Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 24 October 1939 — Page 13

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beyond reasonable doubt. .

tives. ~ that is real and considered opinion. : dean. brain power is’ going. to be a high and grave one—

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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 324, 1939

BROWDER PLEADS ARL BROWDER, indicted in New York on two Federal charges of making false passport applications, has pleaded not guilty. There is, of course, no doubt that the No. 1 American Communist traveled to Moscow on phony passports. He admitted it last month in sworn testimony before the Dies Committee. If this country handled such matters as Russia does, ‘that admission would have resulted in Browder’s prompt liquidation by a firing squad. a But, since Browder has not succeeded in transplanting his system to America, ‘our Constitution and our laws still stand to protect his rights. He can plead innocent in court of a crime which he has confessed in a Congressional hearing. He can go free on bail, pending ‘trial. He can hire able lawyers. He can have an open trial before a jury of his peers. He can use legal technicalities to make it difficult for the Government to prove the charges If convicted, he can appeal to higher courts. If appeals fail, the worst he can get is five years in prison and a $2000 fine on each charge. Meanwhile, in this country of free speech, his comrades can howl that Browder is being “persecuted” for his political beliefs. Well, we wouldn't have it otherwise. We prefer our democratic way to the way of dictatorship. Perhaps it is a tribute to this democratic way that people like Browder, who despise and would destroy it if they could, eagerly ~ demand its protection. But we hope the Government, while respecting the rights to which' even Browder is, entitled, will prosecute him with vigor and will go all the way to expose and punish others who have used falsified American passports in the service of the foreign governments to which they give their real allegiance.

FURLOUGH

HE many people who wondered what would happen to furloughed WPA workers have part of the answer in the poignant story of the Charles Rich family. It is not pleasant to read that this family of five has been hitch-hiking from city to city for five weeks while the parents looked for work; that on part of the trip that has terminated here for the time being, the father carried his 8-year-old namesake part of the way on his back after the boy’s leg had been broken in a mishap on the road. This may be an exceptional case but that there are

many Charles Riches and their families on the road and

suffering hardships in search of that security which should be every American’s due there can be no doubt. But it does emphiasize again a lesson that a great many of us are beginning to learn. That a man-sized problem still awaits solution in this country and despite distractions from abroad it is up to us to solve it if this democracy we love so well is to endure. Our own Charles Riches deserve a better fate.

DOC AT BAT

N interesting suggestion comes from Dr. T. R. Ponton of Chicago, editor of “Hospital Management” magazine. Speaking to the annual congress of the American College of Surgeons, at Philadelphia, he proposes the equivalent of a “batting average” by which surgeons would be rated on the basis ‘of their successful operations and the accuracy of their diagnosis of patients’ ills. ~~ Why not? A surgeon, like a ballplayer, might well be judged by his batting average. That would enable hospitals to eliminate unsafe practitioners from their operating staffs. And we don’t quite see why, as Dr. Ponton says, the batting averages of individual surgeons should be kept in strictest confidence by the hospitals. Ballplayers’ averages are made public. The surgeon’s work is even more vital. Why shouldn’t his rating, by hits and strikeouts, iS published for the infor i

canned when they lose their batting eyes. This idea has great possibilities. averages for lawyers and judges and preachers and teachers and hey—wait a minute! What if someone should propose batting averages for editors?

EVERY CITIZEN’S DUTY

N an article on “American Isolation” in the current issue of Foreign Affairs, John Crosby Brown writes: “The question for thoughtful Americans to decide is not whether or not we are being subjected to propaganda by all the various nations which would like our favor or dread our opposition. We know this is the case. Our task as Americans is to examine critically just how|far our national interests coincide with the lines suggested by this or that ‘particular foreign propaganda and how far they differ. “In doing this we might be helped by having certain standards of judgment: (1) Is the propag: ndist’s advocacy of his cause open and aboveboard? (2) Are his facts accurate? (8) Does he attempt to suppress, |distort or conceal any facts relevant to the argument? (4) Does he distinguish between statements of fact capable of proof and expressions of opinion? .. “With these standards .and devices thoughtful citizen would do well to scrutini propaganda both for and against isolatio) ‘out for himself how much of it is grounded in reason and - pound principle, How much is out-and-out falsification, how much consists of purely emotional appeal prejudice, hate and fear.” Mr. Brown maps out a big and continuing mental task for the average citizen. But no one can deny, we think, that the task is also a duty. Rarely have greater issues forced themselves upon the people of the United States. They can’t leave all the thinking to their representaThe latter must have. behind them public opinion This test of Amer-

