Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 25 October 1939 — Page 16

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Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

_ WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1939

REQUIREMENT NO. 1

WE suggested last week that, pending a complete over- : haul of township relief by the next Legislature, Trustee Quinn name a committee of able businessmen to devise a more efficient system of handling relief in Center Township. "No such committee will be worth a plugged nickel, however unless its members (1) are completely disassociated from active politics (2) have no chante to profit from the township’s business and (3) have had no connection with the past administration. | We submit that suggestion again to Mr. Quinn. After

all, he’s the man on the spot.

THE PULSE IS STEADY

WE learned about wars from the last one. The sinking of the Athenia should have been as shocking to American opinion as was the Lusitania tragedy. But after the first outburst of indignation we cooled off. Germany's seizure of the American freighter, City of Flint, as a prize of war, had all the makings of a “major incident.” Lesser breaches of our rights of trade and shipping in 1914, ’15 and ’16 were the cause of much breastheating and perfervid oratory on this side. But today there is a notable absence of high and mighty talk about freedom of the seas. We have learned that in time of war there is no such thing. American citizens and officials are taking this event in their stride, much as they have accepted Britain's search. of numerous American vessels and confiscation of contraband—and without another endless exchange of notes. * Present indications are the affair will be settled calmly through diplomatic negotiations. And that, we think, is uch better than a lot of talk about diving into the Atlantic and swimming across to hang Hitler on the Siegfried Line. "While it is gratifying that this has caused no hysteria, it would be hardly prudent to encourage the accumulation af such incidents. There are provisions in the pending Neutrality Bill to reinstate the so-called cash and carry procedure, requiring belligerents to take title to goods at our ports and carry them away in their’ own.ships, and forbidding American vessels to enter combat zones. Regardless of what happens to the arms embargo, these provisions, on which Congress is practically unanimous, should be enacted without delay.

A TRAVELER REPORTS

OR whatever you may think it worth as a matter of " domestic observation about the Second World War, we print below from a letter which comes from one of our men who in recent weeks has been doing a lot of traveling among Scripps-Howard cities. A range from the Atlantic Coast to the Pacific was covered, and from the Mexican border to the Great Lakes. Here is what our correspondent says about how our country in various spots—East, West, deep South, Middle South, Middle West, Southwest, Rocky Mountain region, and Far West— has to say about reactions to the war news from abroad:

“Everybody who ventures west of the Hudson and |

passes the time of day with a taxi driver probably presumes he has obtained a cross-section of public opinion. The trouble is, very few people know for certain what they think about.anything—least of all, this war. : “Having traveled about 7000 miles, I ought to have something of valud'to report as regards the war, and its collateral issues. hat I got were impressions, and Dr. Gallup might cross me up any minute with the real McCoy. However, based on the editors’ reports on public sentiment in their communities, on conversations with people outside the newspaper business, on scraps of conversation in Pullman cars, etc., I would sum it up this way: ” 2

8 # ” ”

“From Chicago west, until you get to the Pacific Coast, there didn’t seem to be a great deal of interest in the war. In San Francisco and Los Angeles there was about as much war interest as in New York. Papers in the Middle West and mountain country between Chicago and San Francisco played the war conservatively; papers in San Francisco and Los Angeles were full of it. In the Southwest ahd the South the same condition existed which appeared to exist between Chicago and the West Coast. © “In all cases, there seemed to be little interest in the war as such, and very little more (if any) in the battle of the Giants over the Embargo Act in Washington. So much for that part of it. “As to what sentiment the grassroots folk have about the relationship of the U. S. A. to the war, I would size it up about like this: “The people of this country want France and England to win, They want the United States to do everything it can to help them win. They want us to keep out of it in a military sense, but want whatever moral support we can exert directed in the interest of the Allies. “They don’t want any American soldiers sent abroad, but they want the United States to make it possible for France and England to get airplanes, guns, ammunition or whatever else they require. They want this country to arm itself and be prepared.

8 2 ”

. ” ” ” “As to the arms embargo and neutrality issue, it seems to me that the people are not paying much attention to the shades of forensic logic in Washington. “I think they realize that it is mood, not legislation, that would determine whether we get in it. Right now, the people are in no mood for war. So Congress can debate, and pass laws or repeal them, and I don’t think either action would have much impact on public sentiment at this time. Neither Congress nor Roosevelt can drive the people into a war now—and hell and high water can’t hold them back when they're ready. They're not ready. But they want to see Hitler licked, and so long as we don’t have to get any of our boys killed, they want Congress and Roosevelt to do everything possible to help the French and British do it.

