USA > Indiana > Lake County > The First Hundred Years (1938) > Part 15
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To be sure the school should not be held responsible for all the shortcomings of our young people. But is the system the best possible it could be? If it is not, we had better make some changes. Good teachers should be paid well, but some are get- ting double what they are worth; and they and their associations and manner of living are not conducive to the best interest of the students.
This is not written with the thought of any particular school or location, but from a general observation of some years past
February, 1931
WILL IT BE FLAP DOODLE?
The papers say that the Kirkland trial at Valparaiso is at- tracting national attention. And at the beginning of the trial they are giving us the usual Flap Doodle. (That is the stuff they feed fools on.) The picture of Mrs. Kirkland, mother of the boy, is in the paper and she says she has been praying for the boy and, as the reporter called on her, she was smiling and hap- py and says she has faith that her son is innocent and will meet with vindication, and that soon "Virgil will be back in my arms."
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"It was not Virgil who killed the girl. It was the Eighteenth Amendment." Attorney O'Hara makes a grand stand display and adds with great vengeance: "They shall not crucify my cli- ent, nor the young of America on the cross of prohibition."
This slush at the beginning of the trial shows about what we may expect. The defense puts up a grand stand play to divert the people's minds from the real facts, have a long drawn out trial and a lot of monkey business and, instead of getting justice which the public are paying for, we will probably get something else.
There is no need of giving a history of this case. Everyone knows it-the most low-lived, devilish piece of business the mind could imagine. And then to lay it on to the Eighteenth Amend- ment! It would be more reasonable to lay it on to the moon. If we had the old licensed saloon, where our government gave them a right to sell the stuff, there then could have been a shadow of reason. But the Eighteenth Amendment is trying to protect our young people. And, when those young people bought the stuff, they knew they were doing wrong, and when they drank it they knew it was not good for them. So anyone blaming the Eight- eenth Amendment for that murder has a mighty slender thread to hang the defense on.
If Mr. O'Hara puts it over he will have to get about the same kind of a jury they had in the Fancher case. Mrs. Kirkland had better pray for herself. If that boy had had the right bringing up, been taught to obey at home and at school, he would have had more respect for the laws of his country.
February, 1931
A BETTER GOVERNMENT
Dr. Shannon, of the Central Church, Chicago, said over the radio Sunday : "We have a right to expect good government." We naturally feel that way, but why should we expect a better government than we are getting? What is the average John Citizen or Mrs. John Citizen doing to bring about a better gov- ernment? Who is there in Griffith or the surrounding country who has taken a deep interest in public affairs purely for the up- building of a better government for the common good of its citizens ?
If the common every day citizen does not interest himself in public affairs enough to know what is best for the country, and be able to vote intelligently, it is a question whether we have the
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right to expect a better government. In an earlier day in this country the people took things more seriously.
I am writing this on George Washington's birthday, and we are all lauding George to the skies because he and his country- men would not stand for some things that they believed were not right. What do we do now? We take the line of least resist- ance. For the past ten years people of Chicago have been shot by thugs, held up and their valuables taken from them, racket- eers demanding a rake-off in various ways, and still the people would submit to it, when they should have known that the crim- inals would not quit so long as they (the people) would stand for it. They should have known also that the older and stronger this gang became, the harder it would be to put them out of busi- ness. This being a good citizen of the United States is no soft, easy job. If we are going to maintain the standards set by our forefathers, we must be men and women standing for a principle and be willing to fight for it. And if there is not enough of this kind of citizens in our "land of the free and home of the brave," we will not maintain this kind of government very long.
We have proof that where people won't stand for being shot down and robbed they don't have to. Milwaukee is gangless. Crime and politics are not mixed up there. They are the old German stock that won't stand for a lot of "damnfoolishness". The citizens, the police and the courts make a business of ridding the town of the "tough" element. The Chief of Police is Jacob Laubenheimer, and it looks like a pretty good name for business. When a gang comes to Milwaukee to ply their trade, they let them go until they have spent their money. When they are ready to start their nefarious business the police pounce down on them and arrest them and take them to court and have their trial while everything is hot, and before they have time to fix up a defense.
