Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 29 January 1940 — Page 10

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MONDAY, JANUARY 29, 1940

“ENEMIES WITHIN” J : [ELSEWHERE in today’s paper is the first of soverdl

Washington dispatches by Thomas L. Stokes, dealing with the Justice Department’s attempt to break up illegal, | cost-increasing practices in the building industry by enforcing the Anti-Trust Laws. We hope you will read these articles. As/Mr. | Stokes says, powerful interests are trying to obstruftt this attempt. Leaders of the American Federation of Labor are especially active. They are angry because the prosecutions are hitting some unions, as well as many business organizations. They accuse Thurman Arnold, head of the Justice Department’s Anti-Trust Division, of seeking to “pull down the house of labor.” That's the bunk. Speaking Saturday in New York, Mr. Arneld told exactly what he is doing. The Anti-Trust Laws, he said, will not be used against any activity designed to further legitimate labor objectives. They are being used to “protect the labor movement from enemies within its ranks whom it has no power to control, who bring it into disrepute and thus give ammunition to labor-baiters.” Labor and business are badly served by those who are trying to stop Mr. Arnold. The rank and file of business and labor should urge Congress to give the Anti-Trust Division an adequate appropriation to continue its work. So should every citizen who wants the building industry to go ahead, free from selfish restraints and artificially boosted costs, toward more homes and more jobs for the American people. |

THE UNDAMMABLE FLOOD ENATOR STYLES BRIDGES purposes to “streamline” the next Republican National onvention by (1) limiting the time of each nominating speech, (2) limiting the time and number of seconding speeches, (3) inviting each. candidate for President and Vice President to make a speech. The Senator from New Hampshire, earliest and most persistent of all the G. O. P. candidates, may be accused of wanting to make certain that he’ll get a place in the spotlight and before the mike. But his first two proposals— if they will work—are dandies. | Nothing in our democratic processes is more nerve-wracking and meaningless than the merciless hours and days and nights of nominating speeches,

seconding speeches and demonstrations in the big party |

conventions.

Will the Bridges plan work? Well, here’s what no Jess\

an authority than James Aloysius Farley has written of his 1932 experiences at.Chicago: “The next step was to shut off the flood of oratory if we could. There were a number of Roosevelt nominating speeches still scheduled to take place, and we felt that they would do the cause more harm than good because by that time it was after mi#hight and the delegates were getting restless . . . so we sent messengers around suggesting that it was tine to get down to business. I learned something on that occasion that perhaps we should have known before: A thoroughgoing Democrat will give you his support, his loyalty, his vote and his money—but never his radio time. When a Democratic orator has his throat cleared and ready, holds his manuscript in his hand, and knows the folks back home are there on the radio, it’s too much to expect him to give way. Our appeal was in vain.” Senator Bridges may find that Republicans in convention assembled are different. We doubt it.

BUREAUCRATIC MADE WORK HE Wage Hour Division gets 1000 complaints a week, and its inspectors are some 15,000 cases behind in their work. So the number of inspectors is to be increased from 290 to 700. We don’t know the nature of these complaints, but we can’t help wondering how many of them come about by reason of the Wage Hour Division's own foolish regulations. The act was passed to abolish sweatshop conditions in interstate industries. It endeavored to build a floor below which wages could not sink (the minimum is now 30 cents an hour), and a ceiling above which hours should not rise (the * maximum is now 42 hours a week). It has béen estimated that those figures have improved—or would improve, if enforced—the living standards of several million workers. _ One would think that the Wage Hour Division would want to devote all its energies to enforcing those standards. But, no, the/Wage Hour Division, through its regulations, spreads out its jurisdiction and spreads thin its enforcement. It requires employers to keep detailed records of the hours worked by employees who are paid twice, thrice, five times, 10 times, 20 times, yes, 50 times $12.60 a week. Imagine a bureaucracy concerning itself with the alleged exploitation of someone whose salary is $25,060 a year. But that is exactly what the Wage-Hour regulations do. _All this needless record-keeping of the hours and rates

of pay of employees who are not affected by the Wage- |

Hour Act, and who were not intended to be affected, constitutes just so much useless harassment of employers and employees. The Wage Hour Division would not be so far behind in its work and might not need to hire so many new inspectors if it merely concerned itself with the welfare of those employees who actually are overworked and miserably paid— and incidentally might be able to see to it that these latter employees actually receive the benefits which the law intended.

