Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 2 August 1939 — Page 12

PAGE 12

The Indianapolis Times A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER) Roy W. HOWARD

RALPH BURKHOLDER MARK FERREE dent Editor Business Manager

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

~~ Owned and published ‘daily (except Sunday) by The Indianapolis Times Publishing Co. 214 W. Maryland St. :

=.

Mail subscription rates in Indiana, $3 a ‘ear; - outside of Indiana, 65 cents a month.

po RILEY 5551

Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

Member of United Press, Scripps - Howard Newspaper Alliance, NEAE Service, and Audit Bureau of Circulation.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 2, 1939.

FINIS TO SPLENDING N spite of President Roosevelt's prediction that the death of his lending bill will retard industry and cost the taxpayers a ‘good many hundreds of millions of dollars, we believe that yesterday’s vote in the House of Representatives'is welcomed by most of the American people. Its effect, in our opinion, will be good. We think it is likely to prove a healthful stimulant to industry and to result in: saving billions for the taxpayers. The bill could not have been whittled down in the Senate and shelved in the House, as it was, if there had ‘been either in“Congress or in tlie country any great and ‘genuine enthusiasm for it.

Instead of enthusiasm there was. suspicion, dating from the day when Mr. Roosevelt sprung the so-called “splending” plan, apparently without having consulted his legislative leaders who were to face the impossible task of putting it through a Congress even then impatient for adjournment. The label of “self-liquidation” was quickly shown to be misleading. Committee consideration and debate revealed that most of the items ‘in the bill were unwise, or unnecessary, or both. It was exposed as a too-clever scheme for

~~ ‘pouring out more mnoey without appearing to increase

the national debt. The fact, which Congress recognized and Mr. Roosevelt failed to sense, is that the country has lost faith in .promises that Government spending will- bring recovery. Instead, the country is becoming more and more convinced that continually increasing Government spending is an obstacle to recovery and will result in disaster unless it is checked. : The death of the “splending” bill represents, we think, hope for an end to fiscal recklessness—hope for increased private investment and more real jobs instead of growing public debt and work-relief. 3

NEXT TIME, PERHAPS : MES. ROOSEVELT asks, in “My Day”: : “What is the sense of spending all this money for more and more armaments? Yes, I know we have to do it so long as the nations are doing it. But where does it lead? Nowhere but to war, because . . . no one goes beyond the immediate nceessity and talks about the final elimination “of the difficulties which have thrust the various powers into their present situation. “Why can’t we get around a table and face the fact that Germany and Italy have-started this whole performance because it was the only way in which their people could exist? ... It is wearisome to read of the balance of power. I would like to see somebody write about a balance of trade and of food for the world . . .” Why not such a conference, indeed, to lower trade barriers and divert the energies of rearmament to peaceful projects? But that is just what President Roosevelt proposed in his messdge to Hitler and Mussolini last April— a message to which Hitler replied, in his Reichstag speech, by tearing up two treaties, demanding Danzig, and heaping ridicule on Mr. Roosevelt. : : But Hitler's situation is changing. There are many signs that Germany’s economic difficulties are pyramiding. Her shortages of raw materials and labor are hamstringing her vast public-works plan, Her people are being exhorted to eat less, although they are already unable to buy as much food as they would like. The Austrian and Czech coups did little to improve the Reich’s economic. condition; in some ways they made ‘it worse. - i :

So, if Europe manages to traverse the next few weeks,

‘without war, it is conceivable that when an economic and arms-limitation conference is again proposed to Hitler he may find it convenient to show interest rather than derision. : : Such a proposal would not be “appeasement,” in the sense of surrender. It would be a design for the selfpreservation of civilization.

