The Brooklyn Daily Eagle from Brooklyn, New York • Page 16

BROOKLYN DAILY EAGLE, NEW YORK, FRIDAY, APRIL 23, 1937 FOUND! Now and Then EAGLE DAILY' By ARTHUR M. HOW IfttandM Ihh aoon la 1M1.1 (Trada Hut "atla" RnUUfM.I FRIDAY, APRIL 23. 1937 larities in connection with the conduct of the Board of Education the proper course is to bring charges against those involved. It is not necessary to approve every act of every member of the board in defending it from the Berg political attack. On the whole there has been wide satisfaction with its accomplishments.

Certainly there was as much or more criticism of the old Democratic board that was in the saddle when LaGuardia took office. It will be hoped that this measure will be beaten in the Assembly. If it is passed, however, it should be vetoed and its backers rebuked by Governor Lehman. MAIH OFF2CK8: BuUdlna. Johnaoa ana Adamj aueaJ Brooklyn York TKLEPHOKS MAID Claaalliad Ada MAID 4-6000 WMhlntton.

D. 1244 National Prw Bulldlni Onleago. 1614 TrlbuM Tower Ban Francuco. CaL. alonadnock Bulldtnt SUBSCRIPTION RATRS-1 jr.

(no Sundij (13 00 Dally only 8 00 Sunday only 6 oo mo. 6 so 4 50 bO I mo 1 Ji I oo so star: th Brooklyn Pototflca at Second C1m Mall Miliar MKMKCB OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Tho Askociaud Press la exclusueiy entitled to tht ae for republication of all newa dlspatcbee credited to It or not othervle credited in tbls paper and alao the local newt of spontaneous origin published herein. All rights of republication of all other matter herein alaa are reserved. 1 it'Jjr 'Pfe' ill StartC 9 Breaking a Brooklyn Backet. Months of investigation by Attorney General Bennett in co-operation with District Attorney Geoghan have resulted in the arrest of Martin (Buggsy) Goldstein, a notorious Brownsville character, and thirteen other men on charges of conspiracy in an alleged racket involving painting and decorating contracts for public schools in Brooklyn and Queens.

According to the prosecuting officers, eighteen contractors had been able to corner these school contracts here totaling about one and a half million dollars by hiring nonunion men below the contract wage scale and then employed the Goldstein gang to intimidate American Federation of Labor pickets on these jobs. Goldstein has been rated as Public Enemy Number 6 and lias thirty previous arrests on his record. He and one of his aides are now out on bail pending appeal from a recent conviction for coercion and conspiracy. There is no room for racketeers of this sort in Brooklyn, and it will be hoped that the new charges will be pressed to a rapid conclusion. It is encouraging to know that while Special Prosecutor Dewey has been sending racketeers to prison in Manhattan the authorities have also been active in Brooklyn.

Messrs. Bennett and Geoghan and their aides deserve the thanks of all law-abiding elements in the community. APPARENTLY THE Ules told of mine fields laid by Spanish insurgent to block entrance to the harbor of besieged Bilbao were without foundation in fact. This Is proved by the venture of the British freighter Seven Seas Spray, which, laden with food supplies, ran into Bilbao and landed her cargo. There was some little drama in the undertaking.

A British destroyer met the Seven Seas Spray in the open sea, asked where she was bound and getting "Bilbao" as an answer, replied "Enter at your own risk." Captain Roberts replied. "I accept full responsibility." How slender was that responsibility was proved when an escort of loyalist warships greeted the freighter at the harbor mouth and cruised over wide areas to show that the waters were free of mines. The greeting given to the Seven Seas Spray by the famishing people of Bilbao must have been grateful to Captain Roberts, whose young daughter stood beside him- on the bridge as he carried his ship safely to the dock. npHE TRANSPORTATION of foodstuffs to Spanish ports is not barred by the nonintervention agreement. Now that one ship has victualled Bilbao, others will attempt to do so.

If they are successful the result may be an indefinite prolongation of the siege, for the chief problem confronting the defense is that of food. The British warships patrolling Biscay waters are under orders to prevent undue interference by the insurgents with vessels so long as they do not carry guns, ammunition or volunteers. This means that food ships making for Spain are safe outside the three-mile limit. Inside that limit they assume whatever risk there is, which in the light of Captain Roberts's experience seems to be negligible. HPHE Board of Higher Education has made a statement of policy respecting the so-called Oxford Oath or Pledge to which a number of students in the three city colleges subscribe year after year in anti-war "strikes." The board left to the authorities of the three colleges the duty of determining whether student demonstrations at which the Oxford Pledge would be submitted should be allowed on college premises.

