The Pittsburgh Press from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 14

EDITORIAL PACE Want Ad Headquarters, Court 4900 Othei Press Departments, Court 7200 MONDAY. JUNE 17. 193 5 PITTSBURGH PRESS -A WOMAN'S OPINION- The Pittsburgh Presi A Scripps-Howard Newsnaoer Graduation Day! Les Miserables MRS. WALTER FERGUSON. rt-BiJSHED BY Pkrsq prrcnomv Established Jan.

7 23 1884 Harry Milholland, President. A GREAT idea is never old-fashioned. You are profoundly aware of the fact as you watch upon the screen action of Victor Hugo's immortal "Les Miserables." As a social concept it is as modern as today's t.ward T. Leech. Editor.

Frank G. Morrison, Business Manager. C. 1 OI unittd Press, NEA Serrjce and ScnDPS-Howard Newspaper Alliance. aJP -V Genera! Offices Boulevard of The nam Ao tteacjquartera il tli Avenue.

newspaper, although the book from which the movie was made was published in 1862. Then, and long before, its central theme the idea that men are saved not by kicks but by kindness has been promoted by visionaries and fought by realists. The struggle over the is- Tlerhonee Conrt 4POO for Want Ads only) Court 7200 for an oiner ceparttnecta. SLBSCRIPTION RATES Sunday 10 cents (Daily and Sunday 28 centa a week.) Sunday, one year (by the service will be courteous. They will not sell to minors or after regular closing hours.

Prices will be uniform in all stores and only reputable brands of liquor will be sold. In contrast, what would happen if the 11,000 retail licensees are given the right to sell packaged liquor, as specified in House Bill No. 919, already passed by the lower branch? The Liquor Control Board, which opposes this measure, answers the question itself. It declares: "Were the sale of package liquor thrown open to the 11,000 licensees in the state the people would be deprived of the present guarantee as to the quality of the merchandise Given the right to sell by the bottle, some licensees inevitably would try to pass off bootleg liquor to their customers, under known labels. The fact that the bill requires them to sell at prices 10 per cent greater than in the state stores would encourage this practise, because It would give them higher profits.

As a result, bootlegging instead of being reduced, as proponents of the package sale amendment claim, would actually increase. Liquor would be sold to minors and intoxicated persons, to joyriding youths, and at all hours of the day or night. In short, all the present restrictions governing state store sales designed to reduce the evils of the liquor traffic to a minimum would be wiped Dally. 3 cents one wek 18 -ent.) Daily, one Tenr mall only in first and M'cond zones where there ia no carrier). $5.00.

mail only in first and sec ond mne where there la rj jf, sue goes on toaay, ana TfiWS MS- wm 8 on- 1 daresay, un- no carrier). S5.0O. PyWPi flip' 'Give Light and the People Will Find I heir Own Way" MONDAY, JUNE 17, 1935 JUST CAMOUFLAGE FESTERING social and business ills, which were concealed or ignored for years. finally came to a head during the Hoover administration and brought the collapse which nearly wiped out our economic system. out.

The amendment would be the first step i til the end of time. Fiction has no nobler Mrs. Ferguson character than the old Bishop Myriel, who, by his faith in the ultimate decency of a fellow creature, created a hero and, what is finer still, a truly good man. 1 The producers have made a picture which is inspirational. They are to be doubly congratulated that, in doing so, they have re-introduced to the reading public a book which is too lengthy and somewhat bombastic but which is nevertheless one of the greatest novels ever written.

Perhaps its most Interesting phase is the continual timeliness of its subject. "Let loose your better instincts," it seems to say. "Have more faith in humanity. Make the noble gesture whatever the consequences to yourself. Cast your bread upon the waters.

Give up your silver candlesticks that a man may be saved from degradation." One feels like calling down benedictions upon the makers of moving pictures when they turn their efforts to subjects such as this. For the ideal embodied in it that which makes the Beatitudes forever beautiful and everlastingly right. As long as man is degraded by poverty and woman can be ruined, by starvation, and so long as children are ground under the heels of despots, such books and pictures as "Les Miserables" will do something to keep alive that noble ideal toward which men must ever strive Or be lost utterly. Some of them have since been corrected. toward a general breakdown of the present state monopoly system, which experience has proven to be the best method of handling the sale of liquor.

