Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 2 January 1940 — Page 10

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Indianapolis : (Aa SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

ROY W.- HOWARD . RALPH BURKHOLDER President. . . Editor

TRL ra SLE ot He eR AT

, Business Manager Price in| Marion County, 3 cents a copy: delivered by carrier, 12 cents

Owned and published daily (except Sunday) by - The Indianapolis Times Publishing Co.," 214 W. Maryland St. ;

: Mail subscription rates Member of United Press, in Indiana, $3 a year; Scripps - Howard News- outside of Indiana, 65 Paper Alliance, NEA gents a month. Service, and Audit Bu- . > reau of Circulation, [E ofSPo | RILEY 5551 {SCRIPPS = NOWARD Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

TUESDAY, JANUARY 2, 1940

ROBERT FECHNER E shunned the limelight. credit or publicity. He went early to hi often out into the field. ~The American public knew little about Robert Fechner, - the man. But that public knows much about, and heartily "approves, the Civilian Conservation Corps which he directed ~ for nearly seven years without once subjecting the program . or its administration to serious criticism. One cannot help | but think that more of the New Deal would have succeeded had more of its agencies been entrusted to selfless administrators. .. : : Sul Let us hope, for the future of the CCC, that President Roosevelt can find a successor of a similar mol

STUDENTS?

He never sought personal s office and

: E don’t know what the members of the Amerigan |

Student Union study and don’t have much respect for their erudition after reading about their vote.| In convention in Milwaukee the so-called students went on record 322 to 29, in rejecting an amendment branding Russia the aggressor in the war with Finland. Bb In fact, we doubt whether such search for learning as the American Student Union may have engaggd in has yet explored the first of the three R’s. Because if ybu could read you couldn’t be that way. But we do say that the American Student Union convention vote on that question is one of the best, reasons yet for the rest of us maintaining a watchful eye, through Justice Departments, Dies Committees, or what have you, on the party line and the fellow travelers in this bute They have a perfect right to have parties and to travel but so have we to know what is going on. i

QUACK! QUACK! QUACK! I HE Grouch Club of America nominates Secr| tary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes the “National Grouch of 1939.” We move the nominations close, and since everybody else seems to be rising to second it, the notion is carried. ; But what about 1940 and 1941, wherein every prospect is vile to the man who busies himself with the nation’s interior and exterior, its materialities and its moralities. Of course we know 1939 was trying tothe patience of Old Ick—who, after all, has been the best Senrelary of the Interior in our time. That year saw him deprived of the PWA, with its prerogative of spending billions of dollars of other people’s money on monumental undertakings, leaving him with nothing to do except to run the the affairs of the public domain, the national parks, coal | and oil and other subsoil resources, the Indians, Puerto Rico, Alaska, Hawaii, the Virgin Islands, various reclamation, irrigation and hydroelectric power projects, the fisheries, the geographical survey and the biological survey, sundry eleemosynary institutions and assorted boards, commissions, councils and authorities, not to mention the voluntary extracurricular education of newspaper publishers, columnists and editorial writers—and traffic. ]- However, consider 1940. This is the year in which the Democrats and the Republicans will hold their national conventions, and thus far neither party has shown any sign of paying heed to Mr. Ickes’ advice. And the one man who raised him to prominence daily shows less and less desire to seek another four years in the White House. And 1941, which will contain that fateful day Jan. 20, the date on which it now seems likely that someone else will take over that limousine and chauffeur, the bows and scrapes of flunkies, and that carpeted and panelled magnificence of the new Interior Building. | : The new year may see Donald-Duck turn Pollyarina, but the odds are heavy that the national grouch jof 1939 will be both a second and third termer.

