The Indianapolis times. [volume], January 07, 1928, Noon Edition, Page PAGE 4, Image 4

About The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965

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PAGE 4
The Indianapolis Times
(A SCRIPF'S-HOWABU NEWSPAPER)
Owned and published dally (except Sunday) by The lndlanapoll3 Times Publishing Cos., 214-220 W.
Maryland Street. Indianapolis, Ind. Price in Marion County. 2 cents —lO cents a
week: elsewhere. 3 cents—l 2 cents a week.
BOYD GURLEY. ROY W. HOWARD. PRANK G. MORRISON.
Editor. President. Business Manager.
PHONE—MAIN 3500. SATURDAY, JAN. 7. 1928.
Member ol United Press, Scrlpps-Howard Newspaper Alliance. Newspaper Enterprise Association.
Newspaper Intormation Service and Audit Bureau of Circulations.
“Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way.”— Dante.
SCRIPPS~HOWAM-&
Hoover or Hand-Picked?
Alter the tumult and the shouting of the Wood-
Lowden battle had died, Warren G. Harding was
nominated in the Republican national convention of
1920.
While the actual nomination occurred in the con
vention itself, the real job was done in the smoke
filled room of a Chicago hotel.
Harry Daugherty was in that room, and Jake
Hamon. Boise Penrose of Pennsylvania was there
in voice, if not in person, for the long distance tele
phone was working between Chicago and Penrose in
Pennsylvania. Other “professionals” were in attend
ance; . The trick was quickly turned after the psycho
logical moment had arrived. The deadlock between
Wood and Lowden was broken and Harding was
sent in.
To turn the trick many promises had to be made.
Jake Hamon was scheduled for high place in the
Harding administration—a high place that death at
the hands of Clara Smith prevented him from at
taining.
And so were Albert Fall and Daugherty, and so
were other members of the “Ohio gang” of which
Daugherty was the presiding genius. “To the victors
belong the spoils,” and promises always go along with
such “settlements.”
* * *
The great game of politics as played every four
years has as its equipment three chief bits of
paraphernalia. One is the favorite son. Another is
the uninstructed delegate. The third is the unit
rule.
To be able to control a State delegation; to de
liver the delegates at the critical moment during a
national convention, is the professional politician's
supreme ambition. In achieving that ambition, a
favorite son may help, as a means of holding a dele
gation in line, or if the delegation is uninstructed
and the unit rule is in vogue, the professional leader
can keep his flock together for “the break.”
* * *
The Jake Hamons, the Harry Daughertys and
others of their ilk who typify professional politics,
succeed or fail according to their ability to control
State delegations. Out of success grow lower in pat
ronage and all the other fruits of political prefer
ment, even unto a Teapot Dome.
Such professional politicians get in their work
ahead of the time when the general public wakes up
to what is going on. Even now they are busy, ar
ranging things so that when June comes and the con
vention assembles, they will have the power to di
rect the nomination.
* * *
The “work” starts with the precinct meetings in
some States. In others it is performed in the presi
dential primaries. But regardless of what the sys
tem to delegate-selection may be, you will find the
professional politicians adept at bringing forth a
crop of pawns.
It is for that reason that Herbert Hoover, opposed
by many of his party's most astute professionals, is
in danger, despite the flood of favorable public senti
ment that ‘ has been sweeping the country in his
behalf since Coolidge issued his famous “do not choose
to run.”
It is entirely possible for a man like Hoover,
though possessing a vast majority in public senti
ment, to lose, nevertheless, when the real game starts
in convention hall.
This newspaper desires most earnestly, to repeat
the warning, as the time approaches for the precinct
meetings, the county conventions, the State con
ventions, the presidential primaries, and all the other
preliminaries.
For, unless the rank and file take a part in those
preliminaries, and thereby see that delegates respon
se e to the popular will are selected, the professionals
will when nominating time comes around.
And, instead of a man like Hoover, the country
will again be voting.in November for some candidate
such as 1920 brought forth, hand-picked in the wee
small hours of a smoke-filled hotel room.
