Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 5 August 1939 — Page 10

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Indianapolis Times (A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER) RALPH BURKHOLDER ' MARK FERREE * Editor Business Manager

The

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

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

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

i RILEY 5561

Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

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

SATURDAY, AUGUST 5, 1939

\

- PROPHETS OF PEACE.’ HE Normandie sailed from New York with 1397 Europebound passengers—the most she has carried on any

recent trip. ie : Presumably most of those 1397 persons guessed that there isn’t going to be a war any time soon, We hope they all have a good time—and we hope they're ali good - prophets. ’

ANOTHER BID TO BUSINESS - "A MERICAN workers and their employers will save $335, ; 000,000 in social security payroll taxes in 1940—$905,£00,000 in the next three years. : Aged persons, widows and children will receive $110,-

000,000 in more liberal benefits in 1940—§$1,200,000,000

in the next five years. = - Social security will be extended to more than a million bank employees, seamen and others not now protected by it. These good things will result from the Social Security Law amendments which, after a long deadlock, finally seem sure to pass before Congress adjourns tonight. To break the deadlock the Senate agreed to drop its unwise Connally amendment, which would have required the Federal Government to put up $10 of the first $15, and half of all above that amount, ‘paid to aged persons on the states’ old-age pension rolls. The Administration and Congress both deserve credit for the good amendments that will become law. They agreed that scheduled increases in the old-age insurance payroll tax should be postponed for three years—that it is not necessary to accumulate the huge reserve fund originally planned. They agreed that certain reductions should be made in the unemployment compensation payroll tax, and that the present program should be extended and liberalized. | The. payroll tax savings, plus the more liberal benefits, mean a net addition of $445,000,000 to American buying ‘power next year—money in the hands of employers and ‘employees. | These amendments, together with other recent developments in Washington, help clear the road ahead for a real business recovery. We hope business leadership will make - the most of its opportunity.

SYMPHONY AT SUNDOWN "TOMORROW afternoon at 5 o'clock this city’s third “Symphony-at-Sundown” program will be presented | in the garden of the Rauh Memorial Library. : The fact that arrangements are being made to accommodate more than 1000 persons is almost tribute enough to this splendid sample of community co-opera-tion. The co-operating organizations include the Matinee Musicale, the Indianapolis Public Library System, the Boy Scouts, the Camp Fire Girls, and the Indianapolis Federal Orchestra, a unit of the Federal Projects Administration. Six concerts have been scheduled. We hope that the success of the venture will lead to an even more extensive program next year. . ;

A BACKSTOP IN THE CANAL ZONE AMERICAN naval strategy is hinged on the Panama Canal. X Because the canal provides quick access between the Atlantic and the Pacific, our fleet can be concentrated in one ocean. For if trouble blows up on the other side, the Navy can come a-running. Without the canal, the fleet would have to circle Cape Horn to get from one ocean to the other. An enemy with a . powerful navy might effect a landing on our shores while that long journey was in progress. : We don’t think that is likely to happen. But there’s no telling what the next few years may hold in store. If a second world war were fought and the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis emerged on top, we might have something to worry about, : : Army officials, charged with defending the canal, have long been concerned over the possibility of a hostile power putting the canal out of commission by sinking a cargo boat in one of its locks. Such a feat might tie up the isthmian lifeline indefinitely. Now Congress has passed, and sent to the President, a bill authorizing the expenditure of $277,000,000 for a third set of locks. In time of war or crisis, these locks could be reserved for the exclusive use of American warships, while other shipping used the older locks. Thus the danger of sabotage would be minimized. That is a lot of money. But three or four battleships - would cost as much. And what good would the battleships be if they were in the wrong ocean when trouble came, and had no short-cut north of the Straits of Magellan?

