USA > Indiana > Lake County > The First Hundred Years (1938) > Part 21
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and made the president a dictator, which the president denies and says, "The only thing that has been happening has been to desig- nate the president as the agency to carry out certain of the pur- poses of congress. This was constitutional and in keeping with the past American traditions. It seems, from reading the Hearst papers, that they think the president is doing all right, but are blaming congress for letting him do it. Most people are anxious that something should be done, and that F. D. Roosevelt is doing as well as anybody could do. He says, "We cannot ballyhoo our- selves back to prosperity. I am going to be honest at all times with the people of the country." I believe the people believe it and as a whole are going to stand back of him.
I would say that Mr. Reno and his farm strikers are showing mighty poor judgment at this time, when something is trying to be done for them, to kick up a row and make a disturbance. They would have been justified at one time in taking such action. But now, when everybody seems anxious and is working to get things straightened out, it seems at least poor business and judgment in calling this farm strike.
WHY NOT?
In the May Forum Magazine Claire Williams has an article headed : "Why Not Teach Some of These Things?" I will here quote from the article as follows :
"In normal cases, the power to express thought measures the power to think. A population that cannot express itself clearly and accurately cannot think. It is for the good of these that its people should be able to think at least to a sufficient ex- tent to explain why they do or do not want certain things that is of interest to the public. At present the bulk of the population do not think at all on questions of public interest. Instead they rehearse favorite catch phrases which have the power to arouse in them this or that set of emotions which they enjoy experienc- ing; and they then proceed to vote or behave according as these emotions impel."
She thinks children at a very early age should be taught properly and understandingly. "The bulk of the population could learn much more if they had enough command of language so that they could read. Listen, and talk understandingly. We should now have a much more intelligent electorate if so many of its members hadn't been going around up to the age of six or seven in heathen darkness." "The more children know at seven the better their chances are to learn a reasonable amount by the time they are seventeen." "As matters now stand, those who
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most need physical training are least likely to get it. Those who need it least crowd the athletic fields. My idea is that trained museles, trained hands, and trained brains are a better prepara- tion for life than a severely restricted vocational course."
"It would be much better for the state to have the kind of people who can and will do their own singing, even though it is not very good, than those that loll back beside the radio and lis- ten to crooners who don't sing much better. I should teach an elementary sort of political economy, which would boil down to about this. 'What goes up must come down,' including stocks.
"Kick hard enough against the law of supply and demand, and you will stub your toe. Starve the farmers too long, and you will starve yourself. A protective tariff is a good thing for an infant industry, but when that infant gets to the size of the United States Steel, it might be a good idea to try taking away the bottle. If you spend more than you have, you will be poor. If you spend less than your income, you stand a chance to pros- per. If you are poor, you can't afford both trash and substantial things. You won't usually get something for nothing. You can't sell without buying. No man can gain an inordinate amount of money without causing hardship for others." "Our people are in a wild confusion as to know what they ought to want. Yet they need never have gone so astray if the leaders and teachers of the people had spoken old truths with authority."
Believe it or not, she has ideas and they may be good. We are spending a lot of money for education, and we want to get the most possible out of it.
THE JEWS
Why all this persecution of the Jews throughout the ages? Just of late, the new ruler of Germany, Hitler, is making it par- ticularly severe. It was always so. The so-called Christians al- ways seemed to think they had a perfect right to make life mis- erable for the Jew. He has been driven from pillar to post the world over, and he had to fight for every inch of his possessions. With all of that he has been a great factor in the progress of the world.
The good people seem to think it is God's judgment; so they give the poor Jew no sympathy, until of late, with this Hitler brutality, the Christian churches and people have shown consid- erable interest in the abuse of the Jews and have given them some sympathy. To be sure, the Jews crucified Jesus, and Jesus was a Jew himself. If the Jews should carry the blame of putting Jesus to death, why should not the race have the credit of produc-
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ing the Christ, which should reflect as great honor upon his race- as his crucifixion reflects dishonor? If we understand the spirit of Christ, he would condemn the treatment that the so-called Christian people have meted out to the Jews.