EFFECT OF THAT TERRIBLE HATCH BILL

(From “Labor,” weekly newspaper of the Railway Brotherhoods)-

: EMOCRATIC politicians are stewing over the probable

effects of the Hatch Bill which went through Congress last week. With the exception of “policy-making officials,” Federal officeholders are pretty well ‘eliminated from activity in national campaigns, and it becomes unlawful to solicit political contributions from anyone “paid with relief money.” That covers the supervisors as well as those on relief. : Rigidly enforced, the bill will make it difficult for Fed‘eral officials, including President, Senators and Congress‘men, to build up political machines through patronage. Putting it bluntly, it will be necessary for them to pay more attention to principles and less to jobs. That should not be a bad thing for the country, or for any official who is really devoted to the public interests. : George Norris hasn't handed out a piece of political #pie” in more than 30 years. He has never had anything Tesembling a machine. But he has had a record, plus ‘ability and integrity, and all the powers of evil have not ‘been able to defeat him at the polls. ie,

AN ENCOURAGING TREND {JTHERE are two pieces of current news which are enentitled to more than passing interest by Indianapolis. : The first is that this eity’s infant mortality rate for ‘the first six months of 1939 was under that for the same ‘period of 1938 and 1937. Dr. Herman G. Morgan, City ‘Health officer, reports that there were about 200 deaths in

‘both the first six months of both 1938 and 1937 as com-’

‘pared to 178 this year. And it is good to note that the de‘¢line is continuing, according to the Health Board's July figures. : : Second is the release of the 1938 report of the Sunnyside Sanatorium, showing that fewer children were treated for tuberculosis at the institution than in previous years. The figures showed 12 fewer children than in 1937. 3 Both these reports indicate an improvement in child: : is an encouraging trend. i

CI AL

|. ment’s agent handling the

on his own character by cowardly attacks on the

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler

He Notes Guffey Wrapped Himself in Senatorial Immunity to Attack Writers Linking Him to Mexican Oil.

YEW YORK, Aug. 2—Last Saturday, in the Senate, Joe Guffey of Pennsylvania arose to defend his character against matter published in the press with intent, so he said, to destray the same. A newspaper article on the subject of the Mexican expropriation of ‘oil properties owned by Americans and other foreigners, written by Marquis Childs, he described as

100 per cent false. ‘Not only that, but under his:

Senatorial ‘license to defame with impunity he made a remark which amounts to a charge of very unethical, if not corrupt, conduct against Mr. Childs. “I am sure,” he said, “that he received other compensation than that he receives from his regular employer to send that story out.” : Mention was made also of another story, written by Ruth Sheldon of Tulsa, Okla, and published in the current Saturday Evening Post, dealing with the same subject. Senator Guffey said he had no doubt

that Miss Sheldon wrote her story for the same reason, which would be for hidden compensation.

: ” # ” BoE pieces said Guffey made a trip to Mexico " City in 1937, before the expropriation, with Wal-

ter A. Jones, a Pittsburgh politician and oil operator, who contributed to the 1932 and 1936 Roosevelt cam-

‘paign funds and that, later, Guffey and Jones con- |

ferred in Jones’ apartment in Washington with the Mexican finance minister and W. R. Davis, an American promoter, who is said to be the Mexican Governexpropriated oil. Guffey also is an oil operator. . The, implications concerning Guffey are not very distinct, but nevertheless, the Senator felt that his character had received pretty rough treatment and defended himself dgainst “unsupported charges,” which are actionable! if false, by uttering unsupported charges of his own under protection of his Senatorial immunity. : Sheldon, if false, are not actionable. He did not trouble to offer any evidence that either writer had been bribed or had received hidden inducements in any other guise to write as they did, In the absence of any such evidence it may be assumed that Guffey has none.

8 8 = UFFEY was valiantly defended by Sherman Min- ¥ ton of Indiana, the man who once offered a bill which might have made it a crime to print the Bible, but none of the several statesmen whe were so-alert to resent reflections on Guffey’s character felt any obligation of decency, honor or courtesy to resent with equal vigor their colleague’s reflections on the character of the two journalists. : Senator Bridges, the New Hampshire needle, who is always jabbing such selfless altruists as Senator Guffey, announced that he intended to demand a Senatorial investigation of the whole business of the Mexican oil expropriation, so there may be some hope of a showdown in which the two writers will have a chance to prove against Guffey whatever it was that they meant to suggest in their stories and to disprove his accusations against them. But unless some inquiry is held this will be just another case in which a statesman answers reflections 54

acter and reputation of the accuser.