BLACKBALL FOR CHRIS Ww: should hate to break the hearts of the “Christian Front” or Father Coughlin or William Dudley Pelley or any of their pure-Aryan ilk, but we feel compelled to report that— Macmillan has just published a new biography of Christopher Columbus by Salvador de Madariaga, the Spanish scholar, in which he comes to the conclusion that Chris was the son of a family of Catalan Jews. Tt looks as if the apostles of 100-per-cent Gentile Amercanism yi have to blackball thei No. 1 American.

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Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler

The Rev. Mose Was literate, but Happier Than Most People Because He Was So Sure of the Hereafter.

EW YORK, Jan. 29.—An old Negro man died recently in a little Negro village in South Carolina where I once visited his church and heard him preach. Mose Jenkins was about 90. He never had learned to read, and, anyway, in his later years he was almost blind. Nevertheless, he would open his Bible at random, blink his filmy eyes at the print and preach. He preached with serene faith that when he should

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”

{ die, almost any day now, he would rest in the arms

of the blessed Lord Jesus Christ. He was almost literally a serf, because the little village in which he and his flock lived, the land on which they worked and the rickety little church house, all were in thé vast, property of an individual owner who ‘looked after their health, saw that they were fed and paid them a dollar a day whenever they caréd to work. The owner sometimes took his friends to church services, at which they would sit quietly in a couple

down a special blessing on‘the boss and his “guesses.” The other Negroes would loudly pray, “Yes, blessed Lord,” or assent with longdrawn and fervent “Jee-susl” ” » 2

4 Gi white people would keep a respectful face dur-

the services their comment among themselves was condescending. Not smirking, necessarily, but merry and superior, for, after all, Old Mose was an illiterate who pretended to read when he didn’t known how, and anyway, didn’t have the eyes for it, and, moreover, he sometimes got things mixed up, as when he would put a finger on a page and invented reference to machine guns. We were, indeed, superior creatures, but the old reverend and the members of the congregation who were younger, but apparently just as sure of their belief, seemed no less happy than the whites, The whites were people who spent their hours at work and worry and were never done with care and fear. Their religious beliefs were various, and, although it is impossible to look into any man’s soul and see whether he is troubled it was a certain as anything can be that the old reverend was not. He was not in want of material necessities, but, of course, had none of the luxuries which to the white people were necessities. Taxes were no part of his problem, nor had he even pest of a war in Europe. 8 ” A= although the Revorerd Mose did pretend to read when it was well known that he couldn’t, .and preached on that reading, that wasn’t much different from the efforts of the superior whites to read events and to preach meanings into them. They would argue world economics without knowing for sure whether gold was money or what money was now. Huey Long and others have said that the Southern Negro in his cabin is happy in his ignorance and lack of responsibility. It is odd, therefore, that Huey and other Southerh people have worked so hard and spent so much to provide education. for the whites, but I do not oppose their contention. It is always apparent that the more studious people are and the more alert to affairs in the world about them the less happy they are. The Reverend Mose was the happiest individual in the domain to which he belonged, and the greatest scholar on earth could not have a more comfortable confidence in the hereafter.

Inside Indianapolis

Concerning Politics, Indiana Style, And a Little Matter of Names.

