Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 20 January 1940 — Page 8

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SATURDAY, JANUARY 20, 1940

WILLIAM E. BORAH E held only one elective office, but he filled that one so long and with i i

uch distinction that the American people will find it difficult to think of the Senate without Borah of Idaho. When he first appeared on the Washington scene, Nelson P. Aldrich looked up his record as a corporation lawyer and a prosecutor of labor agitators and listed him as a “safe” ‘conservative.| Many others, in the 33 years since, tried to classify Borah and went as far wrong as did Senator Aldrich. For he defied classification. He fravsied alone. He couldn’t be a follower, and he seemed to avoid the responsibilities of affirmative leadership. He was said to have considered a negative achievement—the defeat of Woodrow Wilson's hope for American participation in the League of Nations—the most important victory of his career, A great question, which perhaps can never be finally answered, is whether Borah also helped to defeat the world’s hope for Dgace. He was a perennial rebel against conservative control of the Republican Ps rty; but, irregular at all other times, he was always regular on election day. Other progressives bolted the party in 1912, in 1924, in 1932, in, 1936. Borah

never did. ” ” » ” » t J

Critics called him “the great beginner,” implying that he lacked capacity to follow through. They said he had no constructive, consecutive program. They could point to many inconsistencies and contradictions in his record. He defended national prohibition, but opposed a national anti- . lynching bill and a Federal amendment to outlaw child labor. He voted for many New Deal measures, and was the most emphatic critic of others. The truth, we think, is that independence, to Senator Borah, was far more important than consistency. He, perhaps more than any other great public figure of our times, was his own man, That is why even those who disagreed with him had instinctive faith in his integrity and his patriotism—why President Wilson could refer to him as “the only man fighting the League of Nations from sincere conviction and with no personal animosity.” It may have been his misfortune, and America’s, that his greatest effectiveness was as an intellectual goad, an adversary. But his opposition to concentration of power, whether in business ‘monopolies or in Government, and his defense of the Constitution as a charter of human liberties, earned him the lasting gratitude of his country. The Lion of Idaho is gone from the Senate. His inconsistencies will be forgotten. His consistent record as a believer in and champion of democracy will live.

IT’S A BUSINESS OBODY,-it seems, is ever permanently discouraged in California. Now the “ham-and-eggs” promoters, having struggled up through last November's avalanche of ballots, have brought out an amended version of their twicebeaten pension scheme with the asserted hope of getting it before the voters again next -August. A new slogan—*“$20 Now”’—replaces “$30 Every Thursday,” while other alterations include sops for the property taxpayers; churches and charity organizations, labor unions and other groups which opposed the plan in its previous forms. One thing is more remarkable than the vehemence with which panacea peddlers insist, before an election, that their nostrum is perfect and infallible and above any honest criticism. That is their readiness, after an election has gone against them, to change the formula in an attempt to make it palatable to more voters. It must be increasingly clear to a good many elderly Californians that the real interest of the promoters is not in any particular pension plan but in maintaining the flow of nickel and dime contributions which combine to make panacea-peddling a highly profitable business.

STOP THE SHAKEDOWNS

“HE Federal Corrupt Practices Act forbids any Govern- |

ment official or employee to solicit political campaign funds from any other Government worKer. It is a wise prohibition, designed to protect Government workers from a shakedown at the hands of their bureaucratic superiors. Senator Hatch of New Mexico has proposed an amendment to forbid such solicitation “by any person.” This, too, is a wise proposal. It recognizes a reality of politics, that persons outside the Government, party bosses for instance, often are in a position to put the screws on Government workers—and do. - The Senator is not opposed to colt political contributions by Government employees. But he holds, quite properly, that all contributions should be strictly voluntary -—not by shakedown. The Corrupt Practices Act forbids political contributions by corporations. It, too, is wise for corporation funds are the stockholders’ property, and corporate officers have no right to use stockholders’ money for political purposes. Individual stockholders can make any voluntary contributions they wish. : The same logic suggests still another Sep ns which would forbid labor union officers to dip into union treasuries for money tot over to any candidate or any party. The money belongs to. the workers who pay the dues and special assessments. They have a big stake in Government policies. It is natural that they should take an active, even a financial, part in politics. And they have a right to protection by law from labor leaders and politicians who would turn their union treasuries into political grab bags. We protect Government workers from political shakedpwns by their bureaucratic bosses. We protect corporation stockholders from political shakedowns by corporation officers. ' Let’s extend the law to protect Government workers from shakedowns by party bosses; and at the same time protect other workers from shakedowns by union bosses. Let’s make ours more a society of free people, who vote as they Please and spend their own money as they Please.

alias Fox, - Boonton, N. J.

