Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 22 February 1940 — Page 12

The Indianapolis Times ze (A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

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

2

Owned and published _daily (except Sunday) by The Indianapolis Publishing Co., 214 W. Maryland St.

Member ot United Press, Scripps - Howard Newspaper Alliance, NEA Service, and Audit Bureau of Circulations.

"ty, 3 cents a copy: delivered by carrier, 12 cen . a week. .

Mail subscription rates in Indiana, $3 a. year, outside of Indiana, 65 cents a month. z

RILEY 5551

Give 14ght and the People Will Find Their Own Way

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1940

WHAT ARE THEY AFRAID OF? | MES: GRACE BANTA REYNOLDS, Indiana’s Republican National ‘Committeewoman, made herself perfectly clear about the City Manager form of government on her current visit to Washington. | : : . She referred to it as a “sort of outmoded reform,” “mere subterfuge for machine rule,” and “party government without the-label.” ; : i

“There was little grief in either party when the law was knocked out,” she said. Perhaps. We can only recall that Indianapolis voted for it by more than 5 to 1. We know, too, that there are many intelligent and far-sighted Republicans in Indianapolis who have never ceased fighting for City Manager. And we know, too, that Mrs. Reynolds’ remarks have come as a distinct shock. What friends of the city ‘manager plan are seeking in this state are changes in the law (or the Constitution, if necessary) by. which cities will be able to set up a manager form of government if they desire one. The proposed changes are purely permissive. They could not impose the manager plan, as some of our less scrupulous politicians imply. : It seems to us our state political leaders would stand on far more solid ground if they admitted that the public is entitled to have a voice in local government. What does home rule mean if it doesn’t mean that a community can change or improve its form of government? : What do politicians like Mrs. Reynolds fear? That the government they guard so zealously cannot stand competition with the manager plan? If that’s the case, the remedy would seem to be to improve the caliber of the existing system so that it could stand comparison.’

GOVERNOR JONES’ JOB EATING Louisiana’s Long machine at the polls was a great achievement, for which Sam Houston Jones deserves full credit. To say that he has a harder battle still is only to express the thought that must be very much on his own mind today. : ; * This man who will become overlie on May 14 has youth and vigor and undoubted courage. Observers credit him also with determination to give Louisiana decent, democratic government. The question is whether the people of ‘his state are honestly and deeply determined to have decent, democratic government—whether they will support the sort of Governor that Mr. Jones has promised to be. If we have doubts, it is because we know the record. ~ For seven years under Huey Long, and for five years under the lesser men who became his political heirs, Louisiana submitted to dictatorship. The evil consequences began to appear while Huey still lived, and have become increasingly apparent in violence and corruption since kis assassination. Within the last year, 12 members of the machine have been sent to the penitentiary and nearly 180 others are under indictment. Yet the rebellion of the

voters, now that it has come at last, seems far from an

| on the 25th. Tom Quinn, you kndw, pleaded guilty to official|.

overwhelming expression of desire for reform. In the run-off primary, against Governor Earl K. Long, Mr. Jones polled only about 52 per cent of the approximately half a million votes. The other 48 per cent of the voters supported the Long machine.

That machine, of course, may fall to pieces under the impact of its first defeat. Governor Jones may break the political power of Mayor Maestri in New Orleans. A new anti-machine legislature and other state officials will be on his side. Against him will be the influence of the state’s delegation in Congress, Long men all. With him, in spite of that, should be the support of the Administration in Washington. . But he will be judged finally by the worth of what he establishes to replace the Long machine. Huey Long “sold” bad government to the people of Louisiana. ‘Sam Jones’ problem is to “sell” them good government, not by promises which attract a bare majority but by performance which will convince far greater numbers. In every state, people who believe in democracy and decency will wish him well as he sets about his task. : :

A FINE START THE Marion County Election Board, consisting of County Clerk Charles R. Ettinger, Hendricks Kenworthy and Robert S. Smith, has made an excellent start in planning for the inauguration of the new central ballot counting system. . It obviously is a great advancement over the old political blunderbus method of counting ballots in some dark little recess.

