Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 21 January 1937 — Page 13

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FROM INDIANA

ERNIE PYLE

A LBUQUERQUE, N. M., Jan. 21.—Albuquerque draws me to it like a magnet.

I've been here three times now in less than

two years.

I come for two reasons: (1) I know

some grand people here, and (2) I'm always

hoping that on the next trip I'll find something in Albuquerque to write about, but I never do. For example, on this visit my friends and I sat

down and thought up four good stories for me to get, and then we started on our rounds. Here's what happened:

Ruth Hammer, the mountain- |

climbing girl who has scaled peaks all over the world, was in Colorado Springs on vacation. Elfredo Baca, who has Killed nine men, was in bed with the flu » “and couldn’t be seen. Erna Ferguson and Gilberto Espinosa, who were going to tell me : about the Coronado Cuarto, were away and nobody knew when they’d be back. Father Hartman, priest at the Isleta Indian Pueblo, showed me like a tourist through his church, then thanked me for coming, held out his hand and said goodby. , So I came back to town and went to Irene Fisher and said: “Irene, in mercy’s name stop the presses and let's go out and see your boxcar. Maybe I can write something about it. Irene Fisher lives in a boxcar four miles north of town. Irene is no tramp, and she lives in a boxcar

© on purpose, because she's arty like the people up "at Santa Fe.

” ” s Paid $40 for Car SHE bought an old refrigerator car from the rail“road. Paid $40 for it. Then she paid a trucker

'$40 to get it out there. Then she went to work.

In one end she built a bunk, crosswise, the kind of

punk ship’s officers have in their cabins. Beneath it, instead of drawers, is another bed which slides out. This is the “guest room.” - From the end, back beyond the big doors in the middle, is one room. Then there is a partition, with a door. Next is the kitchen and a coal stove, for heating. And beyond that, in the far.end, is the bathroom. The thing doesn’t seem cramped at all. You'd be surprised how homey a boxcar can be. Irene has electric lights and running water. She has pictures on the walls, and bookshelves, and rugs on the floor and a table and chaise lounge in the middle. She says the only thing wrong with it is that the railroad very carefully painted out all the bawdy poems that knights of the road always write on the

inside of boxcars. = u ”

Can’t Back to Park

NE of my friends here in Albuquerque has a O strange little affliction—he can’t back into a parking place. That in itself isn't so odd, but the strange part is that he has been driving for 25 years, and always-could back into a parking place all right, until all of a sudden cne day he forgot how. And he has never been able to do it since. Sometimes he has to go blocks from his office to find a place big enough to park head-on.

Mrs.Roosevelt's Day

By ELEANOR ROOSEVELT ASHINGTON, Wednesday.—If anyone asked me my impression of the day so far, I would say umbrellas and more umbrellas! The President's usual luck in weather doesn't always hold, and today bad weather reigns, the rain simply coming down in torrents.

Last evening after the dinner to the various heads

of campaign committees at National Democratic Headquarters, we had the pleasure of hearing two of the D’Oyly Carte Company opera singers in a really delightful program. Miss Cecil and Mr. Oldham each sang groups of songs and then sang two together, one an old English song of which I am especially fond, “The Keys of Heaven.” After our guests went home I spent a few minutes with a basket of mail and then finished reviewing a book for the Junior Literary Guild. Bright and early this morning I looked out at the rain coming steadily down and thought of all the people who would be disappointed in not seeing and hearing the President make his second inaugural address. At 9 o'clock I was presented with some beautiful violets brought down by Miss Burns of Dutchess County, New York, where they are grown, and the entire family went out with bunches of violets. At 10 o'clock we all went over to St. John’s Church, and here began some of the mishaps which are bound to happen on any day like this. Two of my grandchildren had gone over ahead of me and, for some reason, the policemen refused to let their car stop and they went round. and round the block. The service was half through before they were brought in! I brought them home with me in the car and from that time on I kept my family together. Up at the Capitol I could not find some of my friends whom I wanted to get under shelter, so, with my youngest son, I wandered around through the section where their seats were trying to find them. I was greeted by all kinds of people who did not happen to be the particular ones I was looking for. Finally the ceremonies began and wet and cold as we all were, and hardened as I am to official occasions, I could not hear the oath of office being taken by the Vice President and the President and not realize what ‘it meant for them to assume this responsibility without a catch in my throat. I had read the President's speech before, but even in the rain I felt these were words of sincerity which well expressed the feeling at the opening of the second stage in a long period of change. As we went to the inaugural they drove my husband’s car with the top up, but he insisted on having itt down for the =drive back, so when we reached the White House his head and feet were soaking and [ was pretty well soaked through. In about a minute and a half-I slipped a wet dress off and a dry one on and received my luncheon guests, and now we must go out to view the parade. re

