Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 2 May 1940 — Page 18

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The Indianapolis Times

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

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

Owned and published daily (except Sunday) by The Indianapolis Times ered by carrier, 12 cents Publishing Ceo, a week.

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Price in Marion Coun ty, 3 cents a copy; deliv-

Give LAght ang the People Will Find Ther Own Way

THURSDAY, MAY 2, 1040

FOR PROSECUTOR AND TREASURER OUNTY PROSECUTOR DAVID M. LEWIS will go into Tuesday’s primaries unopposed in his own party. But on the Republican side, six candidates will fight it out to oppose Mr. Lewis in November. The best man and the best candidate in the Republican field, in our judgment, is Russell I. Richardson. He comes nearer our conception of what a prosecutor should be than any of the other candidates. Because it is the key to the native decency of the community, the office is one of the most important to be filled at the November election. It calls for a man of courage, integrity and fairness. If Mr. Richardson should be nominated by his party, we believe the voters would be fortunate in having two strong candidates to choose between in November. In the race for county treasurer, each party has three candidates. The incumbent, Walter C. Boetcher, seems to us the ablest candidate in the Democratic field. His nomination appears to be a foregone conclusion. Of the Republicans, the candidacy of Neal Grider impresses us more favorably than any of the others. Mr. Grider has not sought public office before, but his range of experience in the business life of this community ought to commend him to many voters.

NOT DEAD YET—BY A LONG SHOT HE knifing of the new Hatch Bill is one of the big who-done-it mysteries of this election-year Congress. It happened behind the fastened doors of the House Judiciary Committee—in the presence of professed friends of this measure of which the sole purpose is to curb, in a small way, the use of taxpayers’ money for private political purposes. The chairman of the committee remains as silent as a horned toad in Texas. But Senator Hatch and Rep. Dempsey, the sponsors of the bill, can with reason cry “et tu, Hatton Sumners!” For the skill with which the wound was inflicted leaves no doubt that the hand of the gentleman from Dallas left its print upon the dagger. It is not fully known yet what other hands assisted in the deed. It is known that the attempted assassination was not exclusively a partisan conspiracy: at least one Republican, maybe more, participated. It is known, too, that the legislator who took the initiative was Mr. Creal of Kentucky— the state whose political scandals in the primary campaign of 1938 provided the humus in which the original Hatch | Act of 1939 was germinated.

More will be known later as light penetrates further |:

into the darkness where elected representatives of the people not only met in secrecy, but cast secret ballots to keep knowledge of their votes one from the other, lest word leak back to their constituents. More will be known, for the Hatch Bill is not dead yet—not by a long shot. = w = » = = Tomorrow Rep. Dempsey will file a petition to discharge the Judiciary Committee from further consideration of the bill—i. e., to serve notice that a majority of the membership of the House disapproves the knifing and insists | that the bill be brought out for a vote. The discharge-petition method is a safety valve de-

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

It's Ironic but Natural That Klan Should Use Communists’ Tactics to Fight Bolos in C. |. O.

EW YORK, May 2—Tom Stokes, the ScrippsHoward Washington reporter, writes from Anderson, S. C., that the Ku Klux Klan is planting its members in unions of the C. I. O. with the purpose of spying on those organizations, gaining control and converting them into company unions. Well, isn't that the way it was bound to go? The C. I. O. permitted the Communists to sneak into their unions under orders from Moscow and

with the purpose of gaining control and converting them into Communist fronts. Many of those Communists are spies who pretend not to be Communists but always flock with the Communists and follow the party orders as received from Moscow. They are anti-Americans no less than the members of the anti-American Bund established here under the auspices of the Nazi Gevernment. They spy on the business firms which employ them, spy on their fellow-workers, harass and terrorize genuine Americans in the membership of their unions and, by cunning manipulation of voting systems,, put American citizens unwillingly in the position of indorsing anti-American Communist interests by resolutions, “ 4 EMBERS of the American Newspaper Guild who intimately observed the operations of this Stalinist organization in New York and in California have seen the Communists at work. In New York the Communists controlled the elections and the money and savagely abused Americans who dissented from their purposes. In California last fall, the state C, I. O, under Communist control, voted to support the so-called Ham N° Eggs Plan. Not because the Communists believed in Ham 'N’ Eggs but because they figured that if it won and then failed in practice the disappointment of the eligibles and their lazy dependents below the age of 350 would touch off riots up and down the state. Riots breed revolution. That is why the California C. I. O. indorsed Ham 'N' Eggs, even though this measure forbade labor to strike and even though it was a cruel racket. For a long time, in California, the Communists of the C. I. O. operated their terror through goons or sluggers, but they now seem to have abandoned such methods in favor of a less spectacular but even more effective terrorism. Now they hold over the Americans the fear of expulsion from their unions, which would mean exclusion from work and, of course, privation for their families. Or they fine them heavily for offenses against the discipline dictated by the Communists. , = = » O it was bound to come, this use of the Com-

munist method of boring from within against | the Communists, and they should be the last to pro- | test, although, of course, they will be among the | Possibly they will counter-attack by planting | their members in the Ku Klux Klan, although that |

first.

