Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 12 December 1939 — Page 14

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The Indianapolis Times

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

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TUESDAY, DECEMBER 12, 1939

HELP FINLAND!

INLAND'S cry for help will arouse eager desire to respond in many lands, and nowhere more than in Amer. ica. The simple eloquence of the Finnish Parliament’s appeal reaches the heart: “We have no choice. This struggle has been forced upon us. The people of Finland fight for their independence, their freedom and their homes . . . all that civilized people hold dear. So far we are fighting alone. We have given proof that we wanted to do all we could, but we believe the civilized world will not leave us to fight alone against an enemy more numerous than ourselves. Our position as the advance guard of Western civilization gives us the right to expect active help from other civilized nations.” That says it all, and the question is, not whether we shall help Finland, but how. Sending troops is not the answer. The American people are firm in their resolution to stay out of Europe’s wars. Bitter experience has taught us that we will not serve civilization, at home or abroad, by mixing again in the game of power politics over there. But we can give material aid in other forms: Through _ our Government, by such measures as the $10,000,000 credit already granted for purchase of food and civilian supplies, thus releasing Finland's own funds for war purposes, and by remitting her payments on her previous war debt. As individuals, by contributing quickly and generously to the Finnish Relief Fund which Herbert Hoover is organizing. Our emotions, outraged by Russia's unprovoked and barbaric assault, prompt us to do these things. But here is one case where emotion is supported by sober judgment. Debt-paying Finland has earned the right to be treated as a preferred creditor. And, since we do want to stay out of war, now and in the future, we think it is literally true that helping Finland will—

HELP AMERICA! For, amazingly, there is reason to hope that the Russian Goliath has met more than his match in the Finnish David. The world knows that Russia is a big country and Finland a very small one. But it knows little about the real effectiveness of Russia’s huge army. Stalin’s ruthless purges among his generals, Col. Lindbergh's disparaging remarks about the Soviet airpower—these and other indications have created suspicion that the Red military machine is weaker than it looks. Now that machine, getting its first real test, seems to be missing on many cylinders. There has been no blitzkreig in Finland. Webb Miller's story from Helsinki yesterday told how the Finnish soldiers, wearing white uniforms for snow camouflage, swoop down on skiis from their mountains and attack the enemy with their razor-sharp daggers; how they adapt their tactics to their rugged ter- : rain; how the Russians, unprepared for this sort of warfare, suffer heavy losses. The impression grows that it’s a con‘test of brain against dull bulk—and that brain has a chance : to win. But, though the legend of Russian invincibility is suf- - fering heavy damage, the odds are still tremendous against “the Finns. They may be overwhelmed by sheer manpower - if Stalin keeps sending load after load of cannon-fodder until “ Finland runs out of supplies. So, we think, it's up to us to make supplies available to Finland. Our self-interest, as well as our sympathy, ‘argues for that. It might be the best and cheapest insurcance we could buy. For nothing would better serve the cause of peace, for us and for others, than a resounding defeat of great Russia by little Finland.

THE WAYS OF BUREAUCRACY ILLIAM LEISERSON is not given to making loose accusations. Which is why this National Labor Rela. tions Board member’s charges of irregularities in the office of the Board's Secretary created such a sensation on the opening day of the Congressional investigation of the Wagner Act and its administration. In introducing this evidence the committee appears to be moving directly to the point. That something has been radically wrong with the National Labor Relations Act, or its enforcement, or both, has long been evident. Mr. Leiserson’s defense of the act itself was spirited and eloquent. But the motions and statements he made in the privacy of board meetings, and the inter-office memos he wrote, indicate that he is not at all pleased with the way the act has been administered. It is to be assumed that the committee will go to the bottom of the charges that subordinates of the board have been guilty of rigging reports and tampering with board decisions. Such are the ways of bureaucracy that underlings in key positions sometimes are able not only to twist the intent of the laws they enforce but also to circumvent the orders of their responsible superiors. This investigation gives promise of being most enlightening.

THE ‘Y’ HAS A BIRTHDAY a great many people the Y. M. C. A. has served as home, friendly guide and counselor. To others it has spelled’ an education and a chance to make a living. To most of us it is one of those typically American institutions that, quietly, day in and day out, goes about its business of making better citizens. And so today we rejoice with the friends of the Indianapolis Y. M. C. A. on the 85th anniversary of its founding and on the 72d anniversary of its night school. An inkling of the wide appeal of this institution is found in its school, the only full-time evening school in the state accredited by the State Department of Public Instruection, and for the last 12 years operated as a high school. It has an enrollment of 154 and the students range in age from 17 to 54. The Y. M. C. A. has served Indianapolis well. We wish it many pore years of efficient, faithful public service.

