anaheim-gazette 1933-11-02

THE ANAHEIM GAZETTE HENRY KUCHEL, Editor and Publisher ESTABLISHED 1870 ISSUED EVERY THURSDAY SUBSCRIPTION PER YEAR $2.00 STX MONTHS $1.00 Entered at the Anaheim, California Postoffice as second-class matter. NRA CRUISES AMONG THE SHOALS Now that the fog is lifting from the storm-swept waters upon which the NRA was launched, we look ahead and see several dangerous shoals which threaten the ship of state. Much as we hope for the success of President Roosevelt's program, we have come to the conclusion that now is the time to drop wish-thinking for fact-thinking. The motives back of the NRA are laudable; not for a moment do we question the intent of the administration to secure a new deal for America. It is in the hope that a presentation of facts will assist in clarifying the atmosphere of doubt enveloping the country that we discuss a few points of vital importance to every individual. Of prime importance is guaranteeing the freedom of the press. For several months General Hugh Johnson has refused to pass the American Newspaper Publishers' association code. His objection does not pertain to hours of labor nor salaries, the two-paramount features of the new deal theory. Rather, his objection centers on permitting the newspapers to write into their code the guarantee, granted them by the constitution itself, of the right to publish the facts as they find them—freedom of the press in searching for and publishing opinions and facts. The second objection of the NRA administrator is to the newspapers' insistence that no licensing provision be allowed in their code, because licensing in itself would eliminate freedom of the press. These are foundation stones of American liberty. For several months General Hugh Johnson has refused to pass the American Newspaper Publishers' association code. His objection does not pertain to hours of labor nor salaries, the two-paramount features of the new deal theory. Rather, his objection centers on permitting the newspapers to write into their code the guarantee, granted them by the constitution itself, of the right to publish the facts as they find them—freedom of the press in searching for and publishing opinions and facts. The second objection of the NRA administrator is to the newspapers' insistence that no licensing provision be allowed in their code, because licensing in itself would eliminate freedom of the press. These are foundation stones of American liberty. The press of America, which has given the present administration the most unanimous support ever accorded during peace times, nevertheless reserves the right to disagree with President Roosevelt if and when it believes his policies conflict with the general good. We hesitate to believe that Roosevelt wants to be dictator, but Johnson's persistent effort in trying to make the newspapers subservient to the administration's will by forcing a licensing system upon them and eliminating provisions guaranteeing the right to disagree, certainly lends a gloomy tinge to our blackest fears. We might just as well make the situation perfectly clear. There will be no newspaper code that does not guarantee freedom of the press. We prefer to think the unfortunate delay in approving the code is because of a mistaken and stubborn notion of a subordinate to the president. But do not mistake this: The Gazette will not, and we do not believe any honest newspaper in America will, sign any code which permits dictation to the American press. We are willing to conform to hours of labor and wages, and are anxious to see unfair practices eliminated, but we will not give up freedom of the press—more precious than life itself. Another serious objection to the present working of the NRA is the discrimination against the small manufacturer and retailer. This discrimination is not intentional by the administration, but it is there in practice, just the same. Codes are supposed to eliminate unfair practices, but those very codes are used by moneyed interests to make an unfair practice legal, eventually wiping out small business throughout the nation. Permit us to cite an instance in the soap industry, of which we have several small manufacturers in Orange county. The same analysis may be applied to any industry, however, and the result would be the same. Immediately upon submission of a code, the wholesalers raised their prices on small-lot buying, without a proportionate rise in larger quantities. We realize, of course, that the big buyer should get some advantage, because the cost of selling and handling his order is proportionately less. The result, however, is that the big soap manufacturer, solely because of his greater buying power, can sell soap and make a profit at a price which would drive the little manufacturer out of business, despite the fact that the small business can make soap more efficiently than the large. A spread of 25 to 200 per cent in the cost of the same materials tells the story. The same tendency to enlarge the differential between the large and the small business is seen in nearly all industries; the result, if permitted to stand, means the eventual elimination of nearly all small businesses, who hire more men on the whole than the larger firms. Of course, we are bound to have errors in administering the NRA. Permitting such unfair practices against the small business must be eliminated if the intent of the act itself is not essentially it remains years instead of more on several vital phases. The real emergence camps, the 3 billion agricultural adjournment offer us material to be classified and