Indianapolis Times, Volume 44, Number 59, Indianapolis, Marion County, 19 July 1932 — Page 6
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Free Cities The city of Brazil is fighting to free itself from bondage to the bankrupt Insull interest*. To escape, it needs legislation by the special session. So do all other cities which may some day awaken to the fact that the only path to real freedom from utility domination lies in public ownership. The citizens of Brazil become tired of paying so large a share of their earnings to this collapsed, financial inverted pyramid. That the whole weird structure of high finance is in charge of bankers brings no hope. They know that the bankers will probably be even more greedy than was the Insull octopus, which still has life enough left to send its lobbyists and legislative agents to the legislature to defeat remedial measures. The measure which Brazil presents as a solution is so apparently and obviously just that opposition would seem to be impossible. But the opposition is there. Under cover, lawyers for the utilities are fighting. This measure provides that cities may cither buy or build their own utilities on securities based on the earnings of such utilities. Os course, it may be impossible for many cities to take advantage of this law. The banking monopoly may make it impossible for larger cities to find credit for this purpose. Bankers have a habit of wanting something more than legal interest when they finance utilities. But Brazil is in a happy position. It wants to install its own lighting plant, to supply its own electricity. It owns its own distributing system. It pays an extortionate rate to the Insull organization. The rates are even higher than in Indianapolis, where they are plenty high. The people of that city look with envy upon such cities as Logansport and Washington, Indiana, where the people pay low rates and still earn enough from their utility plants to reduce their taxes to a point where confiscation is, at least, not general. Other cities must learn this same lesson. They must learn that no city is really free as long as it pays tribute to private capital on its common necessities. For private capital, under present morality, always takes more than it earns. In the utility business, it hides behind holding companies with their greedy subsidiaries, their secret contracts for coal, their secret charges for management and engineering and purchases. Free cities must have common ownership of common necessities such as water and electricity and gas. This Pell bill opens one door slightly for this change. It may have to be broadened later. The mayors of the cities are active. They are fighting at last. The depression has taught them the necessity of escape. Keep your eyes on the legislature. The members who vote against this measure brand themselves as utility-minded if not utility-owned. Freedom from utility exactions and extortions would do more to solve the tax problem than any slashes of salaries, no matter how necessary such reductions may be in these days when the public and private cash boxes are becoming Mother Hubbard cupboards. No Right to Pay Taxes? The score now stands two to one against the public in the matter of the new federal electric tax. In the beginning, the tax was levied on electric power companies by the senate. A conference committee, violating all precedents, rewrote the provision and placed the tax on consumers of electric energy. That was score one for the utilities. Municipal power plants then announced that the new federal tax would be paid out of earnings or surplus and not billed against users of light and power. A number of state utility commissions, aware of the financial situation of private utility companies, suggested firmly that these should do likewise. It looked for a time as if the consumer would score on the basis of these developments. But the situation has changed again. The bureau of internal revenue has issued an official ruling to the effect that utilities, either publicly or private!,* owned, have no right to pay the new tax, and must collect it from their consumers. So the matter stands at present, but in all likelihood we have not heard the last of it. It will be surprising indeed if some municipal power board does not challenge the right of a federal bureau in Washington to say how it shall charge its consumers and how it shall expend its funds. And since when has it become illegal for a man to pay another man's taxes if he wants to, or for a group of men to pay the taxes of another group? Veterans Use Judgment (From the Washington Pot> Decision of the Association of Disabled America Veterans, in national convention at San Diego the other day, to concentrate attention in the future on relief of those today suffering as a result of their participation in the World war is a most encouraging sign of the saneness and sense of this particular grou; of ex-service men. For more than a dozen years, the D. A. V. has beci. moat helpful to congress and the veterans' administration in the attempt to solve the broad problem of the war’s disabled, and congress indicated it* appreciation of this assistance by granting a national charter to this organization, the first ever granted to any association of the disabled of any war. A* appropriations for the relief of the disabled mounted by millions annually, passed the half-billion
