Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 2 July 1937 — Page 19

Vagabond

From Indiana—Ernie Pyle

Shipboard Friend Turns Out to Be New G-Man Sent to Alaskan Post And Branded'Greenhorn' by Veteran.

'UNEAU, Alaska, July 2.—When 1 arrived in Juneau the papers were full of stories about the new G-Man. He had been sent up by the Justice Department to establish a permanent Alaska

office. It is the first time the G-Men have invaded this cold country where men are rough and tough. The new G-Man was interviewed, and he spoke on the radio, and he addressed the Chamber of Commerce, and Juneau seemed quite excited over its new Public Figure No. 1. Well, Governor Troy invited me out to the mansion for a cocktail party. About 40 people were there, and I didn’t know a soul except one girl who was hostess for the Governor. I hung around her as long as I could, but finally she Jad to go and receive some more guests, so I backed into a corner and surveyed the crowd. Suddenly I saw a familiar face. It was a man who had been on our boat from Seattle to Wrangell

Mr. Pyle

before I got off a group of people, and seemed to be doing very well for himself. We saw each other about the same time, and he broke out of the crowd and started across, and we met, shaking hands, in the middle of the room, practically like Stanley and Dr. Livingstone. I couldn't say “Dr. Livingstone, I believe,” for I had forgotten his name. But he told me, and who do you suppose he was? Yep, the new G-Man for Alaska. His name is John S. Bugas, he's originally from Cheyenne, Wyo graduate, is built for a

He doesn't know anvthing about the north country now. but he'll know a lot a year hence. He has already had an Alaskan experience

Seems there's an old trapper on one of the isiands

who has been missing for months. It is generally believed he has gone off his nut.

him a “wild man.”

Joins in Questioning

Well, somebody thought he saw him on an island | the other day, and a posse went after him. They | brought him back, all right, but it wasn’t the right

man. It was an old prospector whose boat had gone dead on him, and he had been wandering about the island for a couple of weeks. As a matter of routine the authorities put him on the pan to get his story. Bugas sat in on the questioning. It seems the prospector had got all his gear ashore from the boat, and set up camp and built a fire, and then a spark caught his mattress and everything he had was burned. Well, he wandered around the island, and couldn't find much to eat. After about a week he ran onto a lighthouse tender’s cabin, was asked in for supper.

The man was a pretty sight by that time, having

been alone in the woods a week.

They sat down to eat, but after a few moments

the light tender said he had to go outside. That made our refugee mad. He thought the light tender was insuiting him because he was so dirty. up and yelled and ran into the woods again.

When he got to the point in his story where he ran

out of the cabin, Bugas, the new G-Man, said:

“Weren't you a little too sensitive to get mad over: |

that and run away from your food?”

G-Man Shuts Up

Whereupon the “wild man” glared at him and | That's the Alaskan |

yelled, “Shut up, you cheechako!” term for “greenhorn” or “tenderfoot.” Man says he shut up. This summer Bugas will travel all over Alaska,

The new G-

getting familiar with the country and making investi-

gations. little trip over West about a month from now.

We're planning to hit the same ship on a He'll

probably be traveling under cover, and I'll be the only | one on the whole boat who knows he's a G-Man. |

Wonder if I can keep my mouth shut?

Bugas has a stack of files a foot high, of cases he | If they all turn out to be guilty, | there won't be anybody left in Alaska but Bugas and |

has to investigate.

me. Or maybe just Bugas.

Mrs.Roosevelt's Day |

By Eleanor Roosevelt

Mixup in Luggage and Plans Marks |

Return from Wedding at Owls Nest.

