Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 17 November 1939 — Page 21

Fam

= ¥

8

. liam

=

The. Indianapolis Times ot (A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

FERREE Business Manager

Price. in Marion County, 3 cents a copy; -delivered by carrier, 12 cents ~~ Mail subscription rates in Indiana, $3 a year; outside of Indiana, 65 cents a month.

. «> RILEY 5551 ¥ SCRIPPS = NOWARD | Ni Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

The 1 polis _ Times Jublishing Co, 214 W. _ Mary! St. Member of United Press, Scripps - Howard -Newspaper Alliance,

, and Audit BuTeau of Circulation.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1939

NO VIGILANTES Tl \ SSURANCE that the Government does not want sheriffs, local officials or citizens to organize spy-.

~ hunting groups has come now from President Roosevelt,

Attorney General Murphy, War Secretary Woodring and J. Edgar Hoover, head of the G-Men. : . -That should halt the vigilante activity which has

: appeared here and there since Mr. Hoover urged citizens

to inform his Federal Bureau of Investigation of “all questionable facts or rumors.” The G-Men, with their specialized training, can do all the spy-hunting necessary. ~ And even they will need to be very careful in their investigation of “facts or rumors” to protect innocent people who “happen to have nosey, nervous or malicious neighbors.

"TIME AND THE COURT

EN President Roosevelt names a successor to Justice Pierce Butler, who died yesterday, he will have appointed five of the United States Supreme Court’s nine

members. x

Only two Presidents—Washington and Taft—have appointed more than that, and other vacancies before Mr. “ Roosevelt leaves the White House are possible. The averaga age of the four remaining pre-Roosevelt Justices is 71. At any rate, Mr. Roosevelt soon will have named a majority of the Court, and not three years have passed since Feb. 5, 1937, when he precipitated the bitterest and most disastrous controversy of his Administration by proposing .a too-clever plan to let him do just that. The argument then was that the country couldn’t afford to-wait on normal processes of change. The President had been four years in office and no court vacancy had occurred. The conservative Justices were clinging to the bench and striking down New Deal legislation. It was perative to force their retirement or to nullify them by increasing the membership. Mr. Roosevelt, to be sure, didn’t put it quite so baldly, but the way he did put it made his proposal seem all the more devious and objectionable. * Yet now the passing of Mr. Justice Butler leaves James. C. McReynolds the sole survivor of the conservative bloc then dominant. And, Mr. Roosevelt's appointees being comparatively young, it is probable that his ‘liberal influence will be projected through them into many years of the Court's future. : Time does indeed change all things. It is possible to imagine emergencies so urgent that we cannot safely wait on the work of time, but it now seems clearer than ever that the situation in the Supreme Court only three years ago was not one of them.

REPUBLICANS ON THE MARCH N the back cover of the “Young Republican” magazine appears an advertisement of a 15-cent book entitled, “So You Want To Be A Politician! Or How To Be An Effective Republican Precinct Worker.” : The author of this bit of inspirational literature is WilHargison Fetridge, and according to the ad it also has “an inspiring foreword by the Hon. John Hamilton.” In “52 vital, educating pages” it answers (still according to the ad) these and other questions: ; ~ “How can I get into apartment buildings? Hqw can organize precinct meetings? How can I get voters to reg-

. ister? How can I make Democrats vote the Republican tick-

et? How can I prevent Republicans from splitting their tickets? What should a precinct worker do on election day? How often should I canvass my precinct?” ; When you know all the answers this is what (still advt.) happens: s : “By following the suggestions in this book, precinct workers should be able to carry their precincts bigger than ever before.” : Using the last two Presidential years as a yardstick, it would seem that the Young Republicans should be satisfied to put a period after the word “precincts.”

BUT RUSSIANS DON'T LAUGH SUPPOSE American newspapers should blare forth with a story that Quebec was plotting an invasion to take over the whole United States as far west as the Rockies. Well, that in effect is what the press of Russia is now saying about Finland—and without cracking a smile.. The claim is that the little country to the west is planning on - conquest and seeks to extend its boundaries “All the way to the Urals.” The Quebec analogy checks generally in terms of population and mileage. oi TE ‘But do the Russian people to whom such a tale is fed laugh at it? Not by any means. Their credulity is, by necessity, unlimited. For in Russia there is nothing but the governmental handout; no free press; no newsgathering

"as we know it. Such news as is printed is all Soviet propa-

ganda; what the outside world is doing and saying is all

excluded if it runs counter to the schemes of the. dictator-

ship; promulgation ‘of anything else means death; and,

therefore, the preposterous story about Finland's threat-

ened invasion is probably already being believed. The incident is merely another example of the work-

ings of that country to which so many now disillusioned

people in the U. S. A. had been-looking as the hope of the world. It is for that sort of thing that they would have exchanged the freedom of our flow of information.

