Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 2 March 1940 — Page 8

~~ _ Maryland St.

- Service, and Audit BuTeau of Circulations.

‘he Indianapolis Times]

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Give Light and the People Will Find Theér Own Way

SATURDAY, MARCH 2, 1940

| TWO PER CENT MINTON

\

is no accident that the most vociferous opponent of ex-

= ~*~ tension of the Hatch act is Senator Sherman Minton.

Mr. Minton poses as an ultra-liberal. - He could almost

“be called a bleeding heart. He is always quick and loud

in defense of anything done by the crowd with which he

rode to power, always alert and angry in denouncing any

critic of that crowd. : : Mr. Minton came to the Senate as the hand-picked candidate of a state machine which keeps its fuel tanks full by 2 per cent assessments against the salaries of state employees. : This year, Mr. Minton is up for re-election, and whether he wins or not will depend upon how effective that 2 per cent club still is. Naturally he does not relish the idea of extending the Hatch act to forbid pernicious political activities by officials ‘and employees of state agencies that are financed in whole or in part by Federal funds. That would mean, for instance, that workers in the Indiana highway and welfare depart-

‘ments could not get out and hustle votes for Mr. Minton.

It would mean that official authority could not be used to interfere with or affect the results of the next election— for instance, that the workers in those departments couldn’t be forced to kick in 2 per cent of their pay to help finance Mr. Minton’s campaign. :

POETIC JUSTICE

N the hot Washington summer of 1935 a conscientious freshman Congressman from St. Marys, Pa., was answering a heavy correspondence. Most of the letters and telegrams were appeals for the defeat of the Utilities HoldingCompany Bill with its miscalled “death sentence.” He was surprised at the formal tone of one wire signed by an old friend in Warren, Pa. Curious, he checked up. The friend. had sent no wire. The Congressman, Denis J. Driscoll by name, leafed through more telegrams, studying; the signatures. He noticed an odd thing. Hardly any of the names began with letters beyond “m” in the alphabet. The upshot was a hearing before the Black Lobby Committee. Employees and officials of the Associated Gas & ‘Electric Co. admitted taking names from the Warren city directory and signing them to telegrams by the hundred. A Western Union boy, Elmer Danielson, testified that he had been paid 3 cents a name for soliciting anti-““death sentence” wires. It developed that A. G. & E. had spent $100,000 or so on such fake messages—and nearly a million dollars altogether in battling the holding-company bill. &

The bill was passed. But the A. G. & E. did not forget Denis Driscoll. At least, when he sought re-election the next year, “important money” was reported. campaigning against him. He was defeated, by 1800 votes out of 115,000 cast. Governor Earle soon appointed him chairman of the State Public Utilities Commission. ” t 4 ” Meanwhile the A. G. & E. had been going from bad to worse. Harried by the tax collectors, by commissions and ‘courts and Congressional committees, it finally came to the end of its snarled rope and. threw itself into the hands of a ~ Federal judge for reorganization.

_ And that’s where Denis Driscoll enters the picture again. Yesterday Federal Judge Leibell of New York named him as one of the three trustees who will try to untangle the billion-dollar mess that Howard C. Hopson made of the A. G. & E.—with other people’s money.

HOURLY VS. ANNUAL WAGES

. J INION labor generally has been somewhat skeptical of proposals looking toward the stabilization of wages on an annual basis,-fearing that such proposals might lead to wage reductions. ; However, it 1s obvious that a high wage scale is meaningless unless there is work to be done. The man who is paid $10 a day is deep in a hole at the end of a year, if he has worked only 65 days in that year. The Painters District Council of Cleveland is now submitting to 4000 union painters the question of an annual wage. This is encouraging to those who see in the annual wage a possibly effective means of stabilizing production, regularizing employment and guaranteeing workers an adequate yearly income. If approved, the plan will apply only to building maintenance work. It is already in effect in Cleveland in Government-sponsored housing projects.

The average union painter in Cleveland gets $1.30 an hour. But the work available gives him only about 770 hours of employment a year, scattered usually over about 25 two-day and three-day work weeks. This results in earnings of roughly $1000 for the year. Under the proposed plan, contracts would be made for 42 weeks of steady work for which the painter would receive $1680. That would mean a fall in his hourly rate to $1. We hope the Cleveland painters will try this plan and if they like it will recommend it to other crafts and other cities. : :

DANGER IN DELAY

IN MAY 4, 1939, hearings on proposed revisions of the ~~" National Labor Relation Act were started in Washington by the House Committee on Labor. They have continued intermittently since that date. © Meanwhile, evidence of bad administration. is piling ‘higher and resentment is increasing. The result may well be that legislative action, when it does come, will not be moderate and corrective, but extreme and destructive. Instead of being wisely amended, there is growing danger that this law, so desirable as a charter of labor’s rights, ill be wiped from the books.