A man murdered his wife there at seven o'clock in the morning and at one o'clock in the afternoon of the same day he was on his way to the State Penitentiary. They don't wait there for two or three years as at Crown Point in the Fancher case, and give the gang time to kill the witnesses and go free in the end. You need not expect a good government unless you are willing to do something to bring about a good government.
Justice Royal Stone, of the Minnesota Supreme Court says : "It is not a pleasure to contemplate what might now be the state of the world had the students and practitioners of medicine and surgery, and of the physical sciences, been as much the slaves of 'standpatism' during the past century as have been the members of the American Bar."
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March, 1931
JUST WHAT IS THE SOLUTION ?
It has been a favorite pastime with numerous writers to tell us what is the cause of our business depression. To be sure, we are anxious to know; but there have been no two who were agreed as to the cause. And now we are told we have reached the bottom and will begin to climb up to more prosperous condi- tions. If so, what is going to bring about the rise, and what will keep things on the high grade?
Some say the laboring class must be given high wages so they will have money to spend in buying up the products of the manufacturers. But the laborers were receiving more for their days' work than was ever known before. If good wages make prosperity, why did we have the slump?
The Republican party's cry for the past fifty years has been : "Protection and Prosperity," with the highest tariff wall any civilized country ever had. And the promise to the American workman was: "We do not have to compete with the pauper labor of Europe."
Workmen have been out of jobs and, with wheat at sixty cents a bushel and an over supply of meat and milk, people right here in Lake County, Indiana, have depended on charity to keep them from starving. We have been depending upon foreign countries for markets of both agricultural and manufactured pro- ducts.
But our traiff on foreign products has been so high that Eu- rope could not sell us their goods and therefore could not buy our products. And both Europe and South America have been stim- ulated to enter new fields in manufacturing and thus they have become independent of the United States.
Russia, with her five year plan and the world's best engin- eers helping her, it is claimed, is building the equal, or better than any manufactories in the world. And their farming is carried on in the most modern and scientific fashion known.
South America has some of our best engineers down there working in different lines. They have secured the most modern machinery for cement making, and their plants being located at the foot of limestone mountains, with other materials needed, in abundance, they will, in a very short time be independent of the United States for their product.
And so we go! The United States has set the example of mass production and were wonderfully prosperous in being pion- eers, but it looks just now like the other countries were going to
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"ketch up"; and we will have some real competition with the cheap labor of South America and Russia.
Can we maintain the high wages? It may be that our effici- ency in both farming and manufacturing will be a detriment rather than a blessing if we can not adjust this easy production so that the great mass may get the benefit of it, and the distribu- tion be fair and equal.
THE THUG LAWYER
The court procedure, especially as carried on in large centers of population, is a menace to this country and it is time that some- thing is done to awaken a public opinion that will demand a change. The article below wihch appeared as an editorial in the Detroit Free Press strikes hard at the worst spot in our courts- "the thug lawyer."
Captain Edward Denniston, superintendent of the Detroit house of correction, uttered what every person familiar with con- ditions in criminal courts knows is true when he asserted that one of the worst barriers to obtaining justice is the practice of at- tornies "who know the client is guilty and yet resort to every technicality at their disposal to win his freedom."
The thug attorney, Captain Denniston describes, is as much an evil in the United States as the bandit is. Indeed, but for the protective service performed by him for the bandit, outlawry would wither considerably. And why he is allowed to run riot and practice without hindrance or punishment is one of the mys- teries of the day.
The thug attorney who defends a gangster knowing he is guilty, and who does so for the purpose of defeating the law, is a foresworn blackguard. When he was admitted to the bar, he took oath to uphold the statutes and see that justice is done. He assumed a responsibility as an officer of the court. In practice he tries continually to break down the law and thwart justice. Instead of assisting the court to protect society, he tries in every way to stop it from doing so.