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

German Official Denies Interview And Developments Indicate Maybe Woman Reporter Is a Clever Seer.

ASHINGTON, Dec. 12.—An incident which has been dragging along in Washington these last 10 days proves either that Dr. Hans Thomsen, the man left in charge of the Nazi embassy, ain't no gene tleman or that Mrs. Helen Essary, a journalist on Mrs. Cissie Pattersons Times-Herald, is a real good fore tune teller. A week ago Sunday, Mrs. Essary published a story purporting to be an interview with Dr. Thomsen in both direct and indirect quote. In this piece Thomsen was made to say that Russia’s attempt to conquer Finland was merely a step to redeem her own territory and to predict that Stalirm would move down through Bessarabia to Turkey. These were the quotes attributed to him on that

subject: “Russia has but one logical course. Her objective, a port on the Black Sea, is understandable. She will move down the continent through Rumania, taking back Bessarabia, which belongs to her, as she goes. There are many Russians in Bessarabia. It would still be Russian land were it not for the mistakes of the Versailles Treaty. Turkey is the real Soviet objective. All of Turkey? No. But full control of the Bosphorus.” “ 8.» N indirect quotes Thomsen was said to have remarked further that if Rumania had not foolishly enlarged herself she would not now be in danger from Russia and also from Hungary. Thomsen closed the discussion with a prediction, admonitory in tone, that the United States, having no proper concern in European affairs, would stay home and mind her own business. But there is a question whether Thomsen ever said anything of the kind, for soon after the piece appeared the press associations were notified that he repudiated it all in the following terms: “The remarks about the actual political situation, attributed in direct quotation by a Washington columnist to the German Charge d’Affaires, are entirely unfounded and must be left to the columnists own imagination and responsibility. No interview on the subject mentioned was given by Dr. Thomsen.” Well, now, let us check. ” ” » RS. ESSARY knows Thomsen well and described in circumstantial detail the meeting at which the remarks are said to have been made. But Dr. Thomsen denied giving any interview. That leads to the conclusion that Mrs. Essary is a remarkable woman. Either a good, enterprising journalist, or a seer who called the turn on events of history’s recent rush. Reference to the news developments of last week will show that Russia did make the first preliminary passes at Rumania, and toward Turkey consistent with the plan which Mrs. Essary attributed to Thomsen, and that the Turks threatened to throw out Capt. Von Papen, the Nazi Ambassador, for disseminating propaganda hostile to their security. It is proposed that Mrs. Essary’s story and Thomsen’s chivalrous comment on the same be put upon the spike and compared to fuller historical developments, say, six months from now.

Inside Indianapolis Why Nothing Is Ever Done About

Our Ever-Present Smoke Nuisance.

HE town is engaged in its annual winter sport of raising cain about the smoke nuisance. . . . But, as usual, it looks like the answer will be nothing. . .. We've had our smog now for 25 years or more and it’s getting worse, instead of better.

To be perfectly frank, nothing can be done until a vast majority of householders and businessmen are united on a course. . . . The chances for this are about a thousand to one. . . . The public just isn't willing to make the necessary financial sacrifices. . . . Contrary to popular belief, city-wide use of coke and anthracite would be only a partial solution. . . . A conservative estimate of what it would cost to replace the smoke-producing old boilers in small business establishments alone is about one million dollars. There is an anti-smoke ordinance on the books. ... But, naturally enough, it’s a technical one and only one person has been prosecuted in the last three or four years. . .. And the City dropped that case when the man decided to appeal. Anti-smoke advocates are working now for a simpler ordinance. . . . It doesn’t look like it will pass. . .. Leroy J. Keach, president of the Safety Board, keeps saying he wants the present law enforced Morrissey always has the last word. . . . He says: “How?” . ... Nobody ever answers. ” ” = NO WONDER we had such nice weather Sunday. «+ +» It was Weatherman J. H. Armington’s birthday. «+ « We suppose he picked it that way. . . . Strolling down Washington St. was a man carrying a portable radio. . . . He was unconcerned about the crowds. . . . He was apparently a follower of some radio serial play. . . . And he wasn’t going to miss an installment, . . . R. Earl Peters is back from Washington after having seen Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Farley. . . Between us, Mr. ters is going to announce his candidacy for Governor pretty soon... . A little birdie told us. » 8 THERE'S A NEW chain letter business on. . .. You get a letter, asking you to send a 75-cent golf ball to the top name on the list, drop that name from the list and add your own, sending a copy of the letter to six golfing friends. . . . The letter says you stand to get 216 golf balls. . . . Well, frankly, we can’t stand it. . . . They've got an extra owl up at the Children’s Museum. . . . And they're trying to find a home for it. . . . They don’t know whether it's a he or she. . . . If both owls are males, or both females, they'll fight to the death. .. So, if you need an owl, call the Children’s Museum. . . . Remember to say we told you.