The Indianapolis Times (A SCKIPrs-HOWARD NEWSPAPER) Own*d *nd published daily (except Sunday) by The Jndiananoll* Time* Publlahtnr To 214-220 Weft Maryland Street, Indianrpolis. fnd. Price In Marion County " cent? a copy; elsewhere, .3 rente—delirereu by carrier 12 cents a week. Mail subscription rate* in Indiana, s.l a year; outgide of Indiana. 65 cents a month. “bOYDOURWY. ROT W. HOWARD. EARL D. BAKER. F ‘ l 1 resident Business Manager PHONK—Riley 5551. TUESDAY. JULY 1, IM2. Member of United Press Scrippa-Howard Newspaper Alliance, Newspaper Enterprise Association, Newspaper Information Serrlce and Audit Bureau of Circulations. “Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way?*
mark, and finally reached the record of a billion dollar* a year, citizens generally became so apprehensive that some months ago there was a definite revulsion of feeling against the World war men that wa so threatening that It appeared as if even the most deserving might lose some of the benefit* to which they are entitled. Speaking generally, America has no complaint against compensating—so far as compensation is possible—those disabled because of participation in the war. However, when congress began to veer away from this class, adopted a pension plan for those whose ailments could not even be connected approximately with the war, went in.o the hospital building business to provide facilities for non-service connected cases, and then launched a drive to pension widows and orphans of all veterans, regardless of the cause of death, citizens generally felt the time had arrived to call a halt. An analysis of appropriations for veterans’ relief during the last year showed that approximately one out of every other dollar went to those not disabled in the war. The Disabled Veterans' Association has done something which will serve as a real defense of the rights and privileges of those genuinely disabled by the war. Over-Enthusiasm The policeman who third-degreed young Hyman Stark, New York narcotic addict, to death at a Manhasset, Long Island, police station last week, was, we learn from the district attorney, ‘‘overenthusiastic." The term is not chosen badly. The enthusiasm with which policemen of a certain type crack skulls, beat and kick, starve and otherwise torture their fellow-beings, has been well-described by investigators for the late Wickersham commission and by Ernest Hopkins in a book on ‘‘Lawless Police." This particular detective, who still goes under the name of "John Doe," had all the enthusiasms of his kind. He "questioned" the victim for eight hours, blackened his eye and cracked his skull. But, apparently because the lad was suspected of having beaten and robbed a detective's mother, Mr. Doe became "over-enthusiastic.” He did Stark to death by fracturing his larynx. Had the Long Island detective been only enthusiastic, the case would have remained one of the thousands that the Wickersham commission i called "mere habitual and routine practices.” it found these practices common in ten out of fifteen cities investigated, in half of the states. 'To defend the third degree is to advocate lawlessness," the report said. "The practice of coercing confessions is a violation of constitutional rights. ‘‘Many forms of the practice are crimes. The district attorney who winks at the third degree joins the police in flouting the Constitution and the statutes he is sworn to maintain." The problem seems to be to cure this type of police enthusiasm. Laws will not do this. Substitution of humane and intelligent policemen will. In the meantime, the remedy urged by the commission should be tried. This is publicity and agitation by civic bodies and bar associations. A statesman says that we must go back to 1912 habits. Judging from the jokes we hear over the radio, it would seem that at least a start already has been made. The real cause of the depression, an economist says, was overbuying on the installment plan. Which is just anew way of saying that the easy payments aren’t easy. Philadelphia still likes to be known as the City of Brotherly Love, but even the most ardent native will admit that the bootleggers and police have been carrying a good slogan too far. More than half of the customers of one light company are paying their bills in cash to avoid the check tax. But congress outguessed them on that one. There s a tax on electric current, too. No wonder Mussolini is so popular in Italy. At a recent gathering he served his followers with bologna. All we get over here is boloney. One glance at the two vice-presidential candidates shows that the old game of cowboy and Indian is about to be revived. foreign lipsticks have been barred from Russia by order of the Soviet government. Maybe we haven't been making them red enough.
