Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 5 April 1937 — Page 9

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Vagabond

FROM INDIANA

ERNIE PYLE EW YORK, April 5.—Nila Mack says she doesn’t know what she is. They're always moving her arouad. “I'm like the old man’s long beard,” she says. “They don’t know whether to put me under the

covers, or on top.” But whatever else she is, Nila Mack is one of those indispensable and almost anonymous behind-the-scenes characters without whom we couldn't have any 1adio progr=ms. a radio producer, player. She’s a jack-of-all-trades, a horse for work, and a doubler-in-brass. : Officially, she’s in charge of children’s hours for the Coiumbia Broadcasting System. She writes, directs, rehearses and puts on the air four shows a week, designed for children and played by children. g Nila Mack has no children of her own. she ever saw a child until they ; threw her into this job six years ago. But she’s learned a lot about kids in that time. She even finds herself becomirg rather fond of them. Nila Mack is a typical New Yorker. In other

Mr. Pyle

words, she was born in Arkansas City, Kas. look | piano lessons and went to school, got stage-struck | and toured with a repertoire company, came to New | (who s:éw her |acting in Chi- | cago), drifted from stage into radio, and here she is. | She is very blond, a widow smokes menthol ciga- | reis, won't tell how old she is, lives in Greenwich | Village, loves to dance, has # caustic wit, is pretty | well satisfied with life in a niildly cynical way, and |

York with Nazimova

does a good job of her job. Miss Mack has about 200 Greater New York area whom she can summon almost instantly. Out of thete 200 she can fill any radio child part imaginable,

2 ® Replenishes Reservoir

ECAUSE | children move sway, Or grow up, or their voices start changing, she has to replenish her reservoir once in a while. So she holds auditions about every three months. : She finds that girls are usally better than boys. Less self-conscious, and more eager to become stage and radio stars. And she find: children much better than the accompanying parents. ” In auditioning, her main interest is in how kids carry through when they get balled’ up. She doesn't pay much attention to the little piece theyre reciting, for she knows they've been practicing on it for months. But she purposely distracts them, to see how they’ll do when thrown o.f the track. Poise and presence are what she’s looking for. She has these qualities in her 200. Many times something unexpected has hajpened during a show and the children have had to ad-lib and think fast on their feet. And not once has there ever been a blank space on the air becalise a kid got rattled. 8 n 3

Prima Donna Performaiice

| AISS MACK gets some great. little prima donnas in the auditions. She holds most of the tests right irr her office. She has a a goldfish bowl. . | One day fond parents brcught girl. Miss Mack stood the chilc up on the davenport,

and told ner to shoot. The kid said she wouldn't start |

till her father was out of the room. So he left, and the child siarted. But Miss Mack caught her looking out of the corner of her eye, and suddenly the child stopped &nd stomped her foot

and velled, “The goldfish isnlt listening!” That was | all for dear little girl that day Or any other day. =~ | She gets a lot of mail from kids who listen to the | The finest letter she ever got was a | child's scrawl on a postcard. it said merely, “I love |

programs.

yeur hour.”

Mrs.Roosevelt's Day

By ELEANOR ROOSEVELT

EW YORK, Sunday.—Since’ my return from my |

lecture trip, I have been anxious to go to Hyde Park to see how the building operations at our cottage are progressing. Until yesterday duties in Washington made this imposs:ble.

Some people can look at a plan and visualize the |

finished rooms. Unfortunately I am not gifted that way. Building operations carried on by mail are therefore particularly unsatisfactory! to me even when, as in this case, it 1s jus: a question of making over a new building to serve new purposes. The day was beautiful but it was cold in spite of the sun. On the way up via the eastérn parkway, which I had never been ojer before, we drove through a 15-minute snowstoim. The whole parkway runs through lovely country and avoids city and road traffic. Luckily the morning mail brought me a request from Miss Kilmer in the villiige, for some weaving lessons, so I stopped off to see our one good weaver, Mrs. Johanssen, and made tiie necessary -arrangements. She can now produce homespun of a quality comparable to that which one buys in Scotland, Ireland or Canada from the various cottage industries. r Until now I have never bien able to produce a sufficient quantity to warran; trying for a steady market and have sold only to individuals. Just as in other parts of the country however, it has been found that good material find: a ready sale so I believe we can market dress, suit and coat material here if the quality is good. I think weaving would be a good occupation on farms during the long winter months. It is one of the things ‘which can be produced at home if the inspection of the work is doie in a central place. The overhead is low, so more can go into labor. No material I know of meets sport needs so well; ifs only drawback is its durability. When I was young my thrifty grandmother often made over my youthful aunt’s dresses for me and I hated it! At least two people should get good wear out of a piece of homespun before it is discarded.