A Woman's Viewpoint

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

OW rarely in any list of favorite books does one see the New Testment included. Sometimes in talking with high school pupils and college gradutes we get the depressing impression that the Bible is never read at all. Which seems a very great pity, since it is by all odds the most beautifully written of all books. It is crammed with phrases of heart-stirring loveliness, and dramatic human-interest stories. In casting about for an explanation, I think we must put the blame on the shoulders of today's parents. At the same time we should temper our criticism with tolerance. For most of the parents of my generation so resented their own enforced study of “God’s Word” that they decided to be wiser in bringing up their children. Bible study was made a task for me. How thankful I am for it now, and how bitterly I regret that I thought myself more intelligent than my own parents were. For, in tune with the times, our idea was complete mental freedom for the kids. Nothing but what they liked doing was to be done. Perhaps they would not, as we did, grow up hating to memorize their Bible verses, and antagonistic to religious teaching, We believed that even though those same hardly learned verses had the power to strengthen us for every-day living, and we thought of them as gems of literary worth and wisdom. It requires a long time to find out how ignorant and foolish we can be when we are proud and young. I daresay my age group would give a good deal to undo many of the mistakes we made. And I now feel that parents who do not compel their children to study the Bible have done them out of something immeasurably valuable. For no matter now religious tides ebb and remains

flood, the the greatest of all books, from a purely at. : ga

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

Jonah and the Whale!

CTA ITT

REMEMBER [FF ZF.

NOW, JOE,

N SHENANIGANS; - WE'RE J PALS !

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The Hoosier

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

ALL PROPAGANDA NOT SINISTER, IS CLAIM By the Sage of Main Street, Kokomo, Ind.

Somebody is always warning us that everything coming from Europe is sinister propaganda (and so to be rejected in toto); and that both sides are equally culpable and their war aims equally reprehensible. If the word propaganda means what I think it does, then anyone believing the above has already fallen—hook, line and sinker—for propaganda of the crudest sort!

$8 a SAYS FINANCIAL SYSTEM NEEDS MODERNIZATION By W. H. Edwards, Spencer, Ind.

President Roosevelt's feeler put out to test public sentiment on the subject of how to finance the greatly increased national defense seems destined to receive much attention in the press and among politicians and financiers, but with the general public having no voice in determining how additional money shall be raised. Present members of Congress will probably insist on borrowing — at least until after the 1940 election. This. may seem good political “cricket” but it isn’t good financial “cricket.”

The non-political managérs of government, on the other hand, seem inclined to have the money raised by either additional hidden taxes or by cutting government expenses to the bone, thus conserving money already flowing into the Treasury. To adopt either of the last two plans means not only additional suffering among those in the low-income group, but it will prove in the end to have defeated its primary object: The raising of additional money. For either plan will reduce purchasing power among the one-third of the people who are already ill-

: fed, ill-housed and ill-clothed. . . .

There are probably several ways to practice economy in government without serious injury to the economic machine, but past experience has shown us that when government begins practicing economy it is the low-income group upon which economy is practiced. Before we are through with this stalemate in economic affairs there is going to come a realization that our present financial system is geared to fit ox-wagon days instead

(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.)

of our present complicated economic machine. The belief is growing among many thinking people that we are not likely to overcome our economic troubles until Congress takes over its duty assigned by the Constitution, to “coin money and regulate the value thereof.” ” on ”

SEES INCONSISTENCY IN

CHAMBERLAIN POLICY By Analyst Mr. Chamberlain’s speech outlining his war aims may well be named Chamberlain's Folly. He presumes to attract the German people to his own policy of war making by blockading their food supply. He assumes an air of superiority over Hitler while he and his Government’s policy arethe very things that created Hitler. He proposes to free the commerce between the nations of Europe after this war when his policy now and for the last 20 years has been to shackle the free flow of trade, except as it fitted the imperialist policy of Britain and France. He does not offer India political freedom while he insists on restoration of Poland. He cannot under these circum-