Ettinger, Kenworthy and Smith are making an honest.

effort to lay the foundation for a workable and efficient basis of operation. But much will depend upon the type of tabulators supplied by the two political pafties. If the two parties will select the most honest and most able persons possible the new system should work as it was intended to work. . :

DO THEY USE RED INK?

HE Government’ has had such difficulty in explaining its soil conservation and relief programs to the Navaho Indians of New Mexico and Arizona that it has developed a new, written language through which it hopes to give the tribe a clearer understanding of these mysteries.

Thus one thing leads to another. Perhaps in time the

Navahos will become proficient enough in their new, written language to explain to us how they got along, for centuries before the white men came, without soil conservation and relief programs from Washington.

" GOING, GOING, GOING A

With the Wind” didn’t return home for two days.

Undoubtedly she intends soon to see the rest of the picture.

Price in Marion Coun- |.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. woman who went to see “Gone

| the number

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler 2

ef YORK, Feb. 22.—After a. legal struggle lastNV. ing three months Willie Bioff} the Chicago. labor racketeer, has turned up in his cold home town to finish a sentence of six months for pandering in 1922. Bioff claims to have rehabilitatéd himself in

“the moneyed interests and Communists,” which is a new combination. It is further contended on his behalf that he fas only 21 when he was convicted.

in Chicago-as late as 1932, when he was a member of the Capone mob, and his reference from the Chicago Police Department as of November, 1939, said, “He is a thoroughly vicious hoodlum and has always been with gangsters.” : ka His union career was very profitable, for he is a wealthy country gentleman, with an estate near Los Angeles, and in the winter of 1938 he sailed aboard the liner Normandie'in accommodations for two which cost $2700. And when he was arrested in 1922 he gave his age as 24, not 21. * ” ”

Bs never was elected to any position in the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and Moving Picture Operators, which he represented in California, but was appointed to the position of personal representative of George Browne, the union president. # Since then—in fact, only last week—Mr. Edwin Leahy, an authority on ‘labor unions, writing in the

Chicago Daily News, has offered some interesting) -

background on another “personal representative” of Mr. Browne—to wit, Nicolo Circella, alias Nick Dean, a Chicago hoodlum, stickup man and restaurateur. In the primitive days of the movies they were known as nickelodeons or nickelodeens, and that appears to tell us how Circella came to be known as Nicolo Dean and Nick Dean. Dean’s night club in Chicago is described by Mr. Leahy as a resort of cafe society. “The recorded history of Nick Dean begins in 1015 when he was a callow youth of 20,” Mr. Leahy reports. “In December of that year he pleaded guilty of robbery and was placed .on probation for a year. He was a busy little bee during that period of probation, sticking up joints all around town.” :

# = 2

M* LEAHY lists four stickups in a brief period.|

In the fourth, one of Nick’s pals shot a man and Circella went to Pontiac Reformatory on charges of assault. He was in Pontiac from Sept. 21, 1916, to Jan. 1, 1919, when he was paroled, only to be returned on May 21, 1920. . “While on parole, according to Leahy, Circella was in trouble on four charges of larceny and one of burglary but was not convicted. In 1922 he was indicted for the robbery of a bank messenger. Other defendants were convicted, but Circella’s indictment was quashed. “In 1924,” says Mr. Leahy, “Circella was arrested and was identified by William Russell, a postal messenger, as one of the members of the Fontana gang who had beaten him and escaped with $150,000 in currency. The disposition of this case does not appear in the records.” PT “No disposition,” incidentally, is a routine entry in the Chicago police and court records. Why cases are not disposed of nobody apparently ever troubles to inquire. Bioff’s pandering cases was a “no disposition” job until it was discovered that he still owes time. : :

Inside Indianapolis The Relief Situation And What's

Happening Around Here of Late.

