Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 16 July 1940 — Page 15

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PAGE 14 The Indianapolis Times

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

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Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

TUESDAY, JULY 16, 1940

PLATFORMS

THOSE at Chicago who are putting the finishing touches on a platform for the Democratic Party might profitably study the most recent Gallup Poll. It reveals— That only one voter in four claims to have read even part of the Republican platform adopted last month at

Philadelphia. That only about one in eight can remember anything in that platform that appealed particularly to him. That three in four believe most voters pay little atten-

tion to party platforms today. The Republican platform, as we observed when it was adopted, is no masterpiece. The Democratic document might be much better and still not be very good. Yet & great deal of time and effort go into the building of platforms. The glittering promises, the pointing with pride, the viewing with alarm, result from painstaking effort to please as many people as possible and to displease as few as possible. And that, we suspect, is precisely why popular interest in party platforms has ebbed to the extent indicated by the poll. By the time a group of politicians has debated, compromised and weasel-worded on the issues, their product simply isn't worth careful reading. One voter in three expressed the opinion that platforms, instead of being drafted as they are by committees which complete their work before the Presidential candidates are nominated, should be written by the nominees themselves. That idea, it seems to us, is worth consideration, Party pledges might carry more weight if they were known to represent directly the principles of the men who would be most responsible for carrying them out if elected, Certainly something needs to be done to rescue these institntions from the low estate to which they have fallen, as represented by the cynical saying that a political platform, like the platform of a street car, is built for getting in on— not to stand on.

WAY OF ALL FLESH? : THE story of the Chicago Democratic Convention of 1940 in contrast to the Chicago Convention of 1932 is the story of the New Deal grown old. Down through the years the Democrats were the

young, vibrant party. They could be counted upon in convention assembled to give the country a good fight and plenty of excitement. It used to be said that the Democrats paid most attention to the committee on resolutions, while the Republicans were concerned primarily with the committee on credentials—which was another way of saying that the Democrats battled for principles while the Republicans struggled for spoils, That certainly was true in 1932 when, after the Republicans had acquiesced in the renomination of Herbert Hoover and straddled the prohibition question, the Democratic convention cut the repeal issue clean, and then engaged in a merry and spirited contest over the nomination. Sut how different, eight vears later. Many of the same faces, and almost all of the same phrases. But how shopworn now. The speakers still talk of the bonus army, of the banks that went bust, and of the plight of the farmer at the end of the Republican rule. They say the same things they did in 1936, when the Democrats so cleverly maneuvered the campaign that it was fought out on the issue of the old deal. In 1936 the New Deal experiments were fresh, and the Democrats were able to sell the idea that we were “on our way to permanent higher prices for farmers and permanent jobs for the unemployed.” But will the same phrases, from the same tongues, have the same effect in 1940? Hitler's armies have wiped out Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Norway, Holland, Belgium, and the France that was. Yet on the same day the cables tell that the Pope has recognized the regime of the new totalitarian France, we hear Speaker Bankhead pulling the same old organ stops and ringing the same old changes. And in our country eight million men are still out of work, our farmers don’t know what tomorrow’s markets will be, and we look over our shoulders at some 25 billions of accumulated debt. The issue of 1940 is not how the old deal of Hoover flopped in 1932—but how will the old New Deal of Roosevelt stand up in the world of 1940 to 1944.

CONCERNING LAW ENFORCEMENT

E do not wonder that the police have a deep feeling of futility every now and then. Consider their problem in the case of the 22-year-old boy they arrested eight days ago: Here was a boy apparently headed for trouble. When they nabbed him at 3 a. m. in the downtown area, he was carrying a set of burglars tools. So they took him to headquarters, saw to it that he was held under $3000 bond and doubtless felt they had done their job.

But the boy was not to remain in jail long. The next morning a Municipal Court judge reduced the bond to $500. A professional bondsman was on hand to make the bond. The boy was free, but—he was dead exactly one week later. He was killed by police when they trapped him in a grocery store where he was trying to crack a safe. Possibly the judge was right in reducing the bond to one-sixth its original amount. We cannot say. All we know is that his action made it easier for the bondsman to step in and free a boy who, for his own good, should have been kept away from temptation. If we were the judge, we wouldn't like to think about the effect of our action. Not even if we had been 100 per cent right about it.