If we would conscientiously follow the Scriptures-"Do un- to others as you would be done by," "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us," and "Let him that is without sin cast the first stone"-if these were followed to the letter, the Jew would fare much better than he has done.
MORE THAN ONE ANGLE
This unemployment we have been having in the United States for the last few years has more than one angle of serious- ness. The cost to the taxpayers at this time is tremendous and is liable to continue if some determined action is not taken to stop part of the people from living in idleness at the expense of the other part who are willing to work. To be sure, we know that a majority of the people that are now forced to idleness will work and will be glad to go to work when an opportunity is offered. But there are thousands in this country who will not make an effort to make an honest, independent living by the sweat of their own brow if the public will feed them. It has always been so to a few. But this depression has educated a great number in this. country to the fact that they will be fed if they do not work.
We will have to follow the example of Captain John Smith, who found that the colonists would not work if they could get food and shelter without labor. He was forced to establish the law, "He who does not work shall not eat." We have been es- tablishing the law that every man, woman and child shall eat whether or not they work. Of course, it was right under the cir- cumstances, but if there is a possible chance for the idle to find any kind of work, let them go to it or starve. In this depression our sympathy has been with the depressed taxpayer who in many cases, after paying taxes and other necessary expense, did not live as well as those fed by the public. So we have put thrift and honest endeavor to a disadvantage, which must not be. We have seen gangs of these indigents given labor by working on the road. They did not want work, according to the way they worked. They were killing time, and expected to be fed just the same.
LEADER FOUND AT LAST
Our president is certainly hitting high strides and getting away with it. He has gotten things on the move in the United States and now is tackling the whole world. He is going at such
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a fast pace no one has time to object to his proposals. He has the whole world hypnotized, and they act on his every sugges- tion.
He must have some good guardian angel that is controlling his actions. "Gabriel over the White House" has nothing on Roosevelt. He was only the imagination of some fertile brain, and Roosevelt is the blood and bone of a real live man. Here in this great depression we have found the Moses to lead us out of the wilderness, and everybody seems willing to be led, and mighty glad that some one has the courage to do it. He will be all right and crowned king by the whole world if he succeeds. But what will it be if he fails? There is only an inch difference between a hero and a fool. To be a hero, you must undertake something most people are afraid of and succeed. And if you fail, people will call you a fool for undertaking it.
Our president is certainly a brave man to undertake all that he does, and we are going to give him credit, and hope the good guardian angel is directing him right. He has one great faculty necessary for a successful leader. He can get along and control men and make them feel he knows what he is driving at, and get- ting splendid co-operation in what he undertakes. He is not only general manager of the United States, but if he puts over the plan of the whole world, cutting down on their war machinery and expense, it will be an untold blessing to millions of people and a step forward in Christian civilization.
In every great calamity of the world's history there has been provided a savior. And let us believe that Franklin Delano Roosevelt is our savior in this case. He has taken a wrecked machine. If he can put it together again and get it to work he deserves the credit.
June, 1933
COSTS MUST BE LOWERED
A. F. Hall, president of the Lincoln Life Insurance Company, talking to delegates at a meeting recently, said that business must be done at a lower cost than it was done through the boom period. The high cost of everything was the big item that bust- ed us. The high cost of government was only one thing. Every- body, he said, got the idea they were millionaires and acted ac- cordingly. Every man must ride to work in a gas wagon. The Ford at first satisfied their ambition but, as wages increased, their next car was a Super-Six which took more gas and cost more to re-tire; and, of course, the women had to have more clothes and cosmetics to "keep up with the Joneses." The or-
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dinary restaurant was not a satisfying portion, so they had to have a fish dinner at two dollars a plate, and then to the theater.