And keep our powder dry, and plenty of it!”

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler

"The Great | Am' Cult, One of Whose Holy Spirits Saves U. S. From Invasion, Pays a Call in Cleveland.

LEVELAND, Oct. 25.—It seems impossible that in all history the human race has produced any more humiliating rebuke to its claims of reason and dignity than a certain congregation of about 1000 Americans who have been gathering afternoons and evenings lately in Cleveland to take part in a religious cult known as “The Great I Am.” ’ Ordinarily anyone who derides the religious faith or rites of any group is venturing on to dangerous grounds, but the members of this cult have deliberately become accessories to the most astonishing travesty in the entire record of religious eccentricity in the United States. - i The leader is one G. W. Ballard, who has invented a list of saints and demons and who asserted in a broadcast the other evening that one of his holy spirits had taken the liberty of destroying with a sword of flame a number of foreign submarines bent on the destruction of America. Scoop! This saint was identified as the great ascended spirit, K-17, and Ballard had the gall to announce that K-17 had removed from these submarines certain capsules containing plans for the destruction of this country, the details of which would be revealed in due

course. : .

”» s =

HE also had private advices that the ascended

spirits, using the same weapon, had just routed a flight of Japanese bombers attacking ‘a city in China. ‘This was another scoop. The headquarters of the cult, naturally, aré in Los Angeles, but Ballard and his wife, a rugged, opinionated woman, have operated in Chicago and are bound for Philadelphia and Washington after they have mopped up in Cleveland. ; They travel de luxe, maintain a stable of expensive yellow automobiles and carry a staff whose duties include the sale of literature, phonograph records and pictures and the forcible ejection of infidels who jangle the mood of the ceremonies with heretical raspberries. * When I picked up a sheaf of booklets to confirm in print what I had heard in bewilderment from the platform one of the brothers stepped up and said. “That will be just $1.60.” My books contain the most astonishing gibberish, but in an unwonted way are worth the money. One, for example, claims that St. Germain, the No. 1 or boss man of the Host of Great Ascended Spirits, in one emhodiment, worked continually for

the “upliftment” of England and wrote the works of |

William Shakespeare. 2 8 = ALLARD and his wife take turns on the platform babbling such incoherent stuff about black magicians, gas belts in the earth, cataclysms, purifying flames and a lake of gold within a mountain as surely never has been heard outside a madhouse. The pictures on sale range in price from $1.20 to $15. The $2.50 number. is a hand-colored etching of Jesus, a minor character in the “I Am” deity, drawn from life as he stood conversing with the tall master from Venus on a mountain in California, Jan. 1, 1935. This, incidentally, seems to be another exclusive if belated and indirect Revelation, and city editors are advised to check. Ballard bought $1600 worth of radio time in Cleveland and must have done all right.

Business By John T. Flynn

Committee to Study Effect of End Of War on U. S. Urged on Congress.

HICAGO, Oct. 25.—One suggestion made by this writer three months ago seems to have been widely adopted in Congress—namely, the policy of keeping Congress in continuous session to act as a check on the President during the war, I now wish to make another. It is that Congress set up a committee with a modest appropriation to make a study and report on the problems which will confront this Government in its social and economic life when the war ends. This ought to be done at once since no man can say with assurance that the war will be a long one. Indeed, as matters now stand in Europe there is some \basis for thinking that, perhaps, it will end quickly or will change into a wholly different war.

The facts about the economic situation in Germany remain obscure. But there is enough tc conclude that it must be in a very advanced stage of disintegration. : Germany has been operating as a capitalist state, But, under the pressure of continued and increasing economic disorder, its controls have had to be steadily increased and extended. To relieve unemployment immense tax levies and vast loans were required. Employment was effected by making Germany an armed camp with everyone working either in the army or in the armament industries. But slowly the essential glands of the capitalist economy became either atrophied or swollen. The Government has had to take over the great basic industries.

Socialist State a Possibility

The end of all this is that the German society no longer operates as a capitalist system. It cannot continue to function as such. Its only chance of continuous operation is to cease to be a capitalist state and become a socialist state. This confronts it with two: alternatives. Either it must collapse or fling itself into the arms of bolshevism. This is not too fantastic. The present dictators in Germany have shown that their great crusade against communism was a sham. They could do this easily enough by using the word “socialism” instead of “communism.” If they did this they might get one final concession from Stalin— supplies without paying for them. Then we may see Germany and Russia forming a powerful communist bloc in eastern and central Europe. That would certainly change the war. The alternative to it is a crack-up in Germany because of resistance by the anti-Communist elements.

