Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 1 December 1939 — Page 22

FE TSE 0A 0 SS A A SR TT

PAGE 22 The Indianapolis Times

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

ROY W. HOWARD RALPH BURKHOLDER MARK FERREE ent Editor Business Manager

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Give Light and the People Will Find Their Oton Way

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1939

FINLAND—AND THE U. S. A. HEN a debtor with a perfect score for prompt pay- | ment gets into trouble because of circumstances be- | yond his control, the decent as well as the businesslike thing | for the creditors to do is to help him out. At such a time money talks much more eloquently than any other expression of sympathy. In a world of welshers, wherein many of our billions have gone unpaid, Finland has been a conspicuous exception. And never a squawk about ‘Uncle Shylock.” She has come | through—on the barrelhead and on the dot. And, being | 2 small and poor country, she has had to pay the hard way. | She could have joined the deadbeat herd; could have spent what she owed us on armaments and other things as did other debtors. But she didn't. So we are wondering, in view of what finally happened | yesterday, whether it isn't up to us as a nation to take a new look at the foreign-debt problem as it relates to the little nation which is now fighting for her life; whether we, |

as her creditor, in view of her past performance ought not | to do at least as much in her interest as a wholesaler would | do for a Grade A debtor whose city had been paralyzed by an earthquake. While the U. 8S. A. is in no happy shape to be taking on new financial outlay, we still think there may be no better way to advance some of the credit we are putting out than by easing Finland in this time of her supreme distress. And, by the record, unless Finland is completely obliterated, whatever we did would classify literally as self-liquidating. » = » » » » We hope and believe that Russia's assault on her di- | minutive neighbor will destroy the last vestiges of the dream whieh so many sincere liberals had at the start of | the Bolshevik experiment. When the czars were overthrown almost everybody hoped that the long-persecuted millions in that country might at last come into a happy | life. What occurred was soon disillusioning to many. As an obviously ruthless dictatorship developed that disillusionment spread. Then came the alliance with Hitler. It shocked off most of those who still clung. But there were yet some who rationalized for Russia, and listened with friendly ear to her claim that she was acting in the interest of peace. But now, in all the history of conquest—of Genghis | Khan, Attila and Cortez rolled together—there is nothing which excels in cruelty the Soviet “blitzkrieg” which was launched against Finland. | We trust that this ill wind will blow forever out of our country the last admirer of the Third International.

OPEN BOTH EYES

O money can be raised or spent by the Federal Government unless Congress says so. Yet Congress has never opened both eyes to the Government's fiscal problems. Now, ag in the beginning, little groups of men in House | and Senate really say what taxes shall be raised and other | little groups say what appropriations shall be spent. The | little groups work independently of each other. The committee system gives them their vast powers. To be sure, the decisions of the committees must be ratified by a majority of the 435 House members and the 96 Senators. But few among these 531 legislators have a clear | understanding of both sides of that enormously complicated and important problem—the income and outgo of the Treasury. Last May, Treasury Secretary Morgenthau urged | Congress to create a joint committee on fiscal policy, whose business it would be to open both eyes and watch revenues and expenses as a whole. Congress was deaf to this suggestion, as it has been to other recommendations for modernizing its procedure. The jealous desire of committees to keep their traditional powers intact apparently means more to Congress than efficient handling of Government finances. His suggestion is even better now than it was last May. The national debt is approaching the 45-billion-dollar statutory limit. The President is about to ask large increases in national defense appropriations. The question whether to pay for expanded defenses with new taxes or with borrowed money must be decided. The issue of economy in Government is of utmost importance. The Democratic leadership of House and Senate should | prepare now to do what Secretary Morgenthau recom- | mended. Fiscal policy needs the most efficient method of | handling that can be provided.

