Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 7 July 1937 — Page 11

Vagabond

From Indiana==Ernie Pyle

Airplanes and Radios Evaryday |

Necessities Up in Alaska, but Movie | Official Finds They Can Be Nuisance. |

UNEAU, Alaska, July 7.—Alaska, being | so immense and so thinly populated, is “a natural” for the airplane and the radio. Aviation ig already highly developed up here. Radio is too, from the receiving end, for nearly everybody listens. But commercial broadcasting in Alaska is still sort of onehorsy.

There are only three broadcasting stations in Alaska, One at Ketchikan (down south), one at Anchorage (over west on the mainland), and one here in Juneau. The Juneau station is the most “metropolitan” of the three. It’s on the air from 8 in the morning till 10 at night, except for two blank hours between 2 and 4 p.m, It has about 35 national advertising accounts, and about the same number of local ones. It has been running two years. The manager says it hasn't made any money yet, but he certainly expects it to. The bulk of the program is electrical transcriptions. The very latest ones arrive from the States | on every boat. These records include not only music | but playlets, serials, talks and variety programs. But the station uses local talent too. People up | here try to get on the radio just as people in the States do. and once in a while somebody turns up who is pretty good. The station tries to get all the celebrities who come to town. And since a great many Government men and other famous people arrive during the sum- | mer, there's no lack of big names. Will Rogers and | Wiley Post made their last broadcast here,

‘Distress Service’ Important

The station broadcasts news summaries twice a day, and sends out weather reports. And at 5 o'clock every evening it has a program for fishermen at sea, giving weather trends, latest fish prices, navigation advice and what not. But the most interesting thing is the station's impromptu “distress service,” Here's where radio really takes off its coat and goes to work in Alaska. One night recently a woman was near death in the hospital here. Her husband works on a fox ranch on an island off the south coast, hundreds of miles from here. He has no radio. Rut the Juneau station broadcast the word anyhow, and asked any fisherman who heard it and who was nearby to put in at the island and tell the man. People are wonderful in the lonely places about doing things for each other. If anyhody hears a distress message for somebody he knows, he'll get right in his boat, or walk, or travel by dog team for as much as 50 miles or more to tell the man. C. B. Arnold, manager of the Juneau station, says he believes 90 per cent of the people in Alaska have radios. They mean so much up here. Most trappers have them in their cabins; most fishermen have them on their boats. Hardly ever do they broadcast a distress message that doesn’t reach its destination.

$3000 Broadcast

Up at Anchorage, the station is on the air only a few hours day. But it was a few hours too long for a Hollywood inovie director who brought his troupe up here to make a picture last year. He wanted a live wolverine for use before the | camera. So he got on the radio one day and offered | $300 for a live wolverine. Unfortunately, he didn’t say | the “first” live wolverine, because— { Early next morning an airplane arrived in Anchor- | age with an old trapper from the interior, carrying a live wolverine. Pretty soon came another airplane, with another wolverine. Before nightfall 10 airplanes had come out of the wilds, from 10 different directions, bringing honest Alaskan trappers with live | wolverines for sale. The director thought he'd just buy one of them, | and let it go at that. But the wolverine trappers thought otherwise. In the end, he had himself 10 live wolverines and was out $3000. And they all died. Truly, the radio and the airplane are wonderful contraptions. And come to think of it. so is a wolverine 3

Mr. Pyle

Mrs.Roosevelt's Day By Eleanor Roosevelt

If Saved, Amelia Will Turn Mishap To New Knowledge, Says First Lady.