in mind, the

MARK PERREE

Price in Marjon Coun-

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler

Americans Not Against Teaching Of Naziism and Communism, but of

thoughts today on a subject which bas been thoroughly misrepresented. : There is a report abroad in the country that the American Americans, meaning those: who believe in the American system of Government, the Constitution and all, hereafter, called Americans, are determined to prevent’ the teaching of communism and Hitlerism, and, as much as possible, to suppress belief in those vices. That is untrue. The Americans know that if they were to silence

such teachings and try to suppress such belief they would therein contaminate themselves with the very evils. which they detest so much, The campaign | against communism and‘ Hitlerism is a defense not against ideas but against intrusion into the politics and other strictly domestic affairs of the United States by organizations operating under the direction of Stalin and Hitler. These organizations—the Communist Party and the Anti-American Bund—say they aren't under or-

‘ders and don’t receive their support from Stalin ‘and

Hitler, respectively. are and they do. Anyone who believes in Stalinism or communism

But the Americans say they

may preach himself hoarse, subject, of course, to local |

-and personal deviations from the straight line of democratic tolerance. : ”» 8»

OW, how did we reach the verdict that these / groups are agents of foreign dictators and carry- :

ing out their orders? Earl Browder himself was the witness who . convicted the Communist Party. Never mind the testimony of Ben Gitlow, who said he stood trial in Moscow and, by Stalin's orders, was removed from the leadership of an organization purporting to be ‘an American political party. Skip the fact that Stalin then appointed Browder head of a Russian political branch store operating here without even a perfunctory nod .to the democratie method. All that is just background. The verdict of guilty was cinched by Browder | himself when he said the American party members | had to believe in and refrain from criticising Stalin's deal with Hitler. Browder laid down the law, which means that even if Stalin made an alliance with Japan or Germany or both to attack the United States the members of his party would have to side with alin.

” 82 =»

wanted te reserve judgment on his Hitler deal, but they weren't even allowed to do that. They had to approve it or get out. Well, how did the Americans arrive at the conclusion that the Nazi Anti-American Bund is a branch store of the Hitler Government? They convinced themselves of the foreign and anti-American purposes of the Bund by comparing it to the other bunds of Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland, which masqueraded in the same garb, manners and tricky pretense of loyalty, but meanwhile served as secret police, military spies, wreckers and disrupters, and finally, opened the gates from the inside, delivered the countries over to Hitler and put the finger gn loyal patriots, who were then taken out and shot by German firing. squads. These are the reasons why the Americans turned on the Communist Party and the Bund.

Business By John T. Flynn

Rise in Commodities May Offset General Improvement in Business:

ILWAUKEE, Oct. | 24.—Tom Girdler uttered a statement a few days ago which reveals as in a flash what is stewing |in the minds of a lot of business men. After speaking of the current rise in business, he said: “This will hold up unless we have peace, and there is veny little chance of peace. ” This I take it, from that point of view ‘is Avhat would be called “cheerful optimism. The man who Soniradicts this would, be called a pessimis There are several factors Mr. Girdler overlooks. One of them is the price behavior of commodities. Food prices up to the end of September rose 20 per cent. The raw materials of industry rose 12 per cent. Agricultural prices rose 20 per cent. The Brookings Institute spent several hundred thousand dollars some years ago in a study, one of the chief products of which was to reveal the devastating effect of rising prices on business activity. In this case the effect may be ‘greater - than ordinarily. The war certainly has stimulated trade in certain industries. But the number is quite limited On the other hand it has stimulated price increases in a large number of industries, industries which have felt no effect in the way of orders from the war. So if we. will put the stimulating effect of war business on one side and tne depressive effect of rising prics on the other side of the scale, we may well find that the weight on the price-boosting side is the greatest and that it will soon outweigh and over= throw any aid to business in the way of war orders.

U. S. Spending at Peak

At the present moment the greatest aid to business is government spending. While. the fiscal year is only a little more than three months old, the Federal Government has already poured $200,000,000 more into trade through recovery expenditures than last year in the same time. And much of this increase has been going out in the form of war orders —war orders of the American Government. The price rise, for-the moment at least, has come to a pause. In a few lines, indeed, there has been a tendency toward correction. It is to be hoped this is so. Also a great deal of the orders now crowding American factories are in the steel and machine tool industries, and industries, like wool, which are rushing to get in under the tape before further price rises occur. These will run their course. Moreover this is the season at which business normally goes into higher production. The wise observer will do well to suspend judgment on the actual state of American business until after Christmas.

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

S a rule, mothers are pretty nice people. Everybody admires and flatters them and almost

everyone listens to them-—except their children.

