Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 1 May 1940 — Page 13

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PAGE 13 __ The Indianapolis Times

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

Praia TOWARD RALPH BURKHOLDER MARK FERRER Business Manager

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

| SCRIPPS ~ HOWARD «EP RILEY 5551

Give LAMY and the People Will Find Thetr Own Way

tion,

—

THE WAGE-HOUR BATTLE

IN the House of Representatives yesterday the Barden Bill was 80 loaded down with amendments that its own father repudiated it, and finally the House defeated the bill by a crushing majority. 3 But the fight to defend the Wage-Hour Act from butchering did not end with that success. Today the House takes up the Norton bill, with its far milder program for revising the Wage-Hour Act. The Norton bill is open to amendment from the floor, and the apologists for dime-an-hour ‘Wages thus have another chance to scramble for exemptions, in this industry and that, from the statutory

minimum of 30 cents an hour for a 42-hour week—$12.60 a week,

We hope the House defeats, as decisively as it rejected the Barden bill, every proposed inroad on the minimum. wage standards with the single exception of the Puerto Rico exemption—a special case where the need of special treatment is recognized by all sides. At the same time we hope the House accepts some such proposal as that of Mrs. Norton for waiving the rigid maximum-hour requirements as applied to the high-salaried

employee, which are an endless source of useless red tape and annoyance.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 1, 1940

HOPE HE MEANS IT

MUSSOLIN I'S war-or-peace intentions are rivaling the is-Roosevelt-or-ain’t-he? matter as a topic for the prophets. We don’t know the answer in either case, but here is an anecdote in point that we would like to believe.

Frank Gervasi, in a dispatch to Collier's a few weeks ago, said the bald dictator himself had used the ‘“grapevine” to circulate the yarn. The story, said Mr. Gervasi, ran something like this: “On the morning Chamberlain declared war on Hitler, Mussolini called in his private secretary as usual to dictate orders for the day. The secretary appeared much worried and Mussolini asked him what was wrong.

“The secretary said he, like a million other Italians that day, was wondering whether Italy would be dragged into war. Mussolini laughed and told the secretary that Italy would only be dragged into war by the hair of Mussolini's head.”

NON-PROFIT HOSPITALIZATION

O one can quarrel seriously with any plan designed to provide some measure of medical protection for lowincome families, be it public or private. There is a quarrel, however, with a State which does not legalize non-profit community hospital service plans— plans which have been worked out in at least 55 cities in the United States and are working successfully. It is neither fair nor just that hospital service can be offered only through the tricky device of an insurance law. The Legislature attempted to amend the law at its last session in order to give Indiana what three-quarters of the states have already done in encouraging low-income groups to protect themselves against the hazards of illness. It came to nothing when Governor Townsend vetoed the legislation. The American Hospital Association has estimated that there are more than 6,000,000 members in the various plans operating in the United States. If the private insurance companies can provide the same service that the non-profit plans offer and at comparable rates, let's have them. But let's go ahead, at the same time, with legislation that will also permit hospital groups to set up a system to aid those who want protection. There is plenty of room in this State for both.

STILL UN-HATCHED-III

N March 18 the Senate passed the Hatch Bill and sent it to the House. On March 27 a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee recommended unanimously that the bill be enacted. For the first month thereafter the full House Judiciary Committee met twice a week to talk about the Hatch Bill. Recently the committee started meeting every day to talk about the bill—that is, every day except when the members excuse themselves. to entertain visiting constituents or attend to other business. No member of the committee has stated publicly that he opposes the bill. None has expressed a wish to prevent a final vote. Indeed, those who have said anything at all about the bill have spoken of it with great affection. What a touching picture is presented by this committee, whose members are so fond of the Hatch Bill that they meet daily to talk lovingly of its noble objectives, fondle it, caress it, proclaim their accord with its high purposes, and then, as the noon bell rings, gently tuck it

back in the pigeonhole. : Since these embraces take place behind closed doors

we don’t know which of the committee's members are trying to love the Hatch Bill to death. But for the record let it be noted that winter has gone, spring is passing, and summer and adjournment are on their way.

YOUTH INDOMITABLE those who fear that depression years have sapped the spirit of American youth—that the oncoming generation will be easily discouraged from high achievement—we commend the story of John C. Seed of Oak Park, Ill, a 19.old Princeton University freshman. : Six weeks ago young Mr. Seed, attempting to climb the ed walls of Nassau Hall to steal the bell-clapper from the fell 85 feet and suffered fractures of two vertebrae. a cast from collarbone to waist. Yet the other t he and two classmates, armed with a crowbar, slipped st the watchman at Old Nassau, jimmied the cupola

2d triumphantly stole the Nel clapper. : : '

ivi cupola,

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

Mr. Spelvin, Average American, Sizes Up the State of the World And Decides He'll Just Go Fishing.