Kellogg and Nicaragua
No Whit of the sting of the Nicaraguan tragedy
is removed by the fact that it should never have* hap
pened. The way was wide open to Secretary of State
Kellogg more than a year ago to deal with Nicaragua
in a way fully to protect our interests and meke
fiiends for the United States among Latin Americans
at the same time.
The cue came from none other than Dr. Juan
B. Sacasa, president of the liberal, or revolutionary,
government, whose capital was at Puerto Cabezas.
Dr. Sacasa, offering to eliminate himself entirely from
the picture, suggested that the United States invite
two or more South American republics to cooperate
in regulating affairs in Nicaragua, agreeing in ad
vance to abide by whatever plan a Pan-American con
ference might decide upon.
Had Secretary Kellogg had the foresight to follow
this suggestion, the benefits to the United States
would have been incalculable. Today there would
be at the head of the Nicaraguan government a presi
dent quite as favorable to the United States as could
be desired. Second, such a president would have the
support of a majority of his own countrymen, which
President Diaz assuredly lacks, and in addition, the
mornl backing not only of this country but of all
J America as well. And lastly, had the peace c*
'Varava been disturbed and measures needed to
restore order, the United States, if it so desired, could
rave had a Latin American mandate to take such
steps as were deemed necessary.
The failure of Secretary Kellogg to follow some
such course as this was, and is, inexcusable. There
was ample precedent for his guidance. President
Roosevelt and President Diaz of Mexico joined hands
in 1908 to bring peace to Central America. In 1910
the United States, Argentina and Brazil cooperated
to settle a boundary dispute between Peru and Ecua
dor, while in 1914 President Wilson accepted the
mediation offer of the ABC powers (Argentina, Bra
zil and Chile) in our near-war with Mexico.
With what result? in each instance American
prestige soared. Everywhere Latin Americans were
singing our praise. “Now this is real Pan-American
ism.” cried the able Dr. Naon, Argentine ambassador
to Washington. “Before it was only an ideal.” And
John Barrett, then director-geneial of the Pan-
American Union, correctly stated that these steps did
more “to bring the Amercan nations closer together
than any other influence in many years.”
f A similar procedure ki Nicaragua would have
netted like results. And what a wonderful prepara-
tion it would have been for President Coolidge and
his good will speech before the coming Pan-American
Congress at Havana! Instead, opinion is daily
mounting against us in Latin America, as stories of
the fighting appear in the public print. In many
Central and South American capitals, it would even
seem, the murmur is heard that the Havana congress
should be called off. What, people are asking, is the
use of holding such a conference against such a back
ground?
When one stops to think of what might have been
and what it is, it is enough to wring tears from a stone.
Bettering the Race
Certain learned men, convening with their peers
at the Race Betterment Conference in Battle Creek,
Mich., express fears that the “better stock” of the race
is dying out. *
Successful people—people who make money, attain
leisure, get educations—are not reproducing as fast as
poor people. Asa result, the population is increasing
through its weakest members, not through its
strongest.
, So runs the plaint voiced at Battle Creek.
It is risky business for a layman to dissent from
the opinion of a scientist. Yet it seems to us that
these men are worrying themselves unduly. In fact, it
even seems as if there were just a trace of snobbish
ness in their remarks.
The expression, “better stock,” sounds suspiciously
like "upper classes," somehow. One fears that some
where there is a feeling that the children of a college
professor, for instance, are in the nature of things
more worthy and more valuable to the race than the
children of Giuseppe, the pick-and-shovel man.
With such a feeling we must disagree emphatically.
For the entire point of our American democracy
is that children of Giuseppe need not grow up to be
pick-and-shovel men if they do not want to. The
State will give them all the education they -are capable
of assimilating. We submit that Giuseppe’s children
are every bit as likely to be physically and mentalfy
sound as the college professor’s. Our form of govern
ment and society give them every opportunity. If it is
in them to rise, there is no reason why they can not
themselves enter the ranks of professors or stock
brokers or newspaper editors, or, possibly, even movie
orchestra conductors.
For ourselves, we are not in the least worried by
the fact that the birth rate is lower among college
graduates than among the poor. We can not help
remembering that some of the greatest men ever born
in America came from what our Race Betterment
friends might call the “lower classes.”