The neighbors all must belong to the County Club at $400 a membership and one hundred per year assessments, and a ban- quet and dance at five to ten dollars per evening. And most of them could not pay the grocery bill, although they were getting big wages. Carpenters, masons and plumbers charged so much for their services that the cost of houses was so high that the ordinary mortal could not afford to build. If some brave soul did build he plastered it with mortgages and, after a hopeless struggle, lost it.
If the ordinary family has sickness and a member must go to a hospital, it will wreck that family's financial structure for years. It has been too expensive to be born and most people can't afford to die. Our American standard of living has been too much for most of us, and it might be well if our living were more simple and less expensive, so that in the long run we would have more satisfaction and happiness in life.
June, 1933
AUTO EXHIBIT AT THE WORLD'S FAIR
The outstanding thing of the Century of Progress is the au- tomobile and what goes with it. General Motors have spent a million dollars, more or less, to show how they make automo- biles. In an immense building, with all the machinery and ap- pliances, an army of workmen are making automobiles, and on a gallery extending all around the workshop the visitors are shown how they do it. If you want to buy one after you see it made, it can be done right there. A man drove a machine into Griffith the other day that he had bought there.
The lubricating oils, gasoline, rubber, cotton fabric, and ev- erything that goes into an automobile, are very much in evidence, showing that they have faith to believe that this country is not down and out as far as the auto is concerned. They are getting ready for the five-day week and the six-hour day and expect the American people to spend at least part of their money on autos, and use up at least a good part of their leisure time wearing out these machines.
Leroy L. Hunter, Chicago engineer, who has a vision of more autos and more congestion of our roads, proposes a super-high- way across Lake Michigan, thirty-seven miles long and eight miles out in the lake at Gary, making a harbor thirty miles long and eight miles wide at the widest place. The barrier will be two hundred and seventy feet wide on top, will carry four railroad tracks and two fifty-foot automobile roads. Autos will pay fifty
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cents each passage, and no speed limit, which will bring in $18,- 000,000 a year. The enterprise will only cost $50,000,000. So what is the matter with that? In three years it will pay for it- self, with interest.
But we would rather have some private enterprise take this over and make a big thing out of it, than to depend on taxpayers paying for it. There is one thing sure-this depression has not killed all the extravagant ideas.
COMMENTS ON "WHAT IS JUSTICE?"
Was very much interested in the editorial concerning milk headed "What Is Justice?" That whole business shows a very fine combination of interests and the ones that are doing the most work and furnishing the most capital are getting the least out of it. For right sharp practice and shrewd business schem- ing the milk wagon drivers take the cake. They have an iron- bound, copper-bottom organization which has defied depression and circumstance and has built up a two million dollar surplus for the organization in Chicago, which was a great temptation for the racketeers to break in on, and about a year and a half ago they kidnapped their president and it cost the organization fifty thousand dollars to get him back.
That did not satisfy the racketeers. They wanted to get in on the organization and get a rake-off. But the old secretary, Uncle Steve Sumner, who is old enough (about 80) to have opinions of his own about dividing up with a bunch of grafters, would not consent to their dictation, so he prepared for a con- test by transforming his union headquarters, which was an old mansion out on Ashland boulevard, into a steel encased, bullet- proof fortress which was electrically charged and provided in a most complete manner with firearms, machine guns, and gren- ades, and if that is not enough to keep the racketeers at bay, every room can be transformed into a prison gas chamber. This preparation for the receiving of the hoodlums seems to be satis- factory, as up to date we have not heard of the racketeers get- ting control of the milk wagon drivers' business.
Uncle Steve seems to have a sense of the ridiculous when he says, "I would like to take this fort of ours, just as it stands, and move it down there next to the reproduction of Fort Dearborn and put a sign on it : 'A Century of Progress'."
Another thing would be interesting-make a statement of the capital invested and work done to produce a quart of milk, and then make a statement of work done to distribute a quart of milk by the milk wagon drivers, and put a sign on that :
"A Century of Progress."
