Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 27 May 1951 — Page 18

The Indianapolis Times isi

A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER

ROY W. HOWARD WALTER LECKRONE HENRY W, MANZ President

Editor PAGE 18

Owned and published dally by Indianapolis Times Publish. w 214 w Maryland St. Postal Zone 9. Member of United Press, Scripps-Howard Newspaper Alliance. NEA Servfce and Audit Bureau of Circulation.

Business Manager

Sunday, May 27, 1951

Price In Marion County. & vents a copy for dally and 10¢ tor Sunday; delivered by carrier daily and Sunday, 350 a week, daily only, 25¢, Sunday only. 10¢c, Mail rates in Indiana dally d Sunday, $1000 a year, dally, $5.00 a year, Sunday only, $5.00; all other states, U. 8. possession. Canadas and Mexico, daily $1.10 sa month, Sunday. 100 a copy.

Telephone RI ley 5551 Give LAght end the People Will Find Their Own Way

x FE Ask Denver About Parking Meters -

>

Humpty Due For A Fall gy J. Hugh O'Donnell

NATE Have at-hand a letfer from Pierg & Barves, the (0%

man who has charge of parking meters forthe city and county of Denver, Col., which we commend to our own city council. Denver, writes Mr. Barnes, has 5750 parking meters in service, of which 4000 are Mark-Time meters, such as Indianapolis has been using for several years, and 1750 are Duncan meters, like those Indianapolis installed in very small number around Fountain Square a few weeks back. . It takes four men full time, a total of 32 working hours a day, to keep the 4000 Mark-Time meters in repair, Mr. Barnes reports. It takes one man an hour and a half, a total of 90 minutes working time a day, to keep the 1750 Duncan meters in repair, :

OR IN other words, less than an hour a day service to keep each 1000 Duncan meters in operation, and eight hours a day service to keep each 1000 Mark-Time meters going. The reason, says Mr. Barnes, is that the Duncan meter has had less than half of one per cent mechanical failure, so it doesn't need much repair. the figure for the Mark-Time meter in Denver. In Indian-. apolis, though, we had an official record on that meter from our own experience, kept by our own meter maintenance men. It used to hang in public view in their headquarters, but it hasn't been there since we called attention to it some time ago. It showed, when it last showed at all, up to 73 per cent of those meters out of service for repairs per month,

DENVER is replacing that kind of meter with the kind that has given satisfactory service at about one-eighth the maintenance cost, and so, it appears are a considerable number of other cities. Pending right now before Indianapolis City Council, however, is a proposal to buy 2200 more of that same kind of parking meters, against the advice of the engineers who have inspected all the kinds there are for sale, and in the face of the record of performance it has made here and elsewhere. We hold no brief for the Duncan meter, or any other kind. We do feel, though, that the city ought to get its money's worth in anything it buys, and a gadget that costs eight times as much to maintain as some other variety in use under identical conditions doesn't look like a very good value to us.

‘as ® = s =» WE ARE fully aware that some of the highest pressure

salesmanship in this country is devoted to the selling of all such equipment as parking meters, of whatever make.

City council doesn’t have to be stampeded into approval of this purchase without looking at it, however. We have, in actual operation on our own streets right now, two of the half-dozen varieties offered for sale here. Why not test them-—and any others we wish to consider—for a reasonable period, compare the results,—and then buy the kind that gives us the best value for our money? ;

A Useless Vestige

THESE are modern times with the telephone, radio and automobile and yet we find ourselves still saddled with

an archaic governmental structure...a vestige of Eliza-

bethan days . . . the township trustee. The system has succeeded in doing little more impressive than to pile up a record of wholesale bungling and occasional graft. \ Actually the office is not very important. two main functions: 3

ONE: Poor relief. ’ TWO: Schools. Both of these have been badly managed and both are duplications of county and state functions. Indiana's poor relief record is among the 10 worst in the nation. Compare this with the state's public welfare record which ranks among the best in the nation. The state welfare agency took the brunt of attack during this last legislative session . .. an attack which might better have been directed against the township trustees.

