Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 19 July 1939 — Page 12

PAGEL

The Indianapolis Times

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER) BOTUOVARD RALPH SURSEOLDEN A Meee Owned and published Price in Marion Upun- ~ daily (except Be by v3 i 83 sopys Qelty- / & Wee :

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@> RILEY 5551

@ive Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

Member of United Press, Scripps - Howard Newspaper Alliance, NEA Service, and Audit Bdreau of Circulation.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 19, 1939

DON’T JUMP AT CONCLUSIONS

RESIDENT ROOSEVELT has surrendered, under pres-

sure from homesick Senators, on the matter of revising the so-called Neutrality Act. There was little else he could do. i So be it. But Adolf Hitler had better not set too much store by this action. ‘The law, to be sure, still says that no arms, ammunition nor implements of war can be exported from this country io belligerents, whether bullies or bullied. - But let Mr. Hitler take care to read the omens. Let him reflect, before he drops the hat for a European war, that public opinion could chase Congress back to Washington to repeal the arms embargo in not much more time than it takes to say “auf

wiedersehen.”

WE'LL TRY TO CLOCK THE HATCH VOTES

AN article by Charles T. Lucey, on another page of to- * day’s issue, tells how the Washington correspondents of The Indianapolis Times, together with the correspondents of other Scripps-Howard Newspapers, will undertake tomorrow to make a record of all the votes cast on the Hatch Bill. 2

Those votes would not otherwise be known to the public. For they will be taken by what is called the “teller system,” that being a trick procedure by which thé House of Representatives decides questions without the individual members getting their names in the record. We're using this space here to tell WHY we are undertaking that assignment,

” ” 2 ” » » ! ‘HE first big WHY is our belief that the Hatch Bill is = one of the most important pieces of legislation that has come before Congress in many years. The bill is designed to abolish politics in relief, to make impossible a repetition of those practices of bad odor that scandalized the elections in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and other states last

year, where persons on relief were intimidated and shoved

around by politicians. Another purpose of the Hatch Bill is to break up the age-old political racket by which Government jobholders seek to perpetuate themselves in office and maintain control over the machinery of the political parties. This is not a Republican or a Democratic issue. Malpractices have been common in both parties in the past, and will be in the future unless restrictive legislation is enacted and enforced. 1t is our belief that political parties. are, or rather should be, the property of rank-and-file Democrats and Republicans. And it is our belief that persons on the Government payroll should devote their time and energies to earning their salaries, rather than to polities. The Hatch Bill, as originally drawn and passed by the Senate, would forbid the swarms of executive department officeholders from taking active part in political campaigns and political management. It would thereby deliver the political parties back into the hands of the people.

aN =» , 5 8s x » THE second big WHY for clocking the Hatch Bill votes is that we think the people of the country are entitled to know how their elected representatives stand on all important questions. : A roll-call vote on the Hatch Bill, in the form the measure goes before the House, would mean nothing. For the House Judiciary Committee, which last operated on the. bill, removed all its teeth.” But tomorrow, from the floor, Rep. Dempsey (D. N. M.) will try to defeat the Committee's * teeth-pulling amendments. And,all votes on Mr. Dempsey’s motions will be by the “teller system,” with no official record showing how the individual Congressmen line up. Under the “teller” procedure, the members vote “aye” - or “no” by marching up an aisle and being counted. It will be our job to try to write down their names as they march up the aisle. It won’t be easy, for a “teller” vote is _concluded in 10 or 15 minutes, which is not much time for identifying some 400-odd Congressmen—especially from the bird's-eye view of the press gallery, where the bald heads look pretty much alike. ; : : We don’t guarantee to be 100 per cent accurate. But “we'll do our best. . When it’s all over, of course, we’ll print the Congressmen’s names in the paper—on all teller tests that seem important, and to the extent we succeed in identifying those heads as they rush up the aisle. In cases where there may be inaccuracies, we invite the Congressmen to register with us as to how they vote, |

THE WPA CONCERTS

T HE thanks of Indianapolis belong to the WPA’s Federal Music Project which has just announced plans for a series of nightly outdoor concerts beginning next week and continuing through August. dite With only five Park Board-sponsored concerts scheduled for this summer, it was beginning to appear like a lean summer for the thousands of citizens who love good music. To the rescue has come the WPA, with concerts scheduled at Eagle Creek Park, Washington Park, Christian Park, the lawn of the Rauh Memorial Library and at two other sites to be selected by the Park Board.