have new deal. Proper results and tend to American commissions and handle our problems Nothing can be gained velt would frown up other phase of his "to alter or drop it." We all are anxious Our effort here has not succeeding, with too prevent a step toward prosperity. THE (A symposium on Giving whiskey execution isn't any many California ed long time. But, the editors Rolph's grant of liquid Charging the flag the gospel as console said: "Mr. Rolph shows of whisky. Is hang calculated to give crime and a moment is it just a savage state on a poor wretched conscience of th" "There ought to Hanford Daily Sentinel prisoner to sate the gibbet to hang blood! The horror governor had failed greater buving power, can sell soap and make a profit at a price which would drive the little manufacturer out of business, despite the fact that the small business can make soap more efficiently than the large. A spread of 25 to 200 per cent in the cost of the same materials tells the story. The same tendency to enlarge the differential between the large and the small business is seen in nearly all industries; the result, if permitted to stand, means the eventual elimination of nearly all small businesses, who hire more men on the whole than the larger firms. Of course, we are bound to have errors in administering the NRA. Permitting such unfair practices against the small business must be eliminated if the intent of the act itself is not thwarted. The case cited is one of the inevitable errors of haste. Attempting to "crack down on Ford" is an instance where the public reacts to injustice and is beginning to side with the automobile manufacturer. The public has been told the NRA wants a shorter week at a minimum pay. Ford set the pace in hours with a five-day week five years ago; he consistently has paid more and his policies forced other automobile manufacturers to raise wages during the last decade. Today Ford's hours of work are approximately the same and his wages higher than the code is demanding of other manufacturers. In other words, Ford more than anybody else, raised the standards of labor in industry. The NRA specifically allowed the automobile code adherents to write in a "merit" clause which grants them the power to remain open shop. Ford insists on the same right. Now that the federal government is taxing its people to pay $200,000 more for the same order of trucks that one of Ford's dealers, who is a member of the NRA, offered in a bid which was sought by the government, the spectacle of the pork-barrel begins to loom large in the public mind. The public is being taxed heavily to penalize the man who anticipated and met the wage and hour demands of the NRA by five years. The working man and his friend, Henry Ford, are being socked in one operation. The public likes justice. The attitude against Ford manifestly is unjust. Pick out violators of the NRA before cracking the whip. We believe emphasis on the NRA as an emergency measure has been misplaced. To us the method of shortening hours to increase employment and setting of minimum wages is a reform measure for industry, rather than an emergency measure to overcome the depression. From all the haste manifested at Washington early this summer, we believe officials actually thought the NRA an emergency measure which would freshen up our stagnant business. It has accomplished a good deal in returning men to work, it promises a great deal in eliminating unfair practices, But of whisky. Is hangled calculated to give the crime and a moment is it just a savage state on a poor wretched conscience of the "There ought to Hanford Daily Sentiment prisoner to sate him gibbet to hang blood! The horror governor had failed had little respect for the sending of humans. On the contrary tainly the ends of juvenile about to be haunt it be within the bounds to his death sober. Whereby he uninterested of another official act. According to them have urged a man some moments in his life mind. We do not let people, though we are such a time would be that the whole matter wholesome manner. "Whether Egan said the Stockton Ransom nothing if it is true given dope in order cotics, why not alcohol in favor of capital pthe criminally inclin neck. * * * The impractical example. If they fact that his last h will not encourage footsteps." "Many would pre Bible reading and press Press. "The fact that much his own business or censure the govern ended. The next month of gallons of ice cream prefer cake to ice cr SCHOOL DAYS By DWIG CHARLIE! YOU'RE IN THAT PANTRY AGAIN! WAIT TILL LAY HAND ON YOU! A FELLER MAY NOT BELIEVE HE'S GOT A GUARDIAN ANGEL BUT HE'S ABSOLUTELY SURE HE'S GOT A NEMESIS essentially it remains a reform measure which should require years instead of months to prevent unfair and needless hardships on several vital phases of our national life. The real emergency measures, such as currency control, CCC camps, the 3 billion 300 million dollar public works program and the agricultural adjustment act are what we must depend upon to offer us material help during the emergency. The NRA should be classified and handled as a long-time reform measure of the new deal. Proper emphasis on the measures would bring greater results and tend to eliminate some of the errors of haste. American common-sense demands that we stop our idolatry and handle our problems in our characteristic two-fisted manner. Nothing can be gained by blind emotionalism, which even Roosevelt would frown upon. He himself says that if the NRA or any other phase of his "experiment" will not work, he will be the first to alter or drop