New Books

PUBLIC LIBRARY PRESENTS—

AVE you ever gone in the house reluctantly on a starry night, wishing all the while that you might stay outside and watch the march of the constellations? Here is a book to take care of that situation: ASTRONOMY FOR THE LAYMAN, by Frank Reh (Appleton-Century). It is like taking the heavens into the house with you to have this book within reach. In it the stars not only burn, flash and whirl in the sky; but their effects in the minds of men, the images they have inspired, the figures they have created, all are gathered together with the discrimination of a scholar and the enthusiasm of an astronomer. The author is curator of the American Museum of Natural History. What Gayley’s “Classic Myths” is to mythology, this book is to astronomy. It will delight not only star lovers but will create lovers of stars.

” ” ” : A Those the glowing and sententious pages of

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF G. K. CHESTER-

TON (Sheed & Ward) pass the great English literary celebrities and politiéal figures of the Victorian era and the 20th Century. Here are the pessimistic Hardy, the elfin Barrie, and- the bellowing Belloc. Here the man who met these celebrities oh their own intellectual sphere rélates also their lighter moods. G. K. CHESTERTON was born in a “world where the word respectability was not yet a term of abuse but retained some dim philological connection with the idea of being respected.” His early childhood, his

school days, the period of his youth that was filled

with doubts and morbidities, his transition from agnosticism to the Roman Catholic faith, all are recounted in this full and pointed autebiography. -

vi x

! sight.

| nent on account. of its red color, ap-

The Indianapolis

Second Section

THURSDAY, JANUARY 21, 1937

Entered as Second-Class Matter Indianapolis,

“at Postoffice,

Ind.

PAGE 13

America, in terms of its

corner of a fruit-jar factory.

Mr. Ball’s lap never shook his

office wall.

hard. I still do. But I never in a day, and I don’t now.”

Unwillingly Forced Into

By WILLIS THORNTON NEA Service Staff Correspondent

UNCIE, Ind., Jan. 21.—One of the great fortunes of

influence in a variety of in-

dustries, and perhaps even in cash assets, is today directed from a small, unpretentious ground-floor office in the

In this office, between an old-fashioned mahogany desk and a plain flat-topped table, George Alexander Ball has for 15 years maintained his headquarters. The fact that sudden death of the Van Sweringen brothers dumped more than 200 corporations squarely into

poise.

The fact that 23,000 miles of railroad suddenly began to look to him for direction never shifted a paperweight on the mahogany desk or tilted the oil painting of “Burns Writing the Cotter's Saturday Night” that hangs on the

The deluge of detail and press of policy-making which swept over Mr. Ball never made him raise his voice. “It is nothing new to me,” he says. “I always worked

worked more than 24 hours

Square-shouldered and assured in manner despite his 74-years, Mr. Ball was a man of wide interests, travel-

ing constantly, long before & the Van Sweringen “railroad empire” became his. The baldish, gray-mustached man with the soft voice and the quietly dignified manner had been a financial and industrial power for years. But his faithful adherence to the “home town,” where he and hi§ brothers made their fortunes and became Muncie’s “first citizens,” left the rest of the country ignorant of a growing center of influence in the nation’s financial and industrial fields.

