Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 1 March 1940 — Page 22

Cr -—

~ fidence in this census and all those of the future.

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Give Light and the People Will Fina Their Own Way

FRIDAY, MARCH 1, 1940

-

COUNT THE MACHINE POLITICIANS

TF you want to know which United States Senators are under obligations to or are catering to state political machines, watch what happens Monday. On that day Senator Hatch’s proposed amendment of the Hatch act will become the first order of business in the Senate. This amendment proposes to apply the ban against rnicious political activities to the officials and employees of state agencies that are financed in whole or in part by Federal funds. The restrictions—already in force against Federal Government workers—forbid the use of official authority for the purpose of interfering with or affecting the results of elections or nominations, and forbid active participation in political management or in political campaigns. Prominent among the state agencies subsidized by Federal funds are the highway departments and the welfare

agencies. For many years in many states the highway de-

partments have been the backbone of state political machines. Welfare agencies have become large in size only within the last few years, but in recent elections administrative employees of these agencies have been increasingly active politically. Ey : i State machines which depend upon patronage rather than good government to stay in power naturally are violently opposed to this extension of the Hatch law. So watch your Senators; you shall know them by their votes.

WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR?

F our Government donates food and cotton to keep the conquered Poles from starving and freezing, says Herbert Hoover, “we have not deprived the American people of one apple. The American problem is not one of shortages. We have surpluses. No one can say that any one in America will have less as a result of this relief.” That is the simple truth. The fact that some Americans are ill-nourished and ill-clad while warehouses bulge does not detract from Mr. Hoover's argument before a House committee in Washington in favor of donating food and fiber to the Poles. Our problem of domestic distribution will be a long time in the solving, we are afraid. Meanwhile, so long as we are hiring farmers to reduce their plantings, and still have enormous carryovers anyway, why in humanity’s name not ship some of these troublesome surpluses where they will literally save lives? 5 Anybody who¥eads has heard how Germany is dealing with the Poles who:were so unlucky as to survive her reach for lehgnsraum. Driven from their homes, herded into cattle cars, dumped into overcrowded areas and left to shift for themselves, many of them are already dead of exposure, undernourishment and despair.

If Germany can give satisfactory pledges that American

food for the Poles will be eaten by the Poles and not by

German troops, surely England will lift the blockade to admit these supplies to the citizens of her conquered ally. What are we waiting for? Let's not see the weevils fatten on warehoused grain that would keep human beings alive. : :

NEEDLESS CENSUS FEARS

ENSUS Director W. L. Austin, concerned over Republican criticism of some of the questions to be asked, points out that the law provides penalties for refusing to answer or giving false information. We think it’s a mistake to emphasize these penalties. It has never been necessary to invoke them, and it won't be hecessary this year if citizens understand (1) that by anSwering the questions freely and truthfully they help the Government obtain statistics of great value to the whole

~Lountry, and (2) that the information given will be held in

strict confidence by the Census Bureau.

At the same time, we think the Republicans are making a mistake in the bitterness of their attacks. They" are creating a partisan issue where none should be. The level of their campaign is indicated by such bellowing as that of Rep. Dewey Short (R. Mo.), who, objecting to a building census question about shower baths and bathtubs, told the

‘House: :

“There are a lot of good citizens down in the Ozark Mountains of Southern Missouri which I have the honor to_represent who do not have shower baths in their homes, but we are not as dirty as some New Dealers 1 know, and we do not stink as much as Harry Hopkins and his crew.”

The danger is that some people will take such cheap stuff seriously and refuse to answer the census questions. But practically all those to be asked this year have been asked in other years, under Republican or Democratic Administiations, and no citizen ever got himself in trouble by telling the whole truth fo the census taker. We don’t believe the Republicans who charge that the New Deal has thought up some trick questions for the purpose of getting private information about individuals and putting it to political use. That would be a fatal blunder for the New Deal to make. It would destroy public conBut threatening fines and jail sentences is not the right way to allay the fears the Republicans are stirring up.