YDE PARK, N. Y., Tuesday.—I have scanned the papers with great anxiety since Friday evening, when I first heard over the radio that Amelia Earhart and her navigator were missing. I never feel like giving up hope for anyone who has courage until every possible chance for rescue is over, for I think resourceful, courageous people will fight with every means at hand until they are completely worn out. This morning I feel more hopeful than before and I am hanging on the telephone hoping to hear good news of her. I feel sure if she comes through safely, she will feel what she has learned makes it all worth while. But her friends will wish science could be served without quite so much risk to a fine person, whom many people love as a person and not as a pilot or adventurer. There is in Washington a really fine a cappella choir which is at present singing for a short time at the Chautauqua Institute in Chautauqua, N. ¥. Mts. Stahl, who has mothered this choir, writes me that for a long time she has hoped she could induce people who are interested in music to help the promising voices she might discover by offering some “voice scholarships.” I do not know just what she has in mind, but I have long thought these choirs are valuable in any community because they help develop community singing, and community singing has a double purpose. It gives the people who partake a certain amount of training, but at the same time it enhances their ap- | preciation of music and educates the community as a | whole to be more music conscious, Therefore, IT would be interested in seeing small scholarships established which would enable young people to join these choruses or choirs, and receive enough remuneration to give them a boost in whatever work they might be doing on the outside. We have had a quiet few days with few visitors.

James arrived on Sunday morning and left with Betsy Monday evening, as did my husband. Only | one visitor remained, and this morning at 7:30 we rode for two hours in the woods and survived the | mosquitoes and flies. The picnic for the newspaper fraternity was fairly | cool and in consequence everyone could enjoy even the sunny spots on the lawn. Our foreign guests, | Prof. and Mrs. Ludwig, were a little surprised by the informality of the occasion and explained that what they called a garden party for the press in Europe | would require top hats and frock coats.

Walter O'Keefe —

DAY the annual All-Star baseball game is the big news from Washington. President Roosevelt will throw out the first ball and then John L. Lewis will probably throw out the first strike. Rumors say that official Washington wants the |

American Leaguers to win. This will be the first time |

the President and the Supreme Court have agreed

in a long time. fast week Congress saw the newsreel pictures of that Chicago brawl between police and strikers, so it will doubtless be a novelty for them to see somebody swinging a basebell bat at a ball. Dizzy Dean should be able to show Congressmen how to filibuster, and the chances are that if Franklin D. signs a baseball, some Supreme Court justice will grab it and veto it. The President is letting Congress take the day off. He figures that if they see nine men on a bench with

six youngsters waiting to substitu ‘ll follow his Piss for Feorganiation of the Oourh 1

The Indianapolis

“ri

imes

Second Section

WEDNESDAY, JULY 7, 1937

Entered as at Postoffice,

Second-Class Matter Indianapolis,

PAGE 11

Ind.

Bilbao's Innocents Abroad

Drone of Planes Strikes Panic Among Child Refugees From

So distraught by experiences in their shell-torn homeland are the Bilbao refugees that mass hysteria breaks out on slight provocation. This group of boys is being returned to the camp after running away when they heard of Bilbao's surrender.

(Last of a Series)

By Milton Bronner

NEA Staff Correspondent

ORTH STONEHAM,

England,

July 7..—An ever-

present memory, like a livid scar across otherwise serene and lovely features, dwells with the 2500 child refugees from the Basque encamped here.

Mostly, they are just kids.

They laugh, play, scrap.

They save cigaret pictures (confusing them in their minds with those “holy pictures” the priests used to give them at home, so that Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich and other film stars are now ranked with the saints in this little

Spanish community). they love candy. But suddenly something happens. A mass fear sprouts, sweeps the camp with panic. The little ones scream as they seek cover. The big ones seem to grow

older, trying to calm themselves and the others. Faces that were childish have become - lined, drawn, their eyes filled with the new expression of an old suffering. They have neard the drone of an airplane, Even weeks after their arrival, with time to realize that a roaring motor doesn’t necessarily mean death and havoe, the mass memory persists. That sound is the funeral march of their native land, their loved ones, their life as Spaniards. Sometimes, as in the case of 13-year-old Jesus Aguarran, this bitter memory is turned to resolution. He has become a little expert in aviation. He can distinguish all the types of planes— fighters, bombers, pursuit planes, And in his heart he has determined to be a flier himself, and some day, he says, he, too, will drop bombs. They will fall, he says, on the enemies of his homeland. Then there is Manolo. He was a native of storied Guernica. For days, he tells, a lone airplane came droning over his “holy city.” It attempted no harm. The folk of Guernica began to feel a sort of amused contempt for it. It arrived with clocklike, Teutonic precision, and went away again, leaving Guernica in peace.

