davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-05-24
MR.. MORGAN DIDN'T PAY

A GREAT many people are indignant be-
n cause Mr.. j. P Morgan of the Wall street
Morgans paid no federal income tax during
the last three years, and that most of his
partners likewise escaped. That is a natural
emotion for persons who did pay.
Just how Mr. Morgan slipped through the
income tax net is not yet altogether clear.
Presumably he did not resort to the alleged
illegal practices for which his friend and
debtor, Mr.. Mitchell, has been indicted.
1t is well known that many rich men have
escaped from the income tax in recent years
merely by walking out the back door which
the obliging law has left wide open for them.
That door is called the provision for capital
gains
1t provides that the individual may be
taxed on the gain from sale of capital assets
held more than two years or in the event of
losses in such sales he may distribute losses
as a future credit against the tax on his
ordinary income
AS former President Hoover and others have
pointed out. this tax during prosperity in
creases speculative imitation and during de-
preston impedes business recovery. 1t con-
tributes to a boom because stocks are not
liquidated on a rising market, but are dumped
or put through wash sales on a low market
to establish real or fictitious losses and escape
taxes
1t is time for the government to take
another look at this entire matter of the
capital gain-and-loSs tax
Rich men of the country should not be
able to escape income taxes at the very
moment when the rest of the country is bur-
dened with increased taxes and when the
government is so desperately in need of
revenue.
The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-05-24

cial, educational, and regulatory budgets
Utah and West Virginia have voted their gov
ernors power to combine or abolish useless
bureaus.
Major eliminations have been voted in thir-
teen other states. To make fewer taxing units
grow where 100000 now plague the land is the
big job before the states
The wiser cities are putting money into
profitable utilities Louis Bartlett of Cali
fornia, writing in The Nation tells the story
Of eighty-four American cities and towns in
sixteen states that have abolished all taxes.
The cost Of government is met by profits from
city-owned water, gas, and electricity.
According to Bartlett, 1900 American cities
own and distribute their own electric power.
Other cities make the Spartan choice of do
ing without professional politicians They
have the city manager plan, the budget and
civil service systems, simple and on-dupIicat-
ing bureaus, just tax and assessment methods.
The road to solvency is straight. and it
leads uphill. Communities which allow utiu-
ties and their politicians to man the drivers
seat and joy-ride recklessly downhiII at the
taxpayers expense, will find themselves in the
ditch along with the others
The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-05-24
BANKRUPT CITIES

FARMERS, home-owners and foreign ma
4 tions are getting debtor relief. What OF
American states, counties and cities?
Under spell of the late boom, communities
like people, went on spending jags. Many OF
them spent foolshly, most of them over
borrowed Result: total of 895 local gov
ernments are in default on their bonds.
Among these are one state, 172 counties,
300 cities and towns, 1876 school districts, 277
other taxing units. Chicago, owing its teach
ers $50, 00OO 900 and its f1remen and policemen
other sums. is chief municipal mendicant.
President Roosevelt realizes how serious
this condition has become. He has called in
Senators Wagner and Couzens and treasury
department aides to work out some method OF
relief One plan is to permit communities to
go into bankruptcy courts and arrange with
their creditors lower interest and amortiza-
ton charges.
Another is to grant them R. F. G. loans,
secured by warrants for taxes due. Emergency
legislation, doubtless, is needed. But the fed
eral government should do nothing to en-
courage civic shiftlessness and waste.
Localities must keep their credit as good
as Uncle Sans. The wiser states are doing
this without slashing blindly into needed So
The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-05-24
WEDNESDAY, MAY "a, 1888.
WHO SHOULD PAY2