YDE PARK, N. Y., Thursday—Here we are back at Hyde Park. The reception last night seemed very gay, but on account of the rain many people had great difficulty in getting there and therefore it was long drawn out. I hate to think of the hour at which people from out of town must have reached their homes! The wedding party never sat down for their own supper until nearly 10 o'clock. When I think of the long day and the nervous strain, I wonder how Franklin and Ethel stood it. I hope they may soon have absolute peace and quiet for a time at least, so that lite may return again to something resembling normal. We all got off the train at Highland, N. Y. this morning at different times. Many of those alighting looked a little weary, as though they had not had the sleep they needed. Miss Cook, Mrs. Scheider and I, being accustomed to these trips, had our breakfast before leaving the train, which somehow always makes one face the day with a little more equanimity. It began to rain and for a few minutes we had quite a little storm, but luckily it has cleared off again and I am sure all my children who are most anxious to ride today will get a chance to visit all the spots they particularly want to see. In the hurry of departure last night, some of them evidently did not pack as carefully as they should, for Johnny joined me at breakfast this morning and announced he did not even have a comb in his bag! That seemed easy to replace. As he sails for Europe on Saturday morning, I am hoping nothing more important is lost. Anna and John go to New York tomorrow and depart before long tor Seattle. I will go down to see Johnny and his friend, John Drayton, and my mother-in-law off for Europe, Saturday morning. There are times when I do not think much of the telephone, but I was thankful for long distance this morning. I never heard Elliott and Ruth knock on my stateroom door last night, and therefore I brought Ruth's bags all the way through with me. She decided to get off with Elliott in New York having first decided she was coming through to Hvde Park Without the telephone we would have found it difficult to straighten out all the changed plans. So I have to say a word of gratitude to an instrument which at times I long to fling out of the window!

Walter O'Keefe -

HIS week Japan sank one Russian battleship, disabled another, while a third gunboat got away. After reading about those mass killings in Russia, Japan probably thought it would be a nice gesture if .they pitched in and helped along the cause. Of course, now the diplomatic notes will start. Japan will probably apologize for letting that third boat get away. Stalin will send a note something like this: “Gentlemen: I wish you'd show more respect for the rights of my people. This killing has got to stop. Pardon the brevity of this note, but the firing squad is making so much noise under my window I can’t think.” When vou come right down to it, we Americans are certainly lucky. Things may be bad, and some of us may have our backs to the wall, but at least we're not facing a firing squad, ®

He was standing in the middle of |

e Indianapolis

Imes

Second Section

| Was

Only Release Order or Lily Le

(Last of a Series)

By A. W. (Bigfoot) Davis

(As Told to Douglas Hicks)

conduct,

Escape?

was a pool.

rocks.

He is 29 vears old, a law-school | college track team, wears | nice clothes, and has been a G-Man for two years.

The newspapers call

So he jumped

wise. feet.

A. W. Davis

He was put on the incinerator detail. : caught Joe on the fence just outside the incinerator and just three feet inside a 70-foot drop to the

The guards take no chances. stuck his head out of the laundry building and was

FRIDAY, JULY 2, 1937

ent to Alcatraz

"THERE are just two ways to leave Alcatraz. One is the way I left Jan. 18, a free man, conditional release papers in my pocket I had earned by good

The other is feet first, with a lily in your hand.

A carrier pigeon couldn't escape from “The Rock.” Rip tides slip past the jagged slopes. have one in 100 chances—if you could get to the water. You can't get to the water. The deadshot guards, the iron discipline and lockstep, noslip rules; the never-sleeping, neverfailing snitch machine; the precipices all make the bay unreachable. Joe Bowers was accused of trying to reach the water.

trying to, the way I heard it. But he reached it, or the rocks near it—dead. It happened before I came, but the boys told me Joe was going crazy and used to dive on his face into jagged rocks in the yard, seeming to think it

You wouldn't

He wasn't

A guard

They told me Joe, nutty, had gone outside to get a piece of paper which had blown over, was trying to break, I don't know. The guard's first shot missed, the second caught him in the hip, the third through the chest side. He fell outside, rolled off the edge and fell 70

Maybe he

One day a man

looking out across the rocks. He couldn't have got out of that window and gone any place with-

out a pair of wings. But—

Boom!

A guard's gun spoke up, and a piece of cement as big as my fist flew out of the wall not so far from the prisoner's head. He lost inter-

est in things outside the room

quick. ” ” ”

HAT gives you an it is.