POOR LO GOES MODERN

ODAY’S Indian news is depressing. At Browning, Mont., where the Blackfeet are holding their annual encampment, a jitterbug contest is the chief attraction. Maidens of Arizona’s Hopi tribe, participating in a beauty contest,

4 .

- posed in one-piece bathing suits for the roto photographers.

Daughters of the Mescalero Apaches, in New. Mexico, are

being introduced to tribal society at a three-day debut, and |

among the gifts showered upon them by 800 Indian guests are silk underwear and stockings. All this, as we say, is pretty sad. It would be more inspiring to think of the noble Red Man as remaining sternly

an effete civilization—standing ready, when worse finally _ comes to worst, to take back his country and run it as it

‘By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

Life in a cultured civilization, other ; ;

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler Now It Comes Out! The Experts

Use the Ouija Board to Find Out|

Who's Going to Win What When!

EW YORK, July 19.—Freddy Lieb, who covered baseball Tor a quarter of a century and retired a few years ago, has written a book called Sight Unseen, dealing with occult matters, in which he confides that he often consults a spook named Mark Antony through the medium of & ouija board. This revelation will be of peculiar interest to members of his late large public in New York who used to follow him through mazes of percentage figures to arrive at predictions on the pennant contests in the major

| leagues and on the World's Series after-shows.

It will be ‘even more interssting to Mr. Jack Randolph, a journalist, who was working on the copy desk of The Richmond Times-Dispateh in the autumn

of 1936, when Mr. Lieb offered: to bet even money on

Alf Landon against Franklin D. Roosevelt. Mr. Randolph had been saving a Liberty Leaguer all summer of that year and was expecting to take him foria wager at something like eight to five when his Liberty Leaguer suddenly took fright, refusing to be drawn into any sort of bet whatever. In this sad situation your correspondent generously offered to give Mr. Randolph a. piece of Mr. Lieb, who was then about to drive south to his home in Sf. Petersburg, Fla., passing through Richmond on the way. : . nn ME LIEB agreed to meet Mr. Randolph on the ¥1 Courthouse steps in Richmond on a certain day, but just when everything seemed to be arranged beyond the possibility of mishap Mr. Randolph confided his secret to a few friends, and the word spread through Richmond like. the whooping cough through a kindergarten. The result was that on the day Mr. Lieb passed through Richmond the crowd was so great that he could not approach within ‘three blocks of the Court House. : Your correspondent got $25 worth of Mr. Lieb at even money, just pour le sport, and thought no more about it until this book came out recently. It is a very peculiar book, just to begin with, because Mr. Lieb says that he was prompted to write it by a belief whieh had been gnawing at him for years that there must be some more enjoyable system of life than those systems,which are followed by most members of the human race, But it is his admission that the ouija board and the spook named Mark Antony helped him arrive at his predictions which will cause most discussion and possibly, among his colleagues who have continued in the baseball business, some: resentment. :

TOR the business of experting the baseball races and World's Series contests has been a solemn affair for many years, and even Mr. Lieb himself always gave his customers an impressive show of careful calculation. He would put down long lists of fig-

ures running into four decimals and divide the runs

batted in by the pitchers’ strikeout records and multiply the result by the bases on balls and add a small sprig of something he called the psychological factor.

