Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 21 October 1936 — Page 15

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Vagabo FROM INDIANA

By ERNIE PYLE

* (GRAND COULEE DAM, Wash., Oct. 21.— The things men can think of when they're up against it are amazing. There's a little story here at Coulee Dam about that kind of thinking.

It happened on the east bank, where they

were excavating in the hiliside to get a foundation of solid rock on which to build that end of the dam. Now, they hit solid rock here, ahd solid rock there, but the 175 feet in between was Just dirt. They dug and dug, taking 15 out by the thousands of yards, but the dirt kept moving down from up the hill, and they couldn’t stop it. So they drove a great wall of sheet piling, to f. a steel dam against the slo moving hillside. That wor one day there came quite a slide, which zoomed right over the top of the sheet piling. Then they built an elaborate timber barricade on top’ of the sheet piling, but the same thing happened again. That last slide was a whopper. I believe they said 600,000 yards of dirt came -down. They can't have that happening any more. They drove hundreds of inch-and-a-half steel pipes down through the earth, just a few inches apart. Then they built a refrigerating plant on the river bank, and turned ammonia solution through these pipes. That froze the earth and held it solid. They had built a dam simply by freezing the ground. They didn’t know whether it would work. But it has been there a month now, and the dirt is frozen as hard as a rock, and there hasn't been a sign of &n earth movement since.

5 n EJ Use Conveyor Belt , ACH big dam has its distinctive feature of construction, which sets it apart from other dams. Out here it is the use of the conveyor belt. Conveyor belts arefi’t new, - But out here practically all movement of earth and material is by conveyor belt. In just one excavation they moved dirt so fast it would have taken 600 trucks to do the job. And the space wa¥ s0 smail they couldn't have got more than 40 trucks in there. This conveyor is simply a rubber belt, about half an inch thick and four cr five feet wide. It is drawn tight and moves constantly around two big rollers at

either end. The top of the belt carries the dirt forward, while the bottom is on its way back to get more.

Dirt Dumped on Belt

HE dirt is simply dumped onto the belt, which sags in the middle, making a -trough, and is helped on its way by rolling across ball-bearing rollers about every three feet. Sometimes the belt moves as fast as 12 miles an hour. All the sand and crushed rock for the entire dam comes by conveyor belt from a gravel pit on the mountainside about two miles { away. This belting costs more than $10 a foot, and they have four miles of it. Twelve hundred of the 5500 men on the dam live in the temporary city built by the contractor. The others live in shanty-towns around the dam. These 1200 pay 25 cents “a day for bunk-house lodgings, and 40 cents each for meals. This figures up to $10.15 a week. The common laborers make $20. That leaves $9.85 a week for the buying of stocks, bonds and sccurities, to say nothing of socks and chewing tobacco.

Mrs. Rooseévelf’ S Day

BY ELEANOR ROOSEVELT

EW YORK, Tuesday—Back in New York and such a beautiful day! It seemed a shame not to be able to spend it all in the country. During the day I made a short visit to the Democratic campaign headquarters, where. everything appeared to be going along smoothly. On_the way back to my apartment I stopped at a tiny shop on 11th-st where I bought one or two little things for Christmas presents. I reached home just #in time to get a telephone message from Washington saying that the President had changed his plans after . Thursday night and would return to Washington. I was asked what I wished to do. Very meekly I remarked that if he wished me to charge my plans, I would do so. Otherwise I would stick to my original schedule. I was told that I would be notified when he made up his mind. Then I waited to find out what I am going to do from Thursday to Monday. Such dS the uncertainty of presidential families. I did net really blame one of our boys when he remarked that it was quite impossible to know where his mother was! It is not always: her fault, however. I expect some friends for tea and dinner tonight. After that Mrs. ‘Scheider and I will take the midnight train to join my husband in, Providence tomorrow morning. I hope to get a a chance this afternoon to run up to see my daughter who is home with a cold, but that depends on how much can be jammed into two and a half hours. I met a man today who showed me clearly how people feel about this election. He said that when his candidate's picture was flashed on the screen at the movies last night, he applauded loudly. A lady who sat next to him did not applaud at all. When her candidate's picture appeared, she applauded loudly. He said that as each candidate spoke, it degenerated into a battle between the lady and himself over who could make the most noise. They looked daggers at each other, but neither gave the other any reasons

Mr, Pyle

for their feelings——they simply expressed them in:

noise. a I sometimes get a feeling that much of campaigning: is about as reasonable ‘as that. Each side listens to their own candidate, apblauding loudly. : But it is. difficult for any of us calmly and coolly to weigh causes and results. : Perhaps we do it just before we cast our vote, but I wish we could do it throughout the campaign. We need less ballyhoo and noise, and more real thinking about the issues at stake.