it. Certainly, he wants constructive criticism. We all are anxious to see the administration's program succeed. Our effort here has been to point out a few instances where it is not succeeding, with the hope that they will be corrected in time to prevent a step backward instead of forward in the march toward prosperity. THE EDITORIAL CIRCUIT RIDER (A symposium of editorial comment from California newspapers) Giving whiskey to condemned slayers in the hours preceding execution isn't anything to become excited over, according to many California editors. The practice has been in existence a long time. But, the editors say, the publicity attendant upon Governor Rolph's grant of liquor to Dallas Egan was totally unwarranted. Charging the flash of burbon shares honors with ministers of the gospel as consolers in the final hours, the San Francisco News said: "Mr. Rolph should decide which it shall be, religion or a bottle of whisky. Is hanging a solemn rite justified by the laws of God, calculated to give the murdered a final awful realization of his crime and a moment of genuine awareness and repentance? Or is it just a savage and bestial revenge carried out by a tyrant state on a poor wretch who is first drugged with whisky to salve the conscience of the executioners?" "There ought to be a limit to showmanship," declared the Hanford Daily Sentinel, adding: "The idea of permitting a doomed prisoner to sate himself with liquor before and as he went to the gibbet to hang for taking the life of his fellowman in cold blood! The horror of the thing makes one shudder. Either the governor had failed to appreciate the enormity of the things or he EVERY CLOUD HIS SILVER LINING If ten or twelve of the leading nations would stabilize silver in all probability that would straighten out, the economic ills of the world. For instance, Mexico produces 41 per cent of the silver of the world. One American dollar is equal to a fraction more than three of their silver dollars. In other words you can get 18 Silver Mexican dollars for $35.00 in American money. Of course, we are off the gold standard and our money has been cheapened in the world markets. By stabilizing these metals trade relations would be enormous. Business between America, Mexico, China, India, Argentine and Australia would boom. Now, again for instance, if Mexico bought an Automobile here worth $1000 she would have to pay for it with $800 pesos. For the love of Mike, why don't somebody wake up! PUNY HAND OF MAN In June through the ticker tape and telephone they gave wheat the bullish movement and the price went to a dollar a bushel. And then along came a terrific draught in the midwest where they raise most of the wheat and the farmers had no wheat. ONE SIDED DILEMNA Whooping up the price of commodities, without nudging wages up too is going to gum up the works and no foolin'. OPPORTUNITY COMES KNOCKING AT YOUR DOOR Everybody would agree that there is a shortage of the circulating medium-money. The delegates to that London conference should have given this subject serious consideration. The silver dollar having the same value in all the leading nations would promote trade relations tremendously. Mexico furries China and India all of their silver. They are on a silver basis. If the United States could work up trade relations with those three countries we could forget about Europe. THEM WOULD BE HAPPY DAYS A man steps up to ask, why have the sheets piled in serice loans to with a come at a strong value owe stilize All o people recognize social order new for ernment almost While that was Eagle at best realize accompany left to of whisky. Is hanging a solemn rite justified by the laws of God, calculated to give the murdered a final awful realization of his crime and a moment of genuine awareness and repentance? Or is it just a savage and bestial revenge carried out by a tyrant state on a poor wretch who is first drugged with whisky to salve the conscience of the executioners?” “There ought to be a limit to showmanship,” declared the Hanford Daily Sentinel, adding: “The idea of permitting a doomed prisoner to sate himself with liquor before and as he went to the gibbet to hang for taking the life of his fellowman in cold blood! The horror of the thing makes one shudder. Either the governor had failed to appreciate the enormity of the things or he had little respect for the ordinary conventions that hedge about the sending of human soul into eternity.” On the contrary, the Santa Rosa Republican believes: “Certainly the ends of justice are gained none the better by depriving men about to be hanged of any such personal request—provided it be within the bounds of reason. As it turned out, Egan went to his death sober. ‘I no not want to be “swanked,”’ he said. Whereby he unintentionally robbed the ‘holier-than-thou’ element of another official act to find fault with.” According to the Santa Ana Register, “there are those who have urged a man should not be made drunken in the last solemn moments in his life but that he should face his end in his sober mind. We do not know as we would seriously differ with these people, though we are inclined to feel that an opiate of any kind at such a time would be wonderfully humane. * * But it does seem that the whole matter could have been treated in a finer and more wholesome manner by the governor of California.” “Whether Egan should have had whiskey in his last hours,” said the Stockton Record, “seems like a case of much ado about nothing if it is true, as generally believed, that doomed men are given dope in order to buoy them toward the