BEANS, SENATOR : “ A T least one important American commodity has heen spared from the executioner. Agriculture would welcome a similar reprieve for beans.”—Statement of Senator Vandenberg (R. Mich.), commenting on the announcement that in the pending reciprocal-trade agreement with Chile the U. S. tariff on copper will not be reduced. Hogwash, Senator! To be sure the Senator has a great many virtues, and his record is illuminated by a great many accomplishments that mark him as a valuable public servant. But anyone who voted for the Smoot-Hawley Act and still doesn’t repent his folly is surely blind, and the country is justified in paying no heed whatever to his advice on this subject. For the country traveled the Smoot-Hawley ‘road to prosperity,” traveled it rapidly, precipitously and disastrously, to the bottom. Since the Senator professes to speak for agriculture, it is fair to observe that up to 1930 American farmers still ‘had some foreign markets. But they didn’t keep them long. In retaliation other countries passed Smoot-Hawley acts of their own. And with what tragic results! In 1932—we take that year because it was the end and bottom of the Smoot-Hawley trail—American farmers dug from the soil a-cash income of $4,682,000,000, an average of ‘$717 per farm, or $151 per capit{ of farm population. This year, it is estimated that the farmers’ cash income will be $7,625,000,000, an average of $1102 per farm, or $238 per capita of farm population. (And that’s not count-

5 ing the Government’s benefit payments).

Secretary Hull's trade-agreements program may not

. be responsible for all this improvement, but’ it has con-

~ tributed mightily by blasting open some of the farm markets abroad which the Smoot-Hawley Act closed. There's a Jot more blasting to be done before American farmers— _ bean growers included—get back all the markets they need . to prosper. "WHAT'S IN A NAME? py JERE almost afraid to look at the roster of our State officials since Ohio discovered it had a Jacob Bacchus Taylor as state liquor tsar and a Rodney Prior Lien as state intendent of banks. rot Lod A

pogo biG ds 3 7

ARK FERREE

liputians amid a houseful of Gullivers, they must

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By William Philip Simms

Her Historic ‘Inability to Supply Needs of Army May Upset Stalin As It Did His Predecessors.

ASHINGTON, Jan. 2.—Well might Josef Stalin, ¥V the Red Tsar, grow uneasy over the failure of his blitzkrieg against Finland. For war has a way of showing up Russian weaknesses of the sort which have led to many a Tsar’s downfall. One summer day in 1916 I arrived in Stockholm on my way to the Russian front. I called on our Minister, Ira Nelson Morris. : “Before I forget it,” he said as we shook hands, “the Russian Minister is anxious to see you. He wants to ask a favor.” I called at the Russian legation. “You would be doing me and my Government a great service,” the Tsar's envoy said, “if you would take some things along with you into Russia. To facilitate getting past the frontier, I will give you special | cerdentials—those of a courier. , Will you do it?” I said it depended on what he wanted me to take. I would be only too glad to oblige—provided the mission did not violate the amenities : “You shall see for yourself,” he agreed. There were four huge sacks—“diplomatic pouches”— each at least twice as big as the ordinary U. 8. mail pouch. They stood almost as high as my head, and weighed approximately 200 pouhds each. In them was nothing but drugs—mostly opiates and anesthetics. 8 88

“NOU see,” confided the Minister, “the Army is dreadfully short of such things. And as you are going to the Grand Imperial Headquarters, at Mogilev, I had hoped you might take these along.” ; I took them, of course, gladly. They carried oblivion for many a poor soldier undergoing the knife.

This little incident may suggest the key to what |

is happening to the Russians in their war against Finland. tied in a knot. Trains were not moving properly. Engines were left right where they broke down. Supplies were not reaching the front. : Many soldiers were without weapons. Those with rifles often lacked cartridges or had only a few. Artillery lacked sufficient shells. Troops charged barbedwire entanglements not yet cut -by the usual preparatory barrage. Uniforms were scarce. food, medicine.

Also underclothing, shoes, Reserves failed to arrive, due to traf-

fic jams, leaving decimated divisions to their fate.

