last period of tax-free municipal bonds. If Congress passes legislation abolishing tax- | exempts, it would be virtually impossible for Indianapolis to purchase the Company and make an annual profit on its operation. Bond issues similar to the one proposed here have been selling well under 3 per cent in the present bond market. George J. Marott, Indianapolis merchant, believes the bonds could be sold for 2! per cent interest, or possibly less, ” x » = HESE are the principal reasons why, in our judgment,
the water company proposition should be considered |
» »
[ “murder him. Gus.
sensibly on its merits. At either the price suggested by Judson C. Dickerman, | the Federal utilities expert who studied the property for | the City, or that asked by the C. H. Geist estate, this is what the proposition simmers down to: The property produces enough revenue annually to pay | off all annual bond and interest requirements involved in | the purchase, enables the City to establish an equity of | more than $500,000 annually and to lay aside a clear profit of | several hundreds of thousands annually besides. It's as simple as that. To us, it looks like a sound business proposition. The only thing we wonder at is that | the City has gone on all these years letting outside interests grow wealthy performing a function that should rightfully | have been carried on by the municipality. We are not impatient that the negotiations have moved slowly. We think the City was right in moving cautiously. |
But it’s about time now that some public hearings are held, | such points as are at issue debated before the Mayor's Citizens Committee, and the question decided one way or the other.
DANGER POINT HE future of the WPA and the welfare of the millions dependent on that agency are being jeopardized by the strike of skilled relief workers against the Government. This strike, the encouragement given it by organized | labor, and labor's attempts to intimidate Congress are, in|
our opinion, fast turning public sentiment against the whole | nrinciple represented by WDA. The change in the relief law was recommended by the | Administrator of WPA. He says it is necessary to cure the | program's inefficiency and to insure that relief money shall | he paid to people in actual need. What it does is simply to | “put all relief workers on a basis of fair equality—not in | pay, since the skilled still get much more per hour and per month than the unskilled, but in amount of work. All are required to work 130 hours a month, But organized labor calls strikes; threatens more | “strikes and strikes,” as William Green did yesterday; orders Congress to jump to reverse itself; and finds, we | regret to say, some Congressmen willing to obey. If the strikes against this reasonable reform continue, | if there is more violence such as that yesterday in Minneapolis, and if the labor lobbyists keep on making threats, we fear that Congress will begin to hear a new demand which may become irresistible. That demand, coming from the people, will be for an end to WPA.
NORTH OF THE GOBI HE continuous “incident” along the vague border between Japan's puppet Manchukuo and Soviet Russia's Outer Mongolia has its comic aspects, at this distance. The daily claims and counter-claims of glorious victories in battles between enormous air fleets make it appear that one side or the other (if not both) is pipe-dreaming. Whoever is winning, it is fairly clear that there has been heavy fighting between Japanese and Soviet forces both in the air and on the ground. These men are not fighting just to relieve the ennui of frontier existence in the vast open places north of the Gobi Desert. They are fighting for positions in what may be a major salient of “the next world war.” The border clashes are not opera-bouffe stuff. They
| | i i
| objective,
are etagiia curtain-raisers for a major war that might be timed" with trouble in Europe,
Fair Enough
By Westbrook Pegler
LaGuardia, Opposing End of Tax Free Bonds, Now in Same Position as Business Which Fought New Burdens.
EW YORK, July 11.—In a shrill cry of alarm at the proposal to abolish the income tax exemption of public securities, Mayor LaGuardia, speaking this time as a businessman of large affairs, protested that this change would disrupt the whole financial arrangement of many cities, increase interest rates and destroy the credit of some municipalities. There is much in what he says on this subject, but there is material for mockery in the fact that a New Deal Mayor here voiced the identical complaint that businessmen have offered against measures which have enjoyed His Honor’s enthusiastic approval. The complaint of business has been that increased tax rates, social security, the Wage and Hours Law and the increase in operating costs imposed by unions under the Wagner act have, in effect, changed the rules of the game and in many cases disrupted in fact, grievously impaired, their financial arrangements. x » » S in the case of the municipalities now threatened with embarrassment, business firms had undertaken binding financial obligations. There were commitments for interest and the retirement of bhorrowings all written down on paper and subject to no excuse or kindness of heart. Other responsibilities had been taken into consideration and balanced in the formulation of plans extending far into the future. When such plans were suddenly thrown entirely out of plumb by Federal and state enactments and union demands enforced hy Government blackjack, neither Mr. LaGuardia nor any other aggressive kiver-to-kiver New Dealer expressed any sympathy for the problems of business firms which empioy help and pay wages. The financing and operating plans of business firms have been jangled by tax increases amounting to 600 or a thousand per cent, counting state as well as Federal afterthoughts announced after the cards were dealt, and while it is impossible to strike any figure, it is true that labor budgets have been forced far out of line. The Mayor of New York has not publicly applied his own predicament to private business, but it is plain that if he were a businessman himself he long ago would have joined in the sgquawk which he and his socio-politico-economic kin have described as the selfish cry of the Tories.