EW YORK, May 1~—George Spelvin, American, has. been having a hard wrestle with his oconscience and principles, his ignorance and superstitions, and a desire to chuck the whole business and go fishing. It is about the war. He thinks the Germans under Hitler are out to conquer as much of the world as they believe they can police and exploit,’and after Poland and Norway

he has no doubt that if they feel equal to the job they will start up our street when the British and French are rounded up. Mr, Spelvin has recovered from his early belief that Hitlerism was an antidote for communism and has now come to regard it as a Communist revolution with racial and nationalistic trimmings. He has noticed, in Czechoslovakia and Norway and, to a less extent, here in the United States, a parallel between the methods of the Communists and the Nazis. He has noticed that the Nazis established cells in the guise of patriotic or cultural societies which are devoted to Hitler in the same way that Bolos acknowledge Stalin, and always pretend to want to save this country from the folly of war. A few years ago the Communists were using the same line, preaching disarmament while Russia maintained the biggest, if the dumbest, army in the world, and exhorting Americans to beware the war-mongers who thought it might be a wise idea to whittle a few arrows of defense. 2 2 ” E wants the British and French to knock the ears off the Nazis, and he would like to help them

do it to the extent of selling them some soldier tools for cash and possibly, later on, on credit. But when he tries to picture the state of the world after the war, even with the Allies victorious, he can't see anything but more communism or Hitlerism.

He sees millions of men suddenly released from the ranks and restraints of the armies and dumped back on a system known by the big-busted name of capitalistic economy, which will be unready to receive them back into peaceful, productive occupa=tions. He sees unrest and disorders ensuing and eventually the imposition of dictatorial or totalitarian government. Therefore, he can’t see any reason for fighting Naziism, except that it is a terrible thing. Mr. Spelvin knows the Germans started this war, and, far from believing that the British or French, or both, started or desired it, is inclined to blame them because they didn't take the initiative,

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E thinks they should have knocked Hitler out of the Rhine that time, and certainly should have spent some money on arms instead of economizing and hoping for the best in order to keep down their taxes. Yet he figures that in order to keep step with Hitler they would have had to abandon their democratic liberties and their system of finance and commerce, constituting, in all, the very things for which they are now fighting. The baffling part of it all to Mr. Spelvin is his fear, amounting to a gloomy belief, that the Allies will not be able to pay for the soldier tools which they will need from this country and which he wants them to have, and will presently require credit, even if they should win, and he comes then to the realization that the Americans would be paying for a large share of the party. He thinks this would be ruinous to the American economy added onto the present debt, and wonders what would happen then. He is glad he will not be the next President of the United States.

Inside Indianapolis

The Ball Park Attendance, Traffic Problems and That Old, Old Swindle.

HERE has been some eyebrow-lifting the last couple of weeks about the slim attendance at the Indianapolis baseball team's games. Some folks just point to it as evidence that baseball is through. Others complain bitterly about the baseball pool racket taking money away from the ball park. Still others just pass it off as a weather condition. The answer is really something else again. Baseball men admit privately that daytime baseball is finished in the minor leagues, both the high minors and the low minors. All they count on is a good opening dav crowd and good attendance at Sunday games. Then they figure all the week-day games as just additional spring training, while waiting for the weather to warm up so they can start night baseball. With night baseball will come the crowds. ' ” ” ”

A CHAP WHO APPARENTLY knew very little about Indianapolis traffic rules drove up to the stop-and-go light at 16th and Meridian Sts., stuck out his left hand and proceeded to make his illegal turn, oblivious to the stare of a waiting motorcycle officer. . The officer wearily trailed off in pursuit of the offender, . . . But seeing the cycle heading up the street, a quick-on-the-trigger motorist promptly turned left, too, probably clucking his tongue over the plight of the other fellow. . . . The Kentucky Derby people in announcing reservations for the big hoss race, said one of the Indianapolis people there would be Mr. Charles F. Tucker. ” = ”

THE LATEST BULLETIN of the Better Business Bureau indicates that the old Mexican prisoner swindle is still going on. . . . Inaignapolis people are still receiving the letters and the Bureau concludes a bit sadly that the swindle must be successful because of the fact that it continues year after year. . . . The latest victim was a university professor from Chicago who parted with $4500 in return for a phony check on a Houston bank. , We happened to walk into a department store vesterday and guess what the executive we saw said. . + + Yessir, he said: “Who do you think is going to win that Republican fight?”. . . It just goes to show you.