” » »

Tr sort of thing has been going on in Russia ever since Catherine the Great—not to go .back any farther. Catherine's two wars against Turkey (1768-1791): Alexander I's war with Napoleon (1812); Nicholas I's wars with Turkey (1827-29), and with Turkey, Britain and France (1853-4); Alexander II's reign following the Crimean War; Nicholas II's. war with Japan (1904) and hig war with the Central Powers (1914) —all were accompanied or followed by uprisings or revolts until at last, in 1917, the Red revolution blojted out the dynasty. = Eye-witnesses in Finland quote Russian prisoners as admifting the Red organization is already functioning badly. They turn up improperly uniformed and equipped. Despite: sub-zero weather and deep snow many prisoners are said to have had straw wrapped about their feet. . ! : And yet Stalif’s War against little Finland is barely a month old. If it goes on until spring—the Red Tsar in the Kremlin may not then be sitting so prettily.

(Mr. Pegler's column will appear tomorrow.)

Inside Indianapolis

It's a Good Story, but Paul McNutt Is Not Likely to Run for Governor.

T= is a story going the rounds that the state’s Democratic bosses are preparing to set the date of the party’s state convention later than the national convention and that if Paul McNutt isn’t nominated for the Presidency, he will run for Governor. ~ It’s an exciting story and it has its elements of plausibility when you hear all the various angles

and slants. The first word of it came from the Republican camp. The G. O. P. leaders were reported in a minor stew about it because Paul: would be a powerful candidate to face in a state race. Then it got to the Democrats. And first thing you knew, the folks at the State House were passing it along in whispered excitement. In politics, you realize after a while that almost anything is possible. This one is possible—but not probable. The truth .is that McNutt is not likely to run for any kind of state office—Governor, Senator, or what have you—if he doesn’t land on the national ticket. If Roosevelt does run for a third term, it’s possible Paul might look with favor on the Vice Présidency. But nobody knows. One of the best guesses might be that Paul would enter private life, as a business executive.

8 ” 2

CONSTANCE BENNETT, who's currently at English’s, is a typical Bennett. . . , Off stage, she’s unquenchable. . . . She bubbles over with enthusiasm and caustic comments. . . , One of the post-New Year’s yarns concerns one weary young man who climbed into bed at 2 a. m. Monday morning. . . . He had to be up at 5 a. m. and he stared reflectively at his alarm clock. . . , Then he picked up the phone and called Western Union to wake him up. . . . Promptly at 5, the call came in. . . . He said okay and got up. . . . A few minutes later he looked curiously at the phone. , . , He wasn% sure whether it had rung again or not. . . . Anyway, he picked it up. . .. A patient voice on the other end was saying: “It's now 5:04.”

2 # #

ONE LITTLE EAST SIDE girl—she’s 5 and cute— has a 3-year-old sled. .~. . And on the underside of it is the manufacturer's caution: “If you don’t hit any big trees or any big bumps this sled will last you a lifetime.” . . . Trouble is, it’s now too small for her. . . . When we called the Municipal Airport weather bureau this morning no one said hello, or identified the station at all. ., . . Someone simply said, with no further ado, “One below.”

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

T= baby in our house got a Scottie pup for Christmas. It was love at first sight between them. Infant heart called unta infant heart, - and with whoops of joy and delirious tail-wagging the two sealed their pact of love at once. Snatched from the warmth of its family, transported several hundred miles by car, the forlorn baby dog looked inconsolable

a bright-eyed little girl on dancing feet heard its

anguished yaps and gathered it into her arms. There |

it relaxed instantly as if it knew home had been reached at last. |

The way in which the two young things took to

one another made me more than ever aware of the loneliness children must suffer who are lobliged to live without companions of their own age. | No doubt the world is quite as bewildering to them! as it seemed

| to be to the infant Scottie ruthlessly orphaned and |

thrust into a world where only humans abide. And what enormous humans! Strange, awkward, shambling creatures we must appear to puppies, and probably we look only a little less overpowering - to little folks when they Jack the comfortable sense of association with others’ of their age and kind. . Lil-

forever be aliens to their surroundings if there are no other children about. Imagine if you can what life be like for you without contact with your contemporaries. Suppose you were 18 and doomed to spend your days in the company of or 40, for that matter. and never knew the pleasure of conv people of mature years. het : Yet plenty of puppies and /children to that kind of existence by fond who, although they have plenty Imagination gid 8

people of 80— rsation with

owne $ and tents of love, possess no aire therefore inca )

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4 of lonely young

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In 1916, I found Russia's communications |-

until on Christmas morning |

Suppose Sy were 80 | |Z

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. / ct The Hoosier Forum 1 wholly disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.—Voltaire.

