The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-01-16

and prepared IN school Offices, II
against the er trance of propagan
AS an Official of a city whose
principal land owner and taxpayer
is the United States Steel Corp,
DR.. Writ, of "eat-and-tell" fame,
arrayed himself against the Jour-
nal of the National Education
Association. charging that redis-
tribution Of wealth, which he said
the magazine advocated, was one
OF three illusions" which have
crystallized public opinion in
favor of a change in our social
and economic order"
The other two illusions" he
said, were that this country's pri-
vate capitalistic system is bank
rupt, and that the country has
very large excess production ca
pacity.
DR. WRIT appealed in his 35-
- page article for intellectual
honesty" In an allegorical pref
ace he defines the average
man" as one who believes that
the old social and economic order
is the refuge of the vested in
terests and that these interests
have been robbing him.
DR.. Writ, who gained more or
less note as the man who publicly
mistrusted the brain trust" de-
fines the 'ultra-radic as the
man who knows" that tn e
average man" wants to believe
that 2 per cent of the people have
80 per cent of the wealth and that
he, 1.-The average man." would
have plenty if he were not
robbed" of his share.
DR.. Writ defines 1.-The leaders"
as those who have waited too
long"
The average man does not
know" he declares, that when a
planned economy is complete
enough to succeed as an economic
order, it becomes Communism"
Proceeding to his contention that
redistribution of wealth is an I'M
workable illusion, DR.. Writ quotes
the Journal Of the N. E. A. as
saying:
THE central economic problem
in the United States involves the
distribution of wealth. Wealth
has become so highly concen-
trated that it is breaking down
the entire economic machinery,
spreading poverty, destroying the
small community, and denying
youth an opportunity to make a
start in life. Only in proportion
as we put people before profits
and bring about the better diStri-
button of wealth, are we on the
road to recovery and advance"
ITO this DR.. Writ replies, in
Il part: The salaries of so ex-
ecutives are quoted. No effort is
made in the article quoted to en-
courage the use of the facts given
so that the thinking of teachers
may be straight. No effort is
made to encourage the securing
of additional facts that might
help social science thinking. No
rel effort, therefore, is made to
make social and economic progress
possible. Every effort, however,
seems to be made to appeal to
prejudice and to inflame class
hatred. Thus, social progress is
DISTRACTED.
when one adds these salaries
and bonuses the facts are aScer-
tanned that. in 1929, the salaries
totaled S4.839,74 and the bonuses
totaled S4.432, 500. The sum of the
salaries and bonuses paid is So
272.312. When income taxes are
deducted, these persons received
about S6,0O0,000. Other deduc-
auctions such as contributions
and savings will bring their con-
sumption total down to $4,000, 900.
There are 100000 workers. We
apparently got into the depres-
sion. according to the article
quoted, because We did not get
our share of this total. Our share
by not paying anything to the so
officials would have been 9 cents"
DR.. Writ closes with suggeS-
ton that his facts be put into
a series of mathematical tables
and that students in schools use
them as texts.