It has only

A BILL in the last legislature to combine the five townships in Indianapolis under one unit . . . died in committee. The trustees are still a potent political force, if nothing else. Some trustees are now under investigation for political shakedowns of school teachers. It isn’t a unique experience in Indiana. "The record is clear and it is long . . . family and political favoritism, false claims and contributions from favored stores, padding of relief bills, price hiking for relief clients, shortweighting relief groceries, increasing relief rolls just béfore elections. The township trustee is obsolete. The office should be abolished.

Let 'Em Eat Tacks i

ITs interesting to hear Marine Gen. “Chesty” Pullers recipe for good fighting men. “Throw qut the women and the YMCA,” he says. “Get rid of ice cream and candy. Give 'em beer and whisky.” The general is following a noble, though sometimes comie, tradition of military brass who sound off occasionally about men and morale. Usually they are forced to duck almost immediately. ‘While “Chesty” is ducking, he may want more ammunition. So it Is suggested he recommend James Jones’ bestselling, frankly profane and sometimes obscene novel, . “Fyom Here to Eternity,” be made an Army technical

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Foster's Follies

WASHINGTON -- A former government stenographer is charged with stealing jewelry worth $5000. Police allege she palmed diamond rings while salesmen were distracted by her extremely low-cut gown.

A bull within a china shop Could cause no more surprise, It seems this thief came out on top By spurning all disguise,

Such methods we must fain decry, Such trickery deplore — = Until we get a chance to buy some thriving jewelry store.

=» ” . JUST goes to show what can happen when a stenographer forgets a few hooks. Still, it was smart of the little gal not to wear her coat. That might have exposed her as a government minx. But it does give us a lift to know that someone in Washington is beginning to think in terms of a global attack. And the little lady certainly proved that the hand is quicker than the eye. Sort of made it ring true —to those jewelry salesmen, at least. Resides, who are we to condemn her methods? Many a gal has gotten a diamond ring In somewhat comparable fashion. And what Is so wrong ahout a stenographer adding a few carbons? All she wanted was a modest profit. Now that she's in jail she's probably pretty low in her mind, too. Although for all we know, it may be that she’s still putting up a bold front. 2 ” n IN NEW YORK a couple of medicos, having conducted numerous tests, declare that there is no relationship between a person's actual performance and the lethargy of which some people compldin after taking antihistamine drugs. Must be like spring fever. Just watch the average young man these days. Dull, listless, disinterested in everything. Almost! Then a pretty gal goes by.

- . ~” IF YOU know a man who's listless, He could still be antihist-less And just taken with the beauties of spring. And if he's by chance been kissed less, Then a gal who proves resistless Early vigor to your tired friend will bring.

o ” ” HEADLINE: “Housewife's Tasks Eased by New Appliances.” Yes, sir. Especially when the added appliance is a wealthy husband.

” ~ ” SPFAKING of appliances, refrigerator engineers are perfecting a system to catch leaks go small that it would take three and a half years for enough gas to escape to fill a thimble. What we'd like to see ‘em perfect is a method of plugging those ice box: leaks that occur when our teen-age kids invite their friends for a “snack.” When they get finished there isn't enough of anything left in the ice box to fill a thimble. Even one designed to fit Tom Thumb,

Barbs

American children wear out an average of 3% pairs of shoes a year. And it's quite a scuffle. :

~ ” ” It's bad enough to go to the law with your troubles, but much worse to go to the inlaws,

u a’ 8 A North Carolina man was sent to jail for stealing one slice of boiled ham. Rather an unkind cut!

3 ~ TH — ot

FARE: QEageRI CTmey Rr,

2d # Sw.

EDITOR'S NOTE . ... By Walter Leckrons ‘Cost of Living’ Pay Increase

Not Cure for Inflation

LAST week some, 40,000 Indiana workers got automatie pay increases under the ‘cost of llving” clauses that some union contracts include, Those clauses are simply agreements that when the cost of living index kept by the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics rises an agreed number of points, wages rise by an agreed number of cents per hour. To a great many workers who do not have such clauses in their union . contracts this seemed like a very good idea,* and similar provisions are be-

"The odd, thing abc NEN that the more such contracts there are the less any of them

_ will be worth to the workers.