UNIVERSITIES AND BROWDER ROTH unfortunate and absurd, we think, are current solemn attempts to gauge the liberalism of American | universities by their official willingness or yo | to sanction undergraduate invitations extended to Earl Browder, Communist leader, to speak in university buildings. | Quite apart from his political views, which he has | been free to expound under the protection of laws he | aims to destroy, Mr. Browder is now under federal indictment on the charge of passport-faking. In view of these circumstances Harvard and Princeton | authorities saw fit to bar Mr. Browder from speaking at the present time on university premises. The president of | Yale takes a different attitude and permitted a Browder | address the other night. The whole matter, it seems to us, is one of varying opinions as to academic propriety and has no real bearing on true liberalism. We doubt, moreover, that many undergraduates would have developed this overmastering yearn to hear Mr. Browder | had he NOT been indicted and had they not glimpsed | possibilities of a glorious row in which “civil rights” and “free speech” could be invoked ad lib. to keep the shindy |

going.

In this undergraduates are not unlike some older liberals in the outer world who think they can’t he fair to Communism unless they make themselves conspicuous by either petting it or nobly fighting for it. a Liberalism, too, has its sophomore class.

biol adic

| and John McLain, writers; Bill Fields, | tragedian, and Greg La Cava and Leo McCarey, di-

oN hk

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler

Exposing Bioff Was His Own Idea; He Had No Assistance From the Film Moguls or Anyone Else.

EW YORK, Dec. 1—Willie Bioff, the Chicago vice monger, when confronted last week, during certain negotiations between Bioff and the Hollywood movie industry with his own record, immediately raised a cry that his past had been raked up for no other purpose than to discredit him as representative of the stage hands’ union and thus to deprive the underpaid rank and file of an increase in wages, The fact is that the rank and file never elected

Bioff to represent them, He muscled into the job as bodyguard and personal representative of George E. Browne, also of Chicago, the union president, who knew his record and who two years ago personally requested that nothing more be said about it in print. Browne explained that Willie, like many other neighborhood boys in Chicago, had merely been picked up by the policg now and again and let go. That is not the case, however, Bioff was not a boy, but was 24 years old when he was convicted of pandering, and pandering is no such amiable mischief as soaping windows on Halloween or throwing snowballs, » ¥ ~

TOFF further says that Joseph Schenck, president of the Producers’ Association, and his associates were responsible for the expose, and accuses me of “running interference” for my “plutocratic friends in Hollywood,” who are attacking him because he is “fighting for the little fellows in the studios, the workmen who are fortunate to average $900 a year.” I met Schenck once, about two years ago, when I called at his office to discuss Bioff. Schenck refused to talk about him, I met Sam Goldwyn once about the same time, but did not discuss the labor problem of the studios. I met another producer named Harry Cohen, who made me an offer, He said that if I would write some scenarios he would read them. Then, if he liked them, he would buy them. We did no business. I met Walt Disney them and met him again two weeks ago. He is a personal friend. On this last trip I met no producers, but did see Gene Fowler, James K. McGuinness, Whitney Bolton the great

rectors. - I own no stock in any movie company, never have sold a scenario, never have worked for any movie company except one four weeks' term as publicity writer about 1921 for a promoter who wag producing a Babe Ruth film called “Headin' Home,” and, on this recent trip, discussed Bioff only with Buron Fitts, the

| prosecutor of Los Angeles County, who had no in- | formation to offer,

ONE of the individuals here mentioned asked me to run interference against Bioff, and the initiative and responsibility were all my own. “Pegler might turn his trliculent pen to better advantage by presenting the cause of the Hollywood workingmen, who, employed in an industry of fabulous wealth, are barely able to make a livelihood,” says Bioff’s statement.

And I would suggest that Bioff himself has found fabulous wealth representing those men who are barely able to make a livelihood. So much has been said about an item of $100,000 cash which Bioff received from a representative of the employers after he had negotiated a contract with them in 1937 that the nobly altruistic Chicago vice monger owes a duty to himself and to the “little fellows” for whom he speaks so touchingly, to explain all and explain well. Later it was called a loan, Now I'll tell one.

