Indianapolis Times, Volume 47, Number 298, Indianapolis, Marion County, 21 February 1936 — Page 20

PAGE 20

The Indianapolis Times (A SCRI PI’S-HOWARD NEW SPAPER) rot tv. Howard I'midtnt LUDWELL DEN NT Editor F.ARL D. BAKER BasineM Mannger

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FRIDAY. FEBRUARY 31, 1938. 1920 AND 1936 THE 1936 election race doesn't open officially until March 10, when the first presidential primaries take place, but politics-loving America is already certain of the most spirited show it has seen in 16 years. Not since 1920 has the G. O. P staged a free-for-all preconvention fight, like the one now under way. All that year's tricks are being rehearsed and a few added attractions beside. Nowhere, in the primary skirmishes of 1920, did any engagements take place as signifleent as the Illinois and Ohio primaries of 1936 promise to be. Left-wing Borah and Right-wing Knox will do battle in those two states with their large blocs of convention delegates, and Landcn may get into the fight as well. In 1920 the issue was not so clearly presented in any of the large states. Gen. Leonard Wood fought with Gov. Frank O. Lowden for Illinois but Hiram Johnson, the other leading contender, did not get into the Illinois race. Ohio Republicans put forward Warren G. Harding as a “favorite son," and only Wood challenged him in Ohio. Voters of only five states had an opportunity to pass on all three leading contenders. The states were Indiana, Michigan, Montana, Oregon and South Dakota, the last three relatively unimportant politically. When the smoke of that primary battle cleared, Senator Johnson had carried six states with 100 delegates, Wood had five states with 92 delegates, and Lowden had one state, Illinois, with 58. Johnson’s strength was all in the West. Wood's in the East. Senators Sutherland of West Virginia, Harding of Ohio and La Follette of Wisconsin and Gov. Sproul of Pennsylvania had the delegations of their states. This year, the Illinois and Ohio primaries probably will be fought twice as bitterly as they were even in that bitter year. For if Borah should carry them, with the strength he is certain to have in the West, he would have a much longer start toward the nomination than any candidate had when the 1920 convention opened. Victory by Borah in Illinois would virtually eliminate Knox from the race. No republican convention has ever nominated a man unable to carry his own state ir a preconvention fight. More important still, it Would virtually eliminate Herbert Hoover, whose views are represented by Knox more closely than any other candidate in the race. A Borah success in Ohio would have much the same effect on the Hoover prestige. Conservative Republican leaders, seeking an uninstructed delegation from Ohio, have been planning, it is believed, to swing at the proper time, either to Hoover or his political heir. And a Borah victory in California, where he may decide to enter the primary, would be a final blow to ’Hoover aspirations.

ITALY BUYS REAL ESTATE TTAL.Y had paid $442,000,000 thus far for her Ethiopian invasion. And what does she have to show for this vast expenditure? In the North, the Italians hold a strip of territory 100 miles deep and 60 miles wide consisting of barren and uninhabited mountains The best real estate salesman would have a hard time even giving this land away. In the South, the Italian armies have advanced 250 miles up a tropical river valley infested by reptiles and reeking with malaria and other diseases. The climate is so hot that even the Ethiopians can’t colonize the valley. In the East, the Italians hold a tiny strip of land around the foot of Mount Mussi Ali, near the French Somaliland border. It is desert country and temperatures up to 160 degrees are not uncommon. A few months ago, II Duce turned down a compromise proposal that would have given Italy strips of the Danakil and Ogaden deserts in the North and South of Ethiopia. “Does the League think I am a collector of deserts?’’ Italy’s dictator asked indignantly. Mussolini might better have accepted the League's offer. Hus armies have been fighting for four and a half months; he has spent $442,000,000; he has sacrificed the lives of many Italian youths, and all he has to show for it is three little strips of territory as worthless as the deserts he so angrily spurned. GEN. MITCHELL TF CONGRESS had passed the now pending “Military Disaffection Bill” during his life, Gen. William Mitchell probably would have died in prison. For no American so bitterly criticised the Army air service as did this war hero. But. having been court-martialed, convicted of conduct prejudicial to military discipline and suspended, Gen. Mitchell continued to berate the Army and Navy, exercising a civilian's right of free speech—a right which some lawmakers would now abridge. Gen. Mitchell's war service was without blemish. His peace service can not be regarded as any less patriotic. When the war stopped he kept on fighting. He believed that we were spending too much on battleships, not enough in the development of air service. He foretold so much of aviation's future that to many he seemed to be gifted with prophetic vision. He had an unruly tongue, but so did Samuel Adams, Thomas Paine, Patrick Henry and others who came to be revered by later generations for the fights they made. . OF COURSE HE DID IT rjITCHER WALTER JOHNSON shows himself a hardy son of the diamond by offering to throw a silver dollar across the Rappahannock, just as George Washington is reputed to have done. And Congressman Sol Bloom, who has press-agented the immortal George for so many years that he thinks he looks like him. bets 20 to 1 that Johnson can’t do It. It's 1500 feet across, says Sol. and anyway it’s all a myth, because George was only 10 years old at the time. They're both wrong, for they're tinkering with something stronger than a fact, and that’s a tradition. Like Parson Weems’ cherry-tree story the dol-iar-tossing feat has outlived all its belittlers and higher critics. A man named W. M. Evarts once explained it to Lord Coreridge by saying that a dollar went farther in George s day. others who argue thal . * .... . * ( .. . ..

