Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 18 October 1939 — Page 14

~ The In 3 a (A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

‘ROY W. HOWARD RALPH BURKHOLDER MARK FERREE "President Editor Business Manager

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«Bo RILEY 5551

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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1939

HOW ABOUT IT, MR. QUINN? T is now apparent that the County Grand Jury’s investigation of relief in Center Township may extend over “many weeks. Perhaps months. It is a sorry mess indeed, and it will take a great deal of time and energy to explore all the ramifications of a setup under which more than $1,000,000 worth of supplies are being distributed annually on an admittedly political basis. Whether any actual fraud occurred under this loose and partisan system of giving out relief ordefs remains a matter for the Grand Jury to determine. But certain it is that the system was costly to Center Township taxpayers and unfair to relief clients. We see no reason why it should be allowed to continue while investigators are digging around in this unsavory mess. "We have Trustee Quinn)s word for it that he desires to institute reforms and clean up a situation which, in fairness to himself, he probably inherited when he took office last January but which, to his discredit, he permitted ‘to continue without any important change. The nearest Mr. Quinn came to being specific about his reforms was to suggest spreading the business a little more evenly. Obviously that isn’t even a beginning on what needs to be done. The whole setup calls for a thorough deodorizing from cellar to garret. While the fingl job must necessarily await the 1941 Legislature, we suggest meanwhile that Mr. Quinn give earnest consideration to: _1. Naming a small group of advisers to work out a businesslike method of handling relief in Center Township. The men named should not be friends, or politicians or anyone even remotely associated with the enterprises now under investigation. The harder-boiled the better. 2. Throwing out his list of favorites, his relatives and his political buddies. . ie 3. Compelling stores handling relief orders to give the client the same prices available to cash customers. If Mr. Quinn meant what he said about cleaning up his administration, that would be a fairly good beginning. How about it, Mr. Quinn? ;

FREE—BUT NOT CLEARED EARLY 10 months after Tom Mooney’s pardon a ma- : jority of the California Supreme Court has consented to let Governor Olson commute the life sentence of Warren XK. Billings, thus ending his 23 years of imprisonment. ~~ Welcoming this belated action, we regret that the Court did not recommend an unconditional pardon for Billings. If Mooney is innocent of the San Francisco parade bombing, and of that we have long been convinced, so is Billings. They were convicted by the same testimony, since exposed as sordid perjury. They are equally entitled to have their records cleared of that charge. A legal technicality—the fact that Billings had, previously been convicted of a felony—is responsible for “his different treatment. Whether he was “framed” in that ce also, as he contends, is immaterial now. He served his time on the earlier charge and, if not guilty of the parade Pombing, is not a second offender. The Court quibbles avhen it refuses to put him on the same standing as Mooney. i We hope Governor Olson, with or without the ‘help of #he California judges, will find a way to grant Billings a ~ complete pardon and so, to the fullest extent possible after tall these years, right the wrong done by his state in the name of justice.

THE TEST COMES TOO LATE

“A SIDE from the obvious reasons for regret at the damaging of British warships by airplane bombs, we feel particular distress for one thing: That the late Col. Billy Mitchell isn’t here to read about what's happening at Scapa Flow and in the Firth of Forth. + Billy Mitchell argued the case of the airplane and submarine against the battleship so loud and so long that he finally talked himself into a court-martial and a conviction. ‘He died before the argument ever came to a practical test. “+ Of course we have by no means seen a defiaite test yet, but it seems apparent that the next few months will provide ‘plenty of them. And Billy ought to be here. } In the meantime, that still very much alive airman who writes for this newspaper, and whose views on many points are much like those of Col. Mitchell, must be hanging on the ropes from excitement. We mean Maj. Al Williams, to whom a battleship is a stone-age weapon unfit for modern company.

