Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 6 February 1940 — Page 14

race iain The Indianapolis Times

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

RALPH BURKHOLDER MARK FERREE ! Business Manager

v ROY W. HOWARD President |

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Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1940

F. D. R. IS BORED R. ROOSEVELT says he is tired of the continued speculation about whether he will run for a third term. Well, if constant reiteration of the question makes him weary, what does he think the suspense is doing to the nerves of Jack Garner, Burt Wheeler, Paul McNutt et al.? There appears no relief for the President's boredom.

Indeed the speculation is likely to gain in momentum, volume

and stridency. The Democratic National Committee has met and voted a blanket approvsl of Administration policies: and has picked Chicago—reputedly the President's choice— as the party’s convention city, with Chicago making only promise of money and laying not a penny of cash on the line. So immediately a new question arises to fan public - curiosity: Did the President prefer Chicago because that was the city where he broke his first precedent by flying to the ’32 convention to accept his first nomination, and does he choose the same setting to break another tradition? » As long as only one man knows the answer—if indeed he does yet know—others will persist in wondering.

THE COMMUNITY FUND [XPIANAPOLIS is a fortunate city. It has many highcaliber individuals willing and eager to contribute to the community good. Such a man is William C. Griffith, new president of the Community Fund. Mr. Griffith is a modest and unassuming man who has little to say about himself but much about the Fund and its work. He is proud of its record and confident of its opportunities for even greater service in the future. He speaks of it as “the good neighbor.” Not the least among the reasons for the Community Fund's continued success in Indianapolis is its leadership. We congratulate the Fund upon its latest choice for its president.

COUGHLIN BREAKS A DATE GREAT mystery is being made of Father Coughlin’s _ failure to make his usual Sunday radio talk. Maybe he suddenly remembered a promise he made several years ago: “l am withdrawing from all radio activity in the best interests of all the people... . It is better, both for you and for me, for the country I serve and the church I love, for me to be forgotten for the moment.”

JAPAN PICKS ON THE PRESS

APAN announces that James R. Young, a correspondent of International News Service who was arrested in Tokyo some days ago, is to be tried on a charge of disseminating slanderous articles and rumors about the Japanese forces. Conviction would carry a maximum penalty of three years in prison. Mr. Young, after a tour of China, was so bold as to write that “Japan’s vital war strength is waning,” that “in the mountain regions the Japanese are on the defensive,” ete. So he was jugged, and now he is to be tried—for attempting to give Americans the truth as he saw it. Even Germany is permitting American correspondents to send out dispatches critical of Nazi methods, particularly in Poland. Japan apparently either does not know, or does not care, about the importance this country attaches to un- _ regimented reporting. ; Or perhaps Japan is just using Mr: Young as a whipping boy. to “get even” for our scrapping of the trade treaty. His experience is probably a good specimen of what will happen to many Americans in the Orient if this country is driven to the point of embargoing war exports to Japan.

STILL BARRYMORE

HOSE fortunate ones who saw John Barrymore's magnificent “Hamlet,” nearly 20 years ago, and who have lamented his recent preoccupation with amber-hued tomfoolery, will be pleased to hear from an expert source that Barrymore is Barrymore yet. “He is still the most gifted actor in this country,” wrote “the scholarly Brooks Atkinson of the. New York Times after the recent Broadway opening of “My Dear Children.” He may burn his candles at both ends, his publicprivate life may affront the righteous—but, says Mr. Atkinson: : “The fact remains that he has all the gifts an actor needs, and can use them with extraordinary versatility. His voice has wonderful resonance and color when he especially wants to use it. He has an excellent figure. He uses his hands like a master of the craft. His eyes are burning. Best of all, he has the personal magnetism that electrifies a play and an audience at the same time and takes instant command of a whole theater. . . . He is nobody’s fool in ‘My Dear Children,” but a superbly gifted actor on a tired holiday.” Mr. Atkinson will probably be accused of encouraging . the young to dissipation, by this tribute. As for us, we are . glad that glittering talent has survived Hollywood and : hootch,

