Indianapolis Times, Volume 48, Number 46, Indianapolis, Marion County, 4 May 1936 — Page 13

ft Seems to Me HEM.WN YORK, May 4.—Sooner or later the voters will want to know whether Alf M. Landon is cagy or just caged. The evidence seems to show that the “Kansas Coolidge” is a captive canary. Arthur Krock in the New York Times tell* of a slight misunderstanding which arose in regard to the California primaries. Ed Shattuck, at that time president of the California Assembly,

urged Landon not to allow his name to be entered in the primaries. After much toil and trouble the California emissary got the Governor on the wire and was informed that he could not “fly in the face of persons who had expressed friendliness for him.” These were not persons unknown, since Landon’s fortunes in California are being handled by the newly formed HearstMerriam coalition. Shattuck made doleful rejoinder that “he was flying in our faces and that it was purely a question of whose face he was going to fly into.”

Hey wood Broun

But that was where Ed Shattuck made his little mistake. Alf M. Landon will fly in the face of no one because Alf M. Landon can’t fly unless Mr. Hearst chooses to open the door of the cage. an tt Not the “Kansan Coolidge” IT is true that Alf has done some feeble and furtive fluttering against the bars, but this has all been off the record. It is less than accurate to call Landon the “Kansas Coolidge.’’ Cal had only one official spokesman, while Alf has none and offers instead an army of interpreters all operating without badge or license. You can hear anything you want about Landon by listening to the confidential reports of his friends. But it was a man actually and beyond question close to the Republican aspirant who talked freely and off the record about the relationship between the publisher and the politician. “Os course, Landon is embarrassed by Hearst’s support,” he said. “It worries him a lot, but what can anybody expect him to do? Certainly he can’t order people not to support him. His first job is to get nominated and his second Job is to be elected. Until that work is done he isn’t going to thiow votes away.” It sounds to me like a dangerous doctrine. To my mind Mi. Hearst does not figure in this campaign as a personality. He just happens to be the majo’. issue. In all fairness to the publisher he is the only man in the Republican party who has been utterly frank in his anti-labor attitude and for that matter in this entire conservative platform. Possibly it is a little inaccurate to describe Hearst as being “in the Republican party.” The other way around might express it much better. After all, there was no Republican candidate until Hearst dug one up and hardly a party until he took it over. I would not call Chairman Fletcher and a little group of mournful men a party. a a a Asa Candidate, He's Timid ■fETTW have, then, a candidate too timid to take a * * stand on a major issue because he fears that if he expressed himself he might lose the opportunity to gain a very doubtful honor. Does that argue that he will be forthright once the Cleveland convention has given him the accolade of its approval? And, indulging in fantasy, does Landon up to date seem to be the kind of fighter who would approach national problems without political tremors if he were in the White House? It may be true he has expressed to friends a lack of enthusiasm for Mr. Hearst, but, after all, he is in the position of a man clinging to a parachute and saying, “I could get along a good deal faster without this umbrella.” However, I like the birdcage analogy better, and I am prepared to give Alf M. Landon the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps he is just as good as his friends say, and sooner or later he may pick the lock on the door with his beak and fly away into the free blue heaven. But I’m afraid that isn’t good enough. I don't think it would be fair to Mr. Hearst. I do not want to seem unduly a partisan of the publisher's, but I must admit that if Landon attempts at this late date to make a break it would be base ingratitude. At the very least the Republican party should pay for the cage and the upkeep. (Copyright, 1936) Landon Porch Fits Into G. O. P. Scene BY RAYMOND CLAPPER TOPEKA. Kas., May 4.—Gov. Landon has a big old-fashioned front porch here, looking out over a wide, shady lawn and hitched to a rambling “gay nineties” mansion. It is so typically Republican that it might have been Warren Harding’s old place moved over from Marion, O. After one look at it, you know Landon will be nominated because it has never failed yet that when a man wanted to be the Republican presidential candidate, if he planted himself on the front porch of a place exactly like this, kept his mouth shut, and sat there like McKinley or Harding, eventually a committee of gentlemen in plug hats would march up the front walk to notify him that he was it. However, Landon is not figuring upon continuing the front porch campaign much beyond the convention. After notification ceremonies in Topeka a few weeks later, he will take to the road. Since he became considered a possible candidate he has made only one speech outside of Kansas and hasn t been father east than Cleveland. Os course, between speaking excursions Landon will be found in his Topeka rocking chair doing his stuff in the good old-fashioned way. The mansion belongs to the state, but that slight taint of socialistic public ownership will be overlooked under the circumstances and the state in turn will offer no objection to Landon's using it a:> his main campaign exhibition hall provided he makes good the damage done by Republican souvenir hunters who believe in the old law of tooth and claw. Landon is finding increasing complications in trying to live in his ordinary way. For instance, a visiting Journalist arriving in Topeka on a Saturday, spent the evening with the Governor and wanted to come back Sunday morning for a further talk. Landon said he made it a rule not to give up his Sundays, but would be glad to see him Monday. The Journalist felt he was not being shown proper attention and sent his paper a somewhat acid report on the Governor. a a a A FEW weeks later another journalist appeared in town on a Sunday. He was anxious to leave that night, so Landon, remembering the previous experience, invited the reporter to corne over that afternoon. Following the Kansas custom he asked his visitor to stay for Sunday night supper. They don’t work the help on Sunday nights in Topeka, not even in the Governor's house, so the natural thing happened. Landon took his visitor out to the kitchen, they poked around the ice box, got out some cold meat, and had a snack. The same thing was going on in several other million homes that Sunday night. The very fact that it was such a typical household episode caused the reporter to describe it in his dispatches. Immediately Landon was accused of grandstanding. The most remarkable novelty here, except for the noisiest flat-wheel in the country, which is on the Topeka street car that screeches and bangs down Kansas-av on the first trip at 5 a. m. each morning, is the SO-foot cord on Landon’s downstairs telephone at home. No matter what part of the house Landon is in, the maid who answers the phone brings it to him, sometimes at the dining table, sometimes in his study or out in the living room. She can even run out on the front driveway with it and catch him M he U getting into his car, ts

