Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 4 January 1937 — Page 9

£3

, Washington

By RAYMOND CLAPPER

(Ernie Pyle, Page Two)

ASHINGTON, Jan. 4.—Congress is coming to: town again with its 531 different kinds of typical Americans and thejr typically American ideas. They are a specimen collection of the American citizen, vet-

erans and greenhorns, strong and weak, sharp and stupid, some born under other flags, some decended from the Mayflower. They will iritroduce several thousand bills, enact several hundred. ey will be scrambling to finfl ces on the payrolls for their sistérs and their aunts, and the curious horde of human jeeps found at the heels of ‘every politician. Pockets are kulging with campaign promises. One Representative announces a proposal to change the six-year terms of Senators and the two-year terms of Representatives to 12 years, with no e-election. The President would ave a six-year sentence with the nderstanding that he would not thereafter be placed in jeopardy a second time for the same offense. By the end of the first week of Congress, anyone could have himself committed to the nearest mental hospital by making affidavit that he had read all of the first week's bills.

Mr. Clapper

| o 2 o Yet, They're Hard-Working Lot

ET along with its zoo-like behavior, Congress mane to do a hard-working job, responding to the initiative of leaders and committee chairmen who devote themselves long and faithfully to public business. Prodded from behind by Rooseveit and obstructed in front by the Supreme Court, Congress still manages to continue as a free legislative body. There are not many suth left in the world, and we need to nurse ours with care lest the species become extinct. The most statesmanlike utterance out of the new Congress comes from an Alabama member who announced that he would make no promises, that he didn’t know yet what it was all about and would come to Washington and learn.

” 2 ” A Prospective Calamity

OUSE Republican Leader Snell says the Republican membership will function as a compact unit. In fact, it will be so compact that unless Leader Snell keeps his wits about him he may come down to work some morning and find that he forgot and left it in the pocket of his other trousers. . Congressional investigations are often annoying, but. useful. The Nye munitions inquiry made everyone more conscious of how easy it is to slip into a foreign war. The Pecora banking investigation more

which some millionaires were excused from paying income taxes. : Senator Wheeler has just begun his investigation of railroad financing which has thus far shown how a railroad empire may be tossed around with a shoestring. Senator La Follette has barely lifted the lid on labor spying and strike-breaking skulduggery. Both are out of money. Unless the Senate appropriates more, the stories which their investigators have been piecing tcgether will go untold. An Army ordnance expert forecasts mechanized warfare in which fighting machines will do most of the dirty work. That still isn’t what we want. The

world is waiting for the inventor who can end all wars by fixing it so that they will be fought by the dictators and statesmen who make them.

Mrs.

Roosevelt'sDay

By ELEANOR ROOSEVELT

ASHINGTON, Sunday—1I said goodby to Franklin Jr. on Priday afternoon and took the five o'clock train to New “York, expecting to have a chance to see a friend that evening. I went from the station straight to her apartment and rang the bell. After a long time the door was opened and I discovered that she had expected me at 5:30. Being very weary, she had gone to bed thinking something strange had happened to me, because, as she said, “You usually let people know when you change your mind.” Needless to say, I did not keep her up for. long but went to my own abode. On Saturday morning, after I had hurried through a few errands, Mrs. Scheider and I took the train for Washington. Johnnie and Betsy, James’ wife, met me at the station and as we drove up they tcld me funny little incidents about the grandchildren. Chandler, Elliott’s little girl, not quite 3, seems to have an independent spirit. At 6 a. m..one day, the night watchman in the White House picked her up in the basement where she was wandering around unconcernedly in her nightclothes. He took her te’the third floor, knocked on the first door he came to, which happened to be little Kate’s room, and, pointing at Chandler under his arm, said to the nurse: “Does this belong to you? I found it in the basement.” Chandler had awakened in a room next to her mother and father and, finding no one to entertain her, had walked out to explore the world by herself. Since then she has had no other adventures. This one, of course, filled the boys with glee. At the door of the White House the usher greeted me with the little card plaque on which I seat the diners. I laughed and said: “Must I do that before I take my hat off?” Johnnie cheerfully replied: “I'll seat the table for you.” After greeting everyone in the house, I rapidly fell into the usual routine, sedted the table for dinner, started to go through the mail on my desk and then

decided to look at my Christmas presents!