L

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler

Associations, as leaders Claim; Thousands. Are Compelled to Join.

EW YORK, March 2.—I want to put my finger on the fraud in the contention that the American Federation of Labor and the C. I. O. are voluntary associations. It is true that their component or subsidiary organizations adhere voluntarily to. the national bodies, but the argumens is intended to 'suggest that the individual worker also enjoys the right to join or refuse to join. ! That is a deception. The truth is that both the A. F. of L. and the C. I. O. unions claim a right of compulsion over nominally free citizens, including a

taxing power and the right to ostracize non-joiners from their lawful occupations And both invoke the

the Wagner act to enforce this compulsion, Membership in A. F. of L. unions is not voluntary. Thousands of Americans are compelled to join and ‘pay outrageous initiation fees, high dues and frequent assessments, and the Wagner act legalizes this abridgement of their rights. By delivering them over, the Federal Government places them under the rule of the unions. It also recognizes the right of the A. F. of L. to limit the number of American’ citizens who may work at various occupations and the number who may learn occupations by serving as apprentices.

maintain groups of Class E workers composed of conditional members, who must pay tribute to the unions for the right to work but are not allowed the right

to vote. : s

» ® Noor in the American Federation of Labor, N from William Green down to the foulest racketeer, which would be a tossup between Willie Bioff and Nick Circella, the Capone gangsters of the movie racket, and George Scalise of the building service workers, will dare dispuie any of the contentions which I have made. They are true and proveable, and the facts would be bad enough if Green and the other national authorities of the A. F. of L. had shown the slightest sign of an intention to chase the criminals’ out.

the national authority has not done anything to help the rank and file workers to get rid of such reprobates. The national leaders all claim to be devoted to the cause of labor but consider it none of their business to protect the dues-paying toiler from the rule of known gangsters. Bioff’s selfless devotion to the cause of labor in a job to which he never was elected may. be judged from the facts that he has accumulated riches in a few years on $110 a week in Hollywood. t 4 ”» ” CX THEN Scalise, another rehabilitated pander, went to Florida recently to confer with Green on problems of labor he paid $€0 a day for his room. He gets $20,000 a year in a job to which he never was elected, and his vouchers are honored without question

| out of the little earnings of 100.000 elevator boys, win-

dow washers, scrubwomen, chambermaids and the like. His expenses are unlimited. I said T could name a hundred men in the leadership of the A. F. of L. who have criminal records, and I can. I can also name some other unconscionable grafters who have robbed the workers for years but never have been molested by the national leadership. : Tt the A. F. of L. claims the right to compel people to join and pay it has a compensating obligation to keep its leadership clean, and this is not conceding that the Government has any right to compel anyone to join and pay taxes to any private organization.

Inside Indianapolis Judge Bradshaw, Whose Big Hobby Is Children, Then Golf, Then Roses.

ROFILE of the week: Wilired Bradshaw, who has been working so hard at being Judge of the Juvenile Court that he worries his doctors. A short, slight man (he weighs about 130) with close-cropped. hair and intent black eyes, he takes his job seriously, perhaps because his chief hobby actually is children. He has two boys of his own (14 and 11) and the thing he likes best is to take a carload of youngsters off on a week-end camping trip. His next-best hobby is golfing, even though he plays a duffer’s game. He even plays in the winter-if the course is at all playable. Judge Bradshaw is 43. Oddly enough he has never asked for a political job. He was named Deputy Prosecutor in 1931 without asking for it and he became Municipal Court judge when he went to Governor McNutt in behalf of another man. He was drafted for his present post. To acquaint the public with his court, he’s made more than 140 speeches. He made 129 of them last year. He was an infantry lieutenant during the war. + Oh yes, he likes to raise roses “and all kinds of bright-colored flowers.”

8 » 2 WHAT WITH THE SUN coming out and such, you'd think that the business at the Speedway office on N. Capitol Ave, would be booming. Funny part is, though, that there hasn't been a day since last May 30, when the Speedway hasn’t sold at least one ticket. Most trouble comes when folks get a “crush” on a certain spot only to find out that about 250 other folks have the same “crush.” Old customers always get the edge. Ticket orders from foreign countries are not coming in as they did in former years. Reason: The war. The Speedway office remains one of the big attractions to out-of-town visitors. They orten come in and buy tickets, too. The bug just ites ‘em.