A Woman's Viewpoint

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson’

T was the male, I believe, who first announced himself made in the image of God. Upon that assump-

tion and because of the pleasant belief, man has as--sumed dominion over every living thing—a rare priv- |

ilege as well as a heavy responsibility. And from a general view of conditions, he’s been a disgraceful flop at his “Divinely commanded” task, It's time for him to abdicate. While we agree that men have made a noble stagger at intervals, they have succeeded only in getting the world into a hopeless mess. Their politics is foul with graft. Their international business is conducted with intrigue, and wherever they raise the Cross, the double-cross follows. While they have been at the work of managing such affairs since the dawn of time, they never learn by experience, and the year 1939 finds them engaged almost wholly with destruction. They are bending

every energy to insult human dignity, demolish free- |-

dom and bring death and ruin upon their own heads and upon the heads of those who look to them for protection—women and children, : They mastered the seas—and have lined them with dynamite bombs. They control the air, and from it threaten pestilence and havoc. They command the earth and it is scarred with trenches and big guns, its resources looted, its substances wasted upon war. More deplorable still, they built ships—lovely, graceful, miracle ships capable of riding through the strongest gales. Then they built submarines to destroy those ships. Next, they manufactured submarine destroyers, so the submarines could be demolished—and so on and on, ad infinitum, until chaos reigns. I'say, let them abdicate in favor of women, who are impractical, inexperienced, ignorant and diffident, but who could certainly do better because it would be impossible to do wo 2

E INDIANA The First

a +5 40

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Time He Tried to Cash It!

The Hoosier Forum

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

GRATEFUL TO ANCESTOR FOR LEAVING EUROPE By Claude Braddick, Kokomo, Ind.

, Viewing the. almost hopeless tangle of human affairs in Europe,

constant wars and intrigues, I have one comment to make. It is this: I

decided to quit Europe and settle in new America; but whoever it was, I am deeply grateful.

» 2 ”

| BLAMES ALLIES ATTITUDE

FOR NEW WORLD WAR By Citizen

Of all queer things in this queer war is the fact that the British are fighting Hitler for treaty-breaking and aggression—two practices in which the British are past masters. The United States has been pictured as Shylock for desiring settlement of just debts, but the fact that the British and French have been super-Shylocks in extracting the last ounce of the pound of flesh from Germany at the Versailles Treaty -has never come up for discussion.'So much are we under the spell of the English. : Britain's: breaking of treaties, aggression, reneging of debts and her caustic criticism regarding the behavior of other nations add up to hypocrisy in my language. But no doubt the British have a very dignified and ideals-connoting word for -it. The Nazi olive. branch was tendered by a very odd looking bitd, to be sure, but before we start manufacturing more hate for the Germans on that account, it would be well to'remember that the dove of peace that hovered over Versailles in 1919 was an Allied vulture. And it would be well further to remember that conditions in Europe could have been peacefully negotiated at any time within the last 20 years. But England and France refused to recoghize the necessity, Now that it is forced on them to recognize their-handi-work, they choose to fight it out, quite illogically putting the whole blame on Hitler. Without holding any brief for Hitler, it seems to me that the Feuhrer gave the English more of a break in that peace offer than the English permitted the Germans in the last war. These European nations are three of a kind and we had best wash our hands of the whole affair and devote our efforts to maintaining

la normal peacetime economy as

nearly as possible. Besides if we

and reviewing her long history of]

do not know which of my ancestors|

(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.)

insist on sticking our noses into the affairs of others our own house may burn, ” ” »

WOUNDED VETERAN

' WOULD FIGHT AGAIN

By World War Veteran

I am an ex-soldier and served 13 months in France and I am for my country. . . . I served as a private

and as a gunner. I served on four|p

fronts and took my punishment just as others—gas and shrapnel. I thank God I am still alive after seven months in the hospital. . . . Now I am 47 years old and I am ready to cross the pond and do what we were stopped at-in 1918. One man asked in a recent edition why France should go to war. This man we should not have given a chance 21 years ago. At my age I am ready to go and gain what we were forbidden and I think most of the buddies who served at the front would be too. I should like to take our Col. Charles