LIVING IN A HOUSE ON WHEELS a a a ana nan a a a a a a They're Here to Stay, Those Modern Covered Wagons

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The Time* presents herewith the first of a series ,of articles by a former member of The Times staff, now tourin g the nation In a house trailer, a a a BY GEORGE H. DENNY ]yjORE than half the population of the United States will be living in house trailers within 20 years. This statement appeared last year in an article by Roger W. Babson, economist, in the Los Angeles Times. The prognostication caused little stir. Most of the persons who Mr. Babson said soon would be living on wheels didn’t really know a house trailer from a charabanc. If pressed, they might have hazarded the guess that a house trailer was a contraption on wheels, with bunks and a protruding section of stovepipe, hitched to an ancient auto and inhabited by gypsies, berry pickers and fisher-

men without enough cash to lent a tourist cabin or even buy a good tent. So a huge percentage of readers merely looked confused for a moment; then turned to the funnies. A few inquiring minds perked up and took notice. They stopped along the road to talk to persons who actually were IWing in the darned things. They asked questions. They discovered many interesting and startling facts. I will speak of these facts in detail later. a a a A THIRD contingent, the tourist camp owners, hotel operators and persons with money invested in resort properties, already knew about house trailers. They had been wondering what to do about them for several years. Mr. Babson made them feel even worse. A fourth group, the politicians, read Mr. Babson’s words with interest. After all, they muttered, how can you run a city or state government and provide jobs for the boys and pay pensions and build courthouses if half your taxpayers sell out and begin living on wheels that can whisk them over the state line before you can even call a special session of the Legislature? By jingo, it was probably unconstitutional! But to the persons already living in house trailers, their numbers estimated at 250,000 at the time, Mr. Babson’s remarks were no surprise whatever. In fact, many of them were ready to call him a hopeless conservative and risk a shilling or two that it would take only 10 instead of the 20 years he mentioned. aa a * THE trailer manufacturers were too busy to pay much attention to predictions. They were sold out weeks or months in advance. New factories were springing up every day or two; old concerns were telling their bankers that prosperity had returned and were

THIS CURIOUS WORLD + By William Ferguson

I- ■ r. , - ■ "a ring around THE moon" \ IS ONE OF THE FEW DEPLINDABLE ''V \ WEATHER SIGNS. THE RINGS ARE > caused ey fCE c/z'visrrAus, carried at great height bv A COMING, STORM, WHICH IS NOT XBttBHBRK VET EVIDENT AT LOWER. LEVELS THE TREE SPQOfES i s’ x KNOWLTON'S Q j (RON WOOD |K: SMALL CAN VON .Jfl THE COLOR/VCOV

There really is no such thing as a ring around the moon. The ring only appears to circle that body, but any other bright light, such as that reflected by the moon, would light up the high-flying ice crystals, and give the same ring effect. •