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A GREAT SHOW IN A GREAT CITY
You know, we have a great show or exhibition up in Chicago which they call "A Century of Progress." That means, in other words, one hundred years of improvement. And to be sure, in some lines it is wonderful. There has been more progress in the last one hundred years in the arts and sciences and machinery to help produce the needs of mankind in every position of life, ten to one, than in any period in the history of man. But when we were at the height of this great progress we blew up or busted. It seemed our balloon of progress was blown too full and she collapsed, scattering wrecks and desolation over the whole coun- try, showing this progress was top heavy or lopsided. At any rate, it was not well balanced.
Their reproduction of Fort Dearborn-in under the shadow of skyscrapers along Michigan avenue-sets one to thinking on the century of progress. What manner of men built Fort Dear- born? And then, step by step, built Chicago with its wonderful business and buildings, until now it is one of the wonders of the world for enterprise and business, and the shame of the world for political grafting, high-jacking, racketeering, and general public corruption, until it is dangerous for honest men to go home at night for fear of being held up on their door step, and teachers of its schools can't be paid on account of bad manage- ment and dishonesty in public business? How much progress do these latter enumerations mean over the men and women who built Fort Dearborn and the city of Chicago? If the citizens who now inhabit Chicago had the honesty, virtue and bravery of the people who built Chicago, they would not stand for a lot of things they now put up with, and if Chicago is going to continue to pro- gress, the citizens as a whole must rise up and banish rotten poli- tics, racketeering, graft and corruption in all forms, or they won't show much progress in the next hundred years.
TOO MUCH RUBBER IN THE LAW NOW
We have a law which was passed by our last legislature gov- erning the sale of beer in Indiana, wherein it could only be sold in bottles. And now, according to the papers, State Beer Czar Paul Fry is going to legalize draught beer. How in thunder is Paul Fry going to legalize draught beer when the law says it is to be sold only in bottles? We have heard our Prosecutor Estill talk before a dry meeting when he wanted votes and say to that meeting, "With the backing of such men as you we can enforce the law." He now says, according to the paper, "The people want draught beer and I favor stretching the law to give it to
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them." He is mighty accommodating! Some people want to murder, others to kidnap, and some want to rob banks and peo- ple. We suppose that if there were enough of them to make a good bunch of voters, Mr. Estill could stretch the law and ac- commodate them.
We are hearing a great deal about crime these days, and of course it is all brought about by selling legalized beer. We haven't prohibition now, so you can't lay it on to that. It must be the beer. It is neither beer nor prohibition. It is the humbug of our courts in partnership with crime for the money that is in it. We have had entirely too much of the kind of business that . Mr. Estill proposes to do. Mr. Estill's business is to enforce the law. It is not his business to give people what they want.
Yes, and everybody declared the saloon would never come back. It is just about back now, and it will be coming back more and more. Mr. Estill will say : "If the people want the saloon, stretch the law and let them have it." The liquor interests are living up to their reputation. They never would obey the laws, and we don't expect them to obey the laws now. If the Eight- eenth Amendment is repealed we expect to see hell break loose and run rampant over the country, with the baser element in power. If the people as a whole have not enough common de- cency and virtue after seeing the results of this condition in our land, do not rise up and abolish it. We are doomed as a govern- ment, because a decent government can be run only on honor and virtue.
ARTHUR BRISBANE AGAIN
Any one that writes as much as Arthur Brisbane in the Herald and Examiner and other papers is sure to say some good things and some foolish things. For instance: "Aimee Semple McPherson Hutton, who saves souls when at home in Los An- geles, having seen A Century of Progress, reports there is every- thing there, from the wickedness of Satan to the glory of God." Brisbane says millions have gone there without noticing anything suggesting Satan, except perhaps a glass of 3.2 beer. Perhaps Mr. Brisbane did not visit the "Streets of Paris."
