Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 5 March 1947 — Page 14

)C lis Times|- :

rather

They are:

cost.

able method,

administering other affairs we shudder to think of what our commissioners might do with this, Proponents of this bill say it might never be used, that emergencies might pever be declared, and county rent controls thus never invoked. If that is true we don’t need the law. As long as we do need any control of rents we can trust the federal government to continue it. So on that basis we don’t need this law, either, In either event any such. be. lated attempt of the state to control rents ean only lead to | confusion, uncertainty, and a considerable obstacle to meeting the need for housing by additional investment building. |song caries me back to my childhood, as I imagine it does many people, who lived in Indianapelis in the “Gay Nineties.” We lived for many years on N. Tennessee st, now Capitol ave. Natural gas was plentiful, in fact so abundant, the cost of a month's supply for the home, no matier how much you used, was $1.25. The eorner street lights burned gas and every evening“ at a certain time, up the stpeet came the lamp lighter cayrying his little ladder. He'd set it against the lamp Dost, up he'd go, start the tue

: ECONOMY. BEGINS AT HOME (CONGRESSMAN Mc¢GREGOR of Ohio suggests that this it ne time for the government to spend money on new

_ postoffices and other federal ling Projects that arent in the emergency class.

He! 8 right about that. :

A ‘are searcé, and badly needed for housing, lian party, of which he is a member, has promised to reduce federal spending.

NewsAudit Burea

35 sairier. 1) cane in Indiana, $5 a year; all other states, ‘month,

Hhnndudgg mi Sve ght ond the Peesl

i . RI-5661 WH Find Ther i Way

RENT CONTROLS _

"THE propodal now in the Indiana legiiaturs for state, or county, rent controls seems to us only to add needless complication to a problem that already is complex

enou : Bit federal goverment ow haa had scams six yoaes of experience with rent controls as a strictly war-time emergency measure, Both the President and the congress want to get rid of it as soon as possible. The only disagreement apparent between parties and factions ‘in Washington is over just how rapidly, such controls can be ended without . serious disturbance to the nation’s economy, and without grave hardship to large numbers of tenants... The plan most favored is the gradual relaxation of ceilings until supply | and need strike a balante,. Meanwhile the feders woven: ment is equipped with trained personnel and all the experience there ig, to continue adnijnistering those Yegilations as “ong a3 they may be required. s & =» - * 8 5 TH bill now making its way through our state legislature would, at best, duplicate this federal effort. Under its’ terms, once an “emergency” was declared, the county commissioners would take over rent control for the county in question, fix rent ceilings and set up their own organiza~ tion to administer them. The federal government now has about 75 people employed in that job in Marion county, which gives a fair idea of the magnitude of the task, and its probable cost to the county. On their own record of

u of Tre tn ann, Cony. 8 cane 3 spy; Gl

apd Mexico, 87. cents a

.| Annie” spent her last days.

FOR PEAR of incurring the wrath of those whe don't give a tinker's dam for the boyhood I spent

week from any mention of the subject, However,

indeed, that I just have to put some of it on record—if other feason than © On top of the marked “2225,” the ! little house with six gables locatefl on Union st, between Raymond and Tabor, It's the cottage in which Riley's “Little Orphant

8 »

James Whitcomb Riley was a little boy about 8 years old (eirea 1887F when Mary Alice Smith, 8 10-yeqreold orphan, was brought to tha Greenfield home of his parents. Twenty-five years later in “Where Is Mary Alice Smith?”, ona of his rare prose pleces; Riley told how she was brought—'by » reputed uncle, a gaunt round-shouldered man with deep eyes and sallow cheeks and weedy.looking heard” whose home she was leaving to become a hired girl in the Riley household.

Weird Ghost Stories

.- MARY ALICE was a queer little gir] unlike anything’ Jim had seen up to that time. For one thing, she was forever talking to herself. carrying on conversations with people who weren't anywhere in sight. - Moreover, she had the weirdest collection of ghost stories of anyone. in- Mancock county, Young as he was at the time, Riley eouldn’t help suspecting thet she made up most of the stories herself. Mary Alice was at her best, though, when going up and down the winding stairs of the Riley home. Somehow, it “dazed her with delight,” as the poet recalled later. “Up and down she went a hundyed times a day, it seemed. And she would talk and

“| whisper to herself, and oftentimes stop and nestle

down and rest her pleased face close against the steps, and pat one softly with her slender hand, peering curiously down at us with half-averted eyes, And she counted them and named them, every one, #8 she went up and down.”

