Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 4 August 1939 — Page 14

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Give Light and the People Will Find Thein Own Way

| FRIDAY, AUGUST 4, 1939

'ATT°N: MR. M'NUTT A FROPOS the discussion that has reva V. McNutt’s appointment as Federal istrator, we read recently an anecdote concerning President Abraham Lincoln’s political techniqug A prominent Senator was remonsrating with Mr. Lincoln about keeping Mr. Chase in his cabinet when it was well known that Mr. Chase was oppo sed tooth and nail ‘to Mr. Lincoln’s re-election. ,“Now see here,” said Mr. Lincoln, «When I was elected I resolved to hire my four Presidential rivals, pay them | their wages, and be their boss. Those were Seward, Chase, Cameron, and Bates; but I got rid of Cameron after he had played himself out; as to discharging Chase or Seward, don’t talk about it: I pay them their wages, and am their boss, and wouldn't let either of them out onthe loose for the fee simple of the Alamaden patent.”

TIDE OF RECOVERY NDERSECRETARY JOHN W. HANES, who has been a sort of Gloomy Gus in the Treasury Department, says he now thinks the country is “on the eve of a real forward movement” in business. He cites the higher volume of orders in industry, the low inventories in wholesale and retail establishments, and general business reports.

lved around Paul

Indeed there is much to gladden the eye on the finan- |

cial pages these days—stories, charts, indices—the Stock Market looking up, more steel produced, more houses built, more electricity used, more jobs and higher payrolls, more coal and iron ore loaded on the Great Lakes cargo vessels, and even a little more money lent by banks for commerce and agriculture. The signs are a bit encouraging. Why this rise in business activity? Those who embrace the theory that good times are created by Government deficits can point out that the Government is taking in less and putting out more than at this time last year. On the other hand, those who believe, as we have come to believe, that private industry functions best when Government moves toward more orthodox policies, can point to certain advances in that direction. The Congress now nearing adjournment made three important bids for business confidence: By sharply restricting executive department activities in certain fields, it minimized the threat of future Government competition with business. By abolishing the undistributed-profits tax and making other reasonable changes, it simplified and regularized business taxation. By defeating the President’s spend-lend bill, it decisively rejected the deficit-spending philosophy. ~The cumulative effect of these and other actions— such as passage of| the Hatch Bill—has been ta re-establish Congress in the driver's seat at Washington. And that symbolic evidence of an end to emergency government and a return to constitutional government is the green light for which business has been praying.

NOW, SET HOUSING RIGHT ONGRESS has| called a temporary halt on the Administration’s plan to expand its slum-clearance, lowrent housing experiment. - We say temporary halt because we are confident that if the housing program is set right it will be permitted to go ahead with’ the blessing of Congress and the country. The House killed the bill which would have given the U. S. Housing Authority another $800,000,000 to lend to local agencies. But many if not most of the Congressmen who voted against that bill are not opposed to Government housing. They are opposed only to impracticalities that have shown up in the use of USHA’s first $800,000,000. Even with huge subsidies many local agencies have not provided for the people who most need the benefit of low-rent housing. In many cities where slums are ‘being cleared the slum-dwellers gre left worse off than before. An experiment as costly as this one, which clears away some slums but crowds the slum-dwellers into other slums, obviously is not successful. Congress should join in a determined effort to develop a housing program that will succeed.

DUMPIN G COTTON AND so, by edict of Secretary of Agriculture Henry A. Wallace, issued in Washington, the Federal export subgidy on cotton is in effect. The Government now pays 1.5 cents per pound (or $7.50 for each 500-pound bale) to the exporter of every pound of raw cotton. There will be similar subsidies on manufactured cotton; and the Secretary gave his support to a bill permitting this Government to speed up the declaration of import quotas. on cotton goods coming into this country. Yet, this is the Administration which rode into office by. howling ‘down the Republicans’ Hawley-Smoot tariff bill that practically ruined our foreign trade. ;

This is the Administration which promised to put some

common sense into our foreign trade by its reciprocal trade agreements program. This is the Administration which, within the last few nonths, got so righteously indigrfint at German and Italian subsidizing of exports of various products that it decreed there should be Heavy import tariff duties imposed upon these products when they are shipped to America. : The cotton export subsidy, we believe, marks the launching of a dangerous world trade adventure which this country and its cotton growers will live to TeETel. i,

AGRICULTURAL NOTE A POLL of 100 Princeton University graduates who have

and ‘that most of them like. farming.