Business By John T. Flynn

Cites Glass Agreement Here as One Reason for Building Stagnation.

EW YORK, Aug. 2.—Here is another example of what is the matter with the building industry. Incidentally it will help you to understand what is the matter with: the country. : The Federal Trade Commission has just filed charges against certain distributors and unions in Indianapolis. They are in the plate glass business. Plate glass is an important item in building a house. The glass distributors and the glazing union made an agreement last year. . :

The agreement declared that no one could get flat glass save a glazing contractor. To be a glazing contractor you had to have a reasonable supply of flat glass, trucking equipment and three workmen continuously employed. The first effect of this is that no one can go in the glazing contracting business any more. A man just starting out could not possibly satisfy the requirement of having three men continuously employed because before he could employ even one man he would have to get glass and he cculdn’t get it until he had three men and three men “continuously employed.” Therefore this agreement immediately gives a monopoly to the contractors now operating and prevents anyone ever making a start in that industry. ‘This is one more area ground which a fence is built with a sign outside reading “Notice to Americans: No Admission.” Business after business is being walled up by such agreements and then people ask why no one invests his money any more.

Result Is Monopoly

If a contractor tries to’operate outside this agreement and get glass from outside. the State, then the members of the glaziers’ union would not work for him. So he is sewed up completely. All this was done to) create a monopoly, to keep prices of glass, profits of contractors and wages of labor up to unreasonable levels. * This at least is the charge of the Federal Trade Commission. But what one wonders is this. If the Federal Trade Commission can find these things, why does not the Department of Justice find them? All. the. Federal Trade Commission can do is to issue an order to the guilty persons to “cease and desist.” But the Department of Justice can indict and prosecute. Nothing wil: ever stop this sort of thing until some of the offenders know there is an inevitable jail sentence at the end of that road. And there will be no building revival in this country until it is stopped. Because it exists not, merely in the glass industry but in most of the matetial industries connected with building.

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson : VERY now and then the courts clarion forth a Solomon-wise decision. Most recent of these to come to our attention rules that no wife has the right to hire sleuths to spy upon her husband. r Since this custom has always struck us as sligh below ethical par, we are glad the judges have decided to give us an opinion. Married ladies who are so anxious to get something on their husbands that they are willing to snitch envugh out of their grocery allowances to pay detectives to stalk them, in our opinion, deserve nc sympathy and even less alimony. It has always struck us as strange for a woman to share her board and bed with a low-down rascal who

was so untrustworthy that he had to be dogged by plainclothesmen. Not being wholly naive, of course, we realize that this is usually one of the preliminaries before asking for a property division or a hefty monthly payment from the ex-mate, but although we've had the most tender concern for our sex ever since we were knee high to a grasshopper, the lady spy has always heen obnoxious to us. .

We never did think much of sleuthing females and, lest men aren’t familiar with their tactics, we: take pleasure in exposing a few of their methods—which |

almost inevitably are followed by a court summons. Watch out for the woman who makes it her habit to call you up three or four times a day at the office without some good and logical reason. Be on guard

against the soul mate who puts you through a third |

degree every time you step inside your own door. . - Young and inexperienced males may put this solicitude down to wifely affection, which only goes to prove how very inexperienced they are in the ways

His charges against Childs and Miss |

And The

Nhere Do We Go?—By Talburt

*

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

orum

URGES IMPROVEMENTS TO COURT HOUSE PARK

| By Not a Park Sitier

Not to register a complaint,, but offering a suggestion concerning the Marion County Court House lawn

the old, obsolete fountain as recommended in today’s paper, along with the trash-box constructed in plain view of the street, and close up the driveway which was originally made for pedestrians.” Build a flower garden where the fountain now is and place about two dozen park’ benches along the walkways, and I am sure the taxpayers of Marion County will enjoy this as a resting place—especially those outside .of the city who come into Indianapolis to shop and would rest their weary feet. The other downtown park is well patronized and so would the Court House area be. 2 ” 2 INVITES INSPECTION OF WPA MEN AT WORK By R. C. Ridge, Crawfordsville, Ind.