You can't pick up a cigaret butt and smoke it. You can't have any money on you. I used to find it when I was cleaning up the Officers’ Club, look at it and pass by. It might be a trap. After each meal every knife, every fork, every spoon is checked. You shave three times a week. When you want to shave, you put a matchbox on your door griil. An inmate orderly puts a blade on the matchbox. When he comes around again, the blade had better be back on the matchbox. You can go no place without a guard. You and the guard cannot pass a tower without a signal. How does a man have a fist fight in a place like that, you wonder? It has to be managed. Maybe in some cerner of a building something is occupying a guard at the moment. Away down at the other corner of the building men are grouped during smoke period. A quick swapping of licks—it has to be plenty quick—and it's over. There are books and magazines to read, but there's censorship which often makes the men bitter. If the men get interested in some fiction story, say, and are overheard by a guard talking about it, the guard tells the censor. Next issue the serial is missing, torn out. The restrictions and routine would burn up the devil himself.

LOT of guys get the don't cares, and no wonder. So it's no wonder either that there is a good deal of cutting up and foolishness in the place. Some of the men couldn't make it if there wasn't. One guy had a habit cf singing at night. He claimed he sang in his sleep, but I think he was awake. 4 The guard would come to his cell. There he would be with his eyes closed. They suspected him but they never caught him. One thing about The Rock, they don’t suspect you and then beat it out of you until you tell. Not even a shitch’s word is taken, but they keep an eye on you if you are fingered. You have to be caught in the act. Then it's just too bad. The deputy warden was a sort of frisky guy. We used to call him Gracie Allen. He would be walking through when somebody would pipe up from the back of his cell:

idea how

guard's

“Here comes Gracie!” The others would take it up, and laugh, and the guards would run around. It was risky, for to be caught saying Gracie to the deputy warden meant real trouble. Every legal holiday we saw a picture show. I remember seeing “I Dream Too Much,” “One Night at the Opera,” “San Francisco.” Every Sunday morning there were church services you could attend if you wanted to. Protestants one Sunday, Catholics the next. Three hours were allowed in the recreation yard Saturday afternoons, three hours Sunday mornings. Here is one that is hard to believe, but strict and tough as the place was I have seen several inmates drinking and one so drunk I thought sure he would be caught. I won't say what they were drinking or where they got it. ” ” ” ND now I'll tell about how I left. I was nervous and jittery my last two weeks. As soon as I had done my mini-

mum time I had to do 72 days of good time I had lost in the trans-

fer to Alcatraz. Then there were

30 days to serve of investigative time for the $1000 fine I couldn't pay. It's hard to say how you feel as you get short. You just get scared. You don't know how your friends will take you. You know you will run into the police and maybe have trouble. One day you feel like talking and singing, next day you get all dummied up. I was notified when I made out my conditional release papers, same as for parole except I didn't have to have a job, that the date would be Jan. 14. I thought it ought to be Jan. 12 and went to Warden Johnston. We decided it was Jan. 13. The other inmates asked me 1001 questions as I got shorter and shorter. I got lots of advice, About one-third, I guess, told me to go out and get even. I think a lot of them were sore and wanted me to get in trouble and come back—the old jealousy. Two-thirds told me to get out and stay out. “I've been in your shoes once” said Machine Gun Kelly. “That was when I got out of Leavenworth and had a chance to go straight. “I wish I had known then what I know now. “Get out, Dave. Scratch with the chickens if you have to, but keep away from here.” Harvey Bailey said: “If you ever come back while I'm her€,

Side Glances ARN GE

"Father can't bear ‘6 watch this scene. This is where mother Sree up the yacht."

ts You O

An air view of Alcatraz, upper photo shows it gaunt and lonely and formidable. At the left below prisoners work on the docks. Barbed wire is strung between the pilings.

Leaving Alcatraz, lower right, the prisoner gets his “main line” blue suit, black shoes,

cap and overcoat.