Devised as a means of protecting workers against inflation, it actually creates inflation f{tself. Using it is like trying to cool off a room by agreeing to build a fire under the thermometer every time the temperature goes up a degree. ” o Ld THE ‘cost of living” index is in itself a very dubious yardstick of the cost of living. It is compiled by getting the prices in a number of selected cities on the things the ordinary family is presumed to buy. At its best it contains a large element of pure guesswork, and at its worst it Is subject to easy “rigging” for political or other purposes should it be found desirable to do so. Assuming, though, that it actually does bear some relation to what it costs to live, its use as a base for wages can be helpful to workers who have it

CONGRESS ROUNDUP . . . By Charles Egger

House Tax Committee

Aims at

Higher Personal Income Brackets

WASHINGTON, May 26-This week in Congress the House Ways and Means Committee tentatively agreed on a 12'4 per cent increase in all individual income taxes, instead of the hike of threa percentage points in ll tax brackets which previously had been voted.

Rep. Herman P. Eberharter (D. Pa.) proposed the change. Its effect will be to place less of the added tax burden on small incomes and more on larger earnings. The committee also voted to stiffen the excess profits tax and to discard a five per cent increase in the excise tax on radios and television sets it had approved earlier,

It was agreed to make the new individual Income tax increases effective Sept. 1 and the higher levies on corporation incomes retroactive to Jan. 1. But all actions still are subject to a final committee vote and approval by the House and Senate.

Rep. Daniel Reed (R. N, Y.) charged that Democrats had decided on the changes on income taxes and then ‘rammed them down our throats.” Republicans wanted only a 10 per cent increase in individual income taxes.

program is the

other nations.

to permit 50,000

country by some of his utterances. Gen. Bradley also told the committee that lack of proper field intelligence and evaluation was a big reason for Gen. MacArthur's failure to know more ahead . of time about the activities of the Chinese Reds before they intervened in the Korean War.

Trade Agreements

THE BILL to extend the reciprocal trade program another two years was passed. This

one under which the United

States cuts tariffs in return for concessions from

Two Republicans— Sens. George Malone of Nevada and Henry Dworshak of Idaho—cast the only votes against extension. The bill, previously passed by the House, now goes to a Conference Committee.

Public Housing

AN APPROPRIATIONS subcommittee voted

new public housing units next

year instead of the 5000 allowed by the House. The action came after President Truman had said the limit ordered by the House would have

an “adverse affect” on the defense effort by re-

Red Probe

JOSE FERRER, this year's winner of Hollywood’'s academy award, told the Un-American Activities Committee that he had never been a Communist. He sald, however, that he had freely permitted the use of his name by organizations which later turned out to be Communist fronts. Frank Tuttle, movie direetor, said he had been a Communist. for 10 years but dropped out of the party when he realized that it was an international conspiracy. He named 368 others from Hollywood as people he had known as Communists, Budd Schulberg, novelist, testified that he had been a member of the Communist Party but got out when it tried to dictate his writings.

Grain to India

THE BILL to loan $190 million to India for purchase of two million tons of grain for famine relief was passed. The measure now goes to a conferen committee to iron out differences between the two chambers,

dustrial areas.

total voted this $48 billion.

Both Houses

President

Asia, of which + g0 to

Marine Corps

ADM. FORREST SHERMAN, chief of naval operations, told the Armed Services Committee, that the Marine Corps would suffer from ‘‘overexpansion” if its present size were doubled.

Senate Foreign Policy

THE JOINT Foreign Relations and Armed Services Committees continued to hear military leaders in the investigation of the MacArthur dismissal after a Republican-sponsored attempt to call Secretary of State Dean Acheson at once was rejected, Gen. Omar N. Bradley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the Joint Chiefs unanimously had recommended Gen. MacArthur's removal because they belleved he had endangered this

compare . . .

the sky . . .

and through . .