ENDING THE BIKE MARATHONS HIEF MORRISSEY’S decision to stop our youngsters’ bicycle marathons seems like a sensible step and one that deserves the support of thoughtful parents.’ The youthful riders have been having a grand time. Where the idea came from or what caused it to catch on is a problem for the psychologists. At any rate, our Indianapolis youngsters have been having the time of their lives. ; a, But these groups became so large that it took no expert to see trouble ahead. Fears grew that some of the children might become involved in a serious traffic accident. That is the main reason for Chief Morrissey’s action today. We think it is a good one.

RED LIGHT OSCOW dispatches tell of a three billion rubles state loan made by the Soviet Government in 10 to 500ruble denominations and running for 20 years at 4 per ' cent interest. There follows this significant paragraph: Ge _ For those purchasers of bonds who do not want the interest, however, there are “optional lottery chances.” as

Fair Enough

| people are allowed to do Hattie’s work.

renew the contract.

days can be crazier than some of the things men do. It would be very agreeable if we ¥ nge 34 world a b

By Westbrook Pegler

Life Is Very Sad in the Home of George Spelvin, Average American, Since Hired Girl Joined the Union.

EW YORK, Aug. 5.—George Spelvin, American, and his ever-loving have been having the devil's own time with Old Hattie, the pot walloper who has been working around their bower these last 15 years or so. Hattie joined a housemaids’ union, and now she goes around the flat muttering dirty cracks about George and his wife, and if they are late for dinner Old Hat will yank off her apron at quitting time and leave them in mid-air. : They can’t fire her and they can’t even go out in their own kitchen and wrestle the rest of the meal together and serve themselves, because only union

The Spelvins don’t really rate a hired girl at all, because his pay is ‘way down and there are only he and his wife at home. Ella—that’s the daughter—she got married, and young George is in the Navy. Spelvin thought of giving Hattie the wind back in 1931 when he was out of a job himself, but she was a pathetic old girl in a way, and he kept her on because she had nowhere to go. re rh Se 8 f J ® ; 2

R. SPELVIN, therefore, was the surprisedest guy: you ever saw when a union delegate called and demanded that George sign a contract with Hattie through him as bargaining dgent. George tried to stall, but the bargaining agent said, “have it your own way, but if you don’t sign we will get you fired from your own job.” ! “You and who else?” George said. “Consolidated Widget wouldn't fire George Spelvin, the average American, for resisting dictation in his private life.” “Well, how long do you think Consolidated is going to keep you after we declare a nation-wide boycott on their widgets for employing an enemy of labor?” the guy said. : George saw the guy had him, so he signed for a year. He raised Hattie’s pay from eight bucks to 12, gave her a five-day, 40-hour week; agreed that she mustn’t touch the washing any more, and consented to a written stipulation that she couldn’t be fired for reasons of economy, even if he should lose his own job, although Hattie has more than $3000 in the savings bank and the Spelvins haven't got a dime. . He ¢an’t fire her for poking out her lip or putting on the glare every time they ask her to do anything, and it drives them near nuts to go out in the kitchen and read bulletins which Old Hat addresses to herself calling the Spelvins all kinds of things. So George got sentimental and said, “Hattie, what for do you want to be acting like this on account of a union when we been just like a family together all these years?” i 3 : | 2 2 » i ELL, whammo, two days later he gets cited and / Old Hat is a witness that he. tried to intimidate her out of the union. So George said, “This board has no jurisdiction, as my bower is not interstate commerce,” but the guy knocked his ears down by saying it was interstate commerce to cook his meals and make his bed, because he required food and repose to manufacture widgets, which are sold in interstate commerce. : George was thinking he could stand it fora year and then he would fire Old Hat by just refusing to It would cost him 15 weeks’ pay at $12 a week in dismissal money, but he thought it would be worth it. But a lawyer friend tells him if he fires Old Hattie the union will send someone 10 times worse. ’ : So now George Spelvin and his wife figure that they are stuck for life with Hattie.

Business By John T. Flynn

Researchers Blame High Prices on The Inefficient Retail Outlets.