‘STALIN'S PRESS AGENTS KEPT BUSY, IS CLAIM By Observer Ee Comrade Stalin of the Soviets has changed his mind. There will be no “blitzkrieg” in Finland. What poppycock, said official Russian communiques, to assume that the Red drmy thought for a moment it could squelch the Finns with a lightning stroke. It seems that however badly the Finns may sweep up the Soviet army, Joe Stalin’s press agents will have the world believe their boss planned it that way. 2 » » 2 CLAIMS MARX PIDN'T ADVOCATE CONFISCATION By L.°V. :

This is not written iA defense of socialism, for I have never voted the Socialist ticket in my life. Being a student of economics, I have delved into the works of various economists, including Marx. )

What this man saw was a world in decline. He advocated a theory of value, which as yet must stand the test of time, .as a means of warding off a complete dark age in human history. He does not advocate the confiscation of property as a means of organizing social life. Under socialism there is no private property and therefore no incentive to confiscate. There would be no need for it. There is nothing to confiscate. Land is free from taxes; agriculture and industry are unified under a planned economy and the governmental budget is balanced. That's socialism. It is ridiculous even to think that a group of opportunists such as Reds, Pinks, or whatnot could destroy an economic order. But it is not possible for such an economic system to become so bulky and cumbersome that it may devour itself? Here is what John T. Flynn writes in The ‘Times, Dec. 16—on the oldest and most matured capitalist nation in the world, Britain: “The moment the government strikes a blow at private investment it strikes a blow at the heart of the capitalist system. Thus one of the

one Karl|

(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.)

that Britain is forced to put a brake upon the heart beats of the system. This is not being done by Communists, but by Capitalist. leaders ‘of the Tory school. ing the system as Communists could. But they are powerless.” After war, what?

” 2 2 NAZI SCORN OF MARRIAGE DRAWS REBUKE By A. B. C. There are times, nowadays, when

Russia and Nazi Germany apart. From the beginning, the Soviet Government was bitterly assailed for its lack of recognition of those moral values commonly accepted by the modern civilized world. Now, in the midst of a war that is costing Germany rich, young lives, two responsible officials of the German Government announce publicly and ‘shamelessly that the Nazi Party will

They are destroy-

you've got to look twice to tell Soviét:

bestow its ‘personal blessing - on children born outside the institution of marriage. Both Heinrich Himmler, police head, and Rudolph Hess, Hitler deputy, have encouraged more births, with or without benefit of clergy. This scorn for sacred institutions can go on only so long—until the people get mighty sick of it—and then the pendulum will suddenly swing back and hit the dictator demigods smack on their thick skulls. :

#8 ‘=n - CLAIMS G. O. P. DOESN'T

NEED WENDELL WILLKIE By Claude Braddick, Kokomo, Ind.

I see where W. R. Hearst is urg-

ing the Republicans to: nominate Wendell L. Willkie as their next Presidential candidate. Since Willkie is a Democrat, I presume Mr. Hearst's purpose in this is to mdke doubly Certain that our next President is a member of that party. Or perhaps he plans later to indicate his choice of a Republican to run on the Democratic. ticket, > The Republicans, however, having allowed Mr. Hearst to pick and groom their last entry, and ngticing the unhappy result thereof, will probably decide that Mr. Hearst is a8 poor a picker ag he is a candidate and prognosticator, and wisely chooses a Presidential aspirant from their own ample material.