A Woman's Viewpoint

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

NEsuy a billion dollars for relief and frenzied spending for war. A fine picture of America in 1940! And where do we go from here? To join in Europe's Dance of Death, most likely. For honestly now, wouldn't that be an easy way of saving our face? To most of us evasion is always the better part of valor anyway, and how much more exciting it is to wave the flag than to tackle the hard business of making life decent for everybody. In the first place. we have not started to solve the problem of distributing the profits of production; unemployment figures have not noticeably declined. What is worse, the tone of official statements from Washington grow daily more moral. So moral, in fact, that they are not very convincing. War has always been the quickest way out of economic quagmires for politicians. And though everything on the face of the earth is subject to change, the politician remains just about the same through the ages. He is out to keep himself or his group or his party in power. And may the devil take the people. After the wars are over the people are either dead or starved into submission anyway. Let's not forget, either, that half of those people are women. And American women, I am firmly convinced, are unalterably opposed to any further entanglements in foreign fights. Their instincts tell them such a thing must not happen again. But how much power do you suppose the women of our country hold in times like these? Is their will to keep out sufficiently strong to restrain the political forces and the high-minded idealists who jee bent on dragging us in? My guess to that one Ss - o> There's too much hocus-pocus going on. The sophists are out with their most persuasive arguments. “Shall this righteous nation,” they cry, “stand inert and see human freedom destroyed by tyrants?” The same old line! Remember? And history proves that when the American turns world evangelist, he's a gon gosling-. xipe. far plowing,

. THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES .

No Man's Land!

The Hoosier Forum

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

WONDERS IF CENTRAL COUNTING WILL WORK By Citizen With the primary elections just around the corner, one wonders how successful the central count-

ing system will be. The same election board rules that witnessed the frauds of the last primary. Party machines are desperately anxious to elect their slates. The Democratic political powers in Marion County have served notice that their favored candidates are to win. Will some of these leaders be able to use dictator methods again or will they observe the sanctity of the ballot in true American fashion? We'll soon know the answer. = EJ o

CLAIMS DISCRIMINATION ON WPA MUSIC PROJECT

By Clarence Brown

This article is inspired by what I consider to be discriminatory practices WPA Music Project launched Oct. | 1, 1939. I have been certified for! work relief since August, 1939. I am still on the waiting list and the reason is obvious. In order to make it quite clear it would take one back to the time when the recreation division was first organized and space will not permit. However, through skillful manipu- | lation, later aided by the 30-day | lay-off rule the Negro musician was finally ousted from the project. The aforesaid rule was the only ax that could be used legally to cut off the musicians and to supplement the! 30-day rule to keep us off of the! project, it is my opinion that the| so-called Auditioning Committee! was framed. The oniy motive that I can see for the formation and the procedure of such a committee was to discredit as well as to disqualify the Negro musician. I have been identified with the music profession more than 23 years as an instrumentalist, teacher and band and orchestra director. And, musically speaking, there isn't anything pertaining to the art that the recreation division has on its curriculum that I am not able to take care of.

in assignments to the new |

But, through what I consider to be a trumped-up process, myself and other eligible men are denied | an opportunity to earn a temporary |

in their respective trade or profession. Monday, April 1, 1940, my-

livelihood on a public program that | * | was designed to aid the unemployed |

(Times readers are invited to express their 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.)

views

self and four others made an appearance before the Auditioning Committee and anyone with the mentality of an imbecile could have seen that the whole setup was prearranged for the aforementioned purpose only. The procedure was a direct insult to a musician’s intelligence and it would be impossible for one to pass and win an assignment on his merits.

I am writing mainly because I think the public should know the reason why there are no Negro musicians on the WPA Music Project. You may use my full name to this article; I haven't anything to lose. Being certified for eight or ten months doesn't pay any bills. ” EJ 2 SUGGESTS ROOSEVELT READ CONSTITUTION By Mrs. Mabel German We read with much surprise that F. D. R. is concerned about anything so “American” as the “Monroe Doctrine.” Delving into law and history books; seeking “knowledge.” We didn't know there was “anything” he did not already know. Now we suggest he go a little farther in the “right’ direction and read the Constitution of these United States in his sincere research for knowledge and ascertain