THE Liquor Control Board is preparing to go before the Senate Committee on Law and Order to urge passage of House Bill No. 2437 and defeat of House Bill No. 919, the package sale amendment. The former makes some necessary changes In the Liquor Control Act. Both have already passed the House and await a final vote in the Senate.

With the changes in the liquor law pro -EVERYDAY LIVIXG- The Climber By DR. JOSEPH FORT NEWTON vided by House Bill No. 2437, the Control Board can reduce the amount of bootlegging and correct abuses by clubs and other licensees, stagger closing hours to meet the public's requirements and make other improvements in the present system. There is going to be another attempt, we are told, to conquer Mt. Everest at the end of the year.

In spite of many defeats, an Unless the Senate is desirous of ripping out the state stores in which case individual Senators will have plenty to answer for when the next election comes along it will accept the Liquor Control Board's suggestions. THE MITCHELL CHARGES other effort will be made to reach that white peak. Why do men climb mountains? "To get to the top," said Mallory; but he did not tell it all. There is something more. Is it for glory, or for science, or just for the thrill of adventure? Only partly, perhaps, for one or all of these reasons.

The real reason lies deep in the restless spirit of man he cannot bear PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT and Secretary Roper, who are responsible for the con duct of the Commerce Department, had a perfect right to fire Ewing Mitchell and hire another Assistant Secretary of Commerce. Dr. Newton the idea of being beaten by And, ordinarily, charges of the type made by Mr. Mitchell would be dismissed as the LETTERS FROM OUR READERS a mere gigantic lump of rock! recriminations of a discharged office-holder. But, in this case, because there already has Says Hitler's Good Deeds Far Outweigh His Bad Ones been so much bad odor about the whole shipping business, we believe the public is entitled to a complete airing of the charges mads by Mitchell.

It is alleged, among other things, that the operators of the now laid up Leviathan have escaped their obligations to the Government and are enjoying an illegal subsidy for civic leagues and better government groups are for the bill. The Taxpayers' League has even gone so far as to point out where Ohio manages to collect taxes with only one tax collector for each county. If we don't get the Moomaw-Moran bill passed then I say let us have a special session of the General Assembly. ARTHUR JACKSON, Penn Twp. EDITOR'S NOTE: Please be brief.

As a rule. S00 words should be ample. Your name and address must accompany each letter as an evidence of good faith. They will not be used unless you wish it. The Press receives many more letters than it has room to publish.

Therefore, we reserve the right to reject or condense any letter. Taken alone that charge Is serious enough. But its importance is more as a symptom of Reminds Vets of Those Who Stayed Home Editor, The Pittsburgh Press: All the heroes were not in France says William Robson in The Sunday Press. I was glad when I read that splendid letter. Have our soldier boys entirely forgotten what mothers, sisters, sweethearts and friends did for them, sending everything possible to cheer them? Eating food over here that was not good for us, to let them have the best thinking of them day and night trying to figure out what else they were able to do.

Do not forget, boys. J. B. CARVER. general conditions.

There has been a smell "Impossible?" cried Mirabeau. "Never mention to me again that blockhead of a word." It is the glory of man that he specializes in the impossible like the ad of a London engineering firm: "Got any rivers you say are Impassable? Got any mountains you can't tunnel through? We specialize in the wholly impossible, Doing the work which no others can do." If only all of us could be inoculated with such a spirit it would be the end of depressions and disillusionments. We could then get on with the business of making a world fit to live in. In the physical world man looks at the high white peak of Everest, mocking him with its majesty, and says in his heart: can beat you big as you are," and he sets out to climb to the top. Why can we not do it in the moral, social, spiritual world? Not only lumps of rock, but lumps of ignorance, lumps of stupidity, lumps of prejudice and selfishness and fear block the human way.