Obviously, if the ouija board was giving him his selections, Mr. Lieb’s statistics were a blind and his clients wasted many man-hours of study. In. 1936 he insisted that he picked ‘Mr. Landon by the ear-to-the-ground method, but in view of his admission now it is impossible to stifle a doubt. It is equally difficult to stifle a thought that the editors of the late Literary Digest consulted the same authority in arriving at the same result.

i 7

Business By John T. Flynn

Calls Building Industry the 'Crowning Disgrace of America.’ EW YORK, July 19.—If anyone wants to know what is the matter with the building industry, here is a mere sample of the trouble. Take the wall of a house. Say a stucco wall. Begin from the outside and you have three layers of stucco, a layer of lathing, another of paper, the one

of sheeting and then the up-rights. Then inside you have the lathing again, three layers of plaster and three layers of paint. That wall, about six inches thick, is composed of 14 layers. Each layer is put on by a workman and a helper paid the very highest wages for working in the most awkward position and by the most primitive methods. - As long as the walls of houses are made that way, houses will be costly. And as long a$§ workmen insist on making walls that way and charging the very highest wages for it, so engineers will continue to try to invent a method which will dispense with the workmen. It is inevitable. : Try to make wails by some less costly method and you will run into union rules, subcontractor opposition and material dealer opposition, and this opposi tion is expressed in all sorts of effective ways. :

The Building Codes

One way of expressing this opposition is through buiiding codes. Building codes are made in cities and are supposed to ‘outline the method of constructing buildings in the interest of public safety and health. As a matter of fact, when a building code is made the material men and subcontractors and union leaders swarm around the code makers and, through eir pressure, force into the code provisions not for the protection of the public but for the protection of the crafts and fo squash competition with their special methods of making houses. This business of ‘building houses has Jot to be attacked at its very foundation. It is a crowning disgrace of America that it has found no means yet of building homes in which the self-respecting low-paid worker can find a haven of rest and shelter which he can pay for out of his own income and not be mate the victim of government charity. "Phe first decency is a decent home. If we cannot give the American that, we will hear from him, one of these days. But we cannot give him that while the building industry is hamstrung, crippled, by agreements and practices designed not to produce

.buildings but to create a monopoly in the hands

of a small group of workers and dealers. It has been stabilized to death. : ;

A Woman's Viewpoint

QUARTER of a million teachers in tire United States have declared their. determination to teach tolerance, understanding, justice an | the unswerving ideals of freedom. When the National

Education Association met recently in San Francisco, |-

the keynote was a better functioning democracy. That, I think, is evidence that our schools may be waking from their academic doze. It dawns upon the pedagogic mind that home and school together may be responsible for much of today’s confusion and turmoil, as well as for its graft and crime.

No man expects to build a sturdy house without | setting up a strong foundation. Neither should cit

zens of 4 democracy be so childish as to think they can govern themselves efficiently until they are capable of self-discipline, ; : Moderation, restraint, sanity, high ideals and the desire to co-operate are necessary for the making of a good life. Everybody knows, too, that these habits must he learned in childhood or not at all, and that when boys and girls do not khow the principles of decent living they can never acquire the ability to govern themselves. ame

Teachers, perhaps

personality and who should be allowed to. active part in the affairs of their time, Ei : Often one feels moved to ask with Virginia Woolf,

0 ti ! “Of what use is education, if all over the earth edu: : : aloof from pale-face customs, scorning the temptations of |

cated men continue to tolerate and promote war?” find out what our children are to be educated for—

ola ne ;

mote: than anyone. else, set the | | +8 standards for tomorrow, and so we can ‘readily see | | that we need instructors who have ocia) Vision and TELS

Before we spend more money on education, let's |

D OL.

: Representative Government

THEN THAT WE

1 smouLD

e Hoosier Forum ; I wholly disagree with what you say, but will el ! . defend to the death your right to say it.—Voltaire.