A far as it goes, the new tax plan agreed
n to by the house ways and means com
mittee is good But it doesn't go far enough,
and for that reason is unfair
This is a unemployment tax that now is
TO be levied, tax to pay interest and sinking
fund charges on $1,000 900 900 in government
bonds that will be issued to construct public
works and create jobs The house commit
tee has increased the normal income tax rates
from to 6 per cent on the first $4,000 of net
income, and from to 10 per cent on all in
come in excess of $4,000
The middle class, the people of modest
incomes, are complaining at these increases;
but their complaint is justified, we believe,
only because the committee at the same time
did not make great wealth bear a proportion
ate share of the burden
1t aid nothing to increase the income SIR
taxes, and thus has ignored the theory of our
income tax system, under which those who
have little pay little, those who have much
pay more.
Unless the SurtaXes are increased in the
administrations national recovery bill, the
new levy on great wealth will be no larger,
comparatively than upon the $4,000, $4,000,
$4,000 incomes. Here is a splendid oppor-
tunity for the senate to equalize the tax bur
den to maintain the principle of our revenue
system.
The committee likewise gave corporations
favored treatment in the taxing sections of the
new bill. Although the measure itself is in
tended to revive business, no new or higher
levy was placed on the incomes of business.
1t is true that the committee made cor
porate dividends subject to the normal rates as
we'll as the surtaxes, and there are some who
argue that business, because it is being helped
by the measure, should assume this $S3,OOO,OOO
new tax
But these persons seem to forget that it is
the little fellow the little investor, who will
bear large part of this new impost.
Yet the committee is to be complimented
for making clear in the bill that these new
levies may be lifted when the eighteenth
amendment is repealed, and liquor taxes be-
gin pouring into the federal treasury.
1t neither sidestepped nor straddled, but
named repeal by name And thus, for the first
time, the whole immense power of congress
and the federal government is thrown behind
the growing movement to take the eighteenth
amendment out of the Constitution
Those who will feel the pressure of the
new income taxes-those of small means and
large-have new incentive now to work for re-
peal, for easier taxation.
The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-05-24
LIFE FOLLOWS FICTION

ONCE more fact has been taking lessons
- from fiction, reality from art.
The murder in New York Of Edward Rid
ley seems too bizarre to be true The material
would be more appropriate to the pages of
S. S. Van Dine than to the columns of a
daily newspaper.
Mr. Ridley himself surpassed in eccen-
trcity the ordinary fictional standards for
millionaire recluses. He wore fabulous set
of whiskers that would shame the artificial
luxuriance of a department store Santa
Claus. Whenever he appeared on the street,
winter or summer, he wore an old black
overcoat.
Strangest of all, perhaps, in these curious
DAYS. is the fact that this millionaire really
had a million dollars and good deal more
one million cash in bank that is still open
The bullets from which he died are shown
to have been fired from the same gun that
killed his secretary two years ago in the same
dingy Office
When things like this happen IN hctlon'
there always is an explanation Ill the last
chapter. In real life we can not be so sure.
The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-05-24
MUCH TO BE THANKFUL FOR

a N American who has spent the last five
or six years i'll Europe returned to his
own country on a vacation recently. Visiting
. friends in typical American CITY. he put in
several days driving around the town. its
suburbs and the adjacent countryside Then.
one evening, he told his hosts:
you people have no idea how lucky Won
are to be living in America, You can't imagine
how much better off you are than the rest
of the world.
Even in the depression, your workingmen
and small-salared Office worker have so much
more than similar people in Europe have that
there's just no comparison.
After living in Europe for a while, man
who comes back to America feels as if he
had got to the finest country in the world"
That sort Of talk, of course used to be our
most common boast. In the last two or three
years we haven't heard it so often.
Indeed, we have let the depression under
mine our confidence so much that we have
sometimes talked as if we were the unluckiest
of all people. instead of the luckiest
But we're still sitting on top of the heap,
comparatively speaking and it wouldn't hurt
us to keep remembering it.
That doesn't mean that we should close our
minds to the fact that we have upward of
100000 men out of work, that we should
forget that hunger and disbursement and
want are abroad in the land as seldom before,
that we should become Pollyannas and shut
our eyes to all unpleasant sights
1t simply means that in spite of all our
troubles we have a great deal for which to
thank God, and that we can face the future
with more hope and courage if we realize the
fact.
BY keeping that in mind, we can help to
advance that great American dream-the
dream which has lowered over our horizon
for more than a century: The dream that in
this land it would be possible to make a bet
ter life possible for the average man, the
dream that freedom and contentment and
happiness more easily could be made every
day realities here than anywhere else on
earth
That dream is still possible for attain
ment. BY keeping our eyes on it, hoping for
it and working for it, we shall be helping,
year by year, to make it come true.
The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-05-24
FRANCES NEXT MOVE