A. Lindbergh in on ofie big drive on a 6-inch howitzer; he would learn what war means—not flying an airplane over.Germany, France and England for fun and Herr Hitler. ss = = WARNS AGAINST FOREIGN SHIPS IN OUR PORT Mrs. J. E,

The war in Europe will never end, it will be war and grab until Gabriel blows his trumpet in the morning uinless the spirit of peace and love for their. fellowman and their country settles upon them. Hold fast to the arms embargo. The 90-day credit, cash and carry plan will not stand and will not mean a thing to warring nations of Europe. Thousands of useful lives and a war debt which they never can pay and to this nation the stepping down on the neutrality ace on sea and land would eventually lead us into the European war. Good sailor, beware of foreign ships in our port. # 8 =» CLAIMS ARMS SALES

HELP MASS MURDER By Mrs, Thomas D.

The good people of America elected men to represent the good people but they are actually incurring mass murder. May God hear our prayers and have mercy on the innocent people and punish those wicked ones that have no fear of the Lord but love blood money.

New Books at the Library

HEN allowed to see himself as others see him, one is sometimes distressed, often amused,

and always informed. Geoffrey Harmsworth in his sprightly new volume “I Like America” (Hutchinson) has granted us this boon. Adding to our statement that we like Harmsworth, we may also admit that by his book we are only a little pained, and always delightfully entertained and instructed. Stepping from the Queen Mary in September, 1938, the author, a

nephew of Lord Northcliffe and

himself a journalist, with his brother Sir Harold Harmsworth and a man servant, most evidently a prototype of . a Wodehouse character, started on a six weeks’ whirlwind tour of the United States. Sir Harold, the photographer of the party, contributes materially to a very

raith

charming volume of frank and kindly impressions of our country. Choosing to highlist a rather unusual combination of places, people and situations, our genial traveler touches on newspaper publishing in New York, the Hines trial, John D. Rockefeller Jr., Williamsburg, the Folger Library, Hoover and his Gmen, the Texas oil country, the Grand Canyon as the background of a Legion convention, Charlie Chaplin and Walt Disney, William Randolph Hearst, Lord of San Simeon, Aimee Semple McPherson, Salt Lake City and the Mormons, Alcatraz, Greenfield village, and other typically American phenomena. The author stresses his desire for

la. better understanding between

England and America, asserting that the real lack of mutual interest lies with the newspapers. Only a few newspapers in England, he says, have any grasp of the importance of American affairs, while “the American reader is taught to regard the affairs of Europe much in the way of a spectator watching a thriller from the comfortable security of the stalls.” oe In the year 1939 the Atlantic Ocean is: a narrow strip of water, he points out, and he adds that if «the British Navy was suddenly wiped out the safety of America would be seriously threatened.”

ANOTHER YEAR By OLA HIATT

So many events recalled In the passing of one year, And musing on I wonder What another year may bring. Praying, I hope for the best, - With strength that will know less fear. La Past year’s hoping and waiting Brought wonderful joys to me, But sprinkled between were Dei: Deep hurts with much real ing—- ot And love that is life to True love moves one xe

Gen.

Johnson |

Says—

Submarine Ban Further Evidence Administration Is Trying to Help

Allies in Every Way Short of War.

ASHINGTON, Oct. 25.—Under the President's: recent proclamation, no submarine of a nation at war can enter an American port unless pursued by an act of God. But a battleship, destroyer, cruiser or an armed merchantman can. The submarine is a recognized vessel of war. All naval powers have them, But all nations do not use them for the same principal purpose. : 2 Ours are kept chiefly for use against waiships.’ So are England’s. For raiding commerce England has fast surface cruisers, Germany has these also.s She

can’t use them because the British command the seas. So Germany uses subs against commerce. Like surface ships, subs have to refuel to operate far from base. As a practical result, this proclamation has an effect to deprive Germany of the use of her one com= ‘merce raiding weapon in wide areas, while permitting England to use hers without any impairment by us. Technically this is neutrality. It treats all subs alike—British or German.. That is also true of selling arms. But, for the reasons just stated, its effect is violently pro-British and anti-German. Since this is so, a question arises as to why we do it. The only. authority for doing it was to defend our safety and neutrality. hy ® » »