New Books

PUBLIC LIBRARY PRESENTS—

ARTICULARLY for readers who enjoy novels of the soil or novels with a European History background, MARA" (Crowell), by Stoyan Christowe, is worth while reading. The story revolves around the young widow of a Macedonian executed by the Turks for revolutionary leadership, and. her son Paul, destined for similar political hegemony and its consequent tragic results. With the passing of time, Mara grows closer to the soil, while Paul becomes increasingly active m revolutionary programs. Their respective work draws them apart, leaving the usually happy and energetic Mara with no desire to live. The activities of Paul and his colleagues have incited the wrath of the Turks, who wipe out entire villages of Macedonians in order to curb the uptising. Mara is murdered during one of these purges; and Paul, who has already pledged himself to death, is murdered by Turkish officials. Although the author is a4 native of Macedonia, he has written his book in beautiful English.

” ” 2 E wonder whether it will be the student, the

general reader, or the reference worker who will appreciate most Arthur Hobson Quinn's AMERICAN

FICTION, AN HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL SUR- |

VEY (Appleton-Century).

Prof. Quinn traces the development of both the |

novel and the short story from their tentative beginnings in the late 18th century down to the present. He feels that it is not yet possible to evaluate the works of our new fiction writers and does not include any author who has entered the field since 1920—but brings down to 1936 the discussion of all living writers included. He criticizes keenly, praises warmly, and includes many quotations,

She is ; a writer, a

In fact I'm not sure -

*hildren on tap in the |

davenport there, and !

in a 3-year-old |

LA as P ;

4

The Indianapolis Times

- -

i Second Section

. MONDAY, APRIL 5, 1937

tT

Fi tered as Second-Class Matter Indianapoiis,

at Postoffice,

Ind.

PAGE 9

REMEMBER 20 YEARS AGO TODAY?

(Fifth of a Series)

‘By RUTH FINNEY

Times Special Writer ASHINGTON, April 5. — The ‘morning | of April 5, 1917, saw the war resolution passed by the Senate, its opponents denied a hearing by the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and debate started in the House. It had been a 13-hour battle in the Senate, in spite of. Senator. Hitchcock’s plea that “The time for discussion is past.” From 10 in the morning until 11 at night the battle raged. Six men, their backs to the wall, resisted the declaration of war. President Wilson, Admiral Cary Grayson and Alexander H. Galt spent the tense hours just before the rollcall at the Belasco Theater seeing “Very Good Eddie.” = E-3 o ENATOR ROBERT M. 1A FOLLETTE had led the fight against war. He told the Senate it was England, not Germany, that had violated the Declaration of London laying down certain humane rules of naval warfare. “If this is a war upon all mankind is it not peculiar that the United States is the only nation of all the neutrals which regards it as necessary to declare war upon Germany?” he said. ‘All have refused to join in a combination

against Germany. Some may have

a clearer view than we. This suspicion of a desire for war profit does not attach to them.” He predicted that entrance of the United States would lengthen the war. If the United States would not hold a referendum on war it ill became us, he said, to say that the German Government was fighting without the consent of its people. He predicted that Americans would vote 10 to .1 against fighting. Senator John Sharp Williams took the floor when he finished and said La Follette was pro-Ger-man, pro-Goth, pro-Vandal, antiPresident, anti-Congress, and anti- America. | ”n n n "ENATOR GEORGE W. NORRIS referred to [the “dollar ark” on the American flag and was “passionately rebuked by senators as grazing the edge-of treasJ! to quote The Times. The paper continued, in its editorial “The man who really inks in his sober moments that the | American people are going to

Senate Voted for the Declaration of War After a 1 3-Hour Battle

New York’s Preparedness Parade ;

ha N

war with Germany at the bidding of Wall Street: or at the instigation of the metropolitan press is mentally unfit to represent any state of the American Union in the Senate.”