HEN, one day, Guernica heard a louder drone. Like a bellwether the reconnaissance plane was leading a flock of others, and death and ruin came out of the skies. The planes flew low, as the civil population fled. With machine guns they pursued the

Side Glances

1937 BY NEA

The kids have good appetites, and

that Pittsburgh of Spain?

State of Indiana's ‘Highball’

Senorita Elena Carrey journeys from Bilbao to Stoneham to be interpreter for the refugees. She learned her English in America.

intervention business. So here I am doing the next best thing-— trying to help Franco's victims in this camp.” What will be the fate of these child-wanderers? Will they ever again see their metal-ribbed mountains and the smoky forges where their fathers worked in How

AANA SABA SR

Mrs.

Spain

EE A AAR, TAY

aed

Isabel Hunter mothers one of the Bilbao Refugees in the

Basque Camp at North Stoneham, England, supplying a parent's affection which many of the children never will know again following the break-up of their families in Spain,

many of them will find again their loved ones-—and under what conditions? If not, what will be their future? Today there are no answers to these questions. Only one thing seems sure. These innocents have been seared with a wound which will not soon Leal. Homeless, they are still

Basques, still the progeny of a proud, independent-minded people. When their childish voices cry their love of liberty, their hatred of oppression, the words seem to convey that wisdom which comes “out of the mouth of babes"—a wisdom which even a dictator might come, some day, to recognize.

Was 1th Largest in Nation

By L. A.

people of Guernica into the hills, |

spattering bullets after them. “They massacred our people,” said Manolo, revealing his precocious knowledge of tragedy.

“They destroyed our homes and |

our churches. But they did no harm to the military barracks and the two arms factories. They wanted those for use when Franco's army occupied the city.” So tragedy persists in this _community of tented strange set down in the lush summer peace of the English countryside. It seems as if not England—nor any other country — can ever absorb them completely, ever erase from their budding characters the smudge which war has written there. The camp has drawn together many interesting workers. There is pretty Senorita Elena Carrey, for instance, who accompanied the kids from Spain as interpreter, and now is interpreter-sec-retary for the camp. “I don’t speak English,” said the senorita. "I speak American. I lived in the U. 8S. with a brother for years. I wish we had stayed. I think we would have become good Americans.” War veterans of the 603d U. S. Engineers may remember Miss Isabel Birbeck, English girl who served as interpreter for the regiment at Verdun. The regiment sent to Washington and got her a sergeant’s stripes and papers in the outfit. Married now, her name is Mrs. Isabel Hunter and she is a volunteer worker and camp “mother” for a hundred kids.

” 8 ” RANGY youth is directing a

bright-eyed swarm of little soccer players. Something in his manner, the inflection of his voice, rings a familiar chord. “Sure, I'm American,” he says, in response to the query. “I was born in Indiana. Then I moved to Portland, Ore. Then I got sore about this Franco and came over here to see could I fight him. Couldn't on acocunt of the non-

By Clark

been here litle earlierl She was saying,

he

population July 1, and at the time of the 1930 census contained 58,640,831 persons over 21.

NDIANA ranked 11th in the consumption of “hard likker” in 1936,

| a survey of 38 states showed today. | A total of 1112448556 gallons was | consumed, or an average per capita

ration of 1.107 gallons. Of this amount, Hoosiers drank

1 242 per cent, or a ration of .779 gallon per capita.

To chase this monster highball,

the nation drank enough beer to | provide every man, woman and child with 12.6 gallons each.