Which often convinces many mothers they are unappreciated. Hundreds and thousands of recipes have been set down for their improvement. Men insist they should cultivate a sense of humor; moralists fell them to ‘behave better; philosophers as usual, merely philoso-

phize, which helps very little, while the psychologists |

scare the wits out of them by warnings against complexes and inhibitions. By way of explanation, then, this is my 2 cents’ worth of advice, given in a spirit of friendliness and love. Through some years of contact with all sorts of women, and out of my own experience in child training, I have come to believe that mothers share one failing in common with the rest of humankind— they are often tiresome. And so children are frequently bored into naughtiness and rebellion. They get weary of looking at Mamma, listening to Mamma, reg ng her nervous twitchings and her funny little ways. They are obliged to protest in sheer self-defense—and when the child protests against injustice we call it disobedience. The woman who boasts that she has never left her

son to bathe or dress or entertain him, must have tremendous confidence in her power to please. Her husband goes to his office daily and, as a consequence, probably is glad to.greet his lady love at nightfall. her presence for 24 hours. But the child has no such release.

memsis ab her skirts until his 6th year, when he es- | =

Foreign Control of U, S. Spénsors. |

LEVELAND, Oct. 24.—1 would like to offer some |

EVERAL members of Stalin’s American branch |

darling for a single night, never allowed.another per-.

He has not been forced to remain in| Unless his ‘mother wills, he is doomed to |

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

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I wholly disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it. —Voltaire.

IMPORTING CUSTOMERS SEEN AS SOLUTION By L. H. Mr. E. J. Unruh warns of a curtailed European market for American products as a result of the war. It would be funny if it were not so tragic to see the belligerents shodting down their customers. Since there are to be 20 million refugees to be expatriated, Mr. Roosevelt might ask Congress to lower the immigration bars so we could import these customers. That would give us a good foreign market right in our own backyard. It would save the ocean shipping expense, and how these folks would eat up our farm dnd factory surpluses. It would require five million new dwelling units at once and this new taxable value would reduce our taxes. It would be quite an idea to import the customers and eliminate the need for exporting that much stuff. They would probably eat Argentinian corned beef if Congress would throw off the tariff, so Argentina could buy.dur products. Who will the belligerents sell to when they have shot the customers?

# » ” URGES 100% EMBARGO AGAINST WAR NATIONS By W. H. Richards There is no great danger of the U. 8. being drawn into the European

war, but we are in grave danger of this country being pushed into it by the few who made millions out of the first world war and who would gladly sacrifice the lives of our boys (so it were not their own sons) that they might make more millions. If the present embargo should be repealed and in its place enacted a law that would be a real embargo against selling anything whatever to nations at war, forbidding the sale of food, petroleum, peacetime as well as wartime goods, the war over there would be stopped in short order, for those nations cannot long continue to fight if shut off from buying anything here. As for “cash and carry” it would be a step into the scrimmage for

this country and those who advocate 1¢ well know it. . ..

It is not our war unless we buy an interest. in it. The map of Europe matters not to us. Keep our ships. out of fighting zones. Forbid our nationals going to belligerent countries Sxoers entirely at their own

(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.)

risk. Strengthen our Navy, fortify our coasts, stand ready for defense and we can defy Hitler or any other to attack us. Col. Lindbergh has been attacked by plutocrats, but his broadcast was the most. Sensible American talk we have heard. . . . A war boom is fool's gold and in view of the depression to’ follow, of which we have already had a bitter taste, we had better forego such a flash of imaginary prosperity built on: blood. - : : . . 8 CLAIMS WAR NEEDED TO END PEACE BLABBER By Reader : We sure need a war in this coun-

{try to rid it of the hypocrites: who

are trying: to fool the American people with their peace blabber. We

|all know it is a fake,

New Books

CITES WASHINGTON ON PRESSURE GROUPS By M. G. In that greatest of American ‘polit-|

‘lical documents, Washington's fare-’

well address, we find this warning against the. danger of pressure groups:. “All .combinations and associations, under ‘ whatever plausible character, with the real design to

direct, control, counteract or awe the regular deliberation of the constituted authorities are’ destructive of the fundamental principle of our Government. - ganize faction; to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put in the place ‘of the delegdted will of |’ the nation the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community and according ‘to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to. make the public. administration the mirror of the ill-concerted. and incongruous projects of faction rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans, digested by common councils and modified by mutual interests.” I doubt ‘if with all his vision George Washington could have foreseen anything so ill-concerted and incongruous as the Townsend Old-

Age. Pension. Plan.