The thug lawyer is an accessory after the fact in connection with whatever crime his client has committed, whether the offense be theft, burglary, kidnapping, rape or murder. He is guilty of conspiracy with that client against the peace and safety of socie- ty. As a procurer lives by exploiting vice, so the thug lawyer lives by helping crime, and we are not sure that he is not lower than the procurer. Certainly he is a person who should be prosecuted and put behind the bars. In some instance his hands are so
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stained with blood that he deserves the most extreme penalty on the statute books.
Yet it is very seldom that any attempt is made to curb the activities of the thug lawyer, even by disbarment, let alone plac- ing a criminal charge against him. He is more likely to receive compliments on his cunning from fellow attorneys, and be hailed as a hero in society of a sort.
"THE MOUNTAIN LABORED AND BROUGHT FORTH A MOUSE"
An article with this title appears in the April number of The Hoosier Farmer, a magazine published by the Indiana Farm Bureau. It is an interesting discussion of tax matters and the failure of the state legislature to better the tax situation in any way. The remarks and opinions of Senator Nedjl, a Lake County man, should prove especially interesting to our readers. The ar- ticle was written by Lewis Taylor, Director, Tax and Legislative Department of the Farm Bureau. We quote it in full here :
Pledged, almost to a man, to enact laws that would reduce property taxes, the General Assembly adjourned with the tax situation unchanged-in fact, just where they found it, except that the load was appreciable increased. Increased at the com- mand of those who are now and have been for many years pay- ing little or no taxes. Regardless of the number of property own- ers, both large and small, that must go bankrupt, the Clark Me- morial at Vincennes, the Soldiers Memorial at Indianapolis and a $250,000 grandstand at the State Fair Grounds had to be built.
Senator Nedjl proclaimed the slogan of the General Assem- bly when he declared, "I am against the farmers from hell to breakfast." He kept the faith and his following was sufficient to defeat every effort made to lower the property tax by taxing in- comes. Out of the abundance of his farm experience as a brick layer and contractor, Senator Nedjl, on the occasion of the farm- ers recent visit to the legislature, gravely and sonorously de- livered an economic philippic to the grave and reverend senators when he arose and said : "What did the farmers come down here for? I'll tell you. To advertise themselves. I'll tell you how to get relief. Go home, put up the Ford, go to work and quit your belly-aching."
Of course, all farmers understand they can get this kind of bunk any morning from the gutters of their cow stables, though to some listening merchants, manufacturers and bankers, it was greeted with a round of applause, which indicated their power to discriminate between tweedle dum and apple sauce, if they
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were really capable of making the distinction. Senator Nedjl's argument against an income tax was never exceeded and seldom equalled by the galaxy of lawyers, merchants, bankers and utility representatives, that so ably represented the peoples' tormentors in the state senate. In spite of all that dinner parties and shame- less mid-night orgies could do, farmers forced from a reluctant senate a personal income tax law, and came within two votes of a corporation income tax act.
April, 1931
WANTED: MORE LIKE THEM
The Hammond Times of April 2 says that Borah has a fierce bark but, the writer asks, will he "bite"? This refers to Senator William E. Borah of Idaho, and is just another instance of the efforts of many newspapers to slam Borah, Norris of Nebraska, Schall of Minnesota, McMaster of South Dakota, Brookhart of Iowa, LaFollett of Wisconsin and some other fellows that they call insurgents because they have minds of their own and stand for the interests of the common people. Some of the newspapers seem to fear that, if the people knew the truth, they would back these men up and elect more of the same kind.
If there were more of this kind of men in our legislative halls, we might get some relief from this depression and from having 4 per cent of the people own in this country 80 per cent of the wealth, so that 96 per cent of the people own only 20 per cent of the wealth of the country. (The way some of them are begging it seems that they do not own a very big share of the 20 per cent.)