HOOSIER SKETCHBOOK

A ww did , aay pon

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Bony’ PLEAS

ie. ‘WAY AND LET 5

ducing the amount of housing available in in-

Appropriations A BILL appropriationg an additional $6.5 billion for defense was passed. This carried the

year for defense purposes to

A BAN was voted on economic aid to nations shipping war materials to Communist countries. The order was attached to a routine appropriations bill. Sen, James Kem (R., Mo.) said the ban would remove the ‘shame and disgrace” resulting from shipments of war materials to Red China by way of Hong Kong.

PRESIDENT TRUMAN asked for $8.5 billion for f8reign military and economic aid. Most of the total ($6.89 billion) would go to Furopean countries. But $930 million was earmarked for

an unspecified amount would

Nationalist China. The president also requested an additional billion dollars for various domestic programs, including $800 million for stockpiling of strategic raw materials.

MY THRILL

1 THRILL my dearest when I look . . . into your eves divine . .. I feel when you say you'll be mine . . . I thrill from just your slightest touch . ever we hold hands . . . in a whirl . . . like gentle drifting sands ... I float upon a scented breeze . . . and drift into when you enfold me in your arms ...and tell me I'm your guy ... I feel a thrill that's more than that... a kiss . , . for they are filled with magic of . . . a dream perfumed with bliss . . . you thrill me dearest wonderful

a thrill beyond

+ « When-

I feel as though I'm

when your lips give

« « +» You thrill me through . with love that’s full of glory,

and . .. the heaven that is you.

—By Ben Burroughs.

By J

i

only as ‘long as very few of them actually do have it, It exists most widely, just now, in the automobile industry. Wages are a considerable part of the price of an automobile, The price of an automobile is one of the factors that determines the “cost of living” index. So, under this arrangement, auto workers’ wages go .up. That pushes the price of automobiles up. And that, in turn, pushes the “cost of liv ing” index up-—and we're ready -

* for another rise in wages,

‘would, oF course; be smal fnly a small number of workers, or only the workers in one industry, had such a contract. But the more industries it covers the more prices it forces upwald, ‘and the higher it pushes the index, and hence the wages, and the prices and the index again, and so on. Plainly it could help a small number of workers escape some of the effects of inflation, though only at the expense of all other workers, so long as it didn’t go too far. Applied universally to all workers it could only increase inflation, make their wages buy less and less as prices went higher and higher. EJ n ” NO ANSWER, indeed, to America’s problem of inflation has appeared so far. The federal administration not only has produced no plan to stop inflation it has shown no desire that it be stopped. To stop inflation would be to reverse completely the _one steadily consistent policy this administration has followed for 18 years. We think of inflation in terms of prices going up. But actually, when the prices of all commodities go up, it is the price of the dollar that has gone down. Today it is almost, though not quite, at the lowest price in U. S. history. on n 2 DOLLARS were high, and commodities were cheap, back in the early ’'Thirties. The Roosevelt administration undertook to change that. First major move was NRA. It was designed to raise prices and wages and limit production of commodities through a system of trade and labor controls, or, essentially, to make dollars cheaper. Then we went off the gold standard, so that gold could not be hoarded, and the price of gold was arbitrarily raised about one-third. That is to say dollars were reduced in price

Agnes

‘Alex the Great’ MR. EDITOR:

- I wonder when Alex Clark, “Alex the Great,” will open up a college and get out of the law business. He gave us this lace hankie business in traffic court with a nice movie on driving, a small-sized pat on the wrist and that's all. e Now he would like to entertain us with an educational movie on dogs and rabies. Another lace hankie and pat on the wrist treatment for lawbreakers. He tells us this nice treatment will change our minds if we come into court with a bitter attitude. Might be, but I doubt it.

Meanwhile, pet owners get the idea if they are caught in a violation of the license laws or quarantine laws all they will have to stand up to is a nice tea party ... with movies” yet. If most pet owners are human beings, they will figure out that there is no sense in going to all the trouble of observing the laws. Why buy a

. Hugh O’Donnell

a n.-8 ; SEHE. EEEECT. 00, prices, 40 dkalsespt dR conte an bone. PRUE RIRECT. on. pices, 4 aruran our... be legally paid. Since wages. .... HB. .