COUPLE of mouths ago all of us were talking relief scandals. You haven’t heard much about it lately, though. Reason is that Henry Mueller, the new Trustee, has been trying to doa, job. He has made some savings, hopes to accomplish others. Mr. Mueller is a quief, hard-working, conscientious man. What he may lack in administrative brilliance, he tries to make up for with determination. The heat is definitely off in county relief and the attitude in official circles is to give Mr. Mueller a real chance. On the other front, the latest is that Judge Dewey Myers yesterday refused to permit any further delay in the Dan R. Anderson trial. He said it still has to be held on March 4, despite a motion filed for the contrary. The J. Barton Griffin trial will follow

negligence. The whispers are that because of the widespread public feeling that Tom was not guilty of intent, there may be no need of holding any trials on any additional charges. i ’

” tJ ” . THE HABIT OF OPENING: the left front door for a winter left-turn signal has grown steadily ‘among local motorists during the past few years. . It seems to have started among owners of small .trucks which don’t carry directional signals. Passenger car operators quickly picked it up.’ They don’t like to roll down ga window in cold weather. The trick has spread oil on water. Now it has Police Chief Morrissey and Hoosier Motor Club- Secretary Todd Stoops slightly worried. It’s perfectly legal, but if it continues to grow it might become dangerous.: Cars which don’t pull clear over to the yellow line stand a chance of having a door torn off. Messm. Morrissey and Stoops now don't think that it is a serious pate problem but they're both keeping a watch on it. > . : ” ” ” NORTHWEST SIDERS WANT to know when the City is going to do whatever they're going to do to the Indiana Ave. bridge at 10th .St. , . , We'd like to know; too. . . . Southwest Siders, on the other hand, have been pleased to note workmen tearing away rusty. rails from the cld Terre Haute traction line, which is to make way for that bee-line highway to the Airport. ... I J. (Nish) Dienhart and Col. Roscoe Turner are trying to make the Airport, by the way, look like Grand Central Station. . . . Fancy new signs, showcases and row they want plush seats for the customers. . ... If they get it, Nish will surely say: “Okeechobee!” : /

A Woman's Viewpoint

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson Y seems to me that entirely too much is being said these days about the faults of women and not half enough about men’s responsibilities. It can’t be ‘too often repeated that wives have always shouldered the burdens of marriage with more patience than husbands, and that a large percentage of the latter walk out on their children without so much as a regretful goodby. : Letters which come to columnists are part of life's pulse beat, and far too many nowadays relate stories of men’s unfaithfulness. The following is typical, and although the names of cities or persons cannot be given, it is authentic: : “I, too, have been deserted by a seemingly good husband, the father of four children, and after 30 years of married life. If ever a woman tried to keep things going and be clean in body and mind and to bring up her children well, I did. Even while I was frail in health and the money didn’t always go around,

I kept on trying, only to be told by my husband before he left (with a woman who had made a record|

of wrecking other homes), that I was ‘dead from the head down.’ 3 “I am glad one columnist can write the truth. We wives and mothers are lanibasted right and left about glamour and holding our men. If husband-stealing were again taboo in good society we and our children would not suffer so. : : “Just let a wife try to co her duty by her children, and sacrifice herself for the good of her household, and what happens? In many cases the man walks out with a younger woman, whose morals sometimes aren't anything to brag about. Besides the sorrow my | husband left me with his old father to take care of. He's lived with us for 12 years.” ~~ “What a fine picture of the American husband that is! Fortunately all of them do not fit into it, although

of wife deserters seem to be on the in-

Another Chicago Hoodlurh Revealed i 4 As Union Representative as Bioff| Returns to Serve Balance of Term.|

the service of labor, and poses as a martyr; done in by :

The facts disagree with Bioff. He was arrested] 's

J : . * 2 : The Hoosier Forum 1 wholly disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.—Voltaire.