' Daily. New Books

“THE PUBLIC LIBRARY PRESENTS

best informed citizen is confused by the myriads | Sot énatiting public and. pelea issue besiing his. gitin through eye aad , 18.8 small and exceedingly

d all right until

"WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1306

Following is the first of a series of articles by H. R. Ekins of The Indianapelis Times and the Scripps-Howard newspapers on his flight around the world in 1815 ézys——ibhe first around.

the-world journey te have been made

completely by commercial airlines. BY H. R. EKINS Times Staff Writer SEVEN tickets — some green, some blue, some orange—spread before . me’ tell the story of orie man’s journey around the world entirely by air in little more than 1814 days. The bills of passage, several in the form of booklets and others accordion-like in the manner of old-time railroad tickets, of themselves are prosaic. But as I thumb them over back in accustomed surroundings they bring back to me vivid memories of exotic spots in far corners of the globe which I had always wanted to visit, raging typhoons, gorgeous dawns and sunsets in billowing clouds 12,000 feet above the level of the sea and

the fastest travel I hope ever to experience.

The stamped, punched and now invalid tickets bring back a host of other memories and I shall try to tell of them in following articles to be printed as excerpts from the diary of a working newspaper reporter who flew around the world from New York to New York between the night of Sept. an and the sunny morning of Oct.

But before telling of amusing incidents, tales of my competitors —Leo Kieran of the North American Newspaper Alliance and the charming Miss Dorothy Kilgallen of the Hearst newspapers—Burmese dancing girls in Rangoon and Dyak head-hunters in Borneo, I should like to tell of the mechanics of 18!¢ days around the world by air for The Indianapolis Times and the ScrippssHoward newspapers. = ” = TE: journey was entirely by air. I used the German dirigible Hindenburg and seven airplanes. There was no other form of transportation. I eschewed railway trains and steamers so that the journey could in every sense of the word be the first entirely all-commercial airline trip around the world.

The Hindenburg took me from Lakehurst, N. J, to Frankfort, Germany. K. L. M.—Royal Dutch Airline—planes, two of them, flew -me from.Frankfort to Batavia in the Netherlands East Indies. One K. Ni T. £. M. plane—Royal Netherlands Indies: Airline transported, me from Batavia to Manila via Borneo and Zamboanga. The Hawaii Clipper, a Martin flying boat of the Pan-American Airways System, made the flight

AROUND THE WORLD TI

18

DAYS!

Record-Shattering F light T: vibute 10 U. S. Avi tion, Writes Ekins

Four and a half days out on his world-girdling flight, “Bud” Ekins is shown stretching his legs at ‘Gaza, Palestine, and chatting with Jacob Simon, United Press correspondent. In the background i is the American-built Royal Dutch Airliner, which carried Ekins toward Manila.

around Manila to San Francisco via Guam, Wake Island, Midway Island and Honolulu. " United "Airlines provided the: plane for a flight from San Francisco to Los Angeles and TWA— Transcontinental Western Airways—covered the route from Los Angeles to ‘New York with two

ps. } With the exception of the Hindenburg, a mighty tribute to the science. of ‘transport by. lighter-

than-air craft, all of the eight and

only vehicles I ‘used were of American manufacture. And the demonstration of American achieyement in the science .of aviation was to me the most impressive feature of the journey.

# EJ = HE three planes operated by the Dutch and in which I flew as a regular paying passenger— “classification = tourist” — from Frankfort to Manila were Douglas DC Twos, manufactured at Santa Monica, Cal. The two T. W. A.-airliners, Los Angeles to New York, were Douglas DC Twos. The United Airliner, San Francisco to Los Angeles, was a Boeing and the magnificent Clipper which took the mighty Pacific Ocean in its stride was a Martin. The Boeing was built in Seattle and the Martin at Baltimore. So

Reports Progress in Health Under Social Security Act

BY SCIENCE SERVICE EW ORLEANS, Oct. 21.—The American people are already getting the benefits of more and better health service promised by the Social Security Act, Surgeon General Thomas Parran of the

United States Public Health Service reported in his address as president

of the American Public Health|

Association here last niglit.