= 3 3 rR. BALL has spent little time

in recent years, and still less of late, in the corner office. He literally lives on Pullmans. The Van Sweringens, whose “railroad empire” Mr. Ball now controls, traveled in their own

private car. But Mr. Ball takes any Pullman berth that happens to be open, and rather prides himself (at 74) on the agility with which he can scramble into an upper. Like as not he’ll stand in line at the station to buy his own ticket, and wait in line in the morning to shave in the dressing room. Muncie people will tell you of running into Mr, Ball in a daycoach seat, with papers and documents spread all over the seat across from him. Mr. Ball himself says he recalls no such incident, but it would certainly dovetail nicely with his customary informal, almost casual, manner of life. Mr. Ball never flies, and probably never will. A hephew, Frank Ball Jr. was Killed not long since, flying his own plane. Immaculately dressed in neat gray suits which, with horn-rim-

med nose-glasses, lend an air of quiet distinction, Mr. Ball never

has had a valet, a personal serv- |

ant, or until very recently a chauffeur. He still likes to drive his own car whenever circumstances warrant. Mr. Ball's remarkable physical agility is more than matched by a mental alertness which grasps the whole content of a letter or book page before the average person would be well started with it. He makes decisions quickly, finally. ” 8 s : R. BALL'S love for work is so great that he takes on much detail which most executives would leave for others. His evident unfamiliarity with the details of the Van Sweringen properties is not characteristic. But his lack of clarity about such details before the Senate Interstate Commerce Committee is understandable. Less than 30 days before, Mr. Ball had been, largely by a trick of fate, transformed from a mere investor and financial mentor into the directing head of a vast railroad organization. His characteristics as directing head of an intimately known business and as investor in “outside” enterprises have shown a variance. At times, in deals where he figured as investor or financial mentor rather than as manager, he has shown a willingness to take risks when the opportunity seemed unusual. In such cases he often has given the deciding weight to men rather than to concrete proposals on their own abstract merit. He knew the Vans and their method of operating, and he trusted them. The proposition was intriguing. He went in. Now he has the unexpected job of selecting from the tangled

L/,

GEORGE A. BALL—_MODEST HOOSIER

S. Limelight by Van Sweringen Deaths

George A. Ball

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skein of the Van Sweringen organization those sound elements which both he and the Vans believed underline it. An elder in the First Presbyterian Church for many years, Mr. Ball still attends services whenever he can. ” ” » J N both office and home is lodged

the collection of books with

which. Mr. Ball occupies spare time. He belongs to the Grolier Society of book collectors. Even so busy a man has had time to collect rare items, George Washington letters, early Bibles, and a complete set of letters written by signers of the Declaration of Independence. For a time children’s books fascinated him, from the point of view of studying the differences of education of the young years ago and today. Fresh from a series of train trips, and from endless conferences on the complex Van Sweringen interests, Mr. Ball returns to his small Muncie office. It is 5:30 p. m.

VENUS IS TO BE AT GREATEST DISTANCE FROM SUN ON FEB. 7

(Copyright. 1937. by Science Service) OST conspicuous object in the XL evening sky this month is the planet Venus, shining in the West. For several months it has been drawing east of the sun, and on Feb. 7 will be at its greatest distance, setting longest after sunset. Then it will approach the sun again, but it will continue to brighten, for, at the same time, it will be swinging around on the side of the sun nearest the earth. At the beginning of this month its distance is some 66,-

be less than 40,000,000 miles away. As it gets nearer, its brightness increases, until March 12, after which it will rapidly fade as it comes between the earth and sun, lost in the glare of the latter body. Since Venus is a planet like the earth, its only light comes from the

minated hemisphere will turn away’ from us. At 6:50 p. m. (Indianapo-{ iis Time) on Feb. 14, the moon, then a young crescent, passes Venus, about six moon-diameters to the north. On the evening of that date the two objects will form a striking

” » 2

ATURN is also visible in the evening this month, though nearer the sun than Venus. It is not indicated on the maps because it sets earlier thah the hours, for whigh they are drawn (i.e., 11 p. m. on Feb. 1, 10 p. m. on Feb. 15, and 9 p. m. on Feb. 28). But if you look to the west, about 8 p. m. at the beginning of the month you will see it almost directly below Venus. It is considerably fainter, though brighter than any star in that part of the sky. As for the other planets, Mars promi-

pears in the east soon after midnight. Jupiter, toward the end of the month, will be visible low in the southeast, just before sunrise. Mercury will be a morning star, visible in the eastern twilight before dawn, for a few days about Feb. 17. The stars, each one a glowing globe of gas like our sun but millions of times farther away, shine brilliantly this month. Brightest is Sirius, the dog-star, in Canis Major, the great dog, to the south. Above and to the right is Orion, the warrior, with two first magnitude stars, Betelegeuse and Rigel, as well as a number only slightly less conspicuous, such as the three in a row that form the warrior’s belt. Still higher and farther west is ruddy