EW YORK, Aug. 5—The Twentieth Century Fund has tackled the eternal problem of distribution—the cost of getting goods, once they are made, into the hands of the people who need them. It reaches the conclusion that they are too high. It is not uncommon for a merchant to buy an. article for $10 and sell it for $20. And this looks like profiteering to many people. Sometimes it is-and sometimes it isn’t. 2 2 To make an article, the goods must be produced by a farmer or miner and then passed along through an endless number of processes, carried by boats, trains and trucks, perhaps for a whole year, before the merchandise arrives in the store of a retailer, a finished product and ready for the customer. And all that has cost $10. Then to make one more move —from the store to the customer—costs another $10. It looks unreasonable. : bo Yet |it must be conceded that not many retailers are making a fortune. They are like the skilled workers in the building industry who ask $15 a day in big cities. The profit seems big, but it is not all profit and they may not sell so many of the articles. The trouble, beyond a doubt, is as the Century Fund finds it—not in profiteering by the retailers but in the weaknesses in the system of retailing. It is too often inefficient, wasteful, indefensible.

Little Fellow Feels Pinch

But | the trouble comes when you try to correct this. Low cost retailing means intelligent retailing and this in turn means large scale retailing—department stores, chain stores, mail order and such devices, But as soon as you bring these forward you hear the cries of the little man. : Retailing is almost the only kind of business left in which a small man can make a start with a moderate amount of money. And as soon as he does he runs into the superior merchandising methods of the chains or the other big competitors. What is more he runs very often into his own natural inefficiencies. One result is that the small men band together to damn’ the chains, the department stores, the mail order houses. And they want laws to curb these agencies. ‘ “+ What we must do is to recognize the difference between intelligent and unintellizent small merchants. Let us give the intelligent small merchant whatever protection he needs, but let us not make the mistake of hamstringing all efficient merchants in order to keep great numbers of inefficient ones in business.

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

EAVEN help us! The designers predict radical changes in women’s fall fashions. One Fifth Avenue style arbiter goes so far as to say ‘these changes will be more drastic than anything we've seen in the last five years. Trad “From her head to hertoes,” is the prophecy, “the smart woman will do a complete turnabout.” This sounds a little vague, and even frightening, but we hope for the best. From the sights we've seen in the last year, it’s hardly possible the styles can become more freakish. : However, let’s keep ‘up our spirits. Maybe this “complete turnabout” actually means: what it says. We know the designers must live, 6f course. It’s their business to give us something this fall entirely | different from what they told us last fall would be good for at least three wintér seasons. If they didn’t, we might save ourselves worry and expense by wearing our old things right up to ‘Christmas. And what would the shops da then, poor things? ~~ No, we don’t ask such. sacrifices from them. The only thing we beg is a little consideration and some thought for th¢ ladies who are past their first youth

and can’t do anything about it. We don’t want to look like decorated wash tubs or candy canes. And

we'd like them to show a few Hats that would fit on |

re

our ‘heads. : Anyway, whatever happens, the fall fashions are something to look forward to, and a welcome relief from war news. Nothing the women put on these

Lasnion

= SD Seder 3

could have a few |

| | the courts to interpret the laws.

ONE RUBBER STAMP

; ° die : The Hoosier Forum I wholly disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say w.—Voltaire.

HOLDS TIME RIGHT FOR WATER CO. PURCHASE By Thomas D. MeGee

As the owner of an apartment building, I am obliged to pay for the water used in the buildings occupied by some 150 persons. So my interest inthe question “Shall we or shall we not purchase the Water Co.” is personal and pecuniary. May I suggest that in considering whether or not $21,000,000 is a fair price, allowance should be made for the fact that we are at the present time dealing in a dollar whose purchasing value is a little over 64 cents. The Associated Press Index of last Friday fixed the value of the dollar at that date at 64.41 cents. So that the $21,000,000 fixed as the price for the Water Co. shrinks to less than $14,000,000 in value. ir On account of the depreciated dollar, this is obviously the time to buy, if one is contemplating buying at all. It is what the dealers call a “buyers’ market.” 2 s ” SEES CHILDREN HARMED BY WORKING WIVES By Mrs. C. W., New Castle, Ind.