Inside Indianapolis

Trustee Selection Not Too Popular; The Turkey Fails to Go Well, Too.

GOOD many responsible citizens who were eager to help solve the Center Township Trustee prob-

| lem are disappointed at the Democratic County Com-

mittee’'s handling of the situation. . . . Some have already expressed themselves as disappointed by the Committee's frankly partisan political viewpoint, The new trustee, Henry Mueller, is a friendly, easy-to-meet chap. . . . 'Most everyone calls him “Heinie", . . . He'll be 47 the day after Christmas. . . . He's been a Democratic party worker for some 20 years. . . . He is regarded as an able office man, but not particularly suited for any tricky and urgent social service post. The inside dope is that there was a whale of a

| row inside the Committee before they reached a de-

cision. . . . The big thing in the Committee's mind, of course, was to keep a Republican or top-notch independent out of the Trustee's office. . , . There is too much political campaign fodder already out in the open. . . . Pleas for a “really good man” fell on deaf ears. . . . What they were looking for was “a steady

| party man” with a good reputation,

THEY HAD TURKEY dinners and turkey sandwiches on the menus at several restaurants yesterday. . . . But the waitresses said that the call wasn't very heavy despite Mr, Bobbitt's “proclamation”. . . . You'll be interested to know that the sales of ice skates are running heavy in the downtown stores. . .» .» And good skates ($9 and $10 a pair) are in demand. . . . Chief Morrissey is planning for that late Christmas rush in a big way. ... In a few days he'll have between 40 and 50 men circulating in and out of the stores. . . . Watching for pickpockets among other things. . . . A movement to organize housewives into a local counterpart of Chicago's effective League of Women Shoppers has been started here with the support of several women's organizations. . + « Milk is the reason. dF & 4

SIDELIGHT ON BUSINESS: The gentleman

| seated, cross-legged, in the Thom McAn store on S.

Illinois St. peering intently at a window display

| photograph and working hard to duplicate it. . . .

The counter of the I. Strauss scale broke a few years ago so nobody knows anymore just how many people weigh themselves in a day's time. . . . Strauss’ best guess is more than 500 every day. . .. The reason the Safety Board got so interested in the Fairgrounds hockey traffic problem, we're told, is because one of its members got stuck in a jam. ... They transferred Al Capone across country so secretly about 10 days ago that not even the local F. B. I. men knew any-

thing about it. . . . That's secrecy.

A Woman's Viewpoint

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

i OW can the schools be disassociated from politics?” was the intelligent question asked at a recent forum meeting. Many of our heavyweight brains are pondering it. But just try whispering the query I'm now going to ask and—dodge! For the dinner plates will come spinning your way. How can the schools be disassociated from football? As the present season is near an end one may venture the question, although assured that cursings from sportswriters, coaches and fans are imminent. Nevertheless it is, I believe, a pertinent and important question. For at least we've begun to face the fact that money for public purposes is limited and likely to be more so in the future. Our state and city ledgers are lurid on the red side. Cash is short and the taxpayers are tired of forking it over, Yet, if all we really knew about college was gleaned from the current newsreels we would be convinced that education is obtained on the football field. When autumn comes we get thousands of press releases from university centers and nine-tenths of them focus upon the gridirons. The professors always play second fiddle to the pigskin. Worse still, the example of these universities and colleges has trickled into country districts where every small-town high school must also have its team, keep it well uniformed, and support a band to herald its victories and maintain its morale, There is nothing particularly harmful about all this, except that the tie-up is growing burdensome for higher education. Football is a fascinating sport which deserves to graduate from college and step into the professional field. It is old and husky enough to be Fifanica from the skirts of its alma mater, so that i Sifia Maser Cad St on with her business of

2 3

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

That Two Bu

/’

dget System at Work

. ’ -~ o- > F 3 2

le DEFICIT

IN F-

The Hoosier

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

PRAISES ATTITUDE OF GEN. JOHNSON

By Curious, Bloomington

To Gen. Johnson: Dear Old Iron Pants, you just keep right on being pro-American and writing your column as you see fit. I'll read it; you just tell the truth as you see it. I don’t think you are pro-Hitler, I would like to see Hitler and his government destroved too, but I do not wish to see the German people made British protectorate.

a than union in Indianapolis. I dislike those arrogant pluto-|the exception of a few professional

(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.)