Yet when it is proposed to abolish war, we cringe, cower, and give it up, "human nature oeing what it is." Yet big as it is, such a mountain is not too big for the climbing, fighting spirit of man. By all means let us conquer Everest, if only for practice for our warfare against the huge lumps of rock-like doubt and dismay and despair which thwart the heroic, advancing spirit of the race. and as a result conditions have improved. It was the failure of more than 10,000 banks in a period of only 12 years, for example, which brought the banking legislation and deposit insurance law in the early days Of the Roosevelt administration with the result that bank closings have practically ceased for the first time in our history. It was the sale of billions xf dollars of bonds which ultimately proved worthless, and the manipulation between securities and banking departments, which brought a separation by law of those two functions.

It was the imposition on the public by which American investors were bilked out of millions of dollars through bad investments and market manipulation which brought the Securities Ac (which Wall Street claimed would destroy it and which it now openly praises). It was the impoverishment of America's farmers and the threatened destruction of our agriculture which brought the Agricultural Adjustment Act which even the Republican "grass rooters" found so popular In the farm states that they carefully refrained from attacking it. It was the evasion of income taxes by men of great wealth and earnings (such as Morgan and Mitchell) which brought legislation to plug up the loopholes. It was the abuse of the investing public by such utility holding company empires as that of Insull and the avoidance of state regulation that this system made possible which are now bringing the Wheeler-Ray-burn bill a measure which will not affect or injure any legitimate utility operating company but will apply only to the super-companies which have imposed so grossly on both consumers and investors. It was the abuse of powers to control credit and the private control which banks had gained over the economic and governmental progress of the nation which will bring the Eccles Bill or something similar.

It was the impoverishment of our workers, the reduction of national buying power and the destruction of honest business by cutthroat competitors that brought the ill-fated NRA which had so many benefits that those who fought it hardest are now loudly appealing for industry to continue the safeguards it established. IN each of these instances legislation was the result of a definite situation a situation which had specifically contributed to causing and prolonging the depression. Therefore, these reform measures were not only intended to correct abuses, but also to encourage recovery. Despite these very patent facts, and despite the success attained by some of these reform-recovery measures (such as the banking legislation, the securities act, the AAA, etc.) those who want to continue the old abuses and the old special privileges keep shouting that "reform acts are delaying business recovery." They try to give the impression that they are not opposed to reform but that the immediate job Is to bring about recovery. Then, they infer, when recovery has been achieved, reforms will be welcomed.

THIS plea is the rankest sort of camouflage. The hope of these pleaders is that if reform Is delayed, it can ultimately be killed. Particularly it Is hoped that there will be a sufficient degree of business improvement so that the public will be lulled into forgetting the depression and its causes until such time as another "depression cycle" arrives. For that future event no plans are made; It's a question of delaying now and letting the future take care of itself. As a matter of fact, the various measures under attack cannot properly be classified as reform measures or recovery measures.

For they are both. The reform measures aim at eliminating conditions which helped cause the depression and which help prolong it. Therefore, they are recovery measures, as well. Don't be misled by the plea that the thing now is to "leave business alone" so that It can recover, and that then it will be willing to reform. The only reason for seeking delay of certain vital reform measures is the hope that eventually they can be sidetracked and killed.

none too sweet about the subsidies and about the Commerce Department's failure to enforce safety-at-sea regulations. Nor have public suspicions been allayed by the apparent desire of Mr. Roper to sit on the lid rather than let in the daylight. With Congress considering legislation to remedy conditions revealed by the Monro Castle disaster and legislation avowedly designed to correct abuses in the subsidy system, it is doubly important that all facts be exposed to public view. Editor, The Pittsburgh Press: I AM certainly surprised at your editorial on Hitler entitled "Black Is White." I didn't think your paper would line up with the" usual mudslingers, propagandists, fosters of hate and misrepresentatives of the truth.

If you would familiarize yourself concerning the old and new Germany, I think you would be more unbiased in your judgment of Hitler. You say "He defied the family of nations in the censure of the treaty violation." Why the very ones who are shouting vin-dictives against him were the first to break the treaty. Apparently a virtue in them is sin in Hitler. And as for his words being meaningless, I note it doesn't seem to make any difference whether his words imply good intentions or otherwise, his ideas are always translated into terms to suit your malicious hatred of him. And as for Hitler destroying democracy, he has not destroyed democracy but a republic that was helpless to stop the exploitation of Germany.