Senator Warren G. Harding made a speech supporting the resolution but denying -that the American people were about to fight for democracy. They were fighting, he said, because of the affronts to their national honor. Senator McCumber asked for a nation-wide referendum but was brushed aside. When the roll was called the men who voted no were Gronna of North Dakota, La Follette of Wisconsin, Lane of Oregon, Norris. of Nebraska, Stone of Missouri and Vardaman of Mississippi. Three were Republicans, three Democrats. s After it was over, Senator Vardaman announced he was going to enlist in the Army.

ECRETARY OF THE TREASURY M’ADOO immediately presented a war budget of $3,400,000,000 and Secretary of War Baker handed the Senate Military Affairs Committee the Administration conscription bill. " Newspapermen covering the State, War and Navy building, feeling change in the air, passed a resolution thanking Gen. Douglas MacArthur for the manner in which he had censored their news stories in the past few weeks. For the United Press, Carl Groat and T. Holman Harvey signed, and for the Scripps-McRae papers, Harry B. Hunt. Among the Associated Press signers was Stephen Early.

That night Sehators La Follette and Stone were hanged in effigy in downtown Washington. Senator La Follette found an iron cross in his mail with a card, “Your reward.”

NEXT—The last mile.

PORTABLE SCHOOL BUILDINGS HERE ARE TO BE REDUCED TO SEVEN

ECENT approval by the Indianapolis School Board of a $100,000 bond issue to replace portable structures at Schools 35 and 47 will reduce to seven the number of portables in use in the Indianapolis school system. Two years ago the National Education Association, after an inquiry

into the nation’s school building:

needs, estimated that 2,700,000 pupils in American schools were housed improperly, using that term to summarize “only the most obvious and deplorable” construction necessities. ~ Of this total, some 1,392,600 students were subjected to the daily peril of attending classes in buildings actually condemned as unsafe or insanitary by fire marshals or health officials. About 1,000,000 were in temporary structures, sometimes even tents were utilized, and 600,000 were allowed only part-time schooling because of critical overcrowding.

” ”n ” HE N. E. A. emphasized further that this report was partial at best, It failed to ferret out thousands of buildings that were lighted poorly, illy ventilated and badly equipped, but which managed, somehow, to dodge outright condemna-

tion. It barely scratched the surface of over crowding. No accurate national statistics are available as to progress in school building construction in the last two “recovery” years. The best opinion is that little has been accomplished, and that the situation todaygsubstantially is unchanged, according to Editorial Research Reports. Breaking the problem down into component parts, the N. E. A. study cited accurate facts and figures to support the conclusion that the nation's 250,000 school buildings were inadequate for the education needs of its 27,000,000 school-age youngsters.

2 ” 2 3 HE study showed, that too many “modern” .school structures actually are hoary with age. Reports from Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Kentucky, Maryland. Michigan, Mississippi,

| South Carolina, South Dakota and | West Virginia, showed 42.328 school

buildings of all types, including 25,772 one-room buildings, in use at the beginning of 1935. Of these, 3204 had been built prior to 1870. Another 14,588 were built in 1870-99. The total that had been constructed in 1900-29 was 22,600

APE'S TEETH REBUILT

—Science Service Photo.

Here is a set of false teeth for an ape made a million years too late for practical use but of vital importance in knowledge of man’s

remote ancestors.

Dr. William K. Gregory of the American Museum

of Natural History, New York City, holds the dental artwork which contains natural fossil teeth belonging to a real prehistoric ape. Scientists are studying the teeth in an effort to learn more of man’s

evolution from an ape-like form.

buildings, and only 1936 buildings hag been completed later than 930.