SMART ; SE EDITORS of the University of South Carolina yearbook, confronted by the problem of choosing pictures of ‘the

seven prettiest girl students for the beauty section, decided

to let

King George do it. But now, through Ambassador dy at London, they have received this message: &T am sorry that His Majesty will be unable to select beauties for your annual. The King is very busy confing with his Ministers on the war situation and has no pe for the lighter, if finer, things of life.” .

man, King George. He knows when he ‘has SERS + = v F $ 3 i ed

| it affects women, democracy is

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler

Maverick's Woes Linked to Effort To Live Up to Picturesque Billing Given Him by New Deal Writers.

AN ANTONIO, Tex. Nov. 17.—Maury Maverick MN: is a little down on his luck as a result of his own exuberance and his efforts to be fair to people who have been ill-treated by that which the orators and writers call society. None of his political enemies —and they are many and bitter—can deny or explain away the fact that nobody did anything about wiping -out the slums of San Antonio until Maverick came along. / I dont believe I can wrap him up in a neat bundle, but for a start will venture an opinion that he contracted ink poisoning in Washington, wnereby in his two terms as a New Deal representative he was pretty well greased with publicity by New Deal reporters and commentators. There are a lot of them in Washington who get crushes on men and issues, and when Texan hung out a sign as a Progressive, even a radical, and voted for wages and hours, labor relations and the anti-lynching bill they made him not only famous but picturesque. It is my impression that in the matter of picturesqueness he made the mistake of trying to live up to his billing, He pops off too much with superficial or incomplete remarks which make publicity but do not clarify his meaning and, therefore, also make enemies of people who are going his way. : Hn 8 'AVERICK could become a rousing, wrong-way M demagog if he had a mind to, for he knows the tricks, and it is to his credit that he hasn't done so, for he has taken his lumps and right now is under indictment on a charge of paying poll taxes for a lot of members of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union in the election which made him mayor. : ' This is a political indictment, but it is not frivolous, and John Shook, the prosecutor, a Texan, just as flery as Maverick, who went to school with him, seems determined to mow him in. The poll tax is an archiac institution which always has been abused by corporations and machines, and, not granting that Maverick did pay those taxes and thus, in effect, buy union votes, it would be no more ethical or legal for a reformer than for the oil interests to do so. Maverick has’ been accused of being a Communist and of sympathizing with them. He explains, however, that he doesn’t care for the Communists, the C. I. O, the A. F. of L. or the Railway Brotherhood. as such, but does set considerable store by civil liberties. - & 8 8 NE union—not ito say which one—in return for O its support, wanted to name the chief of police, having in mind a man who would stand for roughhouse and murder on the picket lines. Maverick

refused.

I wanted to quote him on ‘Communists and ask ||

him if he thought they ever did a candidate any

ims |-good with their support. “No good at all,’ he said.

“They don’t believe in civil liberties, and they call you comrade and get you in wrong with other neople. I dislike them for personal reasons, too. I have been getting them out of trouble for 20 years and then not only the other people but the Communists themselves kick me around. Anyway, Communists

bore me.”

amin.

Business

By John T. Flynn

If Borrowing Stopped Now, Interest Alone Would Take Billion Annually.

EW YORK, ‘Nov. _17.—Former Under-Secretary of the Treasury Roswell McGill has just given a warning to the public on what has come to be the eternal subject of taxes. The money to support all the vast projects of this Government has got to come from somewhere. Up to now, these last seven years, we have dodged. that problem. We have gone on borrowing until now, even if we were to stop it entirely, we would have to continue to pay a billion dollars a year in interest charges. And when we remember that before the war the total expenses of the Government never exceeded 734 million dollars, we will form some idea of what we have done to ourselves. Mr. McGill added to this a piece of advice which will prove as unpopular as it is sound. He said: «Jf the Federal budget is to be balanced at present levels it will require not only a burning interest by | Congress and the Administration in fiscal sanity, but an ability on the part of our leaders to persuade people to accept sacrifices.” In that sentence lies the hub of our fiscal problem ‘and glso the hopelessness of expecting anything will be done about it. For quite a few years now our leaders have had no interest in warning the people about sacrifices. On the contrary, our leaders have been in competition with each other in promising escape from sacrifices. ; . We are shocked at the promisers of ham-and-eggs in California, but we ought to remember that Mr, Hoover went beyond that and promised chicken. Mr. Roosevelt got into office by promising abundance an the good life. ;

