Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 19 December 1947 — Page 26

Big Perk Meets the Law

ELL, Big Perk, who hak never done anything but run a lottery as far back as most anybody can remember,

~ PAGE 26 Jac. 19, 194 4 . * A SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWSPAPER “<> " and published daily (except Sunday) oy " Inelanapolis Times Publishing Co. 214 W. Maryland

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ROY W HOWARD WALTER LECKRONE President ‘es Editor “en

The Indianapolis Times ig

In Tune

Friday, Dec. 19, 1047

Owned

St: Postal Zone 9. |

Circulations 4 . by carrier, 25¢ a week 0 8 possessions, Canada

month, N . Telephone RI ley 5561 Give LAOS and the People Will Find Their UVwon Way

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Price in Marion County, 5 cents a copy; delivered

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has finally been convicted of running a lottery, and, wonder

of wonders, has paid a $200 fine. We have only commendation for the courage and the integrity and the common sense Municipal Judge Howard displayed in finding him guilty. Not that there was any question about his guilt. That has been proved in court beyond’ any reasonable doubt plenty of times. But the judges of those other courts have been regularly turning him loese because some judge, so long ago that no one seems to recall his name or the circumstances, once decided that evidence is not evidence when it 1s offered in a lottery case. - + True, the penalty imposed on Big Perk wasn't exactly a crushing one—just about the price of one of the smaller prizes he dangles before the victims off whose earnings he lives. He should have had some days in jail, too, and the (for him) brand new experience of a little honest labor, Judge Howard apparently thought so too, but was deterred from imposing a sentence Big Perk might not approve lest the case be appealed to some higher tribunal more concerned with quibbling technicalities than with law and justice, and the conviction be set aside entirely. » » » #" n . THAT IN ITSELF, is a pretty sad commentary on Indiana's judicial system——but one our courts have written themselves. This conviction is encouraging fo all who believe in law enforcement and who understand the damage the $9 million-a-year lottery racket of which this man is a part is doing to Indianapolis. But it is not, of course, the answer to the racket. The essential next step is appeal from the court decision that has knocked out the ordinance the city adopted to protect itself from the Big Perks of the community. : Meanwhile, if Big Perk is back in the lottery racket again today at the old stand, as we have no doubt he is, we trust the police will have him back in court again tomorrow, and the next day and the day after—and every day, in fact, until he is convinced that even Big Perk is not bigger than the law,

While Suspicion Grows HE public may not get all the fine points of the con-

With the Times

FATHER*CHRISTMAS Ideal creations of the mind struggle for a place fn the imagination: of man just as nations cone ‘tend one with another for a place in the sun,

In England before 1645 popular imagination

created. a character known as Father Christmas, He appeared as an old man, grey-bearded, accustomed - to visit’ both rich and poor, garbed in glittering gold, silk and silver when present in court, and in various shapes in the theater. Bell ringing, feasts and jollity in city and country | heralded his coming, Orice he was imprisoned but managed to break out in the holidays, leav=

ing in Jail his hoary hair and grey beard stick- |

ing ‘between two iron. bars of a window. \ Such a tenuous conception, lacking in visual definiteness and compactness, was unable to stand the competition of the Dutch St, Nicholas. A graduate of Columbia College, one Clement Moore, has left us a humanized portrait of this children’s saint dn his “Night Before Christmasg The corpulent build of the Saint, his dress, his merry eyes, his dimples, his rosy cheeks, his droll little mouth, his white beard, the stump “of pipe held tight between his teeth, his broad round face,

“And a little round belly . * That shook, when he laughed, Like a bowl full of jelly—"

such ‘vivid portraiture captured the imagination of countless millions; and though his pipe has disappeared, St. Nicholas is readily recognizable In many a store and on many a city street ing America during the holiday season as Santa Claus,

~JOHN 8. HARRISON,

4 & FROM CHICK TO CHICKEN

A little chick I used to be, Fuzzy and fluffy,

a -

(‘The Winnah and SHll Chame' ~~.

That you could see. Now I-am old, Go clucking around; I hear them say, | Another egg found. ~EARL J. STAUDACHER. | ¢ + & It would be a fine idea if some careless drivers

| who skid into snow drifts would leave their autos

troversy between Agriculture Secretary Anderson and |

the U. S. Senate's Appropriations Committee. But the

public thoroughly understands this: If government officials and members of Congress have been speculating in grain and other commodities, on the basis of inside information about government policies that affect prices, they should be exposed in a hurry. : There has been growing public suspicion—perhaps unjust suspicion—that many officials and congressmen have used inside information to enrich themselves in the commodity markets. o All we know is that some way should be found without further delay to make public all the data pertinent to,

and essential for, A searching intestigation and a thorough IN WASHINGTON

fact-finding job. Otherwise a lot of ordinary citizens whose interest is in hottest government will conclude “that too many men in both branches of the government, and on both sides of the political fence, aren't nearly as eager as they say they are to have the truth known.