CHANCELLOR HITLERS speech was a
~ body blow to the Versailles system 1t
also was a sharp disappointment to those
who had hoped for a fiery and defiant blast
from the German chancellor which would
offer confirmation of their thesis of German
infamy and aggression.
Whatever the previous folly of Chancellor
Hitler with respect to anti-Semtism
"Aryanism," radical myths, repression of radi-
calism and the like, his speech was a mas
terly statement of the German case before
the world
He put well nigh perfectly the German
situation He showed that the German status
is intolerable so long as Germany remains
stigmatized as the sole criminal of 1914 and
perpetually is penalized in armament, eco
nolnic life. ard moral standing on the basis
of his absurd thesis.
He is right in holding that Germany can
never well become an actual member OF the
family of nations so long as this absurd and
unhistorical indictment is suspended over
her head.
Chancellor Hitler very wisely put his de-
mand for German equality on the basis OF
disarmament by everybody, instead Of insist
ing that Germany be allowed to arm up g
The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-05-24

the level Of France and other states with Iop-
sided military establishments
This cut the ground from under the con-
tention of Gerrnany's enemies who have all
legged that what Hitler wishes is not security
but military power to wage successful war
for restitution Of German territory and
prestige.
Hitler did well to cap this by the asser-
ton that the necessary improvement of Euro
pean conditions could not be found in new
European war. Two wrongs do not neces-
sarily make right.
Hitler's expression of willingness to dsarm
Germany completely if her neighbors will do
likewise and to wait five years for this to be
achieved fully IS as sweeping a declaration as
anybody could ask To have gone further
than this would have raised doubts about his
sincerity if not, indeed, about his sanity
1t offers ample proof that, if he speaks
the truth Germany wishes security rather
than aggression.
There is much more plausibiity to the
German talk of security than to the peren-
NAL French gesture on this subject. Ger
many, a country with a population of more
than sixty millions, is restricted to an army
of 100000. France, with little more than half
that population, has an army of nearly six
times that figure. Together with her allies,
her military power outranks that of Germany
by more than forty to one Germany at least
has a logical case when she talks of security
This speech unqueStonably puts the next
move up to France. Let her match Hitler's
declaration that Germany would be ready
without further ado to dissolve it's whole mill
tary establishment and to destroy the scanty
remnant Of arms left it if neighboring ma
tons unreservedly do the same"
1t will be hard to deny the logic of his
sequitus that IF the others are not willing
to carry out the disarmament provisions I'M
der the Versailles treaty, which is equally
binding upon them, then Germany at least
must insist on its claim to equality"
AS far as words CO. it would be hard to
ask for more from Chancellor Hitler The
only way to test his sincerity is to take him
at his word and see what follows. President
Roosevelt said in his message that common
sense points out that if any strong nation
refuses to join with genuine sincerity in these
concerto efforts for political and economic
peace. progress can be INSTRUCTED and uti-
mately blocked.
In such event the civilized world, seeking
both forms of peace, will know where the re-
sponsbity for failure lies"
BY his speech Chancellor Hitler success
fully prevented Germany from being put on
the spot at this stage Of the game
The chancellor's speech will increase the
regret that he has seen fit to prejudice Ger
manys clear and logical position in world af-
fairs by silly trivialities such as his anti
Semitism and other vagaries.
1t is to be hoped that he will reshape his
policies in this regard and restrain his OBJ
sesSed supporters, who are placing their
fatherland in jeopardy by acts no more essen
tial to Germany's well-being than a trip
to Mars. d.,
The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-05-24

