PAGE 12 The Indianapolis Times (A ftCßirrS-HOWAKI) 3BWBFAPKR) rot W. HOWARD President LUDWKLL DENNY Editor KAKL D. It A KICK Business Manager Momber of United Press, Scripps- Howard Newspaper Alliance, News paper Enterprise Association. Newspaper Information Service and Audit Bureau of Circulations. Owned and published daily (ex cept Sunday) by The Indianapolis Time* Publishing; Cos.. 214-220 \V. Maryiand-st, Indianapolis. Ind. Price in Marlon County. Z cents a copy; delivered by carrier, 12 cents a week. Mail subscription ratea in Indiana. $3 a year; out aide of ludiana, 65 cents a month. Phone Riley 5551 sssri - xcMirps - mowaAD five LlQht Arid the People TT(II Find Their Own Way _ MONDAY. MARCH 30. 1938. TWO CENTS A MILE ■pVANIEL WILLARD, head of the B. & 0., an nounces that his road intends to establish the 2-cent fare in June regardless of what the other Eastern railroads, who are protesting, do about it. Intere.ting in this connection was a talk we had the oth.;r day with a railroad man from the West, where the lower rates have been in effect for some time and where real results have been shown. In substance this is what he said: “Investigations in our territory have shown that of all passenger business lost to the motors, on highway and in the air, 90 per cent has gone to the private automobile, only 7 per cent to the bus and 3 per cent to the airplane. Hence our job has been to fix a rate that will successfully compete with our chief opponent—the private car. We think 2 cents a mil? does it. To compete, we have to consider the actual out of-pocket cost to the private car owner, as the base. That means just gas and oil. The psychology of the private car owner won’t figure anything beyond that. The fact that depreciation is working, that repairs must be made, that new tires must be bought, and that the car some time will have to be junked, just doesn’t enter into the picture. The owner looks at it this way—‘l own the car and might as w;ll use it, unless I can go cheaper by train.’ And cheaper means less than cost of gas and oil. Like it or not, we have to accept that as our competitive problem." From the point of view of railroad operation it costs very little more to run a full passenger car than an empty. “The difference is infinitesimal," said this railroad man. “It can't even be figured in our accounting.” Trains have to be run anyway. The crews have to be on them. The fixed capital investment is there. And all that. Schedules are required under the In terstate Commerce Commission rules. So why not a rate that will fill the empties? That’s the reason ing that prompted the Western roads to their re ductions, and it’s what is prompting Willard to break away from his Eastern associates who, for some cause or another, don’t see the light. Anyway, as it appears to us, it’s the old story of Marcus Loew all over again; of his practically empty theater at $2 a head, and of the bright idea which made Loew millions—“ More people have got a dime than have got a dollar." He filled his theaters by acting on that, and the railroads may fill their trains by applying the same general economic philosophy. LONG LIVE THE JULEP WRIT deeply in the folk lore of the Blue Grass is the rule, “Once a colonel, always a colonel.” But graven even deeper in Kentucky’s faith is reverence for the one and only recipe for concocting the renowned mint julep. The julep, says Kentucky, is probably constructed only by a perfect blending of three ingredients—gently bruised mint, crushed ice and a liberal dose of bourbon, plus of course that noble nosegay, the sprig of fragrant mint which stands sentinel. And we suspect that if all the truth were known, a clash of these two traditions would be found at the bottom of Gov. “Happy” Chandler's summary cash iering of the whole kit and kaboodle of the 17,000 who claim membership in the gubernatorial guard of iionor. For there have been ugly rumors that some holders of colonelcy commissions have so misread the directions as to crush the mint and bruise the ice; that some quartered on Manhattan Island have gone so far as to decorate the mint sprig with a cherry, while in the Chicago outpost some have actually substituted applejack for bourbon. Worse still is the report that in Hollywood they are adding such foreign substances as orange peel and pineapple slices. Ex-Gov. Laffoon excused his promiscuous issuing of commissions by saying that his colonels “adver tised” Kentucky. Very bad advertising, suh, in the case of those “cunnels” who sported as sidearms frost-incrusted glasses containing the unpalatable potions described above. Rather than put the state to the expense of wholesale courts-martial, perhaps Gov. Chandler de cided it would be better to disband the whole regi ment, and then reissue commissions to those who prove they really know how to make a julep and are therefore worthy of the distinction. TOO MUCH SILENCE Raymond clapper writes; “While other seekers after the Republican presidential nomination are talking, cocksure of all the answers, Gov. Landon is holding his tongue and studying. One question to which he is devoting much thought is unemployment, and how industry can absorb the labor surplus.” That somehow is reminiscent of the “strong, si lent man” mystery built up around another budget balancer, while the country kept cool with Coolidge, as it skidded toward the precipice. We have been pleased occasionally to commend Gov. Landon for the moderation he has shown in his campaign lor the presidential nomination, for his unwillingness to run in herd with other Republican candidates, for his fairness in admitting that the Roosevelt Administration has accomplished many worthwhile reforms. This intelligent campaigning technique has given Gov. Landon such a commanding lead that we now find on his bandwagon a clutter of political fair weather