The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-03-20

What they got at o'clock that
morning was the off-hand opinion
Of soldier whose every instinct it
must be to say yes to any assign
ment coming from his commander
in-chief. His professional pride, his
sense of duty, his traditions of au-
dacity we're bound to weight his
judgment. An experienced admin
istrator would know that, and would
not be satisfied until he had checked
this Soldierly opinion against the
opinions of men who had nothing to
lose, whose pride was not involved,
in cool calculation of the risks.
After all, the army had never
flown the mails. In all probability
the program of the mails has never
been studied in the war college or in
the general staff. So the postoffice
department should not have been
satisfied even with the considered
opinion of the high command of the
army, much less with the uncon-
sidered opinion of the officer. The
matter should have been submitted
then, not after the f1aSco, to civilian
experts like Colonel Lindbergh.
TINE reason the precautions were
Il not taken is clear enough. The
administration was more interested
in righting a wrong than in flying
the mails It's indignation over the
evidence of fraud and collision shut
out any cool calculating as to what
would happen after the contracts
we're Cancelled So the officials
snatched at General Foulois' opinion
that the army could take the as
signment, and believed it implicitly
because that is what they most
wished to believe.
This is the way many well-meant
reforms come to grief. The re-
former, possessed with indignation
at an abuse, tends to think that his
own sense of moral righteousness
provides the solution of the prob
lem. If he does not strike, he is,
moreover, compromising with evil.
That is all very we'll when his only
task is to make speeches or write
articles. But if he is in responsible
position, it is not enough for him to
strike at the abuse, to cancel
fraudulent mail contract, for eX-
ample; he must also, and without
! delay, produce a substitute for the
thing he has abolished for example,
some one who can fly the mails
For when he is reforming an insti-
ton which does an important
service, he can not stop it, take it
apart and put it together again at
his own convenience; he has to keep
it running while he reconstructS it.
The air mail is perhaps a luxury
which can be suspended for a time
without serious consequences. But
suppose the same procedure had
been applied to all the mails be-
cause it was found necessary to re-
form the whole system, then it
would have been perfectly evident
why major reforms of vital services
must be. undertaken in such way
as to make sure that the services
do not break down.
THE incident of the air mail is
Il highly relevant to other re-
forms which the administration has
instituted. 1t is particularly rele-
want to the Securities act and the
proposed Stock Exchange bill. In
vestment banking and the stock
market perform vital functions in
the national economy. Like the
aviation companies. only more so,
like the human race as matter
of fact, they are full of sin. They
are ripe, overripe for reform. But
there they are, nevertheless, and
here we are, dependent upon their
not coming to dead stop. The old
sinners do a Job which has to be
done What is more, they do it bet
ter than any one else could do it
without years of practice.
1t is not wise. therefore, to write
laws which list all their sins and
threaten them with penalties So ter
rifle that they are paralzed with
fear. You can not call up somebody
at 9 o'clock in the morning and ask
him whether he is ready to i'm
provise a whole system of invest
ment in the next ten days, and if
some one says he can, you must not
believe him.
You have to keep the existing sys-
tenn working while you perform it,
or you will find yourself without an
adequate investment system. When
you are trying to re-employ mil
lions of people, it will not do to
smash up too righteously one Of the
chief instruments needed to re-
employ them.
You can not feed the unemployed
very long upon the moral satisfac-
ton Of reading in the papers that
the banks and the brokers have
gotten what was coming to them.
TINE incident of the air mail il
l. Illustrates another thing which
those of us who wish to reform the
wickedness of the world will do we'll
| to take to heart. When the de-
cision to cancel the contracts was
announced, Colonel Lindbergh pro-
tested. What happened then? Was
his protest considered on its mer-
| its? 1t was not. The overzealous
partisans of the administration set
out to discredit him, to investigate
his earnings to make out that he
was a vulgar profiteer who was dis
qualified and had no right to be
| heard.
This was a shocking perform
ance and the administration itself
/ 1 =. L.