SAYS AMERICA NEEDS NO OUTSIDE HELP ; By Edward F. Maddox

I suppose my friends of the Hoosier Forum got a good laugh out of H. W, shea’s letter complimenting me (left-handedly) on my salesmanship. I am on to such Red tricks. My Communist critics have tried their best to class me with Hitler and Mussolini, until Joe Stalin got so scared of Japan and Germany that he made anschluss with Hitler, his arch enemy, so he could pour his Red legions down on the little weak nations around his borders. But the Fascist label doesn’t stick to me any better than the Communist, label. I am a 100 per cent American , , . . :

I say that we can run this country without any Communist, Nazi, Fascist or Socialist dictatorships. We can run our country better, have more economic security, more jobs, better wages, less labor and business trouble, more domestic tranquillity, justice, national harmony and better general welfare if we will outlaw and suppress all alien isms and their political parties now ram pant in this nation , ., . ;

o ” » DEFINES CAPITAL AS SAVED LABOR By James R. Meitzler, Attica, Ind. “Labor is prior to capital, produces all wealth, riches, dividends. Parasites are skinners of labor.” So condensed is a certain line of argument.

But what is labor? What capital? “Labor: Toil or exertion, physical or mental.” “Capital: That part of wealth which is saved and is avail2hle or employed in future producion.” = But labor and capital are general terms; men are individuals. It is the individual workman who creates wealth. A consumes all he creates; B saves a part. By saving, B becomes a capitalist. Capital is saved labor. B and his savings provide a job for A whereby more wealth is created. Come those who claim A produces as much as B plus B’s saved labor and that unless A’s wage is equal to B’s and B’s saved labor wage, B is a parasite. The same incapacity which prevented their saving persists in their reasoning. Incapable of creating without aid from others, they judge those others by thefhselves and believe the makers of millions got their riches by robbing those who if

left to themselves could create noth-

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

ing but would perish now just as they starved in the past. Why they can’t even make the shovels they lean on. 2 2 » PUZZLED BY CRITICS OF ‘MR. SMITH’ FILM By Daniel Francis Clancy, Logansport, Ind. The motion. picture, “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” has been criticized by certain personsand groups posing as arch-patriots. The story of Mr. Smith is that of a young man full of poetic patriotism who has an idealistic conception of our legislators and who is suddenly appointed to fill a vacancy in the U. S. Senate by the Governor of his state. The young hero’s ideals are artistically portrayed. . . . He then is shown discovering reality—graft, dishonor and bossism. « 4

In due course, to the deep satisfaction of iconoclasts like myself, he nobly exposes the machine of his native state on the Senate floor, What, I ask, in this cinema, can the patriotic protectors of our national ideals find objectionable? The spectacle of sincere patriotism, alive and breathing? Surely not? The sight of right overcoming wrong? Certainly not? No, seemingly the

revelation that there is any wrong in Washington to be overcome! We have no alternative but to conclude that it is being considered contrary to the public welfare that the people should be exposed to the shabby truth. We are confronted with the belief that the people should, as you might say, be kept warmly wrapt in the rosy robes of illusion—and, indeed, that it is patriotism to protect them from imperiling their gullibility. . . . : » 2 » DRAWS DISTINCTION BETWEEN MACHINES By Claude Braddick, Kokomo, Ind. In discussing the part machines have played in creating unemployment, it is absolutely essential that we differentiate between productive and non-productive machines. No intelligent conclusion can ever be reached unless this is done. The automobile, for instance, is definitely a maker of jobs. So is the radio. But what of the modern, high-speed, almfiost human machine tools, installed in our shops for the express purpose of saving human labor? Do these create jobs, or not? Well, that’s where the argument

‘Istarts. Their first effect, no doubt,

is to take jobs away. Yet a very intelligent friend of .mine, who operates bread-wrapping machines, contends they put back more than they take away. Whether or not this is true, I haven’t the wisdom to say. I'll simply sit back and listen in on the argument. I do insist, however, that you differentiate be-

tween the two types of machines, 'so I can make some sense of it.

New Books at the Library

HEN Arthur Train writes on crime and criminals it is with the authority of many years’ association with the law. Possessed of a versatile talent which has won him fame both as a lawyer and an author, he has frequently based successful fiction upon the “human material” encountered in police court, the dock and prison. His famous “Mr. Tutt” stories often embody his own experiences as attorney and prosecutor.