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

Democrats Guests of Machine Generally Conceded to Be the Tops in Municipal Corruption

HICAGO, July 16-If the Democratic National Conventioh had been held a few month ago it would have been unfair to say that it was being conducted under the auspices of the most corrupt local politico-criminal machine in the United States. It would have been unfair to such zealous and accomplished crooks as Dick Leche, then the Governor of Louisiana; Professor Jingle-Money Smith, the two-fisted, all-around or decathlon thief, who was president of the late Huey Long's state university, and to the jovial and incorrigible Seymour Weiss, the political agent and confidante of James A, Farley, But, of course, when a mob of thieves is broken up and its best crooks are sent to prison it automatically loses its standing in the league. That has happened to the New Orleans crooks and so, at the present time, there is none to dispute the city gov ernment of Chicago, which is the local union, so to speak, of the National Democratic Party, This ore ganization is beyond challenge today and, with the ripening of time and historic judgment, may prove to have been the most disgraceful offense against decency and the prestige of popular government in the entire life of the United States.

ETAILS of this corruption have been published repeatedly, and Chicagoans cannot be regarded as innocent dupes who do not know the score. In fact, they keep score, but, like the rooters for the home team, take pride in the rising total of civic depravity, including such home runs as the appoints ment to public office a short time ago of Frank Zintak, a leading statesman, who was tried twice a few years ago on a charge of embezzling $10,500 as Clerk of the Superior Court, The jury in the first trial disagreed and one juror subsaquently got a year in jail for accepting a bribe to vote for acquittal, The second jury acquitted Zintak, and subsequent revelations of helling around by night in custody of court bailiffs while the case was on trial led to the conviction of most of these civic peers of Mr. Zintak on charges of contempt. In his defense in that trial Mr. Zintak, in reply to the simple question “Whose check was that?” testified as follows: “That's what I say if you would only let this go until tomorrow there would be nothing to it because here is the idea, even if it is on record, you are stirring up something that probably will be worse in the political line than anything, because I represent the largest group of people in Chicago.

" » »

y HEY have all the faith in the world in me for things I done squarely because there was not anything we done in polities that we did not do it in accord with what those people wished. Some people may think there should not be anything like groups, but there will be Polish groups and maybe others as long as we exist for the simple reason that fraternal organizations they encourage youth

that is by keeping that spirit up because they are insurance groups and they would diminish if they did not.” Needing the Polish vote, which Mr, Zintak deliv ers, the mob recently appointed this exemplary Chicago spirit superintendent of construction at $4800 a year plus $47 a month for automobile maintenance, As Mr. Ed Kelly, the Mayor, needs Mr, Zintak's Polish vote so does the National Democratic Party need the support of the Chicago gang, and thus the convention meets, unashamed, as the guest of the most loathesome alliance of crime and polities in the United States at present and possibly in the nation's history.

Inside Indianapolis

Indiana Militiamen, the Silk Fishing Leader Problem and Our Mr. Willkie

AYRE they won't admit it, but a lot of Indiana's

National Guardsmen are worrying privately about the possibility of being mobilized for a year's training. It's not that they wouldn't enjoy a stretch of military life, The question is what their families would use for money while they are gone, For many of them, the regular Army pay is only a fraction of their present earnings in industry. A private would receive only $21 a month. A second lieutenant probably would draw $35 a week, but out of that he would have to buy uniforms and feed himself, and that wouldn't leave much to send back to his family. A bit of encouragement is the fact that members of the 38th Division—Indiana, Kentucky and West Virginia guardsmen—with headquarters here probably would miss the first call. Dispatches indicate that privates, corporals and sergeants who are married would be permitted to resign to avoid serving a year with the Guard.

arranged three-week encampments, the mobilization probably will be delayed until after the camps. The 38th Division is scheduled to go to Wisconsin Aug. 11 10-31. » LJ » WHEN THE JAPANESE invaded China and crippled trade, the fishermen around here were scared stiff that their supply of silk fishing leaders would be cut off, They continued in a state of jitters until du Pont produced Nylon, which makes fine fishing leaders. Now the fishermen have the triple jitters again. They hear that the Government is going to take most of the Nylon supply for parachutes and there won't be enough for fishing leaders. Official reprieve, eh?

