Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 9 June 1937 — Page 13

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- From Indiana—Ernie Pyle Ernie Gets Up at 6 A. M. and

| Crawls Through Hole Again to Be

America's Footloose First Lady

Disappointed by Columbia Gorge.

OWN the Columbia Gorge, June 9.—Good morning, all you listeners-in who are up at 6 a. m., you saps. Bet you can’t guess what I'm doing up at this time of day. I'm crawling through that hole between the cars again. Trying to get

up to the engine cab so I can get the front-end view going down the Columbia River gorge. If I ever get

through that hole I'll describe it tc you.

Yep. Made it. There's some compensation for being skinny after all. Heywood Broun couldn't have made it. And now here we are in the cab, ladies and gentlemen. “Good morning,” says George Williams. He’s a traveling supervisor of engineers. During the night we crossed Idaho and most of Oregon. I never missed a wink. These streamlined trains sure are something to sleep on. “This is Lou Fenton,” says Williams. Lou Fenton is the new engineer, who came on at Pendleton during the night. He’s a big man, with a big voice. I sit down in the fireman’s seat, and Williams sits ‘on ajstool behind me. “We've just passed The Dalles,” he says. “And you've just missed a wonderful sight of Me Hood. We won't see it again,till we get to Portand’! : Ladies and gentlemen, I'm disappointed in the Columbia Gorge. I knew I would be, for I've seen it before and I was disappointed the first time. I thought it would be a gorge half a mile deep, with rock! walls rising straight up on either side, and the railroad hanging on a ledge right over the river. But it isn’t that way. The river is very wide. And it has a small valley. And the mountains (not very big ones) ascend rather gently from either side. You can see a long way. But it is beautiful. Especially at 6 o'clock on a spring morning. Everything so green and fresh and quiet‘looking. The sun is at our back. There is a soft haze over the hillsides. The river looks peaceful. Far away we can see snow on mountain ridges.

Pass ‘Starvation Falls’

We see lots of thin, high falls, springing out of the | /dense. mountainside on- our left. “That’s Starvation Falls,” says Fenton. “They named it that because a passenger train was snowbound right here [for 30 days when they first built the road, and the people almost starved to death.” No worry about things like that now, with all the modern machinery. We swing around a curve and run alongside a wall, almost sheer. Alongside the track is a row of tall poles. with an arm on top, sticking out over the track. As we whiz under them we see wires strung along the poles every few inches. Williams explains it. “That’s for rock, falling down on the track,” he says. “If a rock tumbles down and hits one of those wires, that automatically sets the block signal against us.” |

Mr. Pyle

‘In the distance we see a high steel bridge across the river. “Is that the bridge just above Bonneville

Dam?” I ask. It is. Gee, I didn’t know we were that

close! I've been to Bonneville Dam.

Sees Familiar Restaurant

We creep right through the spotless little town of Booneville. There, across the road (I can almost reach over and touch it), is the little upstairs restaurant where three of us ate lunch one silent, Indizn Summer day last fall. : How time flies. And people too. The three of us together last fall, and this morning here I am, back at the spot again . . . and the girl, in far away Washingten . .. and Mr. F. the old, 6ld man we love so much, he’s somewhere in England on his way around the jworld. I must write him we passed the restaurant where we ate. We drove all day that day up the Columbia Gorge, the three of us in the car, with the top down. Mr. F. is 80. On the drive he kept saying “Oh, what a beautiful day!” as though he might never see another such day. It’s beautiful again here today, Mr. F., just as beautiful . |. and everything is so green and quiet. . . . I hope it's beautiful somewhere in England . .. and in Washington, too.

..Mrs.Roosevelt's Day

By Eleanor Roosevelt She Congratulates Earhart, and Recalls Visit by Jean Harlow.