This claiming that overproduction is the cause of our trou- ble, when so many people want something to eat and could use more clothes and autos if they had the money-not only in the United States but all over the world-is all bosh! Mr. Borah says, and he surely is as near right as any of them, that it is the lack of distribution not only of the goods of the world but the cash of the United States. While the boys were across the seas fighting in the World War and the people at home were eat- ing barley bread to save and help win the war, the 4 per cent were piling up their millions. They gave very liberally to the campaign funds so that they could get. what legislation they wanted, especially along the line of higher protective tariff, which is particularly hard on the farmers for, if Europe can not sell us goods, she cannot buy our agricultural products.
That now is the main cause of the farmers' troubles, and the other people's trouble has been brought about by the low pur-
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chasing power of the farmer. We shall never get much relief un- til the foundation of the whole economic system (agriculture) is given a chance to improve. That is just what Mr. Borah and the other insurgents are talking about.
If you-the 96 per cent-know what is the matter with you and act accordingly, you may get relief. But, if the 4 per cent dictate what should be done through the nawspapers and in the government, then you need not expect much relief.
-S. B. W.
Your Farm Bureau article in last week's News on "The Mountain Labored and Brought Forth a Mouse" helped to show us how things were done in our legislature and who seem to be having controlling power with our lawmakers. Another article on the same page, commenting on an editorial from the Lake County Times about Senator Borah, suggests to us that it must have been the 4 per cent that determined the action of our law- makers in Indianapolis this winter.
When will the 96 per cent awaken and get wise enough to demand that their voice be heard in lawmaking? Then, and only then, will their interests be taken care of as are those of the 4 per cent today.
-A News Reader.
May, 1931 PROSPERITY JUST AROUND THE CORNER?
Edward Angly, writing in the May Forum magazine on the predictions of our many prophets that "prosperity is just around the corner," makes these prophets look foolish and ridiculous. He says that this country and Russia are the only countries in which the big men can tell what the future will bring forth.
Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge each made their predictions. Myron E. Forbes of the Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Company said in 1927, "Just so long as people want and are willing to strive for better things, they will have them." Andy Mellon added his word of encouragement and was a bear for the market. Roger Babson, prophet emeritus, recommended caution, but thought everything would come out fine. Mr. Alexander thought that our high speed would never stop.
As a candidate for president, Mr. Hoover thought that every- thing was O. K. and that we could have no slump in this great country, and Mellon again assured the country that there was no cause for worry. After Mr. Hoover was elected he guaranteed a full gasoline tank for every citizen for four more years.
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After the 5-billion dollar stock market crash Mr. Mellon said that business was steady and the other big men assured us that "business is on a sound and prosperous basis." Mr. Schwab told his co-workers that "prospects had never been brighter." In 1930 Mr. Mellon said that by spring everything would be all right. On May 7, 1930, the "big guns" said that the worst is over.
Many others, too numerous to mention, have made their "pollyanna" predictions, but we are still in the dumps and it looks as though we will stay there until somebody besides the prophets gets busy.
THE KIRKLAND TRIAL
Before the first Kirkland trial there appeared in this column an article on "Will It Be Flapdoodle," as the notorious Fancher case was? The first trial was not so bad, only the jury did not find according to law and the evidence. Had they done so, the verdict probably would have been death. The judge had a right to grant the second trial, but so far it has been "flapdoodle" to a finish.
What a system and what a farce, the jury system works out to be in such a case. Hundreds of men and women called before a jury of 12 could be found. What sensible man or woman is there in northwest Indiana but what knows something about the case ? The action of some of the defense recall part of the article on "The Thug Lawyer" which appeared in this paper a few weeks ago.
Our court procedure is away out of date. Every other line of business has progressed in the last 100 years, but our courts are still cutting grass with a sycle, ploughing with a wooden mould board, and transporting with a covered wagon. Surely we should set ourselves about to find a more sure and speedy way of administering justice to offenders of the law.