I'm thé mother of three children and the wife of a hard-working man who has been let out of. positions while married women were retained. Every one of these women have working, earning husbands. : Mrs. A. had to leave her little boy in the care of an indulgent grandmother who spoiled and overfed him until his health and disposition were ruined. Mrs. B. left her little girl with relatives and has never felt financially able to have her returned—after 10 years. Mrs. C. has been teaching school for 12 years and living on a’ farm with her husband and putting off the baby she wants until she has saved some more money. Mrs. D. had such a bad little boy that she quit work, and he isn’t bad at all now. : Mrs. E. is a trained nurse so you know how much time she has tb sperdd with her little girl and husband. Mrs. F. works in a hat shop and her little girl is out late on her bicycle. Mrs. G. recently went to work. Until then she had three nice children. She’s earned enough to buy two bicycles for them and can’t tell where they are while the 3-year-old is running after them crying. These women are my friends and neighbors and my difficulty is in finding playmates, of whom I approve, among them for my children.

(Times readers are invited fo 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.)

« « «1 believe in a woman doing her share to save what her husband earns and to earn whatever she is capable of in her own home. Her education and her talents are never wasted. . Until the married woman is satisfied to live on her husband’s income and stay home with her babies, there won’t be enough jobs. » ” ; WISHES HAMILTON AND FARLEY PLEASANT TRIP

By Gerald L. Wade, Jasonville, Ind.

Surely since we have been able to hold on to our form of government without Thomas Jefferson and are yet free of having slavery after the passing of Abraham Lincoln, we should be able to exist a short period while such small try as two party leaders go on a jaunt .to Europe. 2 After all, in a democracy it is our thinking that counts—not theirs. The issues of today cannot be met and solved by either of them. However . . . in another era of the building of American democracy Aaron Burr and another Hamilton clashed in ideas. One lost his life. But this time I can See nothing

3

New Books at the Library

more violent in store than a game of chess or perhaps pinochle. . .-. I do hope the Red and the Bald have a pleasant time together. If only the Hitlers, the Mussolinis and Stalins were along to observe. They could learn something from these two deans of American politics.

He 2 8 8 FAVORS CAMPAIGNS AT GOVERNMENT EXPENSE By W.F. W. Government of the people and by the people may be more certain if all campaign contributions were

magle illegal. We should’ furnish the necessary facilities for all candicates to get their say to the public on an equal basis and permit no paid political workers such as those ‘outside voting’ places. - Qur elections should be decided

‘| by the will of the majority and not

as it is swayed by money. 8 2 le } LAUDS RoosEvEL} FOR SIGNING HATCH BILL ~~ °

By Robert L. Carrico { : President Roosevelt is to be commended for signing’ and approving the Hatch “clean politics” bill. As the President says this follows his suggestion given in January, 1939. It is a sad commentary on our Congressman William H. Larrabee from the. 11th District who saw fit to vote against this bill in face of the President’s high ideals. The President is to be praised while Larrabee can only be condemned by

those: who desire to clean up politics.

HEN Thomas Wolfe died last -year at 38, many critics felt American literature had lost its

richest, most unpredictable and dynamic personality. The author, whose ' incomparable “Look Homeward Angel” rocketed him to fame a decade ago, had "planned six novels to tell the history of the remarkable Gant family. Eugene Gant was Thomas Wolfe's twin, drawn with all the fury, passion, elemental vigor and genius which made him a literary giant and a legend in his own time. Shortly before his death he completed a million-word manuscript, the first

half of which is now published as “The Web and the Rock” (Harpers’).