“More tools for life saving” are provided by the $13,200,000 allotted this year from the Public Health Service and the Children’s Bureau, Dr. Parran pointed out. . This has meant the employment of more doctors, nurses, dentists, engineers and sanitary inspectors to guard the health of the people.

The health of workers is being | |

better protected. fought on a larger scale in the South, plague on the Pacific Coast and “wherever the state { health authorities have the meres [98 and energy” to attack it.

COMMUNITY sanitation has been

improved in 41 states. Ex-

tensive drainage projects in 16

ciety of Metals in connection with the National Metal Congress. Two University of Illinois scientists, working in co-operation with the Army’s aviation experts, have

is running been whirling steel specimen rods in 'with a Democrat running against

temperatures as low as 40 degrees below zero Fahrenheit while, all during the tests, the metal samples were suffering a Boxing. force right at their endurance limi Think of whirling a _ Bt hetween the palms of your hand with some one pressing” strongly on the far end and you will have some idea of what the test was like. H. B. Wishart and S. W. Lyon, special research assistants at the University” of Illinois, did the work. The pmens were for of time and the find

.Senator—Mr. Roosevelt said:

except for the Atlantic span in the admittedly German superiority in the construction and operation of “lighter-than-air craft I flew “all American.” In three in_stances the pilots were able and lovable Hollanders but their craft were built in the United States. One vehicle—the Hindenburg— was operated entirely by Germans. Four planes—Manila to New York —were in the hands of Americans, American construction: and groundwork, and their performance must emphasize that in the rapid development of aviation throughout the world the pilots and technicians of the United States have achieved for themselves a monument to- American inventive genius, operative talent and painstaking care in flight. They have made flight no longer ous. 2 f J 2

ERHAPS all this will impress you as just a very dry-as-dust background for the color and the drama with which the journey was replete. But to me it was the most import&nt part of the trip—a trip which represented the first entirely commercial jousney around the world by air. The trip was not a stunt. It was a constructive effort on the

part of The Indianapolis Times and the Scripps-Howard news-

*

‘papers to demonstrate to all travelers that flying is no longer of the circus or vaudeville stunt variety. It is a commonplace and the most astute business men in all countries have been swift to seize upon the fact, accept: it and utilize it. The journey ‘would not have been possible without Pan-Amer-ican Airways, which made air travel completely around :the world possible by providing service across the vast expanse of the Pacific. The flights are made with no more sirain or excitement than is involved in a routine train journey from New York to Chicago, for instance. = . I felt as I flew faster than any ‘tourist has ever been able to fly before that the American public has failed to appreciate American aviation. American builders of . planes, manufacturers . of engines ‘such as Wright and Pratt and Whitney, ground crews, technical radiomen, operation supervisors

and the many others who con-

operation bod and

tribute to: the regul of airlines, are: envied by other pebples of world. : z 2 8 THOUGHT as I flew and wondered what I saw that the gov-

ernments of other - ations are |

f the “sl sations. Until then 1 give you—

more far-sighted and generous in dealing with aviation than is ours. And yet their aviators, good as they are and especially when | equipped with American ships, are no match for the Americans ‘who

| clip wings to the breast; pockets of

their jackets. * hl hh From this point on, beginning with tomorrow, the story will be of people and climes and the giddy happenings in distant places while a working New York reporter skimmed by on his way

- back to his starting point.

But in gratitude to the builders, the ‘pilots, the meteorologists, the radiomen and. their legion of colleagues who really made my flight possible, I think -this first story should be in the manner of a toast to American aviation and all it has accomplished at home and around the world. Later I will tell you of personalities, fun and the sheer joy of making the flight. I will tell of what we saw, traveling companions and the topics of our converAmerican ayiation, from the ground to the skyways.