IN INTRODUCING ALICE MARBLE, No. 1 wom-=-an in tennis, at the Woodstock Club recently, William A. Atkins of E. C. Atkins & Co., took the occasion to put in a plug for Mr. Willkie, or maybe it was for Mr. McNutt, Discreetly avoiding names, Mr. Atkins merely remarked that Indiana “will be the home state of the next President of the U. 8.” That made it a fielder's choice, and everyone in the crowd cheered. And then some of them started chanting, “We want Willkie.” Maybe it was because Mr. McNutt's name doesn’t lend itself well to such a chant.

A Woman's Viewpoint By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

ISITING a strange city is rather like discovering & new world, or perhaps it would be better to say, like discovering something utterly different about the old one. Although most of the outward aspects are strange, there are always the same undercurrents of Ameri= canism—and the same billboard ads. Never having before set foot in Minneapolis, there was the cus= tomary sense of adventure as we entered its suburbs, even though no nice reception has been prepared. The city's face was veiled by a pouring rain. Next day the mood was better. Above swam whipped cream clouds in a blue howl: the waters of the many lakes winked and dimpled, star sapphires on a green gown, Like all states, Minnesota has a distinct flavor— and flavor is the word since the impressions for me are distinctly on the gustatory side. Everything has already been said about her charming scenery. Let me, then, proclaim her the land of sweetest butter and most perfect ice cream. Surely Zeus on Olympus never tasted anything half so delicious as the “strawberry revel” which one can get at any refreshment stand--and at this writing, folks, strawberries are selling at eight cents a quart. When folded into the velvet smooth concoction which,

It is an insult to call ice cream-—well, nectar is the proper term. Being a country gal myself, and rather on the stoutish side, the delicacy will remain a never-to-be-

forgotten gnemory and probably haunt my dreams | during ‘semi-annual dieting ‘periods.

to belong to them and the only way they can do |

Because the various Guard divisions already have |

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES mo

The Convention Will Now Come to Order!

The Hoosier Forum

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

LAYS HAY FEVER TO WEEDS IN VACANT LOTS Ry A Reader

I have been reading in the paper that our city is the pollen capital of the world and none know why Well here is a little reminder. We

| have talks to keep our streets clean, |

our parks clean but just how far|

does the city go in trying to rid the vacant lots of weeds? ‘The owners won't cut them and they grow, plenty high. In the spring before the weeds get | ripe is the time to have them cut,! not wait until they are 10 feet high. | Along one of our nicest streets there are weeds that you can't see through | So as one hay fever sufferer to another we ought to make a de-| mand that all vacant lots be cleared. And then see if you can call our city the pollen capital.

mean to sufferers of hay fever.

» uy n

[URGES FOURTH BRANCH OF

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT By Earl G. Cline, Albany, Ind, It is imperative that Congress set |

(Times readers are invited

to express their views in

these columns, religious conMake |

your letters short, so all can |

troversies excluded.

have a chance. Lefters must |

be sighed, but names will be |

withheld on request.)

honorary body and to be sent to

capacity to the Chamber Guardians. In peace-time, the Presidium should have full legislative power in all matters pertaining to the national defense, In war-time, this

THINKS ROOSEVELT ‘MADE UP’ WITH KLAN By Oscar Pdwards In ‘an editorial July 13th, “No Bigotry Issue,” you make an error in comparison of Roosevelt and | Willkie on the Ku-Klux Klan, They each at that time fought | the Klan, But since that time] Roosevelt kissed and made up by | the appointment of Black to the | Supreme bench, and the placing of Tom Heflin in a good position. LJ

[ATTACKS ‘PRESSURE’ AGAINST | $5.000,000,000

LOUIS JOHNSON

By A Veteran of Foreign Wars

A voter who has cast his ballot |

for President Roosevelt the last two | i ir | By one who knows what they Washington to act in an advisory | National elections asks through your |

of paper if our President will tell the |

American people from the floor of| the Convention Hall next week at Chicago over the nation-wide hookip, where the pressire came from | that caused him to appoint the new

in ‘motion a referendum for the|nswer should again revert to the Secretary of War and Navy to his

purpose of establishing a fourth| branch of Government Primarily, the legislative, the] executive, and the judicial branches

for the purpose of promoting peace- | time activities, War preparation and |

war-time activities are an added |the Presidium would fall blame for|when its President is forced to ask |

burden, Our executive and our legis- | lative branches have proven quite capable of conducting war, but like the same branches in the European democracies they have not proven capable of keeping the nation always in a state of preparedness, The fourth branch of Government called the Presidium--should be devoted wholly to national defense. It should consist of two houses: One a legislative, the other a patriotic body. The legislative body should be known as the Chamber of Guardfans and should consist of a Chief | Guardian together with eight Associate Guardians. The patriotic body should be known as the Grand Army of the Republic and should consist of an active membership together with an honorary membership. The honorary membership of the