» URE. the repeal of the artificial and
» »
unfair
tax |
exemption for the income from city bonds would |
compel the City of New York, which is his business firm just now, to pav higher rates of interest, And of course, as he says, there isn't a mayor in the country who hasn't cause for worry. But when businessmen
said the same thing they were bourbons, reptiles and
economic royalists.
The mayor's threat to retaliate hv taxing Federal |
Government real estate in New York is not a new idea, but merely an extension of an old one. For the states, individually, are even now taxing one another
by various subterfuges, and if they should start taxing |®
the National Government as the sum of them all that would involve no new principle.
{ | { {
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' THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES ‘Yer All Out of Step b
TUESDAY, JULY 11, 1939 ;
ut Me !’—By Talburt rHE
v 4
The Hoosier Forum
wholly disagree with whet you say, but will defend to the death your right to say 1t.— Voltaire,
THE INFLATION ANGLE IN WATER CO. DEAL
vy Julian Bamberger
tioned “Inflation and Water Rates”
Up to now Mr. LaGuardia's attitude toward jnno- YOU directed attention to that por-
that of a sedentary sport in a ringside seat yelling He can't take it!" know those punches hurt until he got up in there and caught a couple.
Business By John T. Flynn
Uncensored News From Reich Shows Wages Lower, Food Higher.
EW YORK, July 11.—Statistics about the state of affairs in Germany are far from satisfactory. They can be so easily doctored. And even at that they present a gloomy picture of the economic situation there. But some facts collected by the Friends of
| German Freedom are far more eloquent than columns | of figures coming from a government bureau | Germany.
in
Here are some highly significant facts about the wages Which workers receive and the prices they have to pay for what they buy. Three examples are given. (1) A man weaver in 1932 received an average wage of 1.11 marks an hour.
| In March of this year he received an average of .96 { marks an hour.
The mark iz 40 cents. (2) A woman textile worker in 1932 got an average of 1.05 marks an hour and in 1339 .94 marks. (3) A less skilled woman worker got 84 marks an hour in 1932 and .70 marks
| this year.
people pay for food? Fats Are Rationed White cabbage has gone up in price 40 per cent
| and red cabbage 200 per cent, carrots 120 per cent,
brussels sprouts 100 per cent, onions 132 per cent, spinach 212 per cent. That is, spinach which cost 8 pfennigs in 1939 now costs 25 pfennigs. Various beans have gone up from 29 to 35 per cent. The prices of beef, fish and eggs have risen respectively 33 per cent, 40 per cent and 50 per cent. Coffee has gone up 100 per cent, margarine 82 per cent, saurkraut 73 per cent. These price rises are significant hecause they appear in society where there is a rigid government control of price. If government controls were removed the increases would be greater, since the prices do not reflect the scarcity. rationed. Fruit and vegetables are rare. It is practically impossible to get canned goods in many places.
He didn't |
vations which change the rules of business has been jon of Mr: Dickerman's Water Ga. report in which he suggested that
the possibility of inflation should be
| purchase the Water Co.
Mr. Dickerman, after first gesting the probability of inflation, goes on to say that “if the property is not acquired by the City, but remains in private hands, it is highly probable that rates will be raised
proportionately to the decline in the
{value of the doliar. {City buys now, it may,
If the
than a decreased value. This , .
In your editorial of July 6 cap-|
|
a factor in influencing the City to]
sug-!
i
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conduits and all other wires and service pipes along the route could
with no in- face would make an ideal truck jury to its investment, continue to route. thus eliminating a very vexconsider its rates as based upon the ing situation and doing away with present value of the dollar rather the cost of bridge upkeep, besides ./ relieving congestion by opening up, is a real argument to acquire the|the many streets which end at the property now, even if necessary at banks.
a price above its fair present value.”|
‘purchase the Water Co. now and CHIDES VANNUYS Inflation would ON SILVER VOTE mean that the City would have t0!g. peader
I am unable to see. however, how more favorable opportunity to acthe public can protect itself against quire the property.
rates brought about by Suppose the City does
increased inflation.
inflation follows.