No Votes on This Speech Suppose a cahdidate for President were to make the following speech: “For 10 years before 1930 this country indulged in every form of extravagant abuse of its economic health. As a result it developed a whole collection of economic diseases. It is sick. It has been sick for 10 years. It is getting no better rapidly. PSY ss spent 25 billion dollars on doctors’ bills because the doctors promised to make it well instant=J ly and restore it to perfect health with ample opportunity for indulging all its old appetites. But that did not work and never will, “As a country we must do what a sick man does. We must submit to an operation and to some pretty nasty medicine. I would like to promise you ham and eggs and chicken and abundance. "But it will thke a long time before we can get that. You must make sacrifices if you want to get well.” How many votes. do you think he would get?.

A Woman's Viewpoint

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson ay

A’ long last, a record of feminine achievements is . to be preserved for posterity in the World Center for Women’s Archives in New York. The idea has been persistently advocated by Mary Beard and Inez Haynes Irwin and seconded by thousands of less publicized persons. y SE It is hard to realize we have only recently emerged from a world which believed that all education f women was nonsense because so few possessed the ‘mental equipment which made higher education profitable, Swiftly moving events and the quick shifting of economic values have caused us to forget the many bitter struggles which preceded our present era of what ‘we are pleased to call “equality of the sexes” Most of us are hardly aware that such struggles were nec-

ry. x” . x Yet this month occurs the birthday of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, of whom it has been said that “she And not long ago we celebrated the birthday of Frances E. Willard, whose life exemplified so many of we shall be remembering, I hope, that 93 years before, in England, Anna Howard Shaw was born, and that many years later the whole of America rang with her Shiljefges to injustice and her demands for feminine Yes indeed, women have come a long way from the every letter.

| ahead. We have not reached the halfway house in our journey toward complete world emancipation. As

~ ogc fap i ty ga

‘forged the thunderbolts in the greatest revolution the | | world has ever known—the emancipation of women.”

the finest feminine qualities. Also in February, 1940, |

days when the word “feminist” carried a stigma in| . But there's a longer and perhaps a harder path |-

still only a noble and | .

DA

ctu | Ss St baa

NOTES PROGRESS IN MERIT SYSTEM FIGHT By Merit System Supporter

It is gratifying. to read that an aspirant to the Gévernorship takes the initiative in urging a merit system for all state institution employees. It is a step ahead of the last campaign where both parties came to adopt it as a political expediency. However, before the next step in this campaign is taken, I'd like to ask that he urge a merit system for all state employees, not only those in institutions. : But no doubt this is too “ideal.” If he couldn’t promise to parcel out jobs to the faithful, he wouldn't get elected. The idea of good government for its own sake is still too unattractive to political workers out for what’s in it for themselves. It may be that only in Utopia would everyone realize that a spoils system is too costly for citizens and taxpayers to maintain; that while political favorites net immediate gains through a spoils system, in the long run they lose as citizens along with the rest of the public they “sell down the river” for jobs. 2 #8 ” SEEKS REPAIRS -ON COLUMBIA AVE. By Home Owner Can anything be done about Columbia Ave. between 13th and 16th Sts. that the streetcar company tore up this summer? : I can’t figure why the city officials would allow this to happen as we are paying so much taxes. Try

full of chuck holes. (At the City Engineer's office it

{was said the track area of this

street never has been permanently improved and no work is contemplated by the city at this time. At the office of Indianapolis Railways it was said that the section mentioned is scheduled for grading and filling within the next 10 days.— Editor’s note.) : 8 2 8 CLAIMS GOOD MUSIC

NOT A SOCIETY AFFAIR By John Bradley Indianapolis will nevef truly have a great music season until it learns that good music ‘is’ not*a society affair. Each year as the season begins, the orchestra’s publicity tends

and get this street fixed as it is

- ° oh g (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.)

to keep the ordinary person as far away from the theater as possible. The real music lover is not the society clothes-horse, but rather one to whom great music is. a joy, not a chance to show off in. the grand manner, When the orchestra directors begin planning music for all of Indianapolis rather than a select few, then, and only then, will emerge a really great city orchestra. Until such a time comes we will have to be content to stand by to watch a society dress parade masquerading under the title of a sé-called Indianapolis ‘Symphonic season. : NL a URGES TEACHERS THROW OFF GAG RULE <« By 'W. H. Brennen a The speech made by Aubrey W. Willlams, NYA Administrator, in Bloomington must have caused all teachers and all professors in colleges and universities to see they ‘must, with the help they will get from leaders, free themselves from gag rule, : To fail to do something about it now will call down on them the par-

ents of all school children. Many of

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

ou

the parents will cry out, “We failed to get a full education and put our

/ {children in your hands‘to educate.