‘Return of Sovereignty’

LEVEN years ago, Venezuela finally freed herself from the paralyzing dictatorship of Juan Vicente Gomez. A little more than two vears ago, a liberal revolution overthrew a regime which, though better than Gomez's, was scarcely a model of democratic leadership. Today that revolution has flowered into-a truly constitutional republic. Venezuelans have elected, Romula Gallegos, one of South America's most distinguished literary figures,

as their new president. They have also chosen a new Congress and state legislatures under the new constitution. In doing

go they enjoyed a direct vote, secret ballot and universal suffrage for for the first time.

The election, unmarred by violence .or disorder. marks the “return of full sovereignty to the people,” as retiring Provisional President Betancourt put it. Mr. Betancourt, his party, and his people have made an important contribution to free government, We hope that their accoplishments may serve as a pattern for all Latin-American politics. . Ultrasonic as HEN you take your suit or dress to the dry. cleaner

in the future, he may toss it into an ultrasonic sound machine and “whistle” the dirt out of the garment. Dr. Pailline Beery Mack, *physicist of Pennsylvania State College, tipped off Indiana dry’ cleaners to an, entirely new idea which requires no chemicals or strong solutions. Instead this war-developed device vibrates or “dances” the dirt and dust out of cloth, leaving the garment clean but without the all-too-often dry cleaner's'scent. If Dr. Mack will take us-a few steps farther and show us how Junior can “whistle” the dirt off his hands-and face, how we can “dance” the dirt out of the living room carpet or vibrate the mud off the family car, we shall, indeed, know we are living in the long-delayed but much anticipated age of scientific wonders. :

S—

whirls at 800 miles an hour and cuts slices so thin they're invisible. The suspicion will not down that they. got that idea from the ham-sandwich department in some drug 3 4

| { | |

theré Tor the balance of the winter.

$$ 4 & A LETTER TO SANTA CLAUS I really want a ding-dong bell, And a whistle I can blow, 1 want a dolly that will cry— I want a Christmas snow,

I want to make a big, snow man One 'most as big as me, I think that that 1s big enough ~You see, I'm’ half-past-three,

Mother said you'd fill my stocking To hang it up that night, With candy, oranges, and such I'm sure they'd be too tight,

So, don’t put them in my stocking Just leave mine by the tree, They'd be so hard to walk upon I wear them, don't you see?

Dear Santa—I'm quite puzzled To me, it's all so new, I'll say, Goodby, Dear Santa Claus You'll know, just what to do, —By MARY R. WHITE. > SB i If conditions today were as bad as too many

people paint them, they'd be a lot, worse than they are, :

4 & FOSTER'S FOLLIES

(“Lake Success—United Nations gets protest on wife-collecting In West Africa.”) It appears this good king blundered, He whase age is now four score, Not content with wives six hundred, He's been wedded to one more.

We should think that for a wise man, Only one wife would suffice; Possibly this royal tribesman Is just awfully fond of rice!

For the past several months, the

capital's bars have been emptier than the

+ +. By Douglas Larsen

Free Drinks Harass Gentlemen of Bar

WASHINGTON, Dec. 19—The town's night club proprietors think | that they have discovered what has happened to their business.

halls of Congress the week before an election. Lonely in. their own joints each night, depressed owners have had to amuse themselves by dreaming of the good old days. The mystery of the slump was that there seemed to be just as

OUR TOWN

. »

EXCEPT FOR last Monday's heavy snowfall which moved Frank B. Keeter to dip into his store of memories, I wouldn't be in a position to clear up a mystery which has baffled the police of Indian apolis for more than 50 years. Back in 1895 when Frankie was a kid of 7 or thereabouts, he traveled with a neighborhood gang of West End. boys made up for the most part of Frank Fox and the two Zollner brothers (Mike and Al) whose father ran the butcher shop in the Riley Block on the corner of Washington and California Sts. The Fox family lived somewhere in the same building. The kids went to School 5 which has Sige been replaced by the Oscar McCulloch School. e only reason 1 mention the school is to show that the kids didn't spend all their time™raising hell on the streets of Indianapolis. Well, one evening in the winter of '95—the frightfully cold one with the heavy snows—Frankie Keeter and his gang climbed the three stories of the Riley Block, wormed their way through the scuttle, and got to the snow-covered roof. Arriving there, they It got to be bigger and bigger until, finally, it was all of five feet in diameter—at any rate, the distance measured by Mr, Keeter's outstretched arms which was his graphic way of impressing me with the enormous size” of the snowball. I hope I've convinced you, as Mr. Keeter did me, that it was the biggest snowball ever rolled on the roof of an Indianapolis building.