seems unlikely, because, with all that the Communist and the Kluxer have in common, they nevertheless are totally unlike. There is nothing to choose between the Communists and fellow-travelers and the Ku Klux Klan. They both employ the same methods, so neither one provides a refuge from the other. But as between the company union and the union controlled from Moscow there is a choice. The company union is American and wants to live and, living, must provide jobs. The Moscow union is Russian and the mortal enemy of the company and the jobs.

Inside Indianapolis

The Town's Latest Gambling Rage; |

And Boats on the Little Mississippi.

NEW gambling rage is sweeping the town and youll probably be hearing about it within a few days. It’s all based on that popular radio program in which they give away a thousand dollars if the person called on the telephcne answers, Well, the thing happening here is a 48-place pool. The 48 tickets each represent a state. If the holder's ticket, say, calls for Indiana and an Indiana resident wins on the radio program, the holder wins the pool. It’s all in the fun stage so far and the winner gets all. We haven't heard of the profit motive, but it will probably come along later. At one insurance building, a ticket costs five dollars. To save you the job of multiplying, we figured it out. The winner gets $240. It's even spread to the public office buildings. The Court House has two, one for a quarter and the other for a half a dollar The City Hall just started one, but it's for fifteen cents. They're more conservative over there, anyway. = = = WILLIAM H. FALBE. who lives at 601 E. 42d. is

signed to prevent the will of the majority from being frustrated by an unrepresentative handful of men—in this case | 14 out of the House membership of 435. When the Dempsey petition is filled with the required | 218 names, and the Hatch Bill is exhumed from the private | graveyard of the Judiciary Committee and exposed to the life-giving daylight of a public roll-call, we may expect a different result. In the meantime friends of good government, taxpayers who resent the use of their money as a featherbed for wardheelers, will watch with close interest to see whether their | particular Congressmen sign or duck the petition.

WE HOPE SO, JUDGE

E note that Judge Karabell, in taking over the Municipal Court traffic docket for May, has warned motorists they must “expect to pay the penalty” if convicted of traffic violations. Certainly they should. That the judge should even feel it necessary to issue a statement on the subject seems to us pretty clear evidence | that this has not been the case in the past.

NO OFFENSE wp AKE that basket off!” said John Adami, addressing a woman whose hat interfered with his view of a movie in New York. The lady’s escort objected to this language, a fist fight followed, and Mr. Adami was haled before Magistrate Anna M. Kross, who now has released him, ruling that— “There is no offense in calling a woman's hat a basket. Most of us do wear crazy, ridiculous hats, anyway.” Of Magistrate Kross we say, as was said of another Portia, “0, wise young judge! , .. O, wise and upright

judge!”

ANOTHER WORRY SMALL item on an inside page of The New York « Herald-Tribune has had us between the jitfers and the jumps all morning. It says: “If the earth's polar ice caps would melt, the greater part of Florida would be under water.” There may be some people, in southern California, who wouldn't care. But we would care. We can think of regions of the world that might be no worse off under water, but Florida suits us as is. Why pick on it, or even the greater | part of it? If there's any danger of the polar ice caps meltwhy doesn't the Government do something about it? isn’t why bring the magter up? Haven't we got

a census squad leader and vesterdav as he was sit ting at his desk in the Federal Building, a telegraph messenger boy, ordered as the “worst singer” in the company's employ, walked up to Mr. Falbe and sang “Happy Birthday.”. . . Mr. Falbe blushed. for what he said was the first time in his 62 years. . . The other squad leaders financed the act. . . . The State Employment Service claims it wants to know what the requirements are for the jobs it fills. . . . So yesterday one file clerk in the department put on a pedometer. . . . It clocked her as walking a mile and three quarters during four hours of work. = = » A CHAP WHO WORKS IN OUR office asked us yesterday if we'd seen the giant motorboat pass by on a truck bound for St. Louis. , . . We said no, we hadn¥. . . . It was awfully big, he said. and then as an afterthought added: “Is there any water around St. Louis.” . . We told him sadly that the poor place only had the Mississippi. . . . A letter from a reader: “If two blackjacks are dealt in dealing, one to the player and one to the dealer, does the player get the deal or does the dealer keep it.” , . , Didnt you know that the dealer always wins?