On nights of big receptions we have to dine at 7 o'clock as the reception begins at 9. My son, Elliott, and his wife have two young couples from Ft. Worth, Dr. and Mrs. Violette and Mr. and Mrs. McCurdy, staying with. them, so we made quite a party.

‘New Books :

PUBLIC LIBRARY PRESENTS—

P particular interest, attendant upon the dramatic success of “Victoria Regina,” is the autobiography of Laurence Housman, YEARS (Bobbs-Merrill). We glimpse a Victorian home, where the children were led by the revered older brother, Alfred—destined to gain fame as the author of “A Shropshire Lad”; where each child possessed his own “climbing tree,” a lofty retreat tor precocious literary effort. At family

prayers we feel with them how very odd it was for a.

visitor to “kneel against nothing at all,” when custom decreed that each child kneel against his own chair seat. Later came school days with their fagging and bullying, and finally Houseman’s years of finding himself, first in illustrating and then in writing and lecturing. Then follow records of his identification with the suffrage movement, an interest in catholicism, censorship difficulties, war experiences, trips to America, failures and successes in play production, and discussions of his unique literary form; dramatic sketches formed about the life of one character, exemplified in his “Little Plays of St. Francis” and in those which compose the play, “Victoria Regina.” These details, which make up the even tenor of a quietly significant life, throw a soft and pleasant light over a long span of years. )

2 # 2

J OSE CLENDELL, an unmarried mother, fleeing from the tragic ending of her romance, left her 2-year-old son with his paternal grandfather, Col. Fawcus, “an amiable and horrifying egomaniac,” and relinquished all her claims to the boy. Ten years later, when she was invited to visit her dead lover’s home, she found an atmosphere monstrous and sadistic, and her son sadly in need of prayer. Faced with the problem of regaining the boy’s love and the urgent need of rescuing him from the inescapable demands of the grandfather, she-formed a coalition with the rest of the household and for herself, her son, and his maiden aunt planned a breathless escape. Sinister and intangible is the undercurrent of Hugh alpole’s novel, A PRAYER FOR MY SON (Doubley). But the author's keen understanding of chilsituation

THE UNEXPECTED

{ |

MONDAY, JANUARY 4, 1937

he Indianapolis Times

¥nterzd' as Second-Class Matter at Postoffice, Indianapolis, Ind.

Second Section

PAGE 9

BUILDI

NG TRENCHES IN THE SKIES

J xu

Foreign Powers Are Flying to Their Doom, Ma j. Al Williams Finds

Agmies While Death Rains From Clouds.

(First of a Series)

‘By MAJ. AL WILLIAMS

Times Special Wriler

HAVE seen the war wings of Europe. The. word pictures of an imminent war, the plans for conducting it, and the instruments of destruction were impressive enough. But a

closeup of the eagle’s nest was awe inspiring and stopped me dead in my tracks. That Europe is moving toward

a new balance of power, to be effected by armed force, is unquestionable. The weapons with which this new balance is to be accomplished are possessed of such tremendously effective p ossibilities for destruction and forcing immediate decisions, that the lords are— with but a few exceptions—still undecided as to how boldly they may dream. I wanted to get a final close-up of the teams, their equipment, the ball parks,” and talk to the managers before the game begins. So I went to Europe and with notebook and typewriter spent about two months tramping through engine factories, airplane plants, fighting and bombarding squadrons; interviewing air ministry strategists and tacticians. In the wee morning hours I looked at night bombardment maneuvers and at anti-aircraft defense. It was a first-hand study of Europe's war wings. In 1914 Europe marched to its crisis to the rumble of caissons, the tramp of hob-nailed shoes and the roar of battleship cannon. All this is erased from the 1936 picture. Europe is flying to its doom. Marshal Foch knew it would come, even as the World War ended, and he spotted a common fallacy when he said: “The military mind always imagines that the next war will be on the same lines as the last. That never has been the case and never will be. One of the great factors of the next war obviously

3 Fl 4

Maj.- Williams

. will be aircraft. ..,.”