Just Every Day Sense BY MRS. WALTER FERGUSON
IDO not believe we ever can get true opinions on public questions in this country until we stop herding men and women into groups and assuming that the organization's conviction is the conviction of all its members. This is very far from true. Yet we read that because Mrs. Frederick Paist, president of the Y. W. C. A., publicly favors prohibition, the Women’s Organization for National Prohibition Reform immediately jumps to the conclusion'that the entire membership of 600.000 think as she does. If these ladies had attended any Y. W. C. A. convention within recent years, they would know that seme of the most heated debates have been over the question of endorsing the eighteenth amendment. They would know that literally thousands of delegates disapproved of this endorsement. They would know that this year no such endorsement actually was made. Nearly every organization in this country approaches this question warily, because it is their touchiest problem. Church members no longer think as their pastors tell them. And this is an excellent sign. We have been organization on-bound long enough. All Methodists do not agree that Bishop Cannon is \ godly gentleman, nor do all members of the P.-T. A. believe that Joy Elmer Morgan is the direct spokesman for Divinity. a tt tt WILL we ever muster the courage to cut ourselves loose from the shackles of conventional thought ind stand forth boldly as men and women and voters, •ho refuse to have either material or mental dictators? It certainly is neither sportsmanlike nor true for he prohibitionists to put forth such a public statement as this, “The right-minded women of the naion, the home-lovir.g women, the women who are he mothers of men who will guide thus nation through •torm and stress, are standing as firmly for prohibition as ever.” This assumption that all drys are holy and virtuous md all friends of a change in the prohibition law are vil and directed by the devil, is an example of intolerance that has done much to bring the dry cause into disfavor. We scarcely can measure the merits of motherhood upon the wet and dry issue.
_ THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES
M. E. Tracy
Says: Ovr Social and Economic Order Lacks Anchorage; We Are Becoming Mental j Nomads. NEW YORK, July 19.—Though it must be approved by the Canadian parliament and United States senate before going into effect, we can afford to regard the St. Lawrence treaty as an accomplished fact, and improvement of j the great river as virtually author;ized. i The project will take ten years to complete and cost $800,000,000. President Hoover describes it as j "the greatest internal improvement ‘ yet undertaken on the continent of North America.” and he is right, i Instead of feeling cocky, however, we should feel very much ashamed. It is a disgrace to our resources, intelligence and boasted civilization j that we have not undertaken greati er things long ere this. "The greatest internal improve- | ment yet undertaken on the continent of North America,” and it wouldn’t pay our movie bill for six months, or our candy bill for more than a couple of years. MUM Achievements Are Puny WITH the exception of a few skyscrapers and the Panama canal, we have built nothing that could be described as a monument—nothing to compare with the Pyramids, or the Acropolis, especially when our wealth and ingenuity are taken into account. The Babylonians did more for rowboat traffic on the Euphrates ; than we have done for steam traffic ; on the Mississippi. By and large, our energy has been | squandered on temporary construction, particularly of the sort which caters to physical thrill. To put it midly, we suffer from a "shoot the chute” complex. That is one thing that ails our psychology. We lack the capacity to think of solidity and permanence. tt tt tt Not Building for Future THERE are very few structures in this country that will last 100 years and very few that could not be dispensed with, except as they have been woven into our speculative, installment-buying system of credit. We ha*'e not built, and are not | building for the future. This has j been woven so definitely into our j habit of thought that we dislike to think of anything more than a week or a month ahead. Asa nation, we lack objectives. Even our ideas of developing trade have shrunk to a level of sheer opportunism. If a market opens we may enter, and if a war breaks out, we may join the fray, but we never are quite sure. tt tt u We Need Durability IT is high time that the United States took interest in some single enterprise which cost as! much as $800,000,009, high time that! it gave the American people something substantial and impressive by way of example. We need nothing so much as projects, structures, and standards which speak of durability. How else can we hope to create confidence in our institutions and type of life? Our social and economic order lacks anchorage. Its basic conception is one of motion, change and replacement. We are becoming mental nomads, without realizing it. Considering the enormous sums of money that have been spent on them, we have shoddy towns, shoddy buildings, and shoddy wares. There are old frame houses, built by our forefathers, which will be livable when some of our steel structures are dust. There are chairs, beds, and desks j that have been in use for more than a century and that still will be in use when much of our modern furniture has gone to the junk heap. We need standards of solidity to counterbalance our appetite for change, and we need them in no place so badly as in government activities.
People’s Voice
Editor Times—We Hoosiers, indeed, should feel grateful to the Almighty for enjoying the blessings of freedom in passing most any law we darned please, including even a "sterilization law,’’ a virtue of which should make us feel doubly elated. It proves that we are greatly fortunate in the honor of having some real scientists among us. If it wasn't for them—and our legislature—we might all take a notion to become crazy, and "get away with it,” instead of “beating it” across the state line before we got "sterilized.” Unfortunately, however, here is but one fallible feature about this "sterilization” business: It has been adopted too late! The right time for it should have been, at least, a million years ago—when insanity (or "idiocy,” “feeble-mindedness," etc.) became a sudden affliction among our ancestors. Just think of it! They lived then in peace and tranquillity, with good homes on top of cocoanut trees, plenty to eat and everything they needed or wanted. No worries about rent, taxes, tariffs, depressions, soldiers’ bonuses, and so forth. Yet those fools weren’t satisfied They decided to quit their jobs as monkeys and made up their minds to become Irishmen, Jews, Scotchmen, Dutchmen, Bolshevists, etc., with the result—that they got us in a mess! They were surely crazy—crazy indeed! DAVID HORN.