If you are interested, we are thinking of such men
as Abraham Lincoln, Henry Ford, Walt Whitman,
John D. Rockefeller—and so on, ad infinitum.
The-President's Prediction
President Coolidge foresees increased production of
goods during 1928. This, he says, will mean that
greater number of persons will have things which
heretofore have been denied them, since an abundance
of goods will mean wider distribution.
The President no doubt is right in his prediction.
The outstanding fact in our economic life in recent
years has been the greater output of our factories, not
only in total volume, but in the amount each man em
ployed has produced. There is little reason to believe
that this process will be checked, at least for a long
time.
Labor is abundant, and so are capital and credit.
The problem, In fact, is not to obtain any one of these
things. It is rather to find markets for the increasing
flood of goods, and to find uses for the enormous re
serves of capital that have been accumulated.
The development of credit buying vastly has in
creased the country's purchasing power. A high wage
level has enabled wage-earners to buy more. Our
surpluses have made possible the widespread use of
many luxuries, such as the radio. And still the prob
lem remains.
This condition never before has existed in Ameri
can history, and apparently no one has any clear idea
of just where the economic currents are carrying us.
Many theories believed sound have had to be aban
doned, and the philosophies of producing, buying,
selling and consuming, have undergone many changes.
Since the future seems obscured, perhaps wc
should stop worrying about it. We have one genuine
problem which deals wholly with the present. That
problem is to see that increased production and great
er wealth benefit all of us; to see that the millions
whose labor makes possible the thing of which the
President speaks gets their just share of what is pro
duced.
As Others See Us
The American, with his keen nose for news, with
his curiosity about what other folks are doing and
saying and experimenting, gets a fair day-by-day
picture of what is going on in Europe. But the re
verse is not true. Europe persists in believing that
we are something raw and untamed and particularly
uncivilized. The average reader of a European news
paper thinks that all Americans wear huge goggles,
chew gum, droop a big cigar from the left end of
their mouth and start all polite conversation with:
“Say, bo, I'll tell the world!”
Nor is that all. America as presented to him is
made up of movie stars, divorce court defendants,
gunmen, hijackers, bootleggers and freaks.
Which, perhaps, accounts for their great aston
ishment when they find us the most prosperous nation
on earth and with a very neat habit of constantly
cornering more and more of the world's business.
Pa says he has never doubted he is the light of
Ma's life. She won’t let him go out at night.
If you broke diet and gained ten pounds, don’t
complain. The weigh of the transgressor is hard.
Add similes: As unexpected as a jury summons.
A lot of people do not have to be weighed iry the
balance to be found wanting. They are always want
ing—if they don't w r ant this they want that.
Crocodiles can go thi ~e months v-'lhout eating.
But what makes a fellow suspicious when he looks
at one is, will he?
Politicians seldom if ever write their memoirs.
They have an instinctive fear that they will misquote
themselves.
THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES
BRIDGE ME
ANOTHER
(Copyright, 1927. by The Ready Ref
erence Publishing Company.)
BY W. VV. WENTWORTH
(Abbreviations: A—acc; K—king: Q—
queen; J—jack; X—any card lower than
10.)
1. Playing at suit bid, how do you
echo?
2. What does the echo signify in
no-trump?
3. First hand bids. Second passes.
Third hand passes. Fourth hand
bids. Has third hand denied normal
support for first hand?
The Answers
1. By playing a high card first
and then a low card.
2. It indicates four cards of a
suit, or three with an honor cy more.
3. No.
Times Readers
Voice Views
The name and address of the author
must accompany every contribution, but
on request will not be published. Let
ters not exceeding 200 words will receive
preference.
To the Editor: United States
Secretary of Labor James J. Davis,
in discussing the questioh of labor
and capital, ignores entirely the
land question ond no doubt believes
in the socialistic “iron law of
wages.” He is on a par with the
one-time head of the Knights of
Labor, who declared that every time
he drank a bottle of pop he broke
the bottle, so as to make more work
for the bottle-makers—why stop at
pop bottles? Both are and were
poor political economists and evi
dently have not gone deep enough
into the matter. Mr. Davis is a
protectionist and why should he not
be, since the United States tariff
on tin closed many tin-plate mills
in Wales, which drove him from his
native country to Elvood. Ind. look
ing for work in tin-plate mills. In
his “Christmas greeting to the peo
ple of Indiana” he thanks them for
having taken him out of the mills
by electing him city clerk of El
wood and recorder of Madison
County. Yet, to be consistent, he
should thank the so-telled protec
tive tariff, better called “a legal
ized hold-up.”