stances make a lasting peace, even if he crushes Germany now, any more than the Versailles Treaty created lasting peace. The formula for peace now or at any time must include equality of all nations as a basis. It must eliminate the special privileges of exploitation, the need for weapons of war, the weapons of tariff, currency manipulation and control of trade routes. Peace could come now if Chamberlain would look at his own folly. The thinking of the belligerents is foggy. 1t is covered with cobwebs. ” ” o HOLDS MORE BUSINESS IN GOVERNMENT IS NEED By C. B. In discussing the salary of Center Township's Trustee, someone made the assertion that no private industry would be so picayune as to pay an employee handling so much in purchases a measly $60 weekly. The point is not well taken. The salary of a purchasing agent is not predicated on the amount of money he handles. It is based on his skill in evaluating quality and estimating market trends—in other words, the ability to save his employers money. Who ever heard of a township trustee who was even suspected of saving his employers money! Instead of more government in business, the crying need is for more business in government.

New Books at the Library

“YT ROM Ragtime to Swingtime” (Furman). The story of a talented and versatile family—Marcus

Witmark and his five sons—who in 1885 founded a famous publishing house, later bought by Warner Brothers. This volume by Isidore Witmark and Isaac Goldberg is packed with tales of personalities notable in the musical and theatrical world. 2 ” ” “Bombs Bursting in Air” (Reynal). How important in modern

warfare is the airplane? What does it threaten? What part does this threat play in our present international struggle? Maj. George Fielding Eliot asks and answers these questions. 8 8-8 “Another Mexito” (Viking Press). A young Englishman, Graham Greene, fails to find in Mexico the romance, beauty, or inspiration reported by other travelers.

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“Portrait of New York” (Macmillan). Through photographs and comment, Felix Riesenberg and Alexander Alland point up the dramatic contrasts, the startling beauty, and the squalor of New York City. Scenes familiar and unfamiliar, EJ 2 ” “South American Primer” (Reynal). Katherine Carr, who has lived in South America, tells briefly the things about South America which she herself wanted to know before she went there to live.

“Co-operation as a Way of Peace” (Harper). James Peter Warbasse, well known as an exponent of the co-operative movement, discusses what contribution co-opera-tion can make toward genuine de-

mocracy and the preservation of|

peace.

SECURITY

By FLORENCE MARIE TAYLOR A road goes past my cabin door, I cannot see beyond the bend; Yet, it is not a thing to fear For lo! It leads me to a friend.

The road of life goes blindly on I know not what the morrow gives; Only that I am content— I know that my Redeemer lives.

- DAILY THOUGHT

For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.—St. Luke 14:11,

UMILITY is the Christian's greatest honor; and the high-

TUESDAY, DEC. 12, 1939

Gen. Johnson Says—

“ 8 Secretary Ickes and Palace Guard Have Little Standing With Party; Opposition to McNutt Discounted.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 12—The President 1s reported in several conversations recently to have said that his only determination about 1940 is that the Democratic candidate shall be “liberal” and “progressive.” Now Mr. Ickes says in a conversation not so% personal, that he has been “in. touch” with the “lib erals and progressives” and they will not support Mr. McNutt. Neither statement means anything until you define “liberal” and “progressive.” In the language of the Secretary's circle, “liberal and progressive” means the janissaries of the Palace Guard—the happy hotdogs and their offspring. These are the. brilliant young radicals who were infiltrated into listening posts in Government by Prof. (now Justice) Felix Frankfurter, They were the wardens of the marches who mixed most of the extreme medicine at the infra-red end of the New Deal rainbow. The tribe has increased. What Mr, Frankfurter started, his busiest bus-boy, Tommy the Cork, has improved upon. : . All departments at Washington have at least a few of them. Their influence has not only shaped policies but also guided appointments in the higher grades—to which they themselves, like Mr. Corcoran, do not aspire—the administrators, the Cahinet, the courts. This has been so marked that when the President once ignored them and appointed Mr. Mc-

.| Nutt to make society secure, it was a seven-day

Washington wonder and the Palace Guard wore figur= ative crepe on its sword hilts for weeks.

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T has not been necessary for either these gentle men or their choices for high office to be Demo= crats. Certainly most of them have no political following or represent anything or anybody but them selves or their own idea. There is no better .example of this than Mr. Ickes, who, speaking not only for himself but also with authority for the “liberals and progressives” announces that they will not support Mr. McNutt if the Democratic Party nominates him, Well, aint that somepin’? What has happened to our boasted two-party system of democratic Gove ernment if any small cluster of inner-circle political nonentities can push around one or two of its two greatest party groups and even name a President? Of course, the answer is that, standing by theme selevs, they can’t. Except with the President’s blessing, it wouldnt make a feather’s weight of difference to Mr. McNutt

|| whether Mr. Ickes supported him or not.