EDUCATING CONGRESS PLAINTIVE little statement has been issued by Congressman George W. Gillie of Indiana, author of a bill to outlaw naughty magazines. - Mr. Gillie, at great expense, made a collection of what . he describes as “lewd” and “obscene” publications and in-

| vited members of House and Senate to examine it and be

. convinced that his bill should pass. The examination, it seems, has been thorough. The Gillie bill has not become law, but the Gillie library of pornography has attained such popularity among the law-makers that, its owner laments,

t is “rapidly disintegrating.” ¢ :

| with their revue.

‘light men can get their cues.

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler

Are Americans Over-Educated? 40 Years Ago People May Have Been Dumber, but They Were Happier. EW YORK, Feb. 6.—Someone should come out with a fearless declaration that there is alto=

gether too much education in the United States, but I will not be the patsy, because the one who does will

be assaulted by a dozen universities, normal schools|-

and A. and M.’s, a brick at a time,

And I am still mending my hide where I recently’

caught the mash notes of the Rev. Charles E. Coughlin’s lobby. However, to anyone who is reckless enough to state this proposition ‘I offer some suggestions, the

‘| first being that although the American people are,

at a rough estimate, 10 times as educated today as they were in 1900, they are also 10 times as miserable, or, anyway, think they are. College education, like oranges, evening clothes and vacations with pay, was a rarity then, and the young man or woman who went away to school was given a notice in the home-town papers and shunned thereafter by his old playmates as, one who was somehow queer. » 8 ” t DUCATION began to sweep the land in the first decade of this century, and as learning has risen higher and higher the happiness of the people has declined, which may mean that ignorance really is bliss, after all. At the same time, the divorce rate has risen amazingly, indicating that this convenience, which was expected to make for harmony, has not paid out in results. ‘Entertainment and travel, too, are commonplace now by contrast with an easily remembered day when a magic lantern show was a gala event in the hard but generally sufficient life of the American small town. If people were miserable then they were too dumb to know it, and certainly they had every right to. feel miserable on ‘their low wages for long hours and with no prospect of pension or job security. And if the same conditions prevailed today the same pay, hours and conditions for the regularly employed and the lack of comforts and luxuries, the enlightened, educated race of Americans would either collapse from self-pity or commit revolution against themselves. It is a good thing they got the hard work done before

they got educated. Otherwise, it never would have

been done. td ” »

RESENT plans for the care, feeding and education of youth have raised the age limit of youth to 25 years. Of course it is true that a scholar never ceases to be a student, but there is no process of

selection, and none seems to be possible under the. American system if this assistance is to be a public]

service. The numbskull has the same right as the genius to keep himself aloof from the practical job

‘of life, and in a rough: way, this means that 25 is

to be the economic age of consent. If that be the case, and if men and women are middle-aged and barely employable at 40, and all through at 50, it seems scarcely worth the bother to fetch up any more Americans. There aren’t enough man-hours in a man in 15 years of work at the 40-hour or 30-hour week, and 10 years more at reduced speed, to lay up enough credit to carry his children on the public rolls to the age of 25 and to provide for the retirement of himself and wife. Americans are, per capita, in both costs and examination marks, the most educated people on earth, put they were never so complaining and discontented in the history of the country. My. explanation is that we are suffering from a very bad case of the smarts.

Inside Indianapolis

No Decorations at the Coliseum; Sonja Skates on Plain White Ice.