In the face of the following from
Washington, D. C., how much longer
will our Republican orators seek to
frighten us with the “free-trade
bugaboo?" Dr. Julius Klein, chief of
the Bureau of Foreign and Domes
tic Commerce, reports that our ex
ports for 1927 amount to $4,925,-
000.000. This includes $360,000,000
in steel alone; also, automobiles,
machinery and office fixtures. He
adds that this “should effectually
dispel any remaining fears as to the
futility of our competing with the
reviving trade masters of the old
world.” Quite recently there have
been strikes in Germany for higher
wages, so let not our upholders of
that obstruction to trade, the tariff,
have us believe that Europeans will
be satisfied with any kind of wage
in order to compete with America.
Why will not the Democratic
party call the bluff of our Repub
lican platform makers who will try
it again on the unthinking public?
Why should not a free people have
free trade, as free as it is between
the States of the Union?
CHARLES H. KRAUSE, SR.
674 E. Dr., Woodruff Place.
Questions and
Answers
You can get an answer to any ques
tion ttjt fact or Information by writing
to The Indianapolis Times Washington
Bureau. 1322 New York Ave., Washing
ton. D. C.. inclosing 2 cents in stamps
for reply. Medical. legal and marital
advice cannot be given nor can extended
research be undertaken. A’l other ques
tions will receive a personal reply. Un
signed requests cannot be answered. All
letters are confidential.—Editor.
llow far is it from San Francisco
to Vladivostok, Siberia?
Approximately 5,225 miles.
Is Jack Mulhall, the motion pic
ture actor, married?
Yes, to Evelyn Winans.
Is the land on which the battle of
Shiloh was fought a national park?
In 1394 Congress passed an act
providing for the purchase of 3,700
acres of land, covering the field of
battle now known as Shiloh Na
tional Military Park. It is a national
cemetery.
w| I pg|E~
biulrln
The Rules
I. The idea of letter golf is to
change one word to another and
do it in par, a given number of
strokes. Thus, to cnange COW to
HEN, in three strokes, COW, HOW,
HEW. HEN.
, 2. You can change only one let
ter at a time.
3. You must have a complete
word, of common usage, for each
jump. Slang words and abbrevia
tions don’t count.
4. The order of letters cannot be
changed.
T| I'lßlE.
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P_A R E
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m 0 T*n - - ~ yZ- YE3-WEEEEL THAT T~ r > n - >
, Afir
Durant Begins the Story of Rome
JULIUS CAESAR AND THE RISE
OF ROME
"ITTHAT nation has given genius
’ most abundantly to the hu
man race? Limit the question to a
city, or a century, and one would
have to answer, Athens; taking a
nation in all its spread and all its
history, one must answe/, Italy.
Never has one land produced
a greater dynasty than that which
begins with Lucretius and Caesar,
rises to its apex in Dante and
Leonardo, and decays (or is reborn?)
in Marconi and Mussolini, in Verdi
and d’Annunzio.
All 4n all, that passionate pen
insula has borne and bred the great
est race of all.
Behold the famous boot, poised
as if to play with Sicily—Sicily the
football of the Mediterraneari, sport
of Greeks and Romans and Cartha
ginians, or Vandals, Normans and
Italians.
Here on the west from Naples to
the toe, Greek colonists dotted the
shore and crowned the hills of
Paestum, and transmitting as best
they could, to the barbarous Rom
ans, something of the glory that was
Greece.
Along the eastern shore only the
rudest peasants lived, for there the
mountains rose like a camel’s spine,
or the back of an angry cat, from
the Alps to Italy, not slopping grad
ually as in the west, but flinging
themselves precipitately into the
Adriatic, daring the hardiest to find
sustenance among these stones. Ge
ology had destined the Latin genius
to flower along the western sea.