gallows. If narcotics, why not alcohol? After all, the principal argument made in favor of capital punishment is that it serves as a deterrent to the criminally inclined—not to the man who is paying with his neck. * * * The important thing is that Egan paid and served as an example. If the death penalty is a crime deterrent the mere fact that his last hours were softened by gubernatorial whisky will not encourage other would-be murderers to follow in his footsteps.” “Many would prefer that Egan had devoted his last hours to Bible reading and prayer,” remarked the El Centro Imperial Valley Press. “The fact that he chose something else seems to be pretty much his own business. After all, what good does it to praise or censure the governor’s act? Egan is gone and the matter is ended. The next man about to be hanged may ask for a couple of gallons of ice cream. Should he be denied it because some prefer cake to ice cream?” THIS WEEK IN WASHINGTON The Administration's policies begin to become clearer week by week, not by reason of any specific declarations on the part of the President and his Cabinet, but by the character of the action taken under the extremely broad powers which the Executive wields. For example, it now seems quite clear that there will be no such inflation of the currency as seemed possible a few weeks ago. Mr. Roosevelt let the impression get about that he was preparing to go in for inflation on a big scale. That, it turns out, was in the nature of a "trial balloon" to show which way the winds of public sentiment were blowing. They were blowing so strongly against inflation in the broad sense that it seems now as if all idea of anything of the sort were abandoned. As a substitute for inflation the Administration is bent upon making all the banks so liquid and full of loose cash that they will be forced to resume the policy of four years ago, of lending freely to anyone who has a reasonable excuse for borrowing; while at the same time efforts are made to increase the expenditures for "capital goods," such as building construction, bridges, highways and everything that comes under the head of public works. Money From Closed Banks There will be money provided for the payment of depositors in most of the closed banks, for one thing. The Government will take over their assets and give them new money for distribution. That does not mean that every depositor in a closed bank will get 100 cents for each of his dollars. These assets will be taken over only at what they are worth. But this probably, officials think, will put a billion dollars into circulation that its owners cannot now lay their hand on, and that ought to prove a great stimulus to spending. The provision of additional capital for weak banks is now definitely a fixed policy, to be forced on banks who say accomplished, mainly the abolition of unfair competition. That there must also be some method of controlling prices is beginning to be apparent here, but agreement is still lacking as to just how a general policy in this respect can be worked out. The Agricultural Adjustment Administration, under George Peek, doing its job faster, in this and other respects, than the NRA is under General Johnson. And it looks as if prices of agricultural products to the farmers, and prices that processors may charge to consumers, will be well settled long before general business has been adjusted on a similar basis. For example, one of the hardest nut: the Agricultural Administration had to crack was the agreement on flue-cured tobacco, the sort cigarettes are made of. It has been settled and the agreement signed by all the big tobacco companies, that the minimum average price to be paid to growers for tobacco is 15 cents a pound up to next March $1 with growers agreeing to curtail production for next year in hope of still higher prices. At the same time, the price to be charged for cigarettes at wholesale is fixed at $6 a thousand plus the amount necessary to cover the increased cost of raw material, the processing tax and other additional expenses imposed under the NRA code. Capital and Labor Increasing concern is being manifested over the increasing number of strikes in various industries all over the country. Every effort so far to get the leaders of industry and the labor leaders to work in harmony has failed. Labor leaders say that they don't trust the industrialists, and industrial leaders say they don't trust organized labor. Each side has a good deal of history back of its distrust. Labor leaders are saying that the Administration leans too strongly toward Capital, and industrialists are remarking more or less openly that it is too strongly pro-labor. TODAY AND TOMORROW By FRANK PARKER STOCKBRIDGE HOUSING An endorsement There is one announced program of the Federal Administration to which I can heartily subscribe. There are others, but I have in mind the idea of Government aid for the rebuilding of the "slum" dwellings of the cities and the development of "subsistence farms" for many city folks who, under our present industrial system, are unable to survive when off the payroll, except by charity. I know an increasing number of men who have found their way to self-support in the depression by getting hold of a piece of land with some sort of a house on it and so managing to get by, even when unemployed for two or three years. But most city workers haven't the means or the knowledge now to adopt that method of self-support. They have to be taught and to be financed; but unless Government does that, we shall never have a permanent solution of our most