8 a a

O forget the World War as you look at Europe today. Bombing raids in the coming war will be conducted at 35,000 or more feet, where the ships can’t be seen, much less disovered, and attacked by other aircraft. Against a squadron of ships flying at 250 to 300 miles per hour and high in the air, there is no defense. And, in the second place, modern bombers are flying within a few miles of the top speed of singleseater fighters. : Even if one is not willing to sweep away the mental cobwebs and see this new age in its true light and color, at least one must admit that the air raids of 1914-8 were the merest hints of what is to come. In those days the singleseaters turned out around 135 miles per hour, while the bombers lumbered along between 75 and 85. Their bomb loads were only a fraction of what modern bombers can carry for 2000 miles at a speed well over 250 miles per hour. No longer need armies and fleets destroy one another before reaching the civilian population, which supports the war and decides how long it will last. The new bombers will ignore. the trenches and fighting troops and ‘the enemy battleships at sea, and will carry the war to cities and civilian populations. A glimpse of this is to be had from the World War. German air raids on London brought panic, spurred feverish installation of anti-aircraft defense, withdrawal of front-line fighting planes for home use against attacks, and even fighting troops were recalled from France in significant numbers for defense. Is it any wonder that Mars shakes himself, stamps the trench mud from his cleats and fastens wings to his

to Stay Home

and programs of Europe's best bets, I find that Germany and Italy are the only nations planning to fight the next war in the skies. Quite possibly, Russia may have the same idea with her 7000 fighting planes. ” 2 8

OTH Germany and Italy have organized their air forces to operate independently of ground forces, and have clearly defined plans for accomplishing victory without armies or navies. Each country has a highly mechanized but comparatively small army. The army is for home defense only, ready to shift from border to border over newly constructed roads to meet any emergency. In the event of European war, these ground armies will not proceed beyond the frontier. The expedition which will carry the war to other nations will be on wings. France, with a powerful army, has missed the picture entirely. Millions of dollars have gone into the Maginot line—the string of ground fortifications, pill boxes and heavy artillery emplacements now strung along the German border from Switzerland to the Belgian frontier. She put all her eggs in one basket, did France, with only incidental attention to preparing for a war on wings. And so, if the next war develops an invasion ‘of France from the east, the thousands of guns in the Maginot iine will remain cold and black while the invading bombardment squadrons pass overhead—out of sight and out of range. I saw all these things as they stood under wraps. I saw the bombers

which could make the flight, and

I saw the defense that couldn’t

stop them. Close-up evidence seems to point conclusively that Russia expects and is preparing to fight the rest of Europe: Seeing aviation as the best means, she has expanded her air force. Factories are at top speed producing fighting and bombing planes. There’s no conflict between the Russian army and navy and air force, and one department does not seek control of any other. Russia is a one-man ball team, with no rule book.

n E-4 ® A S I saw it, England's problem of preparing to protect herself is a difficult one. Much is to be done before she can cover up against an attack in which there will be no formal declaration of war beyond the arrival of the first load of bombs from the air. England has more to discard than all the other nations of Europe put together - before she can get in step. The high seas fleet has been: England’s first line of defense for centuries. The navy, influential in Parliament, wants to prepare for the next war with battleships and cruisers. The army and navy quarrel about the jurisdiction and control of new air arms. The latter still grumbles about the independently operated Royal Air Force, and still squawks for control of the portion assigned to the fleet. With such reactionary opinions in order, the dismissal of the hazard of war in the air all but cost England her entire fleet a few months ago. :

Imm re RRR

* World War planes did ittle damage by ground strafing, pictured above, but today’s fast bom ers and high-speed pursuit planes, center, fly far above the clouds ou of range of spotlights (below) and thus wreak destruction on cities and towns far from the front lines.