Even before the coming of the
Greeks, immigrants from beyond the
Alps had settled (1000 B. C.) among
the northern hills. Some of them—
the “Latins" —moved down into the
(Newcastle Times)
( Democratic)
' A message from the Governor
says that the ft ate administration
adopted the pay as you go plan
for paving roads. We were of the
opinion that this plan was adopted
in 1852 by the makers of our con
stitution, before the Governor or
any of our present State officers
were born. Perhaps this pay as
you go provision was thought up
in another world, from whence
came our State officials. Might
as well claim everything, including
the authflVship of the Decalogue,
so long as it can be put across.
Kokomo Democrat
(Democratic)
Widespread attention has been
attracted to a recent survey giv
ing general approval to install
ment selling as economically
scund when properly carried on.
The conclusion arrived at has
been referred to in the stock
market as a bull argument. This
may prove unfortunate because
if there is anything consumer
credit does not need it is incite
ment to splurge.
Those who made the survey do
not ignore the dangers of high
persuading the consumer, or of
unwise cerdit extension in the
competitive drive for business. The
fact is not dismissed that in in
stallment selling responsibility of
the buyer is given no such thor
ough investigation as is ordinarily
exercised in producer and bank
credits.
Intelligently handled the sys
tem is an important contribution
to industrial progress, stabilizing
output, increasing production,
lowering costs and working for
improved standards of living.
The plan is abused, just as the
cash and thirty-days credit plans
were abused, but the abuses are
gradually being eliminated.
The partial payment plan has
demonstrated that most people
are honest even to the extent of
paying their bills, and that there
are net enough who buy beyond
their incomes to make the sys
tem unprofitable for merchant
and manufacturer.
However, the success of the sys-
The Annual Auto Show
THE STORY OF CIVILIZATION
Written for The Times by Will Durant
central plains; others—the “Etrus
cans”—stayed on the mountain sides.
Between these two peoples, breed
ing too fast for a scarcely arable
land, perpetual rivalry raged, break
ing out into recurrent war; until at
last the Latins, strengthened because
the plains gave them unity of stock
and freedom of communication
against air enemy physically and
ethnically divided by mountain
peaks, won a decisive victory and
consolidated their mastery by build
ing on the Tiber a fort which be
came the source and center of the
greatest and most famous city in
history—“eternal” Rome.
tt tt tt
A T first the little was ruled
by kings. But of these rough
rulers we know hardly anything;
even the beneficent, law-giver,
Numa, the Lycurgus of Rome, seems
as legendary as those mythical
founders, Remus and Romulus,
nurslings of the wolf that was to
serve so well as a symbol of impe
rial Rome.
About 500 B. C. the monarchy was
overthrown by a group of warlike
nobles or “partricians,” who set up
an artistocratic republic under the
historic aegis of “the senate and
the Roman people.”
The senate, as its name revealed,
was a gathering of the old men of
the tribe, heads of established fami
lies; It ruled the state with practi
cally absolute power, limited only
by two consuls (advisers) whom the
land-owning citizens annually chose
from the ranks of the nobles them
selves.
As the “plebs,” or coYnmon peo
ple, grew in number, it rebelled
against these limitations, and forced
the senate to recognize the veto
What Other Editors Think
tem and the latest study of its
workings should not prompt those
who are financing the vast vol
ume of credit to relax vigilance
or neglect precautions which the
very nature of the business de
mands.
(Kokomo Dispatch)
(Democratic)
The indictment of Clyde A.
Walb, State Republican chairman
of Indiana, did not come as a sur
prise to many citizens, because it
was pretty generally known that
grave charges were being made
concerning his connection with
the defunct First National Bank
of La Grange. Some su#h devel
opment, therefore, was inevitable.
Serious as are the allegations
recited in the grand jury findings,
these should not concern the peo
ple of the State of Indiana at
large, so much as some of the
matters which have not yet been
mentioned in the news dispatches.
For instance, the public is en
titled to know how much State
money has been kept on deposit
in the banks of La Grange—and
why such large amounts have been
kept there.