JLION, N. Y, Tuesday—Amelia Earhart reached Africa safely and is the first woman who has made the pastward crossing of the South Atlantic by plane. Congratulations to her, and may the rest of her trip [be equally successful. I shall be glad when this trip (around the world is safely over, but that’s because I am more interested in her as a person than I am in scientific adventures. [I recognize, however, the value not only of scientific experiments, but the mere stimulus given the rest of us by this spirit of courageous adventure. ; Last night we drove back from Westport, Conn., over another road, and from Pittsfield into Albany

" we faced a most glorious sunset as we wound over the

hills, We ate our supper by the side of the road, finishing up what we hadn’t eaten for lunch. Both of us decided this morning that eating was, after all, a matter of habit, for we were no hungrier at breakfast<than we would have been if we had had our usual three square meals yesterday. As we listened to the radio in the evening, we heard the news of Jean-.Harlow’s death. I am nct

. enough of a movie fan to have any particular favorites

on the screen, but she lunched with me last winter, wrote me a charming note afterward and I have kept a very pleasant memory of her. Many who have enjoyed her acting will miss her as a screen star, but I am sure there must have been some people around her to whom she was not a star, put a person. To them I should like to say that even such! a casual contact as mine has made me feel sorry that! such a young person should have so little opportunity to develop her possibilities and enjoy her life. * Early this morning we started on our drive to Hen-

derson House in Herkimer County, New York, where |

Mrs. Scheider and I are lunching with Mrs. Theodore

Douglas Robinson before we continue to Syracuse. We drove along Cherry Valley road, which I know

well, and at Richfield Springs turned off and went west through Jordanville, where stands the memorial library given to the village by Douglas Robinson. The Robinsons have been identified with this part of the state since the land was originally granted to the family by Queen Anne. My father’s letters are full of the stories of the good timés which that generation had in this old house when old s. Douglas Robinson, whom I can still remember well¥kept house

for her son, Douglas. 1

Walter O'Keefe —

SHE college boys are being graduated this month T and many a lad whose sheepskin says he’s a Ph.D. or an A. B., will have a card by September proving he’s a WPA. Jit : * [Every day now their names are listed in the newspapers, but don’t worry if ycu miss them. Just look under situations wanted and you'll find their names there from now on. : : We might see something like this: Situation Wanted—Can be of great help to taxevading millionaire. Former All-America halfback. ‘Great broken field runner—slippery. Fast. Great dodzer. Can find way through smallest loopholes. | be reached third bench, Central Park. ‘Congress, that other bunch of schoolboys, is not being let out this June as usual. They loafed through the last semester, so teacher is making them stay in Washington to attend summer school. {Teacher wants these boys to concentrate on their study. of labor problems. He feels it’s high time the

Bd started punchine a clock—instead of each

ond

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The Indianapolis

Second Section |

(Third of a Series.)

By Ruth Finney

Times Special Writer VV ASHINGTON, June 9. —The record of Mrs. Roosevelt as First Lady is, of course, less spectacular than that of her husband. She saved no banks, she engaged in no struggle with

the Supreme Court, and she

claims no credit for bringing back prosperity. But as the record of a President’s wife, stacked up against those of her predecessors, hers is no mean affair. Even the fact that

she has a record at all is impressive. And in the matters of precedents broken, mileage covered and lectures delivered she actually set a new all-time mark for the Roosevelt family. She has covered almost twice as much ground as her husband, and from all indications has earned almost twice as much money, though hers was earned for charity and his supported the family. Mrs. Roosevelt’s achievements have to be totaled up without her help. When she herself summarizes her White House experience she calls it, simply, the most educational period of her life and mentions that she has| learned: To economize time; facts about many different phases of life; and that “nothing matters but an inner conviction you are attempting to do what you consider your job.” Others add up the tangible record of accomplishment this way: To Mrs. Roosevelt must go credit for suggesting that surplus food be fed to unemployed families instead of being destroyed. Of course, all the male officials are convinced they would have thought of it themselves, but they had not done so up to the time:she insisted it was the thing to do. ” ” 2 HE was the moving spirit behind the establishment of Arthurdale, where stranded West Virginia coal miners are being es‘tablished in new homes with land “to work for food and small industrial plants in which to earn necessary cash. She is given credit for suggesting that WPA must start projects for unemployed artists, musicians and writers. She insisted that work projects be found for women, as well, and she devised many of these when masculine ingenuity faltered. She suggested summer camps for jobless women, to correspond with the work CCC was doing for young men. She convinced Gen. Hugh Johnson, in NRA days, that industrial codes should contain no provisions