Talk about the cause of crime-Kirkland is a hero to a lot of addled brained youth and the prolonged publicity he gets, and seems to enjoy, is disgusting to decent people. The fact remains, he took that girl from her home a healthy, happy girl, and brought her back a mangled corpse and he was with her the en- tire evening. Why all this monkey business?
1931
A PERSONAL VISIT TO THE KIRKLAND TRIAL
On Thursday, May 14th, we went to Valparaiso to give the Kirkland trial the once over. We arrived there about eleven
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A. M. and found the court room full and the doors locked, and some hanging around in the hall-seeing what they could through the glass door. We had an early dinner and went back to the court house and into the court room while the court was adjourned for noon and found it still pretty well filled-some of the people having kept their seats that they might have them for the afternoon session. An old man afflicted with palsy was walking up and down the aisles selling lunches in paper boxes, and a one-armed man was trying to satisfy the hunger and thirst of the watchful waiters and make a few cents for himself by sell- ing oranges and bananas.
After sitting in our places for about one hour the court room filled and the doors were locked again, leaving a lot of interested folk out in the lobby. Lawyers, newspaper reporters and court attendants began to file in, the jury was brought in and seated and Judge Crumpacker took his chair-and filled it. He is a big man. The witness took the stand and the grind commenced. The prosecution soon get what they want from the witness but the defense seem to be making a desperate effort to get the wit- ness to say something he does not want to say or to prove some- thing that is not true. We were surprised at the appearance of the jury. They are a pretty fair looking bunch and it must have been hard for them to pass the necessary examination-i. e. sat- isfactory to both the prosecution and the defense.
About 350 good true citizens of Porter County could not stand the pressure, and went into the clerk's office and asked what was the cost of the first Kirkland trial. We were told it had not been figured yet. But I was promised figures of the to- tal cost of both trials when this is finished and shall give it to you through the Southeast Calumet News. You may be sure it will be a plenty, for that is the main business of the Court.
-S. B. W.
August 28, 1931
WHAT ABOUT WAGES?
The question of wages at this time is attracting about as much attention as any one question. The manufacturers in par- ticular, especially the auto builders, say that high wages must be maintained. They know that labor can not live and buy automo- biles on low wages.
But is it a question of buying autos? With most people at the present time it is a question of living, and they had better work for wages that they can live on than have no wages at all. Illinois has eight millions of dollars for road building, and they
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planned to go ahead with the work and give employment to labor at this time. The price established was 35 cents an hour. Or- ganized labor objects to the price and the work is held up.
Why not be consistent? Can the farmers with 16 cent oats and 36 cent wheat afford to pay more? Notwithstanding the ob- jection of union labor, wages are being reduced and will con- tinue to be reduced as long as the price of commodities and the cost of living continue to decline.
The best thing that can happen to this country right now is for labor to see the situation and go to work at reduced wages and give an honest day's work for an honest day's pay. There are many things that would be done right now if they could be done at a profit and, if labor wants things to start up, they will have to help start it.
The cost of living has gone down 20 per cent since 1929. So, if labor were reduced 20 per cent, they would practically be get- ting as much. If they continue getting the same wages as form- erly, they practically will be getting 25 per cent more.
What the farmer earns today will be about 25 per cent less than it would in 1929. So his purchasing is weakened. Since farming is the foundation on which all other business stands, the price of other commodities will have to come down, or the price of farm products will have to go up, before business will move along in a healthy condition.
-S. B. W.
September, 1931
HARD TIMES?
Who says it is hard times? There was more gas sold in the state of Indiana for the month of August than ever before in one month. Labor Day the highways were not big enough-a jam everywhere and Labor Day meetings all over the country and all well attended.
The Lincoln Fields Jockey Club, south of Chicago Heights, claim to have had an attendance of 40,000 on Labor Day, with the price of admittance $2.20. This makes a total of $88,000. Besides that, they had 83 windows for payment of winners on the horse races and one of the paymasters paid out $2,000. If that was the average, there was $166,000 paid out to the winners. This means that $254,000 changed hands on that day at that one race track.
Who says it is hard times ?
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