tacks against war, rather than Of
fend those employed in its making.
Each change in thought, the over
throw of every institution, means
change and often hardship for Ger
tain groups of individuals.
So long as We must have armies
and navies, we shall respect and
honor those who work uprightly at
their profession. But we should be
traitor to our highest ideals, our
profoundest beliefs and to that es-
sential hope that Jesus left the
world, if We failed to do our ut
most to turn the hearts Of human
kind toward peace.
Not the peace that is preserved
by soldiers, but that which is the
result of international wisdom and
good will.
It may be a goal too high for
US to reach, but it is not too lofty
to struggle toward And as surely
as believe that our life upon earth
means something, that it has sig
nif1cance beyond our finite compre-
bending, just so firmly do I believe
that some day armies and navies
viii be be no more.
The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-05-24
Occupation Is Factor in Rheumatism

protected of all warm blooded ami
mails, and for ages man has fought
a constant battle against cold.
Man developed the use Of fire and
of clothing to protect himself
against the rigors of climate.
When rheumatic conditions occur
among those working under extreme
heat, the results probably are to be
associated with sudden changes; for
instance, bakers who work in heat
near the ovens all night long, go
home early in the morning amidst
the dampness of the dew.
metal workers, also on midnight
Shifts, become extremely heated
and 90 out into the damp, which
penetrates the clothing and pro-
duces a rapid loss Of heat from the
body.
Such a combination Of cold and
damp is a serious strain on the body
of even a healthy man.
It generally is well established
that people with rheumatism do well
in hot, dry climates.
Next-Measures for the control
of rheumatic disorders.
The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-05-24
=: The Message Center ::

Times readers are inUited to cypress
their Uiet0S in these columns. Make your
letters short, so all can hare chance.
Limit them to ESQ soords or less.)
Brs. Mrs. Sylvia Brummett.
Everywhere you near people talk
ing on the wet and dry question. I,
as a mother, am protesting against
having whisky in our state, on the
ground that it seriously interfereS
with our business of raising children
to be decent and law-abiding men
and women.
OF course, we realize the govern
ment. needs the tax and the unem-
ployed need the extra work that the
making of booze would provide.
One thing the vets failed to
mention was the fact that thou
sands would be needed to work on
caskets to take care of the bodies of
the many victims killed and muir
dered by drunken drivers, and SO
not only would there be work on
caskets, but there would be more
work in the cemeteries digging
graves. There would be more hos
pitfalls, more asylums for the insane,
homes for the feeble-minded and in
ebriates, more jails, more doctors,
more nurses, more lawyers, more
undertakers, more policemen.
All these would employ thousands
and thousands more. And, too, the
tax on all this booze would make
millions of dollars for the govern
ment.
And the mothers and children will
be the greatest sufferers. The
mothers whose hearts will break
with the horrible suspense of wait
ing night after night, not so much
for her son and husband, but for
her young daughter, and so the
mother will watch with white,
wan face and horrible dread in her
heart, with her tears, her broken
The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-05-24
A WOman's VIEWPOINT

OTTER invectives come from a
- United States army sergeant
at Fl. Slocum, N. Y, who accuses
me of trying to build up circulation
for the ScrippS- Howard newspapers
with propaganda against the army.
Your fight against a system" he
says, "is nothing more than fight
against individuals. And these IN
dividuals are at a decided disad-
vantage in that they lack that ef-
fective weapon. the press, which you
are welding SO unscrupulously
I dare say nothing I could set
down here would alter the sergeant 5
opinion. To hate systems and love
the individuals involved in them is.
it seems, beyond the understanding
Of a good many people.
mo doubt the slave holding fami-
lies of the Old south felt the same
way when assaults were begun
against custom that gave them
livelihood ana brought sporadic
prosperity to their communities.
Yet it truthfully can be said that
universal sympathy was felt for
their predicament.
The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-05-24