JUDGMENT OF MASSES CAN'T BE TRUSTED, HE DECLARES

By M. G. There is no escaping’ the fact that this country has reached a critical stage. Representative government is facing its severest test. It is doubtful if democracy can survive. Never before has there been such disregard for law and justice. recent bombing outrage at Muncie is but a flagrant example. It must have been wishful thinking on the part of Thomas Jefferson which led him to put such implicit confidence in the judgment of the masses. The record shows that the common run of people are incapable of forming sound judgments. That great; bodies of relief workers would seek . . . to dictate the terms under which they would accept relief work is clear proof of the incompetence of their judgment. : Alexander Hamilton's profound insight warned him against a too free dependence upon: the judgment of the common herd. :

” = J CLAIMS CREDIT FOR HELPING UNCOVER SUBVERSIVE GROUPS By Edward F. Maddox In answer to the letter of L. F. I want to say . . . that very few advocates and defenders of alien “isms” and dictatorship, like L. F., sign their names to their subversive propaganda. The fact is that the subversive groups—Socialists, Communists, Nazis and Fascists—have been publicly exposea, and so much educational matter, revealing their

treasonable activities has been published . . . that only a few are bold

members of those alien “isms.” . .. L. FP. reveals his subversive ideas

form of dictatorship to equalize opportunity in this country, then I suspect we are going to have a dictatorship. ... . Maybe we need a dictator.” That's the way all of these foreign minded radicals think. But the great majority of American citizens are awake and bitterly opposed to their subversive activities and I claim credit for helping to uncover and expose the real subversive, treacherous and hypocritical character of these wreckers of

peace, domestic tranquillity and po-

litical and religious freedom. . , .

The

enough to identify themselves as.

in these words: “If it takes some

(Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns, religious con-, troversies, excluded. Make your letter short, so all can have a chance. Letters must be signed, but names will be withheld on request.)

IN OPPOSITION TO ‘BREAST-BEATING BABBITTS’ By Daniel” Francis Clancy, Logansport, Ind. : : { An American Legionnaire, whom

that he favored the deportation of

all Communists and Nazis—even if they were native-born Americans..I emphasize the fact that this gentleman was not a loose-minded fanatic but, on the contrary, a sobér-minded lawyer and a leader in his community. .. . He stated that anyone who believes qtherwise was not “a redblooded American” and should also be deprived of his citizenship. . . . A woman who preceded Norman Thomas on a platform in New Jersey some months ago pleaded with the citizenry to prove that they did not “believe Americanism means hoodlumism.” Norman Thomas never completed his address on that platform — a hundred veterans, shouting “We want Americanism!” turned the gathering into a riot by marching in with a 25-piece band, jeering and throwing eggs. In that

I recently sounded - out, declared |

case, as in many others, veterans

‘| have made Americanism and hood-

lumism synonymous. . . . I condemn these breast-beating Babbitts who, with this philistine patriotism, degrade and defeat the intelligent, tolerant liberalism of the Constitution. ; 5 ‘I wish to make it clear that I am opposed to communism and naziism —because they are intolerant and violent. But, also, I am against those who believe the best way to fight violence is with violence, and intolerance with intolerance. Intolerant groups fighting intolerant groups merely results -in wider spread intolerance—it is like fighting ignorance with ignorance. ‘Therefore, I urge all tolerant and intelligent- Constitutionalists to oppose alike the bigoted barbarism of Communists, Nazis ‘and - organized veterans .of the above breed. . . .

x »

ATTACKS ‘OVERCHARGE ON MARRIAGE LICENSES By Mrs. M. Jordan : = I see in your story on the election budget for 1940 that Mr. Ettinger, the County Clerk, takes credit for a saving of $6589 to the taxpayers. If Mr. Ettinger would stop charging young couples $5 for a marriage license instead of $2 allowed by law; he oe brag and expect some

favorable publicity. I am disappointed that |The Times has not given more publicity to the..,overchange

(Pamphlets) “ IR-WAR” (Modern Age). The Irish scientist and psychologist, W. O’D. Pierce, tells something, of the part the airplane played in the World War and discusses the probable nature of air-warfare in the event of another major war.