Here, perhaps, is a hint. for Sesorary, Wallace. Maybe. to far £

ered by carrier, 12 cents |

side of Indiana, 65

Security Admin-

The Administration and

become farmers reveals that 73 of them are making:

; money, that 69. have no mortgages on their ig that looking at them, even if they have nothing of conse. | ]

Fair Enough By Westbrook Peglér

Foreign That Censorship Such as That i Louisiana Could Happen Over or

EW YORK, Aug. 4 plece, in which I referred to the censorship imposed on the New Orleans affair by the U. S. Department of Justice, I was the guest at dinner of

Webb Miller, the distinguished international journai-| ist and war reporter. Mr. Miller was surprised and a little incredulous, I thought, to hear that we had

in this country a censorship on public affairs which are by law and tradition available to the public.

Of course, certain facts having to do with foreign relations may be held secret during negotiations lest immature and tentative dealings be jangled by publicity which is purely mischievous. There is no censorship on such matters, however, unless it be created by journalists themselves as a measure of cooperation with the public officials in‘ charge. The officials just don’t give it out, or give it out in confidence. The same is true of military secrets, but grand jury proceedings are confidential, and violation of this secrecy is punishable as contempt of court... But that grand jury privilege stops short of the censorship which has been established. by the Department of Justice in New Orleans. 2 = =

N Europe, where Webb Miller has worked since 1917, the governments of the rival groups use the radio to spread propaganda, most of it deliberately

+ false, among the people who are their enemies in the

as yet undeclared and bloodless war. The radio has no respect for international borders. It isn’t a good way of doing, but if the Department of Justice is determined to smother information which is common knowledge in New Orleans, people have a right to suspect that the Department itself has decided not to come clean for reasons which could be political, There is still the air. There is still the secret pamphlet. Maybe the people should entirely trust the Department of Justice and all those, including the learned judges, who are of it. But, then, there was the Department of Justice of the day of Harry Daugherty and William J. Burns, and when people recall that regime they are justified in demanding that the Department always lay it on the line.

T IS a bad habit, censorship, and a court brings itself into contempt when it resorts to censorship which is not plainly permitted in the law. Such a court, the Department of Justice itself should be challenged and confronted in a contempt proceeding, for its own sake if for no other. It would be possible, scientifically and technically, though perhaps not politically, to telephone the information which’ is common knowledge in New Orleans or Cuba for broadcast back into the United States. It woiild, be possible also to phone or wire the copy to some nearby point in Mexico or Canada or to Cuba and he American papers to pick it up

and publish it under the saving line that El Mundo

or the Globe today said as follows about the suppressed New Orleans affair. It has been agreed that publicity may help guilty men to cover their tracks. That could be so, but as Mr. Miller pointed out, out of his long experience in European countries, secrecy is more often used for this purpose than publigity.

Business By John T. Flynn

FSA, With $1474 Dwellings, on Right Track in Housing Program.

EW YORK, Aug. 4—There is one house-building agency in Washington which says it has built or at least let contracts for the building during the fiscal year of 2784 farm houses at an average cost of $1474. The subject of government housing is a source of never-ending wonder. It always. starts out with a pious plan to house the poor and ends with five and 10 thousand dollar houses which even a wellvemployed craftsman cannot afford to live in. It is always, therefore, a source of satisfaction to hear of a government unit putting up houses that the poor can afford to live in. Back in the days of the great war, housing shortages developed in all of those cities and towns where heavy munition contracts were being filled. And so the Government decided houses must be built to house the workers. But this was too good an opportunity for the prima donnas of public housing. And so very artistic, ideal homes were planned and built. Most of them did not get finished until the war was over. And then what happened to them? They were altogether too costly for the Government to continue supporting and so little by little they drifted at sacrifice prices into the hands of real estate inves-

tors and are now occupied by substantial families at good rentals.

PWA Homes Face Same Fate ~ That is apt to be the fate of some of the housing

developments that were erected by the PWA. They

are handsome homes with every modern convenience, many of them completely out of the reach even of well employed workers. The only way workers in the low income brackets can live in them is for the Government to stand a large part of the rent under one stratagem or another. But the Government will one day get tired of this and one of these fine days some of these properties will turn up in the hands of private owners and out will gu the under-privileged. But the $1474 per unit houses built by the Farm Security Administration are, apparently, planned with some reference to the economic status of the people who are to live in them. It would be a fine thing if we could provide beau-

tiful living accommodations for all at low prices.