The right answer is a positive pledge, which President

Roosevelt might well give, that every individual's census

answers will be‘used only in the secrecy of the Census Bureau for the compilation of general statistics—will never be made available to politicians, tax collectors or anyone else

UNLIMITED SUPPLY RP UROPE needn’t fear a paper shortage. It can always

‘use the reverse side of all the dead treaties that are round for scratch pads. ek

- Administration “white-wash” business. . . 1 the State’s case to begin with and it was only proper

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler

“Hoover May Be a Stork Club Sleuth As Marcantonio Charges, but He's Doing a Good Job in the Miamis. NE" YORE. March 1.—Rep. Vito Marcantonio of New York has called J. Edgar Hoover a Stork

Club detective, which is pretty good going, just as repartee, and if Mr. Hoover wili now crack back that

‘Marcantonio is a Communist Congressman the boys

will be even. For Mr. Hoover is, in a manner of speaking, a night-club fly-cop, end, in the same manner of speaking Marcantonio is a Bolo statesman, Hoover hangs out in the night clubs, and the Representative camps around with the Muscovites, ni if Marcantonio wants to judge Mr. Hoover by the corpany “he eeps oe Shoulders mind being udged by the same rule i. : rs i Mr. Hoover's worst fault is not his hangout. His worst fault is that he is sensational. A few years ago; when he was strictly a cop and before he had | tasted celebrity, he was regarded as the greatest

policeman since Pinkerton, but he soiled his prestige |

in the Lindbergh trial by allowing or, anyway, failing to prevent the creation of an impression that he was trying his case in the papers of journalism that has ever disgraced the craft. . eons : 2 s- o ° .

E hasn't turned up anything ; H “and it may be that he has outlived his usefulness in his present job and is on the threshold of a new career. He would be a great attraction as a keyhole columnist, and he should. be worth something, at current rates, with 15 minutes a week of hysterics on the air composed of unimportant and unconfirmed innuendos about people too big and too contemptuous to talk back. : Mr. Hoover's latest exploit is the arrest of a number of vermin, male and female, in the Miami sector on Mann Act charges, and this has been challenged on the ground that prostitution is a friendly or, to say the worst, necessary vice. It is my contention, however, that this is just about Mr. Hoover’s speed, and that, since Congress, in its wisdom, made such a law, .the F. B. I has no right to interpret public opinion as having repealed it. The fact is that the two Miamis have become the winter headquarters of the most prosperous and, therefore, most vicious criminals out of ‘prison, and; Mr. Hoover is wise in establishing his camp there in the biggest season of all. The local police and the Florida authorities and -the politicians who control them have been too fou! or too dumb for trusting, and the problem is not local but interstate. ; s ® z

OTH the criminal scum, as Hoover. so happily B described this loathsome horde, and the legitimate winter customers of the two Miamis come from other states. The Miamis are a good place in which to gather and check information and identifications, and the fact that the local authority never has been either competent or trustworthy invites the F. B. IL and the Department of Justice to concentrate there. Hoover is understating matters when he says that the local authorities do not co-operate. If the local authorities wanted te they could make the two Miamis so hot for these criminals that no thief would ever light there. And if, as a. result of his winter's work, the gamblers are starved for a season and the thieves in office are made afraid to do business with crime, that is good police work, which is Hoover's job, and a net profit to the country which pays his wages. If Mr. Hoover is forgetting that he is a glamour cop and getting down to police duty, let’s let him alone. .

Inside Indianapolis The Irish Protest About an Oversight; And Why Butler Fans Are So Happy.

HE GOVERNOR'S announcement of the reformatory narcotics arrest yesterday was not a State . It was

official courtesy to let the Governor announce something his own men had -investigated. . . . Some of the Irish are complaining that Inside Indianapolis slipped up in listing the sports - events for the March 16-17 week-end. . . . They say St. Patrick’s Day on the 17th is the biggest sporting event of all. . . . The young mah involved in the brothersister marriage case has moved back to Indianapolis from Peoria and is giving Juvenile Court authorities some concern. . . . The Coroner's office, usually considered a dark, dank place, is, instead, sort of lively. . . . What with the swing music coming out of that portable radio these days.

” ” EJ

THE ANNUAL DIFFICULTY in collecting State dog license taxes begins tomorrow. . . . Some folk always try putting Buster down in the coal bin. . . . In Indianapolis 150 special assessors will be out knocking on doors. . . . Some of our County Court House officials and employees have the last word in pools. . . . They have one over there, drawing to see who gets the jury foremen. . . . In other words, if you draw ticket No. 6, you collect only if No. 6 turns out to be the foreman. .. . No. 6 came up Wednesday as a matter of fact. . . . The marriage license rush got so heavy yesterday they had to station two detectives out front to keep the solicitors from railroading the licensees to this J. P. or that one. ” ” ®

BUTLER UNIVERSITY basketball followers are crowing all over the lot these days. . .. The nucleus of next year’s team, it seems, consists of Dietz, Neat, Hamilton, Atkinson, Schumacher, Clayton and McCray. . . . Not bad, at that. . .. Lafayette Page, who is in the steel business, hadn't been in the CalumetChicago district for many, many moons. . . . Sc many moons he’d gotten to think of the Calumet as part of Chicago. . . . So, recently, he was in Hammond. . .. He had to go to Chicago so he just hailed a taxi... . He realized his mistake within the first 30 minutes. . . . It cost him just $8.50 and he’s willing to pick an argument with anyone who insists that Hammond is just on the outskirts of Chicago.