HE political pot around Indiana is beginning to i steam. More and more people are beginning to alk about the. election. There is more Republican ‘activity than there has been in a long time. Levelheaded G. O. Partisans insist that tney have an excellent chance to take Indiana. Funny part is that some Democrats: dolefully admit it. The more enthusiastic New Dealers, of course, just sneer. But you can’t laugh off the figures of the last Senatorial election in which Mr. Raymond Willis very nearly unseated Mr. Frederick VanNuys. Truth is that there is a great deal of anti-State Administration feeling all-over Indiana and a certain amount of anti-City Administration sentiment around here. If the Republican bosses can crystallize this feeling skillfully they have something. There is one disturbing element on the whole political picture hereabouts, though. That is the constantly recurring mention of the Ku-Klux Klan as a political power. We don't know any more than just that. All we know is that we've heard at least half a dozen important people speak about it in a worried tone, : . ” ” 2 FATHER SULLIVAN, the Holy Rosary pastor, has been receiving numerous letters in connection with his challenge to the authorities on WOW games. . .. One was signed Leroy Keach and Michael Morrissey: +'s « The Father smiled and opined it was a phony. .. In the current issue of the Indiana Parent-Teacher is a guest editorial which says that Indiana is substandard in the matter of free textbooks. . . . The editorial says that_23 states provide free textbooks, that New England states have been doing it for 50 years... What's more, says the piece, the chief state officer ought to be removed from political election so that you can get closer to a merit basis. . . . The author is none other than Mr. Floyd I. McMurray, State Superintendent of Public Education. . .-. We tip our hat to you, Mr. M. ” ” # THEY SEEMED SORT of pleased with themselves on the Ellery Queen hour last night. . . . All because they had five “guest detectives” by the names of George and Martha Washington, Robert E. Lee, Benjamin ahklin and Napoleon Bonaparte. . . . Well, just a casual look, at the Indianapolis phone hook shows that we mot only have a Robert E. Lee (1430 E. Vermont), but six ex-Presidents, too .. . in addition to the obvious William Henry Harrison, there are John Q. Adams (952 Pleasant Run Pky.), Woodrow Wilson (Clermont), Andrew Jackson (910 E. 17th), James Buchanan (1221 College), and Chester A. Arthur (1344 S. Tremont). . . . Mr. Queen might be interested to know we also have a Paul V. McNutt (3025 N. Meridian). . . . Mr. McNutt is not an exPresident. . . . But he'd like to be.

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

PEAKING of traitors, how about the non-voting citizen? Is he not as dangerous to the American way as the enemy alien who works actively to prevent democracy from functioning? -It seems so to me. And when men and women of superior or average intelligence rail at conditions, one wonders how well they have exercised tfeir personal right of franchise. A good many haven't. They may go on a righteous rampage during or preceding Presidential or Senatorial eampaigns, but any less noteworthy voting event leaves them inert. Although they admit that the state of their business is affected by the government oi their state, their attitude toward legislative matters may be compared to mental coma. Thugs can overrun their vicinity; criminals can tear down everything their forefathers built, yet in the main they retain their serenity. The public welfare can actually be jeopardized by a floodtide of harebrained schemes any one of which would wreck the national economy, and still our smug titizen refuses to be moved from his charmingly negligent pose or from a feverish pursuit of his private business. It and when our democracy falls, only one thing will be responsible—the naivete of ‘‘good citizens” who

removed from the people.

political indifference presents itself. May we not one day be compelled to make voting compulsory, by fining the fellow who stays away from the polls? Certainly every election is a sort of hational emergency.

to exercise the same power over other citizens by

the ballot Jo whether a county commissioner or 8 President is te be chosen,

of pews at the rear, and the old preacher would call |

ing the preaching, singing and praying, but after |

act as if “government” was something apart and far |.