I'll beat you up. I hope to be out shortly myself, and I'll help you stay out if I get out.” “Take me with you,” a lot of guys said for a joke. They grinned, but meant it. I worked all day Jan. 12, but could hardly sleep that night. The last night, I kept saying.

2 ” ” HAT 20 minutes for breakfast the morning of Jan. 13 seemed for the first time to be about twice too long. Why couldnt a man eat in 10 minutes? I had to be on my way! places to go. But when I started down after breakfast to get a haircut, the guard made me go back and put me in my cell. I waiked up and down, up and down 1 lay down. I tried to read. I jumped up again. What could have gone wrong?

their eyes

I had

I thought of 1001 things. May= be somebody framed me! Maybe— Dinnertime, and no word from the warden. I didn't take much on my tray, had a hard time get« ting it down, Two p. m. Tramping of feet, my door swung open. I was taken down to get the haircut. I was in the barber's chair when Al Capone came in. “Be sure and give Big Dave a good haircut,” he grinned to the barber. “It's his last one in Alcatraz.” After the haircut Al followed me into the bathroom. We talked about 40 minutes. We finished about 3:30 p. m, and I was taken back to my cell. Then out to the front office to be dressed out. ” ” ” PUT on a regular “main line” blue suit, a 10-cent rainbowcolored tie. Instead of the black

av Forkofflos." Tndianspotis. na.

NNR RR RRBR

navy. officers’ oxfords I was supposed to get, I got a pair of tan shoes blacked over, the blacking getting on my white cotton socks quick. But my oyercoat was a good one, regular navy issue. They made me take a cap, brown blan= ket material, which I put in my pocket and didn't try on until I got to Texas—and found it was too small. I got on the McDowell, the speedboat, and we chugged away

across the bay. I stayed down in the cabin until we were half way over, Then I got up on deck and took a last look at The Rock. It got dimmer and farther away, but not as quick as I would have liked. I knew there were nearly 300 men on it, but it still reminded me of a big squatty tombstone. (Copyright, 1037, NEA Service, Inc.)

One-House Legislature Is Success in Nebraska, Senator Norris Claims

‘By E.R. R.

ASHINGTON, July 2.-—Suc-cessful operation of Nebras|ka's new single-house Legislature, [which held its first session this year, foreshadows the ultimate creation of unicameral legislatures in many other states, in the belief of Senator Norris (Ind. Neb.), leading champion of the unicameral system. The new Legislature this year demonstrated ‘great superiority”

‘lover the old two-house body in Ne-

braska, Senator Norris said. “When the work of this Legislature has been fully understood and analyzed, it will have its influence upon many other states. In time it will result in the abolishment of the old two-house legislatures in many other states beside Nebraska.” A similar prediction was made by W. F. Willoughby, an eminent polizical scientist, in 1934, before adoption of the unicameral plan in Nebraska. “Should one state make the break and go over to the new system of a single chamber,” Willoughby said, “it might easily result that others would speedily follow the example. It is not so long ago that the bicameral system was the prevailing one in our municipalities. With the movement once started for the substitution of the unicameral system, the change over to this system took place with great rapidity until at the present time the bicameral system is found in few of these governments.” e accuracy of these judgments is attested by the fact that proposals for establishment of the unicameral system were advanced in the legislatures of no fewer than 22 states this year. One such measure failed of passage in the Wisconsin Assembly, late in April, by a margin of only eight votes. The Nebraska single-house Legislature was created under the terms of a constitutional amendment adopted by the voters of the state in 1034. Since then, widespread interest in the unicameral system has been evidenced. Creation of singlechamber legislatures was recommended by Governor Moeur of Arizona and the late Governor Olson of Minnesota in 1935 and by Governor Curley of Massachusetts in 1936.