”» ” 2 BIGGEST OF THE LOCAL Leap Year babies was D. A. Ww. Bangs Jr., who is going to live at 5353 Graceland with his parents, although he doesn’t know it yet. . . . He weighed 10 pounds 15 ounces, said St. Vincent’s. . . . First real Easter display in town has shown up in Block’s battery of widows. . . . They even have a loud-speaker system giving forth soft Easter music. . . . The State House auto license department went through a “muscling in” business yesterday. . « . Two men circulated around advising license seekers to “save 15 cents on your notary. Why give the business to these darned Democrats.”

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

“ HAT are you teaching your children about war and their duty to their country?” A farsighted Parent-Teacher group in Cleveland has tackled the question, and probably others are doing the same. How encouraging that is! I honestly believe the destiny of mankind—whether it is to destroy itself in endless strife, or climb to new heights by way of peace—lies in the hands of American mothers and

go against public opinion. This is the main point to remember when we feel like shifting more work onto the already burdened teachers. One trains children to suspect war—and to abhor it from the time they can climb out of the bassinet. I do not mean by this that we can turn our boys into complete pacifists, or that all of us would want to do so. But we can train them to investigate the causes of war, to count its costs, and to study its after-effects on the economic and social structure of their own nation and of the world. Any mother who has done that has made g contribution to peace. And don’t tell me it can’t be done. I've brought up two sons who have 10 times as much sense about the subject as I had af their age. For I was reared by the old formula—the formula of glory words, large gestures and very little common sense on martial questions. Strangely, although our parents were. advocates of gumption in everyday affairs they had none whatever about warmaking. Jas

given no information and

were therefore victimized by zealots and promoters. : So it seems to me a mother’s chief duty today is

truth about war. If she cloesn’t do that what difference does it make whaf else she teaches? Once a

generation is committed to war, everything 5 swallowed up by evil, oud fs

A.F.of L. and C. I. O. Not Voluntary | E

authority of the United States Government under | [8

It even permits some A. F. of 1. unions to create and|

But the facts are the worse for the reason that

teachers. _But the mothers must assume the major responsibility. Schools cannot teach principles which|

Which was not their fault, of course. They were|

to teach her children to discover for themselves. the

Gen. Johnson ©

Liquor Institute Making ‘a Serigus Error in Stalling Over Adoption of

Admirable Code Drafted by ‘Tsar.

ASHINGTON, March 2.—If this writer doec2’t oY know something about fair trade practice codes, in all their forms and varieties, it certainly isn’t from lack of opportunity. That was the whole purpose of NRA. In that endeavor I think 1 saw every variety that has ever been proposed in this country and was gratuitously or otherwise advised by all the authorities on medieval guilds, modern cartels, and by the antiquarians who had written

1 | reams on similar attempts in ancient China, Egypt;

Assyria, Greece and Rome, the Hanseatic League, the Florentine Republic and all points east. Z The simplest, cleanest, fairest and best imple« mented effort of ‘this sort that has come to my ate tention is the proposed code for the distilled spirits - industry by the ‘executive director of the Distilled

Spirits -Institute—the trade association of ‘the hard

liquor boys. 5 ) Since NRA, a job as “tsar” of several industries has been suggested to me at various flattering salaries. I always dodged them because I could never see any system that I thought would work: for disciplining recalcitrants and because, in this particular industry, my mother, who wears a white ribbon, would die of shock. ; » # ”

R. STURGES, who comes from the Yale faculty and a family of Methodist ministers, apparently took it with confidence and a sure intent and worked out this masterpiece of simplicity and justice. = There isn’t an American industry that stands in need of such a policing of slick tricks in trade, monkey business with the judicial ermine and sub rosa pressure and persuasion on legislative. and executive ‘authority—local, state and national. . Cam As the Supreme Court once said, it is a barely folerated industry. It suffers from a holdover. from the Al Capone prohibition days. In some of iis parts it is rank. Everybody in the industry and many tlose observers on the outside know that. If it can’t change itself, it is in danger of annihilation. Though its sins be as scarlet, Dr. Sturges’ proposals would wash them white as snow—almost. I think it is the only basis on which this industry and American freedom in its drinking habits can preserve themselves against a new advance of the abuses. of prohibition. i

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

THINKS MUSICIANS UNFAIR TO KIDDIES By M. Rothkopf The Indianapolis Musicians’ Union is unfair to the kiddies of Indianapolis. Mr. Rinne has certainly done a wonderful thing for the City of Indianapolis in organizing the Knot Hole Band. He has given the children professional training which they could not buy at any price.