This proposal should be dropped.

———TT—

PRISONS AND PAROLES

TV bills of utmost importance to proper and ecoriaadil law enforcement still await final action by the legisla, « ture in this last week of its session.

It isn’t a matter of The state needs both as the

Two years from now the legislatire will have to consider extensive prison building and remodeling, whether we want to or not, because our prisons are about as full now as they can be crowded. The report of this twe-year survey will be as valuable to that legislature as an architect's drawings will be to a builder. It can help the assembly save many times its cost in construction programs alone. measure has passed the senate. It should be enacted by the house without fail.

; THE failure of our present parole system went dramatically on Qisplay this week at Columbus, with two 17-year-old boys who were turned loose under it on trial for murder. A murder, and a trial, and four wrecked young lives that might have been saved by a parole system that : really worked. | oy . The proposal of the governor's study commission, x which had spent more. than six weeks in a careful and thorough examination of Indiana’s parole methods was accepted by the governor and recommended by him to the legislature. It provides simply for taking away the power to grant ~ paroles from the prigop boards 67 trustees Td TAkIRG away" © the supervision of men on parole from the state or department, and placing both paroling and supervision: irr the hands of a single board of paroles. .and overlapping authority, provide a means of closer determination of who should be given paroles and for their care- | ful rehabilitation as law-abiding citizens once they are released from prison. In actual initial expense it will cost little, if’ any, more than the present unwieldy and unwork-

The

This will end dual

If it prevented one tragedy like that now

being unfolded in a Columbus court room it would have more than repaid its whole cost. This bill, too, should be | + ageed by the legislature before adjournment.

60sts are high, Building materials and labor ‘And the Repub:

Mr. MeGregor, £3 chairman of ‘the house subcommit-

sand grounds, says he’s going to call

proposed Projects and attempt to postpone

qualify as “emergency a, many members of congress, in either Stahid up and defend the proposition that all should go forward right now. But

tend that it Stieption Gakoulq be | triets

Hoosier

EEE

Forum

*1 do not agree with a word that you say, but | will defend to the death your right to say it,’ "== Voltaire,

"It's Good to Look

By Mrs. W. Stanley We hear quite a lot today of “

gas light and then off to the next corner. Compered with our bright

The proposal to exeate a new board of paroles as recom- electric lighting of today the streets mended by the governor's parole study commission, and a revamping of our present parole system into one that can be made to work. The proposal to create a new board of paroles as recompenal gystem and Indiana's ¢riminal code, and report to the 1949 General Assembly. These are not alternative bills. passing one or the other. first step toward a more efficient system of dealing with crime and criminals that will bring better results at a lower

appeared almost as if 3 candle

was burning, but in those days we felt we were well protected. In the morning at a regular time, around eame the lamp lighter again to turn the lights off. mow how much territory he covered but I do know he traveled on foot and probably walked several miles night and morning. Anyway it. was his job and perhaps he

went his way happy and contented. . Since I'm going back in my mem-

brown bear, who used to appear on our corner ever So often, The bear would step around in his clumsy way and this was suppesed to be a| dance. By this time the ehildren frem all over the neighborhood came running to see the dancing

owner, Next was the organ grinder with the monkey, No matter how often this street entertainer appeared, we all quit whatever we were playing, ran home to ask for a penny and hurried out to hear the organ grinder, grind out the same old tunes and see the little monkey dressed in a" suit and a jaunty red cap on his head which he doffed every time we handed him a penny. These events meant as much to us then as the movies do te the youngsters today. 3 I've heard folks say, when poeple reminisce, they are growing . old. Well perhaps that's true, bus it does one good, I think; te be able toJook

was calm; - simple ‘things, Re were Thon of, erime was seldom heard of and we were at peace with God and man.

I don't!

considered it an impertant one and |

ory, I recall the man with the big|

bear and hand their pennies to the]

hack. SQodhe. dav. ghen. the. world terata referendu

—

Back to

Days When Joys Were Simple"