the Rappahannock Is little bigger than ft creek will find the Washington champions willing to take the matter to the Supreme Court and have it declared a navigable river. •. In fact, most Americans are convinced that George's great right arm tossed the dollar across the broad Potomac from his Mount Vernon porch. And everybody knows that a man who could throw a sovereign back across the Atlantic could throw a dollar as far as he wanted. “There's one thing certain,” the baseballer boasts. “If George Washington did it, I can.” Whether Walter does it or not, it won't count. We can devalue a dollar, but not a Washington tradition. r A SEAMEN’S LABOR BOARD /CREATION of a National Maritime Labor Board, similar to the board created a decade ago under the Railroad Labor Act to Taring peace to rail labor relations, is under consideration by the White House. This move might be an answer to troubled labor conditions, in ports of the Pacific and Gulf coasts and New York City. The Railroad Labor Act of 1926 provides an orderly procedure for the investigation and arbitration of rail labor disputes. Since that act was passed there has been no big railroad strike even though the railroads have passed through their worst crisis. On the other hand there has been turmoil on the waterfronts for years, climaxed in 1934 by the San Francisco general strike. Representatives of the Seamen’s Union asked the Administration in 1934 to back a bill creating a Nat'or.al Maritime Board. Failure of the NRA shipping code gave impetus to the movement. Senator Johnson IR., Cal.) introduced a resolution asking the Postmaster General and Secretaries of Commerce and Labor to take steps toward such a board. Maritime and waterfront employes come under the National Labor Relations Board, but the special problems involved in this field are cited by advocates of special machinery similar to that in the railroad industry. Such an act would affect some 150,000 workers. 7 Similar boards have been operating in England and Japan for years. There seems to be no good reason why the United States should lag behind any longer.

AN UNTAPPED MARKET SHARP increases in lumber and brick prices in the last six weeks are complicating plans of the Federal government ror attempting to stimulate the building industry. Engineering News-Record reports construction costs now at 201.2 per cent of the 1913 average. In s January the figure was 199.5 per cent and in December 194.9 per cent. Wholesale lumber prices have gone up twice in six weeks, and in the East bricks are up $1 a tnousand. Government officials have become increasingly aware in recent months that no substantial gain in residential housing can take place until costs are low enough to enable low-income families to build or buy or rent decent homes. According to latest statistics on income of American families, 75 out of 100 can not afford to live in houses costing more than S3OOO. About 40 out of every 100 can not afford to live in houses costing more than SISOO. This market remains untapped, despite FHA’s efforts to lower the cost of home financing. According to Stewart McDonald, FHA administrator, the average mortgage accepted by FHA is for a principal amount of $4030, which represents 70 per cent of the valuation of the property. On this basis, the average home financed by FHA costs $5757. Since it was organized, FHA has insured new construction and modernization loans totaling only $540,080,202. Its authority to insure modernization loans expires March 31 and business and financial interests are dixuded as to whether it should be renewed. This is one of the points yet to be settled in framing housing legislation for consideration at this session of Congress.