Daily Thoughts
For I say unto you, That unto every one which hath shall be given; and from him that hath not, even that he hath shall be taken away from him.—St. Luke 19:26, Gold isjthe fool’s curtain which bides all his defects from the world. —Feltham. What are the official world walking records for one hour and one mile? One mile. 6 minutes 25.8 seconds, by G. H. Goulding, June 4, 1910. One hour. 8 miles 438 yards, by G E. Lartier, Sept. 30, 1905.
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Exercise May Be Injurious to Kidneys
BY HR. MORRIS FISHBEIN Editor Journal of the American Medical Association and of Hvseia. the Health Magazine. IT long has been recognized that exercise places extraordinary demands on the human tissues, particularly if the exercise is long continued, perhaps to the point of ex* haustion, or if it is done at such a rate as to tax severely the accommodation of the body. Years ago it was recognized that there might be occasions in which albumin would appear in the excreted fluid, or urine, without the presence of Bright’s disease or any actual inflammation of the kidney. It was found as long ago as 1904 that constant standing in one position might cause the sudden appearance of albumin. It occurred to investigators in the University of Wisconsin that there must be some basis for the failure of the kidney, revealed in this manner. They, therefore, studied forty-
IT SEEMS TO ME
VACATION begins as soon as Wednesday's column is written, and I'm going to rush things a little by saying farewell twenty-four hours in advance. I do not regard a two weeks' absence from the firing line as this paper’s tragedy. The thing has happened before, and generally life has gone on about as usual. As usual, I leave my post with qualms. This is no time to set even so much as twenty-four hours between yourself and a job. t And yet I feel a more worthy recipient of a rest than I did twelve months ago. I think I was better this year. Nobody told me; I just made that up myself. And it may be merely one of those middle-aged illusions. But, hot or cold, I'm going away. Asa rule, vacations have not been lucky for me. Too often something comes up. Once it was running for office and next time putting on a show. This year—Heaven help me! —it’s going to be raising radishes. tt a tt Among Sedentary Jobs THIS profession befits a man with nothing on his hands but time. As I understand the business, 'you go out and look at the radish bed along about 7 in the morning or 1:30 in the afternoon. The latter plan seems better. I. hardly think I would arise at daybreak to see a century plant burst into bloom. If the radishes seem to be getting along all right, you don’t do anything. Just wander back into the house with a good book. And if they're not doing so well, there’s nothing much you can do about that either, except to go back into the house and pour yourself a good, stiff drink. With a little practice it may not be necessary to do all that walking from the bedroom to the garden. On a clear day anybody with good
Just Like Mother Did! Remember that dee-licious smell in the old kitchen when you came in and found mother "putting up” those jams, marmalades, preserves, conserves—or whatever it was that was cooking on the old wood stove? Oh, boy, and how good they tasted when mother got down a jar of them for Sunday supper! Are you "putting up" some preserves or jams now when fruits of all kinds are plentiful and cheap? Our Washington bureau has a bulletin ready for you containing scores of fine recipes and full directions for jams, marmalades and preserved fruits of all kinds. If you want it, fill out the coupon below and mail as directed. CLIP COUPON HERE Dept 188, Washington Bureau. THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES. 1322 New York Avenue. Washington, D. C. I want a copy of the bulletin PRESERVING FRUITS, and enclose herewith five cents in coin, or loose, uncancelled U. S Postage stamps, to cover return postage and handling costs: NAME STREET AND NUMBER CITY STATE I am a reader of The Indianapolis Times (Code No.)
Gone Flat!