In our pessimistic moments only one remedy for |

And any government which has power to |: conscript boys to fight in defense of the nation ought |.

conscripting them to the national defense by way of |

ABROGATED TRADE TREATY

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The Hoosier Forum

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

DOUBTS REPORTS OF FINNISH TRIUMPHS

By Former A. E. F. officer ' . Tokio’s War Office press agent, having killed off all the Chinese, has evidently been transferred to Helsinki. With all the Chinese dead and the Russians all annihilated the continent of Asia must be a very desolate place. Is the name Baron Mannerheim— or Baron Munchausen? Or is Jack Pearl now an American war correspondent in Finland? u ” ”

SUSPECTS IL U. FORUM HOSTILE TO UNIONS

By A Washingtonian After circulating among many (of the few) who attended the initial “forum” held in Washington, Ind. by Indiana University, one is forced to the conclusion that the “forum” is a complete failure if anything other than the scattering of a pretty strong dose of socialism and a mistaken idea of the mission of trades unions is to be given .consideration. The “professors” who participated in the discussion of “What Can Organizied Labor Gain From War” evidenced a complete ignorance of the real purpose of trades unions. The statements made concerning collective bargaining were pitiful as they fell upon the ears of men employed in the transportation as well as the repair departments of the B. & O. Southwestern Railroad, who have /been familiar with the actual workings and results of trades

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many years. It is a pretty well ac-

“forum” is to spread a poison against trade unions. During the evening statements were made in referring to the World War that would make ideal thunder to be put out by political party publicity departments, notwithstanding the announced purposes of the “forum” is to steer clear of Political chatter, It was also previously announced that the audience would be given an opportunity to ask questions and the speakers would make answer. Several questions were asked, but lateness of the hour, and like flimsy Eos, popped: up to prevent the forum” representatives from giving any information of worth. Scattered through the remarks of

unions and collective bargaining for|

cepted thought by these men that|« the idea of the promoters of the|:

~ (Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns, religious controversies excluded. Make your letter short, so ail can have a chance. Letters must be signed, but names will be withheld on request.)

the evening were many along the line uttered by Eugene V. Debs mn this community several years ago. The practical trades union members

{who listened to the remarks of the

speakers are today thrilled with a suspicious idea of the “forum” as it is known in Washington that some of those promoting the. “forum” are infested with the idea that labor unions are a hazard to civilization, and it will be well for the citizens of Indiana to look carefully into the output of the “forum” before giving it a clean’bill of heaith.

® nn = SEES INCONSISTENCY IN HOOVER'S ATTITUDE By J. A. K. Perhaps some of the objections to Herbert Hoover's Finnish relief activities are due to a failure to understand Mr. Hoover. I think it would be a good idea for him to

make public the amount of his own personal contribution to the fund. Mr. Hoover seems to be touched deeply by the plight of people in foreign countries and however justifiable this sympathy may -be, the fact remains that when a group of his own “fellow countrymen” as he so liked to term them in his campaign speeches, asked aid when he was President, he sent an armed force against them. He signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Bill, gave tariff barriers as one of the major causes of world-wide depression in campaign speeches and again contradicted himself by condemning proposals by the Democrats to lower tariffs. In fact, he said that if they were carried out, millions would work at Chinese coolie wages and grass would grow in every street. o » ”

PUTS NEEDS OF U. S. POOR AHEAD OF FINNS By W. H. Edwards, Spencer, Ind. . +» » » Shame on any one who calls himself an American citizen who yet puts the welfare of Finns or any other alien people above the welfare

is no fault of theirs but is the faulty operation of our modern industrial efficiency which has not yet learned how to spread its benefits into the economic deserts of which Indiana, like other states, has many.

New Books

UGG ER-MUGGER at the . Louvre” (Random House) is like a hilarious ride on a rollercoaster. It takes you up, down,

around breath-taking ‘curves and then lets you off, chuckling. ; The author is Elliott Paul, known for his “Mysterious Mickey Finn.” The scene is Paris. Technically, the book’s a murder mystery. One might call it a who-dun-it to end who-dun-its. Consider the cast of characters (incomplete) : An American bottle and jar maygnate; two Egyptian pharoahs from way back; a Montana gun-girl who could shoot the tassel off a beret at 100 yards; an Armenian named Xerxes, who went in for amateur embalming; a. six-foot-two Norwegian artist ‘who brooded because the