A WOMAN’S VIEWPOINT By Mrs. Walter Ferguson “T TOMELESS humans are treated far less mercifully by the City of New York than homeless animals,” says a Manhattan judge. What is true of Nev York is true of every city in the land. Man’s concern for four-legged beasts, especially dogs, brings into sharp relief his often cruel unconcern about his own kind. Do you remember the scene in the moving picture “A Tale of Two Cities” when meat was hauled through Paris streets between long lines of famished men, women and children, to be thrown to the dogs of aristocrats? It was a dreadful thing to see. But almost as dreadful was the story, read not long ago, of an American woman, popular, famous, beloved, who gives each day to hundreds of stray dogs one good meal and a clean kennel for rest. Her constitutional right to do this is undeniable. But speaking in'the broader terms of humanity, she has no such right unless she can say that one good meal a day has been provided for the same number of hungry children. Not to feed the poor is bad enough, but to consider them not important enough to feed is the sharpest pang in their long process of starvation. For man wants some evidence of his value to the social scheme, to keep his head up and his heart alive. After all is said, it is not the food we give dogs which makes the subject a vital one. It is the love we lavish upon them and which we so often withhold from our own kind. The eyes of stray children accuse us on that score—children who hunger as much for crumbs of attention as they do for crumbs of bread—who are starved for caresses and who need the power of affection to make them whole and happy. FROM THE RECORD SENATOR BYRNES (D., S. C.): What would be the effect upon the farmer if we .should adopt both of these plans? Would the Senator withdraw acres from cultivation in order to comply with the soil-conservation features of the bill and thereby receive the benefits, or would he plant all his acres in cotton in orde to get the benefit of the 4 cents per pound? Senator Smith (D., S. C.): My colleague has put his finger right on the exact contradiction in the two proposals. One of them is to encourage me to grow all I can so as to get the 4 cents plus whatever the other price is, and the other is to cut down production to the point where automatically the price would rise and be beneficial. Senator Byrnes: How would the farmer know which would be beneficial’, to increase or to decrease? Senator Smith: I think he would be in the fix of the man who tried to decide the question of predestination : I can and I can't; I will and I won’t; I'm damned if I do, And I'm damned if I don't (Laughter.) i

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

Squaring the Circle With THE HOOSIER EDITOR

'-5''HE furnace goes out and the car J. won’t start. The milk is frozen ar.d it’s hard to get to the grocery. The sidewalks are slippery and downtown shopping is difficult. That’s a cold wave—the longest of i record in Indianapolis. Taxi drivers will tell you that alI most every fare they get spends his | time in the car crabbing at the weather and asking the driver when |he thinks it will end. Most of them don’t know. The weather bureau has calls at the rate of 300 an hour, all complaining bitterly. When every one begins to hope, on a comparatively warm sunny day, that the wave is over and subzero weather is ended — that dull noise they hear is the mercury hitting bottom again. Pull up closer to the fire and hear about another angle of the cold wave—one that is taken directly from the records of the Community Fund. No more than so much print to you, it may give you a feeling of snugness you hadn’t had before. tt tt u THIS is the way one agency supported in part by the Community Fund spent SIOO during the bitter cold spell. Here is the report as it was written in the Community Fund office: More coal was given to a family where the father was just brought home from the hospital and the mother was caring for a young baby. A widow, dying with cancer, who has two young children, was given an extra ton of coal. Another woman suffering with cancer and trying to care for five young children on her husband’s WPA salary of $7 a week was given an additional ton of coal. A suit of warm underwear, a’ couple of warm dresses and half a ton of coal, over and above the regular allowances, were given to a mother of a young child whose husband is unemployed. A warm, fleece-lined coat was given to a father of eight, who was working on an outside PWA project inadequately clad. A sweater was given to a 4-year-old just recovering from scarlet fever. u ANOTHER sick mother of eight, whose husband’s salary is inadequate, was given a ton of coal she otherwise would not have had. An unemployed cripple and two children were given coal. A mother of nine, worried over their condition, was given coal. A 12-year-old boy, who appeared almost frozen at. school in a previous cold spell and had to be sent to the hospital to be cared for, was given warm underwear, gloves, a heavy sweater, shirts and wool stockings. His family had refused aid previously because .of pride. A mother of seven, deserted by her husband, was given coal over and above her allowance, which appeared to be inadequate. The family of an unemployed father, where a sick baby was the most pressing problem, was given more coal. The balance on a “lay away” pair of wool-lined trousers for a father of seven working outside on a Federal project was paid. A widow with seven children, whose oldest is working on a Federal project as the family’s only support, was given a quantity of coal. A warm sweater was given to a high school boy who needed it. tt tt tt THERE you are. An itemized account of the spending of SIOO. The money was made available during the bitterest weather, and the organization went about spending it With a talent that the record shows. This has been a draining winter on the resources of relief agencies. There have been many more calls for coal than usual. There has been less coal. There have been more calls for clothing, and there have been no more funds than in other years. Occasionally someone gives some extra money to this or that agency. Mostly they do it anonymously. The money is promptly spent. nan FOR the homeless,, or for the indigent, extreme* cold weather has only a meager compensation. There is the circumstance that railroads need men for simple but necessary duties occasioned by snow. Out goes the call and in come the men, some of them so obviously weakened that they don’t even have strength to sweep snow from tracks in cold weather. They can’t be used. Some of them have worn-out shoes. Their feet are wrapped in burlap, and their ears are covered with mufflers and their hands encased in company gloves and they are sent out. They work, maybe 15 minutes, and then seek shelter and food in a leanto portable set up along the open track. They get paid something for this—often the first wages they’ve earned in weeks or maybe months. It just barely is a break for them.