With

have been for more than 200 years. |

CLAIMS BARBERS URGED

By M. R. W.

I abhor polemical letters, especially those dealing with certain elements about which we know so little or possess a well-packed storehouse of misinformation. Relative to the “Barber Board” compelling barber shop prices and closing hours” I desire to say that the State Barber Board had very little to do with it. It was the signature of over 90 per cent of the barbers who petitioned the Barber Board to set a standard for this locality. The Board held a héaring on the petition and with the exception of a very few objectors, there was unanimity of opinion expressed that the economical condition of this trade was so deplorable that it required some remedial measure to make it self-sustaining. After all, what does the average man know about your business, Mr. Editor? Not much, and it is the same about other men's business. The last February issue of the “Nation's Business” published by the American Manufacturers Association published a survey made of the barbers and barber shops. It is showed {that the average earning of the bar{ber is less than $14 a week in so|called good shops and less than $12 in the average shop. It also disclosed that the small barber shop takes in an average of $1000 a year after it has paid rent, light, heat, laundry, ete, the owner has less than $10 per week to live on. . . Another important factor is the “force” used by the Barber Board and its representatives to impose the union on the barbers. This is certainly anything but the truthy There are more non-union shops

¥ & 4

the prices or the hours. As to the public . . . our people are too well aware of the plight of the barber

{and will be more than glad to coINCREASE IN PRICES

operate, » » "

CLAIMS REMARKS BY V. I. C. CONFUSING By L. V. “Hail Hitler,” Voice in the Crowd has at last come into power. He is Fascist to the very core of his heart. He envies “Curious” of Bloomington for “browsing in the encyclopedia,” and “digging into a bit of economics,” to gain the knowledge of all human progress.

V. IL OC. is confusing. So much so that he contradicts himself by overlapping government with individual freedom, then falls back on the supposition that we never had a democratic form of government. But that is the Fascist policy through and through—you know, to intrench freedom under a new banner. ...

Our Constitution was all right in its day. But its day is done. That's

quite natural. Nature always moves forward toward higher levels. Politicians may block the path of social progress for a short period, such as Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, etc., but this is only temporary. . . . We must have a Constitution written in compliance with the machine just as we had one written to comply with agriculture.

” ” ” THINKS GREED PROMPTED |ARMS EMBARGO REPEAL

By Frank Henry

Recently the arms embargo seemed

{to be the main topic of discussion. |

| will look at this matter from a strictly neutral point of view can see only one answer, It adds up to: We don't like Hitler and we have to help England and France defeat him. If our arms and food don't do the trick, we will have to send an army. Now we can kid ourselves all

' lwe want to but this is just how it

stands. . . . However, fear of Hitler is not the reason for all this upset of our laws. It is the very thing that landed us in the last war—money, war profits, greed. When you sift it down we all want this blood money. Not openly, oh no, but way down deep we do.

The man out of work dreams of the nine or ten dollars a day in a munitions factory; the factory owner thinks back to those juicy Government contracts and old moneybags in Wall Street sees lead he mined at 4 cents a pound selling for 20 cents. The farmer smacks his lips at $2 wheat and so no matter what we tell John Jones about our feelings, we all want war, not for ourselves but to let the other fellow do the fighting and we reap the harvest. . . «

New Books at. the Library

" HE purpose of this book is to provide a useful volume on radio production for those who are busy performing tasks within the industry and for those who hope to enter radio's gates to create or direct, entertain or inform, or to

.| assist in any capacity.