But in the present state of the building industry this cannot be done. What we must aim to do is to provide for the poor decent homes, with ventilation, light, hygienic requirements, as good as we can contrive and within their means. The only other alternative is to make them charity patients in fine homes. The Farm Security Administration seems to be Reading in the right direction.

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

OOR John Steinbeck! best-seller, “The Grapes of Wrath,” has become a kind of “Okie” himself, fleeing from something more determined, persistent and dangerous than the Big ‘Money Interests or even Old Man Hard Times.

He’s running away from people who want him to make speeches.

“Why,” asks the harassed Mr. Steinbeck, from his

padlocked ranch in Los Gatos, Cal, “why do they think a writer, just because he can write, will make a good after dinner speech?”

Now there’s a question that would have stumped |’

Solomon himself. Nobody knows the answer. - There is none that makes sense. And the sole explanation is that, so long as program committees function, Sonetiody must be sacrificed to their. insatiable demands

Clubwomen, I think, are tops at this business. Like

hounds after a quarry, they can nose out the best |

hidden and most reluctant of men. No person with

the faintest flavor of fame, who is able to put two |

words together in an audible voice, escapes. For, as everybody knows, a speaker, or sometimes a brace of them, is as necessary to a meeting as a chairman. No banquet, luncheon, tea—no: get-to-gether of any sort attended by race, creed or color in the whole U. 8. A., but must have its visitor, who is yanked up to make a few remarks, Celebrities, naturally, are preferred. We. enjoy

Correspondent Amazed | |

4—Atter I wrote yesterday’ 5]

The author of. that current | | -

7" Finishing d he Job Yony Talburt.

DOWN THE HATCH!

: Hie ; : The Hoosier Forum 1 wholly disagree. with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.—Voltaire.

COMMENDS DRIVE ON DRUNKEN DRIVERS By John R. Beggs

I would like to commend Judge John McNelis and his efforts against intoxicated drivers. It seems to me that he is doing all he can to improve the driving public and that the court is just about fed up with the practice. Judge McNelis is to be commended on his service to the community. 8.8 ¥ : AGREES WITH LEWIS’ ESTIMATE OF GARNER By William Addison The charge made by John L. Lewis, head of the C. I. O, that Vice President Garner is a pokerplaying, labor-baiting, whiskydrinking, evil old man is the most concrete, to-the-point epitome of Garner’s chargtter ever made. And far from being a boomerang, it is proving, in the aftermath, to be a tremendous boost for the great labor leader. For, in this hour of confusion in Washington brought on by the planless, destructiveminded Republican goons and the “fraidy-cat” Democrats, this blast from Lewis comes like a strong gust of cooling wind after a sultry day. He is to be praised for it, because he displayed great courage in mak-~ ing it—something strangely lacking at the National Capital today. John Lewis’ condemnation of Garner came with the swift suddenness of a bolt out of a clear sky —it had that effect on the intellectually bankrupt’ Tories. It was a solar plexus punch, and it left them speechless, while the New Dealers got plenty of hearty laughs out of the show. It was just too much for|’ them. Every news columnist connected with the Tory press got busy at once and heaped scorn and abuse|-

six years. ® 8 9 SUSPICIOUS OF THOSE URGING AMERICANISM By J. W. Howard, Anderson, Ind.

Why so much talk and publicity about Americanism? Are these groups ‘advocating Americanism the real Americans

on Lewis, just as they have on! President Roosevelt during these

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

whio wish to. stain the iineitles upon which- eur country was founded? Or are they merely using this as a disguise to carry out the desire. of a foreign power to rule America as it is doing under the totalitarian governments of Europe? Is it real Americanism to put their representatives in office that they might frame. mischief by law and suppress the activities of those they judge un-American groups? Is it real Americanism to use threats of boycotts and violence against newspapers and radio stations if they dare mention anything that might expose them as seeking to grab control of America and. rule it by a cruel dictator? Is it real Americanism for these Fascist groups to. deny the rights of American citizens the use of halls for assembly that they might hear discussions that are of public interest to everyone at this time? I'd suggest that an investigation be made of some of these groups that are advocating Americanism and see whether they are real Americans, or are the same forces

which swept Hitler, Mussolini and Franco into power, and are taking advantage of the Constitution of the United States to carry out the will of a foreign power . .. to rule America and call it Americanism.