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

LINTIE WINFREY, club editor of The Cleveland Press, has made a sensible experiment. Instead of wearing herself out seeking justification for the existence of women's clubs from the members them-

| selves, she has consulted their husbands, and there,

in boid print, is fixed forever the official O. K. Yes, the husbands approve, which ought to stop all argument for a spell. Most opposition to fem-

| inine organizations, you know, is based on the theory

that by belonging to them women neglect the poor dear men and let their children run wild. Statistics deny the charge, of course. But who ever heard of tritics of our sex listening to statistics? They spurn them. Yet I daresay the same sort of investigation carried on in any American city or town would bring forth a similar response. Why? Well, mainly because married men are not always as dumb as they look and sound. When questioned, most of them give the obvious reason for their approval—that outside activity keeps a woman mentally alert and therefore in a happier frame of mind. They are more reluctant to admit what is equally obvious—that the easiest way for a man to sidestep certain unpleasant civic duties is to turn them over to women’s clubs. And no husband with brains ever lets out the most important and only true cause for his tolerance on this subject. He is much too clever to risk having Beth, Susan, Mary or Jane decide suddenly to reform, quit her outside projects and devote her whole loving attention to her home and family. When that happens—look out, Papa! For about 9) per cent of that attention will be focussed on you. Husbands saw the dawn of real freedom when “the first feminine club was founded. Now. the more numerous the organizations are, the brighter the sun of liberty shines upon the married male. And surely it doesn't require a diagram to explain the fact. Wives who are late getting home to fix dinner do not ask embarrassing questions of tardy spouses; domestic nagging falls off as club interest increases. In short, the'b Mother becomes outside the home, the more peace and Father finds in it. 3

® =

THURSDAY, MAY 2, 1940

The Hoosier Forum

I wholly disagree with what you say, but will

defend to the death your right to say it.—Voltaire.

DENIES U. S. DRAGGED INTO LAST WAR 'By T. J. Kinney, New Castle

Now and then we hear someone {make the statement that we were dragged into the last World War {Those who are informed and who lived in that time know that it isn't the truth. The great mass of Americans, {through the overwhelming senti(ment of their Congress, joined the {Allies willingly and for good rea(son. If the spies and Bundsmen of the present German Government destroyed hundreds of American lives| 8 oo = and millions of property and tried | EXPLAINS STATUS OF ‘to inveigle Mexico in a plot to dis- WORKERS’ ALLIANCE member this nation as the Kaiser's Government did, I'm sure we'd| again join the Allies in a war upon| In order to clarify the question the gangster nation. It is unbe- pertaining to the political status of coming, to say the least, for a self- the Workers Alliance of Indiana, I [respecting people to say that we coffer this explanation. (Were dragged into the World War. | While most of our members, as 3 =» 8 individuals, are more or less inter- . ested in the outcome of the 1940 | CITES NEED FOR elections. our organization as a | POLITICAL COURAGE whole is absolutely nonpartisan in |By Clande Braddick its views. Our one desire is to have

(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.)

those who put him there? I must (still insist that political courage, also, is a necessary ingredient of statesmanship.

By Ernest Morton, Indianapolis Workers Alliance

| Like Westbrook Pegler, I have 3 reasonably good living standard

| for all those who are willing to work for it. We offer honest work for an honest living. We don't expect {something for nothing. However, we don't wish to have ourselves and

often wished I could write with {more sweetness and charity; and (again like the veteran Pegler, I am quite unable to do so. | > po ’- | Some of my correspondents, how- "2 nities on starvation because ever, put me to shame in this mat- rivate indust will not empl ter. Mr. Marvin D. Myers, for in- | PY ry mploy stance, a Fifth District Congres- | Pr 4 (sional candidate, never refers to We wholeheartedly support the

‘his opponents as “greedy and un- [Pil which was introduced by Rep.

Vito Marcantonio of New York (HR8615), more generally known as The American Standards Work and Assistance Act. This same bill was brought before the U. S. Senate by Senator Pepper of Florida. Regardless of his or her political affiliations, we shall support any candidate who will support this and clher similiar measures. Generally speaking, we are in favor of liberal or New Deal principles, but we are not pledged to the support of anyme or group of candidates.