" tences—Alfano got

trimmings.

For Enauch By Westbrook Pegler

An Open Letter to William Green In Which He Recalls That Head of Union Has Served Time in Prison.

NEW YORK, Jan. 20. Mr. William Green, American Federation of Yabor, Washington, D. C. EAR MR. GREEN: A few days ago I wrote that the roster of officials of some unions in the American Federation of Labor contained the nucleus for a good, major league rogues’ gallery. In case you thought I was mistaken I am going to tell you today that the head of one of your big international unions was sentenced to Atlanta Penitentiary for four years and six months for white slavery. This is not Willie Bioff, the Chicago racketeer who was and remains boss of the movie and theatrical crafts. Willie is not a union president but just the personal, appointed representative of George Browne, who is, nominally at least, the president of the union. The man I mean is George Scalese, a Brooklyn racketeer who has become president of the Building Service Employees International Union. Scalese is a member of an old mob in Brooklyn. He used to be a bodyguard for Frankie Uale, alias Yale, the Capone mobster who was killed, and since repeal he and other hoodlums of the same type in Brooklyn and New York have promoted rackets in the labor field. This building service union is no cheap little local, Mr. Green, but one of your big international unions, and Scalese has been moving out the old officials of little subsidiary unions which have existed for years and moving in himself. He is a big shot in Chicago and San Francisco. i lee. ! : OU know all that, but I can’t see how you can fail to know what he is or, if you do know what he is, why you haven’t had him thrown out of the American Federation of Labor. Do you think it is doing the American Federation of Labor any

good to permit such a man to be president of one

of your big international unions or doing the rank |

and file working staffs any good to subject them to the rule of a mobster? : Scalese was convicted in the Federal Courf in Brooklyn in September, 1913, on four out of eight counts. He and another hoodlum named Joe Alfano, transported a girl from Brooklyn to

they received such heavy sen-

The reason ‘why we years—was that the crime

was unusually vicious. And Judge Veeder, in his charge to the jury, spoke of the details of the case

as “nauseating.” le ” 8

CALESE served a ft four years and put in for a

Presidential pardon in 1923, but was turned down

ion of the Acting ' Attorney pn the ground that the evidence was “of a most revolting character.” He has now put in another application for a Presidential pardon. Of course it is ironic that a man who can’t, hold public office or even vote, who lost his citizenship for a revolting crime, should be eligible to and hold the presidency of a big union. Well, there you are, Mr. Green. There is George Scalese to keep Willie Bioff company. They would understand each other. They have everything in

common. Yours very truly, : WESTBROOK PEGLER.

on the recommenda General of that time

Inside Indianapolis

Scanklal in the Saddle Horse Ranks—Vote Stuffing, No Less

HERE has been scandal in the ranks of the Indiana Saddle Horse Association. No fooling. They've just gone through a real for-sure ballot stuffing attempt in an election, an expose, and all the It even took Bloor Schleppey hundreds of words to explain properly to the membership in the organization's latest publication. What happened was there were rumors and gossip

about the dangers of ballot stuffing in. the election.

So when the election committee went to work to mail out the 705 authorized ‘ballots to the 705 members, they perforated the return, self-addressed envelopes with a pin. well. they got back 331 ballots. But, horror of horrors, only 119 of them bore the pin perforations! The other 212 were illegal votes! Yessir. And the funny part is that even if they had included the stuffed votes in the total it wouldn't have made much difference. All this, you understand, comes out of Mr. Schleppey’s article. It was a well-done thriller, too. But the net result has been that a director has confessed his implication and resigned office. Tsk. Tsk. All we can say is that the election committee cer-

tainly knows its wild oats. ” 2 2

DEPARTMENT STORE elevator girls have their troubles with the public, too. The other day, while a car was on a down trip, one of the female passengers lcalled out “Four!” just as the elevator passed that

floor. “I'm sorry, Madam,” said the operator as they

always do in such cases, “but it’s too late.” “Why, I thought you stayed open until 5:30,” torted the passenger. “We do, Madam,” said the operator politely, “but it was too late to stop for the fourth floor.” That seemed. to quiet the passenger. But not for long. Just as they hit main, she said: “Well, why does the fourth floor close earlier than the others?”