Scott, 3508 Cliften st. the old lamp lighter.” This popular

“WHAT USE 18 PRIMARY WHEN BOSSES RUN PARTY? By W. H. Edwards, Gosport The controversy over the question of a direct primary vs. the bossbacked convention system is not important, so long as party bosses | and machine politics are allowed to force the nomination of gandidates in both parties. Nor does either the primary, as it is now used, or the i so-called improved convention system, give to the one-third of independent voters an opportunity to express their approval of candidates regardless of party label One of the prime reasons why | yoters refrain from voting in pri-

| maries is that they are unalterably!l

{opposed to voting any party ticket, | which they are forced to do under the present primary law. ; Nor will it avail the publie anything to protest against the nomination of governor or senatorial candidates by party bosses, the promoters of machine politics. Is any intelligent voter going to be deluded into thinking that political bosses of either party will let the patronage emoluments of party success be nullified by giving the people a government of, by and for the people? No, that would destroy machine made rule; a rule that fosters inefficiency in government, graft and crime. One national and state constititional amendment long overdue is one that would forbid national or state law-making bodies from increasing their own or other office. holders’ salaries without their being approved by a majority of the elec XA; With out that approval, re's’ no limit to which the avarice of politicians may fasten uncalled-for taxes onto an already burdened public.

Side Glances—By Galbraith

[e157

32" 5

‘mentioned, the ones with arms off,

fe In the unyielding stand of the

|| well as otherwise taught by the {schools themselves.

toa. late.

| membering these (taxes, etc.) in '48.

—

“REMEMBERS THE SIGNTLESS IN TALK ABOUT BONUS" By A. J. Spaulding, Indianapolis In answer to H. R. E's bonus article of ‘Feb 19: Being a veteran

and now discharged, I personally believe a bonus should be given to the two types of veterans you have

and those who have lost legs, and should we forget a number that have lost. their eyesight, too?. It is

“TEACH UNDERSTANDING IN OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS” By H. C. Gemmer, Indianapolis Laws by themselves do not destroy prejudices, This was clearly demonstrated by an incident which ogewrred just a few days after Governor Ralph F. Gates signed the

bill that had been Unanimously approved by Indiana's general assem-

“with any other person or persons

malicious hatred by reason of race, color or religion.” An anonymous cireular was distributed to children near publie sehool buildings and te parents at their homes, with this fagrant prejudicial appeal: “Do you want eolored children in your school with colored teachers and prineipal? Then read and help defeat this bill that comes up for approval of edudation committee!” This anonymous sheet, itself a violation of the law requiring that the sponsors’ names appear, was an attempt to create prejudice and block passage of House Bill 406, a measure to eliminate segregation and discrimination on the -besis of race or color in the public schools of Indiana, in which only two of its metropolitan cities still maintain the “Jim Crow” tradition ef the. “Solid South” of Bilbo and Rankin,

beard of "eommhissioners "of Indianapolis, and by such appeals to prejudice as this unsigned ecircular, the meaning- of the law which bans hate groups is negated, The place to teach brotherhood, understanding and true Americanism is in the public schools, and the example should be given as

It is time to eliminate those political pressures which feed on and in turn engender racial and re-

cation eommittee should ignore sych Slments and continue Indiana in path of . progress it blazed in B wing hate organisations,” # » a “REMEMBER THESE TAXES WHEN YOU VOTE IN 4" By 0. 7. RB) Indianapolis Well, well, so some of the Republicans are finally coming to, but : When I read all those cute little letters in the Forum, I just have to laugh, The same people that put these men in office are the first- ones to squawk about taxes, taxes, and more taxes, ' How come you didn't think of these - things before you voted?

about it now. But how about re-

You good. Republicans made the bed, but we all have to lie in it.

DAILY THOUGHT

bly, making it a felony to join

ligious - prejudice, The house edu-|.

There isn’t one thing you can dot

- WASHINGTON, March. 5.—During his three-day

dizzy schedule of dinners, lunches, receptions and other funetions burdened with gold braid and protocol. That is one of the penalties a state visitor inevitably pays. He is so hedged around by officialdom that he has no chance to see the people or Ww learn what is really happening in the country. Mexico today is an object lesson in what inflation really means. A visitor from north of the border could learn a lot about how runaway prices intensify the struggle of the average citizen to live.

Close fo Poverty

THE ORDINADY Mexican has always lived close to the borderline of poverty. With the soaring prices of the war years, it has been 8 desperate struggle to keep body and soul together. ‘A year ago the tension was 80 great that knowledgeable observers feared some kind of blow-up. Sinee that time, prices have continued to shoot

'f up. The official cost-of-living index computed by

the Bank of Mexico was 313 for December of 1048, with 1920, a year of high prices, representing 100. For January of this year, it dropped back a little to 3119. But in February it is believed prices again began to climb, This over-all figure does riot indicate the intensity of the squeeze being put on the peon who comes to town with his burro to buy § few beans and some lard. The over-all figure includes items which never come into the peon’s budget. Those items have not risen nearly as miich as the cost of food, which is just about the whole story for the hewers of wood

MEXICO CITY, March 5.—If there is anything Mexico needs badly, it is a good press agent—that is, it it wishes to continue cashing in on its fourth largest industry, the tourist trade, There is a broad conception running loose nowadays that a holiday here will ruin a year's income for the average man, and that Mexico City is only for millionaires and scions of the black market. "Tain’t so. A man may play frantically in Mexico “for what it would cost him to live in a small hotel in the average non-tourist American town.