DAILY HEALTH SERVICE
seven women ,who had indulged in physical exercise, such as riding a bicycle, running around an indoor track or working on a rowing machine. In some 15 per cent of cases there was albumin in a sample of fluid before the beginning of the exercise which apparently did not increase greatly after exercise and, in fact, was reduced in some instances. On the other hand, 5714 per cent of those women who had no albumin before exercise developed the appearance of albumin after exercise. During exercise there is a marked elevation of the pulse pressure, an increase in the rate of the circulation and a shunting of the blood from the interior of the body to the active muscles and the skin. Muscular exercise stimulates the metabolism, or chemical interchange in the body, and at the same time produces heat. If the exercise is severe enough, the amount of heat produced may exceed the amount of heat usually
RV HEYWOOD BROUN
young eyes can see the radish from the window. Maybe I’l just turn over to give them a look and then relapse into sleep again. At the moment my passion for radishes is less than intense. Suppose they do bud and finely come into full maturity without accident —what about it? They can all hang on the vine for all I care. Even with butter a radish is not so much. But it isn't a good thing for an energetic man to allow himself to lapse into complete idleness even for a little while. It rets the character. I’d hate to coms back from my vacation to find myself the sort of person who says, "Well, that can be done just as well tomorrow.” Regularity is the trick, and then you don’t even realize how hard you are working. Accordingly it will be part of my plan to try to duplicate the regular regimen of a columnist ’way out there on the lonely two-acre plot north of Stamford. It isn't a good thing to let the wilderness get you. I don't want anybody to mistake me for a member of the Royal Mounted after I have spent two weeks in roughing it. a tt tt Not Too Much Health PROPER care will be maintained not to become too aggressively healthy. The front door has been fixed up with a little slot window arrangement, and I'm not allowed in until I show a membership card or explain that I'm a friend of Charlie Duckworth’s. An acquaintance kindly has promised to drop in along about 2 o’clock each morning and to sit in the corner and sing “Sweet Adaline" in an intoxicated manner. This will serve to remind me that the life of the big city still is going on and to familiarize me with local conditions. From a strictly newspaper point of view, I can console myself with one thing. Not much change is go-
lost by the body and, as a result, the temperature rises. Ordinarily there is a balance between the amount of activity carried on by the kidneys and by the skin. When large amounts of water are being lost through the skin, such as occurs during exercise, the kidneys become relatively inactive. When the exercise stops, the balance in the temperature, is reestablished at a lower level, the pressure falls and the circulation is sluggish until sufficient time elapses for a re-establishment between the blood pressure at the time of the heart beat and after the heart beat. During this period acids accumulate in the cells of the kidney: then when circulation is restored to normal, the albumin escapes. Apparently, therefore, exercise does produce extraordinary conditions in the kidney and is, therefore, especially harmful to people whose kidneys are not up to standard and consequently unable to bear excess strain or changed conditions.
Ideals and opinion* expressed in this column are those ot one of America’s most interesting writers and are presented without regard to their agreement or disagreement with the editorial attitude of this paper.—The Editor.
ing to take place in the political situation during my absence. The speeches of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Herbert Hoover will not be altered appreciably by anybody’s two weeks’ layoff. Mr. Hoover’s speeches have remained the same during layoffs much longer than that. A columnist can go away and return to find the old machine’s still missing on the same old cylinders. p tt a Just for Memory OUT the one troublesome thing -U is that columnists are so easily forgotten. I can come back and find everything just about as I left it. But will the stay-at-homes remember me? When the vacation period was arranged the managing editor said to me with a great show of hearty cheerfulness: “Now, you go and take a good rest and don’t worry about anything. I’ve found a swell substitute to fill in for you ” Naturally i blanched and answered: "A swell substitute! What do you mean 'Don’t worry’? Who's going to do the column?" ‘•Have a good vacation and don’t worry, Hey wood.’’ was the reply. 'Coovrisht. 1932. bv The Times i
Questions and Answers
How much agricultural land has the United States, and how much of it is cultivated for crops or pasture? In 1930 there was 986,771.000 acres of farm land, of which about 464,155,000 acres were pasture, 64,624.000 woodland not pasture; 44,575,000 other land, and about 413,237,000 acres were crop land. How is artificial honey made? Boil white sugar and water until thick, and adding a little real honey and a few drops of peppermint when cool. Please quote the verse entitled “My Garden,” by Thomas E. Brown? “Mv earden is a lovesome thins—Got wot Rose dot. fnnaed pool, fern Brot The veriest school Os Deace: and vet the fool ■Contends that God is not. Not God in sardens? When the sun is cool? Nav but X have a sisn 'Tis verv sure God walks in mine.'* Are the heads of governments of the states of India elected or appointed? They are appointed by the British king. Can the President of the United States pardon persons convicted under state laws? His pardoning power extends only to persons convicted in federal courts, and those convicted under state laws can be pardoned by the Governor of the state. / ■ . Where did Andrew Jackson live when he was elected President of the United States? Nashville, Tenn.