The public's interest in crime, he

Side Glances—By Galbraith

LC

1040 BY NEA

‘we don't win tha

INC. 7. M. REC. U. 8. PAT. OFF,

IT 18 wonderful how Rear oon | 8

believes, seldom extends to an adequate understanding of how the administration of criminal justice really works. Most newspaper readers know little of the various steps by which an arrested felon becomes a convict. What, exactly, is crime? What rights has an arrested person? Are policemen, judges and prosecutors really “graiters”? How are juries chosen, and is a long delay between arrest and trial advantageous to the prisoner? : “Prom the District Atforney’s Office” (Scribner) offers informa-

‘ition on these and numerous other

perplexities of law and crime. Several notorious murder trials of the past are analyzed from their legal angles—the infamous Patrick poisoning, the Leo Frank case, and the Hauptmann trial. ? Grim court rooms sometimes become the setting for comedy, as in the suit between two women for possession of Roy, a Blue Persian kitten; the battle of wits between blustering attorneys and demure female witnesses; and the dubious legality of a will providing a fund to “feed sparrows forever.” In discussing the laws of marriage, legal insanity, the status of animals, and “just foolish” laws, Mr. Train uncovers many amusing and surprising judgments and decrees which proved conclusively that many laws are unjust and absurd. But our greatest need, he states, is not so much for newer and better laws as.for more alert and bet

.| informed citizens. .

LIFE’'S JOURNEY By HARRY G. BURNS If, while going along life's journey, Your burdens are hard to bear, And you feel very tired and weary And almost driven to despair; And if the road be rough and steep And you chance to stumble and fall, Just pick yourself up and carry on— As though, nothing had happened A a .

DAILY THOUGHT

shall be abased;

and 4 he that humbleth

be exalted.

1 | to the name of Washington alike are impossible.

‘against a third term ever since.

‘For whosoever exalteth himself |

| various food group:

Johnson Says—

Washington Guided by Principle Rather Than Precedent and History Shows That He Made No Mistakes.

ASHINGTON, Feb. 22.—Abraham Lincoln wrote the piece to end all perfervidk Washington's birthday pieces: “On that name no eulogy is expected. It cannot be. To add brightness to the sun or glory Let none attempt it.” Ta Washington is increasingly ‘being appealed to as an: authority. Yet somebody said recently that his time. were nearer to Julius Caesar's than to Franklin

Roosevelt's. This referred to the tremendous increase in human knowledge and conveniences since our: beginnings compared with the whole of history before, This kind of statement is usually a preface to an argument that, since conditions are so different the leaders of our earliest days can’t be too much relied upon now. The reasoning sometimes even goes so far as to say that the Constitution is out of date and the capitalist system is dying. nod ; To the extent that modern government and laws must conform to modern conditions, that is undoubte edly true. Nobody more clearly recognized that than Washington. That was the way he got his big start and changed the whole system of law and government to a new one by revolution. » ” ” !

T was not in politics alone that Washington was not: content with the ancient order. In geography, agriculture and transportation he was a pioneer, an explorer and an experimenter. But the principal reason for his unmatched success was that he always kept his feet on the ground. He thought things" through before he acted. He didn’t care much for precedent but he cared mightily for principle. He didn't make mistakes. h The elder Henry Cabot Lodge wrote of him: “For any years I have studied minutely the character of Washington, and with every step the greatness of the. man has grown upon me, for analysis has failed to discover the act of his life which, under the condi= tions of the time, I could unhesitatingly pronounce to. have been an error.” : We are going to hear a lot about Washington in the . campaign and in relation to the war. Even some of those writers and speakers who most like to refer to. the “horse-and-buggy” nature of those early days as a reason for setting aside the precepts. of the fathers, are quick to quote the old boys if they can. find in some half forgotten corner of discussion or . correspondence anything which contradicts with words the action that they took. 8 8