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 9, 1937

'

She plants a tree for the National Girl Scouts’ “Little House.” °

discriminating against women workers and should promise equal pay for equal work. | She saw to it that nursery schools were numbered among the many projects. Long before NRA she had worked on the idea of labels for clothing made in factories with good working conditions, an idea that bore fruit in the Blue Eagle labels. Though not a feminist in the usual sense of the word she has done much to improve the position of women. She is credited with suggesting the appointments of Frances Perkins to the Cabinet and Ruth Bryan Owen to the diplomatic service. . She created a considerable -number of jobs for women reporters by barting meh from her press conferences. She has repeatedly called attenti to the work of unsung wo in various important posts, and has made it a habit to give a White House party each year for women in administrative offices. Most of all, she has broken vrecedents for women and won additional respect for the abilities of the sex by her personal achievements.

s ” 8

HE believes that women will get ahead faster if little public surprise is expressed when they accomplish something worth while. She defends the right of women

* to work outside of the home.

“More people now actually feel that there is a responsibility on them to do some kind of work, mental or physical, whether or not they are paid for it,” she says.

Wet-Dry Battle in Ohio Predicted for 1940

Times Special OLUMBUS, O., June 9.—Ohio faces a state-wide wet and dry campaign in 1940 unless its $60,000,000 liquor monopoly system is purged of politics, officials and observers are predicting. The liquor administration is under fire from every side. Money-hungry officials seek more and more revenue from legal liquor. Permit-holders bootleg their wares and run gambling establishments in order to stay in business. Brewers, fearing a return of prohibition, are fighting distillers, In Cleveland permit-holders are operating after hours and on Sunday. Only after flagrant violations were exposed by a newspaper did the State act to enforce the law. In Cincinnati local officials are preparing a new ordinance to-con-trol liquor and beer because State enforcement apparently has broken down. The State has $2,000,000 invested in its. liquor system. It makes an

annual profit from this investment of $15,000,000, or 750 per cent.

The State Liquor Board could cut

prices 30 per cent and thus freeze out bootleggers. But .such a cut would reduce the funds now earmarked for old-age pensions. Quick reprisals would follow the politician who attempted to cut funds’ from this important voting group. Liquor permits are being passed out by the handful to those who apply political pressure, although streets in the larger cities are already lined with hundreds of permit establishments on the ragged edge of bankruptcy. When the small restaurant keeper gets his license he is in many cases forced to bootleg or operate slot machines in order to make both ends meet. 3 But revenue from the sale of permits goes to the counties in which the permits are granted, and today these revenues are sorely needed. So there is no move to cut down on the number of permits. :

Side Glances

1937 BY LINC. “T. W. uU.

"Darling, | believe we're every

man s

bit as happy as that turniture sales-

d we would be." ;

| Ho

It is difficult to assess her most .

important task of the past four years—her contribution to the husband’s Administration. That she has contributed there can be no doubt. Her study of what Mas been going on in the country has helped make the New Deal what it is. No other President has had a trusted emissary going about the land talking to poor people, finding out what is good and what is bad about their condition, what is wrong and what is right in the treatment they receive. This is a task no President could perform for himself, even if he had no physical handicap, and it is a task few could safely delegate. Mrs. Roosevelt has done it so well that she has won the confidence of people everywhere and established invaluable contacts throughout the country. In her travels she has visited every state with the apparent exception of North Dakota. . :

% » ”

ITH all this she has, neglected none of the traditional duties of First Lady. She has never been away from Washington at a time when formal entertaining was to be done or

- . important foreign visitors were

to be received. She has expanded the White House social program, and in addition to the formal affairs has done more informal entertaining than any of her recent predecessors. By receiving their foreign guests on the front portico of the White House she and her husband have established a new atmosphere of cordiality. Under other Presi-|

. dents guests have been taken to

their rooms, then shown to the Blue Room “for an “audience.” Mrs. Roosevelt's proficiency in foreign languages and her many years spent in Europe have helped make her a particularly intelligent and gracious hostess. She has found time for her family duties; nearly a third of her travels in her first year were