These 38 states had an estimated of 100,483,000 on last

Most states prohibit sale of spirits to persons under 21. As suming, for statistical purposes only, that everybody, everywhere, obeyed the letter of the law, every legal drinker would have consumed 1.797 gallons—or approximately 115 twoounce “shots” in the last calendar year. ” ” ” HE 10936 statistics of hard liquor consumption cover every state that was “wet” last year, except Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina and North Dakota. Only partial gallonage reports, or none at all, are available for these four states. The reports show plainly that citizens are more abstemious under so-called state monopolies under systems of private licensing.

The 15 “monopoly” states included in the estimates consumed 33.,603,738 gallons of spirits, or 964 gallons per capita, against 77,641,117 gallons, or 1.182 per capita, in the 23 “license” states. Per capita “legal drinker” rations figure at 1.677 gallons in “monopoly” states, and 2.011 gallons in “license” states. Jowa was the most abstemious of all reporting states in 1936, consuming .440 gallons of spirits per capita, Most widespread drinking apparently occurred in Nevada (3.319 gallons per capita) and in the District of Columbia (3.793 gallons per capita). The per capita figure for the latter “state” might, at first glance, appear misleading, because the District of Columbia is practically synonymous with the City of Washington and “heavy drinking” is most widely practiced in large cities.

Heard in Congress—

than |

Senator Clark (D. Mo.) —I am re- | | minded of a story I heard when I | was a boy back in Pike County, Mo, |

about a boy named Elias Brown,

| who was exceedingly fond of pos-

sum. On one occasion he went out and captured a very large, succulent possum and took it home, and his mother cooked it for dinner.

Just as ’'Lias was about to sit

| down to the table a great big fat

fellow, notoriously the biggest eater

in the county, drove up and, of

back, Elias said, “Yes; it'll be ‘stand back, ‘Lias, stand back,’ until that old hog

course, was invited to dinner, and under the circumstances of having

company, Elias was not seated at

the first table, but had to stay out in the pantry. The old man who had just come to dinner started in to eat on ’Lias’ possum, and, 'Lias was out there in the pantry, and every time the old

man took another cut at the possum

‘Lias tried to bulge in from the pantry, and his father said, “Stand '‘Lias, Stand back, ‘Lias.”

has eaten the last bite of my pos-

| sum.”

{ |

to be applied by the Government to | flood-control improvement in the | Tennessee Valley and another one |

Mr. President, my objection to this proposal is that one rule seems

seems to be applied to flood-control improvements over the United

| States; and for the rest of us, no

i how urgent Mra Slugtion may matter how rate the Foy may be from recurrent floods, {it i still a question of “stand

|

In point of fact, however, the District consumed in 1936 a total of 2,348,339 gallons of distilled spirits— a heftier drink than was needed by any one of 24 states. Only California, Illinois, Indiana, Massa= chusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, vania, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin, consumed more liquor than the District of Columbia. n ” »

IVE states, California, Illinois, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania, consumed 48.08 per cent of the reported total. All these, however, are commonwealths with large populations, and this apparently excessive drinking figures out at only 1224 gallons per capita, or slightly more than the 38-state average of 1.107 gallons per capita. The following listing shows by percentage how the 11,244,855 gallons were distributed through 38 states, the figures in parentheses indicating per capita consumption in gallons: Twenty-three license states used