‘England urged the san tions against Italy at the outset ( the Ethiopian campaign, and in ¢ 1 effort to intimidate Mussolini fully 80 per cent of the British rand fleet steamed into the Me: iter-

ranean. The British Ca iinet must have been advised bj ‘the admiralty that the presenc of the British sea forces would . care

ACADEMIC FREEDOM AMONG ISSUES IN FRANK DISPUTE, SULLIVAN SAYS;

By MARK SULLIVAN ASHINGTON, Jan. 4.—On Wednesday and Thursday the country will see the reply of President. Glenn Frank of the University of Wisconsin to the charges made against him by a majority of the Board of Regents. Presumably we shall see also amplification of the regents’ charges. The circumstances are favorable to adequate airing of the whole situation. The amount of

publicity that already has emerged

is a sign of what is coming. Dr. Frank is a skilled public speaker, has a gift for making his ideas clear to the people, understands popular psychology and has had experience as an editor. Much of the country is interested in the case, especially educators and other intellectuals. There are similar situations, latent or beginning to erupt, in other universities. The subject of “academic freedom” is in ferment. Deeper than that, the whole field of ideas, contest between ideas, and of the rights of the individual against authority of every sort—all this, indeed ‘almost every aspect of organized society, is in world-wide flux. The fundamental phase of Frank case is the question who an have authority over universities and over the teaching in them. It is a subject which the average man even the far-above-average man, rarely thinks about. Commonly we take such matters for granted. Complacently we assume that universities, and other institutions, somehow run themselves. In g way, and as a rule, they seem to run themselves in the sense that they go along without commotion.

o un ” A WORLD, and a time, in which institutions appear to run themselves, is a comforiable period to live in. There are such eras, and happy are. the generations who live in them. But once in so often titanic rumblings occur at the very roots of society, immense disloca-

tions occur—and then we are in

toward the end of it or merely in the beginning. I wish I knew. Sooner or later, the dislocations will adjust themselves and the world will settle down to a new period of stability. And if history is any guide, the new order should be better than the old. . But the world never will arrive at a period in which institutions run themselves, or in which any organization of human beings carries on automatically. Always, somewhere, there is authority, power. Those who imagine that in communism everybody is equal, are letting dreams prevail over facts. In Russia the individual is kept aware of the power above him, is required to obey it, and is more harshly penalized for resistance to discipline than is the case in either American society or any of the institutions within American society. Stalin has far more authority and power than any person ever had in America, and the commissars under him have much more power—in education, religion, in industry, over authorship and art, every area of life—than any head or board of directors of any American corporation or institution. tJ ” 2

AS oN assumption is that our universities are controlled by their faculties. Only to a partial extent is this true. In all universities, over the faculties, there is a governing body, which employs teachers and dismisses them or denies reappointment. The governing bodies are of two types. In many private institutions, such as Harvard, the governing body commonly consists of a self-perpetuating board of trustees. When one member dies, his sucsessor is chosen by the remainder. In some private institutions, as at Harvard, there is a second body, secondary to the first, made up of persons elected by the aiumni. On the other hand, in state institutions, such as the University of Wisconsin, the governing body is 1 origin C it

NOI

by the State Legislature. The e is added political control in the fact that state universities ordinaril: : depend for their upkeep on.annue appropriations by Legislatures. This type of authority sometimes ives rise to political interference. | !oliticians try to make the unive sity useful to them in the same way they make ordinary departmen/: of the state useful to them. C ten they try to make patronage ou. of the personnel of the university.

” ” ” UST how much politics ther: is in the present Wisconsin : ase will be known after the cor ing hearings. The regents, of w.om there are 15, get their posts by appointment from the Governor. fen of the present regents have ! en appointed by Mr. La Follette t uring his governorship. It seen | a fact that eight out of Governo: La Follette’s ten appointees compose (he anti-Frank majority of the bc rd. The five appointed by Gover: brs other than Mr. La Follette are in favor of Dr. Frank. : ; The Milwaukee Journal, seel ng a form of control less political, ¢ iggests that one-third of the regt iis be selected by the Wisconsin | upreme Court, one-third by he alumni and one-third by the Gov ir-

nor. Whatever the merits of the c ntroversy at Wisconsin, whatever ne details that emerge and whoeve: is most in the right, one fundamer al lesson of it will be that control of universities by government has d: ngers which Americans can only gard with watchfulness. “Gove nment control” sounds more pal iable than “political control.” I at the two tend to be inseparable. To Americans, the new expe iments in society and government n Europe can have a supreme vali e. They can show us what to ave i. What teacher in America, or wi it intellectual, or what average citiz: 1, would like to see teaching in Am¢ - ica regimented as Germany | :S regimented ‘it — universities a d