“Lodging for a Night” (Adventures in Good Eating, Inc). Duncan. Hines gives welcome information concerning clean, comfortable

and pleasant accommodations for

braith

‘or existence in an- |

acti geo hci ra

A |

New Books at the Library

bb | | (National Economic

| plications.

the tourist. His list includes hotels and inns; guest houses, and into courts. A revised, 1939, edition.

“Rand McNally Road Atlas of the United States and Mexico” (Rand). A prize for the tourist in America, complete, clear road maps, revised for 1939. and partial maps of the principal cities. i x

“Travel Photography” (Fomo Publishing Co.). - How to’ use your camera on rail, wheels, keel, or wings; in the mountains, at the seashore, or in the tropics. These suggestions are offered by Karl Barleben Jr, dean of the New York Institute of Photography. “Democracies Also Must Plan” and Social Planning Association). E. J. Coil, Director of the Association. discusses

{economic planning in America in

relation to the preservation of democracy.

“In Quest of Empire” Policy Association.) This discussion, by Walter Constrelo Langsam, of the vexed question: of colonies, sheds

light upon present European com-

“A Guide to Correct Exposure” (British Periodicals, Ltd). Some of the principles and rules concerning

| | one of fia ‘tundsnenisi for good

hy, By W. F. F. Shearcroft... “i. ! JULY SHINES By MARY P. DENNY July shines in bright blue skies In tender light of purple pansies. In gold butterfly in flight From flower to flower In morn’s fair light. July shines in chick-a-dee

| |On amber wings of summer day.

DAILY THOUGHT He staggered not at the prc : of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to

‘liquidating project. -

self, that is your right,

limited and will get well wi t | exceedingly well spent” |

- for dinner” or an a

ment about himself is not e. 50h

Gen. Jo Says—

As Far as He's Concerned the Steagall Bill Will Let Us in For the Biggest Cleaning Yeh TASHINGTON, July 19.—The Steagall (Cohen) bill for “self-liquidating projects” 1s ther broad surrender by Congress of its constitutional . power of the purse. It authorizes the Reco :

{

Finance Corp. to sell its bonds to the public. Nojdiss.

guising words can make this other than the tion

of a debt of the Federal Government. en Subject to certain- maximum allowances of 750 - million dollars to public roads, 350 million dollars to public works, 500 million dollars to RFC, 600 million dollars to Mr. Wallace and 500 million dollars te rural

electrification, all this money is made available “upon -

direction of the President,” It is anothet mammoth blank check for a national election year, ° The idea is abroad that this money is to be loaned —not spent—for “self-liquidating” projects. Part of it, is, but one billion dollars for RFC and public roads is to be expended on railway equipment, highway construction and the ative purchase of lands alongside the proposed highway. The only selfliquidating hope here is that, from the lease or, sale of railroad equipment and land, or toll-charges on highways, principal and interest on the money spent may be repaid-in:40 years or earlier. 3 : ® 8 = fe : Tos is no requirement in the bill that any | ° particular. expenditure shall be for a self1t only grants powers to spend or lend with the admonition that the powers shall ° be exercised “with a view” to recovering the cost of the works or loans with interest. But that appar- - ently means a sort of over-all hope permitling it not inviting particular spending or lending which is not “self-liquidating.” I i "Here is an automatic and continuing authority\ in the executive to spend, without ever going back to ° Congress again, an amount which every year, con=ceivably could cover the whole three:billion dollars— all to be charged finally and directly. to the Treasury. Of course, no such absurd abuse. would be tolerated —but the authority is there, it is only a ‘question of -- how far it can be used without protest. re eae “111 ever a bill needed debating this is it. If is a revolutionary change in accounting and financial

{policy of the Government involving billions and still -.