006,000 miles, but on March 1 it will |~

sun, and at the same time the illu- |,

[Aldebaran,’ in Taurus, the bull,

FEBRUARY 1937

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outh WEST

SYMBOLS FOR STARS IN ORDER OF BRIGHTNESS

BOVE Canis Major is Canis Minor, the lesser-dog, with Procyon and above him are the twins, Gemini, with Pollux. Almost directly overhead, at the times of the maps, is Capella, in Auriga, the charioteer. The eighth star of the first magnitude now visible is to be

Insulin Seen

seen in the East—Regulus, marking the constellation of Leo, the lion. The familiar great dipper stands in the northeast, its handle downward, and the pointers, indicating the direction of Polaris, the Pole Star, above. Cassiopeia, the queen, shaped like a letter W on its side, the top to the right, is about the same height to the northwest.

Insanity Aid

By DAVID DIETZ Times Science Editor

aw already famous for its usefulness as a treatment of diabetes, may turn out to be the means of curing insanity. It is still too early to say so definitely, but medical men are having unusual success in the treatment of schizophrenia with insulin, Another name for schizophrenia is

dementia praecox. . It is characterized by a gradual disorganization of

‘| the personality and is accompanied

by fantastic delusions and hallucinations. : The new insulin treatment is known as Sakel’s hypoglycemic therapy after its inventor, Dr. Manfred Sakel. It is also known as the insulin shock treatment. | In the treatment of schizophrenia, e patient is deliberately given a ose of insulin which is large ough to cause hypoglycemia or insulin shock. -

a

An hour ago the lights wnt down in the adjoining general ifice, covers went over typewrit is. Only a faint hum comes from le plant where clanking machiri ty produces rows of new bottles on rows of endless belts, all ni hat long. : It is dark, and the lights of passing cars flash directly bene: th the office windows. But Mr. Ill is still at his desk. If the tremendous responsikili-

ties of the complex Van Swerin-

gen “empire” stunned Mr. Bail a little, they plainly do not overs ve him. Tele. : “JQ USINESS recovery is soli” assures this man, who Siiiator Wheeler said has made $1.000,000 in paper profits since ¢- quiring the Vans’ interests foi a financial song. “It will progr: ss still further. It will absorb a large part of the, present une iployed. “But there always will be so:iie unemployed, always some discc i= tented people.’ There always hie

been and there always will be.” “Will business as at present con=ducted in the United States be able to bring about general and widespread presperity again?” . “It depends on what you mean by ‘business as at present conducted’,” replied Mr. Ball, musingly. “Business as organized at present is not static. The keynote of the present system is its adaptability. “It will change. It is changing here, and it is changing in all countries. But our own system, because of its adaptability, is most likely to survive.” This man with the firm, youthful face, the broad, strong-looking shoulders, is putting upon them at 74 a heavy burden of money and industrial responsibility measured ‘by the hundreds of millions invested in a wide range of enterprises.

NEXT—A big fish in a small “pond, George Ball, and the Ball clan now swim in national waters, but Muncie remains their monu- ~ ment,

=

Clapper See: Roosevelt As Big Ian for Big Job

By RAY!!OND CLAPPER

ASHINGTON, Jan. 21.—B: ing the kind of man he is, Pr sident Roosevelt must consider hinself fortunate to hold his powe: at this time, of all others, in histity. The hour is grave at home, ind more so abroad. We have recoveiid from the paralysis of four years ‘zo and now enjoy at least statist ‘al prosperity. But relief rolls tell us that almost as many men {nd women as ever have to be fed by public funds. Millions still are : nable, although willing, to earn (he necessaries of life in private i¢ctivity. Labor wars tell us’that we have not yet found how to iistribute the rewards of indu:iry satisfactorily. We have not et even established that the Fed: al Government has the power to d al, as it should, with social iid economic conditions which affect iis 2 ns we have barely begun fo subdue modern society and make it our servant instead of our masi:r. In the recent election we registe id