And now we find you have failed us and are failing our school children. Why? Why? With truth in your hands, no one can gag you. Not in this free country.” : Teachers must be made of sterner stuff and not let wrong creep in. They must remember it is the coming nation in their hands to mold into men and women who must keep step in building a better, bigger and greater country. 3 ; s 8 8 FAVORS WEDNESDAY FOR MOST HOLIDAYS By Jim “ : ' We are becoming badly mixed -on the time for observing Thanksgiving. There is the Roosevelt Thanksgiving Day, and then there are the State Thanksgiving Days. This is too many ' Thanksgivings for any one year. In fact we are having too many holidays that fall on Mondays, which virtually gives us three holidays in that week, too many for the worker and the businessman. ’ I am suggesting what I believe is) a very common sense and practical plan for having holidays that would obviate the necessity for dbserving nearly a half week as holidays. Set the first Wednesday in May as Memorial or Decoration Day, the first Wednesday in July as Independence Day, the first Wednesday in September as Labor Day, and the first Wednesday in November as Thanksgiving Day. Let Christmas and New Year's Days remain as they are. Let's reform our holidays,

New Books at the Library

April, 1934, two extremely bored young men were sitting in their respective offices in New York City wondering how they could spend the week-end entirely away “from the world of radio tubes and stockbrokers. December, 1937, found these same two boys sitting in the middle of the South American jungle, “scratching fleas: and dreaming of orchids.”

MacKay had stepped from college

into the midst of the depression.

shaky Sxperiment,

Side Glances—By Galbraith

Norman MacDonald and Frank |un!

/{umph, thi

They both drifted from one job to another until Norman séttled down as a stockbroker’s clerk in Wall Street and Frank became a section boss in a radio tube factory in Newark. On this important week-end when they both felt a wild desire to escape from office routine, they wandered down .to the piers where freighters from foreign ports were loading and cargo. A casual conversation with the mate from a South American boat gave the boys inspiration for their subsequent adventure; hunting valuable orchids in the jungles. { : In “The Orchid Hunters” (Farrar) Norman ald tells their story. In order to prepare themselves for the expedition, they spent months visiting orchid greenhouses, interviewing other men who had followed the trail of the “parasitos,” and delving into every book they could

{find on the subject. It-was a struggle

to secure backing and to wangle orders from dealers, and the boys learned that finding the orchids after they were on location was no s e matter. EE : ithout the help of the indomitable J. B. and the bibulous Cosumbe, their venture might have failed. When they did return in tri- : brought’ with. them an unusually ‘adventure story,

AFFECTION _ By ROBERT O. LEVELL Aftection is the kind and tender Created in the heart sa dear and

Caressing a fond embracement there

Where love has learned to live

Deep in your glad soul devoted to Sincerely in friendship more and

; more, IE ge RA [AU beoause you know sou love 0

‘The dear one you really adore.

"DAILY THOUGHT

§

© 6:27, |

Gen. Johnson Says— i;

| Letting Our Ships Sail at Their Own

.. Risk Actually Part of Our Foreign Policy Since Washington's Day.

ASHINGTON, D. C., Nov. 17—In all this cash ¥ and-carry and war trade business, I have never ‘been able to see more than a shadowy argument against a policy that would say to American traders: “If you want to risk your private dollars carrying your goods and sending your ships into dangerous areas, O. K.—but you do it at your own peril, We will not send public dollars or endanger the life of a single American sailor or soldier to profect them or avenge

their. loss.” i ; . One objection is that it is against traditional American policy thus to abandow our freedom of the seas. Not to mention that we are abandoning it wholesale by making it a felony to try to exercise it, . the statement is incorrect.: The worst neutrality problem we ever faced occurred in Washington's Administration. War broke cout between England and France, Our old confederation had a treaty of alliance with. France. In the meantime, the French king with whom we had made that treaty was executed and our nation was d under the Constitution. Was the treaty any good? Whether it was or not, the feeling of our people for France was almost universal. Aner AR #8 rr ; UT Washington was adamant for neutrality note AD withstanding overwhelming pressure. After long wrangling, the President issued his proclamation. It ‘was “an admonition to American citizens to keep out of the war, with notice that, if they got into trouble by engaging in contraband trade, they would not receive the protection of the United States.” : That was our first announced policy of neutrality in a situation far more different and dangerous to us than the present one. It is no more than an exe tension of the traditional law of actual blockade. ‘The policy of ‘all nations toward their citizens who stieHI to run a blockade ‘is: “You do so at your per » : But it is said, “no matter what the law or procla=mations may be, if the American flag is fired upon, or an American life is lost, our people will be inflamed to such anger that war can’t be avoided.” If the anger of our people i§ so delicately poised that it will arise to defend any reekless adventurer with our peace, we are in a dangerous case, ” 8 #