A Woman's Viewpoint

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

“PP \HERE is a panic among certain members of the so-called intelligentsia which is really amazing. They are desperately fighting to keep us out of the

last war, with their eyes completely closed to the very |

different nature of this war from every viewpoint.” This gem is from the column of the dble Dorothy

Thompson, who seems to be endowed with a capacity |

to see to the ends of the earth but is strangely myopic hen it comes to the best interests of the United ates. Her constant preachment is that the war now going on in Europe is different from other wars which have been fought. But how is it different? Are we to suppose the forces of good are lined up against the forces of evil for the first time in history? Can it be possible that Armageddon is here at last? If so, it strangely resembles many another: recorded in mankind's annals. The most casual reading of’ European history proves that battles have raged up and down the continent, over the same ‘quarrels, since the chaos of the Middle Ages.” «°° «+ “This war, like all the others, is only another in a series of conflicts which the .present European setup makes inevitable. - 2 0 ; Sophists and sentimentdlists are constantly reminding us that what happens in Europe will affect our own destiny. No doubt they are right. But is it not- equally true that what’ we do may affect theirs in the same degree? . = | . : If the United States maintains its peaceful principles, settles its economic problems—and God knows

we've plenty—and by doing so keeps: the democratic |.

machine functioning, we shall have made a contribu-

tion of inestimable value to the welfare of Europe,| |

besides preserving the best of human rights. _ It takes bungled thirking to see wherein this war differs from the last one, yet apparently some of our pest writers and leaders believe it to be different.

They skip skilfully around the danger edge of urging |

us to actual fighting, while they advocate measures which can mean nothing less, Their arguments would be more courageous and: admirable, I think, if they

through the lowest form |

big in a long time, |

THE INDIANAPOLIS

| #2

IDAY, MAR

or

"Mr. Welles Has Some Quiet Talks Abroad

The Hoosier

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

Forum

HOLDS INCOME GAIN OFFSETS DEBT INCREASE By Charles S. Pollard =r

James M. Gates. Instead it is a sad experience I will remember as long as I live. You make no reference to Mr. Harding or “keep cool with Coolidge” for four years or “prosperity just around the corner with

Hoover” for another like period, “yote for Landon and land a job,” and now it’s “stop Roosevelt.” Wonderful platforms! . . Taking , your figures the public debt has been increased 23 billion and by reliable information the national income has been more than doubled—since 1932 an increase from 30 billions to about 69 billions. I solicit being ruined in this manner. Liquor was returned to the U. S. legally by a referendum of 5 to 2, constitutionally repealing the 18th amendment. Distribution was placed in the hands of the various states. You are not compelled to patronize taverns; you were free to patronize bootleggers. You could certainly tell that Hoover was neither going or coming. Prosperity was just around the corner at the beginning and still there at the finish . . . . Roosevelt has not ruined the Democratic Party, but Hoover did ruin the Republican Party and everybody knows he ruined the public.

s ” 2 SAYS PEOPLE ON RELIEF ARE NOT PRODUCERS By James R. Meitzler, Attica, Ind. Republican candidate Willis, in his campaign, made this statement many times: “In one hand I hold

with ledger-plate that sells for 35 cents; in the other, one Germanmade for the same machine, price

eats white bread; the German black.” And so on, with.a number of articles all showing how the tariff benefited labor by forcing the farmer to pay two prices to protect industry for what he buys. : The farm program was designed to bring the price of certain major crops the ‘farmer sells up to & parity with the things he buys. This is impossible without some control of planting and even with control the object has not yet been reached. Republicans at once raised the cry

The past is no dream fo me,

a McCormick-Deering mower-guard |

17 cents The American workman|

(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.)