No Lovelier Spot Than Acapulco

FOR SOME unfortunate reason, the outlandish prices of the few super-swank hotels and the fancy #in mills, especially A. C, Blumenthal’s Reforma with its New York eafe gussiers and Hollywood spenders, -have ereated the idea that all Mexico today comprises a sunny sucker-trap. Recently, fh Havana, a one-night stand in a fleabag cost $34 for a single room with twin beds and a non.funetional lavatory. I moved next day to the best ‘hotel, the Nacional, where a fine double room cost only §1 more. 1 understand that a nice price for a broom eloset in Miami is $35 a day, and a copvention- Seared suite in Mh Worth, Texas, came to $20 a da

pulco, Mexico—no finer fishing, no finer climate, no ‘more varied view, no blander breeze, no warmer sun, no finer swimming. Yet a huge room, fronting the Pacific and overlooking a ‘sheer drop of 300 feet— plus a veranda, plus three fine and lusty meals, costs $10 a day. I de net think that a decent rgom in any American hotel sells for less than $5 these days, and I doubt if ydu can even eat badly in most of them for less than $10 for three squares,

WORLD AFFAIRS .

WASHINGTON, March 8.~At thé forthcoming Moscow conference, the United States may propose a four-power pact with Russia, Britain and France in the form of a treaty of mov) guarantee agains German aggression. ’ Yesterday, at Dunkerque, the British and Prench signed a treaty of alliance. The Soviet Union already has such a treaty with Britain and a similar one with France. Thus these three countries have a new triple entente like that which bound them together until world ‘war I.

Marshall in Full Accord WHEN HE was secretary of state, James PF.

denberg, now Republican chairman of the relations committee, concurred. ° There is reason to helieve Secretary of . State George C. Marshall is in full accord with the views

‘| on the South side; I have abstaltied for a whole.

the lore tap piling up: at such a disay rate,

pl One day, consumed with curiosity, Jim couldn't a cruel world, my children.

IN WASHINGTON . . . By Marquis Childs Mexico Object Lesson in Inflation

visit to Mexico, President Truman has followed a

poe ‘Thar i Ha Mosizee SOE the world” hat" Aca~""

.ed. France snd Bri

. was J Ee, tan, . to discourage international outlawry.

OUR TOWN see 5 Anton Sobor ot 2 a =i ght : . Riley Lost ‘Little Orphant Aric of

contain -himself any longer and asked the ejf.like

little girl why she spent so much time on the stairs. “Oh, 'cpuse I kin play like I was elimbin' up to the Good World ‘Wwhére my mother”is=that's why" ‘You can find all this and much .more in Vol. VI of the “Biegraphical Rdition: The Complete Works of James Whitcomb Riley” (Bobhs~Marrill Oo.), Well, that, more or less, was the reason Mafy Alice Smith was made the subject of “Little Orphant

¢ Annie,” a poem first published as “The Elf Child” . and later, for a while, as “Little Orphant Allie” (for

Alice—~see?). Riley lost track of the little girl after the year she spent in their Greenfleld home. The failure to find her tormented him the reat of his life, Indeed, State tng ioward the aloes of nia dfs), he put n ad in the papers—a “Lost” ad, if you pleass-to

vi the whereabouts of his old playmate on the .

stairs, I doubt whether he ever learned all the detalls of Mary Alice's concealment, but here they are--at any rate, 8 the South side has preserved them,

Six op seven years after leaving the Riley home,

Mary Alice Smith married John Wesley Gray, a farmhand. She lived on the ancestral Wi near Philadelphia (Hancock county) unt} the desth of her husband about 35 years ago.” At.that time,