Policemen on Beats in Those Days INDEED, to hear Mr. Keéter tell it, they could have rolled a still bigger snowball, but that wasn't the purpose of their plan. There was method in their madness.” While the snowball was. still capable of being handled, they rolled it over to the parapet,

aT Ci ! dis tii

. By Anton Scherrer

1895 Mystery Solved

x PR Tes SEES o

at Last

lifted it onto the wall (the kids were awful strong for their age) and waited for something to happen. They didn't have to wait long. Presently, Mike Rafferty and John Lowe, the two policemen patrolling the beat (and the pride of the West End) came along nonchalantly swinging their clubs, never once suspecting what the peaceful night had fn store for them. ‘ Sure, the wicked kids pushed the snowball over the parapet wall—from a height of three tall stories, mind you. It completely buried-the two cops, hashed in - their helmets, and left both looking like reasonable facsimilies of Lot's wife when extricated. (On second thought, Frank's lugging in of Lot's wife wasn't the happiest metaphor because, when you stop to think of it, Mike Rafferty wore the most luxuriant set of whiskers of any cop on the force). Frankie Keeter didn't, wait to' learn whether any more damage had beén done for, by this time, all four kids were safely hidden ,in Frank Fox's home which, if you'll recall, was in the same building,

Life's Work Cut Out for Them

MIKE RAFFERTY and John Lowe, two of the most gifted cops Indianapolis ever had, dedicated the rest of their days trying to clear up .the mystery. They vowed to uncover the criminals if it was the last thing they did. They didn't get to first base, not even after they persuaded Tim Splann-to take an interest in their’ case, Mr. Splann, as slick. a detective as Indianapolis ever had—or any other town, for that matter—did his level best to solve the crime, but to no avail. Every clue led up a blind alley, with the result that not until today—52 years after the night of the crime—is anybody in a position to reveal the identity of the perpetrators. And the only reason you know about it today is because the extraordinary beauty of Monday's snowfall moved Mr. Keeter to break down—right before my eyes—and confess everything. He said he felt better after it.

and night spots:

Side Glances—By Galbraith

3 : kK.

| What's All the Noise About?’ By Luther McNulty, 2607 N. Meridian St. After reading the.pros and cons of the report made by the Day & Zimmerman Co, concerning the public utilities, and the general operations of the City of Indianapolis, I, as an innocent 7'reader, am beginning to wonder ‘What all this’ noise is about. . g : I always thought the Chamber of Commerce was an organization of businessmen which gave symposiums concerning anti-labor practices and appointed committees to criticize and scare judges “in to prejudice and criticize public officials in general. ° 3 : Now it seems that they are branching out into a new field of telling the general public that there are adequate public utilities and the Public Service Commission has done its duty toward the users of gas, water and streetcars. Theréfore, I would like to ask a few questoins to clarify this matter. Why is it that in Indianapolis there are at ™* least 12 whole precincts without water service, ‘and that there are several public. schools which do not have decent water? And in view of that, why did the Public Service Commission permit - jhe water company to go to outlying districts in e county, and the water company refused to supply the city of Indianapolis with water service? Why is it that the gas company informs its customers that there is a shortage of gas or will not permit one to install additional gas appliances and yet the Public Service Commission allows the gas company to extend gas service to Zionsville, Southport, Lawrence and other remote communities and will not permit the.gas com« pany to provide the local consumers with natural gas? With reference to the Chamber of Commerce's engineering firm's report on the public transporta« tion in the city of Indianapolis, the fellow who made the survey must have been blind, and the committee to which the report was made evidently never saw a public conveyance for the reason that the facts are as follows: In many communities, streetcars run as far apart as 20 minutes, and the streetcar company does, not provide time tables, I have waited for as high as 12 Shelby busses for as long as one hour and ten minutes in the evening. All of the busses were packed to the doors, :

“a1 AFFAIRS... By William Philip Simms + Our Who'e China Policy in Danger

WASHINGTON, Dec. 19—There is reason to believe that Secretary of State Marshall will undertake an early, and perhaps radical, revision of our China policy. Two factors have arisen to bring this about. First is the belated | sealization in Washington that Soviet Russia is hell-bent to dominate