# 2 #

HE national estimate of 1,392;000 children in buildings condemned as unsafe or insanitary was based on actual reports from 17 jurisdictions, those listed above, except Mississippi and West Virginia, plus Florida, Indiana, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. In these states, 645,034 students (5.3 per cent of the enrollment) were taught daily in condemned structures. Portable or rented structures housed 494,568 students out of total enrollments of 12,305,065 in Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missis= sippi, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

- HEARD IN CONGRESS

Rep. Bigelow (D. 0.)—Mr. Chairman, if any words of mine couid be called oratory, it would still come under the definition of a former Speaker of this House, Joe Cannon, who said that “Oratory in the House is like water going over a dam. It makes a lot of noise but it turns no wheels.”

The speech I am going to make this afternoon will be short, because I know it is utterly in vain. ‘A number of amendments have been proposed. that I would like to have seen adopted. I would like to see our soldiers withdrawn from China. I would like to see a time limit set for the withdrawal of our military forces from the Philippines. I wish there were some way of drawing a distinction between an offensive and defensive war. . . ,

An educated American Indian, addressing a Boston audience, said that he could not claim that his ancestors came over on the Mayflower, as the Boston people did, but that he was quite sure that some of his ancestors were on the reception committee. I am willing to organize the most effective reception committee possible for anybody who comes over here looking for trouble, but my people in Cincinnati understand I am committed to the prin-

{ciple that as long as I have breath

in my body I will vote against an aggressive war and I will never vote

to send an American soldier to fight on foreign soil.

; 2 an ga Rep. John R. Mitchell (D. Tenn.) He (Secretary Hull) is the idol of his party. . . . He is the premier member of the Cabinet. He is a great statesman, a great Democrat, a great Tennesseean, and would make the peo-

ple of the United States a great and good President, 2

EW YORK, April 5. — Since writing a piece about investment trusts in this column, I have had a number of letters asking if I believe the investment trust idea is a good or bad one. Or is it a good idea badly abused? And are there any good trusts? |

The questions are good ones. It is my belief that the investment trust’ is a thoroughly sound investment device. That it is a good investment shamefully mishandled. Also I believe there are some good investment trusts, but they are very few,

I can think of no one more helpless than the investor, particularly the small investor. He has been told that the safest thing in the world is American industry. He knows, that | great numbers of industries make { large profits and expand and de- | velop on those profits. Yet it is a | fact that money invested even in | growing and developing industries | with fine profit histories do not al- | ways yield even a moderate income | return to investors. The industry prospers; but the stockholder does not.

tL 3 ” 2

F this is what happens to the investor in the successful industry, what happens to him when he is unfortunate enough to select a poor one for his money? And how he choose between good and bad? There are almost no sources of sound information open to the small investor. The wealthy man can employ expert investment counsel, the small investor cannot.

There is therefore a real opening for. an institution which is equipped to make studies of investments and employ expert judgment in the

Investment Trust |s Good Device Misused, Flynn Says

By JOHN T. FLYNN

Times Special Writer

selection of securities. This the investment trust can do, if its managers have a mind to do it.

But stocks are risky things. They

may be good today, but not so good tomorrow. You must have expert advice to know. what to buy, but you must also’ know when to dispose of a stock. And incidentally many questions arise for decision affecting stocks, such as the exercise of options, etc. The investment trust can supply this expert management.

2 td 2

HE small investor suffers another great disadvantage. Having only a small amount of money tp invest he cannot buy more than one or two or .three issues. This is not wise investment. His holdings should be spread over a large number of issues, as diversity gives safety. Here again the investment trust can serve him. For by depositing his money with the trust, his funds mingled with the funds of other small investors can be invested in numerous good stocks. The trouble has been that trusts have nots supplied expert advice. The best evidence is that more money was lost by trust investors

than by many utterly inexperienced

dabblers in stock. The trusts were in the hands of men who were using them for other purposes. One essential reform must be legislation which will prevent any organization using the name investment trust which does not conform to certain minimum standards of organization and management. When you buy an investment trust share or certificate now you don't know whether you are buying into a holding company, a stock market, pool or a waste basket for investment bankers.