that farmers were being paid for what they did not produce. If that is so, then how about the manufacturer who closes his tariff protected factory? Or labor which, while receiving more pay, has cut the working week from 72 hours to 44 and wants to cut to 30? Now our subsidized incompetents,

in order to justify their alms, try

to put themselves in the same class with the farmer who receives benefit checks. ‘There is a difference. Our subsidized factories and workmen produce huge quantities of goods. Our wheat, corn and cotton farmers on their reduced acreage have produced a surplus far above the demand. But our people on relief, whether they receive baskets of groceries, pensions or WPA checks, in return for the billions they have consumed, have produced nothing. Nothing! °

a 2» DENIES COMMUNISM SIMILAR TO CHRISTIANITY

. |By Harrison White

A person from Bloomington who designates himself “Curious” objects to what the newspapers say about communism and complains “They do not define communism.” So he goes

to the library to read then fails to define it himself, but attempts to liken communism to Christianity in that “It is better to give than to receive.”. This curious individual

surely does not know his com-

munism, for to say such a thing in Russia he would become a victim of the OGPU, for communism and Christianity are opposites and cannot mix. “It is better to give than to receive” involves a principle of Christianity “while “it is better to receive” involves a policy of communism. Communism is the red wing of socialism; it is void of Christian morals, knows no virtue and is an ideology of policy only while Christianity is a matter of principle only. Communism means regimentation and . socialization. Jesus was an individual who worked with individuals and appealed to individuals. His parables of the talents and the “sower and the reaper” root well the principle of individualism in all Christendom. “Curious” should be curious enough to read them. Should anyone attempt to promote the prin-

ciple of individualism in the land of

Stalin he would be erased, canceled, purged or obliterated for these parables tell of reward for effort and that is the substance of capitalism. If its opposite were taught in our schools and the drone were given to understand he would receive as much in life as the one who worked, then all advancement in life would cease. Under Christianity you must be free to act and think for yourself as an individual and not as a regimented ward under the dictation of a religious, economic or political director.

New Books at the Library

OTTERS, silversmiths and cabinet makers have identified themselves with . their work, but many of our pioneer women have left behind them their unique designs in quilts while. their own names and stories remained in-ob-security. | : : To spin and weave, save scraps and piece quilts, was a necessity for the pioneer woman. Through a period of | four wars, quilts were made when women needed work to

cried aloud w they so obviously want to say: “To anus, 1” : 8

"What a party! The women

Side Glances—By Galbraith

1940 BY NEA SERVICE, ING. T. M. REQ. U. 8. PAT. OFF.

are a

A longing for their share

occupy their hands in an effort to take their minds from their fear and loneliness. During periods of migration, quilts were pieced and called by such names as Job’s Tears, Rocky Road to California, and Hand of Friendship. Such designs as are now known as Tree of Life, Pine Cone, and Pineapple were no doubt suggested by

‘the Oriental designs that were

brought home in rugs and tapestries, by the early seafaring men. American history can be traced by the popular interest in such patterns as Liberty Quilt, Slave Chain, Indian Hatchet, Santa Fe Trail and

| Delectable Mountains.

To Florence Peto, author of “Historic Quilts” (American Historical Company), a quilt pattern is no longer merely a quilt pattern, but a document in the large library of human history. To her, the human interest involved in this honorable

| nandicraft is of more value than

the matters of pattern trends and workmanship. The making of patthwork quilts, she says, may not be classified as a Fine Art, but it is important to us

today as a pictured chronicle of social and family history.

HANDIWORK By JAMES D. ROTH How many times hast thou Walked the woodland through? ° And loved the tree and bough, And leaves of wondrous hue?

‘|And, ah, you've seen the winding

creek A-bending here, then yon, As through the woods a path to

seek: x : It finds; then passes on. A. Master hand has fashioned these

For those of faith who care For nature : And to appease

‘is our job, under that statute,

‘suddenly has generally recovered consciousness and speeding ‘physician

Gen. Johnson Says— Jerome Frank Has All the: Better

‘Of Argument With Norris on SEC's Refusal to Act as. Utility Trustee.

VY AsumaTox, March 1—~On Jan. 25, Jerome Frank, chairman of SEC, said publicly that the

- job of the SEC in- the public utility field was not to

destroy or operate holding company systems but to” “oversee” them. He said, in part: “Now when I say ‘oversee holding company man= agement’ I don’t mean for a minute that Congress ine tended us to run holding compariies or their subsidi« aries, or that we do run them, or that we want to run them. Congress did not substitute the SEC for mans

agement, and we don’t try to substitute ourselves. I merely to see that, while holding companies control local companies, they are not guilty of those flagrant abuses of their control - that led to the enactment of the statue.” Shortly after that, the Associated (as & Electrig Co., which is to be reorganized under the Chandler Bankruptcy Act (old 77B) came again into the lime~

light on the question of a trustee for it in bank

ruptcy. The name of John Hanes, recently Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, was discussed. Four out of five members of the SEC voted not to have the commission accept the trusteeship. I don’t know whether it had any connection with his speech, but

shortly after all this, Mr. Frank came in for a hot

panning by that grand old apostle of public owners ship, Senator Norris. Senator Norris charged that Mr, Frank violated the “spirit if not the letter” of the law, 8 8 = :