If there is another cause for lowering the wage on WPA it will be done to advance a more sub-

now on the corn and hog list. If the wages drop much more for the laborers on WPA, and the cost of living stays up, who will consume the produce of the farmer? We all know that the laborer is the man who has to have vitamins to stick to the ribs. And when a man accuses all WPA-ers as shovelleaners he is very much wrong. I now extend a special invitation to any man who makes such a statement to visit Project 3-20249, Ladoga Sewage Disposal, Ladoga, Ind, and see how the WPA-ers earn their bread and beans. They are in the bottom of ditches wading in mud and water to their knees and sometimes to the tops of hip boots. I claim we WPA-ers earn our bread by the sweat of our brow. And if any man can show me where the corn and hog check man earns his money by even turning his hand, other than to switch on the ignition to go to the postoffice, I will gladly give up my 37 cents an hour job. . . . ; se = = FAVORS DICTATORSHIP LIKE GERMANY’'S By James Moore ’ Edward F. Maddox is right. The

(northside): Why not tear away|

stantial check to the farmer who is

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

all propaganda demanding change in government the better off the nation will be. Despite the Communists’ stories concerning the “‘terrible conditiohs” in Germany and Italy, those nations still have mor courage than, for example, Britain, And, I say, if we can do as well under a dictatorship I'd be glad to see one here. oe | » 8 ”® WARNS OF THREAT TO TAX SOURCES

By James R. Meitzler, Attica, Ind. l

unearned wages and unearned pen-

| | sions to themselves and others like | | themselves and that a man cr wom- | | an willing to earn what hie gets de- | serves a good beating.

Unearned purchasing power, provided by tax money or borrowed

| money, ends when the source of || taxation is consumed. When that || time comes, WPA-ers will be lucky

if they get soup. : > ® 2 8 BACK-TO-THE-LAND MOVEMENT URGED By Edward F. Maddox If the Government wants to do something constructive, safe and sensible to provide financially sound aid to people on relief and to spend and lend money where it will do

lasting good to the country, let us Ihave a real back-to-the-land move- || ment sponsored and financed with | Government backing. The relief || problem ‘is permanent until we re-

A contributor to the Forum who asserts that a woman’s willingness to work 130 hours a month is sufficient provocation to justify an as-|

sault with clubs and stones by

WPA-ers, and who blames the depression and the necessity for WPA upon the wicked private employer who squeezed huge profits cut of

underpaid workers, presents as his

program for prosperity liberal wages to all who cannot or will not work, to be paid by a tax on Wail Street monopolists. | This is the habitual reasoning! of those who never saved anything, never invested anything, never paid much taxes, never met a payroll, never made a job for themselves or any other person and who think all who own property, pay taxes, furnish jobs, should be taxed to pay

lieve congestion in our cities. Mil-

lions of experienced farm people have come to town and to the relief

rolls. ... : Small farms of from 40-to 80 acres |

sold to experienced farmers now on relief are the safest kind of investment our Government can make to lighten the relief load permanently. Let. the Government buy large tracts of good land, now in cultivation, ~ divide | it into family sized farms, build houses and other buildings where needed, fence and equip them with stock, tools, feed, chick-

lens and give these people a real

chance to make good. If a few fail, there will always be somebody else ready to take over the farm and carry on. This should be a purely business program and it is certainly wiser to make people independent farm owners than to pour money down the sink in foreign loans. . ..