If the Waib Construction Com
pany has been financed by jug
gling funds of the defunct bank,
as indicated by the charges al
ready preferred, certainly Walb is
not the sort of man with whom
the affairs of a major political
party of the State should be en
trusted. If, in addition, it is found
that excessively large deposits of
State money have been kept in the
La Grange bank, the people of
Indiana will want to know why.
It is about time that a thorough
investigation be ntade of the de
positing of Indiana public funds.
It would be very interesting and
no doubt enlightening, to have the
State finance board make public
a complete list of State deposi
tories together with the amount
with which the Indiana treasury
is entrusting each. No doubt, the
citizens would be shocked to find
with what apparent care the
weaker and more insignificant in
stitutions have been so studiously
sought out in preference to the
stronger and better fcnewn banks.
There is no questioh but that
power of “tribunes,” elected by the
popular assembly from among its
own democratic ranks.
But numbers never give much
power, except to wealth; soon the
Senate, endowed with permanence
in the face of tribunes holding of
fice for a year, found means to con
trol the new dignitaries, and under
Democratic forms, made its suprem
acy secure.
Now it became the strongest rul
ing body ever known to history. Re
cruited yearly by the addition of
consuls whose term had expired,
and composed of strong and solid
men protected by life-membership
from the vicissitudes of politics, it
was in effect a deathless monarch,
stable through all changes of per
sonnel, and dowered with a homo
geneity and continuity that favored
long-term policies and an unvacil
lating .statesmanship.
In 275 B. C., helped with an army
of yeomen land-owners fighting for
their homes, and by a fleet which
clever diplomacy had brought from
Carthage, the Senate resisted with
characteristic patience and per
sistence the attempt of the King of
Epirus to make Rome a vassal State;
and Pyrrhus, after useless
("Pyrrhic”) victories, went home dis
comfited, predicting a life-ahd
death struggle between southern
and northern Mediterranean, Semite
and Indo-European, Carthage and
Rome.
Within a generation his prediction
was fulfilled. For Carthage held
Sicily; and Rome, having extended
her power to the very toe of the
Italian boot, now found herself
face to face, across the straights of
Messina (“Scylla and Charybdis”),
with the greatest naval power in
the ancient world. /
(Copyright, 1927. by Will Durant) '
(To Be Continued)
now since Indiana is learning
what a temptation the banking of
State funds has evidently proven
to our officials, some definite re
form will be tardily taken. How
ever, records of the statehouse
will show, to the everlasting honor
of Robert Bracken, the last Demo
cratic auditor of State, that he
sought upon more than one occa
sion to compel the McCray ad
ministration to pro-rate State de
posits entirely upon the basis of
capitalization of banks. It seems
evident at this late day, why Gov
ernor McCray fought this move
so stubbornly and why Governor
Jackson, head of the present fi
nance board of Indiana, has con
tinued to permit huge sums to be
deposited in small banks for no
evident reason in the world.
Perhaps the Walb
ultimately will bring out what con
nection the head of a political or
ganization has with determination
of State depositories—and how
much lubricant such a system fur
nishes the invisible mechanism of
the machinery which has been
perpetuating the G. O. P. in power
in Indiana.
(Crawfordsville Journal) ”
(Reublican)
A good many persons at this
time are demanding a “New Deal”
and a “House Cleaning” by the
Republican party. Several of those
who would change conditions de
sire that all officials be removed
from office and new ones put in
their place. This would not rem
edy the situation as it affects In
diana. No doubt it is true that
there has been misconduct in of
fice and that some Republican of
ficials may have committed
wrongs, but this is not sufficient
reason for a general house clean
ing. There are many conscientious
Republican officials in office who
are discharging and have dis
charged their duties faithfully and
in accordance with law. Just, be
cause some of their fellows have
made mistakes is no reason why
they should be made to suffer. We
have enough faith in the Repub
lican party to know that if will
do the right’ thing. /
.JAN. 7, 1928
M. E.
TRA CY
SAYS:
“It Is Comforting to Sup
pose That Crime Is Due
to Ignorance and That
We Can Eliminate It by
Building High Schools
and Colleges, but the
Theory Just Does Not
Work.”