» ” ”

YOU'LL BE INTERESTED in knowing that Sonja Henie took a tumble on the ice in New York the other night. . . . Her partner fell, dragged her down with him. First time anybody ever saw Sonja sitting on $35 panties. . . Maybe we’ll see something of the same. .. . B. Edwin Sackett, the FBI man here, gets a lot of mail. Some of it comes addressed to “Socket,” some to “Taskett, ” but the latest and funniest was to “B. Edwin Casket.”

A Woman's Viewpoint

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

EMININE America says “no” to the suggestio that we help wage another foreign war. Wit only a 6 per cent dissenting vote, the women have so spoken in a Ladies Home Journal poll. Now it may be charged that a woman’s “no” usually means “yes,” but on this question I believe we can safely discard that old theory. So far as our own limited individual polls go, there seems to be a unanimity of opinion. Whether we can be persuaded to change our vote in case the forces for war grow more persistent is another matter. It has already been proved that Americans aren't very good at sticking by their beliefs. Upon several notable occasions we have had our minds changed for us without much effort. And whatever our convictions may be, women are apt to trot after men in whichever way they are headed. This fact constitutes our greatest danger at present, in my opinion. Although the men themselves aren’t enthusiastic about going off on another crusade, they are suckers for “hero stuff.” When the drums sound they always mistake the noise for the call of adventure. And go running. To women, war has never offered such escape in spite of the fact that the last one released millions from irksome domestic duties and for the first time convinced us we could earn money, It’s the men who go gallivanting when bugles blow. That particular concept of war—the “experience, travel, adventure” concept, to quote War Department posters, is a hangover from hundreds of former martial jaunts and its spirit dies hard. But it’s gasping now. I doubt whether the most glamorous advertisements will ever again be able to inject romance into the insanity of blood and death.” From Europe there have come no glorified versions of the present conflict. . Anyway the women have spoken. Heaven grant they may hover recant.

ROWTACS by, SEDER

ED

A UR

The Hoosies Forum

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

DEFINES COMMUNISM AS COMPULSORY SLAVERY By Edward F. Maddox . “Curious” says he has been studying “scientific socialism, Karl Marx and communism’ and that he wants to stay in this country and make it a better place to live in.

He wants me to define communism: Communism is a system

economy. A few brain-trusters draw up a blueprint or plan for the whole nation and everybody is forced to obey orders or be “liquidated”’— murdered. N., opposition is tolerated. No free speech against the vlan- is allowed. All private propsrty is seized by force and violence; large property owners are assassinated and the government owns and controls all food, clothing and everything else in the country. All the people are destitute and must

|bow to the decrees of the dictator

or perish, often by planned starvation. Communism is a merciless system under which people are herded together like cattle, worked like horses, treated like fogs. and driven like slaves. . . .

| ” » 8 DENIES ECONOMIC ILLS DUE TO MACHINE By Voice in the Crowd * Appreciative of Mr. Edwards of Spencer, who obviously is a sound thinker, I cannot refrain from stating that he leans in favor of cur-

rent propaganda blaming the machine age. Social thinking errs in blaming our economic ills on the machine. The machine does not. make fewer jobs; it makes more jobs. It does not make people poorer; it makes them richer. It does not centralize wealth: it distributes it. It is not a curse; it is a blessing. You are reading the ‘product of a fine mass production machine. Without the modern press and complementary equipment, this type would be set by hand; less men and women would work on it; it would sell for a penny and would hardly be worth it, and thousands of pecple throughout the state would be waiting for last week’s “Gazette.” Most of the jobs done en the

Side Glances—By Galbraith

of compulsory slavery to a planned.|—

(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.)

machine would never be done without it. Take a modern food market

for instance, with everything in it jobs

packaged or wrapped by machine— and men. Then think of the old grocery you “traded” with prior to 1900, with its stock of bulk food in

bins, boxes and barrels. The packaging of that goods made jobs, thousands of them, created better consumer appetite and made for sanitation. All of the old lines of business can stand that comparison. But look at the new lines, things that did not exist in 1900, thousands of products with hundreds of thousands of people making them. Possible only because of the machine. The automobile is .one of those products. We have not learned to use it yet, but aside from its production employment it has made work for craftsmen in the building of millions of garages, private and public. It has given employment in the building of hundreds of thou-

sands of miles of good roads and

boomed the oil industry. these things give maintenance employment to say nothing of a living to hot dog stands and service stations. Try to think of what the machine has done in giving jobs. Almost in your lifetime, Mr. Edwards, the machine has made it possible to change jobs from 75 per cent on the farm and 25 per cent in the cities to 25 per cent on the farm

‘and 75 per cent in the cities. With-

out the machine we would all hoe potatoes and we could not have candy for Christmas. We all work at machine made newly invented