our hope and belief that Mr. Roo &- |

velt would do this. The job is j&t to be done. 1 Abroad they are making an eii'n worse mess of it. Europe’s old fel is are flaming again, intensified by ile new political religions of fasci in and communism which feed ito traditional rivalries the fury of n &- dieval holy wars. These new |[inaticisms scoff at democracy as a weak, flabby, outworn instituticn, a helpless dinosaur with a big ba'ly but no brains, incapable of adaj(ing itself to modern life, and doom :d in the struggle of nations for exi ience. ” ” ” OU can imagine a mode Hamlet wringing his hands ‘a despair at being called to set arig!it times so out of joint. The job is hard enough and serious enough 0 quail stronger men than Hamlet. it

requires great ability, great con i-

i

KNOW YOUR INDIANAPOLIS

The Police Department of approximately 565 members, including 18 women, is maintained ‘at an &nnual cost of nearly $1,050,000. ;

dence, much luck, and then you are never sure of succeeding. But being the kind of man he is, President Roosevelt undoubtedly looks upon the next four years, as he did upon his first four, as an opportunity which takes its measure from the size of the task. The more difficult the assignment, the greater the achievement in fulfilling it. After the November election, the London Economist told the story of Roosevelt better than anyone in the United States has put it: “The people will forgive the bold experimentalist his occasional erro.s in grati= tude for his strenuous good intentions. They will never tolerate the cautious pedant who waits before moving to be sure that every last detail of his plan is approved by the orthodox, and consequently seems never to move at all. . . . Politics is the art of the possible, not the science of the ideal. It is the Roosevelts, who with all their faults and inconsistencies, become, and deserve to become, the great statesmen.” : ” ® ” ERTRUDE ATHERTON, in her \¥ novelized biography of Alexander Hamilton, “The Conqueror,” has Governeur Morris say to Madi-

son: “You will go down to posterity

as a great man, Madison, if you.

are never given the chance to be one.” : The opposite is likely to be the case with Mr. Roosevelt. into office four years ago rated as a little light for the job. On that raw, rainy inaugural day I stood with a group in the Willard Hotel, watching the parade. The Tammany delegation was marching along Pennsylvania Ave. Al Smith was in it. Several in our group said simultaneously, “Isn't it too bad that Al Smith isn’t in the White House today?” The opportunity which = had wrecked Mr. Hoover enabled Mr. Roosevelt to show his true size. In public affairs, greatness is partly in the man, partly in the times. Now Mr. Roosevelt has another opportunity. It is different, but as large, as the one he had four years ago. We have asked him to help us make democracy work, to continue to use his leadership and his talents as a political craftsman, to make this house of self-government a haven of the good life in a world where there isn’t much of it left. It is a big order. But we're giving it to a pretty big man,

*

He came |

Our Town

By ANTON SCHERRER

T’S high time I was getting around to a piece about the old-time beer gardens. For two reasons: (1) Because nobody to my knowledge has ever taken the pains to appreciate—much less, appraise—the old-time beer garden for its own values; and (2) if I don’t get around to it nobody else will. The earliest beer garden I can remember was the

one called Phoenix Garden, at the southwest corner

of Meridian and Morris Sts. It occupied a quarter of a block, or. so it seemed, but that didn’t cypfive it of the quality of coziness Indeed, now that I look back, the old garden was full of paradoxes like that. For example, it was picturesque, despite the fact that the scenery was reduced to a minimum; and it was decorative, despite the fact that nobody had gone to the trouble to make it so. The fact of the matter was that the old-time beer garden had the sense to depend on the patrons inside for the decorative effect. To tell the truth, the old-time beep garden didn’t fritter away its strength on nonessene tials. It stuck sound drinking. In the case of the Phoenix Garden, there were only a few trees and not more than a dozen lamp posts, thus enabling one te see the stars at night. This was important, because

when I was a little boy, it was deemed a rare privilege to listen to music under the stars.

Ld ” 2

12-Piece Band Played Strauss

plo GARDEN had a latticed stand along its west boundary, and there every Saturday night and sometimes during the week, a 12-piece band was stationed to play the Strauss things, and those by Von Suppe, Walsteufel and Offenbach. This was, of course, before Victor Herbert had everything sewed up. I don’t think I ever heard the “Poet and Peasant” overture—especially the Peasant part—played better than it was in Phoenix Garden. And I still think that the stars, and the fact that I had a bottle of red pop in front of me, had something to do with the band’s performance. ; Of course, I remember er beer gardens, too. There was Root’s Gardenybn S. Meridian St. near Norwood St., and there wés another one at East and

Washingion Sts. which served a mighty good turtle up.