"Men who will drink bath-tub gin with wood alcohol will bet on horse races." Brisbane grows eloquent on the successful flights of the flying machines across the oceans-drawing a nerve wrecking picture that would make your hair stand up-of the terrible possibilities of those foreign flying machines coming over here loaded with deadly gas and killing all of us and destroying our cities. According to his vivid imagination we are in great
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danger of being completely wiped out by these foreign flying ma- chines. He is very anxious we build flying machines that can head them off. We feel he is unduly concerned and sometimes wonder if he has not an interest in flying machine building.
WHO KNOWS?
Huey P. Long, United States senator, seems to be in the lime- light because somebody hit him while he was attending the Chari- ty Benefit at Long Island on August 26. He seems to be the shin- ing mark of the sharp shafts of most of the newspapers. Whether or not he deserves all this we question. We have heard him speak over the radio and we have read his speeches and articles in the papers, and it appears to us that it may be possible he is more right than some of his critics are.
Charles Sumner, in the heat of the slavery question, was hit over the head with a cane. That did not prove that he was in the wrong. Jesus Christ was nailed to the cross, but that did not prove he was in the wrong. And Huey Long being hit while at- tending a party does not prove anything in particular.
He is claiming there is too much money or wealth in a few hands and there must be a more equal distribution if things are going to work right. One per cent of the people of the United States owning more than the ninety-nine per cent is not right, he says, and he fights for it. And it may be, some of that one per cent got him hit over the head, thinking it might "cool him off" and stop his interfering with their money-getting.
THE AUTOMOBILE
Arthur Brisbane says: "It should be remembered that in- creased automobile sales are a sure indication of increased pros- perity," while other people of good judgment will declare that the automobile has been the means of wrecking the country.
People are now buying autos, but they are not building houses. It seems to us a great many would show better judg- ment if they would build a home instead of buying an auto; and buy furniture for this house instead of buying gas and tires. Brisbane writes for the interest of the paper and the auto adver- tisers are good payers to the paper. It may be that this "new deal" will upset all rules of life, but we believe the old habit of economy and thrift will still hold good for success.
CRITICISM OF THE NRA
There is more criticism of what the NRA is doing in the way of causing less production in agriculture, plowing under one-
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fourth of the cotton crop, killing off 400,000 pigs and 100,000 breeding sows to lessen pork production, and lessening wheat production, more than any other item. It doesn't look right, and may be ridiculous. But tell us, please, by what other means you can increase the price of the farmer's products.
Everyone has become used to the farmer working hard, long hours, producing big crops and feeding the world with cheap products, while the manufacturer has gotten laws passed giving him a monopoly of the American markets and causing the Eu- ropean markets to close against the farmer's products because they could not make the exchange. Labor organized and caused high wages. The business of the country got lop-sided, and then collapsed entirely. And now some of them are not satisfied to give the farmer equality with the rest. It must be done, or we will never have prosperity.
TO VERNON ANDERSON
You may be sure, Vernon Anderson, that Griffith could not hide the highly ambitious young man. If he had ambition and capacity, and a daring to go ahead and do things, the world would find him out and put him on a pedestal for great power.
One of the greatest men the world ever produced was born in poverty in Kentucky, was obscured in poverty in Indiana, and fought his way up in Illinois. Log houses and lack of opportuni- ties did not keep that boy down. By his very determination and courage he arose to the highest position in the gift of man.
Opportunities are not all dead yet, as some of our young people seem to think. There is more need right now for brains and ambition than ever before. As the country grows and de- velops, and the population gets more dense, the greater will be the problems in all lines of endeavor. President Roosevelt right now could add more ambitious, brainy young men to his brain trust to help lift the Ship of State out of the bog. We would never have gotten swamped had we had more and better brains and more honesty in the management of our business and gov- ernment. We have had more conceit and vanity in our business than brains.
We need young men with ambition and brains right now in the world of business and politics. The young man who will now enter politics as a profession with courage, honesty, ca- pacity and determination, and educate the people to the real needs of this country, can have anything in sight if the people know enough to appreciate him. If they do not, this country is doomed and there is no help for it-under this form of govern- ment.
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