De Be

Mussolini into halting the campaign. In effect, Mussolini said (and I learned in Italy how well he meant it): “Get out of the Mediterranean or we will destroy: the entire British fleet.” Radio flashes from Whitehall St. split the British fleet into two sections. One anchored off Gibraltar, the other off Alexandria. Both screamed for anti-air-craft protection. The bluff hadn’t worked. Time has disclosed that it was| good for Britian that her ships did drop their mud hooks. In Italy I saw the men and the bombers which comprise that reason, and I learned the orders they had volunteered to obey. n 4 2 ULLY behind their inspirational leader, the Italians were ready to inforce his unspoken ultimatum. The air fleet morale was at a white heat, straining at the leash and eager to go. With negligible sea power, Italy turned to its air force to handle, the British. Where the dramatic and desperate method for carrying out the ultimatum originated will never be known. But here is the plan, as I learned it in Italy. Mussolini called for 40 huge bombing planes each to be crammed full of explosives, upward of 5000 pounds. Flying at a great altitude to escape the antiaircraft guns, the bombers were to seek out the British fleet, and each bomber was to take a predetermined ship as its target. Each plane was to stand squarely on its nose and dive straight down. If hit by an anti-aircraft gun, the plane was still in line to do its damage. With any luck, though, the pilot should be able to dive his plane smack on the-decks of his target boat—*right down the smokestack!”—and die, His duty done, as the enemy ship sank under the explosion. Mussolini called it the “Desperado Squadron,” and he called for volunteers from a crack outfit. Europe may well look to things like this, and anticipate her next war, It will strike from the skies like a flash of lightning.

NEXT—Hatching War Birds.

KNOW YOUR INDIANAPOLIS

The first three postal zones of Indianapolis embrace all of

xcept a small tip of hjgan. Considerably more ° than \ one-half of the United - Sta eq lies within the fifth zone

? nu [4

Our Town

BUT for Christmas and the fact that it brought a lof of college lads and lassies home for the holidays, 1 wouldn’t be in a position to tell you that Sarah Bernhardt was born in Cedar County, Iowa, and not in Paris, France, as the Encyclopedia Brittanica would have everybody believe. B } The story, fantastic as any brought home by the youngsters, came to me by way of a University of

Chica lassie who crosses her heart and swears that she got it straight from a Cedar County native, who, in turn, swears that he got it from one Scott Finefield, another Cedar County native. Mr. Finefield has every right to be heard, because the way the stor turns out, he’s the man who knows for sure that Sarah Bernhardt was his mother’s sister. Which, course, gives him a perfect and plausible right to call himself nephew of the Divine Sdrah. According to this strange. tale] Sarah Bernhardt was Sarah King, born and bred in Rochester, Iowa, Her mother (and the mother of Mr} Finefield’s mother, too, for that matter) died when |Sarah was 5, and the ‘child, unhappy in her stepmother’s home, ran away, joined a froupe of traveling players in Musca= tine,©Iowa, and finally landed in a| French convent in St. Paul. Eventually she arrived im Paris, France,

Mr. Scherrer

# ” #"

But She Wouldn't Repent

HEN the family back home repented, stubborn Sarah, apparently, did not, because it’s pretty well known by this time that Sarah carried the secret of her early Iowa childhood to her French grave. The people around Cedar County maintain, however, that Sarah loved her family up to the time of her death. At any rate, up to the year 1905. In proof of which they cite the story that in 1905, a heavily veiled, richly dressed woman, carrying a long pasteboard box, alighted from a south-bound Rock Island train at West Branch, Iowa, which is the nearest railroad station to Rochester. She hired a livery rig and driver from a local stable and drove to the Rochester cemetery gate, where she dismissed the carriage and asked the driver to return in half 2n hour. : : : " After the mysterious woman had been returned vo the station, the curious driver rushed back to the cemetery where ha found a hugh bpuquet of very exe pensive roses on the grave of Mrs. |King. He discove ered, too, that some mussel shells had been removed from the plot, presumably for keepsakes.