JULY If), 1932
sciencel BY DAVID DIETZ 1
Cracking Process Brings Vast Saving in Petroleum Deposits. AMERICAN oil companies are spending $5,000,000 annually in research work to improve and extend the "cracking” process, accordig to Dr. Gustav Egloff, research chemist of the Universal Oil Prodi ucts Company of Chicago. Dr. Egloff is one of a group o! eminent chemists who will take part m the meeting of the petroleum division of the American Chemical Society when the society holds iu annual session in Denver from Aug. 22 to 26. The cracking process not only has resulted in a vast saving of petroleum deposits, extending many time3 the potential life of the world's oil supply, but it also has made possible the designing and building of better automobile engines than were possible in the past. Dr. Egloff predicts that superior engines will be built in the future as the result of improvements in the cracking process, which will yield a superior fuel supply. Had it not been for development of the cracking process, Dr. Egloff believes, automobile designing would have come to a standstill many years ago. m m a Heavy Oil Cracked CRUDE oil, as it comes from the ground, is a complex mixture of many components, some light and some heavy. Gasoline was manufactured originally by a process of distillation which separated the lighter components from the heavy. The light components constitute gasoline. The cracking process does just what its name suggests. It cracks the heavy components of the petroleum. splitting them up and makink light components out of them. Consequently, it conserves the petroleum supply by making it passible to get more gasoline out of a given amount of crude oil. But cracking, which is accomplished with the aid of high pressure and high temperature, does more than merely furnish more gasoline. "Cracking makes an entirely different kind of gasoline from that ! existing naturally in the crude oil,’' Dr. .Egloff says. “The production of cracked gasoi line on a large scale made it possible for automobile engineers to realize the improvements they had dreamed. “The improvement of engines still is going on and so is the development of the cracking process. Today, the average combustion pressure of automobile engines is far higher than it was a few years ago, and their satisfactory operation depends upon the use of anti-knock gasoline.” tt H u Production Increased THE demand for cracked gasoline is on the increase, accord- ; ing to Dr. Egloff, and as a result ; its production is on the increase, Vhile the production of straightrun gasoline is falling off. “Last year in this country cracked gasoline production totaled 176,000,000 barrels, 40.8 per cent of the total supply of motor fuel.” he says. “Straight-run gasoline has dropped from 66 to 50.9 per cent of the total gasoline in 1925, compared to the present time, while cracked gasoline has increased from 26.4 to 41.7 per cent. "Present day cracking units convert any oil-fuel oil, copped crudp, gas oil, kerosene, naphtha, straightrun gasoline, or crude oil itself. "They have a capacity of 750 to 5,000 barrels or more a day, and deliver 50 to 75 per cent of gasoline of high anti-knock value. "This improvement has come about through research, which has gone on steadily since cracking first became a significant factor in gasoline production, and continues today. "Besides investigation of the cracking operation itself, this includes research in treating, furnace design, fractionation, corrosion resistance, and metallurgy and fabrication of tubes and reaction vessels. “The total investment in cracking equipment and accessories is estimated at $400,000,000. "The units have a capacity of nearly two million barrels of charging stock a day. in the entire oil industry $12,000,000,000 is invested.”
m TODAY MS ' WORLD WAR \ ANNIVERSARY
17,000 PRISONERS TAKEN July 19 ON July 19, 1918, American and French forces continued their dsive between the Aisne and Marne rivers with great success. They announced that more than 17.000 German prisoners had been taken and that 360 heavy guns had been captured. German newspapers admitted the seriousness of the defeat suffered only three days after the beginning of what began as a major German offensive effort. French troops also made important gains near Rheims, and British forces stormed Meteran after a day of hard fighting. The most significant factor in the week’s fighting was that the Germans were everywhere on the defensive, for the first time since the beginning of the year.
Your Questions Answered You can get an answer to any answerable question of fact or information by writing to Frederick M. Kerby, Question Editor, Indianapolis Times Washington Bureau, 1322 New York avenue, Washington, enclosing 3 cents in coin or postage stamps for reply. Medical and legal advice can not be given, nor can extended research be made. All other questions will receive a personal reply. All letters are confidential. You are cordially invited to make use of this free service as often as you please. Let our Washington Bureau help with your problems.