JHE ice at the Coliseum will not be decorated tonight when Sonja Henie and her troupe go on If you saw the last ice show here, you'll remember that one of the most striking things about it was the tricky decorations on the ice. Sonja skates on a plain white surface. As a matter of fact, it will be painted white, too. The reason is that she skates with such speed that designs might throw her off and land her into the boards. It’s not a simple job putting on a revue. This morning, for example, 24 local musicians turned up to rehearse with the four musicians who travel with the show. They'll probably work a couple of hours getting the music down pat. Then this afternoon the troupe will skate out onto the ice for a few quick turns so that the spotAnd when the show goes on tonight, you cari bet your last dollar that ‘everybody in the cast (including the' Henie lady) will be holding their breaths. ” » ” FRANK FINNEY, the State Auto Commissioner, thinks that Indiana doesn’t have a full appreciation of the State's position on reciprocity agreements. . . . “For five years, Indiana has beeh ready and willing to sign agreements,” he says. . . . -And he claims that when we get into these wars, we're acting in self-defense. . . . The 108 E. Washington Bldg. is getting its faced washed. . . . And, too, they're remodeling the ground floor in preparations for the new quarters of the Morris Plan Co, . . . A couple of doors east, the Vonnegut Hardware Co. is getting its big outdoor electric sign prettied up. Signs of spring, we guess. ® 8 2 : THERE'S A STORY in the paper today about a Tech spelling bee and all the words that are usually spelled wrong. . The City Desk checked and double-checked the list of words to avoid errors. . . . But then in the lead they misspelled the word “misspell.”. . . They made it “mispell.”. . . Just get the temperature past freezing and you have golf on your hands. . . , The hoys were out Sunday, driving the little white balls all over Soutn Grove. . . . Hardiest pair of the week-end were the two gentlemen skating on White River just next to the Naval Armory. . , . And 50 feet away was open water. :

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson °

AYN other startling facts disclosed at the recent White House Conference on Chiidren in a Democracy, this one is most frightening: Only 11; per cent of our urban child population is found in families with incomes of $5000 a year and over. The majority of American babies are reported in families on relief or who earn $1500 a year or less. This picture leaves us dismayed, for it shows the richest country on earth letting its children exist in conditions ot SXme poverty; and extreme poverty, as has already been proved, is apt t adulthood of crime. . Bb io Tend v0 an Savages have sense enough to know that the tribe’s future depends on its young—but evidently civilized and Christian countries do not agree. For in several 2 Hsien of slow starvation for tHe young is mainmed. Worse still, our national economy is so badl - anced that hordes of honest, Well-etltica on had: dwellers can't afford children. With husband and

wife working to support themselves in a three-room |. apartment, they dare not introduce another mouth. |

Babies cost so much for middle-class arents! - pital, doctor and formula bills, to say Ps oo the Jayebyuiey ups In cities where jobs are none , one chi rare, Snes in such a household may mean third disaster. Even heart against the accumulated fears of wage and a growing family.

a small static We have already spent millions on education—and

for what? We manufacture automobiles in ever-

in billion-package lots. Our women put out astounding yearly on ge cos-

and the dog is a welcome and pampered guest

flowing streams, and cigarets

metics,

in homes of wealth—but the children wha Read the figures and weep. : 6.91 them? Yet in the face of this,

than the stro man in his wrath,

a second can spell debt, and a the most cheerful provider loses

A Congress is urged to cut relief appropriations S0 we can spend more for armaments. Elizabeth Barrett Browning said it all when she wrote, “The child’s sob in the silence curses deeper |

AT INDIANAPOLIS TIWES. | | While Rome Burns!