Jher daughter, Mrs, L. B, Marsh, was Mving on the -°

south side of Indianapolis, And so {t that, after Annie moved in and lived with her daughter in the house with the six gables at 2228 Union st. She stayed ‘there until the day of her death (1924 or thereabouts),

to pass

Rig Novar-Got do Sor Hor

AS POR the “Lost” ad inserted and paid for by Mr. Riley, the South side has this Hs 10 my: Mn, Marsh happened to see the ad (suc h is the power

o ha Dress) aud Aimom inmedisiely got. 20 RE Jos pate yao, at that time, in Forida,

even closer when you see what has happened to actual food prices. In 1941, beans cost 30 cents. In 1948, the price was just five times that much, or 1 peso

and 50 cents, An equivalent change in this country

would be if bread had.gone from 10 to 50 cents a loaf in the same period, The price of lard has gone from $1.40 to $6.50, and corn has advanced from 15 cents to 55 cents. How the peop has taken it as long as he has is something of a mystery to those who are now working earnestly on measures to get the economy

into some kind of Jaiape 'e In the tion of President, Miguel Aleman,

some officials are working hard to straighten out the tangles that inflation has caused in Mexico's economy. They will talk to President Truman, during his visit,

about help that they hope to get from the United - States, including

possibly .a loan which would he ‘ised in the effort to stabilize prices,

U.S. Ne Example

WE HERE in the United States ean hardly offer a shining example of hdw to prevent inflation. Commodity prices have been skyrocketing again, and

that upward- climb will soon be reflected in the =

prices the housewife pays at the grocery store. This

Is bound to create new difficulties as the wage- .

earner is caught in the wage-price squeease. In the United States, as in Mexico, what goes up must come down. The higher -the skyrocket shoots into the air, the more dizzy is the fall and the harder the bump at the end.

REFLECTIONS . .. By Robert C. Ruark ~All Mexico Needs Is a Press Agent

It is possible to rént a hotel room superior to the Miami hives for $3 a day in Mexico City, and if yeu stay out of the lace-pants jeints you ean dine for a buck and eat good. Along the same line you ean

wiip into Les Ambassadeurs and blow 200 pesos on .

& lunch for four people, and be Welking steady when yoy leave, Even in this rich city, which boasts more Cadillacs per 100 yards than Park Avenue, you can still find a furnished, three-bedroom apartment for $136 a month, or a’ vast unfurnished house for $60. The best cook in town will fry your eggs and do the washing too, after she cleans the house seven days a week, for 150 pesos a month, or $30.

Doesn't Need Press Agent

IF 1 WERE press-agenting this country I would 80 to some pains to tell the people how fast a man ean get from New York to Mexieo Oity—or from any other part of the country, for that matter. If you 80 by way of Havana, by air, it’s only nine hours

flying time, the way I traveled, from La Guardia airport to Mexico City. I must admit, however, that 1 was using my old friend, the Linea Aeropostal Venezolana from New York fo Havana, and Capt

Jordon. ranger whisked us home in 4 hours and 17 Constellation.

migutes 1 a also point out that there are more things to see than bullfights and night elubs, other cities besides Mexico City and Acapulco, and that the most Important people in the country ere not Blumenthal's brook, and the hurry-up divorce set, but the Mexican people, It occurs suddenly that maybe Mike Aleman doesn’t neéd to hire a press agent for his country. T+ woula appear he het & free ong, in ma,

By- William Philip Simms

4-Way Treaty ‘Would Show Solidarity

been done, there is no eertainty that ie machinery will start promptly. In the event of serious aggression: every minute counts, For this reason the United Nations specifically provides for, and encourages, regional arrangements which, in an emergency, might act mote promptly, Pive years before Hitler struck, the late Pranklin-

Bouillon, head of the foreign relations committee of

the French chamber of deputies, told this writer: “The only thing that can prevent Germany “from starting another war is the knowledge that she can’t win. France and Britain must be strong and they must let Hitler know that if he starts anything they will act together. If either allows him to think it will remain aloof in the event of an attack on the

other, or if they become weak, another World war ig inevitable.” ;

Warning Not Heeded

FRANKLIN-BOUILLON'S warning was not heads remained apart. Both nege

lected their nati defense. What happened is’: ~ h . When the French statesman, spoke, the Nations WE Hitting Ve Gens It, too, to prevent aggression. felt that

Yokel on fT eid i os pillar pe.

her husband's death, “Little Orphant

| fate

VINCENDY P.).~An in day in the Small, 30, was shot d ‘wife while dren watch Mrs, Ann Francis Th _ . Off during “.* She said’ drunk and weapon, H to take the sald. Mrs. ‘Sms neighbor t the childre 3 to 9 year body «of th No charg inquest, bu in Knox co

Local . Co-Autl

Ek ¢ NOTRE | James Mur «£ dianapolis, off “Meet t! edy now h Notre Dan n. hall, Concerni of marriec comedy wa and James N.Y.