New Books at the Library

TS write: an unreadable book ‘about - that colorful figure, Diego Rivera, would next to impossible. In “Diego Rivera: His Life and Times” (Knopf), Bertram D. Wolfe gives us the biography of a living artist which i: both entertaining and weighty. 2% With the help of many illustrations, it develops in considerable de-

sooner these United States outlaw

tail the successive phases @f the

| ,

Side Glances—By Galbraith

painter’s career, from the time he was a boy-artist in Mexico through his European sojourn and the cubist period in Paris, to his final emergence as foremost muralist of the Americas. | Rivera’s immense output provides an intimate study of this imposing figure in his personal life and in his larger relationships in the field of politics. Though Rivera’s work is familiar to most of us only in reproduction, it is widely known. He must indeed, says: Mr. Wolfe, be called .a popular painter. This popularity and the man’s own picturesque personality have combined to build up a fabulous legend even during th painter’s lifetime. : His immense bulk, his “goodnatured frog-like features,” his prominent, protruding dark eyes, his huge energy and unconventionality, would: have drawn attention to him anywhere. The Mexican painter, says the author, is full of vigor and ardently ready to portray our civilization as he sees it. This he terms the significance of Rivera— this, and the fact that he taught

to appreciate the local scene and local material.

» A REAL THRILL

By JAMES A. SPRAGUE Oh. what a splendid thrill to feel, Is the spinning of the reel.

‘| When the glorious rainbow trout

Grabs the hook, then whirls about With mighty surge upon your line; Was there e’er a thrill so fine?

You may like to take your gun, Shoot the rabbits on the run; Play your games or take your trips, Please the porters with your tips, But for pleasure superfine, Give me that old hook and line.

| DAILY THOUGHT ' And ye shall do no work in that same day; for it is a day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before the Lord your God~— Leviticus 8:28 Heer ol

this continent to be self-confident,

The vitamin is apparently widely distributed in

Gen. Johnson :

Says—

Mr. McNutt's Gloomy. Forecast , |

On Isolation Policy Does Not Jibe With Opinion of Experts. .

ASHINGTON, D. C., Aug. 2—Ex-High Commissioner McNutt’s first inaugural as tsar of social security was a curious opening’ for a Presidential candidate. It was delivered at the “Worlds Poultry Congress” in Cleveland, but its theme was. far from social security and further still from poultry. It was an argument against those who do notbelieve in getting us mixed up on either side of warthreatening power-politics in Europe and in Asia. I~

painted a horrible picture. i id “Extreme isolationists,’ he said, want “to draw & line around the new world including Hawaii and ore ganize it on a basis of self-sufficiency.” ] "I know of nobody who ever suggested such none sense but anyway, that is the basis on which pretty Boy Paul tore into them. He says they would have to - treble our present navy, maintain an army on a. European scale, “put two-thirds of the cotton produc-, ing South out of action,” end “much of our wheat and - cattle producing West,” shift “a great part of cur ~ population,” stagnate, “many, if not all our manufacturing centers in the industrial East,” and pro= duce “an upheaval in the United States almost as’ great as war itself; only wars do end whereas this process would wreck a generation.” on 2 8 8 | OY! Nobody escapes if we don’t line up with the “peace loving” nations—meaning England and France and maybe Russia. $0 ‘ It is hard to tell from this one utterance just what McNutt would have us do in this regard. But he has expressed part of it elsewhere. He wants us permanently to annex and defend the Philippines —keep our fingers continuously in the Asiatic hot-pot. He says that, if we don’t, “a barrier of islands from Kamchatka ‘to Borneo will intervene between: the U. S. and East Asia.” So. what? Our investment there is negilgible— Shout equal to fourth New. Deal spending for one wee! : No naval authority has yet said, as, Mr. McNutt does, that we would need to treble or even much ine crease our authorized navy to defend the Western Hemisphere. On the other hand, referring to a naval increase of 12 billions, our foremost authority, Admiral Leahy, speaking for our Navy, testified that it would be seriously inadequate to the task of defend ing the Philippines. He added: “I doubt if we could undertake such an expedition with three times that . increase.” ; gs 2 = iy ! I= isn’t the ideas of the non-interventionists which ‘would treble the Navy. According to informed authority it is Mr. McNutt’s. The crowning absurdity is that he admits that we must defend the Western - Hemisphere in any event. If that is going to “wreck - a generation” why must we also undertake to “defend” the Asiatic littoral and-double the wreckage on that generation? ' And if loss of foreign trade outside this hemisphere is to stagnate the industrial East, shift our popula tion, “end” the cattle and wheat raising West, put the cotton -producing South “out of action” and wipe out the automobile industry, why is our first move in world power-politics an offer to cut oft the second largest hunk of it by an embargo on Japan?