Er ) DEMOCRAT LINES UP WITH

G. 0. P. ON WAR FEELING By a Reader Although I vote Democratic, I seem to be lined up with the Republicans = who -feel that the Administration’s war scare is to take our attention from domestic difficulties. I admire the President as no other individual in contemporary history, yet I feelthat his purpose in urging the State Department’s Neutrality Bill was to start a business boom. He gave the show away himself in an interview following the Senate’s action in shelving the bill, when he said that that august body had “killed a nice little boom.” The object, then, was to make the New Deal a business success so that 1940 would find a New Deal candidate favored at the polls. It is with reluctance that I realize our biggest source of propaganda is our President himself when he says that “democracy is at stake” if we don’t help the British with the keys to our icebox and gun chests. . . . There are a good many questions I should like to ask and a good many things in the Administration’s ballyhoo about this which don’t seem to add up to common sense. Is the Presidential candor and frankness

a thing of the past?

New Books at the Library

VERY year Rollo Walter Brown leaves his post at Harvard to travel into other parts of America. He likes to get the mood of‘ the country, to observe people of all walks in life, to talk with them during their unedited moments. i His ‘wandering has borne fruit in “x Travel by Train” (Appleton-Cen-tury), a travel book which really gives the “feel” of the country, from

the stinging cold of Minnesota and

Side Glances—By Galbraith’

quence to say, and we can always talk about them || o If the : deplore

afterward.

the blazing heat and the dust of Oklahoma, to green New England. Waste, hunger, ferment and bec uty are there in that “smoky semi-circle” through western Pennsylvania to Gary and South Chicago, in Kentucky mines and in the Creole country. Always the author stresses the past attainments and present needs of the people of a region. When his train runs into a Mississippi flood he gets off and talks to an old lady who has been driven out of her home 14 times by floods. He listens to the troubles of the hill-billy and the poor white. He talks with alert students at Berea and listens to the yet unpublished poetry of Jesse Stuart. Naturally his mind reacts to this varied fare, and he tries to analyze the flavor of this American life which he enjoys so much. The nation’s “sore spot,” he concludes, lies in the “monarchical, ruthless, arro-

‘|gant attitude of high-pressure in-

dustry.” On the other side of the balance, however, he finds encouragement in what he calls “the rise of the educated many in a democracy.” And throughout the book he places his emphasis upon the great

-| contribution which American de-

mocracy can make toward the rightful ends of human life—the freedom and value of the individual.

GALAXY By ROSE MARIE CRUZAN I entered my room one night in

June, Intending to draw down the blind;

But how could I insult the moon? Tv Shits ‘50 brightly, ) looked so

2

Instead, T raised it ceiling high, | Revealing ‘moonbeams through

| | Above, a reeehnkied in

Below, the shadows ip dhe bE

DAILY THOUGHT

Jesus answered him, Tf I have bear witness of the

| oi ut wel wh est thot.

FRIDAY, AUG. 1, 1589 1

Gen. Johnson Says— ny i

Economic Pressure Potent Weapon, But May Not Be Decisive Unless Backed Up by Military Might.

YY \SEINGTON, Aug. 4.—This Administration plays with the idea of methods short of war but more than mere words to stop unfavored nations. ' This means economic strangulation—embargoes, financial assaults, boycotts and the like, The idea grew out of World War experience. Those who saw that at first hand have no doubt that precisely ‘that kind of strategy in the end brought Germany to her

knees. . But what is not generally recognized in this kind of thinking is that this economic pressure was not

| acting alone. The central powers were in a state of

military siege—ringed around with the cold and hot steel of the armies and navies of practically all the

‘| rest of the world. With no thought of approving Ger-

man aims, it can never_in fairness be denied that theirs was one of the most magnificent stands against fearful odds in the whole of human history. Yet it is true that, through economic throttling and im sed starvation of non-combatants, the German “home front” crumbled before the military front gave way—and that was the end of the first Teutonic dream of world domination. But it is by no means proved that economic pressure—no matter how powerful—can prevail against such a nation in the absence of almost overwhelming military and naval pressure. # FJ ®

NE thing we learned, right here at home, is the . tremendous and unmeasured capacity of a great nation to “do without.” In the War Industries Board, we had actually taken the necessary steps to get for our fighting forces the entire American wool-clip for 1819—that is, to deny the civilian population a : single ‘pound of virgin wool. Yet no important hardship was involved. : The clothing trade had agreed to limit their output to practically a single style and color for men