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T is a matter of political life or death to these people either that Mr. Roosevelt should run again or that the man he selects shall be one of ‘their feather. One or the other of those two things is in about as much danger of not happening as there is doubt*about the sun rising tomorrow. I have nothing but a guess as to who the Democratic candidate will be. Perhaps the President has none either now, But he will have. And it will be the right one. : Here is mine. If Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Ickes will have none buf a “liberal” and “progressive” and if (using the words in the Ickesian sense) no “liberal” or ‘‘progressive” except Mr. Roosevelt has any poe litical standing, there can be only one candidate— and it won't be Andy Gump.

It Seems to Me

By Heywood Broun

He Rediscovers Conrad's "Youth" On His Birthday and During a Storm,

EW YORK, Dec. 12.—I've been reading Conrad lately. While he was still alive much of his

appeal escaped me. Now I know I was all wrong, The short novels, or long short stories as 'you will, are things to sit up with during white nights" when sleep eludes you. And if it doesn’t catch up from

midnight until train time you are still a winner. By fortunate stage management I had hit on “Youth.” It wasn’t altogether a coincidence. I had just washed down my birthday, and I was endeavoring to console myself by saying, “Oh, 51 isn’t so .old. Think of Rockefeller and John Nance Garner.” And so I took up “Youth.” You may remember that it blows.like the devil all through this truncated narrative. Masts come down on every other, page, and the sailors are constantly at the pumps. And while this was going on somewhere west of Singapore the local weather in Connecticut was putting on quite a show entirely on its own. I've had two hurricanes on my hands, one in Florida and the other back home in Stanford. They do not amuse me. After. gales of such dimensions I come up with hangovers, since. there is nothing to Inaten rye in tempering the wind for the frightened amb.

Like Joshua of Old

It should have been New Year's Eve instead of the more minor celebration, known to only three or four as yet, called Broun'’s birthday. The gale was sweeping out the'dead, the tired.and all animate and inanimate things which had outstayed their welcome. Off into the night went the shams and the fakes and the pussyfooters. The pressure was on. If was no night on which to make even the most slight obeisance in the House of Rimmon. Whoever bent, however, fractionally, toward a shoe polish sandwich ran the risk that the wind would seize the seat of his pants and lift him off the yacht. And so at last I put down “Youth” in spite of its eloquence about green seas and cleansing gales. I opened the door and watched two big maples bend and squirm. And though they are my trees, it was the wind for which I rooted. “Sock ‘em again!” I shouted to the gale. ‘Make them take it and like it. They don’t like it down there. Make ’'em get their noses out of the mud. Make 'em stand up an fight.” - . And I felt like Joshua of old, because the wind obeyed me.

Watching Your Health

By Jane Stafford

CIENTIFIC investigations of the food we eat are not all devoted to searching for vitamins and other nourishing elements in foods. Quite .a ‘bit of reasearch has been done on the flavor of foods. If a food does not have appetite appeal, it is not likely to be eaten much, no matter how many vitamins or other healthful qualities it may have. 5 Fresh bread, recent research indicates, owes its.appetizing aroma largely to the same chemical which is mainly responsible for the aroma of butter. : The chemical is called: diacetyl and is a product; of: yeast fermentation. The diacetyl, is formed from ,anofher chemical, acetyl methyl carbinol, which is itself odorless. Depending on various factors, such as*the kind of yeast used in making the bread, the sugaryeast ratio and the presence or absence of oxidizing factors, the odorless chemical may yield ¢ither an equally odorless chemical or the aromatic: diacetyl. The flavor of the bread depends on which way: the chemical reaction goes. JF Bread made without yeast lacks the flavor and aroma which diacetyl gives, although loavgs of excellent volume and lexture were made by ‘scientists who used hydrogen peroxide instead of ‘yeast as leavening agent. A Ly Butter on its aroma, not from yeast, of course, but from the action of a particular micro-organism present in butter cultures. This micro-organism acts on citric acid, normally present in small am in milk, to produce the odorless acetyl methyl c and then the micro-organism changes thi§ chemical to the diacetyl which gives butter its aroma. RE ly These recent discoveries about. bread, and. b flavor have been made by a number of’ differé..; research teams. A food chemist who makes a hobby of collecting published ‘items on the chemistry and physiology of flavor, Dr, Betty M. Watts. he Uni-

men climb, the farther they are

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versity of California, calls attention to ti current i88ue of the Journal of H 00)

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