Evening star., 1933-08-18
Some Codes That the
American People Need
To the Editor of The Star:

| TO the EDITOR OF The Star:
As member of the bewildered public,
I have been reading and listening inter-
estedly to the reports of codes which
are to make the workingman happy
and of senatorial racket Investigations
which shall make it impossible for a
slot-machine patron to get killed in
a quarrel. More power to both these
projects! The working folk deserve a
better deal all around, and the slot
machine patron ought somehow never
to be allowed to reach his slot machine.
1t occurs to me, however, that the
new deal might be stretched bit to
cover the safety and well-being of
others as varied and numerous and at
least as useful individuals as these.
The very moment when a jobless one
sits on his step reading about his trades
new code, one like him. lucky enough
to hang on to the family car, may with
his entire family have crashed into a
flyer at a railroad croSSing-in one
moment their economic problems settled
forever
Or, again, fifteen or twenty children
in any number of communities, forced
to school attendance by law but with
out adequate medical supervision, may
be hacking and coughing into the last
stages of tuberculosis (besideS other
diseases acquired by close contact in
unventilated roomS).
Or suppose that we must concentrate
our entire attention on this wishful
workingman who will soon have his
job back with better wages and shorter
hours. If the fordest dreams of all
such were to come true, what have
they then? More leisure, more money
meaning more cars, more speed. more
pleasure, shallower living, with the
wide-eyed wistful children who were
poor, now become rich, more Wide-eyed
and wistful, rushing about pleasure
bent with their parents.
Let us have other codes, then. and
back them up with Government money
Among them. one which involves safety
Of limb for those who ride in carS-nC
grade crossings, no drunken or incom-
petent drivers wide lanes for travel
forethought instead of hindthought
The victim of the racket loses money;
here we lose lives. The slot-machine
patron lost his life on his way to
pleasure. but thousands of other per
haps more valuable human beings
through no fault of their own, lost
theirs by machines on their way tc
work. Bodily safety could be achieves
and Immediately. too, in the age OF
the new deal
should be our look toward the future
that is. for our children. While We
hand money right and left to tbs
needy little ones for their physical COM
fort. why not hand out something fol
their souls? Instead. the country over
we have steadily robbed and bled the
school teachers, to whom We give ovel
our chlldren's minds and bodies fol
seven hours each day. How can "a
cramped starved life inspire a child
and build up in him ideals that will
outlaw gangsterdom? With salaries tot
low for a decent standard of living
with inadequate and crowded schoo
buildings, perfunctory medical super
vision, if any. with no resources with
which to equip themselves intelligently
for their jobs. teachers and pupils alike
have had a raw deal so far throughout
our land 1t would indeed be in keep,
ing with the new deal if city. State
and Federal governments would stanc
behind the teachers and our children
in a long look toward the future.
Let us ST. engthen our departments Of
education and of safety. Secretary
Tugwell is right in thinking that ON
public officials stay too much at thei!
desks. Some, it seems. rarely look uI
from their books or off the speeches
that some one else has written for them
Let us put the live wires to work ir
these branches. as We have in the
N r. A. Then let us utterly loose
them, by adequate appropriations, that
they may be free to track down theiI
subjects as the hound tracks down
his fox-to the finish.
E G. THOMSON.