It may be friendly compevion, in
stead of a trade war, as Henry
Ford asserts, but the boys certainly
are slashing prices to an extent
which promise the public a lot of
good luck, no matter what effect it
has on the business.
Let us consumers be thankful and
not waste time arguing as to what
the thing should be called.
“A rose is just as sweet by any
other name,” and so is a price cut
for those who buy.
n n k
Fear of Disaster
Just before he went to his death
in the ill-fated S-4, Lieut. Donald
Weller of Los Angeles wrote: “Some
thing terrible will sure happen to an
‘S’ boat before the Navy Department
will believe us when we say 'S’ boats
are unsafe and of no military value.
“The boat is in worse condition
than belore going into drydock.
“Given twenty-four hours’ notice
to get under way for Provincetown,
allowing no time for satisfactory test
of conditions of motor.”
tt u tt
Indictment From Grave
This observation may be a bit of
pessimism or misinformation, but it
sounds otherwise. ' v
It sounds pathetically true, not
only because of what happened to
the writer, but because of what
has happened to other “S” boats.
It sounds like an indictment from
the grave, especially when taken in
connection with such facts as have
already been revealed—no line to
purify the air, although it had been
requested, no stern precautions to
prevent or minimize such tragedies,
although they had occurred before,
no connection with the SC tube
until too late.
tt tt
Humor Out of Place •
It is all right to have a sense of
humor, but, like everything else, it
can be overdone.
It was overdone by that Austra
lian weekly which suggested a news
paper contest to obtain a wife for
the Prince of Wales.
It was also overdone by Will Rog
ers’ clever imitation of President
Coolidge over the radio.
Neither of these incidents calls
for censorship, or even for people
to paw the air. They merely rep
resent nonsense out of place.
tt tt tt
Steals $35,000, Education
A young man in New York steals
$35,000 to get an education, as he
claims.
He steals ft by learning how to
forge checks through weeks of la
borious study and by telegraphing
money for expenses to “salesmen”
in nearby towns and then going to
cash the l'emittances. ..
The question is whether this
young man did not have more edu
cation than he knew how to use
wisely in the first, place.
Character requires more than the
mere ability to do things.
tt tt tt
Disfranchise Ignorance
Dr. William J. Hickson, head of
the psychopathic laboratory of the
municipal court of Chicago, wants
ignorance disfranchised. He says
that “the balance of political power
should be restored to the better
mentally endowed.”
So say we all, but .just how is it
to be done? Who are the better
mentally endowed and how are they
to be picked?
“By intelligence tests,” replies
Doctor Hickson, but there is more
than mere intelligence to be con
sidered if eradication of crime is the
object to be accomplished, which is’
what Doctor Hickson says he has in
mind.
The chances are that Loeb and
Leopold could have passed any sort
of a reasonable intelligence test
with flying colors. They were “honor
men” in the university and were re
garded by their instructors as near
prodigies. That did not prevent them
from committing one of the most
wicked, wanton crimes on record.
. tt tt m '
Prison Population Gains
It is comforting to suppose that
crime is due to ignorance and that
we can eliminate it by building high
schools and colleges, but the theory
just does not work.
If it did, we would have less crime
in this country and less a percent
age of people in prison than we did
100 years ago, but that is not the
case.
Though our total population has
multiplied only eleven times since
1328. our prison population has mul
tiplied twenty times. The most apr
palling aspect of crime today is its
pursuit by clever,' intelligent people.
Ignorance and poverty breed some
of it, as they always have and'al
ways will, but they do not account
for all of it or anywhere near all
of it.
The Chapmans, the Whittemores,
the Hickmans, Snyders, Grays and
hosts of other offenders must be ac
counted for in other ways than lack
of ’cash and education.
* a tt
Peril to Genius
Doctor Hickson’s idea that de
fectives should be segregated before
they have an opportunity to com
mit crime is perfectly sound, pro
vided there are safeguards to pro
tect people.
In pronounced cases, it may be
easy enough to identny a genital
defective. In other cases, the flaw
may be a streak of genius instead
of criminal instinct.
It would be unfortunate, indeed, If
our alienists were given such power
that they might spoil a genius for
the sake of preventing crime.