fellows including ex-Senator Edge of New Jersey, ex-Treasury Secretary Ogden Mills, ex- Postmaster General Walter Brown, and the New York and Connecticut Old Guard Republican bosses, Charley Hilles and Henry Roraback. It wouldn’t be fair to blame the Governor for this crowd. They are there principally because they think he is a winner. But they probably are also there in part because they hope if he does win he will play their game. And unfortunately for the Governor, in public as well as in private life, a man Is Judged to a great extent by the company he keeps. We are encouraged by Mr. Clapper's assurance that Mr. Landon is giving “much thought” to un employment. Certainly there is no evidence that anybody in the crowd around him has gone in for heavy cerebration on this problem. Indeed, they are men who were In high places when unemployment came into being as a major national liability. And their impotence or unwillingness ter deal with it i; what caused the American people to drive the Re publican Party out of power. The “strong, silent man” act may be prudent politics in the early phases of a nomination contest. But the Cleveland convention draws near. And no man has a right to ask a political party to nominate him for the presidency until he first tells what he thinks he could do about this and other national problems which press for solution. It is about time for Mr. Landon to take the public into his confidence. HUMAN BEINGS ARE INVOLVED THROUGHOUT the depression, unemployment has been worst in the heavy industries. And those who have opposed all forms of government policing of the labor and financial policies of busi ness have argued that, let alone, these industries would go after a bigger volume of business and absorb vast numbers of the unemployed. Vin Sweeney, writing from Pittsburgh, reports current developments in two of the heavy industries —steel and coal. Steel is going after a bigger volume. Two hun dred million dollars are being spent building new steel plants and modernizing old plants. But the new equipment is the type which displaces man power and cuts labor costs. And now with steel pro duction better than the average over the last 10 years, and getting better, an executive of the Steel Institute says: “It is doubtful whether the ste ’ industry, with its rolls nearly full, can rightly be expected to ab sorb any appreciable number of workers from the general ranks of unemployed.” And in the coal ir '.ustry, where in the last 10 years 100,000 miners have been displaced by ma chines and another 100,000 by the substitution of gas and electric power, the head of the largest coal producing company in the world says: “Os the present 500,000 bituminous coal miners, at least one-half will be replaced by machinery with in the next 10 years.” Os course, to the extent that these industries pass on lower production costs to consumers in the form of lower prices, purchasing power will be increased, consumption increased and production increased. And new labor opportunities will be created for the men displaced. But a man may be a good steel mill hand or a good coal miner, yet not at all equipped to take advantage of these “new labor opportunities” in other lines of activity. To help cope with this tremendous human la bor problem, the national Administration has es tablished the framework of. a nation-wide unemploy ment insurance system to give to disemployed work ers a minimum of a few weeks’ compensation to tide them over while they look for other jobs. But the key to this system is state co-operation, and in only 12 states have co-operating laws been placed on the statute books. In the other 36 states, even this pittance of protection is withheld. A WOMAN’S VIEWPOINT By Mrs. Walter Ferguson T TER name is Mrs. Murphy. 'When we drove up the lane leading to the narrow frame farm house, she was hoeing in the garden where rows of green were delicately stitched over the dark earth. Ground and trees held the sheen of spring. Mrs. Murphy’s husband is a tenant farmer now. They had come from Missouri, a state that breeds good farmers. The surroundings, clean as a rain swept spruce tree, testified already to their industry. The Missouri farm had been lost, Mrs. Murphy told us, to the mortgage company. They had decided on Oklahoma and here they were, and a sightly spot she called it even if she did get a little homesick sometimes. The baby chickens were cute, she thought. Wom en especially liked to see them. She had 275 hatched, and now housed in a warm place in the barn. The white hens that roamed over the barn yard and meadow were beginning to lay too, and she had a few old “Domineckers” that wanted to set. Commotion was going on in the guinea flock. They’re always like that, Mrs. Murphy told us, “put racking” all over the place until you can’t hear your self think, and a great nuisance. But some seasons city folks like breast of guinea hen on their hotel menus, and there’d be a little money out of them then. Other years there’s no market at all. Farmers had to take chances; there Vas never any telling what people might take a sudden notion to. How about seeing the canned vegetables? We’d like that, so she proudly displayed jars of okra, spinach, corn, beets and peas. Then she opened a crock of pickles and we each fished one out; their sweet tartness was delicious to the tongue. As we climbed out of the cool cellar into the warm sunlight, she thrust a quart of string beans at each of us. Her folks were tired of them anyhow. She waved good-by; a shapeless, sturdy woman in a gray sweater and skirt; with wind-burned skin and uncurled hair. But she has something tender and zestful and courageous in her face that one does not often see in the faces of city-bred women. I hope I get better acquainted with Mrs. Murphy. I need her kind now. HEARD IN CONGRESS SENATOR RUSSELL