The pledge, which assumes to bind subscribers not to fight for their country in any war, is regarded by the board as "idle and futile," as no help toward the promotion of peace, which is the announced objective of those who sign it. In its declaration the board says that subscription to the pledge remains "the sole responsibility of the student involved and shall not be deemed to have the sanction of the college." A NTI-WAR strikes are not confined to City College, Hunter College and Brooklyn College, the three institutions with which the Board of Higher Education is concerned. They affect also Columbia, New York University and other centers of education. A certain number of students will always subscribe to the Oxford Pledge, no matter what stand boards or college authorities may take against it. By refusing to interdict it the Board of Higher Education denies to fiery youth an issue which it would enthusiastically welcome.

No one is to be oppressed, martyred or denied free speech on a self-bestowed holiday. The only alternative to this would be an order that could not be enforced. a AT A press conference not long ago Mr. Roosevelt clarified a passage in his supplementary budget message which created an impression that he lumped together in one objectionable whole all nations engaged in building up great armaments. In his message he said: "It is a matter of common knowledge that the principal danger to modern civilization A Salutary Verdict.

The conviction in Special Sessions of seventeen persons in connection with a sit-down strike fh the Jewish Hospital is significant and should be salutary. It is absolutely necessary, if workers are to continue to improve their lot through organization, for certain distinctions to be made between various abstract rights and definite acts. If no distinctions are to be made between sit-down strikes in hospitals and ordinary labor disputes, then some special arrangement must be made to assure protection to helpless people who are the potential sufferers from the lawlessness of such sit-down strikes. The defense in the Jewish Hospital strike was that no real harm came to patients. That was not the point involved.

Serious harm might have resulted from the acts of the defendants. It Is possible to drive down the wrong side of Fulton Street without hurting any one, but it is a violation of traffic regulations, and the fact that no one suffers would not excuse the driver. Hospital workers deserve something more than ordinary consideration from hospital managements and the public. Their duties are arduous and their compensation Is shamefully Inadequate. And they have a right to organize and to strike, if they are so inclined, to impress their employers with their demands.

But a sit-down strike in a hospital is another matter. Such action cannot be undertaken without Jeopardizing the welfare, if not the lives, of patients. One of the most confusing aspects of the present labor situation is that it is so difficult to make distinctions. We are far behind some other countries in labor legislation. One reason for thus is that we have a dual form of Government.

Another is that we were so long a predominantly agricultural country and ct so tenaciously to the old ideas of rugged Individualism that so serious efforts were made to deal with Industrial problems. Still another reason is that politicians have lacked the courage and the capacity to do anything more than try to please organized groups. Meantime labor has been ruthlessly exploited and has had to fight every step of the way toward betterment. This has produced a not unjustified conviction on the part of many workers that the only way to get anything is to fight for it. The current strike contagion represents long years during which workers have suffered from genuine abuses.

In the last few years they have made startling gains in many fields, and it is only natural that they should want to go on. But it is necessary to make distinctions. There are certain essential services, such as hospitals, wluch cannot be suspended without danger to others. The Jewish Hospital strikers were convicted under an old law going back to 1881, but the principle Invoked is as old as law itself. The whole purpose of law is to protect society.

Much has been said about sit-down strikes as affecting property rights as distinct from human rights. The hospital sit-down strike violated both property and human rights. Architects' Fees for Library. One of the three remaining steps that must precede beginning of actual work on the new Central Library Building on Grand Army Plaza has been assured by action of the Committee of the Whole of the Board of Estimate. On Tuesday that body approved the proposal to appropriate $20,000 for architect's fees for the new structure.

Final action was scheduled for today's meeting of the board, since its membership is Identical with that of the committee. The formal vote will make it possible for plans to be revised at once along the lines worked out by Chief Librarian Ferguson. There will then remain only formal approval of the new plans by the board and formal allotment of $2,000,000 of city funds, the estimated cost of the project. The Central Library is Number One on the list of Brooklyn's most needed public improvements. It should now be pushed forward without further delay.