TODAY’S SCIENCE -BY SCIENCE SERVICE-

NEW YORK, Feb. 21. —While parlor pinks and some of the literati are devoting considerable talk, loose and otherwise, to the possibility of revolution, a museum has just been opened here to celebrate a revolution that already is in progress. It is the biggest revolution in history—the world-wide revolution which is being brought about by the application of science t? industry. The museum :s the New’ York Museum of Science and Industry | which threw’ open its doors in the ; RCA Building of Rockefeller Center | last week. Its function is to take the layman 1 behind the scenes of the scientific and industrial laboratories and to ! show him the way in which whitejacketed experts a.*e making bigger changes in his lire than the world ever has seen. Experts of the General Electric laboratories recently perfected a new electric switch, which is on lsplay. No larger than a marble, it is noiseless and has no moving parts to wear out. B. F. Goodrich Cos. has contributed an exhibit to show the industrial magic that went into making a rubber ball. ,

The Hoosier Forum I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. — Voltaire.

(Times realert are Invited to express their views in these columns, relitjious controversies excluded. Make vour letters short, so all can have a chance. Limit them to S5 0 words or less. Your letter must be sianed, but names will be withheld on reauest.l tt tt tt REBUKES CRITICS OF GUARDSMEN By Dock In answer to two letters appearing in your paper calling the Indiana National Guard Gov. McNutt’s “tin soldiers,” write* s are hereby informed that the National Guardsmen rank as high as any regular soldier. I live in' Indianapolis and have served a number of years as a law-enforcing officer. I find that those serving as guardsmen are clean young fellows far above the average in ability to do things and are looked up to in their community as men wanting peace. As for being strike breakers, I want to discourage any one thinking in that line. I find that a majority of the boys are employed in union shops and are very much in sympathy with union labor. Now for the benefit of the critics, these boys are officers. They have no use for thugs, hijacl%ers and thieves and the kind of sympathizers that are willing to stand in the dark and break out window lights, maim or kill people, destroy personal property and have the blame laid on some man who disagrees with his employers and strikes f for more wages. tt tt tt MARINES ALWAYS LAND, HE ASSERTS. By Arthur A. Smith Evidently some reporter thought he was using his wits when he put

Watch Your Health

BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN IF you are seriously underweight, you should eat food containing 4000 to 5000 calories each day. The carbohydrate or sugar content of such a diet should represent about 2000 calories; proteins, approximately 120 grams. Chief weight-building substances in the diet are milk, cream, butter, bacon, breads, and vegetables which Dffer plenty of calories, such as peas, lima beans, rice, macaroni and spaghetti. In addition, foods especially rich in carbohydrates, such as malted milk, dry milk, and olive oil, may prove helpful. Regular meals may be supplemented by extra, food eaten at 10:30 a. m. and 4 and 9:30 p. m. Foods with high water or roughage content should, of course, be omitted or used sparingly. These include such products as asparagus, bouillon, cauliflower, cucumbers, sauerkraut, tomatoes, radishes, celery, wax beans, beets, carrots, parsnips, lettuce, onions, pumpkin, turnips and squash. n * n HERE is a menu that will be of value in helping you to gain weight: Breakfast Chilled grapefruit with honey or grenadine: farina with dates or raisins, cream and sugar; jelly omelet; fatty bacon; toast and jam; coffee with cream, sugar. Luncheon Tomatoes stuffed with minced lamb; baked spaghetti with cheese;

IF YOU CAN’T ANSWER, ASK THE TIMES!