» ” » SAYS SYPMPATHY NO LREATOR OF JOBS By R. Sprunger The Tories must think all workers are as stupid as they are in their false concern over welfare of work-

ers and expressions of sympathy for the unemployed. Sympathy does not solve the unemployment problem the result of the economic injustice of capitalism. Neither does stupid remarks by egotistic bores that sound like a Horatio Alger character, Dear dispossessed workers and paupers, why don't you get off your back and make a job for yourself by taking in Saft others washing and presto, you Will be prosperous. Or another way would be to revive the “rugged individual” apple “stores” on every corner. Maybe that wouldn't be so good because they say an apple a day keeps the doctor away and then the doctors would all have to go on relief.

{scrupulous” politicians, but rather {He takes issue, he says, with the | Townsend Plan leadership for “at-

date into accepting the Townsend | program,” thus inferring that his|

. ‘tempting to frighten every candi. New Books at the Library

political opponents have been guilty | only of fear—an understandable hu- | JF you are an adult who has graduman frailty. ‘4 ally become aware of how little | Now I'm willing to make allow-| you got from your schooling: if, ances. No man can serve as a lacking such opportunities, yon have statesman in Congress without first been puzzled to know how to over{being elected; and this means he | come a deprivation you need not remust qualify first as an adroit pol- gret too much; if you are a student |itician. There are limits, however, | who would know how to help yourbeyond which a man cannot go and |self to education; if you are a retain the qualities of statesman- teacher whose profession should |ship. If a man is induced to barter take cognizance of vital criticism— his soul and honor for a dubious you should read Mortimer J. Adpolitical advantage, who can say he ler's “How to Read a Book” (Simon will not barter them again in the & Schuster). halls of Congress, and double-cross| It serves two functions: To in-

Side Glances—By Galbraith

pL Cs aN INC. T. M. REG. U. 8. PAT, OFF. a

"Card party or no card party, I'm coming home the way | am— and | ain't sneakia' through any kitchen door"

terest you in the profit of reading and to assist you in cultivating the art. Those who can read well profit by having disciplined minds, and discipline leads to free minds and free men. Of the three types of reading—for amusement, for information and for understanding—it is the last which is discussed by Adler and which offers us a real challenge. No royal road of easy attainment is to be found here, though assurance is given that anyone of average intelligence, if he has sufficient interest to apply the rules, can learn to read for enlightenment. Such reading calls for intense mental activity; therefore fatigue is an indication of real reading. Passive reading “does not feed a mind; it makes blotting paper out of it.” For most people it is hard work and slow work. : The first part of the book is a general discussion of reading; the second part is devoted to the rules; and the third part considers reading irr its relation to the rest of one's life.

SPRING SONG

By MARGARET HUGHES

The showers of April are over, All hail to the Goddess of May. Forgot are the chill blasts of winter, O’er long in the past did they stay The gloom and dull vapors have lifted, As the curtain goes up on a play.

How gladly we greet the new season, To reveal in each perfect day; Reviewing the plan of creation, That is wrought in a wonderful way. The showers of April are over, All hail to the Goddess of May.

DAILY THOUGHT

And they spake unto him, saying, If thou wilt be a servant unto this people this day, and wilt serve them, and answer them, and speak good words to them, then they will be thy servants for ever.—I Kings 12:7.

LET THY SERVANTS be such as thou_ mayest command, and entertain Tone about thee but those

I iie’R

to w thou givest wages.—Sir

Gen. Johnson Says—

Roosevelt Faces Much Harder Task Than Wilson Did in Selling Interventionist Policy to Nation,

ASHINGTON, May 2.—The rapidly crystallizing ’ . policy of this Administration to defend America by mixing aggressively in European and Asian power politics, with whatever consequence that may carry, is sure to be an issue this year. As in 1916, the sentiment against that, west of the Alleghenies, is overwhelming. In 1917, we were at war and, before the end of that year, with complete

and even enthusiastic support of the country. Yet immediately after the declaration of war, there was no such sentiment except en the Eastern seaboard. I know, because I had undertaken the organization of the selective draft in every American community on a plan which, without popular support was almost, sure to fail. There were no bayonets behind it. Most of the gray hairs I had until recently, I got in the first anxious 30 days of that effort. Was the ambitious experiment going to flop? In most states, except in the East, there was only aloof and skeptical if not sullen acceptance. By the persuasive power of the eloquence and idealism of Woodrow Wilson, by some arts we used of blatant ballyhoo and hokum national high-pressure selling, that was changed in a few weeks to a war psychosis which approached hysteria. " n ” OODROW WILSON could not do that because he prepared the seed bed by months of patient restraint and, of far more importance, because we were actually in, and not merely flirting with, a bloody war. Can Franklin Roosevelt do that—which to be elected, he must do or sincerely change the whole course of his foreign policy. Can he do it when we are not engaged in war, and when no such seed bed is ready? : He has another handicap which Mr. Wilson had not. This country had then never tried a mass adventure in the double-crossing war diplomacy of Europe. We tried in 1917 and 1918 and we know it to have been the most disastrous gamble this nation ever made. : There is no comparison between the di=astrously accomplished task of Woodrow Wilson in selling this country an aggressive interventionist policy and the job which faces Mr. Roosevelt if he is to be elected. = o o