Mos. Roosevelt Has Contributed Much to New Deal

Entered as Second-Class Matter at Postoffice, Indianapolis, Ind. ,

‘The President greets his No. 1 emissary on her return from the West

Indies.

undertaken to see her children, to nurse them or to help straighten out tangled affairs. She dashes

to Campobello to air the sheets and get supplies in the house if

- the President is about to visit

their summer home, and she hastens back to Washington ahead of him to see that things

are going smoothly at the White House in their absence. And, of course, she has done

more for charity in the past four years than most persons in any walk of life. Next—A nation its mind.

changes

County Consolidation Proposals in Indiana Bring No Action

LTHOUGH township and county consolidation proposals have been urged by some persons for more than a decade as a means of achieving governmental economy in Indiana, the idea never has got beyond the discussion stage. Opposition to the idea usually comes from professional officeholders, and rural district residents who feel their tax rates will be raised. Hoosiers, like Virginians, think of home in terms of their immediate residential areas, and they apparently do net want these districts to lose their identity to larger metropolitan areas. A recent editorial survey of a Georgia county consolidation shows that rural districts profit more than urban areas by mergers. ; _ On Jan. 1, 1932, by vote of the people in the affected territories, Georgia's capital became the center of a large-scale “county consolidation” program. Fulton. County, of which Atlanta is the county seat, “took in” the adjoining counties of Campbell and Milton, thus enlarging itself three-fold and reducing the total number of Georgia counties from 161 to 159.

a nn # : IVE years have elapsed since F that expansive gesture, and it is possible to appraise the results of the merger for all concerned, as measured by tax rates, better roads, school facilities and a host of other public services. : Without attempting a “profit and loss” generalization, it is a fact that the merger has been distinctly proiitable, financially and otherwise, for the two smaller counties. Their citizens are vastly pleased. There has been no intrinsic gain for large and powerful Fulton County, which, indeed, has shouldered an actual loss in dollars and cents. Fulton, however, has gained in prestige throvgh sheer size alone, and its residents have accepted the one-sided financial bargain with complacency, feeling that such consolidations actually aid the cause of better government and are thoroughly justified as, long-range developments. So there has been no complaint, to

date, from anybody. Even the one-

time office-holders of Campbell and Milton, whose jobs were abolished by the merger, have been, in the main, provided with acceptable Fulton County posts, and the old Court

.| Houses have been turned to other .| are slight inconveniences because of

uses. "In Campbell the former Court is now a community building

devoted to civic purposes, with an auditorium and facilities for recreation. County and Federal funds have aided in its remodeling. No extensive remodeling has been un-

dertaken as yet- in what once was

Milton County, but the old Court House is used for many public purposes. ” 2 = TLANTA is the largest city in Georgia, and Fulton County always has borne a lion’s share of all state taxes. Prior to the merger, Fulton had an area of 187 square miles, to which were added 211 square miles from Campbell and 145 square miles from Milton.

Fulton now has 1 per cent of the area of Georgia, and 11 per cent of the state’s population, It has 23 per cent of Georgia’s taxable wealth, (and pays better than 25 per cent of all state taxes. Prior to the merger, Fulton had taxable assets (in 1931) of $271,838,740, which were increased only 1.41 by the addition of $2,900,000 from Campbell and $1,200,000 from Milton. Total taxable wealth of the consolidated counties now is upward of $300,000,000, most of the increase occurring in what - was originally Fulton. In tax payments alone, residents of the two smaller counties profited greatly through consdlidation. Campbell's former tax rate was 3.25 per cent and Milton’s 3.2. Fulton’s rate of 2.25 per cent now is applicable. Prior to the merger, Fulton County had 474 miles of paved roads, Campbell had 17 miles and Milton had no paved mileage. In the last five years, about $25,000 monthly has.been spent in the construction of roads and bridges in Campbell and Milton. Most of the money has gone to make all-weather roads out of narrow, ill-kept backwoods trails, which often were impassable in bad weather. In addition, Milton now has a 12-mile stretch of pavement bisecting the county and providing an essential link in an important north-south highway. . : ; These good roads have played an important part in the success of the merger, for one of the principal arguments advanced against the plan was that residents of old Campbell and Milton would be put to intoler-

able inconvenience attending court:

in Atlanta and in the transaction of other public business. There still

their distance from the seat of government. Nonetheless, residents: of

‘the annexed areas have no hesita-

tion in expressing the feeling that the advantages of consolidation have, thus far, outweighed its disadvantages.