Many of the drivers of the said busses are discourteous and an example of the discourtesy displayed to me recently was that I purchased two car tokens and one of the tokens was a Milwaukee token and he refused it, thereby causing a scene, / ’ Therefore, while the various newspapers charge that certain petty politicians are controlling the Public Service Commission and the Chamber of Commerce is undertaking to dictate to government, I wonder what is going to be done about the duty of the public utilities toward the public in retu for their guarantee of a monopoly? Y

» » - Editor's Note: Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce hired Day &.Zimmerman to examine our streetcar service, find out whether it is as good, or better, or worse, than other cities get. Day & Zimmerman reported ours was just fair, but as good as service in Cincinnati, Dayton, Louisville, Columbus (0.) or Toledo. The Chamber has made no report on water service, gas service, or any other utility. “All this noise” is being made mostly by people who love Indianapolis, have their labor -and their money and their lives in its. future, . and want to make it a better place to live and ° to work and to do business. Criticism of defects, like that Mr. McNulty makes above, is the : first step toward correcting them. oA This newspaper has not charged that certain petty politicians are controlling the Public Service Commission nor that the Chamber of Commerce is undertaking to dictate to government.

Hoosier Forum - do ot agree with a word that you say, but |= "| %i defend fo the death your right fo say it."

"FRIDAY

Ask Mr. Tries

Sn——— Dear Mrs. } IAM A your advice writing you Iam vi get along w service and My troubl that's what yi people like m unwanted-—so ‘but I seem to However, contented. "I have no frien vited to parti I guess people I'Ve been everything. I

"* or drink, and

“If I could fir are usually ti You have to me. Pm as You've put vy ~jet people when people You've | you forget t actions. Giv people know

Why . Di WHAT W 20 years, has out, and who in it, . Do you { can't live wit she has bad weight. She He doesn 8 divorce on.

I don't |

Raaleda Jr green, gray, rayon crepe.

many persons around who needed exposure to entertainment as there had always been. Hotel rooms were harder to get than during the war. People still read the death notices for leads to apartments. The Bureau®of Labor Statistics said that other businesses were making more money. And the Department of Commerce was still saying that D. C. residents were out in front in the yearly race to drink more liquor per capita than any other group in the country. Then one night, as the story goes, a bar owner with an urge to talk to somebody, decided to use an invitation to an embassy party he had gotten from a fourth secretary who owed him 20 bucks. The first thing that surprised him was that they didn't ask for his invitation at the door. And, inside, he recognized several persons who had formerly been his best customers. He pushed up to one of them and asked where he had been lately, The tipsy, former customer sald frankly: "Don't be silly. With the cost of living where it is, why should I buy mygliquor from you when I can get it here free, and with tonier drinking companions than the ones vou furnished.” “But how did you get invited?" asked the bar ofmner “Invited? Say, you are slow. Like everybody else here, I just walked in." .

-All This and Slivovitch, Too

| poured to uninvited guests, was cutting in on their business

HERE, IT hit him like a flash, was one answer to where his business had gone in the last few months. Next day, he spread his discovery among his distressed competitors. They decided to see if it was true that the free vodka, slivovitch and rum, which the embassies

Their fears proved well-founded. Distraught social secretaries for the embassies say that the problem of crashers is indeed intolerable. In the past in Washington, the number of crashers was a calculated risk. Today it is the frantic hope of hosts that at least a few of the invited guests would arrive early enough for a couple of drinks and a sandwich ‘before the hoard of the uninvited took over. Only the British and Russian embassies don't have this problem, it appears. They have such a reputation for invulnerability to crashers nobody bothers to try it, enter

If you don't have the pasteboard, you don't The current party fare at these two places is pretty lean,

. however,

. chance to ask for an invitation, Even

Can't Afford Even One Mistake

BUT, AT the other embassies, it's apparently too late to do much about the situation.’ The important guests aren't in the habit of bringing their invitations. And if you make one mistake and keep out an important guest, it could mean war with Peru, or something equally as serious. : 3! And, even if the embassies would try hard to keep the crashers out, it would be difficult. There are infallible methods of getting in without having been invited.. . ul : The best one, used by many persons, is to linger at the outer ene trance until a car ‘with a diplomatic license drives up to empty its passengers. You sort of get in the crowd, be tailing to one of the legitihate guests and be a part of the entrance confusion.’ Nobody's going to start matching noses with invitations at such a time. The most popular method of crashing. however, and the most simple, is just to Sweep in with a grand air and don't give anybody a the legitimate guests do this, so it's hard to pick the phonies. !

| | |

. ! But, according to Sam Schanker, manager of Washington's Club

Cairo, said to be the city’s only “real” night club, something can be

v - “arn 5

| |

COPR. 1947 BY NEA SERVICE. INC. T. M. REG U. 8. PAT. OFF.