2 a 8

Strange, Isn't It?

Graanony enough, Sarah Bernhardt was touring America at the time and had appeared in a nearby Iowa city the night before. Stranger still is the fact that the man who directed the mysterious woman to the grave was Fred Finefield, brother of Scott and nephew of Sarah. It’s a good yarn, anyway. Indeed, it's on a par with that other one they used to tell back in 1905 when Mme. Bernhardt, frail and brittle, essayed the tear= jerking role of Camille from one end of the country to the other. Back in 1905 when people wanted to pe funny, they used to say: “An empty cab drove up and Sarah Bernhardt got out.”

A Woman's View

‘By MRS. WALTER FERGUSON

E are enjoying a great boom in real estate, although a stranger in the average city would find few evidences of it. For this boom, like all the others we have known, applies largely to thé habi=tations of the well-to-do. The poor still live in their hideous houses, and the back streets are so ugly they would take the heart out of- the happiest person, : ?

| Fortunately the Government has done something to improve the architecture of small homes. But if will take a hundred years to rebuild our shanty towns and make them habitable for humans. With all the money we waste on municipal gove ernment it should be possible to scrape up enough to employ a good architect who might furnish free designs to people too poor to hire expensive blue= printers. Small houses can be just as charming as large ones and Poverty Rows might be as beautiful as the boulevards if we used some taste in their planning. - i And after all, aren't these slums a part of the whole of which we are dlways so proud? The woman who goes out in an expensive gown with rundown shoes, torn gloves and shabby accessories is never called well dressed. The wife who spends all her allowance on furnishings for the parlor, leaving her kitchen like a pigsty, is not spoken of as a good housewife. Yet we point to our few skyscrapers and extrayagant estates as evidence that our cities are

remarkable. i | And they are—remarkable ‘for the wide differ= ‘ences which exist between the dwelling places of the rich and those of the poor—remarkable for the smugness which invades us when a score of rich men build new homes while a thousand score of poor ones continue to pay rent for houses‘ which are not fit for the occupancy of a self-respecting dog. Wherever the skyscrapers leave off, the shacks and shanties begin. Pallid children play in the dump and garbage heaps; bowed old women shuffle through ugly rooms which lack decent plumbing, and on ten million farms there is nothing that could be called by any word so grandiose as real estate. .

Your Health

By DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN

Editor, Amer. Medical Assn. Journal

T has not been proved that removal of infected tonsils early in youth will invariably prevent heart disease, infected joints, or other manifestations, We know, however, that such ailments may result from infected teeth or from infections elsewhere in the body. It has been proved that infected tonsils result in such secondary complications sufficiently often to make& their removal desirable when infection occurs. N Children - who have large tonsils or have had diphtheria continue to carry diphtheria germs in their throats after they have recovered. Removal of the tonsils lessens the danger of spreading diphtheria : Some 15 years ago, 1000 children in Rochester, N. Y., had their tonsils removed when they were 5 or 6 years old. Careful records were kept of these children and of 1000 other children of the same age who did not have their tonsils removed ag that time. ; A recent comparison showed that sore throat did not occur as frequently or as severely in the children who had their tonsils removed as in those who did not. And the children without tonsils had. fewer colds than the others. It was noted, also that such infectious conditions as diphtheria and scarlet fever were slightly more frequent in those with tonsils

than in those without.

This evidence should indicate quite certainly the importance of having tonsiis removed when they are infected or enlarged. It is not, however, suf= ficient to warrant removal of tonsils whether or no§ they are diseased. Tonsil operations have been so perfected that they are now conducted with a high degr of!

If the child is in a good hospital, if there is suitable arrangement for anesthesia, and if the : adequate, the parents need anti

1.)

safety. -