2 ” 2

O organized public health service was regularly available in the two smaller counties prior to consolidation. Routine services now rendered by the central government include physical and dental examinations for school children, and sanitary regulations in all affected communities. One tangible result has: come through costly drainage projects, through which some 3000 acres of overflowed bottom lands were reclaimed for cultivation in Campbell and Milton, thus relieving 56 square miles of territory of seriJus malarial conditions. In 1931 (the 12 months preceding the merger), Campbell County spent $56,354 on its school system, a seven-month term was the rule and teachers’ salaries averaged about $75 a month, or $525 for the full term. In Milton, school expenditures in 1931 totaled $37,000, the ‘term was seven months, for which teachers’ salaries. averaged $50 monthly, or a total of $350. In the last five years, the mierger has resulted in the spending of $325,500 alone in the annexed areas; all schools throughout “greater” Fulton County now operate a full nine-months’ term and teachers’ salaries average $100 monthly for 10 months each year. ‘

Contrasted with 1931 expendi-

‘tures, noted above, Fulton Couhty in 1936 spent $103,850 for school

operation in what | once was

Campbell County, and $75,316 in |.

‘what once was Milton. The entire county school system cost $880,000 last year, not including the city of Atlanta, which operates its schools independently. The merger involved no largescale absorption of debts by Fulton County. Campbell County had about $150,000 in bonded indebtedness; Milton had no outstanding bonds and brought in cash assets of $18,000. All told, however. expenditures in the annexed territories have exceeded tax revenues by about $100,000 annually in the last five years. EL : .

- in the Teplitz Hoch Schule.

for new buildings

PAGE 183 ;

Our Town By Anton Scherrer | Local Ceramist Informs Writer

ilsen Is Famed for Pottery aking in Addition to Its Beers

XCEPT for Jerry Marek, who runs the

| 7 technical end of the American Clay Co.

for Ted O. Philpott out on W. 16th St., I wouldn’t be able to tell you that Pilsen, Czechoslovakia, is noted for other things be

sides making good beer. ; Mr. Marek is a ceramist by trade and represents the sixth generation of a family of Bohemian pote ters. His father and brothers still run the old factory

at Pilsen. They also own the clay and kaolin deposits around there, and they're a nice thing to own because kaolin is the white clay that it takes to form the paste from which porcelain is made. Seems the Chinese thought up the word —“kao ling” meaning high hill. I'm in a mood to tell you everything I know today. Mr. Marek began his career as an apprentice. in his ‘father’s workshop, and then spent three years in a ceramic school. He says you He to like chemistery a lot to be a good

Mr. Scherrer

ceramist. He topped off with a postgraduate course It was good for some more chemistry. In 1822 he came to America and sometime around 1930 he began helping out Mr, Philpott. You'd be surprised to see how big Mr. Philpott’s factory is today. More surprising still is “the big line of things it turns out. It stops at nothing, Apparently, it doesn’t make a bit of difference to Mr, . Marek whether he tackles a statue of a Madonna or a nest of ash trays. The day I was there he had orders from ali parts of the country. For some rea= son, New York and Hollywood are his best customers,

Makes Christmas Gifts in Summer

Just now, Mr. Marek is closing what he calls his “winter season.” In another month the “summer “season” will begin. That’s when he’ll start making the next crop of Christmas presents. Mr. Marek starts making his things with a soup composed . of clay, feldspar, flint and kaolin. It’s poured into molds. After it’s fixed into form, the firing begins. It takes longer than I tgke to tell it. One firing produces “bisque.” The polychromatie things, however, require two bakings. Mr. Marek works with gas and electricity. The electric ovens register a temperature of 2500 degrees F. when they're hot. Mr. Marek’s colored glazes are the prettiest things - you ever saw, and he’s especially proud of his ture quoise color. He says it cost Mr. Philpott $2000 to get it going right. It’s a trade secret how he makes it, but I know enough about it to tell you that it's made of red and green elements, if that’s any help, Mr. Marek also makes a wonderful red-orange glaze which he calls “bittersweet.” The trick, he says, is to make it without black specks. His “alligator green” and “mulberry” are pretty, too.