The politicians blame the machine, but don’t let them fool you. » ” 8 PROPOSES A FUND TO HELP RUSSIANS By Gore and Glory Now that Russia is losing out in its war with Finland, our sympathies and aid for Finland are no longer needed. However I ... believe in sending my money abroad before using it to help our own unfortunate. It is with this purpose that I am hereby founding a fund to be known as the Indianapolis Fund to Aid Russia and the Stricken Red

Army, Inc. all donations to be forwarded immediately to Moscow. Please, everyone of you naive souls who are easily propagandized into sending money to support European war, help in this worthy cause

New Books at the Library

ITH the European situation growing hourly more complicated and comments by word and pen taking a continuously more pessimistic turn, it is with a sense of relief tinged with curiousity that we come upon an able and wellinformed writer attempting to lessen the tension by laughing at things. We are referring to “Europe— Going, Going, Gone!” (Graystone Press) by Count Ferdinand Czernin,| which the author characterizes as

1940 BY NEA EZ am I

"| think you're wasting your time, Professor.

Satish ed if hed can gut play a good loud march.”

Her father will be

“a sketchy book trying to give a rough explanation of Europe, its politics, and its state of mind, for the benefit mainly of Anglo-Saxons, politicians, and other folk with uncomplicated minds.” Those readers familiar with the author’s earlier book, “This Salzburg,” will recall with delight his gay and clever yet always kindly and discerning humor. One hopes

for the same thing in this, his sec-|

ond bock. Events which have trans‘pired meanwhile in Europe, however, have apparently so intensified Count Czernin's attitude and insight that his flippancy is no longer lighthearted, and, as he says, his book has turned out to be much too

| serious to seem funny.

In his comments upon persons, places, and events in Europe today, he goes to the heart of things with such clarity and appreciation of what is and is to come that his humor ' becomes ironical and his jokes tragic. There are a few very

effective laughs, however, and al-| «

together the book makes exceptionally good and informative reading on a timely topic. The pen-and-ink drawings by Walter Goetz add immeasurably to the text.

HOPE By OLIVE INEZ DOWNING

Hope as an angel in spotless white, Seems beckoning us toward the light. We hope for this and we long for that; Hope helps us all troubles to combat. Hope smiles on the bride on wedding . morn; Also on those who are most forlorn. She hovers close to the bed of pain Till roses appear in the cheeks again. She sends a gleam to the prisoner’s

cell, ; : ‘To homes of the rich, to homes in

the dell. On the darkest night, in our souls

despair We: always find Hope’ s balm is there: DAILY THOUGHT

. If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.—St. Mark 7:16.

The true source of cheerfulness is benevolence. The soul that perpetually overflows with kindness and Sympathy will always be cheerful.—

. . 3

All of]

Gen. Johnson Says—

After All It's Not Our War and Scandinavian Countries Should Proffer Needed Help to Finland,"

ASHINGTON, Jan. 20.—If we want to take a hand in the wild European war game, let's do it 10% the board, discard our neutrality and take the consequences. Sending money to the Finns to buy our “surplus agricultural products” in f:"' knowle edge that they do not now need them, do need arms, and can and will sell them to create credit to buy arms, is just another Rooseveltian “clever little scheme.” There is no letter of a law against lending money to Finland to buy arms here so long as she is not “technically” at war, because not until then does the Pittman Act speak. But there is the spirit of a law against it. The Neutrality Act goes into effect whenever a nation declares a war or whenever the President or the Congress shall “find that there exes ists a state of war.” The President is also required to name other states “as and ‘When they become ine volved in such g war.” Surely Finland is “involved in such a war” and just as surely the spirit, if not the letter of the Neus trality Act forbids the granting of loans or sales to her on credit of either arms or other things. Failure to “find” one of the most obvious facts on the surface of the earth is the first subterfuge, It can hardly be defined as a faithful execution of the laws of the union. Certainly failure to “name other states as and when they become involved in such a war” cannot be defended. : f J 2 ”

UT let's pass the first avoidance of the law—If - we can do so and still look each other in the face—and say: “No, Finland is not at war.” If she is not at war then there is no violation of any law— international or domestic—in lending her money. If she gets the money, even if after she is, to our sure prise, suddenly found to be at war, there is no law or obligation to any nation to forbid our selling arms just as long as her cash holds out. So if we are not going to balk at the first hurdle which is a real evasion of our own law, why should we hesitate at the second one which is not? Who are we trying to fool and why? If is too thin, nobody, is going to be fooled. This column believes that we should either amend . the Neutrality Act or live up to it. It could not now be amended to permit loans to belligerents because our people do not want to get into this war—either through the front door or by any blind-pig entrance. It is they alone for whose benefit this lav-jugsiing is being proposed. » » » HE most unfair part of this raging discussion ig such comment as we are not arming Finland because we are afraid to—‘“even though she is fighting our war.” Word for word that is exactly the argu= ment that pulled us into Europe in 1917.