New Books at the Library *

ANKS to Dr. Goethe Link people around these parts should be intensely interested in David O. Woodbury’s book, “The Glass Giant of Palomar” (Dodd). The glass of the notable telescope in the Goethe Link ‘Observatory on Tanager Hill, Morgan County, was poured from the same glass as Palomar’s giant mirror. Moreover, the observatory is making exciting astronomical history in Indiana, just as the telescopic miracle on the flat top: of an isolated mountain above the Pacific is doing Cali fornia. If anyone doubts t Just let him ask Dr. Link to show him

inescapable effects of the war is

the first photograph of a nebula

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made at the observatory by a research man. But to get back to the book under discussion. It tells an absorbing story, showing how man’s dream is often outstripped in man’s achievement. Jules Verne dreamed of a gigantic reflecting telescope that should follow the trail of a projectile from the earth to the moon. This book describes the construction of the glass giant of Palomar, which has as its objectives the reaches, not merely of the moon, but of the very boundaries of space. To get the wonderful story—to gain for his literary purpose, the ardor of the scientists, their courage, their genius for persistence, their emotion under discouragement, Mr. Woodbury went to live with the men at work on the stupendous project. He found their company an inspiring ‘experience. Anxiously, ‘ardently, - self-sacrific-ingly he saw them work, spurred on by their faith in the value to science of the proposed achievement. He found that the task was Herculean, the difficulties. presented to ‘brain and brawn enough to discon|cert supermen. One man went mad, ‘one left the project to wander

lonely as a comet, another, the first|

dreamer of the dream, Dr. George Ellery Hale, died while. heart and mind were still aflame with the desire to complete the work. Mr. Woodbury has made such an absorbing story of the enterprise that his readers will follow details with avid interest. The illustrations, too, are numerous and arresting. i g ey

NEW YEAR By ROBERT O. LEVELL New Year, we gladly greet you ‘We hope you will greet us, too, Just as happy as the day

{Fm arrive for all the way.

Our real good and friendly guest For all we can do our best, With our heart and all our might Make this New Year be so bright.

DAILY THOUGHT

And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the

way everlasting. —Psalms 139:24. : us, we

Gen. Joh

Despite Miss Thompson's Attack On 'Anti-Propaganda’ He Stands by, His Guns in Stand Against War.

VV there is a conspiracy of the Allied powers to draw us into the war; that the British and French are very canny and subtle fellows... that this is just another imperialist war, that we must not let our emotions sway us, that democracy cannot survive ane other war, that territory has always been acquired by force and why, therefore, should any pot call any ket=

that the Treaty of Versailies, an infamous document prepared by cynical and ruthless European politicians, is responsible for everything anyhow.” : So writes my friend Dorothy Thompson of what she calls “anti-propaganda.” She says it is the justifica« tion of Nazis and Communists and “the most egregious propaganda at present being showvelled out in America; And because not one of its arguments will stand cool analysis, it makes no attempt to support them in reason . . . disarms any counter-argument by branding it in advance as ‘propaganda.’ ” ? no . » ‘® ® ’ : HEN Miss Thompson really does get hot. Various. parts of the “argument” are a “hoax,” a “joke,” fear-mongering “high-pressure-salesmanship,” “mean= ingless,” “Communist,” “isolationist,” “unprovable,” ‘poppy=-cock, “German propaganda’—and finally , , o, “moral and intellectual dishonesty.” I have published some of the ideas Miss Thompson condemns but never in the words in which she dresses them. I do not say that there is an Anglo-French conspiracy to get us into this war, but I have said that they wish we would enter and are careful to dish us out their dope in ways most likely to invite us. I do be=~ lieve that both French and British statesmen are clever at such wiles, that we have too much at stake to act emotionally especially when nearly all of us, including myself, detest the dictators and sympathize with the Allies. I have said that we would have a war dictatorship from the moment we entered, that it would be hard to shake off at the end and that fitancially it might bankrupt and ruin Americanism as we have known it. I do insist that savage European tribal con tests recur and will recur, that this is another on the immemorial model, that we have no place in it and that nobody wins modern wars. : 8 » ” : M=s THOMPSON not only does not agree, bu seems almost angrily to resent its being said, That is o. k. with me, Her view is of great impore nance Nobody is better qualified to express it or does t better. . 2 j But I can’t accept her apparent implication that not to think as she thinks is not to think at all, or to