(To Be Continued)

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as} cond C1 M » : i Our

own

By ANTON SCHERRER

‘1 ‘HERE is a little situation. oer at 4 Indianapolis Symphony concerts th needs fixing up. Goodness knows, it need fixing up last year but nobody had the tim or energy to get around to it. You kr how everybody felt last year. D Maybe it's too lite now, becatise last night's cone: cert confirmed the awifnl suspicion that the people don’t intend to do anything alos it. I refer, of course, to the cruel

and wholly uncalled for way the Symphony people have of dressing the lady performers in black and white, or “skillet black” as it is called this season. I don't care a * whoop what it’s called this year because, as far as I'm concerned, “skillet black” is still black with me. Besides; it still doesn’t make sense. : It doesn’t make sense because no necromancy—not even on the part of . the Symphony people—can make me beleve that an all black-

Mr. Scherrer

| and-white orchestra can ever take the place of

touched up with color. 4 1, for one, go to a Symphony concert to see, as well as to hear, and if the Symphony people don know that there are millions (or too many) like mé they have another guess coming. Anyway, it's a state of affairs when a clique of high-powered don’t let Indianapolis women dress the way they want to. If the Symphony peoplé don’t Anow it. a dressed= up woman cello player is the most decorative 5 the world has yet achieved—this side of toy fishes, course. : By the same ioken, a male cellist is the worst. The difference is the matter, of clothes— and need I add, colored clothes?—because a : ceilo player dressed in black and white isn't an) more to look at than a male cello player. know why this should be. I'm just Yelling ig 8 8 ® ;

That Way All Along

ND it’s ‘that way all along the line. Who, o Heaven's name, wants to look at a woman dressed in black? ‘THe very thought approaches p fanity. a. wity.T Yak. time off 100a¥ Yo. propusa remedy. My remedy has the-merit of a indeed, the, power -of double-edged tools—because 2

it’s worked right,’ it ‘will save the face of

’Symphony people without depriving ‘the: Jadies of “God-given right to look pretty. I : My plan embraces a series of rapid dress ¢ go timed and calculated that each change partakes of the mood of the music. Six changes of dress, I ‘say, would constitute a pretty good program.

Mozart in White ; T might, for instance, start with a litle Nachtm by Mozart with all the lady performers dressed § ‘white. If could end, let us say, with something of Tristan and Isolde with all the ladies dressed in purple. Sprinkled in between, there could be a ha change to red gowns to set off Tschaikowsky. would come in mighty handy for Debussey. So emerald-green for Brahms and yellow for Gershy and, maybe, black for Bach. (I am big enough to concede that much to the Symphony people.) 3 It’s the only way I know of regimenting the ladies without making them look Tana. Sx A

a I a me an i is retiring his fo! 3 FT unsuccessful ‘attempt

Harmar’s’ army of hi

» stoiiting pity of Gen ‘Indiana af

POLITICS AS SULLIVAN SEES IT *

BY MARK SULLIVAN ASHINGTON, Oct. 21.—Mr. Roosevelt, at Omaha, Neb., recently wanted to give his personal

indorsement to Senator Norris, who as a third candidate,

him (and also, of course, a Republican). To make his indorsement emphatic,-and to explain his extraordinary action—a Democratic President asking Democrats to vote against their own candidate for

“Outside my own state of New

York I have consistently refrained |

from ‘taking part in elections in any

growth of a new party with purposes wholly strange to America, the Farmer-Labor Party—though this is an extremely important development. : The point that is relevant here lies in a light which" the: Omaha

personality. The any head of state are always me. mentous. are especially so when the head te has been given such extra powers as Mr. ‘Roosevelt has. To the degree

other” state. But ‘Senator Norris’ | 130

name has been entered as a cane -didate’: for Senator from Nebraska. And to my rule of non-participation in state elections I have made—

and so long as he lives, TF will always | make — one magnificiently Justified

exception.”

That was Mr. Roosevelt speaking:

on Oct. 10, less than seven days before he had publicly, even sensa-

a barometer to everything around him, to the crowds he addresses, the persons who call on him. And as the crowds have differing emotions, and the callers differing purposes, so «does the barometer give differHe 8 8" CCOMPANYING this trait goes an immense capacity for sincerity: about the thing he happens to wish to believe at the time. This quality explains much that is mystifying in Mr. Roosevelt's record. It

| explains, for example, the apparent

sincerity of Mr. Roosevelt's recent

It may account, possibly, for the re- |. . mark of Mr. Arthur Krock St}.

New York Times that Mr.

has a way of “creating ‘an. press] . Th scoume Ta ie pe mit 1 :

iil” Gen, Foie, b pad been attacking\Mjami Indian

the river from the present site of Fort Wayne. . Hardin, with 400 men, both’ and militia, out for their destination. By a rapid march beautiful starlit night, the troops reached the Joseph River, where they found the Indians camped on the east side of the river just at its junction wit the St. Mary. : - The militia Sischeyed orters by Sting af the 4