‘BID ; JPASADENA'S Rose Bowl, famed for its New Year Day ~ intersectional football games, now wants to play host 40 the Democratic National Convention next Summer. - # ~~ W. B. Stewart of Los Angeles, lessee of the huge ‘stadium, has issued the invitation. The Rose Bowl, with its 90,000 seats, he thinks, is the logical place for “the greatest single attraction in America in 1940.” It will ‘accommodate at least four times as many people as the ‘eountry’s biggest indoor auditorium. And Mr. Stewart ‘outlines a plan for selling admission which, he says, could ‘realize as much as a million dollars for the Democratic “National Committee. | ~ Well, the committee is not averse to making money, ‘and this Rose Bowl bid may be a tempting one. But what

\

still interests the country more than where the Democratic,

‘team holds its next huddle is whether it will give the ball to the same quarterback for another four-year run.

‘BUSTED BUBBLE NISS SALLY RAND has filed a voluntary bankruptcy at : San Francisco, listing debts of $64,631 and assets of ‘only $8067, | © This news comes as a great surprise. We had supposed {that Miss Rand, with her fan and bubble dances and her #Nude Ranch” at the Golden Gate Exposition, was simply

And now it turns out that she hasn't even | =

geitting money. bee making a bare liv Igy 4 : Sea 5 GR 5 3, BIE) x

Indianapolis Times

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler

Contemplated Téur Brings Up the Matter of Expense Accounts in

Which Floyd Gibbons Used to Shine.

EW YORK, Oct. 18.—Your correspondent is ‘about to take himself on tour for a spell, and the subject of expense accounts naturally presents itself. The subject warms up old memories of Floyd Gibbons, who always gave an impression that, so far as the auditor was concerned, he knew where the body was buried. From the time that he replaced his wardrobe and baggage which had been lost in the Laconia by shopping exlusively in Bond St., London, he was held in awe by his fellow journalists. There are some individuals—or there were some, anyway, until a few years ago—who always seemed to have permission to spend at their own discretion, and when Mr. Gibbons that time paid $150 just for a suitcase to replace the one which had gone down off the coast of Ireland the rest of the little community of inkstained wretches in London sort of roped him off in a class by himself, Very likely he would prove to have been the. alltime champion of the world if his old statements could be dusted off, for he once crossed the Sahara at the head of his own caravan with only his conscience for his guide. That was an opportunity the like of which befell no other man. Some of his contemporaries while on the march with cavalry columns in the minor league wars had had very valuable: thoroughbred horses shot out from under them in poker games, but Floyd's caravan was motorized. ’ #8 8 OME auditors are very broad-minded, and some are indecently curious for details and like to collect little souvenirs of a correspondent’s travels which are called receipts and vouchers. One of the large Metropolitan papers often sends representatives off to the North Pole or to social events calling for finery not included in the standard, everyday kit of a journalist, and is very liberal in the matter of equipment but requires that these garments be turned in at the property office, with the expense accounts, at the end of the day. They say the boss wears these eskimo costumes, plug hats and all, to masquerades. There was one individual with the A. E. F. who was humiliated deeply by the disallowance of an item of $10 for a pair of binoculars. The auditor did not blink at $25 as this correspondent’s share of a banquet for Gen. Bullard or $50 as his share of a banguet for Gen. Pershing, who, naturally, required more elegant fare. But he had been passing on expense accounts of correspondents around the world for years, and he insisted that binoculars could not be had for less than $40. ” » n OME ball clubs used to give their players $5 a day on the road for eating money, but they would eat at the greasy spoon to knock down money, and when the allowance was reduced to the greasy spoon scale they nearly starved. A long time ago an eminent American statesman got his start in political life by disallowing an item of 50 cents for a baked potato. This was Senator Donahey of Ohio, then state auditor and widely unknown. A judge said he had been charged 50 cents for a baked potato in a hotei and Mr. Donahey appealed to the farmers on the hot potato issue, promising. to abolish such wicked extravagance if he were elected Governor. The farmers believed him, but by one of those strange contradictions of American Government the cost of running the state and the career of Mr. Donahey, nevertheless, rose steadily together, both being now ‘near the limit of their possibilities.