“Radio has grown so fast that many persons employed in it have only a vague conception of the functions involved in producing and directing programs. As in the theater, each one who does a special task

Side Glances—By

Galbraith

"I'd hate to have an actual showdown on whether my husband

light of understanding humility kindleth, and pride cove

or me.

should understand the work of the others who surround him. It is especially necessary in radio that the program builder's work be clear to those who are in administration, engineering, sales and publicity.” Now you know the purpose of one of fhe best books ever published on “Production and Direction of Radio Programs” (Prentice-Hall). John S. Carlile, production manager for the Columbia Broadcasting Co., knows from practical experience that many people think radio broadcasting an exciting job in a spectacular world requiring little capacity or training. It is his idea to dispel this erroneous conception by a detailed description of the radio program and those who produce it. All the problems of speech from the announcer to the raucous layman, from the preliminary audition to a suave dramatic production, are discussed. “Merely to read acceptably

{what someone else has written re-

quires some of the highest qualifications in all radio work” is what thousands of young people who seek the glamour and monetary rewards of radio do not realize, In the appendix, Mr. Carlile completes the picture of the radio world for us by a study of sound effects, studio sign language, microphones in general use, a glossary of radio production terms and plans for building a studio.

BROWN COUNTY By VINIA BERRY Bright colored leaves— On hills that are dry, Bittersweet in blossom, Above a hazy sky!

Brown County in November! How peaceful-<how complete! Bach road a rare old painting— God laid at Nature's feet!

DAILY THOUGHT

Only the Lord give thee wisdom and understanding, and give thee charge concerning Israel, that thou mayest keep the law of the oe thy God.~I Chronicles «1

FRIDAY, DEC. 1, 1939

Gen. Johnson Says—

Could Britain's Policy on Seizing Nazi Exports Be Linked to Gesture Giving Us Custody of Magna Carta?

HICAGO, Ill, Dec. 1.—~When the British offered to deposit an original of the great charter of hu= man liberties—the Magna Carta—with our Government for safekeeping through the war, there was nothing that could have been done but to accept it, It is a part of our heritage, too. It was a violation of it in America that caused our revolution, Resting beside the Declaration of Independence, the two documents contain the promise and a statement of the breach of

promise that made the United States. We ought to be glad to have it, if only for a little while. The British have three other originals sealed by King John on an “or else” basis. He also approved eight others which are probably kicking around in somebody's attics, or got thirown out by mistake some= time, In view of this, would it seem to be too much like mooching to suggest that, instead of just letting us hold this one, they give it to us outright? That would be a lot better press agenting for the hands-across-the sea and blood-is-thicker-than-water sentiment which is so necessary to our British cousins just now, » » o PF course, we are not being asked to shelter this precious relic on any such unworthy thought. This high custody is being requested to avoid the risk of its destruction in the unforeseeable hazards of war —or its possible seizure by Mr. Hitler, What he would want it for isn’t quite so clear. Neither is it quite so clear why this original should be left here to avoid the war, while the other three are left in England to be ruthlessly exposed to whatever fate may impend. You can get a lot of thought and puzzles out of this incident if you let your imagination roam, Does the Allied high command really expect such an assault on the British Isles or shipping that this precious piece of parchment has to be left overseas? Is the British Government so sure we will accept whatever they want to do to injure our foreign trade that, in any conceivable outcome, they would wish to leave it here? You can’t ever foresee the directions that a war of world dimensions may take, n u ” LL this speculation on the safety of the Magna Carta sounds far-fetched and silly, but I didn't suggest this line of thought. Lord Lothian, the British

| Ambassador, at least hinted it.

It isn't nice to be talking this way, but could the timing of this magnificent gesture have anything to do with the recent British announcement that she will seize goods in neutral ownership or ballment if she determines that they “originated” in Germany? That is a new one in the field of international law. On former standards it would be classed not only as a gross violation of neutral rights, but even as a kind of piracy. No one nation can make the law of the high seas, as we ourselves learned at England’s hands during our Civil War, when we tried to do as we pleased in the suppression of Confederate commerce. This business of protecting our international trade Is no mere dry academic question. Counting what wa will lose with Germany, probably with all of northern Europe and possibly with Japan, it could be a good

third of all our foreign commerce. \

It Seems to Me

By Heywood Broun

A Christmas Truce Might Mean Reluctance to Resume Warfare.