‘and women. Our civilian population was going into

simple, serviceable uniform, no flaps on pockets, not. an unnecessary shred of wool. : Studies showed that the result of this action on supplies would be astonishing, The reduction in replacements and inventories due to a standardizati on a single sturdy type and simplification of de practically released to military uses our entire production of wool. ” 8 2 HE same principle, we found, goes e iHirongh the whole list of commodities—including money. It is true that other nations, such as Japan, are not nearly so prodigal in the unnecessary use and waste of such supplies but, even allowing for that, the. ability of a united people to tighten their belts, to an extent never before imagined, was proved beyond doubt in 1918. The effectiveness of economic siege without military siege was not even tested because both were being practiced together. There is a good deal of opinion that so powerful a nation as ours can keep out of the world shindy on the military side and yet .strongly influence victory for a favored belligerent or even prevent war—merely by using economic pressure through embargoes, boyigh or financial magic. is column is not saying that such action might not have great weight in some equally balanced situation. It is only repreating what it has often said —that any such discrimination would be an act of war and it is adding that there’is no experience whatever to prove that in the absence of military force, it would be effective.

Aviation By Maj. Al Williams

Here's Story of Two Flying Men Who Made a Business for Themselves.

ASHINGTON, Aug. 4—Is it really difficult to set yourself up in business today? Well, maybe it is—but maybe, too, one must have the will to do. As I circled the National Guard flying field at Virginia Beach, I saw a tri-motored Ford ship sitting there in the sun. I'd never been in that field before, so I dragged it once at low altitude for holes or rough ground. The Ford belonged to two “Macs”—Harold and John McClintock—a barn-storming operation, carrying passengers on sight-seeing .tours for a dollar a ride. John was the salesman, and a convincing one, - who sold spectators on the joys and pleasures of rid-

-ing above the horizon. Harold did the flying.

Business? You bet! Lots of it. Fourteen pasSengers each hop. Over the week-end of July 4, the Ford carried 1500 passengers. How many landings does Harold make in a year? Oh, about 1800. I thought so, after watching him touch the old Ford's wheels on the ground as if

the grass were eggs and he didn’t want to break a

single one. How did they get into this business? Well, they thought ‘there was a market for sightseeing air tourists, if done safely with safe equipment. Both Macs had their own auto-trailers in which they lived, along with their wives. - John and his wife: were raising a little new baby in a trailer. Someone had said it couldn’t be done, but they were doing it. Then there was another trailer with a spare motor and fools for overhauling motors and making plane repairs

They're Eager to Oblige

‘When they had exhausted an area, the plane flew and the caravan traveled off to the next stop—John selling and Harold flying. Could they do anything for me? Well, there was no hangar, and could I find a good watchman if I staked the Gulfhawk out for the night? Sure thing! Their mechanic would take the job. John Anderson, . a tall, bright-looking and energetic chap, sandypaid and blue-eyed, popped up. Sure, he'd take e jo 2 » John Anderson told me he had been born in North - Carolina, and had planned to get into aviation ever since he was eight. Eighteen now, and here he was. Fine Americans, these—all of them—making a living on their own. With that, a car drove up, loaded with people. Kids—10 of them, 18 ‘years, more or less—piled out of everything but the tool boxes. Did they want to ride? oe sir, that’s what they come out from town for

Watching Your Health

By Jane Stafford

aos embryos have been enlisted in‘ the Aght gainst ringworm, the troublesome and wide spread infection popularly known as athlete's. foot. The “germ” of this infection is a vegetable parasite which is a distant cousin of the well-known mold that grows on stale bread. A St. Louis physician, Dr. Morris Moore, has been able to make this parasite live’ and grow on developing chick embryo tissue. This means that scientists now have a comparatively easy way of studying the parasite in the laboratory which may lead to a more effective method of treatment or. even a preventive for the ailment. ; The ringworm fungus, liké other ‘molds and molds ‘like fungi, grow best Whess nae 3s SAreeS NOI reduced oxygen supply and deca organic ma Snug, poorly ventilated leather shoes, usually worn : for months without adequate cleansing or disinfection," 3 provide darkness and a constant, even, warm 5 ature:like the inside of an incubator, the U.S. Public Health Service points out. Moisture is supplied