HOOSIER FORUM

"l do not agree with a word that you say, but | will defend to the death your right to say it."

NENA EERE Na R EINER INNO a SRO aNaONRsusaea aaa sTEORIREINsETe stints

so that a piece of gold which formerly bought two dollars now would buy three. That was followed by large expenditures of borrowed dollars on projects that had no actual value, or no commodity valve. The intent was to make dollars more plentiful, and easier to get, and cheaper. J » = ~ LATER the so-called “fale labor standards’ law was enacted. This limited the working week to 40 hours and required 50 per cent higher pay for time worked in excess of

as the lowest. wage

cannot, as a practical matter, be fixed by law in real currency, this was wholly inflationary, and was rather frankly advanced for that purpose. It provided for more dollars for less work and less produetion, and hence made. dollars cheaper. The 40-hour work week continues, the minimum wage has been raised, since, to 75 cents an hour, for still fur ther inflation&ry effect. None of these schemes really accomplished what they were meant to-accomplish. The dollar was very sound, and it did not come down much even under all that governmental pressure.

» ~ » WE WERE, in fact, well along in World War II before these inflationary programs really took effect. When they did prices rose, dollars dropped, ‘and the “national income” — in dollars—went to new high levels. That made it possible for the federal government to, collect vast sums in taxes—still in dollars, of course—since taxes are essentially a percentage of income, So long as inflation continues to grow the federal government can continue, without embarrassment, to pay interest on its huge debt, to employ millions of individuals who perform more or less valuable services but who produce nothing, and to continue to expand itself. If dollars rose to the price they were worth even ten years ago, national income would be cut in half, and so would tax collections, and the government of the United States would be in serious financial difficulties. Naturally all its policies tend toward keeping dollars cheap, even though thers is much plous talk about high prices. There is no indication anywhere of any intention to change that policy.

license? Why coop your dog up when you can let him run? Very few people would want to miss having tea in court with “Alex the Great.” —Movie Minded, City

‘Train Speeds’ MR. EDITOR: I still don't get the drift of this dispute between the railroads and the city. I don't mean the street railroads. I mean the big jobs that run en coal. Not too long ago a group of teen-agers were killed at a crossing. Later on a man was killed at another crossing. When the first accident happened the city was in an uproar and almost everyone demanded that the trains go through the city at a lower rate of speed. The railroads talked as if they would co-operate with whatever the city planned. Now it turns out they don’t want to be held down to a 30-mile-an-hour speed limit, but they should be. In fact they should De held down to a speed at least 10 miles slower than the speed limit set for automolies.

~ ” » IT STANDS to reason a train ia much heavier than a car, It also stands to reason they cannot stop as quickly because of this added weight and because they don’t have the traction of rubber tires. It would be foolish to assert trains are to blame for every accident that happens at a crossing. But it would be efually as foolish to say motore ists are to blame for all of them. Why not keep the train speed slow enough so0 the engineer will at least have a chance to stop if some unthinking motorist makes a mistake or a signal fails to function. I doubt very much if the engineers would object. You can't blame them if they have to make schedules set up by the company and risk the neck of the public by doing it. Confused, City.

‘Traffic Drive’

MR. EDITOR: See where the state police are off on another crackdown. This time they're out to get the reckless driver. Only trouble is why #s it a crackdown? Seems to’ me the reckless driver is around all the time and is the major cause of traffic accidents. Would be far better if the state and local police concentrated on him all the time instead of just once a year, The one way to cut down the rate of trafic accidents in this state is to really get tough, all the time, and enforce the laws the way they should be enforced. This goes for the courts more than anyone else. Too many judges have hearts that go soft under political pressure. Put violators in jail, fine ‘em like mad and suspend their driver's licenses and your traffic troubles are over. But, unfortunately, your political

. troubles will just be starting. 2 Trafic Minded, Clty.

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