PASSED IN REVIEW By GEORGE CLKKIE OLLING, NOT down to, but through Rio with Hugh Gibson gives one an French an awful licking and then sailed away, leaving them, curiously, still in possession of the bay. Five years later Estaclo de Sa attacked and, thanks to a timely relnforce-! ment of Mem, drove the French off. It was Estacio who gave Rio what is still its official designation Sao Sebastiao de Rio de lies In those nations which, largely because of an armament race, are headed directly toward bankruptcy." To the newspapermen he explained that a distinction must be made between those who are building armaments for defensive purposes only and those who are arming for offense. His explanation can be reasonably interpreted as acquitting England of blame for adopting the biggest armament plan in history and also as acquitting France, which has spent great sums in building the strongest fortified line in all Europe and in strengthening her forces on land and sea and in the air. No country ever acknowledges that its armament is intended for offense.

Statesmen talk always of defense. But when they issue challenging proclamations in which the saber is loudly rattled, when they talk of war as tempering the national spirit to a fine and desirable edge they are suspected of having something more than defense in mind. The President could not with propriety have been specific in drawing his distinction. He could not name names when he divided the nations into categories. But exactly what was in his mind is not difficult to guess.

Dignifying the Samuel Fassler, Com'missO'ner of Buildings in Manhattan, wants to Hgnify the plumbing business. He belie', es Aat the men who straighten out the. kifks in the pipes and faucets and drains afl toilets are highly specialized techrieiansfad that the word "plumber" does do Ufern justice. "It stands," he believes, 'for a sorry-looking, dirty-faced a tool bag." So, jS far as Mr. Fassler's influential depart-mer Is Concerned, all this is going to be chan i forthwith.

The plumber is to be the "saniUry engineer." Whatever the reaction of the individual plumber will be and we suspect he loses no time worrying about what he is called, provided he gets his share of business we have no doubt as to the public's reception to the change. A plumber will remain a plumber. Efforts to force the word "undertaker" out of circulation have certainly been none too successful, and there have been other similar experiences. Such is the lot of the reformer. Letters From Eagle Readers Of course, one of Rio's historical glories was that when Marshal Junot in behalf of Napoleon ravaged Portugal Dom Joao, regent for his feeble-minded mother, Dona Maria packed her on boardshlp and sailed for Brazil.

They took with them an incredible suite of 15,000 people. They also stripped a great library in Lisbon, so that Rio today boasts some of the most precious manuscripts known to bibliophiles. a a a TOOTHING ON the twin continents of the Americas is more romantic than this episode in Brazil's history. And perhaps nothing more truly demonstrated to a populace the danger of putting one's trust in princes. In 1821 Dom Joao returned to Portugal, it having long since been made safe for the Portuguese by Wellington, St.

Helena and general European exhaustion. Dom Joao left Dom Pedro behind; but the Cortes straightway began to deprive the Brazilians of privileges already granted. They rebelled respectfully, to be sure, but firmly. When a Portuguese fleet sailed into the harbor in 1822 to bring Dom Pedro back to Europe it was given anchorage under the guns of the fort. It couldn't budge without getting sunk.

It sailed home without Dom Pedro. "From'-this time on Brazil was in fact an Independent country," Mr. Gibson points out. Rio has wrought itself a strange civilization, in which a member of the Academy is esteemed as highly by the populace as the local onion king and one who belongs to th Historical Institute ranks at least as high as a corporation lawyer. Entertainment is of the "pot-luck" variety, unattended by society editors and photographers.

But what should one expect of a people who have a cup of coffee before getting down to business? For all his rigorously simple English and often sketchy description, Mr. Gibson has managed to convey the idea that Rio is a pretty elegant place to go to; and it is no little white lie to say that if I never brought a forty-pound dourade to gaff I should have long since and intend to some day. service employes have demonstrated their selfishness. They come first. All the veterans are close to 50 but still capable of handling responsible jobs.

Trtere are thousands looking for positions. Let the civil service veterans organize and try to pass a bill whereby the unemployed war veterans may obtain positions. Taxpayers, just forget about the passing of the Austin Assembly bill. Give us unemployed old men (43 years old) jobs. Brooklyn, April 17.

A WPA VETERAN. The Forest Fire Peril. Every Spring and Fall hundreds of thousands of acres of forest and brush lands are burned over, due to carelessness of motorists, campers and hikers. This season is no exception to the rule. Already there are reports of serious losses in various sections of the East.