TT survival of Elizabethan culture in the Kentucky mountains has exerted an increasing attraction upon writers in recent years. Poets and composers, etymologists and musicologists have visited, observed and analyzed this amdzing anachronism of “language and music. All have sought to explain how - this. hill country could capture time and hold it, while a streamlined world whizzed by and left| it untouched. ok writers on this subject, howevet, have had Miss Jean Thomas’ go fortune to grow up in this very region, and the intelligence to view this ancient culture sympat. etically but objectively. Nor, in colsequence, have many been able to write such ‘an: interesting and illuminating book as Miss Thomas’ “Ballad Makin’ in the Mountains of Kentucky” (Holt).

The author not only gives us

Side Glances—By Galbraith

words and wind, with their possible origins. She also describes the circumstances under which ‘she first heard these mountain ballads, sketching in the. singers’ lives and environment and: salting her narrative with the tang of their mountain talk. Patiently, day after : day, “uphill and down, Miss Thomas went in quest of the: ancient - tunes and verses and their mountain counterparts. ‘A chance remark would ‘send |. Par miles. into the- back country where, in a rude cabin, she might find ‘another. example of the ‘ballad mal-ers’ art." Muny of the. ‘singers and composers . are illiterate, Miss Thomas tells us. ' But, young or old, they can “make up a ballad right out of their heads” and “suit it to tune.” = Miss Thomas devotes’ chapters to ballads on feuds (though she says they are called “war” or “trouble” in the mountains); chanteys, wat, flood and fire, the railroad, “stillin’ and drinkin’ ” “killin’,” lament and farewells, “hymn makin’ ” and progress. Fully as femarkable as the continued existence of 300-year-old folk tunes. is the number of new ballads which have sprung up, retaining the old style but treating of contemporary events. So the same: folk who still sing chanteys about the “briny deep” (though they’ may never have ‘seen

} |a larger bedy of water than Big

Sandy River) can also “make up” and sing ballads about the WPA, the C. 1. O. and President Roosevelt. Milfs Thomas, who takes a ‘camera on her travels, as well as a notebook and a keen ear, has illustrated her book : liberally with ‘photogrdphs “of many of its characters. The musical illustrations have ‘beén- harmonized by Walter: Kob, music instructor at Ohio State: University: (J. TJ.

THE RIGHT-OF-WAY ‘By JAMES D. ROTH When a brother fs in need . And has halted on his way, Let’s lift him up with speed; We have, the right-of-way.

We'll give to him a word of cheer And lend a guiding hand. - Ah, yes, our destination’s near— The right-of-way—our land.

DAILY ‘THOU GHT

And the king said to him, how many times shall .I adjure thee that thou say nothing: but the - truth to me-in ne. name of, the ord 2—IT ( 8:1

4

They serve to or-|.

1 more varied diet .and one which

r——_— - TUESDAY, oct. u, 1989.

; Another Resohufion Offered for Probe. of Public Opinion Polls and "It Would Be-Good Idea to-Have It.

ASHINGTON, Oct. 24.—Congressman Pierce of Oregon has introduced another in a series of

current resolutions to appoint a joint committee of

Congress. to “investigate the conducting of ‘polls puss porting to measure public ‘opinion. with ‘respec’, to questions or issues which have or may have a bearing on any election held to fill any office under the Government of the Utiited ‘States.’ To this he added “or which have or may have any bearing to influence any vote on any public question pending

|i Congress. Ps

~~ This, committee “would “inquire into “the manner

| of framing questions contained ‘in ballots or in-

quiries, the methods of soliciting persons to whom inquiries- or - ballots are sent and the reason for conducting such polls.” This resolution has made. no progress and won't

4! in the. special session but. it certainly should in the

regular session. There .is.no doubt whatever that widely . published polls ‘showing overwhelming public opinion ‘ior this or. that side of a public, question have enormous influence not only to affect public policy: but to affect others. in the mass of voters. There is a Steep: like human Sencenny to follow the

1 flock.

..® »..

OLLS like the Gallup and Fortune ‘ballots on such simple questions as voters’ preference in an approaching election when both candidates and their policies’ are known, are very valuable and can be very accurate. But how can they be worth any= thing on an obscure technical question such. as the raising of the arms embargo or whether the two

'| billion .dollar stabilization fund should be used to

stabilize the currency of Santo Domingo, or whether Mr. Roosevelt will be elected in 1940, is beyond: me. To the extent that, if inaccurate, they solemnly affect to register marked public” feeling on such obscurities and, that ‘thé result is to crystallize opinion and influence Coftigress, they could be ‘positively vicious.. They tend toward the destruction of representative, responsible government and the substitution of a kind of mob rule by popular ballot... oa ms ie i O the extent that they can be Fmmied an rigged to produce a desired ‘result, they coul gasily become very dangerous. I hasten to add that I am not suggesting that anything of this kind has been intentionally done. As to the principal current

| polls, I know that it-has not been done.