PART from that handicap, is the simple military question of whether we can not protect our country by scattering our strength over vast areas, relying in part on others and creating in ourselves a sort of protectorate for the blunders of the Allies or whether, as a pure solution in strategy, the ob-

vious course is not to prepare to the uttermost— retain our interior lines, our concentrated strength, the advantages of our natural barriers and our unquestioned unity and morale for defense as a3zainst our divided willingness for foreign adventure and entanglement. It is a reversal of every American traditional (if not constitutional political principle and of every military and naval axiom. Coupled with the reversal of the third term tradition, it will certainly be a mas= sive handicap. Only the persuasive skill of Mr. Roose= velt, his literary ghosts, and the greater pulling power of four billion dollars, coupled with possible Republican campaign blundering could overcome it. Yet, so great is the power of good or ill of all these elements, that I for one, am not yet ready to say it can’t be done,

Business By John T. Flynn

Despite Recent Scandals, Politics Still Rule Commerce Department

EW YORK, May 2—1If there is one thing certain in this world it is that you cannot possibly get decent administration of government under the spoils system. When, therefore, the New Deal came into power and the spoils system was brought in on a scale perhaps never before equaled in the government service, friends of the New Deal warned against it and predicted that sooner or later it would corrupt the whole movement. It was this which produced the scandal in the Air Commerce Bureau of the Department of Commerce. After all, this bureau was responsible for the safety of thousands who traveled by air—the lives of passengers and the progress of the industry. It took a major tragedy and the death of a U. S. Sendtor to arouse the nation and cause Congress to take this function out of the Corimerce Department. The record since has been notable.

But the Commerce Department is still a sink-hole of peanut politics. Under Secretary Roper, ably as< sisted by Jim Farley and President Roosevelt, the Department was and still is loaded with political hacks recruited from all over the country to please New Deal politicians. I have already recalled several instances of how appointments were made in the air service of that department. Here is another. Mr. Roper was named Secretary of Commerce as part of the reward of Senator McAdoo who had switched the California delegates to Roosevelt at Chicago and made his nomination possible. Mr. McAdoo therefore enjoyed especial spoils advantages in that department.

Protesting Official Ousted

He wanted a constituent named as an aeronautical inspector. When the constituent’s record was looked up by a conscientious assistant secretary, it was found the man had been convicted of larceny and that he was charged with bootlegging by airplane from Mexico. But he was appointed. His chief sponsor while his appointment was pending—the man who obtained Mr. McAdoo’s influence —was shortly convicted on eight counts of embezzle= ment. The new appointee was assigned as an inspector to a Western state. Then he recommended a doctor as a medical examiner in the bureau. The doctor was appointed and it developed later that before his appointment he had been convicted of bribery in connection with the awarding of a contract for paving in his home town while a member of the City Council and had served a year in jail. This is not an isolated case. I have already mentioned others. Anybody who would like to know more about the politics which bedeviled that de< partment might read the revelations by Ewing Y. Mitchell, who was Assistant Secretary of Commerce under Mr. Roper, and who was dropped because of his incessant protests against these scandals.

Watching Your Health

By Jane Stafford

ORKING women, whether they are domestia servants, beauty shop operators, restaurant or factory workers, should learn the principles of first aid so that they can protect themselves and fellow workers from the often serious results of minor injuries. This is one lesson that may be drawn from a study, made by the U. S. Women’s Bureau, of induse trial injuries to women. “Most women hurt on their jobs are injured needlessly,” declares Margaret T. Mettert in reporting facts collected from state agencies. : Infection follows a very much higher percentage of women's than of men’s injuries,” she continues, “The predominance of cuts, bruises and burns among ° women ihdicates that the seriousness of women's ace cidents may be successfully combatted by measures to enforce the use of first aid for every injury, no matter how slight. Severity of many injuries could be lessened and infection prevented.” Examples of the many preventable accidents to working women are: The death of a maid from an infection of a thumb that she pierced with a fork: the death of a janitress from an infected knee caused by a scratch in cleaning a stairway; the beauty shop operator burned fatally when an electric dryer shorte

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circuited; the woman who died as a result of a coffee