ASHINGTON, April 5.—Noble causes sometimes ride to glory on the shoulders of less commendable considerations. | It is easy to draw too long a bow over such matters. Yet sometimes you get the impression that the torch of the New Deal is carried, not alone by the forces of idealism, but also with the humble legs of small-time politics. To be specific, there is the case of the Milford postmaster. A small incident, involving a second-class postmastership, but an instructive one. > John F. Curran, of Milford, Mass., has gone into the District of Columbia Supreme Court for a writ of mandamus to compel Postmaster General Farley to give him his commission as postmaster in his home town. #2. nn i NTOW watch closely. Many months ago, examinations were

held for the | the top rating. He was made acting postmaster and his nomination was sent to the Senate. He was confirmed June 8, last year. Then something happened. Jimmy Roosevelt, son of the President, had been playing in Massachusetts politics. He discovered that Mr. Curran had been knocking the New Deal. Mr. Curran seemed to think that Al Smith was a great man. He hadn't played ball with the Roosevelt crowd in the bitter factional fight in Massachusetts. The Postoffice De-

the White House, held up delivery of the commission of Mr. Curran.

Meantime another Milford,

ture, one John E. Higgiston. In fact, he had been there all the time. He, too, had taken the examination for

job. Curran won |

Mass., man has entered the pic-

{

Politics Sometimes Creeps Into New Deal, Clapper Says

By RAYMOND CLAPPER

Times Special Writer

the job but failed to make the grade, although when given a second tryout he was able to qualify. He had other qualifications. He was on the town Democratic committee. More important, apparently, he stood right with the Roosevelt faction in Massachusetts. - ” ”n 2 NYWAY, in February, his nomination for the Milford job was sent to the Senate. The Senate confirmed him March 19. Mr. Curran’s suppressed’ commission gathered dust in Postmaster General Farley's office. Mr. Curran thought the New Deal was giving him a raw deal so he complained. He went *o the Senate Postoffice Committee but was told that the matter was out of its hands. It had approved both White House nominations for the same job, thereby indicating -its impartiality. Then Mr. Curran turned to the courts, as had one William Marbury when President Jefferson refused’ to deliver his commission to be justice of the peace, thereby precipitating the famous Marbury vs. Madison case in which the Supreme, Court for the first time overthrew an act of Congress. On its face this looks like another Marbury vs. Madison case. But .it probably won't turn out that way, because in the famous Myers case some years ago the Supreme Court upheld Wilson's right to remove a postmaster. If the President can re-

| move a postmaster after he is in partment, on a telephone call from |

office, he probably can refuse to go through with an appointment even though the Senate has confirmed it. At any rate, on Wednesday night the Postoffice Department wired Higgiston to take over the Milford Postoffice regardless. He's got the job now,

Our Town

F all the workmen who came to our home around housecleaning time when I was a boy, I remember Henry Avels best. Mr, Avels did our wallpapering. Mr. Avels knew his trade from the bottom up. At any rate, I distinctly recall that

he always started his work with making his own paste. That shows how good he was. He was good at everything else, too, but I think his pride of workmanship asserted itself most when ; it came to matching the pattern of the paper. Wallpapers, when I was a kid, weren't the anemic things they are today. They were replete with incident, even: to the point of telling a story about shepherds and nymphs playing around a Love Temple or something, :and I distinctly recall that Mr. Avels went to no end of houile Io Dresnve the plot of the story. ndeed, Mr. Avels felt so § strongly on the subject that I re- Mr. Sehorrer member his saying once that a prolongedsperiod of convalescence could, as a rule, be attributed to wallpaper that hadn't been matched the way it should have been. Mr. Avels was full of sagacious observations like that. At any rate, he was one of the best talkers I ever knew, and I think the thing that enhanced his conversations more than anything else was his . profound knowledge of relationships around here. Mr, Avels knew how everybody in Indianapolis was related to everybody else. : . I don't know whether you know it or not, but the study of genealogy is more or less like studying an iceberg. An iceberg usually has seven-eighths of ith bulk hidden under water, and that's the way it is with relationships. Anyway, you can only see the part-above water. Well, Mr. Avels knew the submerged part about relationships, too, and you have no idea how it flavored his conversations.