Side Glances—By Galbraith

{| which enough, in the suburb. of Luneville. As the cover flap points out, there |

whiskers he painted resembled putty; a Harlem ex-chorus girl; a Russian named Kvek, whose weakness was_ buying taxicabs and making Paris pedestrians scurry for airraid shelters; a nefarious psychiatrist; an Apache named Godo the Whack, and finally the hero—that master sleuth, Homer Evans. From the time the 300,000-franc painting “The Pansy” disappears from the Hall of Pills in the Louvre to the discovery of the French Minister of Arts in the Hall of Mummies masquerading as Tout-or-Nadi (Pyramid Class of 3345 B. C.), the story lopes along at a mere 100-mile-an-hour pace. Then the author really turns on the speed. The characters in general, who have been working more or less in a bunch, suddenly deploy to. all sections of Paris and its environs, with our aforesaid bottle and jar scion specifically winding up in a padded cell without his false teeth. Por consistency’s sake, the story climaxes in fhe insane asylum is located, appropriately

is no use describing the plot in too much detail because you wouldn’t believe it anyway. (W.R.C)

‘THE FOLKS WE MEET By MARY R. WHITE

I'm sure there are many, many folks That are very, very. nice. We meet, them here, we met them there And not the same folks twice. Though all of them are strangers We find a lot. to say There’s so many things to chat : bout

abou With folks that go.your way. When our destination we have reached Each turns to say goodby That friendly interchange of cihoughi Has proved our kindred t. The folks we meet are friendly folks, If you only go half way;

‘For they're the happiest folks on

earth These folks of our own U. S. A,

DAILY THOUGHT

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. —St. John 15:13.

OUR VIRTUES a are dearer to us

| the more we have had to suffer for

them. It is the same ‘without chiladmits | t

of our own unfortunates, whose want]

Gen. Johnson

io

Lewis Spoke Generally on. Failures. Of New Deal and Could Not Mean *

Nhat 1 Has Not Helped Labor,

HICAGO, Ill; Jan. 20.—John Lewis would never contend that this Administration has done little As I understand him

or nothing for organized labor, * from his Columbus speech and other talks-I have had with him, he is thinking of all’ labor—organized and unorganized.

He feels that the continued stagnation ‘of eco.

nomic activity and the great pool of unemployment, which has been very little lessened, are evils which

the Administration started out to improve. He says it has not succeeded in doing this or fundamentally helping the situation in taxation, debt, Federal finance, agriculture and export trade to betterment of which the unemployed must look for jobs. If that is a correct interpretation of John’s mighty blast, it’s hard to see any error in it. As the President is fond of saying: “Res ipsa loquiturp”’—the facts speak for themselves. But this’ Administration cannot fairly be charged with not having done its utmost for labor. The hear$ of NRA was Section 7A. It was brand new. It pro- ,

vided that every code or industrial agreement must

contain an engagement by the employer to bargain collectively with his workers through representatives of their own choosing. This was accepted almost at

once by at least 97 per cent of employers: subject to

that law. ; HAT single act gave the organization of labor the greatest boost it ever got in this country. It is true that NRA was declared unconstitutional and that some employers who signed that compact later tried to evade it by company unions and other forms of chiseling. Yet it laid the foundation for every gain labor has since made.

In addition to creating the first labor standards, now contained in the Wages and Hours Act, it set up the first Labor Rélations Board. The Bituminous Coal Commission is the offspring of the NRA bituminous coal code and the now generally conceded cole . lective bargaining rights of labor were, in NRA, frst fought for by any Federal Administration. The effect of these policies, for which the New Deal is certainly entitled to eredit, has been the greatest advance organized labor has known. Counting not only C. I. O. and A. F. of L., but also many genuine independent units, membership in labor organizations has at least trebled. ” ” 2 5 T is true that many of these fledglings of the Blue Eagle have turned out tc be sick chickens. Never

theless, the purpose and the effort of the Administra~ tion on behalf of labor have been sincere and cease< less. These faults and shortcomings can be cured. Most important of all, from the labor point of view, these new truly liberal principles are so firmly established and so widely accepted in this country that never again can they be made a political issue. Any party that attempted to turn back the hands of the clock in this regard would be licked before it started. This great advance wasn’t easy to make. It was a battle—“all of wihch I saw; part of which T was.” T would be greatly disappointed if I thought Mr. Lewis meant to minimize all this. I know him too well even to suspect that he meant any such ang,

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Nye for Borah

By Bruce Catton

North Dakotan May Be Named to Important Foreign Affairs Post.

x ASHINGTON, Jan. 29.—Senator Gerald Nye of .