During its regime the already hopeless and starving people were burdened with an impossible reparation and an army of occupation that the Allies so graciously adorned with the uncivilized African Zulus, who assaulted German women. Also during its regime 250,000 Germans took their lives in hopeless despair. And as for Hitler thinking "he is misunderstood," 67,000,000 Germans do not think but know that he is misunderstood including about 200,000 German-Americans. Hitler may have his faults but the good he has accomplished for Germany far outweights his shortcomings. MRS.

M. CUNNINGHAM. So the controversy surrounding Mr. Some Provision Should Be Made for Widows Editor, The Pittsburgh Press: We who have taken the time to consider a national Mother's Day should think what it signifies and -how sacred is its, tribute. Our first step tbward a realization of this outstanding 'for the future lies in a happy solution of the economic condition of our widows, the childless one as well as the one with children.

In generous Pennsylvania, the widow with children has been allotted a pension, a fact for which it certainly should be commended. Now our major problem should be in caring for the widow who has passed the 50 or 60 mark in age. Taxes, a formality which must be met if property is to be retained, are the obstacles which must be surmounted. Let us, therefore, do some thinking before we are tossed into an international chaos and help those that are a credit to us. FAIR PLAY.

Mitchell's dismissal Is a proper subject for a Congressional investigation. And the pending shipping measures should be held up until Congress has learned how much of a fire there is at the source of this smoke. Security Vital By DR. HARRY ELMER BARNES i President Called But 'Enemy' of Vet Editor, The Pittsburgh Press: President Roosevelt has proven himself to be a real President, and I think his name will go down in history as being one of the greatest Presidents we have ever had. But he has also proven himself to be a real enemy of the ex-soldiers by his indorsement of the economy bill and his veto of the Patman bill to pay the adjusted compensation certificates.

Since the economy bill was enacted into law, it has been modi-fled somewhat, but still there are many ex-service men who are victims of that piece of legislation. He gave very good reason for vetoing the bonus bill, but he only told one side of the story. He said the bonus is not due until 1945. He did not tell his listeners that after the war the Government adjusted the compensation due the railroads and war contractors in cash He did not tell that 50,000 Government employes who received an annual salary of $2500 or less during the war were given adjusted compensation in cash. If President Roosevelt is to be a candidate for re-election, he will have to face the ex-service men of the nation with those two charges against him.

WILLIAM F. DONOVAN, New Eagle, Pa. TWENTY YEARS LATE INTEREST in salvaging the National Industrial Recovery Act Is natural and laudable. But it should not obscure the importance of passing the social security legislation proposed by President Roosevelt. To students of economic and social affairs.

BY order of the American people, the Senate considers the administration's Charges Relief Foodstuff Is Being Sold Editor, The Pittsburgh Press: Here are a few things which I think your readers would like to know about the relief situation. Maybe if they got after a few of these so-called "rats" we could save some of the relief for the people that need it. I have seen the so-called surplus goods given by the government to the people sold over the counter. When the people brought their slips in for the surplus they were turned away because this business man did not or was not supposed to have recieved the goods to be distributed among the people. The government has it written on all packages that the selling of such surplus Is unlawful and liable to a fine of $10,000, ten year prison term, or both.

Why not enforce this law? I have also seen food sold to the poor public that wasn't fit to be sold. For instance, ground meat which wasn't fit to be fed to a dog. Of course, the man selling it has to say it is fresh, his Job depends on his lying ability. JOHN HARAKAL. Homestead, Pa.

economic security bill. The House speedily passed this important measure, 372 to 33. The Senate would be wise to act with equal dispatch. For none of President Roosevelt's "must" measures is more sorely needed, or more popular. unemployment insurance constitutes a necessary and elementary step in the direction of a civilized economy and a rational social order.

It is a sad reflection upon our civilization that this issue has not been squarely met and successfully solved many years back. If a well-established sys- The Senate committee's bill is a decided Improvement on the one passed by the House. It attacks the social problems of indigent old age, unemployment, blindness, illness and childhood dependency. To help the present generation of aged tem of compulsion ployment insurance had JM I been in operation we can poor, it offers out of the Federal Treasury a subsidy to states of as much as $15 for each pensioned person past 65. To provide a self-liquidating old-age security system for the future It proposes a Federal reserve fund into which employers and workers would contribute payroll taxes to support industry's Urges Recall Law Rather Than Ripper Bill Editor, The Pittsburgh Press: If the State Legislature succeeds in enacting a law which will remove Mayor McNair from office, it will be a blow at local self-government and a dangerous precedent.