Dr. Gallup thinks -I am “all ‘wrong ‘about. this, which is natural, I know other poll experts w think he is all wrong. Rep. Pierce has. stated: % have never met a person whose opinion has be asked and ‘have met just one man who ever knew a man. whose opinion has been asked: . ...The questions are framed so subtly and the method of making

| the survey is apparently so carefully guarded: that no

person knows upon what factual facts the conclusions are based.” Maybe this column is all wrong. Maybe the polls are accurate and valuable. But if they are,-they would gain greatiy in popularity: and prestige if they took the trouble to prove it—not just by their own unchallenged statement of method and result but in a Shorough official public investigation. -

lt Seems to Me By Heywood Broun

All Romance Is Gone ‘From War Except, Sadly Enough, for Fliers.

EW YORK, Oct. 24—All romance has been _ drained out of war, except in respect to aviation.. The flying ‘men still cut a figure. ‘That's a pity. If every fighter were up to his neck in mud and blood it might be ‘easier to still the urge for conflict. : - Even the fliers, have lost prestige since they began to accept assignments which called for the’ slaughter of the undefended. But the war lords still manage to keep a fingerhold on the franchise of chivalry by arranging that the fallen foe shall receive full military honors, if only he drops from the sky Father than the

top of a trench. Much of this is stuff and nonsense. Probably the old ‘wars were, in their way, as mean and brutal as ‘present hostilities, Fiction and the more imaginative kind of history have endowed them ‘With protective coloration; I would not be in the least surprised to

| learn that in actuality flowers were omitted during the

War of the. Roses. I knew a pacifist who used to say that he was against all wars, but that he would have been glad to fight at Marathon. To me it seemed a rather hollow gesture, since nobody is recruiting for that decisive battle just now, and, anyhow, T imagine that when ° the Greeks and Persians met there was in reality no more glamour than in & modern duel with bayonets. But fact has not: yet caught up with the aviators. It is still a way of death which many are willing to chance without compunction. A friend of mine went up to Canada recently to ask some questions about enlistment. He returned erestfallen. .

Only the Young will. Do

“They've already got: 20,000 or. 30,000 fellows on the list who want to fly over the West Wall,” he told me. “Apparently you've got to be put up at birth to ‘have a chance. And everybody -told me I wouldn't get any chance to fly a pursuit. plane or a bomber on accoint of my age. I'm only 41 and just as good as ever. But: apparently this is a very exclusive ‘war, and only the young men will be permitted to go out and die in the:air.” ° ‘Under cross-questioning _he aimitted that there might be something in what the authorities said. In dives ‘and .sudden twists, he told me, the pilot of a high-powered plane can wrench his circulation into smithereens. - The shock of sudden stoppage may be “so great that the pilot goes blind or even unconscious for a second-or more. The blood returns a little faster to the head of a younger man, and so he earns the nomination and the aivilegs of fighting for his life ahove ‘the clouds.

Watching Your Health

By Jane Stafford

T= ‘practice of preserving foods by freezing them has grown very rapidly within the past few years. It is not limited to commercial organizatiohs. Farmers and other individuals throughout the country are using cold storage lockers and farm freezers to preserve food for themselves and their neighbors. - The advantages and hazards of’ this custom have been studied by a committee of the American ‘Public Health : Association which . finds. that ‘the benefits far outwelgh ‘the possible hazards. Chief benefit to farm ers and others: in rural areas, the committee stated, is that the year-round SOS: he of frozen negts : ultry, fruits and vegetables will give. them a. mu p will be -higher-in - scurvy-preventing vitamin C and certain : other: food factors ‘than they have had in the past. =~: However, farmers and others who are. installing low-temperature cabinets and walk-in freezers need to learn the principles of quick freezing of foods which commercial companies have applied su y.: For example, 8 temperature of 10 to 15 degrees Fahrer ih is: much too high to preserve foods satisfactoril . jonger than three months, At vue tem ‘fat of meats and poultry sogn t urns rancid, ane darken and soon become: inhi and vegetables. ‘rapidly lose their bright colors, fine flavors, wd vitamin C content. 4 ; ‘Rapid. freezing of the foods is of arent Frogsers shoyid oe, by pauked soy 14 9 3 ‘be frozen, Even if the 3pera 0 ‘compartment is kept ‘below zero, if it is packed wi with