President and to the Congress with | | the Presidium acting only in an ad-| visory eapacity, In this way, duty

in a state of preparedness would | rest, upon the Presidium. Also upon |

lack of defense at any time, But| upon the Congress and upon the] President responsibility would still rest for the declaration and the suc- | cessful prosecution of war,

Cabinet, As he was quoted in the papers) as telling Mr. Johnson he would like]

C3 (to have him in his Cabinet, but the of our Government were established | for keeping the nation at all times pressure Was too Strong.

fs something wrong with| (not the CGovernment),|

There the rulers for the resighation of our Secretary | of War because he refused to listen to foreign dictators and insisted] that American interests and de-|

[fense come first,

New Books at the Library

HE Sultan of Sulu, thanks to light opera, has become al- |! most a legendary figure. In 1899, however, when the U, 8. 8. Manila was cruising in Philippine waters, the Sultan was far from legendary, He was one of the insurrectionists fighting against United States control, or any control, of the Philippine Islands. How the Sultan was interviewed and finally persuaded

Side Glances—By Galbraith

considering the usual stuff that goes under the name, |

"Hello, pop, want'a speak with “ph

& oo NA cop. 1940 BY : 8. PAT. OFF.

nothing!"

board the Manila, which had been

| A glad glow everywhere,

BN [J 7

Mom? She's all tired out

to acknowledge the sovereignty of the United States is one of the exciting adventures told In David Potter's “Sailing the Sulu Sea” (Dutton), David Potter was lieutenant on

ordered to help settle Philippine uprisings and rid the region of piracy. The boat cruised back and forth among the islands from Manila to British-controlled Borneo. To the ship came an old servantwoman, begging the captain to avenge the death of her master and mistress at the hands of the pirate, Pedro. To it came another pirate, two-faced Diego Manalo, who for a while made the officers of the Manila believe he was being hunted by cut-throat Moros. And to it came Datu Baqui and Datu Piang leaders of enemy tribes, who made their peace through the influence of the American general on board. Life on the Sulu Sea was far from peaceful in those days, although there were intervals of comparative quiet. In the midst of bloodier scenes one can glimpse broad silent streets under a burning sun; brilliantly colored tropical flowers, and lovely Spanish maidens. “Sailing the Sulu Sea” is excellent entertainment.

JULY CHORAL By MARY P. DENNY There's a joy in the air

The flutter of wing A light in everything The robins are singing The glad larks are winging A path to the sky To lights glowing high. All the summer flowers shine In bright light divine, For there's joy in the alr A glad glow everywhere,

doing | |

ene SAS ay | RE PRA TR ’ i.e,

TUESDAY, JULY 16, 1940 |

Gen. Johnson Says—

New Deal's Belated Discovery On Tin and Rubber May Prove Political Dynamite in Campaign

ASHINGTON, July 168-My friend Bd Stet. tinius, adviser on materials in the National De. fense Advisory Commission, has made a "progress report” from which we learn that all is swesthess and light In our armament program so far as his division is concerned, There is no friction with any of the Government departments and everything is hunkys dory so far as getting strategic materials is concerned. I have no doubt it is all true, so far as the actual assertions of the report go. With two notable exceptions, they do not go much further than “on hand or on order.” It is doubtless true also that there has been no friction. The only echoes of friction I have heard were in the gossip columns of the newspapers, Neither Mr. Stettinius nor Mr. Knudsen are men of the friction type. Both are noted for their ability to get along with people.