the meaning of “representative” government. . . . Then he would render the Hoosier state a great service by passing along his findings to Sherman Minton, Senator “elected by the people” to represent “them” and “not Roosevelt.” We have also read F. D. R.’s address to the Young Democrats of the nation. This turned out to be another of his famous “illusions.” The idea of there ever being an “overproduction” in this country, is nothing short of scatterbrain. (There is a word coined to fit the New Deal to order.) Particularly is this true of products of the farm. This “overproduction” was caused by inability to buy. But this fact has never occurred to the New Deal Wallace. New Deal Scatterbrain runnerup pays farmers not to farm at the expense of the other taxpayers, then imports these same curtailed products from foreign countries. This is supposed to boost the price of these products. But does it? These New Dealers, calling themselves “Democrats,” in high places are long on words, but far short on facts and beneficial results. It's long past time to put such scatterbrains as F. D. R., Wallace, Perkins, Minton, McNutt, Farley, Jackson and Ickes on the permanent retiring list. Voters can render their country no greater service. Elect statesmen, those with some conception of their duties as servants of a “free people.”

” ” 8 SEEKS ENLIGHTENMENT ON FORD'S REMARK By George Maxwell

At the risk of appearing dumb, I'll ventur: to ask what did Henry Ford mean when he said that poli-

tics is on its way out?

New Books at the Library

HE reader who has a window box in the city or an estate

in the country or who has no garden at all, will enjoy Julian Meade’s new book “Bouquets and Bitters” (Longmans). This is really a travel book of gardens, for Mr. Meade has traveled as a garden lecturer all over the country and reports his experiences and adventures in this volume. In New York, he visited Edna Ferber's penthouse garden where a

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willow tree grew 40 feet high, and several apple and peach trees flourished. The author seems greatly impressed that Miss Ferber's cook | actually preserved fruit from these trees. He tells us, also, of Dorothy Can- | field Fisher's garden in Vermont, {of Dorotiny Dix’s tropical gardens (in Louisiana, and of a visit to | Ellen Glasgow in Richmond, Va. | The movie fans will enjoy the ac- | count of his visit to the gardens

stars. Although this book has little in it to improve the gardener’s skill, it will give him a pleasant hour or two and inspiration galore to grow bigger and better flowers. Mr. Meade concludes his engaging little book with the following philosopy, which is said to be a Chinese proverb: If you want to be happy three hours, Get drunk, If you want to be happy three days, Kill a pig, If you want to be happy three weeks, Get married, If you want to be happy aiways, Be a gardener.

MAY SHINES

By MARY P. DENNY

May shines in golden light, In the crocus shining bright, In the dandelion of gold, In the roses that unfold, In the beauty of the sky, In the rainbow shining high, In the light of early morn, Over fields of fresh plowed com, In the daisy and the grass, In the paths where rabbits pass, In all beauty of the day, Shining through the country way, May shines in all things bright, Sparkling in the springtime light.

DAILY THOUGHT

Ye shall not fear them: for the Lord your God he shall fight for you.—Deuteronomy 3:22.

be made,

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of Joan Bennett, Norma Shearer, Harold Lloyd, and other Hollwood

TO ESCAPE from evil we must as far as possible, like God; and this resemblance consists in becoming just, and holy, and wise~Plato.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 1, 1940

Gen. Johnson Says—

Allies’ Lack of Credit, U. S. Need For Tin and Rubber Form the Basis For a Logical Barter Arrangement.

ASHINGTON, May 1.—Several years ago B: M, Baruch, on the basis of his World War exe perience in economic warfare, began to urge on this Government the need for accumulating reserve supe plies of tin and rubber—materials absolutely necese sary for our defense which at present come from halfe way round the world—sources which may possibly be threatened if the war spreads. These sources are in British, French and Dutch