T= law says that in the case of utilities the court “may” (not shall) appoint the SEC trustee in bankruptcy. But there are two laws which are not altogether in harmmony—the bankruptcy act and the utility holding act. Under the bankruptcy act the trustees of a bankrupt company prepare a reorganiza-: tion plan and the court approves it. Under the utility holding act, where a utility is in question, the court cannot approve a reorganization plan unless SEC approves it. If SEC had accepted this job it would

| have been in the position of approving itself and cir-

cumventing the relation intended between a court and a trustee by the bankruptcy act. If one side or the other in this controversy was respecting the spirit of the law, it was Mr. Frank and not the Senator. Furthermore, although SEC could and was willing to allow the company a certain short grace which would have kept it out of immediate bankruptcy, in accordance with the company’s own wishes, it did not do so. If it had taken this company over as a trustee, it would surely have been accused of forcing the banke ruptcy in order to take it over. in he 2 » 2

Pa of the assault on Mr. Frank was because Mr, Hanes is a “Wall Street man.” But Mr. Frank is not suggesting or advocating Mr, Hanes. On the cone trary, that appointment would probably be embarrass= ing to the whole commission and especially to Mr, Frank, because Mr. Hanes was recently a member of the Commission. Finally, it is highly probable that Mr. Hanes for these and other reasons, will not accept. The Associated Gas & Electric has been just the kind of a mess that made SEC necessary and justifiable, but the spectacle of the Federal Government hee coming a heavy creditor of companies, forcing them into bankruptcy, and then taking them over to ‘operate is enough to arouse fear for the whole capi talist system of private enterprise. Jerome Frank is doing a. wise, capable job which should do much to encourage ths kind of industrial - investment and activity which we must have for ree covery.

NLRB Paradox

By Bruce Catton

Madden and Smith Closer to Views Of Investigators Than Leiserson ls.

ASHINGTON, March 1.—The real nature of the _

split in the Labor Board has so far eluded even the Smith committee, although it was the Smith com mittee which made the split public. ; The disharmony between Board Member William M. Leiserson, on one side, and Members J. War.en Madden and Edwin S. Smith, on the other, goes far deeper than the publicized row over “slipshod pro=

cedure” and the proper staffing of the board.

It reaches down fo fundamentals, and—although the fact is not generally realized—on the basic point at issue, Smith and Madden are actually much closer to the Smith committee’s position than is Dr. Leiser« son. . si Basic complaint against the board throughout the Smith hearings has been the charge that it is judge, - jury and prosecutor all in one. Rep. Smith has ham mered at this point repeatedly, drawing out much testimony intended to show that a board with those three jobs is apt to go haywire here and there. Defense tactics, as shaped by Madden and Smith and Board Counsel Fahy, have been to show that the situation really isn’t as bad as it looks; that the different functions of the board are kept in aire tight compartments, so that the job of prosecut’on is thoroughly insulated from the job of fact-finding,

The Wisconsin Viewpoint

There is where Leiserson most sharply differs with his colleagues. By his philosophy, the only way to answer the judge-jury-prosecutor charge is to say: “Why, of course we're those three things in one— that’s the only way in which a board like this can work.” Leiserson. draws his philosophy from the Wiscone sin schoo: of a generation ago—the school of the elder La Follette. That philosophy runs like this: Complex modern life creates problems which existe ing machinery cannot handle; problems partly legal, partly administrative, partly judicial. Courts can’t handle them, because they're only partly legal problems: ordinary administrative agencies can’t handle . them, because they're only partly administrative problems. The problems can’t be solved at all unless there is a new agency combining all of these funce tions in one. , ~ x "The odd part about it all is that Leiserson is com= _ monly regarded as the board's one “moderate,” even

‘as its lone right-winger. Actually, he is much father

from the Smith committee’s viewroint than are its two favorite targets, Smith and Madden.

By Jane Stafford ] SHOP girl suddenly faints behind her counter A at the end of the day. A soldier or a high school cadet standing at attention on the parade ground suddenly drops to the ground in a faint. A mother faints when she receives a telegram telling that her son has been In an automobile accident. Sudden fainting such as this often causes much alarm to the family, friends or others who may witness it. . If you see someone faint suddenly you can feel . reassured by the very suddenness of the fainting spell, unless it is a case of sunstroke. Loss of con=

- sciousness that comes on slowly, taking from a few

minutes to several hours is the dangerous type, denoting serious disease. The person who has fainted .

is as well as ever by the time a : can arrive at the scene. = “vv In the case of the shop girl: parade ground, the fainting L in the upright posi or legs and internal ‘have: blood to pool in 2

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