UST the same, # is not a wise thing to make “progress” reports when there hasn't been time to make any progress except palaver and stamping o. k, on contracts involving so much money that their approval couldn't possibily have received much more effort, or study than dealing four hands at bridge, There have been too many progress reports in this defense business, The most obvious reason for a progress report just now fs the Democratic National Convention, Mr, Stettinius is so far from that kind of monkey. business that, if some of his administration associates suggested such a report just now, he wouldn't even get the connection. But others will get {t-<plenty, The two notable exceptions and the meat of this coconut are the part of the report that has to do with rubber and tin, The weakest and most inexcuss« able position of this Administration has been its insistance that our interests are unavoidably involved in the East Indies because we are wholly dependent on them for rubber and tin, This report suddenly dis closes that--by a combination of creating brand new synthetic rubber and tin-smelting industries, of in« creasing stock piles, reclamation and conservation we can promptly solve this problem.

» ” ”

HERE is here some satisfaction to this writer, who has been insisting on most of this for years, “President Roosevelt,” said Mr. Stettinius, "had sug gested a study of this problem several weeks ago.” Several weeks ago! It has been dinned into the President's ear continuously heginning several years ago by B. M. Baruch, who had to wrestle with it dur« ing the World War, when our Allies ran the price of East Indian rubber up on us to six times what syn-

| thetic rubber will now cost,

Failure to begin to do anything about this prob-

| Tem for so long, with its inexcusable attendant effect

to risk our injection into Oriental war, could be politfeal dynamite in the coming campaign, And it will be unless this belated “discovery” is put into prompt

| and effective practice,

Business

By John T. Flynn

What Assurance Have We That F. D. R. Will Not Send Soldiers?

EW YORK, July 16.—The President says that no men will be sent to fight in European wars, Perhaps not. The President has said many other things. In July, 1932, he promised "to save 256 per cent In the cost of the Federal Government.” The costs were They are now $8.736,000,000, He said: “I ask you to assigh to me the task of reducing the annual operating expenses of your national Government,” He has increased them 70 per cent. He sald: rowing to meet continuing deficits.” 24 billion dollars, He denounced the Hoover administration “for calle ing on the farmers to allow 20 per cent of their wheat lands to lie idle,” He has spent billions to induce farmers to do that very thing In September, 1839, he called Congress to amend the Neutrality Act "in order to make us truly neutral”, and said that he represented real neutralivv. Bub now evervhody knows that he was hot neutral then

“Let us have the courage to stop bors He has borrowed

{ and is not neutral now

And now, after all these assurances, he tells the people “we will hot send our men to take part in European wars.” What assurance have we that he will keep this promise?

” " » Changed Mind on the Other Things

He changed his mind on all these things. His ex cuse is that this became necessary, The same excuse will serve if men are sent abroad. And to do this, we know, he will not have to change his mind much. His statement was made on the eve of a political convention and on the threshold of a campaign in which he knows the people of the country do not

want to go to war. He has played with the idea that we can ald England, send her supplies, munitions, even ships of war-but not men, The whole essence of the President's policy is based on the belief that he can gamble with this ters rible disaster in BEurope-act the part of an ally to England, yet keep out of war, He's gambling. He may lose, An abler man than he, a more far-visioned man, and one more set on keeping out of war, once gambled and lost. Do the American people want this gamble? . When the first boat-load of doughboys sails from our shores with your boy aboard, remember that the President said: “We will not send our men to take part in European wars’--and that he sald it with that same sharp, crisp emphasis on each word and shake of the head with which he said all these other things.

Watching Your Health

By Jane Stafford

EATING the heat of midsummer hy sleeping may be a novel idea to many but it is one that will help, according to the U, S, Public Health Service, “A comfortable night's rest during the severe heat waves of the summer will make the next day's heat seem less oppressive and maintain health,” Federal health service authorities state, You know, of course, that to maintain best health adults are advised to sleep eight hours out of every 24, winter ahd summer, and children require more than this, Tt is particularly helpful to stick to your regular sleep schedule during the summer, the Public Health Service points out, Many persons have the notion that it is harmful to sleep with an electric fan going. The Federal health authorities, however, suggest the use of an oscillating electric fan to keep the air in motion as an aid to securing a good night's sleep, The fan should be placed so that there will ba no harmful direct drafts on the sleeper. Summer with its extra holiday and vacations 1s the season when most persons go in for more exercise than usual. Strenuous exercise should be avoided during the hottest parts of the day, the Public Health Service warns. Light exercise adapted to one’s strength and health is in general preferable during hot weather. All forms of active physical exercise should be avoided immediately before and after meals, One of the best suports for hot weather is swim- , since it does not cause overheating of the body. calls for extra baths,