The fight on the Finnish front is a key-battle. I" ’

. is a dangerous flank attack in the war between

Western and Eastern Europe. The defense ranks with the highest of all military traditions. Finland, the narrow eastern gate to Scandinavia, is defending the left flank of all. Western Europe, As those endangered nations value eventual victory, they ought to rally to her not only by furnishing credits to enable her to buy arms here, but in every other way. Our case is. different. With all the good= will and admiration possible we must still remember that this key position is in a European war—in which our people almost Unanimously wish to have no party

Wage-Hour Chisel

By Bruce Catton

~ Old- Fashioned Gum Shoe Work Nets Underpaid Workers $103,000."

ASHINGTON, Jan. 20.—A combination of detece tive story thriller and of tragic-comic human, drama was unfolded by Thomas O'Malley, Regional Director for the Wage-Hour Administration, when he returned here from Chicago to make a report to Col, Philip Fleming, Acting Administrator.

O'Malley told Col. Fleming about the largest cash. restitution to underpaid workers yet made under the Wage-Hour Law—payment of $103,000 to employees of a hairpin manufacturer in Chicago.

The hairpins were made by machinery -and the. x

process was cheap; the costly part was the hande work of carding, boxing and bunching the finished : pins, and this work was let¥out to tenement dwellers: who received around 10% cents an hour and put their children to work to help them. O'Malley recalls that complaints about this form of: child labor began to come in shortly after his regional office was opened. Instances were reported, he says, of clergymen in the neighborhood pleading from their" pulpits with mothers, asking them not to work their children so long. His men had to turn detective in regular movie style to prove that We children actually were eme

‘ployed. Gets $800 Check—Faints

To do this they had to creep up tenement fire « escapes and peek in windows to see children at work, The next job was to show that the payments made were below the legal minimum. To do this, O'Malley got figures on the company's gross output, and had . time studies made to see how fast an adult could card and box the pins. : His evidence complete, O'Malley filed a complaint and eventually got from the company a stipulation that the full amount of unpaid wages—$103,000— would be paid, that the company would cease sending work out to the homes, and that the factory would be equipped so that all the work might be done there, The human drama came when the money was paid to the workers. Approximately 300 workers—mostly women of fore eign descent, unable to speak English—thronged the corridors outside of O'Malley’s office to collect their checks. Some of them brought their relatives to see the checks they got—more money than most of them had ever seen before. : is woman looked at her $800 check intently and a

»

dh

Watching Your i) »

By Jane Stafford

HE Tragedy of Footwear,” as an English physie cian, Dr. Edwin A. Lindsay of London, terms it, is well known to doctors and to millions of lay people who suffer with aching, deformed feet and struggle to’ find shoes that will be comfortable. The whole problem might be solved more quickly, Dr. Lindsay suggests, if shoe manufacturers scrapped all oy: old lasts and started making shoes from entirely new ones. Efforts to make better-fitting shoes by cutting a bit here and twisting a little there on the old last may have helped somewhat but not enough, he charges. The most important features of correctly shaped. tootwear, he states in a report to the English medical : journal, Lanset, are: 1. The shape of the insole; 2. The surface of the insole, and 3. Shaping of the upper. The shape of the insole, he says, should ‘roughly follow the shape of the normal foot, that is, an outline. of the foot on paper, in which there is a distinct angle at the central part, the forward part pointing inwards. (The outline of your foot on paper will: probably not have this inward pointing if you have been wearing pointy-toed shoes for years) = The surface of the insole probably gives the greateest difficulty, Dr, Lindsay observes. In order to cone. form to the sole of the foot, as it should, giving sup<. port where necessary and relief from pressure at certain prominences, it should be slightly convex from side to side at the tread. Another point discussed by Dr. Lindsay is the heel seat. This, he says, should be cupped to hold the heel firmly in position, without side twisting which happens where the heel seat is flat. “The shaping of ‘the upper should be- designed,” Dr. Lindsay says, “to fit two unequal halves of tha. foot and not, as at present, cut as RH the foot were the same on’ each side.” ; a

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