Business

By John T. Flynn

U. S. Should Watch British Effort To Prevent - Profiteering in War.

EW YORK, Oct. 18.—England is now trying her hand at legislation to hold down prices—to prevent profiteering, to put it another way. It will b an interesting lesson for America to watch. \ There seems to be a notion that a nation can, by passing a law, prevent prices from going up in wartime. It seems simple enough, if we suppose that a nation has unlimited power. But the whole experiment leaves out some important considerations. Such legislation is a good deal like passing a law that boats on a river must not rise more than a xed distance from the bottom. This is a rule which can be enforced. provided the level of the river remains stationary. But to make such a rule while at the.same time pouring vast quantities of water into from countless streams is the most futile s of regulation. Raise the level of the he boats will rise with it. In wartime—or peacetime—when we borrow vast sums from the banks we pump vast quantities of purchasing power into the economic system. Everybody finds himself at work. The next step is for all the people working in munition plants and raw material plants to take their wages to stores and buy clothes and food and luxuries. In no time at all the arms industries and the peacetime, industries are competing against each other. \ .

An Impossible Task AN

The Government must then assign every man, to the precise job he is to have in every store, every factory, every farm and every munition pla not the only other alternative is for employers to bid for ‘labor by raising pay. bh When everybody is working and everybody has money to spend, they will take their money to stores. There are only two ways to decide which purchasers shall be given precedence. One is for the Government, to regulate every purchase of every article. The other is for the ancient price system to go to work. The regulation of the employment and purchases: of every person in a great nation is simply impossible. Costs of production will go up. People with funds will bid for the goods they want? Pump the purchasing power inte a society and the prices will go up in spite of everything a nation can do. It has happened in Germany. It will happen much easier in England. England’s policy of supporting the war chiefly out of immense bank loans will do the job for her. And now we hear that Canada has made a loan of 200 million dollars entirely from the banks.

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

PEAKING of charm, girls—and when aren't we?— it might be a good idea to consider an im t and generally neglected phase of the question, - Although it is seldom mentioned we all know that ninetenths of the quality springs from unselfconsciousness. ; : : Who, for example, are the most charming and alluring beings on earth? Children, of course. They attract us because they behave with intuitive ease. Their movements and words are always spontaneous. They are completely and utterly themselves, and so we poor graceless grown-ups—miserable conformists that we are!'—watch and adore them, fascinated by something we yearn for and have forever lost. It is possible to cultivate fine manners, better dispositions, poise, a good figure and excellent diction. By hard study and constant application any person can learn to walk more gracefully, to converse entertainingly, to smile, dance, coquette and select the proper dinner tools. Yet, having mastered all these things, one can still fail to be charming because the spirit within is a wretch who betrays us.

charm. Many work very hard at it, even though they do not always know what it is they are seeking. Some individuals are charming without effort, and some, no matter how indefatigable they may be in its pursuit, have it not. Instead it is an elusive, indefinable something, drawing us to the person who is sincere and who has. a heartfelt interest in others. Mahatma Gandhi, the ugly shriveled-up little Indian man, has it; it belonged to fat, homely Marie Dressler, and it is the possession ‘of many lesser beings whose names never get into the papers. ; + Brains, beauty, personality have nothing to springs from

it, because charm, like faith, is always.an evidence of

"THE INDIA}

All over the world women are eager to acquire |

do with |

- Confessional

©

WHO DRIVE.

MILLIONS TO DEATH HAVE

£2) 5

=

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

“N CONSCIENCE

FAVORS DRIVING TO LEFT OF SAFETY ZONE

By Patsy Gray

that there are some few in the city

and on their toes and trying to take Indianapolis out of the red flannel

some seem to be influenced by a selfish motive.