On Long Island, near Bay Shore, five hundred acres of woodland have been burned down. In addition to the destruction of timber and small game, one warden was burned to death in the pine woods of the South Side Sportsmen's Club preserve at Oakdale. All these losses are unnecessary. But In spite of the activity of State and local police and forest rangers, matches and cigarettes continue to be tossed carelessly among the dry leaves that cover the ground. If citizens would only show some sense of civic responsibility this seasonal destruction could be practically eliminated.

uncanny notion one lias actually been in the Spotless Town of South America and some day soon I suspect I will be saying, "When I hooked a forty-pound dourado in the cascade of the Cachoeira Dourada, to the grave distress of the other side of the house, who believes that even a little white lie stores up damage in the infernal torture chambers of the damned. Mr. Gibson is an enthusiastic Brazilian. He has been our Ambassador to the great chip off the old Portuguese block, and he was a good one, which makes him all the more exceptional. He fell in love with Rio de Janeiro.

His book, entitled simply "Rio," is obviously a labor of love. And he has contrived to make of his urban idol and idyll a place to be visited not only by the wide-eyed new traveler but by the jaded globe trotter, too. He has changed the old saying "See Paris and die" to "See Rio and live." According to him, the Brazilian of the metropolis really does live. No business is transacted without first the ceremonial little cup of black coffee. If the magnate of Rio does not hustle an interview through six telephones, twelve secretaries and an efficiency expert, stop-watch in hand, somehow he gets as much done in a day as any big shot in Wall Street, He has time to go down to the beach, order up lunch, take a plunge while it is being cooked, come back to eat it and return to his office in just about the time it takes a harried executive in a busy New York bank to do half as much and get back to work, distressed by indigestion.

Indigestion seems to be something the Rio citizen is a happy stranger to. rUT MR. GIBSON is not oblivious to the difference between New York's callow youth and Rio's great antiquity. "Rio is a great modern city; but do not forget that it is also older than any town in the United States," he admonishes. Maybe we, too, will learn to take things more easily in order to get as much done.

On Jan. 1, 1502, ten years after Columbus discovered the New World, Goncalo Coelho sailed into the harbor and thinking he had discovered a fine, new river named it Rio de Janeiro the River of January. Cabral traditionally got there before the good Goncalo, but there is no proof of it. Anyhow, Coelho's first settlement was named "Carioca," and those who sang a recently popular song will be interested to know that the word means simply "the white man's house." And to this day a resident of Rio is known colloquially as a "Carioca." Magellan visited the bay in 1519 and in 1555 Nicolas Durand de Vlllegaignon, Knight of Malta and a vice admiral of Brittany, put in with his ships to take possession In the name of Henry II of France. The French in their documents referred to it as "Antarctic France," thus revealing how little they knew about it.

Anyhow, French Protestants were worshiping in Brazil seventy years before the Pilgrim Fathers landed at Plymouth. There survives a furious controversy as to whether Vlllegaignon renounced Catholicism to turn Calvinlst. Mr. Gibson believes he did nothing of the sort. However, the important thing is that Believes Government Employes Should Share Income Tax Burden Editor Brooklyn Daily Eagle: At last the Governor has started the income tax ball rolling.

Let us hope it gathers force as it goes along. One man's income is derived from his salary as a commercial employe while his neighbor enjoys a political job and his sinecure (both work and salary) job pays no tax, whether it be municipal, State or Federal. Why shouldn't the officeholder pay something of income taxes? His share of the burden should be identical with his neighbor, who really helps pay his salary. There are too many political sinecures. These conditions explain communism and such.

It is about time all this is changed. Why not let us get down to a reasonable financial basis for employes and thus reducp substantially the increasing deficit? Brooklyn, April 20. L. OWEN MINEF 'Peace parade' of Brooklyn College Students Disapproved by Taxpayer Ed tor Brooklyn Daily Eagle: As read in The Eagle about the so-called ea-e parade organized last evening by four tryousand persons who attend Brooklyn College U.iere came to me the shocking realization that my money, as well as that of numerous other taxpayers, is being dissipated in providing a college education for people not capable of profiting by it. Palpably those who took part In the demonstration are pitifully deficient in the ability to reason.