true as far as this column is concerned that these views have been expressed as merc dogmas, without “cool analysis” or any “attempt to support them in reason” or do not “urge the public carefully to review the history of events in Europe leading up to this war; to analyze the nature of the various ideologies . . I wouldn't urge anybody to analyze an ‘ideology.” But I submit that this cdlumn has made at least as good an argument and ‘historical foundation for its side of this case as she has for hers. This side is to

sucker-trap in Europe. ° Social Security By Bruce Catton / Pensions, Medical. Service Likely

social security legislation, having been passed and become a recognized system, would be finished business. But not at all. It will be one of the most controversial subjects in the winter session of Congress. Eo v : / That is because a social security system is built gradually, and the laws governing it are never final and complete. I at A ; The Administration is not asking any changes in the present Social Security law. But the Connolly amendment, which lost out last winter, is likely again to be called out on the floor. This amendment would increase the Federal Government's grants to the states in matching state appropriations for old-age assistance. rd : At present the Federal Government puts up as

nolly would have the Federal Government put up twos thirds, or twice the sum put up by the states. : And of course the Towhsend Plan will still be

the cold. folks at campaign time that they favor it, pot no privately hope they will never have to Vote or 1t. rd :

streamlined version of the now-famous plan as soon as Congress convenes, and will be demanding action,

Hospital Plan Is Proposed

Senator Wagner is likely also to offer an amende ment to social security laws allowing the governe

private companies, except perhaps cheaper. President Roosevelt is known to be interested in the idea, but because so many controversies are inevitable, this one may be stalled off. : : : Another Wagner proposal which bade fair to raise

President's recent proposal to build a string of cheap hospitals in places where hospital service is not now easily available. | : 1 Wagner has a plan to ‘assure everyone adequate medical care when sick, and public health service when well. It is a variety of State-Fed ance plan. to cost $800,000,000 a year.

his met immediate conflict with the American

health services. NEXT—Neutrality.

Watching Yo

By Jane Stafford : Lan Y™% need not let the thought of dangers keep you from enjoying skiing this winter. Records cole lected by the American Red Cross with the aid of the Ski Patrols show that this winter sport is far less dangefous than it looks. Of the 2,000,000 estimated skiers last season, the Ski Patrol reports show. only 700 were injured. fatal. i iid Certain precautions should be taken, of course, you want to keep out of the group of the unlucky 700, First, it would be wise to check with your’ doctor, to make sure that skiing is not too strenuous. a sport for: you. Next, pick a ski site where there is a Ski Patrol, All members of these volunteer. organizations must hold Red Cross First Aid certificates and fore trained to give expert aid. ; vail: + The novice on skis is in less danger than the skier who has been out a few times. The latter is ¢ to be over-confident and to pick slopes steep for his skill and str

and skill than the beginner realizes ta check safely at the mile-a-minute speed which may veloped down steep ie Fpl . Stop before you get tired. Fatigue has been to be a large factor contributing to skiing accident: When you are tired, you are less likely to attend ‘Slosely no what You are Soins, sna you see little irregularities o * or slope. Visibility is not so good in the later afternoon and this makes

y :

it harder to pick n safe course even if you are: not

Beginpers are also warned to remember Jomplstely alter the safety of a and becomes crusted, hard

i i > | : a ASHINGTON, Jan. 2.—“The argument is thas

tle black, that every democracy at the outbreak of war, will become Fascist, that nobody ever wins a war and

think in “moral and intellectual dishonesty.” It isnot

prepare to defend ourselves and keep out of the bloody

To Be Lively Topics at Next Session, - ASHINGTON, Jan. 2.—You might think that

much as $20 a month if the state matches it. Cone. around to bedevil the many statesmen who have told

Senator Downey of California will be back with a

ment to sell old-age annuities like those now sold by a ruckus has probably also been stalled off by the:

eral health

Medical + Association plan to set up a government “health agency” to co-ordinate all present Federal

r Health

None. of the accidents reported was

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