I would respectfully suggest that they make a trip to Detroit, Cleve= land or similar large cifies and note that they drive to the left of the safety zones and I am sure their records - will show no accidents caused by slipping on rails—or that their streetcars or- busses are held up for ¢ny undue lepgth of time. Indianapolis, with its beautiful wide. streets, is. known all over the entire. United States as the “onelane town.” The writer drove down Massachusetts Ave. at 10 a. m. one Saturday, The street was blocked from one corner to the next with traffic because the motorist could not. drive to the left of the safety zone and crawled through to the right of the zone one at a time. = ” » 3 AGREES WITH FLYNN ON U. S. NEUTRALITY By R. J. Matthews ; a I wish to congratulate The Times for having such writers as John T. Flynn. Propaganda is indeed a menace to the American people and I think newspapers and radio can either get us into war or keep us out, depending on the nature of stories, editorials, etc. We need more writers like Mr. Flynn to impress people that there should be no reason for us to enter this conflict, no matter who wins.

realize that England, too, has acquired most of her territory and subjects by conquest. And if Germany should win, so what? Either way, they will be fighting “over there” again and again. “Mr. Flynn is right about it being utterly impossible for Germany and her Allies to invade our country. The distance and ocean are greater protection than a thousand Maginot or Siegfried lines. And when better airplanes are built, America can build them. Many young men, like myself in their 20's, . remember - our older

In regard to driving to the left of | safety zones, it is grand to think|:

of Indianapolis who are wide awake|

class and make her into an up-to-| date city. However, it is too bad that’

(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.) :

‘brothers who were wounded or killed

in the last war—for what? We are

willing to pay. more taxes to build |. bergh, Who has never fought a ‘bat-|’

‘up our: defense, rather .than 'sacrifice ourselves on foreign’ soil. * Let anyone try to: invade "this country and we’ll all be willing to fight— and they couldnt win. ” ”» ”

LINDBERGH'S REFERENCE TO “OUR DOMAIN” CRITICIZED By Robert H. Tam

Col. Lindbergh’s remark: “This Western Hemisphere is our domain” would have gone over hig at the Panama Conference. We have already been accused of trying to dominate this hemisphere. Thank Heaven Lindbergh was not a delegate to that conference. . .. Similar utterances have emanated from other parts of the world. Such as “The Orient for Orientals,” and “German Lebensraum.” He doesn’t. say how this will be accomplished, of course. There's the “snatch-and-grab” method perfected by “Hit and Muss.” And there's the “mantle of neighborly interest

and authority,” a technique devel-

oped by Joey Stalin, * I suppose I shall be called ignorant and intolerant, but the address on the whole somehow reminds me of Ned in the First Reader,

; LL 8, 8 8 SEES \U. S. SAFE IN

|CARE OF ‘EXPATRIATES’

By Ex-Soldier

Gas. alert! . My ‘frightened

children’ you need have no fear

of war. ; Expatriated : Col. Charles Lind-

tle, has returned. to our ‘despicable shores to take charge of the ‘Army, Navy, Marines and Aviation. Boake. Carter; expatriated Englishman, who has never held office, will be the pro-Hitler administrative head. And Canadian-born’ Coughlin , , . will have charge of the propaganda. bureaus . ' So I ask you what have we to worry about? "2 » CLAIMS LINDBERGH WAS INVITED BACK By B. Perry I have read several articles concerning the return of: Col. Lindbergh. If I understand: correctly, Lindbergh was asked to come back

and we are all subject to mistakes. |’

... And regarding the 90-day credit: provision of the cash and carry plan—can’t we understand if 90 days’ credit is given, they will

ask for more?

New Books at the Library

If we bear this in mind we will]:

0 EMEMBER VALERIE NS. MARCH?” (Simon) ‘purports to uncover the private life of a queen of the cinema. was Peggy Higgens who “just had to become an actress,” to her arrival at the pinnacle of success as the glamorous rival of Norma Shearer and Joan Crawford, her career undergoes the - varied phases of Western leads, “Hot-Stuff Baby,” three major love affairs, and seven months on the legitimate stage in New York. 4 “Her director, Conrad: Powers, in

telling. her life story is frank to the

Side Glances—By Gal

8

braith

From the time she].