; ® 8 =a DOPTION of a unicameral legislative system in Maryland Was recommended this year by the State Commission on Governmental Efficiency and Economy, as one of the first steps toward reorganization of the State Government to provide more effective and less costly servicé8.” The commission advocated the creation of a single chamber with members elected by the proportional representation method from the state at large. The Nebraska Legislature was in session 98 days this year, as compared with 110 days in 1935, when the bicameral Legislature held its final session. A total of 581 bills and resolutions were introduced, and of these, 210, or 36 per cent, were enacted. In the 1935 session, out of 1056 bills and ™ lutions introduced, only 193, or

* : Ass

18 per cent, were enacted. The cost of the 1937 session was about $140,000, as compared with $202,600 for the 1935 session, Major action taken by the Nebraska Legislature during this year's session included adopticn of a resolution opposing enactment by Congress of President Roosevelt's plan for reorganization of the Federal judiciary and rejection of the Federal Child Labor Ainendment. The Legislature enacted an unemployment compensation law and a “fair trade” law sanctioning resale price maintenance contracts. An expiring mortgage moratorium law was extended for two years, and the State Railway Commission was given power to

regulate trucking. A trade-practice |

code for automobile dealers also was enacted. : ” ” ”

HE Legislature defeated a measure proposing a return to the bicameral system, as well as a long-range pay-as-you-go public works program proposed by Governor Cochran. A proposal for consolidation of major power facilities in the state, advocated by Senator Norris, was killed in committee. Most observers expressed the view that this year’s session indicated that the Nebraska system was

neither an unqualified success nor a failure. Critics pointed to the lack of legislative leadership and the increase in lobbying as the most objectionable features of the experiment.

Under the Nebraska plan, the 43 legislators are elected on a nonpartisan ballot, while the Governor is elected on a party ticket, It was this arrangement which was largely responsible for the lack of leadership. Although elected on a party platform with partisan commitments, the Governor had no party to lead in the Legislature. Leadership was divided among chairmen of the more important committees. Observers pointed out that this arrangement produced confusion. Replying to this criticism, Senator Norris said: “To get away from partisan leadership is, to a great extent, to eliminate the ability of machine politicians to control the Legislature. We want to get rid of party leadership. We want to divorce the legislative proceedings entirely from party promises, deceptions and intrigues.” He held that the increase in lobbying was more apparent than real. “Lobbyists under the new system were compelled to appear publicly,” he said.

LEPHANTS ARE FIT ND ®AT AT FIETY

SPEAKING OF SAFETY

METHUSE LAK " LIVED 9260

: WP

TERRAPINS LIVE FOR CENTURIES, THEY SAY

YEARS

AN AUTO WILL STAND THE GAFFE JUST SO LONG...DON'T DRIVE THE OLD BUS INTO ITS GRAVE IT MAY TAKE YOU RIGHT , ALONG WITH IT.

Ro”

| than I can tell. | been able to catch up on divorce cases.

| of the sort.

PAGE 19

Our Town

By Anton Scherrer

Indianapolis Divorce Problem Began In 1823 and Has Grown Ever Since; But Marriages, Too, Are on Increase.

OW, if ever, is the time to review the marital condition in Indianapolis. As you know, the court dockets are choked with divorce cases—382, as a matter of fact. One court alone started work this morning to

dispose of the 76 cases set for trial today. The best Reno has been able to do is 55 cases in the same length of time, Without philosophical preluding, or even morale izing, for that matter, let's get down to brass tacks, Indianapolis has 87/756 husbands and 88,411 wives. Offhand you'd suppose that an ideal state of society would have just as many husbands as wives, but that isn't the case around here. In Indianapolis there are exactly 6556 wives who don't know where their husbands are, or who, for some reason, aren't telling. The situation is even more complicated than that. Indianapolls has 2610 divorced males and 3564 divorced fee males. I don't know why anymore than you do, unless it is that divorced males leave town to get away from it all,

Divorce Grows More Frequent

That leaves the widowed to be accounted for. It's the biggest surprise of all. Indianapolis has 6967 widowers and 10,367 widows. I lug the widowed into today's piece, because without them it wouldn't be possible to establish the number of families in Ine dianapolis. Well, without giving away the source of my scoop, it works out that Indianapolis has 98,610 families and 6174 divorced persons. Anyway, that was the state of affairs in 1930, and yoy can bet your last dime that things haven't become any better in the meantime. As a matter of fact, things are getting worse al the time. In the Eighties there was one divorce for every 20 marriages of the same year; in 1900 thers was one for every 13, and in 1930 we reached the ape palling figure of one divorce for every six marriages. It's that way all over the country, and if things work out at the Court House today the way some people want them to, it is probable that out of every nine marriages in 1937, two will sooner or later end in divorce,