Mayor McNair was elected by a very definite majority of the voters of Pittsburgh. He should be removed by these same people if his actions have embarrassed the city. The Legislature, if sincere, could handle this problem now and forever by passing a general state law permitting a worthy percentage of voters in any municipal subdivision to drag any public official back to scratch for a reappraisal. We had no for Joe Armstrong or Joe Steedle or Senator McClure. If the Democrats can be headed off in time to prevent this foolishness, someone would be doing the state and the Democratic party a distinct service.

P. BURNWORTH. 1132 Harvard Circle. retired veterans. Finally, it offers to others the opportunity to buy cheap government annuities.

These provisions should help to Tell Us Where Do We Go From Here? Editor, The Pittsburgh Press: Robert G. Blackham says that he kndws "where we are going from here." Now I estimate that there are at least some 115,000,000 people in this country who want to know just "where we are going from here. I can cheerfully testify that I am one of them. Mr. Blackham, don't hold out on us tell us please hurry up quick I can hardly wait for th answer I JOHN K.

HANLON. Suggests Congress Study U. S. Constitution Editor, The Pittsburgh Press: Why not petition Congress to adjourn and attend some boys summer school to gain a fundamental knowledge of our Federal Constitution and elementary political science. Itls quite possible that a majority of our lawmakers at Washington have the conception that the Constitution is something that is influenced by the eating of spinach and vitamin A.

A ROOSEVELT REPUBLICAN. close the doors of poor houses, which are so costly to the public and so unsatisfactory to unfortunate inmates. The unemployment Insurance section is frankly an experiment In Federal-state co operation. To encourage the states to enact unemployment insurance laws, it provides a Federal payroll tax, of which 90 per cent would be remitted to states with jobless In Questions Answers surance systems. States are given wide latitude to try plans that fit the regional or industrial needs of each.

The bill would benefit thousands of needy Disagrees With Us About State Patronage Editor, The Pittsburgh Press: Replying to your editorial, titled "Patronage and the House," you state "in sorry contrast, a majority of Democratic legislators are concerned only about finding jobs for favored constituents." Well, why not? The people voted for a change. I would suggest you secure copies of the Pennsylvania Manual and turn to page 1143-1931. Check back issues for 10 years. What do we find? Many family groups listed on the payroll for the past 20 years or more. I am sure you do not approve of dual employment, nepotism, favoritism, etc.

Yet the bill of Hiram G. Andrews, Cambria County member, would perpetuate this condition. You state the bill had been reported unfavorably by the House State Government Committee and Representative Andrews, himself a Democrat, tried to have it placed on the final reading calendar. For your information, Hiram G. Andrews is not a Democrat.

Biographical sketches of representatives list him as an Independent; at Harrisburg he is considered the best Republican Cambria County has sent to the Assembly in many years. You also state it would be well for Democratic legislators to reread their party platform of last falL Mr. Andrews did not subscribe to that platform. I feel the Democratic majority should be. commended for voting against this measure.

Why perpetuate a royal family? I have been a Press subscriber for the past eighteen years. I admire your independence and editorial policy, but as Al Smith would say, let's keep the record straight. DAN J. NIGHTINGALE. Johnstown, Pa.

Dr. Barnes be certain that the present depression would have been less severe, its misery more easily mitigated and its termination made more rapid and decisive. Unemployment insurance is frequently assailed as a socialistic proposal or as something based upon partisan and sentimental sympathy with the working class. Nothing could be further from the facts. The best case for unemployment insurance today is one which embodies nothing more than a hard-boiled and logical appeal to ordinary horse-sense on the part of American employers.