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

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FAVORS ANOTHER TERM

FOR ROOSEVELT

By Edward Alien

I'm another booster for President Roosevelt and a third term.” My views, like those of the majority of American people, are for trying to make America a better place to live. I read in the daily papers where T. Ernest Maholm has declared his intention to be a candidate for Governor of Indiana, running as an independent Republican, and that if elected he would legalize gambling. My view on that is that you might just as well give all thieves a license to steal. . . . * Prize fighting should be prohibited in America. I{ is nothing more than a lot of inhuman brutality and lots of gambling and no science in it. » ”! » SAYS FINNS WOULD BE GLAD TO HELP US By Voice in the Crowd “Let's be Consistent.” For a good many reasons no one should be jealous of the help given the Finns by Herbert Hoover. In the first place, the Finns observe their obligations to us and we have an obligation to the Finns. We will do well to respect it. If the tables were turned you could depend on more help from Finland than they will probably get from us. They are a clean, honest, courageous people. Again, the money collected is by voluntary subscription. It is given by those people who respond wholeheartedly to the Red Cross, Community Chests and private charities, to say nothing of their contribution to taxes. Their charity has started at home, and if a little reaches Finland it is within their rights. Then again, Herbert Hoover has proven to be one of the greatest organizers of relief that the world knows today. We don’t seem to be able to make use of the experience and ability of our ex-Presidents, so if Herbert Hoover has the confidence of the Finns he certainly should have. the confidence of those who believe that the Finns deserve support. History wil! no doubt record an “A” for Herbert Hoover and win or lose. it will spread glory on the Finns. Americans don’t need all charity. They mostly need work. Class hatred, organized pressure groups and stubborn politics stand off the day when work will be plentiful.

® 2 a SAYS TIMES CALL FOR NEW MELTING POT By Melting Pot, Monrovia, Ind,

Americans used to boast that the United States was a giant melting pot in which the early settlers, com-. posed of many races and creeds,

(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.)

were combined in a new and mighty race. The New World offered equal opportunity and equal privilege, malice toward none, and liberty and justice to all. It was not a question of money and what it would buy, for all were reduced to the same necessity—to build from the ground up, to hew a home out of the wilderness. - Modern industry has produced specialists who havé interlocking but diverse interests. It is no longer considered a problem for each individual to solve by building his own home and business, but rather a question of seizing the lion's share of all that is produced. The arguments in regard to what is “fair” for each group are endless and unanswerable. Politicians agree with everybody and let Uncle Sam pay the difference... Who. pays Uncle Sam? Obviously not the unem-

ployed, but the very ones who in-

sist on doing all the work.

The time has arrived when we

must cease to rob and begin to cooperate. Let us dump our conflicting interests into a new melting not.

We may not always secure constructive results by this method. Sometimes the mixture may be explosive and result in a ‘‘crackpot.” Still other pots may remain empty and do nothing but rattle. But I think any condition preferable to the present one wherein every vot insists on calling the other black.

2 x = PROBE OF CAPITALISM SUGGESTED TO DIES

By H. L. 8. Since the Dies Committee has a new lease on life, let it investigate the causes of failure of capitalism, There is an ism that is worth investigating, Capitalism can only survive if capital or savings go out In a steady stream to create more facilities for production. Capitalism is a comparatively new system of society: it is less than 200 years old. It supplanted feudalism because feudalism was a static system of society. Capitalism expanded until recently. Now it has become static. Stagnation of investment spells the doom of capitalism. It kills it. Private investment is inadequate to keep it alive. Government is no solution for capitalism. We need a Government Capital {ssues bank to flood the market with capital investment. Cheap capital money is the only solution for the disintegration of capitalism. Let our banks lend on existing assets only. Let Government be the in-

vestment banker.

New Books at the Library

ONORING the richness of its heritage, the Isle of Wight has sometimes been called the English Parnassus, for there overlooking the sparkling sea have walked Keats and Macaulay. There Turgeniev planned and began “Fathers and Sons.” Memories of Thackeray and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, whose kinsmen still live there, of Tennyson and Alice Meynell, haunt that enchanted spot, while Swinburne, swimming as he loved to do in a deserted cove, doubtless disturbed a. single black cormorant floating there, where even now “In Orchard’s cove, unwatched, there's a coromant diving All day long.” Alfred Noyes, England's Poet of the Sea, calls a certain 40 acres of this island “Home,” where, he says, “I desire to live; the place where I hope to die.”