hands. A little later when our supplies on cotton began to pile up threateningly, he advocated trading surplus cotton, which those three countries need and do not produee, for their surplus rubber and tin. This column has urged that action beginning even earlier and consistently ever since. For a variety of reasons no such action has ever been taken—except in piddling insufficiency. ” ” ” OW the British and French are becoming ine creasingly dependent on us as a base of supe plies. Our laws prohibit our selling fo them except for cash. There is a great commotion among our interventionists to relax these laws sooner or later to buy for us a stake in the war. That is going to be a difficult bill of goods to sell to the American people, We did that once before. But are there not here the mutual elements of accommodation? Britain and France can make any kind of deal that appeals to them with their private interests who control these supplies—just as they have taken cver their American securities in exchange for their kinds of currency and their bonds. Our Government can deal with the problems of paying for great reserves-of tin and rubber in one of several ways. It can ship them cotton controlled by our Government, or it can advance them credits to purchase other munitions against shipment here of tin and rubber. EJ ” o HIS is, of course, nothing like a solution of theip problem. A year’s supply of tin and rubber would probably not exceed $250,000,000 in value, whila' their requirements here will be many times as great. If we piled up two years’ reserves safely agreeing to keep it out of commercial circulation except for exe traordinary war manufacture, it would afford them a credit of no more than half a billion, After all, that ain't hay. The lack of that vital raw materials is just one gap in our defense in these dangerous and swiftly moving times. There are plenty of others. Congress is appropriating vast sums for defense. The people approve because they see the deadly necessity. These great authorizations have a soothing effect. But appropriations are not canal locks, guns, air bases, air and naval fleets, tanks, automatic rifles and motorized, mechanized divisions. At our present rates of production there is a gap of from two to seven years between. Our preparedness programs are move ing as drowsily as England's before she woke up to find the nightmare Hitler, right in bed with her.

Business By John T. Flynn

Producing More Goods and Services Only Way to Increase U. S. Income

EW YORK, May 1.—William Green, president of the A. F. of L., has offered a plan of recovery to the Monopoly Investigating Committee. One of his proposals is that we “increase the national income by 10 billion dollars.” This is getting to be a favorite device of those who think they know how to produce recovery. President Roosevelt says we should increase the national income to 90 billion. Others have special and favorite figures, But having said that they leave us precisely where we were before they opened their mouths. The great question is—how to increase the national income by 10 or 20 billions or even a billion. After all, what is the national income? It is the food, the clothes, the houses, the goods and services of all sorts which are produced in any given period of time in this country. The farmer who raises a thousand bushels of wheat has added a thousand bushels of wheat to the national income. There is only one way to increase the national ine come and that is to produce more goods and services. There is one sure way to produce a smaller national income and that is to reduce the amount of goods and services that we produce. There is only one way to produce more goods—and that is to put people to work producing more. You can shred that statement and maul it around from now to doomsday but you cane not get away from it, So the question is not just how to “put people to work” but how to put people to work producing wealth, If two men make two pairs of shoes a week you do not produce more income by having three men produce two pair of shoes in the same time.

Expressing It in Pounds

Let's express the national income in pounds. Suppose we produce a hundred billion pounds of goods in a year—all of us working together. And in doing this we produce a money income—that it, pass around in dollars—a hundred billion dollars. Now suppose we pass around two hundred billion dollars instead of just a hundred; but still produce only a hundred billion pounds of goods. Have we increased the national ine come? We most certainly have not. We have not affected it at all. It is still that hundred billion pounds of goods that we produced before, The cotton farmers imagine that if they produce a million bales of cotton less but can sell them for a hundred million dollars more that they have increased the national income. But they haven’t. They have actually decreased the national income. I do not mean that money is not important, or that prices are not important. But I mean that if labor leaders and farmers and merchant and producers could stop thinking solely in terms of dollars and prices when they measure what they produce—their own income and the nation's—we might begin to think more clearly about this subject. You do not create 10 billion dollars of income and then put men to work with it. You put men to work and they create the income, \

Watching Your Health

By Jane Stafford

HIS day (May 1) belongs particularly to the boys and girls of America because it is the day the Fiesident has proclaimed as Child Health Day. In. issuing his proclamation, President Roosevelt called especially “upon the boys and girls of the nation to note the gains in health they have made during the past year and to share in efforts to improve the health of children and of our whole population.” Junior and Sister, if they are in school, know what this means, but many parents, and aunts ans uncles and grandparents, may not realize the ways in which boys and girls can work for better health fce theme selves and for others in the community. First thing these youngsters can do is to learn and remember all that their teachers and their family doctor tell them about their health. Next thing is to apply it. This means going to bed every night in time to get nine or 10 hours of sleep they need. It means getting up promptly so as to have time for a full breakfast and for tooth-brushing, washing and other morning preparations before leaving for school. Teachers and doctors tell Junior and Sister that they must eat fresh vegetables and fruit, as well as meat and potatoes, and drink milk so as to get plenty of the vitamins and minerals needed for growth and health. So these boys and girls do not turn up their noses at carrots, and they do not eat so much candy - and sweet food between meals that they have no room for other foods. Junior and Sister are concerned over the health of younger brothers and sisters. They teach the 3 and 4-year-olds lessons of safety on the street and at play. Diet and health standards in many homes are raised, to the benefit of both adult and younger memes bers of the Jamies as a result vu. ...e lessons children