{pay more for labor and materials] [in order to operate the properties.|
Therefore, if the rates
rates, bearing in mind that the
were not | : then raised, the utility would oper- the Silver Senators in voting to) On ate at a loss, which would amount “up” the price of silver in spite o: Station 12, a production system has to the same thing as an increase in the fact that this measure is eco-
nomically unsound?
i
| ownership of the utility is vested in the consumer it serves.
| | now, and borrowed the purchase-|
| |
The most that can be said about | because, forsooth, Senator VandenNow, with these reduced wages, what do these probable inflation as a reason for Derg asked him too! Besides being |a too-conservative Republican, Vandenberg never appealed to me as having such excellent judgment as|gressed! to be followed without question.
purchase of the Water Co. is that if the City bought the properties
money by issuing bonds, and inflation followed, that the indebtedness
| would be paid off in depreciated, or |
i | | |
| {
devaluated dollars. ” ”
” CITES 7 REASONS FOR
| BUYING WATER CO.
By A. W. Smith Some
1. Average cost of water supplied by municipally owned plants in In-
diana is $3.13; cost of Indianapolis
Butter and lard are |
It is not possible to escape the feeling that this can | pe 2 moved from Philadelphia to this
| hardly be accepted by the Germans as a steady diet.
They are told to submit one year for one military
We hear much of the plan of Hitler, by frequently
¢ They are asked to suffer another vear to i | attain some other military aim. And so it goes. {
provoking crises, gradually to excite the nerve of the |
enemy countries to the breaking point. But what of
the nerves of the people of Germany who are asked |
| to go through these crises on short rations. growing
ever shorter as one victory after another is won?
A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson
Eo time IT lay me.,down to sleep these nights, I |
thank God I am not a Cnrgressman., And what's
| : more, scornful, irate and jittery as they sometimes
make me, I regard the members of Congress with sincere feelings of pity. To be frank, the reason for that is not wholly altruistic. Concern for them is all mixed up with
| concern for self and country and the future of the
children. Nevertheless, I wouldn't be in any law-
| maker's shoes now for half the national debt.
Oh, yes, I think Washington legislative halls would
be benefited by the addition of more smart women, but for my sex's sake I trust we can stay cut of them untii the international tempest calms a little. Perhaps this rising feeling of good will toward Congressmen is merely a matter of growing up. I can
remember when I believed that if my candidate were elected he would set all wrong things right, or that if only women could boss for a while Utopia would replace Bedlam on the earth. Being older now. I no longer expect to step into an earthly paradise around the next corner. And with every mounting apnrehension there grows within me sympathy for those who must decide our momentous and vital issues. If we can overlook the ambitions, vanities and malices common to all, I daresay every man in Washington is doing the best he can according to his lights. And those who die in hsrness probably are quite as brave as the old pioneers who fell with their boots on. Anyway, at times of national erisis, it is disheartening to observe the selfish attitudes of voters who,.by demanding every financial consideration for their own
Fr, Ba RE
Side Glances—By Galbraith
|
Water Co., $6.71 (figures taken from Public Service Commission report April, 1938). 2. The company offices would be
city, bringing a substantial “white collar” payroll to town. 3. Save the heavy cost of lawsuits to decide changes in rates. 4. Would save the expense of political lobbies at each Legislature,
reasons in favor of pur- |.
{chasing the Indianapolis Water Co.: |
| Doorbells” (Messner), lceeds to think out loud, and we
{
| eonfession—how he has made love,!aching.” It tells of that book which (bribed, lied, anything to get the they all intend to write, how they : [ news he was a 5. Finance charges would be ma- self seeing. hunting out that story of the newspaper game—and how, if
tor VanNuys—that he lined up with pasis.
VanNuys? I voted for him because he was supposed to have an independent mind; a man who formed his own conclusion after all the facts were presented. Ta find that he is merely a rubber stamp of the Republicans hurts. Is he just out of touch with the people of his state or is this to be construed as a wooing of the Western Senators for the support of McNutt in 1940? The Senator seems to be in need of a tighter rein held by Hoosiers back home. ” » ”
THINKS DRIVERS TOO
INSURANCE-MINDED By Robert Wenink
When two or more automobiles come together, invariably the drivers yelp, “Ya got insurance?” The idea seems, go like heck, let come what may. | Uninsured buildings seldom catch! | five. The answer is, because of extra | (diligence and caution. » ” » OBJECTS TO PRODUCTION SCHEDULE ON WPA By WPA Well, the taxpayer can turn over and go to sleep now. His fondest dreams have been realized. The WPA has been put on a production
(Times readers are invited to express their in these columns, religious conexcluded. Make your letter short, so all can Letters must
views troversies have a chance.