important social increase concern is being manifested over the increasing number of strikes in various industries all over the country. Every effort so far to get the leaders of industry and the labor leaders to work in harmony has failed. Labor leaders say that they don't trust the industrialists, and industrial leaders say they don't trust organized labor. Each side has a good deal of history back of its distrust. Labor leaders are saying that the Administration leans too strongly toward Capital, and industrialists are remarking more or less openly that it is too strongly pro-labor. There seems little doubt that when it comes to a showdown the influence of labor will weigh the heavier, everything else being equal. The effort to organize all workers is every line has the support of the Administration—with reservations. There is an immense amount of labor organization going on in industry, but not all of it sponsored by the American Federation of Labor. It is in these independent labor movements, or so it is believed here, that most of the current strike disturbances are occurring. The tendency of the new labor movement is toward "vertical" unions — that is unions to include all the workers in a given industry no matter what their functions — rather than the Federation's system of "craft" unions. The former is the old I. W. W. plan, under the slogan of "One Big Union." Meantime, labor is shaping its lines for a big fight for the 30 hour week in all trades and industries, by direct Congressional enactment. HAPPY DAYS ask, why have the not have land, rubber for collait, anyway. Well, the Pijl Islands lives. ED in a town up in the battle within a ringside seat performance when he a whistling right newspaperman who a place to park. rium galore upon for the added atdescribe poised his to deliver a haythe sock in the slosson his elbow the air. The fracas secrack at the t from later renewspaperman branches. Whether turn engagement other or they may The slow up put musement sector the folks were wittering. COME HOME STEET selves stole a lot inner out west and patrol happened abbed the thieves to the owner. right again thieves of this same his chickens in and lo and behold happened to be abbed the thieves ents to the farmer. HORRORS . . . of war We speak of the horrors of war, but few moderns realize what a devastating effect the wars of ancient times had. It was only about three hundred years ago, when the early colonists were beginning to settle America, that the Thirty Years War ravaged Germany until the population was reduced from 24,000,000 to less than 4,000,000. Not all were killed in war of course; most died of starvation. Utter lawlessness prevailed outside of the fortified cities. No person's life was safe, and cannibalism was actually practiced, according to James W. Gerard, former United States Ambassador to Berlin. Human flesh was even exposed for sale in the markets of Haldelberg in 1648, said Mr. Gerard in a recent published statement! Polygamy was legalized, to repopulate the land speedily. Ambition and religion were at the root of the Thirty Years' War. We are hardly likely to have another great war over religion, but ambition may promote one at any time. FORESIGHT for humans I never cease to marvel at the fore-sight of the little beasts and birds in storing up food for the winter. Just now the red squirrels and the blue-jays are fighting daily in the big oak-tree in my fence-line, each trying to get all the acorns in eight. I've never found out where the jays hide theirs; they fly southward toward the woodlot and come back quickly for more, so they probably have a hollow tree for storage place. But I discovered the red squirrel's hoard the other If science needed any further proof that primitive man must have inhabited the tropical regions of the earth, where shelter and clothing are unnecessary and food grows profusely, our helplessness in northern climates ought to furnish it. MOUSE . . . taken for ride My daughter was annoyed several times lately by finding little tufts of finely-shredded cotton on the floor of her Ford. She couldn't explain them. A little later she was surprised to see a mouse appear, apparently out of nowhere, and perch on the hood of her car as she was driving to town. When she pulled up in front of the Post Office the mouse ran back, through the open windshield, and disappeared somewhere inside the car. As she is a sensible girl and not afraid of mice, she investigated and found that mother mouse had pulled enough of the stuffing out of the seat to make room for a nice little nest, and there were six pink little blind baby mice inside of the seat! The unfortunate mice were dropped into Shaker Pond, but the problem of amouse-proofing a Ford seat cushion is still unsolved. FOXES . . . reds and grays I have seen more red foxes this year than in several years past, in the vicinity of my farm. Neighbors tell the same story. But the gray fox, which is the only native species in the United States seems to be disappearing in the North. Every red fox on this continent is the descendant of animals originally imported in George Washington's youth, to furnish sport for fox-hunters. The first were loosed on Long Island; later some were brought to Maryland. Now there are red foxes everywhere east of the Mississippi, and perhaps farther west. It has been a prolific season for skunks, too. Jimmy Howes, son of one of my neighbors, caught a baby skunk in his hat a little while ago. Fred Howes said he had to buy Jimmy a new hat and a new suit and for a while he thought he'd have to get a new boy.