Certainly sincere peace lovers would not bear banners proclaim A Hot Time in Heaven. For several days newspaper readers have been fascinated by a series of developments that seem to foreshadow the collapse of the much-heralded kingdom of Father Divine, the Negro evangelist who calls himself God. White men as well as colored have been among his followers, and it was the difficulties of one of the former with the Federal Mann Act in California that started the chain of events that threatens to deflate Father Divine's importance. Next came the stabbing in his Harlem "heaven" of a process server trying to serve a paper on Father Divine while he led a rally. Then Faithful Mary, first among the "angels" in the cult, renounced belief in his divinity and began to fight to retain what she declared were her personal possessions which Father Divine demanded that she renounce.

Finally the evangelist himself was locatd by the police at Milford, in one of his "sub-heavens" and was brought hpre under arrest to face a charge of felonious assault. This whole Divine episode has been almost unbelievable. From modest beginnings the leader has built his following to great proportions. All the ceremonies and incantations seem to make a deep apieal to superstitious people. Perhaps psychiatrists could best analyze the secret of his playing on their emotions.

Many believe that one of the chief factors in the early growth of his following was the sudden dropping dead of a Judge who had sentenced Father Divine in an early tiff with the law. To the outsider It would seem as if Father Divine would need almost superhuman tact to worm his way through the impending legal difficulties and accompanying revelations in such a manner as to retain his followers' confidence In his divinity. "Rio," by Hugh Gibson. (Doubleday, Doran Co. Garden City, L.

L. $3.50.) A Barefaced School Ripper Bill. It is a long time since narrow partisan politics has played so large a part in the deliberations of the Legislature as at the current session. Both parties seem equally to blame. It Is chiefly in connection with the State budget that the Republicans stubbed their toes in their efforts to put Governor Lehman in a hole.

Now the Democrats are trying to embarrass Mayor LaGuardia in connection with the handling of the city's schools. The scheme is hoary with age. Through the gradual expiration of the terms of the Democratic members of the-Board of Education, the Mayor has Anally secured control of the board. So the old ripper bill idea has been dug up and a measure framed by Senator Berg under which the present board would go out of existence and its place taken by a new and larger board appointed partly by the Mayor and partly by the Borough Presidents. Support by every Democrat in the State Senate assured its passage there by 29 to 19.

Its obvious purpose is solely to put the Democratic organization back in control of the schools. Public-spirited citizens can have no sympathy for tactics of this sort. If there has been mismanagement or any kind of Irregu Opposes Austin Bill to Retire War Veterans in Civil Service Editor Brooklyn Daily Eagle: A letter which appeared in The Eagle of April 16 interested me considerably. It was signed by the Civil Service Veterans Committee and was urging the passage of the Austin Assembly bill, which, according to the letter, advocates the retiring of war veterans in civil service on half pay. Now let us get down to a fact or two.

These veterans have positions in the various city departments. They receive their checks twice a month. They know that their jobs are secure. They have the means to pay rent and eat. But how about the veterans who have no jobs? Those who have been fired by the different business houses due to age.

Those who have WPA or PWA jobs, which are very insecure, What about them? Give these poor unfortunates the Jobs that the civil service veterans have and I will guarantee they will not be begging to be retired on half pay. Once again the civil ing support for the Spanish communists, whom they euphemistically call loyalists. On the contrary, their high regard for peace would necessitate their maintaining a detached attitude in so controversial a matter as the war being waged at present between Stalin's forces and Christ's. Now that these sophists have pledged themselves not to support the United Stales in any war it may conduct I am wondering to whom they would look for protection in the event of the invasion of our country and the concomitant menacing of their homes and of their lives. How long Taxpayers, will we continue to allow Father Knickerbocker to use our money so as to mak it possible for communists to obtain a college education fre of charge? Brooklyn, April 20.

PAX. New Books Received. THE IRON HEEL. A tale of the social revolution. By Jack London.

Macmillan Company. $2. Jack London's prophecy of the struggle that will come between plutocracy and the people. SOUTH AFTER GETTYSBURG. Edited by Henrietta Stratton Jaquette.

University of Pennsylvania Press. $2. The letters of Cornelia Hancock, a nurse with the Army of the Potomac. THEY ALL ARE JEWS (FROM MOSES TO EINSTEIN). Biographies by Mac Davia.

Portraits by E. E. Claridge. Hebrew Publishing Company. $2.

Sixty thumbnail biographies of great Jewish men and women, with portraits of each. Paging A.S.P.C.A. From th Trof Hrrord 1 It seems cruelty to innocent shfcp to keep them Jumping over a fence all night just because one man can't go to sleep. the Portuguese didn't take his usurpation lying down. In 1560 Governor Mem de Sa gave the.