point of being vulgar in his description of movie personalities and incidents.” Te A Having come from Fagen, OkKla., Peggy Higgens ‘goes Hollywood” soon after landing a $35-a-week

worth while, she cloisters herself and improves her technique until she shows promise of becoming a real actress. Her roles are changed and Valerie March rises from cheap features to glamour girl parts. Though in her New York appearance in Ibsen's “Hedda Gabler” she is not so successful as her rival, Helen Yarman, boxoffice receipts are good and Valerie's return to Hollywood brings her another starring picture. Here she works again with Conrad, and it is through him —through his whispered rumors all

'|over Hollywood about Valerie's com-

ing downfall—that she is forced to give up her career just at its peak. Valerie March’s life, though not to be envied, serves as an illustra-

| ‘| tion of what goes into the making of- a- Hollywood. “Success,” according

to the author, Katherine Albert, who has spent most of her life assimilat-

‘ling ‘this astonishing knowledge of

Hollywood. :

_ DETACHE By MAIDA LEAH STECKELMAN Oh, empty arms! ; I wonder that you find" So many things to do— That you follow mental bent,

Like pinning drapes to wrought iron

bh poles, Pe Or hanging pictures on a wall. I wonder blossoms find no blight in barren arms! Ton : Oh, body mine! : I wonder that you bend and dance, . : That you bedeck yourself to please Or eat or sleep at all— 3

and walk

{So great the need to hold and to

be held—

| So dominant the call.

DAILY THOUGHT

|" Trust in Him at all times; ye

people, pour out your heart before Him: God is a Selah—Psalms 62:8.

Y we love—If 1

much, surely we.

contract. -.But finding that not|

p—— Bs Es E trust as we love and where :

_ WEDNESDAY, OCT

= 18, Gen. Johnson

5 |Says—

by Sympathizes With Col. Lindbergh Because He Also Was Attacked for Comment on Canada's War Stand.

“@ YHICAGO, Ill, Oct. 18—Well, here we go again, “4 Col. Lindbergh makes a speech favoring a modifled arms embargo and questioning Canada’s entry into the war. Right away he is accused on the floor of the Senate of being a Nazi and in several editorials as being -anti-British. It was nothing to what this column got from .Canadian papers and speakers for referring to our contributing to the winning of the last war, regretting Canada’s decision to fight, and pointing to the rapidly encroaching Canadian military dictatorship as an instance of what could happen here. ¥ “ If some of these insinuations could be believed, I am practically on the payroll of Hitler and a silent member of the Nazi Bund. 3 It’s all old stuff. In 1917, the Senators who stood for our continued neutrality were popularly supposed to be in league with the devil—or at least the Kaiser, William Jennings Bryan had to get out of the Cabinet because he urged precisely the course that is proposed by this Administration in the Pittman bill. ” » » T wasn’t good judgment then for an officer in our "Army to argue against taking sides in that war, You were called a pro-German coward. But I did it just the same. : > The process of drumming up the same psychology is rapidly going on. The Canadian editorials on my column on this subject say that they are going abroad to fight our battles—that they are giving their Bill of Rights “temporarily” to save ours—ihat we were late in getting into the last war and had to ise cone scription while they sent over a vast volunteer army, These are all faithful echoes: of 1917. The first American official publicly to lambaste Hitler was the present writer. It was hot enough to cause a diplomatic protest to our State Department, Maybe he has been criticized more consistently than in this column, but I don’t know where. There is no

‘| drop of blood in my veins that does not come from the | British Isles and all four divisions are represented,

The sympathies of this column are all on that side— and especially for Canadians who are more nearly our own: people than any other nation on earth, -It would be simply silly for anybody to say a word or think a thought belittling the decency and gallantry of that people. ’ i : » ” ” : UST the same, out attitude in this matter is our own problem and not Canada’s. The business of all of

(|'us just now is to think and act “American” and not

be “pro” anything that interferes with that business. Our northern neighbor has bought a war and laid it on our back doorstep. She apparently didn't consult us about it. The great Pan-American “neutral zone” of seawater looks. a little silly encircling the whole of both Americas, and stopping at our Northern border. All Canadian coasts, including the St. Law=~

| rence River and the Great Lakes, except Michigan,

could become a battlefield aid we couldn't say anye thing about it—without getting into the war. ! That was Canada’s clear right at international law, but it is up to us to think about it and ask if the act was done on any theory that we will defend her if she is attacked. We can’t without entering this war and that, for the present at least, our people are determined not to do. ; :