EW YORK, Dec. 1.—The most curious fact in the present war is the circumstance that up till now the bitterness has been more localized than is customary. As in most wars, international law has been torn to shreds; neutrals and innocents have suffered, and the contending leaders have accused each other of all the crimes which can be imagined. I am not neutral, and I have my own opinion as to the accusations whic come most closely home. And yet, in spite of the true bill which can be drawn against Hitler, the hatred of the individual Englishman against the individual German, and vice versa, is far less than in the war of 1914. That is perhaps the one hopeful symptom in the present disorder of the earth. And gravely do I fear that it will not long obtain. Sooner or later, if the war continues, the bombers will move all men to become sons of Cain, and even between civilian populations, which have no proper quarrel, all shred of fellowship will be gone. Action for peace should come before the day when rage has blotted out every civilized instinct all along the line. There ought to be a breathing spell, and I suggest that the dates on which a tacit armistice might be observed by common consent could well be Dec. 24 and Dec. 25.

The Higher Allegiance

If pressure came from all neutral executives and from religious leaders of all faiths it might be possible to have Christmas and Christmas Eve observed on land and sea and in the air. A majority of the men who fight profess to follow the counsels of the Prince of Peace. The war will not be won or lost in any 48 hours, and so I think a gesture should be made to keep, in part, an actual fidelity to a faith which so many millions profess. On the night before Christmas no city or town in any of the contending nations ought to be blackened out into sullen darkness. Upon that night in England, in France and in Germany candles should blaze and churches stand wide open for worshipers. Here is something which is held in common by men and nations which differ so violently in all other things that daggers have been drawn. But no matter what the loyalty of the soldier may be to dictator, president or premier, he owes a higher allegiance upon the night of the Nativity. So why should there nol be recognition of a joint commitment to a creed by which the many live and die? Nor am I suggesting this as a mere fruitless and sentimental truce. If two days passed in which no shot was fired and no torpedo®or bomb loosed, there might be a return to sanity, Once a gun has been put down it is hard even for the angry to raise it up again. In 48 hours the brand which marks the man who slays his brother might miraculously grow dim or disappear. Even the shortest truce serves to underline the futility and the folly of war,

Watching Your Health

By Jane Stafford

EA, favorite beverage of many persons, especially in the British nations, has just been put through some medical tests and apparently has passed satisfactorily. Drs. G. W. Halpenny and H. E. MacDermott of Montreal made the tests with the idea of finding out just what effects tea produces in the average person and whether there is justification for the warnings against tea drinking frequently given to patients. Moderate consumption of tea brewed no longer than five minutes seems from their tests to. be harmless. They did not investigate the effects of excessive tea drinking, nor did they try to “establish any special claims for the value of tea,” they state in a re~ port to the Canadian Medical Association. The two chief constituents of tea are caffeine and tannin. It also contains small amounts of minerals and of volatile oils which play an important part in giving tea its fragrance, but are negligible mn their physical effects. Caffeine is the same chemical as that familiar in coffee. Tannin is an astringent, but the tannin in tea is less astringent than the tannic acid of the pharmacopoeia. Five and 10-minute brews of cheap and costly tea, with and without sugar and milk, and doses of caffeine, tannin, and a mixture of the two were given to 10 healthy young men and women. For comparison, they were also given cups of hot and cold water and of coffee in different strengths. Caffeine and tannin, alone or together, made these young persons violently ill. Five-minute brews of both cheap and good tea had no unpleasant effects, the good tea producing a “mild and pleasant stimula= lie Strong tea Produced Gag discomfort. Stome acidity was not increased tes. effect on