ERE either threatened? The appearance of sube marines was elaborately officially reported—on both our coasts and in the Caribbean. There was no confirmation. It was intimated, but not stated that they were German submarines which—at least insofar as Alaskan waters are concerned—was absurd. It is argued that submarines are as different from surface warships as “pears and apples.” They are— but that difference doesn’t warrant this distinction, The only difference in that regard is that they can approach a port submerged and thus concealed. But it is a condition of this very proclamation that, even vhen they can enter, they must approach on th surface. : All pretense that the repeal of the arms embargo is intended as a neutrality measure—to keep us out of war—has been dropped. It is now openly urged as a measure, less than war, but more than mere words, to help the English hurt the Germans. So, quite ‘obviously, is this clever stunt. So was holding up the‘ German merchantman, “Bremen.” 2 8 2

HIS column is not now criticizing these measures’ —except the cynical trickery of the Bremen stunt. It is just reciting them for the purpose of discussing a further point. This Administration says it wants “to go back to international law”’—meaning no Congressional restriction whatever on its dealing’ with this war. Neither of these two acts which it did within the field of its discretion finds any precedent in international law. - : ! : ! Fencing off great areas of the open océan and forbidding them to belligerent ships is also without warrant in international law. The seas are supposed to belong to all nations. You can do it—if you have a navy to make it stick. But that isn’t “going back to international law.” It is a use of force to override international law—which is the very thing we preten to condemn, iE

It Seems to Me

By Heywood Broun

After All, General, It Was Just Two Women Who Criticized Lindy!

EW YORK, Oct. 25.—Gen. Johnson seems to be worried by the fact that some of his readers no longer love him. He also pleads that the rules

oq

of free-for-all debate should be tempered for Col.

Lindbergh. Speaking of the critics of “Poor Lindy,” the columnist says, “They are equipped for a continuing smear—and he isn’t. I wish Lindy had Si5yed on his pedestal.” Many will second this pious wish. There will even be agreement on the. part of some who are not quite sure that it was a pedestal on which the Colonel placed his feet. But who are these rough guys against whom “Old Iron Pants” asks protection for himself and the “Lone Eagle”? As far as I can gather, the gangsters who have. scared the iron out of the soul of the General are Dorothy Thompson and Eleanor Roosevelt. “Iron Pants,” indeed! The General's piteous plea would come with better grace from Barbara Frietchie. : AE And yet I would not like to see any harm.come to the old warrior, and when he turns to his Bible I hope he will not happen upon verses 52, 53 and 54 in the ninth chapter of the Book of Judges. If by chance the eye of “Iron Pants” strays in that direction I beg him to refrain from reading. It was only the other day that the General said, in writing of Mrs. Roosevelt: “I regret that this most graciou lady couldn’t stay in her ivory tower.” "

A Disturbing Analogy ’

The analogy to the Bible story might be much too close for comfort, since it runs as follows: “And Abimelech came unto the tower, and fought against it, and went hard unto the door of the tower to burn it with fire. And a certain woman cast a ‘piece of a millstone upon -Abimelech’s head, and all to break his skull. Then he called hastily unto the young man his armorbearer, and said unto him, draw - thy sword, and slay me, that men say not of me, a woman slew him. And his young man thrust him through, and he died.” . The general he must quickly, “Hold, enough!” begins. The General says that several commentators have undertaken to “Smear Poor Lindy.” He bases this on the fact that they saw in the. Colonel's speech a veiled threat against the sovereign rights of Canada. In the eyes of the General this . constitutes “smearing.” He refers to the attitude of the Colonel's critics as “hateful, scurrilous and contemptible ” And the other day, in a speech, he. said that name-calling was the beginning of dictatorship. That puzzles me. It seems to me that if give-ahd-take is silenced there is no democracy. I do not think the right lo bid spades and to call them should be restricted to generals and colonels. o

Watching Your Health

By Jane Stafford | DD. to the other reasons for taking good care of ; A your health the recent advice of an authority on eye diseases that by so doing you may save yourself from having a cataract. : : Cataract, as most everyone knows, is a common cause of blindness. In this condition the normally crystal clear lens of the eye becomes opaque, shutting out the light. The cataract which afflicts old people is an acute degeneration of the lens fibers involving the entiré depths and substance of the lens. True cataracts are treated by surgical removal of the lens. In the hands of skilful surgeons, the results fe Simos re 100. per cent successful—97 per cent. to 98 percent ace. cording to one authority who says this means normal

learn not to cry out so

when the counter-attack