Mr. Scherrer

San = 60-Piece Band at Fairbank

Meste under the stars came to Indianapolis in a 4 big way when somebody had the vision to start Fairbank, It occupied the greater part of what is now the St. Vincent's Hospital site. It went way down to the edge of the creek. The enormous size of the place called for a bigger band, of course, and that’s exactly what happened, because when Fairbank was’ ‘going good at the close of the century, it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary to have a different 60-piecy band here every week. We didn’t have to wait for State Fair week for one to show up. I can’t remember all the big bands that were here at the time, but I seem to recall. those led by Creatore . and Kryl—the one, a swarthy Italian and the other a blond Bohemian, and it was fun to see how the two temperaments responded to the spell of the stars, Gosh, it was beautiful, especially when they put everything they had into the playing of the overture to “William Tell.” I don’t know whether it was a mate

ter of accident or design, but played under the stars,

the “William Tell” overture always made me feel like drinking another glass of beer. Somehow. I pity the thirsty youngsters of today who have to sit in a stuffy room listening to.a radio.

A Woman's View

By MRS. WALTER FERGUSON PEN Letter to Mrs. William Mattson: = If words can penetrate the dark cavern - where your spirit takes refuge to brood upon its wrongs, then a million American mothers would speak to you. I think this would be their message: Our hearts bleed, our tears fall, our souls shudder as we keep sorrowful vigil with you. If thoughts have power to travel as light does, and if Heaven heeds first the prayers we say for others, then God will lend you His peace. From some far space there must come balm to-ease your anguish. With you we go a little way toward Gethsemane, even though our feet may not travel any farther than its outer gate, and our vision loses you as you enter its deepest shadow. We think of your travail there, and our souls are sick with pity and anger and hurt. We know your eyes see sights that ours may not look upon; the quick flash of your son’s smile, the - grace of his body, the touch of his hands upon your face—all the tender secret memories which are yours alone and which none may share. From what comes after, we shrink and hide our faces. You cannot do that. On and on and on, over and over, the dreadful pictures rise, pictures of a trusting little boy looking his first upon Evil that lives in men’s eyes—but Stop! This is unbearable to us. What must it then be to you, his mother. Yet surely some angel hand was thrust between him and the ultimate horror. Death with its sweet sleep has blotted out that experience, as only death could ever rescue him from its remembrance. It is not grief alone we feel for you. It is penitence «nd shame for ourselves. We regret our part in the ong accumulation of events which led to the tragedy that places you among the martyr mothers of our generation. Well do we know we are all—every man and woman in the United States—to blame that your son is dead, so wantonly, so cruelly. Have we not condoned graft and theft in high places? And when dishonor is condoned in high places, crime festers in low. Have we not loved too well the things that money buys? And when strong people love money too much, weak people get it in any way they can. We have been careless of our political honor, negligent of our personal integrity, and in business we have forgotten the ways of God. - :

Your Health

By DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN

Editor, American Medical Assn. Journal

RDINARILY, when the skin is cut or when there is a wound in any other part of the body, the blood, after a brief flow, will begin to thicken, or coagulate, a clot will form, and the bleeding will stop. Though this process has been known for many years, the nature of coagulation is not yet fully

: understood.

We do know, however, that clotting of the blood depends on many factors, both chemical and physical, and that interference with any one of these factors may disturb the whole process so that clotting of the blood is delayed or inhibited completely. Anyone can see that it is immensely important to stop the flow of blood, because otherwise the victim will die. For that reason, many methods have been developed for testing the coagulation time. After a surgeon has studied the length of time required for clotting, the firmness and consistency of the clot, and other factors by which he can decide whether normal coagulation may be expected, he then can decide whether to operate. One of the factors definitely concerned in clotting is the number of platelets in the blood. In addition to the red and the white blood cells, the blood cone tains certain formed elements known as platelets. Methods' have been developed for counting the platelets exactly as the red and white blood cells are counted. Another test commonly used is that of bleeding time. Ordinarily, if a finger or ear is punctured with a sharp needle and the blood wiped off with a piece of gauze or blotting paper at regular intervals, preferably every minute, the bleeding will stop in less than three minutes.