It Seems to Me By Heywood Broun Cyd]

Universe Itself Seems Dead in Lifeless Paintings of Adolf Hitler,

EW YORK, Oct. 18—Some day—the sooner the better—it will be possible to write a column in which there is no mention, direct or indirect, of Adolf Hitler. Just now it’s hard. This was to be a column ‘about Motion and Art, which are closely related subjects. But that idea brought up, by a reverse proc the painting of Adolf Hitler, os .. I have never seen a Hitler original, but I've looked at many reproductions both in black and white and color. And the strange and ominous thing in his draughtsmanship is-that there is never a moving ob‘ject. I once said in a column that the landscapes of Der. Fuehrer have not included any human beings, but only cattle. - I was mistaken. Recently I saw a reproduction of one’ of his water colors which was a rather striking study of ‘a number of men. But they were in repose. Indeed, it was practically a still life, for it was a’picture of a crowd of dead men lying in.a trench. raieiona] No bird flies and no leaves turn with the wind in any of the water colors of the War Lord. Cows stand rooted and fixed like iron deer upon a lawn, The artist sees a world completely ordered and disciplined. The sky itself is frozen. Under the brush of Hitler the very universe is dead. And by a very considerable leap in the association of ideas this came to me after reading a newspaper obit and the catalog of a current one-man show at the Far Gallery in 61st St. I would not like to let Nate Leipzig go without a word. ‘He was, to my mind, the greatest of magicians. :-

‘The Importance of the Artist

As a rule, I think that card tricks run second only to 20 questions as the most boresome of parlor pastimes, but Nate could do the inexplicable with a speed, a precision and dexterity which compelled, fascination. It was so marvelous that nobody ever bothered to ask “How did you do that?” And that reminds me that this started out to be & note upon the paintings and drawings of John Groth, a young American artist. It was a paragraph somebody wrote for the catalog which caught my ate tention. It said, “Increasingly, it seems to me, that the importance of the artist must bear a direct relation to what he thinks and feels down to his very toes. Sheer proficiency may still bring about results which are barren beyond hope. In other words, I don’t see how anybody can be a good artist unless he is also a good guy.” : at, And that, I think, may explain why Hitler paints so badly. : :

Watching Your Health By Jane Stafford

AS gas that may already have killed many a German soldier in the “pillbox fortifications of the Westwall threatens you in your garage if you run your automobile engine -with the garage door closed. When a TNT-charged shell or bomh exe plodes, it gives off the same deadly carbon monoxide found in automobile exhaust gas. If the burst oce

| curs within a “pillbox” or its connecting corridors,

or some other inclosed space such as the hole of a ship or the cellar of a building, Jie concentration ‘of the gas will be great enough to any who escaped the exploding missile. . Shaded 3g rp As little as one part of carbon monoxide in 5000 parts of air will cause symptoms of poisoning within a few hours. One part of the gas in a hundred parts of air will kill in a few minutes. When this concentration is reached, the victim becomes unce and if not rescued stops breathing and dies. « The gas kills by interfering with the oxygen within the body. The result is the same as if victim were choked and could not: breathe, zitho there is no suffocating sensation. That is one’ the’ sinister things about carbon monoxide." It: no color, no odor, no breath-catching sting the victim of its presence. Its killing power: to its affinity for hemoglobin, the red coloring blood. i He ¥ RARE Ry This substance is what carries’ oxygen from th lungs to all parts of the body. Carbon monoxic poweves: soubines with the Semoglobis bout! es as I as oxygen. e more carbon mc : " ) less oxygen it

oxide there is in the blood, the Carbon monoxide gas is found not only in hi explosives’ and in automobile exhaust gas, in manufactured for heating, I ‘cooking; smoke ; coke

ER tlm

| carry.

gas used

Ri