The Indianapolis Times

borrowing money to enable them to double and triple their output. The Florida trailer camps actually were overcrowded by the unexpected throngs last winter. There now are more than 250,000 house trailers in use in this country, according to a statement just made in a national magazine. If this is true there must be at least 750,000 living th 6 gypsy life. Compare this figure to the 250,000 estimate made less than a year ago. If the numbers continue to triple in like periods, we will be talking of the trailer millions in a year. It will be Big Business, if it isn’t already. a a a YES, the house trailer, like the flying machine, is here to stay. If the craze or urge or whatever it is maintains its present pace, you and I and all of us soon will be more or less affected. You may lose or make money building trailers or accessories; you may open a trailer camp; you may own a corner grocery and see the gross fall away as the trailerites slip up side roads and buy food direct from the farmer; you may patent a gadget that every trailer must have and watch the dollars accumulate; your string of summer cottages may go unoccupied as the trailers roll by; you may have an income that will enable you to lift your sore nose from the grindstone and join the parade. You must admit there are many possibilities, even if you slice Mr. Babson’s figures in halves or quarters. So whether you are trailer friend or enemy or, as is most likely, don’t give a hoot one way or the other, it may not be time lost to consider some reasons for the astonishing popularity of auto coaches. a a a THESE modern covered wagons come in as many shapes and sizes and prices as the houses they are replacing. When you park in a trailer camp your neighbor on the north may be living in an outfit built last

MONDAY, MAY 4,1936

summer in the shed from odd lumber from the barn, flattenedout tin cans, a mattress cut in two and wheels and an axle from she old lizzy. On the south may be a custombuilt 30-footer with an observation cockpit, three rooms, hot water and an electric generating plant that furnishes power for cooking, heating, lights andrefrigeration. Cost about SIO,OOO. But the average factory-built trailer for two is about 15 feet long and costs SSOO. A four-place model usually costs about S7OO and is a foot or two longer. Six and even eight-place trailers are not uncommon. Prices and lengths vary. All well-made trailers are miracles of compactness. Not an inch of space is lost. A place for everything and everything in its place necessarily is the rule in the limited area and any neat housekeeper can keep her land cruiser shining with about the same effort it would take to

Washington Merry-Go-Round BY DREW PEARSON and ROBERT S. ALLEN

WASHINGTON, May 4.—The directors of the United States Chamber of Commerce pulled a fast one last week on “Uncle Dan” Roper. The Secretary of Commerce, after some energetic wire pulling, finally wangled an invitation to address the convention despite the original plan of the directors not to invite a New Deal spokesman. Roper devoted much time and labor to his speech. As finally drafted, his big feature was a 10point program by means of which business men could aid in solving the unemployment problem. The formula was to be Roper’s answer to the Chamber’s challenge that the Administration tell industry how it could re-employ more men. No. 1 plank in Roper’s program was a proposal that business men themselves make a thorough survey of industry for the purpose of exploring the possibilities of adding men to pay rolls. Such a study, Roper’s manuscript declared, would be a great deal more valuable than a mere “head count” of the unemployed by the government—as demanded by business. Roper planned to spring this proposal as a surprise. But he made one serious slip. Several days before he was to make his speech, he sent an adv?;nce copy to the Chamber bigwigs. When they spotted his proposal they got excited. They did not relish being put on the spot where they either would have to follow his advice or be charged with turning down a reasonable suggestion for the solution of the unemployment problem. To get out of this dilemma, the Chamber toaster minds decided to jump the gun on “Uncle Dan.” The night before he made his speech, the directors, with a great fanfare of ballyhoo, announced that the Chamber would launch a nationwide survey of re-em-ployment. This was precisely the proposal Roper planned for the next day. NOTE Although privately deeply chagrined by this maneuver, Roper took the thumping in silence. He stuck to the original text of his speech and put forth his proposal just as if the Chamber never had heard of it before. a a a THE dignity surrounding a Senate seat does not prevent Mrs. Huey Long from sending wifely advice to the women of Louisiana. Recently she received a complaint from a Negro woman, Mrs. Jennie Manueal of New Orleans, stating that her husband was receiving only half pay on a WPA project. Mrs. Long investigated, found that Manueal was receiving his pay in full. Then her wiffiy instincts came into play. She wrote a letter to Jennie,

sweep the kitchen and air the kitty’s bed in a six-room house. a a a NO drawer or cupboard in the tiny galley is more than half a step from the gasoline stove. Some stoves have ovens. The icebox holds from 25 to 75 pounds. Beds are usually double, one at each end or an upper and lower, but single beds are appearing more frequently in the new models. The inner-spring mattresses are more comfortable than the ones mother gave you for a wedding present. A dressing table with mirror is .standard equipment now. All new coaches are well insulated for warmth in winter and coolness in the sun. Small heating stoves burn oil, coal, chips, charcoal, wood or pine cones and political platforms. One electric circuit operates from the car battery, another plugs in to any 110volt socket when you are parked in the camps or a friendly back-