be signed, but names will be withheld on request.)
terially reduced under City owner-
6. The canal might be placed in
be laid in the bed, while the sur-
7. It is unlikely there will be any
“ » ~
‘What is this we read about Sena-|
On White River Project 20800,
{been inaugurated whereby the men {are compelled to load and propel |these vehicles an average of what To cap this, he voted as he did [roughly constitutes 2114 miles a day with the threat of the loss of their jobs if they do not comply with their quotas. Verily hath mass production oroFrom the endless chain on Fords to the endless thain on What has happened to Senator | wheelbarrows.
New Books at the Library
EING a good reporter is half|behind the story, understanding it, instinct, half luck.” So says | finally pounding it out, hoping, Russell Birdwell in his book “I Ring | praying. It's a scoop—and he is He then pro- | triumphant! This book is a picture of the newslearn why he is one of the most | paper reporter, showing how his renowned and revered of reporters.| cerebrum works and how the wheels His biography recounts many and {qf a big newspaper go round. It varied exciting narratives from his | furnishes a keen insight into the own personal experiences and ob- lives of the men who make the servations. He tells how he scooped deadlines. It shows their joys and the story of the Lindbergh flight. hopes; their trials, tribulations, and And he confesses—if you can call it| the reasons for their constant “belly-
fter. He reveals him- mean to get rich quick and get out
they do, they are miserable with nostalgia for the smell of printer's ink. He describes their wives—the love, courage, patience, and under-|
Some woe wv ea stwwice, me. vow. ee
0. §. PAT. OF
standing they must have to put up with them. Do you have a yen for newspapermen? Do you yearn to write and make a name for yourself? Then by all means this is the book for you.
ANALYSIS
By CHRISTINE GRANT CURLESS I cannot class myself so very high, Nor say I choose with ease, the right from wrong; The tempter often fascinates me by Some subtle charm or some misleading song. I do not qualify for words of praise Nor merit much of happiness and bliss; But I, with all my undeserving ways Have one redeeming feature; it is this: I, self-effacingly, would give my all For whom I love, if such a time should call!
DAILY THOUGHT
And they spake unto him, saying, If thou wilt be a servant unto this people this day, and wilt serve them and answer them, and speak good words to them, they will be thy servants forever. — 1 Kings 12:7.
YT ET thy servants be such as thou mayest command, and entertain none ahout thee but those to whom thou givest wages. —~Sir Wal-
Gen. Johnson Says —
New Dealers Fighting Logan Bill Which Would End Odd Rulings of Some of These Dictatorial Bureaus.
ASHINGTON, July 11.—In California's precivil war efforts against Chinese coolie labor, it was administratively decided that a Chinaman is a Negro. The Federal Court once refused to go back of a finding by the immigration authorities that one, proved to be a natural-born American citizen. was a Chinese alien. Frequently, in the World War draft, local boards held that obvious aliens were citizens. The Secretary of War once found that stark barrier
across a navigable waterway was “no obstruction to commerce.” The court held that, while it was an obstruction in fact, the Secretaiv's ruling made it none “in contemplation of the law.” These little tyrannieg were a little funny. But they were not funny to the boys on the receiving end. The least funny part about them was that there was no remedy. Now we have 130 administrative agencies in the Federal Government alone, daily making, judging and executing their own laws—and against many of these despotic little empires there is no relief,
» ”
ERE is a part of a colloquy in a proceeding before a trial examiner for S. E. C. A lawyer wanted a
vital statement of his position recorded for the com= mission:
Examiner: “Well, it is not going on the record, sir, because it is the rule that the argument on admission or rejection of evidence isn’t to go on the record except at the examiner’s dictation—"
Lawyer: “I don't know how you can refer to a document that is nc< in evidence. I don’t know of any rule that authorizes that practice.”
Examiner: “Well, we will have to make one ., , sit down.” Lawyer: “May I state my position?” Examiner: “No, sir. I understand your position.
»
‘You have every conceivable ground for your motion.”
Yet on every “conceivable ground” Mr. Lawver had to give up and sit down because Mr. Examiner's “dictation” was to that effect. That is just one insolent examplé of instances that are multiplying with the vast expansion of administrative agencies.