Inclose a 3-cent stamp for reply when addressing any question of fact or information te The Indianapolis Time* Washington Service Bureau, 1013 13th- i st. N. W.. Washington, D. C. Legal and medical advice can not be riren, nor can extended research be undertaken. Q —ln card games, what is the pone? A—The player on the dealer's right who cuts the cards. Q—Who is the American Consul in Moscow, Russia? A—Angus L Ward. Q —When and where was President Garfield shot? A—Saturday, July 2, 1881, in the j station of the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad at 6th and B-sts, N. W., Washington, D. C. Q—What waa the population olj

BELLING THE CAT

as a heading to an article “Marines Fail to Land With Park Drill Plan.” I believe the article was intended to poke fun at something he knew little about. Whoever heard of a Marine not landing, dead or alive? I’m sure this group of fine young men are not panty-waists. It is a fact that the entire Old World is trying to start a war and only a spark is needed to set it off. We are not going to take any part in any European quarrel, so we say, but we did about 20 years ago when we said the same thing. How do we know if the Marines will or won’t have to land if invasion should knock at our front door? Therefore, I think the Marines should have the fullest co-opera-tion of every American citizen and respect for their record second to none. __ I think that Indianapolis should be proud to have a Marine Reserve. Taxes wouldn’t be enough to notice. Why not send that reporter around some Thursday night when we have drill and meet a company of real Marines and then see if the Marines don’t land? • n tt n M’NU.TT TAX RECORD IS DEFENDED By David Goldman From time to time, various critics of the current state administration have attacked its record with respect to property taxes, as against previous records of other Governors. The figures which I am quoting below were taken from the public records, and should prove enlightening to such critics. For the basis of camparison, I shall use the record of Gov. Leslie’s administration

jellied vegetable salad, French or Russian dressing; melba toast; fruit, cake or fruit pie; hot chocolate. Dinner Cream of tomato soup, cheese crackers; broiled tenderloin steak; baked potato balls rolled in parsley and butter; buttered parsnips; buttered lima beans; hard rolls, butter; cream tapioca with dates; coffee with cream, sugar. ft ft H ANOTHER good weight-building menu: Breakfast Bananas and cream; cooked cereal with cream, honey or sugar; French toast, maple syrup; hot chocolate. Luncheon Baked ham with sauteed pineapple rings; scalloped asparagus; bread, butter; jellied dates with hard sauce; milk. Dinner Barley vegetable soup; broiled mackerel, or halibut steak with egg sauce; creamed celery; baked potato with butter; baked cauliflower with cheese; tomato or vegetable salad with mayonnaise; gluten bread and butter, cottage pudding with hot lemon sauce, or caramel custard pudding; coffee with cream, sugar. The person who wants to gain weight will, of course, indulge moderately in exercise, such as walking and golf, but avoid exhausting or strenuous exercise. Persons who wish to gain weight may omit extra water between meals. Foods taken probably will supply necessary water.

the Roman Empire under the Emperor Claudius? A—lt was estimated at 6,944,000. Q —Who is the author of the novel “One Man?'* A—There are two novels with that title; one by Mrs. Flora L. S. Aldrich, published in 1910, and the other by Robert Steele, published in 1915. Q —How is masseuse pronounced? A—Mas'-soos. Q—What country leads in the production of silk? A—Japan. Q —Do Canadians become American citizens by serving in the armed forces of the United States in war?, A—-No. f

as against Gov. McNutt’s regime, of property taxes payable: Gov. Leslie 1929 $143,848,853 1930 150.470,853 J 931 145,647,092 1932 140,069,591 Total for 4 years $580,036,071 , Average for 4 years ... 145,009,017 Gov. McNutt 1933 $ 98.165,109 J? 34 99,199.421 *1935 91,370.855 1936 96,279.674 Total for 4 years $385,015,059 Average for 4 years 36,253,765 One can easily see that these figures represent the efforts exercised by the present administn tion to alleviate the burden of the homeowner. over the four-year period, this decrease in property taxes amounted to 33.62 per cent. Further, a perusal of the records of Govs. McCray. Branch and Jackson will reveal that little or no effort was made to reduce property taxes. Thus, it can be seen that Gov. McNutt did carry out the principles of the Democratic platform, and relieve the property owner by a substantial reduction of property taxes. Granted that there is an increase of approximately $5,000,000 for 1936 over 1935. Nevertheless, this figure of $96,279,674 is 36.01 per cent or $54,191,179 below the high figure of $150,470,853 reached in 1930. If these fault-finders had inspected the public records, I feel sure that they would have withheld their criticism. GOOD-BY By VIRGINIA KIDWELL The pain is not in parting, for within That moment of high tension is relief; It is the aftermath when I begin The old routine without you, then comes grief. It’s not the murmuring the word good-by That clouds my world and tears my heart in two; It’s afterward when I’m alone that I Ache through my soul for sight or sound of you. Yet don’t return for well I know that I Could never give again that calm good-by. DAILY^THOUGHT Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein.—St. Luke, xviii, 17. NOTHING sets a person so much out of the devil’s reach as humility.—Jonathan Edwards.