further removing Congress from control of collosal Federal handouts. It is full of obscurities and jokers --» and grants financial power more broadly than any law yet proposed.” : Ch ig . Wh » » » sy RE TOR example, the only limitation over Secretary =~ % Wallace's power over $600,000,000 is that tne money shall be loaned for “rural security projects.” What are “rural security projects?” The nearest the ° pill comes to saying is that they are “facilities” for "4 those who “obtain or who have in the past obtained the major portion of their income from farm opera: (i tions.” Lon nati “rn One argument for the bill is that the RFC: has . in the past proved a prudent lender. Its loans have t liquidated with little loss, But the RFC will have no power over these loans. ‘Most of them will be un- - der the direction of those great financiers, Carmody and Wallace. Thé former was reported. in, the Wash- -. ington Merry-Go-Round as having already and to - his face challenged Jesse Jones (who is now out of RFC) as an anti-New Dealer. The security for Mr. Wallace’s past loans is notoriously Inadequate. i Congress doesn’t check this legislation with some sort. ° of “spendthrift trust,” Ugele Sam's pocketbook is in. -- for the biggest cleaning yet. | Ye

— Br +3 a

ohh a

Avision |

By Maj. Al Williams ' =

Donald Douglas Has Brought Renown x To American Aircraft Industry. "4

EW YORK, July 19.—Every American interested: * in our aeronautical development would rejoice if he could look .at the cut from a London news... :™ paper now before me. It shows a view of Croydon, sap London's famed airport, and near the loading gates .. are five big, low-winged silver monoplanes. ‘= =‘ © “*{ Pour are American-made; the fifth is of French °° construction. oid bash rmmin nia g These four airplanes are Douglas DC-3's, made in. -. our own United States, and now serving many of the °, major airlines of the world, because it is the best airliner of its type in the world. fo But the patriotic Britisher who wrote the captions did not have a heart filled with pride; rather it ‘was

overflowing with venom: Re “British Firms Said These Planes ‘Are Not Worth iy

Building’ and ‘Lost 7,000,000 Pounds,” read. the top line. Underneath this disquieting information is the: * following story ‘which John Bull certainly didn’t .: enjoy reading: : tpt Lg de oR / “Every day at Croydon, airliners are lined\up like ..§ this. But the money that bought them did not .come : * to British manufacturers. Four of the planes in. this . picture are American Douglas type, worth about 140,- -*: 000 pounds. Three belong to Royal Dutch Airlines, -..

| and one to the Belgian Sabena line. Douglas air.

liners have been sold all over the world and brought in more than 7,000,000 pounds, because Britain had * " ° built no machines to compete with them. She 25 Years in Aviation fag HN “ig “When Donald Wills Douglas began building fast *° metal airliners, five years ago, British builders told -. the Daily Express Air Reporter that the machines * “yg were not worth making; that international airlines would not buy them. Britain has just started to turn out fast planes to compete with-the Douglas type. The other plane pictured here is ‘an Air. France Bloch type.” ! nls Donald Douglas, still a young man, has just of- 2 ficially completed 25 years in aviation. LI As Americans, we are ud of this little Calf fornian for what he has done to further the name 34, § of our aviation in er lands, and one of the. greatest tributes he could have received is from this British newspaper clipping. ~~ Fair ARNE What is more important, -all our manufacturers -: of aircraft in this country are willing to subordinate ~ # - their own commercial interests and competitive practices on this silver anniversary of a great -airplane manufacturer, and honor. him for the world renown he has brought to the American aircraft in-"..g dustry. ’ and J Sa rR

Watching Your Health

By Jane Stafford | g,

(Foreign |.

AYBE you get tired of being advised to consult ’ your physician whenever anything ails you. For economic or other reasons you may not he inclined to follow such advice. If you prefer to doctor yourthe U. 8. Public Health Service out. But it is not al wid Toceg ly a p ol lains, “Is that w

oint; po “The principal value of Federal Health Service trained and practiced eye a serious jiisiess Jeune prompt and specif reat : ment and a comparative y which is self- 3 Money expended for this | atory service is |- If, for example, you wake niddl : night feeling nauseated and with a bad how can you know whether it was “something : if inflamed Pht is not ay ¥ you if your ed a i tly removed by & surgical operation? wi ih ie,

e J : Fin noth : whose judgment. h A medicine” for the doctor. or