12-19

"They re fighting about which one is the best behaved and will get the most from Santa Claus!"

trying to attract the customers with first-class entertainment liquor. He says: “If they'll let me, I'll tell them how to make their joints crash-

and good

proof. The quickest way to keep the floaters out would be to stop serving liquor for a while. Then we'd have our patrons back fast enough.”

So They Say = . PEOPLE WHO READ American history will search its pages for a long time before discovering that’ American leaders sent presents to British royalty whilst America was struggling for 4ts independence. «Premier Eamon DeValera of Eire. » on ” ”

sw AMERICAN OCCUPATION TROOPS should be withdrawn from

| |

the world. Second, that an independent China is as indispensable to American security as an independent Europe, : Congress is increasingly critical of the State Department's handling of the China question. This was made clear at the Senate Appropriations Committee hearings at which Lt. Gen. Albert C. Wedemeyer, former Ambassador William C. Bullitt, Congressman Judd and

| others testified.

Gen. Wedemeyer was sent to China last spring to Investigate. For months his report has been suppressed. As a -result the capital has been thick wilh rumors, most of them detrimental to China and

| Chinese morale. The general was credited with being against further i “aid to China which, gossip said he alleged, was corrupt and hopeless.

Emphatic That Aid Is Needed :

THE GENERAL made such rumors look silly. He could not make

"public his long-secret report, he said, because he was ordered not to.

But he could and would give the committee his views which he proceeded to do without pulling any punches. Asked pointblank if he believed we should help China today, economically and with military aid, he shot back just as categorically: “Yes, sir, I do.” - Congressman Judd and Mr, Bullitt were equally emphatic. The gist of the testimony of the three witnesses, all of whom know China first-hand, was the same: China today is fighting to hold back the Red tide just as Western Europe is and failure there would be as disastrous to us as failure in France, Italy and Austria. Far from being hostile to Generalissimo’ Chiang Kai-shek, as some have whispered, Gen. Wedemeyer came out strongly for him. The generalissimo may be a “benevolent despot,” he said, but he is an honest one. He could have struck a most advantageous bargain with Tokyo during World War II, and left us in the lurch. But he refused.

Our Own Security Involved

IT WAS MADE clear that, realistically, what concerns us is not so much China's internal affairs as our own national security, China must remain Chinese and sovereign, Our policy of the open door, evolved in 1899, came durihg reign of the Manchu dynasty-—as corrupt a regime as could. be found. What

| impelled us then were the plots of the great powers to take advantage

of China's weakness and partition her-into spheres of interest. The

U 8. correctly warned all concerned that such meddling was a

“exposed positions” in Europe so that they won't become “sacrificial menace to world peace and this Intervention saved China's inde-

lambs” in the event of war, i ' . ~=Rep. Cliff Clevenger (R. Ohio). on.» oY ou 8 HOLLYWOOD is going to ¢lean up its own back yard. The people who are wrong. are going to be out, The ones who are right will be protected. ~—Louls B. Mayer, vice president, M-G-M. » - ” ” Ed r Sate AMERICAN PRIVATE ENTERPRISE wants expanded world trade, but has. no desire or need to enforce its will on any other nation. ~Paul G. Hoffman, president, Studebaker Corp. » » - - ” »

. THE ABSENCE of a national policy with respect to the employ-

_ ent of Communists in private industry makes our task difficult. hd | done about this. problem. He's one of the few proprietors who is

| $

rg on A sf

pendence Again, at the end of World. War I, China's sovereignty was menaced. Half a dozen Chinese war lords were fighting among themselves and dickering with foreign powers—especially Japan. And again the United States went to the rescue, fundamentally for the same - reason: Our own security, We called the Pacific and Far Eastern Conference at which the powers agreed: . ONE: To respect the sovereignty, the independence and the terri torial and administiative integrity of China, and ¥WO, to provide the fullest opportunity for China to develop and maintain for herself an

| effective und stable government.

Eric Johnston, president, Motion Picture Industries . tional security.

Today our

whole China policy is in danger and with it our na-

| 4

- i a

’ .

Joan Mille

brown, gree with white p