SIDE GLANCES

||| • ; eIW BY NEA SCRVICC, INC. TANARUS, M. >EC. U. 8. PAT. OFf. ' |

“Everything I put in this lunch pail I maan for you, so don’t go swapping with the other men and come home with' a stomach ache.” i

FEB. 21/193(5

Vagabond from Indiana ERNIE PYLE

Newport news, va., Feb. 21. The trouble with Ellis Edmunds is that he doesn't get the same locomotive every night. If he had his own locomotive all the time, he could do much better than he does. But he does pretty well at that. Mr. Edmunds is known all over this part of Virginia for his ability to play tunes with a locomotive whistle. He puffs along between Newport News and Richmond, playing “Auld Lang Syne” at one crossing and “Lead Kindly Light” at the next, and practicing in between crossings on “The Old Spinning Wheel.” He almost drives people crazy. “If I had my own engine all the time, I could get the whistle just right, and could keep in practice,” Mr. Edmunds says. “But we work out of a pool, and may have a different engine every night. Once in a while the whistle will be just right, but sometimes you get a whistle the devil himself couldn’t play a tune on." a tt a MR. EDMUNDS has been a railroader all his life. He was born at Wytheviffe, in southwestern Virginia, and started firing on the railroad when he was 17. That was 33 years ago. He's been an engineer for 26 years. He works for the C. & O. In the summer be throttles the "potato” train between here and Richmond. Every night a whole train load of nothing but potatoes. He was smashed up in a wreck in 1912. His engine was standing still, and he was out oiling it when another one came along, jumped the track, and smacked into him. Mr. Edmunds has been playing tunes with the whistle ever since he can remember. It isn't as easy as it sounds, either- Takes a lot of practice to do it right, and most engineers can’t do it at all. Or maybe they don’t want to. He’s so good that for the last three years the city fathers of Newport News have had him get an engine out in the yards and play tunes on New Year’s Eve, at midnight. You could hear it a mile, and the whole city listened. tt tt tt MR. EDMUNDS, unfortunately, has the habit of practicing his art at night, and when he’s going through town. A lot of people can't appreciate it. He’s always getting stern typewritten memos from the company, saying they’ve had some more complaints, and if he doesn’t cut it out they’re going to fire him. So he lays off till the fuss blows over, and then starts playing again. Once in a while he gets a fan letter. Once, several years ago, he was steaming through a Virginia village on a Sunday night, playing "In the Sweet Bye and Bye.” He heard la teg that the preacher in the church stopped the choir, and they all listened till the engine was out of hearing. Mr. Edmunds has a natural ear for music. Plays the piano, and doesn’t know one note from another. Also plays the French harp like nobody’s business, and says he’s nob bad on the Hawaiian guitar. He’s crazy about poetry, too. Has a trunk full of poems clipped out of newspapers and magazines. Some of them about railroading, some of them heavy stuff. He can’t write poetry, though. tt it tt HE doesn’t look like either a musician or a poetry lover. He’s big and pretty heavy, and has big hands and is bald and wears glasses. The day I was there he was fixing the motor on his mother’s washing machine. He is married and has two grown boys, one of them in college studying chemical engineering. He keeps a home in Richmond, but at the moment he's living on this end of the line with his aging mother. Firemen don’t mind Engineer Edmunds playing with the whistle, he says. In fact, most of them like it. They’ll say: “Come on now, you haven’t played for a long time. Let’s have a tune. ’ His standbys are “The Old Oaken Bucket,” “Sweet Bye and Bye,” "Auld -Lang Syne” and “Missouri Waltz.” I forgot to ask him if he plays “The Wreck of the Old 97.” He can't do much with jazz music. The most recent piece he has touched is “The Old Spinning Wheel.” He played that for me on the harmonica, too. He can really make it hop on the harmonica.

By George Clark