saying: “The records show that from Nov. 21, 1935, until March 27, 1936, your husband received 10 checks, each for the full amount to which he was entitled. “What you had better do is check up and see how your husband is spending the money ho does get from the government.” a a a nnHE night before the final reading of the tax bill In the House, the Republicans held a secret caucus. Afterwards Republican Floor Leader Bertrand Snell told newspaper men: “Boys, we decided on a united opposition against this iniquitous bill. There will be plenty of fireworks tomorrow.” But when the last reading of the tax measure began next day, there were only 10 Republicans in their seats. The fighting “Hnited opposition” promised by the militant Mr. Snell simmered down to the meaningless gesture of a motion to recommit the bill to committee. Even on this no attempt was made to stage a battle. Real lowdown on the Republican caucus was this: Little time was devoted to the tax bill. Most of it was spent listening to Reps. John Taber and Robert L. Bacon of New York repeat v r hat Harry Hopkins had

GRIN AND BEAR IT + + by Lichty

“Do you mind if the Ladies ' Art Guild comes in to brood over a painting?” *

Above—What it looked like at the Tin Can Tourists’ Convention in Sarasota, Fla., only three months ago. More than 1000 units trailers, house cars and tents were assembled on these grounds. Left—The Denny trailer puts up in a shady Florida nook. yard. Most trailers built in the last year have both circuits. Two wheels have replaced the four that were found on most early trailers. They are placed a bit back of the center line in order to put some weight on the rear of the tow car and eliminate sidesway at higher speeds. A few of the newest models have a third wheel, just under the trailer nose, to aid in parking and save the car springs. tt n u THE all-metal, streamline designs are replacing the boxlike, plywood affairs of yesterday. Chemical toilets and showers or even tubs are optional. Running water flows from the tanks by pressure or gravity or is pumped. There are more concealed closets and hidden appliances and trick space savers in a trailer than there were secret drawers in a medieval sideboard. When the host is through pulling screens from the walls, beds from the floor and ironing boards from a crack in the ceiling you expect him to unscrew a hollow leg from the card table and pioduce a case of iced beer. Some day he will figure a way to do it, too. Airplanes, yachts, Pullman cars, autos and modern houses all have contributed their best features to today’s auto trailer. TOMORROW: Why the trailer has become so popular.

told the Appropriations Committee in confidence about relief expenditures and administration. a a a WHAT is worrying New Deal executives about the relief strike in New Jersey is the possibility that it may spread to other parts of the country. The example of relief workers putting their feet on the desks of legislators is disconcerting even to Senators and Congressment who believe in the legislative system of the United States. Some of them were here not so very long ago when the bonus army occupied the mud flats along the banks of the Potomac and required Gen. Douglas MacArthur, then chief of staff, to lift the drawbridges across the river to prevent an invasion of the District of Columbia. Senator Harry Moore, twice Governor of New Jersey, claims that Gov. Hoffman of New Jersey is dodging the issue. “He could have cleared out the legislative chamber in no time without using any force,” says the ex-Governor. “Gov. Hoffman could have offered them the Armory next door, where there are beds and blankets and a place to cook.” (Copyright. 1936. by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.)

Second Section

Entwred a* Second-Cl*** Matter at Postoffice. Indianapolis. Ind.

Fair Enough MM pm T OUISYILLE, May 4.—The Kentucky Derby is a horse race for 3-year-old steeds which is run every spring on the outskirts of Louisville, about 10 minutes by cab from the heart of town. It is a private enterprise, conducted for enormous revenue by promoters who subject their customers to bad food poorly prepared and served at exorbitant prices, bad handling by the staff and generally careless management, except

as to the running of the race itself. The race usually is truly run and a sight worth seeing, but always there are many patrons, including some who have traveled far, who do not get a fair look at the horses because the crowd gets out of control at the crucial moment. By the time the customer who had bought the seat has managed to bend a chair over the skull of the gate crasher who is jumping up in front of him shouting “Come on,” the rsce is over until next year.