prayers to God in the night until
her health breaks, and she, too, will
need to be buried, giving more work
to the unemployed and more tax for
the government.
What a mockery it will be and our
young girls, the future mothers of
our country the greatest consumers
of the rotten stuff. I believe even
the fiends in hell laugh at the talk
of employment and tax on the stuff
they drink.
And what about the bloody. man
gled forms of our little children, vic
Tins of rum-crazed fiends out to
make whoopee, who don't care how
much suffering they cause. Little
children, half starved, ragged and
diseased while the father spends
every cent of his money for whisky
and then comes. in wild crazy, red
eyed and beats his wife, kicks his
children, takes what little money
the mother has made by sewing or
The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-05-24

thinking she could at least pay
her clothing expenses. and not be
entirely dependent on her chill
dren. only the A. T. & T. is pay
ing dividends. She has a right to
them, it is her money they are
using, and they got it by promis-
ing to pay interest in dividends.
Those companies which do not
pay dividends are cheats and
thieves, as they are using other
peoples money without paying the
interest promised. She has more
right to that dividend than my
husband has to his wages and
any one who says a company
should not pay dividends even by
lowering wages is ignorant of
right business dealings.
l have heard of dogs that bite
the hands that feed them and
those letters in The Times are
from that kind
The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-05-24
BY DIR. MORRIS FISHBEIN
Editor Journal of the American Medi-
cal Association and of Hygeia.
the Health Magazine.

are affected. Among women, tele-
phone operators, librarians, teachers,
bookbinders and Office clerks are oc-
equations which are suitable to
those with rheumatic tendencies.
Particularly unsuitable for men
are such positions as those of post
man, police, miners and outdoor
labor, also refrigerator workers, bath
attendants and window and bottle
washers.
Among those who suffer particu-
larly with rheumatic inf1ammations
of the hands, even under the best
working conditions, are seamstresses,
washWomen, blacksmithS, bricklay-
ers and butchers, whose hands fire.
quently are much used under damp
conditions.
1t is obvious, therefore, that GER
tain working conditions tend to ia
vor rheumatic disorders, and among
these the leading place is given to
cold.
The human being is the most un-
The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-05-24
Spreading the Blame

HOME RELIEF has been a mess,
l. l. but even that failure can not
be laid at the door Of those who
would put on smocks to fight the
depression.
But most curious Of all was the
cry Of Communism" which came
up from the Hop Light Ladies" and
their adherents as soon as their
scheme met criticism from the au-
dience. After all. it had been ex-
planned that any money which came
in was to be put in an iron pot and
divided up among the workers of
the organization without anything
being paid for executive salaries.
That in very mild and NINA
ture way is Communism. and so I
could not understand just why the
ladies of the right and of the left
grew quite so frenzied with one an
other.
And so I found myself in the I'M
comfortably neutral position of be-
ing unable to rise either for anthem
or argument. Perhaps piffling plans
for betterment do get in the wav.
but fundamental action seldom
comes without some attendant
minor gestures.
Copyright, 1888 by The Times,
The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-05-24

This is the first of two special articles
on rheumatism.
physicians long have realized
Il that employees in certain types
Of work are more likely to suffer
from rheumatic disorders involving
inflammation of the joints and of
the muscles than are other workers.
Many investigators have found
that disability due to joint diseases
is at minimum where home and
working conditions are good, where
as patients with rheumatic disord-
ers rapidly become worse and, in
deed, increase in number under bad
housing conditions.
The person with a tendency to
arthritiS or Inflammation of the
joints is better off with a warm,
indoor occupation than with an
outdoor occupation.
Out of 1900 cases studied, men
working outdoors had from five to
three times more rheumatic condi-
ton than those who worked indoors.
Among occupations particularly
suited to persons with a tendency
toward rheumatism is Office work
of various kinds unless the arms
The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-05-24
BY MRS. WALTER FERGUSON

THE march of progress, however.
l. does not stop out of difference
to personal grievances. The ma
lions did not cease their attacks
upon slavery because they realized
that its adjustment would ruin
financially multitude of good
people.
Neither will they cease their at
The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-05-24

washing late at night, goes back and
spends it, too, for booze.
No, I haven't overdrawn it. re-
member when we had the saloon
and I know dozens of instances Just
as bad as the ones I have men
toned.
Will the government make any
thing in the long run from tax at
such a terrible cost?