New York, Ohio, Pennsyl-,

in 1936

69.78 per cent of the total supply— Arizona, .48 (1.307); Arkansas, 1.96 (1.076); California, 839 (1.539); Colorado, 98 (1.018); Delaware, .29 (1.233); District of Columbia, 2.11 (3.793); Florida, 1.68 (1.141); Illinois, 10.53 (1.493); Indiana, 242 (779); Louisiana, 199 (1.045); Maryland, 1.77 (1.177); Massachusetts, 4.06 (1.018); Minnesota, 2.64 (1.114); Nebraska, 1.43 (1.164); Nevada, 30 (3.319); New Jersey, 4.61 (1.184): New Mexico, 40 (1.068); New York, 13.75 (1.182); Rhode Island, .76 (1.247): South Carolina, 1.33 (.795): South Dakota, .556 (.891); Texas, 4.07 (.741); Wisconsin, 3.29 (1.258). Fifteen monopoly states used 30.22 per cent of the total supply, as follows: Idaho, 45 (1.038); Iowa, 1.00 (.440); Maine, .66 (.861); Michigan, 431 (1.002); Montana, .73 (1.631); New Hampshire, 44 (958); Ohio, 5.61 (929); Oregon, 95 (1.034); Pennsylvania, 9.80 (1.075); Utah, .44 (953); Vermont, .23 (.659); Virginia, 2.15 (.893); Washington, 1.55 (1.047); West Virginia, 1.61 (871); Wyoming, 29 (1.372).

Sheriff Ray Tells Reason For Opposing Bicycle Tax

HERIFF RAY today said: “I am +») against any tax on children’s

bicycles for the simple reason that

it works hardships upon those who can least afford such a tax.”

The Sheriff's statement:

“Many of the boys and girls who cannot afford carfare use this method of transportation to and from school to save many nickels and dimes needed by their families; others making a living, although only a meager one, through the use of these vehicles. It is unfair to put this additional burden upon them. “While a member of the City Council, in 1925, when all bicycles were subject to taxation, I was instrumental in raising the age limit of those to be taxed for owning such vehicles to the age of 16. I was very pleased, later, when the age was raised to 18.

"Wo I was captain of police in charge of license inspection, I saw the hardships such a tax worked upon those using bicycles to make a living. Many times when faced by an emergency, at that time, I granted permits of exception so some girl or boy could go to work with their bicycle. In many other instances, I permitted those whe could not pay for their licenses in a lump sum to make time payments, even as low as 25 cents a month,

“Imposition of such a tax will cause resentment on the part of our young folks, and will cause a great deal of disregard for the law, It will be violated freely. “If 20,000 license tags for bicyles are ordered, I predict that not more than one-fourth of them will be sold.”

SPEAKING OF SAFETY

ACTORS JUST LOVE THE SPOTLIGHT.~

“aia a

ks

AV

GIRLS DON'T OBJECT To BEING DA22LED WITH DIAMOND Sa

BUY NO DRWER ENJOYS LOOKING INTO THE GLARING LIGHTS OF AN ONCOMING CAR WHOSE DR\WER. |S TOO SELFISH OR. TOO DUMB TO DIM THEM.

| bland smiles don't fool me a bit.

Our Town

By Anton Scherrer

Plight of Mrs. Harrison Williams— She's No. 4 on List of Best Dressed —Places Local Observer in a Dither.

ALMOST the only subject in which my ine terest never flags for so much as an ine stant is Mrs. Harrison Williams. How exe cited I was, then, to read in my newspaper an article telling of her present plight.

Mrs. Williams, if you haven't kept track of her, has been pushed out of first place as the world’s best-dressed woman to make way for—whom do you suppose? The Duchess of Windsor, if you please. It’s even more humiliating than that. Mrs. Willlams is now in fourth place, and there's no telling how long she can hold on to that. If you ask me, she won't stay very long even there, because if you look at the determined expressions on the faces of the Begum Aga Khan (sixth place), the Baroness Von Krieger( seventh), and Mrs. Gilbert Miller (eighth) you can tell that they've got it in for her. Their Mr. Scherrer For the life of me, I can't understand how Mrs. Williams allowed herself to get into such a predicament. To be sure, the fit of Wally's gown appears to be a little better around the hips, but, on the other hand, Mrs. Williams wouldn't pe caught wearing the kind of hats the Duke permits his wife to buy.