It All Began In 1823

All of which got me to thinking how in the world this sort of thing ever got started around here. Well, I'll tell you. It got started on May 5, 1823, because that was the day Elias Stallcup sued Ruth Stallcup for divorce. It was the first case of its kind in Marion

County. To tell the truth, it was the third case of any Kind around heres Why it wasn't the first is more Maybe that’s why our courts haven't

Mr. Scherrer

But even more surprising than the divorce cases is the state of matrimony in Indianapolis. You'd

| think that with so many divorces handed out that it

would make the youngsters leery of marriage. Nothing The rate of marriage hasn't decreased a bit, and contrary to general belief, the average age of marriage is just about what it used to be. For some reason, people still want to get married.

/ ° A Woman's View By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

Portias Have Failed to Rescue Us From Verbiage, Feminist Reports.

OME of the lady lawyers are mad at this column and have fired a broadside in retaliation for the recently expressed opinion that the law is no business for women. Here it comes: “We wonder which is to be preferred, the mental solidification resulting from the long practice of law, or the profound cynicism which is the inevitable con= comitant of professional journalism.” Impolite as it may sound, we regard this as only ball one for the visiting team. That word “cone comitant” is enough to ruffle us. Why can’t lawyers

speak plain English? Once we had hopes that women would humanize the professions. By inching their way into the courts it seemed probable they could abolish those double=jointed words the men were so fond of using. Fem=inine grace, we said, would surely tend to soften and perhaps melt away entirely the solid wall of language behind which the lawyers lurk. We've known any number of pleasant attorneys who used good short Anglo-Saxon words at parties, or on the golf course, or over the poker table. They can express themselves in sentences which are easily understood by any 10-year-old. But catch them dis~ cussing a professional topic and each will sound like a Supreme Court brief. Nobody who hasn't put in at least four years in law school can grasp what they're saying, even though it may be the listener's own private business that's at stake. Much as we hate to relate it, the women haven't done anything at all to start reforms in this field, ‘And what an opportunity is theirs! If the fair bare risters would use the same lingo they sling around in the kitchen and over the card tables, they could bridge the great gap which now separates the layman and his lawyer. Instead, they have succumbed to the lure of big words, and confound us with their “habeas corpus, particepts criminis, modus operandi, in loca parentis,” etc. Honestly, Dear Reader, wouldn't you like to see your laws set down for you in simple English? Aren't you fed up with all such sesquie Jpedalian verba?

New Books Today

Public Library Presents—

“ ROUND the world in a sailing ship”—the idea has a universal appeal, even to those who have never seen a sail. Alan Villiers, who has spent his life sailing and writing about the sea, fulfilled a lifelong dream in his CRUISE OF THE CONRAD (Scribners), As owner and master of the famous old Danish ship, the “Joseph Conrad,” with a small crew and 15 young cadets, he sailed over 60,000 miles around the world, The elements furnish the danger and excitement, the cadets supply the humor, and Villiers tells their story with an attractive mixture of modesty, sentiment and a consuming love of the sea. Magnificent photographs double the reader’s pleasure in the exhilarating story, and it is altogether perfect reading for the land-locked sailor. ” ” n

NAME to conjure with in the theatrical world is Noel Coward. His comedies are brilliant box office successes, his songs are tantalizing and unfore getable, and his acting is rated by many as uncome monly versatile. It is little wonder than, that his autobiography PRESENT INDICATIVE (Doubleday) would pe read so avidly. : He describes his early life of comparative poverty, his years of struggle for financial independence, and his ultimate success. It is a life story concerned mainly with plays and people rather than criticism or social

ph / d