Besides the training, he has kept]

the children occupied and off the streets and has given them an opportunity to see good wholesome entertainment at the ball paik. ... It surely is the Musicians’ Union which is unfair instead of the Knot

‘Hole Band. Surely the citizens of

Indianapolis are not going to stand by and let the Musicians’ Union disrupt such a worthy organization. ane CLAIMS CAPITALISTS ARE ON SIT-DOWN STRIKE By Voice From Laber Does Mr. Meitzler deny that labor is the source of all value, that labor is prior to capital, that without labor there would have been no capital, and that labor deserves the

greater consideration? He does not,

and cannot, deny any one of these affirmations. Even the antiquated laissez faire economy of Adam Smith,

‘beloved of all the individualists,

gives him no. leg to:stand on. Who will agree with him that the “individual workman” of today will by saving become a capitalist?

That labor can and does produce wealth without the aid of capitalists is amply exemplified. How about public highway construction, public schools, municipal and state plants and institutions of many kinds, nationally owned railroads, mines, etc., in many nations, and Soviet Russia where there have been no capitalists for 22 years? -Are capitalists helping labor when they withhold work from 10 millions during all these last 10 years here in our own country? When a huge part of their own capital is on a seemingly endless sit-down strike? Of course not. Capitalists, in the last 10 years particularly, are obstructionists preventing creative labor from creating. In this period of monopoly capitalism the capitalists are more and more good-for-nothing kids of rich men. The people are nigh ready to exact accounting and restitution. Through the initiative and leadership of intelligent labor the benefactions of nature, such as the

mines, the oil, the rich timbered.

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

areas, and fertile soils, will be made to belong to everybody and not to individual capitalist families. The factories, mills and railroads, too, will be perceived as socially created institutions and will belong to

everybody. Labor will be supreme. The capitalist will be no more. He —and his. offspring—will have to.ac-

cept the status of the laboring men

and earn his living by the sweat of his brow. : Since Mr. Meitzler’s pet aversion still seems to be the “shovel leaners,” let us hope for him and his capitalist heroes a more beneficent fate under the. future labor supremacy. ”

8 » OPPOSES SENDING

{U. 8S. CAPITAL ABROAD

By Brown County Times Reader I see people standing. on the streets talking about when. times are going to get better and about billions of idle dollars rusting in money vaults of large companies in the

large cities. ‘Well, I think I can: answer that

before they will use that money to relieve poor, suffering people, they will send it overseas to help those over there whom they call Nazis, Fascists, Soviets and Socialists. Our capitalists seem more inclined. to aid those people whoin they denounce more than native-born, true-blooded Americans.

of age you are too old to work and if you haven’t provided for old age security, just move into the street. I believe it is the duty of our government to look at home first. If our billions tha: were spent during the World War had been kept at home and used to finance American people, this condition would never have existed. LTE ae tg WORLD'S ILLS BLAMED ON WALLED-UP NATIONS By H. S. The disturbance of the peace of Europe is the result of each nation’s trying to build up a self-sufficient economy. Tariff walls, exchange walls, export and import walls, military walls, racial walls—all have separated them. The word Hell in early English denoted a state of existence behind walls. Then Europe surely presents the perfect Hell. won Peace can only come when these walls are removed and the equality of each people is acknowledged and a free flow of culture and commerce becomes the accepted rule. Then they will conquer each other with friendship and armies of goodwill.

New Books at the Library

“Q\UBMARINE S-4 sunk off Provincetown with 40 men aboard!”

That tragic message, flashing across the nation a week before

Christmas in 1927, summoned from retirement the man who, as Salvage Officer of the ill-fated S-51, had won the Navy's Distinguished Service Medal 18 months before. But not even Commander Edward Ellsberg could rescue the doomed men of the S-4, thcugh he and several other skilled divers narrowly escaped death in heroic attempts during a savage, three-day gale. Intense public feeling con-

Side Glances—By Galbraith :

I CH

5 rab,

»

C7 4

1940 HY MEX SERVICE, WG. T. M. REG. U. &

"linvalidism is not infrequently the

‘1“On the Bottom,” and

These be three silent things,

vinced the Navy of the vital necessity for better rescue methods. The rescue, last year, of 33 men from the sunken *‘Squalus” is proof of the Navy's increased efficiency in caring for stricken submarines. In “Men Under the Sea” (Dodd) Commander Ellsberg narrates the overwhelming difficulties which beset the deep sea diver, and how, through ingenuity and fearlessness, he combats them. Descending to ‘sea bottom in diving armor, to investigate and explore a sunken ship, is apparently a superhuman, terrifying feat, but to divers it’s all in the day's work, although death or

payment. . Concerning “treasure hunts” the author is pessimistic, stressing their enormous costs, and demonstrating the futility of attempting to salvage such famous tragedies as the Lusitania or Titanic. There was, however, ‘one salvage expedition which rewarded its Italian crew with over five million dollars in gold and silver from the sunken British steamer “Egypt’—after six years’ work, with 12 lives lost, and over a million dollars spent. . Capt. Ellsberg has_ written several books, both fiction and fact, of the terrors and wonders of the sea. “Men Under the Sea” ranks as a worthy successor to “S-54,” “Hell on Ice.”