E that as it may, why isn’t the solution of the Maritime Commission a complete answer—to take the flag off these ships, transfer them to a foreign flag and the ownership of a foreign corporation aad forbid a single American life to be risked on em : The contrary argument is: “A large part of the stock of the foreign corporation is owned by the core poration that owns the ships. A sinking would still inflame our people.” mls If that is such a “right, title or interest” as is for= bidden to be risked by either the letter or the spirit of the “Neutrality” Act then a lot of American stockholders in British, French and Canadian corporations had better look out that they don’t go to the pen and those corporations had better get rid of their American investors. For if that is true, the foreign corporation can’t buy here even on cash-and-carry— or if they do, all their American stockholders are . felons. Such an interpretation would be in nonsense.

It Seems to Me By Heywood Broun

Suggests Mr. Hull as Second When Good Neighbor Godoy Fights Louis.

EW YORK, Nov. 17.—Nobody is likely to begrudge the hard-working Mr. Hull a few days of croquet in Georgia. But when he returns from. his vacation I: trust he will go.to Mme: Bey’s place at Summit, N. J., and extend an official welcome to the new heavy weight ambassador of good will who has just come up from Chile. Loire ; The Secretary of State has been particularly concerned with fostering good will between the United States and the lands to the south of us. And one of the things which are still scored against us in Latin America is the deal which Luis Angel Firpo received at the hands of Dempsey~and the referee. Arturo Godoy purposes to right the ancient wrong which was suffered by his confrere from the Argentine 16 years ago at the Polo Grounds. ’ a The affair constituted what is known to diplomats as an incident. It is true that the Argentine Government made no official protest, but the entire populace of South America yelled “Murder!” And so when Arturo fights ‘Joe Louis for the heavyweight crown in February I think that Cordell should be in the corner of the Chilean to yell “Foul!” and pro tect the rights of Latin America if the need arises. The offenses committed against the Wild Bull of the Pampas were peculiarly dreadful, for Firpo was & Caballero of the Great Courage and Courtesy. tl The moment Firpo began to train the American press picked on him and minimized his talents.

He'll Need Some Help:

But on the night of the big bout, when the fists ‘began to fly, not even the officials were Dempsey never went near a neutral corner on any : knockdown. In fact, he crowded and lambasted Louis again as soon as the fallen gladiator risen to one knee, Then in the last few seconds of the most amazing ‘round ever fought Firpo slugged Dempsey out of the ring. ‘ : : a Jack went down hy the stern in the direction of the working press. He was aimed directly at Grantland Rice and Hyp: Igoe, and out of a sheer instinct of self-protection they rose to brea fall and push him off their typewriters and back into the ring. Such a thing must not happen again. LatinAmerican friendship is too vital. And so I trust that between rounds of croquet Cordell Hull will practice counting up to 10 and saying, “Boys, break clean.” Spiritually at least he must be the third man in the ring and the protector of the rights of Chile against the lefts of Louis.

Watching Your Health By Jane Stafford 5 0 St

Mest persons dp not need to be told to get rid of rats because they are a dangerous and ex=' pensive nuisance. They may spread bubonic plague, typhus fever, trichinosis, acute infectious jaundice, food infection, dysentery and certain tapeworms, The annual food bill for rats in the United States has been estimated in the Pundieds of millions of dollars. This is the cost of the food the rat population eats, and does not take into account the amount spoiled and defiled by the rat. To fight the rat successfully, one must know its habits of living, hiding and feeding. Although ex-

s

‘tremely cunning .and resourceful, this d | animal does leave evidence of his occupancy and de

structiveness wherever he resides. With care in look=-

| ing for tooth ‘cuts, droppings and dark stzeaks indi-

cating the repeated passage of the animal's soiled hody and feet, the habitual runways can be identified and the rat successfully trapped or the runways ‘© -“Trapping, elimination of runways and cutting off the food supply are the anti-rat methods recoms mended by the U. S. Public’ Health Service for the housgholder ar storekeeper. Garbage should not be