® | » 3 Leiter From London

HAT’S why I distinctly recall one spring morning almost 50 years ago when Mr. ‘Avels showed me a letter addressed to him from London, England. I reaa it, I remember, while he was in the act of compounding his paste. : The letter told about a family who, back in 1600, had to leave Spain in such a hurry that they didn’t have time to take their fortune with them. According to the letter, the size of the fortune was unbelievable, The family got to Holland, I remember, after which all traces seemed to be lost. And except for the resourcefulness of the London people that would have been the end of the story. : But it wasn’t the end of the story, because according to the letter the London people had accounted for the lopg-lost forture—what's more, for all] the de=scendants of the long-lost family—and it was the purpose of the letter, as near as I could make out, to tell Mr. Avels that he was entitled to a big slice of the hidden gold. r : ” ” »

Contribution Asked

F course, it would take a lot of money to swing the deal, said the London people, but if Mr. Avels would come across with his share of the expenses, it was a dead. certainty that he wouldn't have to work any more. : Well, the letter was so convincing that Mr. Avels sent everything he made that year to the London people. Apparently, something went wrong after that, because Mr. Avels kept right on working. Indeed, he worked right up to the day of his death. His death distressed us greatly, especially mother, who was put to an awful lot of trouble looking for another paperhanger as good as Mr. Avels.

A Woman's View

By MRS. WALTER FERGUSON

AM not overly enthusiastic about feminine states= manship, but as |I watch the goings-on of the Oklahoma Legislature—and it probably follows pretty closely the usual legislative fashion—I wish ‘to announce boldly that no bunch of females you might get tcgether could do worse.

With no apparent thought of expense, these fullgrown men are staging the kind of sit-down strike over which our citizens seem entirely unconcerned. Once they get possefsion of the Capitol they simply refuse to adjourn. ; :

When they arent concocting new schemes for taxationy they are quarreling over such weighty matters es gine fishing with worms should be permitted withdyt a license. And as a relief from the monotony of verbal tilts they sometimes fall to fisticuffs, or one of the honorable body may be banished

from the chamber |for bad langauge and general naughtiness. (

| The audacity of linnie conduct is exceeded only by the mendacity of their excuses for it, while the practice of nepotism in which they have continually indulged is an affront to the very name. of the law.

These charges, of course, cannot be madz truthe fully against every member of the body. - But to the average housewife who has enough sense to buy food for the family they appear extravagant, unreasonable, childish dawdlers, with less concern for the State's welfare than the humblest servant feels for that of the family that employs her. No, gentlemen. The mind balks at the thought that even the silliest women God ever created could: have made a worse mess of legislative business than

. the men have already done.

"Your Health

By DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN

Editor American Medical Assn. Journal

1% fever is confused with typhoid fever by many /people, although the condition -is entirely different. The former ailment has at various times been called jail fever, spotted fever, and other names. Today typhus fever seldom occurs.in the United States, but cases still appear throughout the world, particularly in Russia and Polsnd, in northern Africa and South America. . An important fact about this disease is that it is spread by the louse. It is not carried by other insects such as fleas, bugs, or mosquitoes, nor by ma= terials passing from the body of an infected person. Usually {a fortnight, or even as many as 20 days, passes afier a person has been bitten by an infected louse before he suddenly becomes ill with chills and fever: then complains of headache, pains in the back and muscles, and dizziness. * His fever may rise rapidly, reaching 104 degrees in 24 hours, and if he is to recover, will probably drop gradually at the end of the second or third week. Once the infection is established, there may be symptoms affecting the heart, bowels, and nervous system. On the fourth or fifth day of the disease a spotted eruption usually breaks out on the body. At this stage .the patient frequently becomes so sick as to be delirious. After the delirium passes, he may lapse into unconsciousness. : There now are available blood tests which make it possible for a doctor to distinguish between this disease, typhoid fever, and various nervous diseases. Since it now is definitely known that this disease is transmitted by lice, prevention of typhus fever in any community necessitates a complete delousing of the patient and of everybody who: might have been in contact with him. In countries where lice abound, doctors, nurses and attendants are thoroughly protected by special white cotton -or linen clothing which covers them from head to foot. : Today typhus fever is treated with the use of serum from those who have recovered from the condition, and with methods of treatment applied to each of the symptoms as they occur. SL

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