Side Glances—By Galbraith

—— es ——

Eugene Gant is replaced by George Webber, an orphan. But George and Eugene are unmistakably the same person, and the first half of the book closely parallels “Look Homeward, Angel.” Wolfe’s native Asheville, N. C,, is again the sultry, drowsy, kaleidoscopic background for the adolescent years of an impressionable boy. Here are superb stories of mountain folk, lynchings, violent death and anecdotes about such magnificently drawn characters the butcher and: his Rabelaisian wife and George's pious aunt with her idiot orphans. f The second half of the book car

1

ries on the story of “Of Time and

|IHEe

the River.” On shipboard, en route from Europe, George, now a university instructor, meets Mrs. Esther

~ |Jack. In a Greenwich Village setting

of the literary mid-twenties their stormy love runs a tempestuous

Course, while George writes his first

novel, meets and dislikes literary sensations of the day, and enters, reluctantly, the Bohemian world of Esther and her friends. When his novel is rejected, he deserts Esther to return to Europe, where he reflects in nostalgia, “You can’t go home again.” Wolfe's last novel, the sequel to this, will be published subsequently under the, title, “You Can't. Go Home Again.”

‘BEQUEST By ELEEZA HADIAN And to thee Let my going

.Be, : ' As that of the setting Sun. : : And when in golden Splendor ; Of light,

Remember, ; That my-departure Is but the dawning Of light : Elsewhere.

DAILY THOUGHT

But Jesus turning unto th

said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children. —8t. Luke 23:28. : :

is great ‘when he falls is: in his prostration, and is no more than an object of fontempt than when men tread on ruins

~ |of sacred

buildings, which men of

Jel

dren having fillings, it turned out,

they| dren so that |

en. Johnson

| N ays—

| Hatch Act Removes One Peril: To Our Free Institutions, but Other Dangers Need Correction,

ASHINGTON, Aug.5—In view of the stand

: taken on politics in relief and other pork by

“Dear Alben” Barkley, other henchmen and the President himself (notably in Maryland) in 1936, it

for the Hatch Bill. But, passing that, his approval must be given full face value. That bill is one of the greatest steps taken in our time to prevent political misuse by the executive departments of the

constitutional Congressional power of the purse. This column cannot agree with some critical come ment that the President was out of bounds in inter preting the act. That criticism says it is the duty of That is true only where there is some controversy concerning. an executive understanding of a law. Our courts generally refuse to hand down declaratory judgments—that. is,interpretations of a law in the absence of a case or controversy. It must be so. It is the duty of the President to execute the laws. No man can execute a law withe out interpreting it. There could be no execution if every phase of a law had to go to court before any action. It is common practice for a chief adminise trator to state in advance what he thinks a law means, : . # 8 =n : T= Presidenf’s advance interpretation was both : clarifying and courageous. It opens the way to prompt judicial review in any case where somebody claims to be injured by any error in the executive reading. : Thus one of the great dangers to the preservae tion of our form of representative government has been recognized and attacked. a : . There are three others of equal if not greater menace. One is the device of lump-sum appropriations of vast sums of money to be expended in the discretion of the executive rather than of Cone gress. That is also a surrender of the power of the purse. : ; : The second is our neglect to provide adequate remedies in the courts against abuses or excess of authority by our powerful and rapidly growing bureaucracies. The third is reckless headlong taxing of the states to support. extravagant Federal spende ing in the states—thus tending to remove local ree sponsibility for taxation and debt. : ® » o

TE Hateh Act itself puts some curb on two of 4 these dangers—but nowhere near enough. Hape Ppily these three other perils seem to be more and more clearly recognized and are actually in process of being avoided. : The Logan Bill to “regulate the regulators” and subject the “insolence of office and the law's delays” In bureaucratic tyrannies to court review, seems to have been salted for this session—but it. can’t be stopped. It is as sure as sunrise to pass in the next.

aimed at the other two dangers. some observers seem to think, petty, peevish, political reprisals against the President personally. They ara symptoms of _a general recognition that for the last six years we have been in a Presse of silent revolue~ tion in the direction of centralized personalized gove ernment. - They mean more than recognition of that trend. They mean a counter-revolution against it.