“North Dakota probably will get the Foreign Relations Committee post made vacant by the death of Senator William Borah. - In recent years Nye has been one of the leaders of the isolationist group in the Senate. He happens to

be chairman of the Republican Committee on Com-=-.

mittees, which is to fill the vacancy. Formal action won't be taken until after Senator Borah’s successor, John Thomas, is sworn in. One thing few people knew about Senator Borah was that he was a one-man community chest. All sorts of strangers used to ask him for aid; he would have them looked up, and if they weren't just profese sional panhandlers, he would make more or less regue lar contributions to them. In a number of cases he paid for expensive mede ical services for people who had no claim on him except the one claim he couldn't resist—that they needed help. A despairing member of his office staff once re-

marked that he gave away so much money she -

actually didn't know how he lived. ” 8 ®

Passport. Storm Brewing. ; A mean under-surface storm that may presently

come out in the open has to do with the conduct of the U. S. consulate at Zurich, Switzerland, ‘where

Americans returning from Europe charge anti.

Catholic and ‘anti-Jewish sentiment keeps many ref= ugees fleeing religious persecution from getting visas on their passports to the United Sta One case cited is that of a German ’ Catholic refe’ ugee whose papers are in order and whose applica tion is signed by U. 8S. citizens worth, collectively, more than two million dollars. (People of standing must sign a refugee’s SpDliesiion to guarantee that he won’t become a public charge in this souniey): This man’s case has waited for weeks; meanwhile, in order to keep from starving he has to spend for food

the money he had saved to buy his passage

-Angry protests at this and other delays have been made to the State Department, but so far nothing has been done. One thing that keeps the storm under the surface is the fear on the part of those who are protesting that if a row is kicked up in the Senate or the House it may lend impetus to the smoldering move to keep ouk all refugees. -

Watching Your Health

by Jane Stafford

ALORIES are a measure of heat or energy, but to most people they probably stand for how much food to eat of not to eat, according to whether ons is trying to gain or lose weight. The number of calories in & given portion of food indicates the .

amount of energy stores in that food. The ‘energy .

required by the body can also be measured in ‘terms of calories, and the question of how much to eat to . obtain the needed energy can thus be easily calculated. Some allowance, of course, must be made for waste in preparation and cooking of the food and in- its | digestion. The Technical Committee on Nutrition of the League of Nations recently adopted a scale of calorie

requirements that nutritionists and other scientists all

over the world can use as a standard. This*scale gives. 100 calories an hour, or 2400 calories a day, as maintenance requirement of the average grown or woman “living an ordinary everyday life i temperate climate.” This is a basic requirement to which must be added more calories according to one’s | activities. On the League of Nations scale these are

.given as follows: for light work, up to 75 calories an

hour; for moderate work, 75 to 150 calories an hour; for hard work, 150 to. 300 calories an hour; for very hard work, more than 300 calories an hour. An idea of how much energy, or how many calories are required by various kinds of activities appears in some examples given by Department of Agriculture nutritionists in the Department’s book, Food and Life, Starting with a basal requirement for an adult of one calorie per hour for every 2.2 pounds of body. weight, these authorities ‘give the following additional requirements per hour for each 2.2 pounds of body weight: sitting ‘quietly, 0.4 calorie; standing relaxed, 0.5 calorie; walking, 2 calories; running, 7 calories;

| going upstairs, 147 calories; dishwashing, 1 calorie;

sweeping, 14 calories; sawing wood, 5.7 calories; swims om calories. srowing children need more calories per | -hour adulis.. Nursing mothers need more calories.

the man moa

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