Purchasing power is the dynamo of business enterprise under capitalism, and any plans for recovery and assured future prosperity must be built upon this as its cornerstone. This means, among other things, that able-bodied and willing workers must be given steady employment. When this is not possible, owing to adverse business conditions, they must be assured of a dependable and decent income which will enable them to go on buying, even though at a somewhat decreased rate. The reactionaries are bringing up all of the conventional arguments against unemployment insurance that it "is the British dole system in disguise, that it is a Muscovite invention, and the like. There is, In fact, no argument worthy of the name which can be raised against unemployment insurance.

It is sometimes asserted that American workers should save enough during prosperous periods so that they can tide themselves over the months or years of adversity. But a few elementary facts about American wages in the past suffice to dispel this illusion. The criticism advanced that unemployment Insurance is "un-American" is utterly preposterous. Nothing sensible and essential can well be called un-American in any reasonable interpretation of that term. In the sense in which it is used by critics of unemployment insurance, it would be un-American to live in big cities, to work in great factories or to ride in subways.

All of these things were foreign to the era of "rugged individualism." The "un-American" argument is the final pjoof of intellectual bankruptcy upon the part of those who fall back upon this last refuge of greed. blind through Federal subsidies to states. It triples Federal appropriations for public health. It revives the infant-maternity care provisions of the now lapsed Sheppard- Why Are Horses With Broken Legs Always Shot? A. It is quite expensive to reset the bone and the injury cannot be cured so that the horse will be as useful as it was before the leg was broken.

Your Questions Answered You can get an answer to any answerable question of fact or information by writing to Frederick M. Kerby, Question Editor. The Pittsburgh Press, Washington Bureau, 1013 Thirteenth Sf Washington, D. C. enclosing 3 cents in stamps for reply.

MedicaU and legal advice cannot be given, nor can extended research bv made. EDITOR. A DANGEROUS AMENDMENT THE Liquor Control Board's plan to es tablish 224 new one-man stores, in communities lacking state dispensaries, eliminates the only reason for allowing retail licensees to sell liquor by the package. Legislators favorable to this concession claimed that there are not enough state stores to serve the public properly and that the sale of packaged liquor by licensees would automatically reduce bootlegging. The correctness of the latter claim is open to serious question.

And even it It were true. Towner Act, provides funds for rehabilitating crippled children, and increases a hundred fold Federal contributions for child welfare. Demands Legislature Pass Tax Collector Bill Editor, The Pittsburgh Press: The present session of the Legislature has cost the oppressed taxpayers of Pennsylvania a lot of money. Since early January the members of the House and the Senate have some very important legislation on the waiting list. I am referring specifically to the Moomaw-Moran bill to reduce the number of tax collectors in Pennsylvania from about 2700 to only 113.

This bill will save the home owners and farms of Pennsylvania more than $3,000,000 per year. Several organizations, including the Allegheny CountjafReal Estate Owners and Taxpayers' League, The bill has many defects. Some are due Q. Are the members of the U. S.

House of Representatives assigned to regular desks in the chamber? A. There are no 'desks, and regular seats are not assigned. to the need for economy, others to the Supreme Court's rigid limits on Federal powers. The measure does not guarantee security to every family, but it will soften the blows of economic adversity. They Say: -Roard's program will make It unneces- sary to allow off-the-premise sales by retail- Q.

When was the violin invented? A. During the sixteenth It is the product of a year's sincere and ers. The frontiers of human betterment as yet are but barely penetrated by men. Herbert Hoover. wmh 224 additional stores, every com- expert effort.

Its imperfections can be ironed out later, as other countries have improved similar measures. mnity of any size in Pennsylvania would be xved by a state dispensary. Allegheny I seel lots of average middle- The United States Is 20 years or more be Kinty now has 24 stores, under the new it will have at least 10 more. Q. Does pure water exist in a natural state? A.

Rain water, the purest natural water, contains gases and dust washed from the air. When rain strikes the grounds It begins at once to take up impurities from the rockg and soil. state stores will observe all the re Common Error Never say, "I talked to Brown;" meaning that you had a conversation with Brown, say, "talked with Brown." class per sons going happily about their business, oblivious to the rumblin. In countries, when trfc middle-class gets hit. they screkira for a dictator.

Doro- hind advanced industrial countries in adopting a national social security system. Further delay would only add to relief burdens, economic unbalance and human fears. gions laid down by the Liquor Control They will be clean and orderly and thy Thompson, journalist..