” ” »
ENATOR LOGAN has a bill before Congress to curb this trend—unanimously approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee. It doesn’t interfere at all with the proper powers of any administrative agency. It only requires them to do justice and stay within the Constitution and the law. It provides for public hearings before the issue of any administrative
| ukase and for a quick and simple way to have com= | mission-made laws and actions tested by the courts.
But the chill, dread hand of the White House janissariat is groping for the jugular of this one, Their man Barkley is stalling it on the Senate calendar. Why? President Roosevelt indicated the answer in 1935. “In 34 months we have built up new instruments of power. In the hands of a people's government this power is wholesome and proper. But: in the hands of political puppets of an economio autocracy, such power would provide shackles for the liberties of the people.” Tt is providing plenty of shackles now and these revolutionary lads want it te stay that way. Dictatorships are swell—as long as you are the dictator,
Aviation By Maj. Al Williams Airline Pilots in America Fly
To Keep Passengers Comfortable.
ASHINGTON, July 11.—Along with the mechan=ical advances in this flying business piloting technique is progressing rapidly. A 21-passenger Douglas DC3 cannot be handled the way our airline pilots used to handle a trimotored Ford. Neither can a single-seater fighter pilot fly his modern Grumman or Curtiss ship the way he flew his fighting job of a few years ago. Two hundred and fifty or 300 miles an hour do not permit of change in direction as rapidly as was possible in slower fighters. I have had plenty of opportunity and reason to study airline pilots and their methods here and abroad. No airman ever steps on board an airliner without a quickening of his senses. Even if the doesn’t know what, the pilot of his ship is going to do, he feels, hears and senses the purpose of what's going on and what is to be expected. s And every flying man studies other flying men, He learns more from them than he can ever learn from any book or school. To my mind, even though foreign pilots may hg technically as well qualified as our airline pilots, they can't hold a candle toe our boys when it comes to flying transports to the satisfaction of the passenger. European pilots fly their ships to suit themselves, while American pilots are always trying to suit the passengers. ai fais ta an
Didn't Miss a Trick
On a recent flight from Washington to Miami on Eastern Air Lines trip No. 9, we dodged half a dozen thunder and rainstorms. We could have plowed right on through every one of them. But reliable, steady G. J. McDonald, our captain, sacrificed a few minutes by flying around the bad storms and avoiding a lot of bouncing around. When we did encounter rough air, it pleased me no end to hear the engines siow down. “Mac” wasn’t missing a trick. A friend of mine flew from Pittsburgh to Chicaga on TWA, last week, and he tcld me the same story. The pilot of his ship, Capt. Bob Larsen, skirted a number of summer thunderstorms, and, sure enough, when he did run into rough air, my friend said he heard the engines slow down. Don't mistake these efforts, or their purposes. Tha trained flying man can take rough air and smooth air alike. When he carefully alters his course to avoid thunderstorms, he is thinking of you--the passenger— and trying to serve you. He regards you as his customer, and he wants a repeat order. And he knows that the way to induce vou to give him and his airline more business is to flv you in comfort.
Watching Your Health
By Jane Stafford
HE vegetable garden, unless it boasts & mint patch, may not be your idea of a place to get a cocktail. From the health viewpoint, however, it may be looked on as a storehouse worth exploring with cocktails in mind. Vitamin cocktails are its specialty. Even without a vegetable garden of your own, you can still have your vitamin cocktails. You will have to enlist the co-operation of the cook. Tell her to save the water in which she cooks the vegetables— spinach, peas, asparagus or celery are recommended by Cornell University home economists as being especially desirable. Chill the vegetable water and serve with a dash of lemon juice, as a change from the inevitable tomato juice. You can use the water from any of these vegetables alone, or blend a combination of them to suit your taste. Their value is that they contain about half of the vitamin C that was in the raw vegetables. This vitamin is the one that protects against scurvy. Hae bitual lack of it may cause tooth defects, sallow, muddy complexion, fleeting pains in the joints, arms and especially legs, loss of energy and irritability, Doctors find that many a person, even if not suffering from outright scurvy, is on the way to it because of a deficiency of this vitamin. Citrus fruits and certain other fruits and vegetables are good sources of vitamin C. Since this vitamin cannot be stored in the body for long, experts advise eating some every day or at least every other day. J Vegetables should be used soon after they are gathered, or stored in a cool place (temperature just above freezing) to guard their vitamin C content. Exposure to air, drying and long cooking all tend te destroy this vitamin. When cold weather makes you want to begin your meals Mth sous. he Yegutanle, Natet will Some in handy for ‘adding flavor as well as nourishment to
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