View Was Limited

The fit of Wally’'s gown across the back may be better, too. I don’t know. Limited to front views of ladies, as I was, I couldn’t tell. However, the one back I was allowed to see—that of Mrs, Miller (eighth)—was nice enough. So nice, in fact, that I can’t understand why she landed second from the bottom. . I bring up the subject of a woman's hips and back because of all the terrible mistakes made in the past, the two worst were the Mother Hubbard gown and the straight-line frock. I'm old enough to remember both, and I distinctly recall that both failed because they neglected to emphasize the hips and the back. Since then, of course, women have made some progress. So much, indeed, that I'm led to believe that the sign of a well-dressed woman today is a gown that fits around the hips and across the back. Well, that brings me to the point of today’s piece, namely, that the world’s 10 best-dressed women, to judge by their photographs, don’t seem to have hips you can do much with in the way of clothes. T'm inclined to believe, too, that their backs aren't anything to brag about. Anyway, none of them with the exception of Mrs. Miller (eighth), dared show her back.

Look at Local Examples All of which leaves me no alternative but to bes lieve that the judges, instead of appraising the gowns as they were supposed to do, were influenced by somes thing that didn't have anything to do with the art

of dressmaking. Why, I can do better than that. As a matter of fact, I did do better than that, because as soon as I heard of the couturiers’ verdict, I made it my business to pick the 10 best-dressed women in Indianapolis, You'd be surprised to learn what I got—two stenographers, three shop girls, one kindergartner, one mil= liner, two schoolteachers, and an embalmer’ wife. Not a duchess in the lot. It was part of my original plan to give you their real names, but my family persuaded me not to. For two reasons: (1) Because, they said, I didn’t know anything about it, and (2) because, even if I did, nobody would believe me, except maybe the one woman I picked for first place.

A Woman's View By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

Restrictions Saddled on Teachers

Held Major Modern Inconsistency.

NE of our most curious inconsistencies is the O general attitude toward the woman school= teacher. Although she is a product of what we often call the greatest educational system the world has ever known, she is tyrannized by an abysmal ignor= ance. Taking them as a group over the country, the majority of girls and women who teach in our schools are socially segregated. It is a rare occurrence for them.to have any vital part in the community life. The minute they enter the classroom they are marked women, set apart from others of their sex and expected to travel only with the educational crowd. Now and then one sees them at club teas, or participating in uplift movements, but they had better not let us catch them acting like the rest of us if they know what's good for them! The scarcity of males in the schoolteaching trade is well known, and most of the nicest ones are ale ready married. This leaves the matrimonially ame bitious young teacher in a fix. Unless she goes out with a lariat she stands a poor chance of getting a husband. But does her plight move the average person? 1 should say not. Nobody worries whether teacher has a good time or a full life or even a normal existence. As a matter of fact no vestal virgin was ever more immolated for the service of a false god than the young girl of our country who goes into the teaching profession. We even go the ancients one better in the matter, Not only do we choose bright beautiful young maidens for the sacrifice, but out modern Moloch—traditional prejudice—demands also the most wise and useful of the lot. We ask for high-type women for teachers, and cry out as well for better mothers, and yet we are dead set against our teachers being mothers. From any angle, biological, social, intellectual, our attitude on this questions is a little screwy.

New Books Today

Public Library Presents—

UGH MASSINGHAM, resident of the West Side of London, decides to investigate how the other half of London lives. After some difficulty in making contacts with the East Side, he finally obtains a job as rent collector and takes up his abode in two dark, dirty rooms in the basement of the building where he is to work. The title of the book, I TOOK OFF MY TIE (Heinemann, London), symbolizes the contrast between life on the East and West sides. By taking off his tie, and discarding’ other amenities of West Side living, the author loses his life-long feeling of

| security and becomes an East Sider who is looked upon with suspicion by the police.

After a period of unspeakable misery and lone=

| liness, during which he endures all manner of insults

from his new neighbirs, he gradually forces them to

| accept him as their equal, and makes friends with the petty thief, the ;

Although the an

a onl

prostitute, and the organ grinder.

-—