THREE CANDLES ' By. WANDA MITCHELL

Flickering, as they shine Across the table, ~~ ° Through the hall .

In America they say at 45 years;

» z2

O Dr. Sturges gets his beautiful magna carta all on - paper and a committee of the institute seems to have approved it. The distillers met, in convention assembled. Everybody thought that the labors of the mountain were about to bring forth a: new decalogue. It brought forth a dead mouse. 2 The twin giant producers of ‘what Westbrook Pegler calls “nutritious : and ° character-building whisky,” Seagram and Schenley, objected ‘or staHed. They were afraid that a code reciting or condemning abuses by the 10 per cent chiseling fringe would make the public think that they were prevalent in the ins dustry. If that is good argument, we know from the Ten Commandments that everybody steals, and we should repeal our penal code for fear everybody will think we are all crooks. «= = If they continue stalling, it won’t be long now. Thurman Arnold has served notice that he is aware of them and that boy is proving that he doesn’t Jecopnize the ancient obstacles and is afraid of no-

Mediation Bill

By Bruce Catton

| needs of the indi

Wagner's Move to Increase Powers Is. Surprise to Conciliation Chief.

ASHINGTON, Maréh 2.—There are a few puze zling things about Senator Wagner's “mediation bill” to promote industrial peace. from Puzzler No. 1—Contrary to published reports, Labor Department’s Conciliation Service wasn’t consulted in the drafting of the bill. head of the service, Dr. John R. Steelman, didn’t know what was in ‘the bill until he saw it in print after it had been filed. 3 Puzzler No. 2—Although the bill seeks to expand the service’s field of operations, in actual practice it might do the reverse. : J : Puzzler No. 3—The method of expansion it envisages is the kind which; a year ago, Dr. Steelman told a Congressional committee “would be disastrous.” As things are now, ‘Conciliation Service is simply a representative of the Secretary of Labor. Its sole legal reason for existence is the fact that the secretary is supposed to settle industrial disputes when and if she can. It has no authority whatever and doesn’t want any.

Prefers Slower Progress

The Wagner bill would make it a three-man board, directed to work for industrial peace in all cases where strife might interfere with interstate commerce. That gives it a broader legal base—but narrows its field by raising the contentious “commerce question.” As of today, the service will tackle a threeman dispute in a crossroads pickle factory; it can act only if both parties are willing anyway, and it never needs to worry about interstate commerce. The service finds plenty to do. Its present staff of three-score-odd is kept: busy; Dr. Steelman has set a 100-man staff as his goal. When he appeared befor a House appropriations sub-committee last year, to argue for a $30,000 boost in his allotment, he explained that he couldnt make the jump to that big staff at once; only by a very gradual expansion,” he said, could the service build itself up for a position of greater usefulness. i Loe If the Wagner bill has a chance of passage this year, thé chance isn’t visible to the naked eye. A number of Congressmen have suggested that. its introduction was a tactical move, to take some of the heat off the labor board, now" beset by enemies} . but if that was the idea the bill doesn’t seem likely to be much help. i ; i

Watch Your Health By Jane Stofford. ©. Tei

HE blustery, damp days of late ‘winter and early spring and, particularly, the changeable ‘weather are likely to cause misery for many arthritis patients. Even back in the days when arthritis was called rheumatism, patients reported that they felt worse when the weather was changing. ¢ Scientists think the reason for this may be that the circulation of the arthritis patient, because of its unstable state, does not adapt itself as readily as the non-arthritic person’s to changes in barometric pressure. As the circulation is disturbed, the patient has discomfort, but when it has adapted itself to the change in barometric pressure, the patient will feel better even if the weather remains poor. re The arthritis problem is under intensive attack by medical scientists these days, and authorities agree that much can be done both in helping the’ patient and in preventing the crippling and deformity which the condition may cause. i . Many kinds of treatment are used, and these ° should be prescribed by a physician according to the vidual ‘patient. But a cheerfuk non-worrying frame of mind and plenty of real ress

'| are stressed for all arthritis patients. A good many incidentally .

, need to learn how to rest. The

"You're also speaking Yo a notary public, | _ some good real estate. buys, I'm

an w yends the morning in bed teleph