Makes Chalk, Toe

That's only half of what Mr. Marek does, however, because esides' turning out pottery, he spends a lot of time making chalks. Sure, the kind the kids use in school. Seems it’s all a part of what a ceramist has to know. Mr. Marek’s repertoire consists of dustless chalks and oil crayons, but he also turns out the same blackboard chalk I used when I went to school. Mr. Marek says it makes just as much dust as it used to, but he’ll continue making it as long as the teachers want it. There's no use bucking the teachers, he says. : Mr. Marek is something of a teacher, too, becausa he got the Indianapolis factory going with help picked up right around here. I met Guy Wakeland, for instance. Seven years ago, Mr. Wakeland didn’t know anything about pottery, and now’s he's as nifty a ceramist as any of them.

A Woman's View:

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

Political Ladies Huffy Because Wallis. Can't Be Her Royal Highness,

HE stanchest democrats in the land are huffy ‘because Wallis Warfield Windsor couldn’t be Her Royal Highness after all. In Oklahoma, where the rule of the people has been loudly championed, the feminine higher-ups of the New Deal have declared themselves in favor of a boycott on English goods to retaliate. Never was there such a fuss and fuming. All this might be puzzling to one who did not une derstand the workings of the true Jeffersonian mind, which generally turns out to be the warmest defender of kingly prerogatives. . There's no accounting for what the ladies will do, especially the political ladies. But in their attitude on the royal love match they outdo even themselves in inconsistency. "It might very well be hinted that it is really none of our business what the British see fit to do about these matters of royalty. Fancy how we would react if they stuck their noses into our affairs! Would there be a hullaballoo? Yes, and from the very women who feel they have a perfect right to tell the Prime Minister how to look after his job. : ; First we’d hear a mighty uproar about democracy, The loudest talk would come from the fine ladies who burst their shoulder straps trying to get presented at foreign courts. Next the politicians would chime in— the folks who say that being a simple American is the highest honor man can claim. Just let any overs seas government try to dictate to us, and there would be flodds of oratory on the greatness and nobility of the horny-handed toilers of a great democracy.

New Books Today

URT STEEL proves conclusively in his lates8 Hank Hyer mystery, MURDER IN G-SHARP, that he is the equal of any detective fiction writer currently in the business. His new thriller (Bobbs-Merrill) is expertly cone ceived and put together. Mr. Steel is not a trickster, He pulls no rabbits out of the hat on the last page.. Detective Hank Hyer is almost a flesh-and-blood character. He will solve any crime—for a price. Murder In G-Sharp, Mr. Steel's fourth book, is a great tale. It moves swiftly to its climax, It is one of those “don’t miss” numbers.

if ° ° ; 7 Public Library Presents— RAVELERS to Mexico and their increasing nume bers indicate that Mexico has become a rival to Europe for vacationing Americans—will welcome an informative, outspoken, and fascinating little volume by Jean Austin, called MEXICO IN YOUR POCKET (Doubleday). Always present in the book, and adding greatly to its value, is an appreciation of the culture behind the environment that is proving such a lure.. The author shows Mexico as an educated Mexican would like to have it exhibited. : . The book “is particularly fortunate in its illuse trator, Vaslav Mariinsky. Color, form and beauty are in the illustrations to a prodigal degree. History has its place in. the contents; necessarily meager, it is used nevertheless with accuracy and discriminae tion, Attention is called to the archeological fields of Yucatan, to the antiquity and magnificence - of the temples being reclaimed from the encroaching

on his itinerary.

Jungle. Definitely the book compels the reader to put