In the social excitement of the Derby, however, the patrons achieve a forgiving mood. Almost everybody gets tight on the Friday night before the race and again on Saturday night after it. There is dancing and wide-open gambling in rural dives on the Indiana side of the Ohio River. There are house parties in the homes of the local aristocracy and in the country mansions of the Eastern capitalists who run horse farms in the Blue Grass territory around Lexington. a a a It's Great Study of Contrasts r I "'HE Kentucky Derby is a great occasion for the study of contrasts. It is a sort of old-home week for the underworld of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys and Chicago, with many delegates from New York and New Jersey, and a gala occasion for those magnates of industry and masters of men who like to mingle with crowds and talk horse. Al Capone and his men used to come down from Cicero, 111., in a body and relax for a few days at the Derby but Mr. Capone is away now and the angels have taken many of his boys up to heaven. Others have taken their place. The Derby attracts that kind of men. After all, the facts of life are what they are. The Kentucky Derby is not all the glamour and the chivalry and beauty that you might be led to suppose from the legends that you have heard. It is a great promotion which puts Louisville in the papers for weeks every spring leading up to one special week of intensive ballyhoo. It brings thousands of people to town with money to spend on food, liquor, lodging, craps and roulette. For the respectable people of Louisville it is a happy week in which to meet old friends again and have a little fun. It is the continuation of an old tradition which ignores reality for the sake of sentiment. It is just one of those old American institutions, like the Mardi Gras in New Orleans or the milliondollar fight anywhere. Reform it, delouse it, so to speak, and you would have no Kentucky Derby, but just another horse race. The social side of the Derby is just as important to the occasion as the hasty scamper pf the little nags on the oval track. Without the monkey-business it wouldn’t be the Derby, and without the race there would be no monkey-business. a a a Customers Forget After a Year THE roster of those who are always mentioned as distinguished visitors changes from year to year. Capone drops out. but for the first tim<i since he grew up, Babe Ruth finds himself unemployed and therefore at liberty to attend his first Derby. Os course, Jack Dempsey was here and, as usual, he earned his way and a little more by working as referee in a fight. Sir Bede Clifford, the Eritish Governor General of the Bahamas, was present as the guest of Mr. Joe Widener, Philadelphia, who owns a big horse farm nearby and is socially inclined. English titles have a curious effect on Mr. Widener. His nostrils flare, his back hair goes up, he puts out his elbows and scampers like a colt in the presence of people like that. You should have seen Mr. Widener the time he put a halter on Lord Derby himself and brought him down to Louisville for the Derby a few years ago.

Liberal Viewpoint BY HARRY ELMER BARNES IN an editorial in Life, Frank Kent, the well-known journalist, contended that the average voter will have to be extremely gullible in order to vote for Mr. Roosevelt. Indeed, he heads the editorial with the title “The Great Gullibility Test.” The flavor of Mr. Kent’s editorial will be evident from the following passages: “Not in our times has the open-mouthed and simple-minded voter been invited to swallow quite as large and rancid a dose as is now being dished up. “For example, he will be asked to put his faith all over again in a man who, as President, has broken faith with him in more ways than he can count on the fingers of his hand. “He Is supposed to accept as an explanation that an emergency existed, in disregard of the irrefutable fact that the emergency acutely existed when the promises were made. He will be promised again that the cost and size of government will be reduced by the same man who has increased and expanded both to an undreamed of extent.” There is in this, of course, little except the stale baloney which Al Smith handed out at his Liberty League dinner when he tried to emphasize the great gulf between the Democratic platform of 1932 and the policies of the New Deal. No critic of Mr. Roose/elt has been able to demonstrate that he shifted fir’ther from campaign promises than underlying conditions had shifted between the summer of 1932 and the spring of 1933.

Times Books High adventure and down-iast folksiness don’t often go hand in hand. They do, however, In Robert Ferguson’s “Harpooner” (Pennsylvania University Press: $2.50), a marvelously interesting book for any one who enjoys authentic stories of the sea. Ferguson was a young Scotch-American who, in 1880, shipped out of New Bedford as harpooner on a whaling bark for a four-year cruise. The diary of the cruise makes the book. It is by turns quaint and thrilling. The thrills come in his accounts of his jobkilling of sperm whales. It must have taken a rare combination of courage and skill to take a frail whaleboat alongside one of these enormous brutes and hold it there while someone prodded the creature with a lance until it died. Ferguson describes such actions over and over, with a zest which indicates that he got an enormous kick out of his job. The quaintness comes when Ferguson writes of shipboard life between whales. He prided himself as a cook; like a New England housewife, he tells how he baked bread, prepared roasts of ham or chicken, made pies—and compared recipes and culinary secrets with other homy-flsted seamen. He was an expert seamstress, making a fine suit of clothes for the cabin boy. All hands, fro.n the captain on down, put in their spare time whittling! All this adds up to an elaborately faithful picture of the whaling trade. (Bruce Catton.)

Westbrook Pegler