Aviation By Maj. Al Williams : Flying World Needs Fair Criticism

From a Completely Free Press.

WW Smnoon, Aug. 2—I have just received | word that my old friend. Charles G. Grey, editor of the foremost British aviation magazine, The ~ Aeroplane, had been fired. | ’ E This news hurt me as much. as if the ax had fallen on me. This man, editor and interpreter of the world’s aviation happenings, and most pertinently, of. : their significance, has been for years the outstanding aviation writer of the age. His familiarity with and perspective of this new and aggressive air business is astoundingly shrewd - and sound. The magazine has reflected and drawn its life blood from his fearless exposition of what's going on in the flying world. | : That he has pounded the British Air Ministry needs no explanation, and that the Air Ministry has needed the pounding is best evidenced by the pitiably weak condition of British airpower up to and includ=" ing Munich. : If the British air authorities had heeded Mr, Grey’s warnings and advice, given through the only agency open to the citizens of a democracy—the press—Hitler’s air threats would have been muffled in the ° roar of British airpower. iow Lord Beaverbrook, one of the world’s greatest jour-. nalists, once told me, “Courageous journalism is always rewarded.” This seemed like sound and inspiring ” advice, but I am going to be mighty curious to see how - it works out in the case of Charles Grey. :

A Rapidly Growing Youngster

Aviation is a comparatively new enterprise. Its progress curve slants upward at an amazing angle, far steeper than the curve of any other business. "Where ‘thousands of dollars meant peak investe ments a few years ago, billions are pushing and surge ing today. Vision—sound, constructive vision—is at a premium in every business, but in hardly any other _ enterprise are the profits of sound vision quite as rapid as in the manufacture of aircraft, engines and : accessories. - . In this country almost all the investment is privately sponsored. In other countries some pretense is made to duplicate the American set-up. But in all . countries vast sums of public moneys are being spent . to further the development of airpower and in the reach for the dominance of the commercial airlines and air markets. Personal profit is a vital factor that must be held within normal bounds. The way to do this and pro= tect, not only the taxpayer, but the air business itself, is in the criticism of a fair, but completely free press.

: (Heywood Broun Is on Vacation.)

Watching Your Health

By Jane Stafford | a

NE of the newest members of the vitamin family, K by name, is holding the spotlight in scientifis circles these days. It plays an important role in - preventing bleeding. . 1 The vitamin was discovered about five years ago by Dr. H. Dam, of Copehagen, and by Drs. H." J. Almquist and E. L. R. Stokstad of the University of California. These investigators, working independ= - ently in Denmark and in California, found that the vitamin was necessary in the diet of chicks. Without it, the chicks developed a fatal bleeding disease. : Within a few more years the vitamin's importance , for humans was discovered, and something in the!

‘nature of a chemical gold rush started as scientists-

worked to discover the vitamin’s chemical composition ° and to find a way of making it synthetically so it could be given easily to desperately sick patients. » - Latest reports are that scientists have achieved the « goal and one or more forms of the pure vitamin will® probably soon be available commercially. | = The vitamin is necessary for formation in the body ~

| of one of the most important: of the coagulating sub= 3

stances of the blood, prothrombin. Prothrombin fore mation with the aid of vitamin K probably takes places: in the liver. But unless the intestinal tract is normalw and contains bile of normal composition, the livery cannot get the vitamin from the food. And if theres - is liver disorder, formation of prothrombin with vitas min K’s aid may be impossible. Baht Re foodstuffs so people eating a normal diet are probably in no danger. Very ill patients who cannot ea or who have intestinal or liver ailments preventing absorption or utilization of the diet are likely to have DE a iy aris ver, saved many such patients

or Pe

wa

bel