ASHINGTON is already being trotted out as an : advocate of a third term—or at least not as an opponent of it. Several learned discourses have ree cently denied that Washington was opposed to allie

ances with Buropean powers, in spite of his own

emphatic warning against ‘them .in his Farewell Address. : The important thing in studying the examples of : these men is not what they may have said or written - in deliberate or unguarded moments. It is what they did and why they did it. dean? Washington would not take a third term. He did - this partly because he was tired and wanted to go . home. But he was tired and wanted to go home at the end of his first term. His main reason was that - there was a growing fear of centralization and ones - man government—and that has been the reasoning: It is a matter of . principle rather than precedent. :

Hoover Hopeful By Bruce Catton |

Expects California Backing and Has : -Staff of 17 Working for Nomination

ASHINGTON, Feb. 22—Although the fact .hasn’t drawn any public attention yet, ex-Presie ° dent Herbert Hoover is an active and a hopeful candie : date for the Republican nomination this year. Mr. Hoover probably will have California's 44 votes | when the convention opens. (He himself is perfectly eonfident that he will) There is also a chance that - he will go to the convention with several other Western delegations. : In addition, he stands a fair chance of getting votes of a number of Southern delegations; the life-blood . of Solid South Republicanism is Presidential patron ° age, and Mr. Hoover is the last man who handed ° out any. 1 : : A good-sized staff is actively working to bring about Mr. Hoover's nomination—17 persons, according to a reliable source. Lawrence Richey is back on the jou. exercising his considerable talents in Mr. Hoover's . avor, : ! Decision of the Republicans to meet in Philadelphia is at least partly a reflection of the influence which the conservative group headed by Jay Cooke, Joseph E. Pew Jr. and their associates exerts in the party. This * group has a candidate—~Governor James of Penn- ° sylvania, : It may not be able to nominate him, but it will have a good deal to say about who is nominated. . ” ”» t 4

Conservative Wing Strong

And by that token it appears that the New Dealers here are kidding themselves when they say (as they very often do, these days) that even if the next Presie dent is a Republican most of the New Deal program will remain in effect, “because nobody can turn the . clock back.” ip : No one could spend two days mingling with the

“Republican National Committeemen at their meeting

here without seeing clearly that this revived and optie mistic Republicanism is essentially conservative. The influence of the conservative Pennsylvania group is one token. Another is the extent to which committeemen will admit privately that Mr. Hoover would be “the logical candidate” this year. Still another is the great latent strength cf Governor Bricker of Ohio. -And the point is that the big talking-point in his | favor—the thing that has drawn the attention of men who ‘are earnestly looking for a winner—is the very thing which the New Dealers supposed was going to kill him politically: His handling of the Cleveland relief situation. ‘ :

Watch Your Health By Jane Stafford: iE

WEE the mistress of Mount Vernon prepared a festive dinner for guests to celebrate her husband’s birthday, she had a far different on her hands than the housewife who today plans a Washington’s Birthday dinner party. : ‘Martha Washington and her helpers had to : the butter themselves, cure the meats, make "the * jellies and make almost every other item on the menu starting from the raw ! The modern housewife does not have fo spend any time processing foods, and can buy mest of her dinner ready prepared for serving after a short preliminary heating or chilling. Instead of knowledge on how to make butter, cure meat, preserve fruits and. tables, she needs to know how fo plan and purchase wisely for her dinners, : a “OT aan The minimum essentials of what she needs to know has been summed up by the home economics staff of the U. S. Department of Agriculture son what as follows: 5 RASA 1. The proportion of the family income that may be safely or wisely allotted to food and the quality of Siep te allotted sum will provide if intelligently expended. RC se nent 2. The food groups that must be included in the daily diet, the representatives of each group that are cheap or dear in terms of food value and price, the relative contributions or refined and non-refined foods in the same group, and the value in the diet of the “protective” Joods. | or ron ee . Body uirements for growth, maintenance and muscular work and the main contributions the

f