Side Glances—By Galbraith

“Orchard’s Bay” (Sheed) pictures this beloved habitation, from which Alfred Noyes draws inspiration to present a book in which a lovely, singing prose flows into verse and back again to prose to make an incomparable setting—the centuriesold stone house, its windows facing south to the sea, the thatched gardener’'s cottage, the great cliffs behind, which bear the brunt of winds, the unquiet ocean, sun-warmed meadows, pools fed ' by perennial springs. . Here the soul of the poet exults, describing the winged dwellers in the mild and sunny air, the loved and ancient shrubs and trees, the sea moods, the ways of earth and sky. From this Helicon his muse soars back to classic days. With his daily modern life, coloring and deepening it, mingles the life of the past. St. Augustine speaks from these pages, Virgil walks before us; we look out from Assisi, like St. Francis, upon dim Italian plains. A book this is to treasure, for it, truly, like the casement windows of the Poet's ancient house which look down the moon path shimmering on the sea, opens wide to life.

IMPORTANT? | By LOLA F. ECHARD | Nobody’s so important that the world ain’t gonna try To get along without ‘em, when it comes their time to die. There ain’t no use a-talkin’, folks— no matter what you do,

{The world ain’t gonna miss you

nothin’ like you ’spect it to.

There’s somethin’ funny ‘bout these wheels that turn the globe around— Sometimes they lose a spoke or two and keep right on, I've found— I've even seen the main-spoke break, and it sure looks sorta queer How another spoke will fit that hole, and the hole will disappear.

But ‘cause the world is gonna move just like it has before, When you Have left the beaten path and won't come back no more— Just ’cause somebody's gonna take your place and forge ahead, That ain’t no sign you've gotta let . em start before you're dead!

DAILY THOUGHT

The Lord shall reward the doer of evil according to his wickedness—II Samuel 3:39. :

THE PUBLIC have more ore interest

the punishment of an injury than who receives it.—Oa/

— TUESDAY, FEB. 6, 1940 Gen. Johnson Says"

| | Allies Treatment of Italy, Poland And Other Small Nations Should

Make Us Pause Over ‘Promises’,

ASHINGTON, Feb. 6. —Finland lis "holding the ' pass leading to the Allied left flank. Yet, thus far, she has no Allied aid. Rumania is under

| pressure from the Allies, Germany, Russia, Bulgaria

and Hungary. She, too, has promises of Allied assistance. But does she believe In them—and if so, why? en The record of the Allies in helping which they have persuaded to stand uniform—uniformly bad. . : It begins with Italy, whom they persuaded into the great war by secrel treaties promising her rich loot. Italy was to get important territory in the Adriatic, the eastern Mediterranean and Asia Minor. First in favor of Greece and then of Turkey, as military operations involving those co ; tries got too hot to handle, England welched on her promises to Italy in the Treaty of London and of St. Jean de Maurienne. The: latter agreement was made when Italy discovered. and resented the fact that France and England had made secret agreements against her interests and behind her back with the fourth ally, Russia. : 8 8 8 | : THEN Greece got hers. England| and France pushed her into Smyrna—which they had prome

ised to Italy. But they left Greece hole ing the sack when Kemel Ataturk drove the Greeks back into Smyrna and wiped them out. Then the Allies high~

tailed out of eastern Thrace, Anatolia and the Dardanelles two jumps ahead of the Turks, in spite of engagements they had with both “Genes and Italy.

gma countries with them is

Germany claims and England denjes that the cause of the present war was England's attempt te encircle her. Maybe England didn’t but there openly boasted policy of her ally France was the system of military alliance with small nations completely ringing Germany with a wall of hostile bayonets. In those treaties, France promise to protect Czechoslovakia and Poland against aggression. Poland was also under the protection of gland when the Nazis raped her. small one. 2» >» | NGLAND was apparently willing to live up to her promises in the League of Nations to protect Abyssinia. But France wasn’t and Eneland ~bhacked down. She wasn't willing to protect Manchukuo in accordance with a treaty with us and others. When we asked her to go in and help us check the Japs there, she was busy tying her shoe and looking the other way. Now she seemes lo think-+and so do some of us—that it is up to us to protect her posi-

tion in China, while she is busy on a more important’

job. : ; Every time I write a piece like this I lam accused of bias in favor of Hitler and against England. I

despise Hitler and like England, but in any inter-

national war situation, I wouldn’t trust our fate to either of them as far as I could toss a bull by the tail. “These are historical facts. My only point in reciting them is to suggest to some among my own guild of columnist kibitzers that they look at the record before they insist that the! Allies are fighting for us, and that we have to rely on the British navy. If Greece, Italy, Abyssinia, Poland, Czechoslovas kia; Manchukuo, Finland and perhaps Rumania couldn't rely on their outright promises, how can we

| rely on no more than their vague good will?