Aviation By Maj. Al Williams Air Line Finds It's Good Business

To Slow Down in Rough Air.

ACKSONVILLE, Fla., Aug. 5.=—“Slow down in rough air, or lose passengers,” is a slogan our air lines could well afford to adopt. One line has already obeyed this sensible mandate and reduced its aire sickness percentage from 22 to 4 per cent. Only a small percentage of airmen seem ¢o realize that piloting an aircraft is merely a variation of the technique developed by seamen in handling water= borne craft. When the sea becomes rough, the cape tain of an ocean liner slows down immediately. He knows that plunging from one huge wave into the blunt face of another at high speed strains the struce ture of his ship, and he knows also that his passengers will haye difficulty maintaining intestinal stability, Reduced speed means decreased ship strain and; ine creased passenger comfort. ’ The same rule holds good in the air. If we could but see the working of the atmosphere as we see the wave motion of the ocean, we could understand our Ee problems much more readily. Rough air means that huge, fast-moving currents of air are billowing up and down, buffeting against one ane other, splashing hundreds of feet. Horizontal currents contribute still further to the chaos. Speeding through this aerial ocean, a pilot ate tempts to hold his craft on an even keel. The ship emerges from a descending current and smashes bluntly .into ‘an ascending wave. The wings flex a little. They are designed that way. The faster the ship travels, the greater the shock.

Seeking Smoother Altitudes

In addition to slowing down in rough air, a smart airman can generally find a smooth altitude. It's not marked, but it’s generally further from the ground. Not enough of them search. One air-line president told me his pilots had definite instructions. to find a smooth altitude. : As evidence of the stresses set up in an airplane while flying at high speed through rough air, I watcHed the accelerometer in my Gul’hawk. The air was violently rough. We were making 210 miles an hour. Without a safety belt, I would have been tossed overboard in a jiffy. At one time the ace celerometer read 3%G. That's a greater strain than is created by making a loop in the same ship, I slowed down to 180 m. p. h. and the accelerometer never exceeded 2G, with a. great increase in comfort, Our ships will stay together, but our passengers’ tummies won't. Keeping an airliner on an even keel is a matter of safety. Keeping passengers’ tummies on an even keel is good business. . .

Watching Your Health By Jane Stafford

ULLING teeth is-a “dental mortician service.” Replacing teeth by bridges and other such ape pliances is “a tombstone service designed to come memorate as well as represent dead and lost teeth.” These sad comparisons were made recently by Dr, John W. Knutson, of the U. S. Public Heaith Service, at a national meeting of dentists. Dr. Knutson’s re= marks have a lesson for everyone who puts off going to the dentist until it is too late to do anything but resort to the dental mortician service of pulling the teeth. : L X ~ What makes teeth decay and how to prevent it are questions which scientists have not yet settled to .everyone’s satisfaction in spite of the many theories and extensive - researches. ‘There is, however, &n accepted and established method of preventing loss of teeth due to decay. This, Dr. Knutson pointed out, consists of treating the early decayed spots by proper placement of chemically and physically stable filling materials—in other words, the fillings the dentist puts in your mouth after grinding away the decayed place and cleaning up the cavity or hole it has made, ‘Good evidence of the tooth-saving value of such procedure was obtained from a survey the Federal Health: Service made among schoolchildren in Hage erstown, Md. Tooth deathrates (loss of teeth) were compared between children who had fillings as evis dence of treatment of “decayed ts and children who had no such evidence of treatments. The*child a significant« ly lower rate of tooth loss for each age-sex group than children having no fillings. For example, boys without fillings, over all ages, had about Bo cent more permanent teeth than boys I Dr. Knutson would like to see a redistribution of dental services in the chronological age scale, mors

and better dental pr vo

is hard to swallow the President's claim for credit * *

The belated revolt in Congress against unlimited spending’ and Congressional insistence on its own : | Constitutional function to say how, when, where and : | in what amount public money shall be spent are They are not, as