| |

Secret Service

By Bruce Catton

Looked the Other Way on Replicas Of Dimes to Aid Paralysis Fight.

ASHINGTON, Feb, 6.—It was all cone in a good cause, and nobody is sore about it—but if an ordinary citizen did what the birthday ball people did when they were raising money for the infantile paralysis fight, he'd hear from the Secret Service about it in short order. You know those little tin badges that were issued to. people. who contributed to the “mile of dimes” fund? Take a look at one, and you'll see that it is 5 pretty close replica of the “head” side ofa regular me. It is almost exactly the same size and the engraved face is a good likeness of the face on the dime. The principal difference is that it says ‘march of Jimes? instead of “Liberty—In God We Trust Don’t think the Secret Service is ordinarily ine different about such matters. A few years ago, when a world Series between

the Yankees and the Giants impended, a Sports

series” of an

artist drew a cartoon on the “nickel wor theme. He decorated it with a likene Indien head nickel: The head was outsize, and wasn’t too close in its resemblance to a real five-cent piece. But |a couple of days later a Secret Service man dropped ’round at the office, read a little lecture, and confiscated the engraving from which the cartoon had been made, together with the original drawing and such proofs, mats and so forth as were on hand. | Nobody has descended on the mile -of dimes people, however, and nobody is very likely to,

Postmen as Collectors

. For one thing, the raising of money to fight infantile paralysis is about as worthy a cause as you're apt to find. For another, the section of the code which prohibits the making of such replicas has a little clause stating that this prohibition may be relaxed at the discretion of responsible nm officials. 3 One more item on the paralysis fund. | * If a uniformed postman rang your bell and asked you for a contribution don't jump to the ai that the Postoffice Department was lending itself to thé move. Jesse Donaldson, Deputy First Assistant Postmasier General, says that in all cities where that happened, individual postmen had volunteered in their time off, es Laws against permitting a postman to thing but handle mail when strictly enforced, says Donaldson. Postmen are allowed to co-operate in things like Community Fund drives, provided they do} so at

lo anyhe’s on duty are

‘their own expense and on their own time. |

|

Watch Your Health: By Jane Stafford |

1= fight to protect children from lead poisoning must be extended, it appears from a recent report to the American Medical Association. This | report tells the nearly tragic story of a 22-month-old child of Norristown, Pa., who had an acute attack of lead

_poisoning after drinking orange juice from a set of toy dishes. The dishes were supposedly made of alum-

inum, but apparently contained some lead, which was Siiracted from the dishes by the acids of the orange uice. : is 2) Lead poisoning has long been known to physicians as a seriors hazard in the life of small child¢en. Infants and slightly older children may get fatal doses of lead into their systems by chewing the paint from woodwork, furniture or toys. Toy soldiers made of lead are a source of danger, and now, apparently, parents must be on guard against toy dishes that may be made of lead. Other sources of danger are dusting or bath powders and insect sprays con ining lead. Not all of these do contain lead, of course, but parents should remember that they may, and that they should therefore be kept away from infants and children. - Lead poisoning is occasionally caused by lead. in drinking water that has been i for some distance in lead pipes. Common symptoms of lead poisoning are convul-

sions and nausea. These may have been preceded by

a period during which the child was nervous, fretful and naughty. In the case of the Norristown |baby, the attack started with sudden vomiting about four hours af! 8) the in ch ange :

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