Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 14 July 1937 — Page 13

Vagabon

From Indiana — Ernie Pyle

Deck of a Yukon River Steamboat Is No Place for a Sailor to Fall if He Is Carrying a Gun, Reporter Learns.

QTEAMBOATIN’ DOWN THE YUKON, July 14.—When 1 found out 1 was taking this trip down the Yukon River, 1 supposed the boats would be little things about the size of a streetcar, and very rough and primitive. \ Well, they're anything but palatial, but they're not primitive by a long shot. And neither are they little. They're really nothing but shallow-draft barges, with a sort of three-deck houseboat built on top. Fully loaded, they draw only four feet of water. They're about as long as a ferry boat. They're square and tall and ugly. They're painted white, and have a huge red paddle-wheel on the back. The smokestack stieks straight up, far above us. We look just like pictures of the old steamboats on the Mississippi. There isn’t room for much freight on the boat itself, so it is carried on a roofless barge. We can't tow the barge, because of the paddle-wheel behind, so we lash it to the bow and push it. The passenger accommodations, although somewhat less exotic than those of the Normandie, are what might be called by a drama critic as “adequate.” The boat, surprisingly enough, will accommodate a hundred passengers. There are cabins on two decks, upper and lower bunks in each cabin; beds good and everything clean. There is plenty of deck space. But it's so cold we can't stand it on deck for very long. The icy wind has been howling around us for two days.

It's a Tough Life

Otir cabins have no heat. Most of the passengers stay in the lounge all day, where there's a radiator. But T have to sit in ‘my frigid cabin and try to write. The life of a reporter is terrible. Its gets twice as cold at night, even though it is still daylight. My friend Mr. Mose, who has been in Alaska and the Yukon for 40 years, said he didn’t go to bed till 2 o'clock this morning. Said he was sO cold he couldn't bear to undress and get in bed. As for me, I sleep in the garb I used to wear in the open-air college dormitory. Tt consists of flannel pajamas, wool socks pulled over them, two sweaters, all the blankets I can find. Still I get cold. We don't have any radio. If the captain has to get word to the home office about anything he just ties to a tree, gets out a sort of telescopic pole, walks till he finds the Dominion telegraph line, hooks his pole over the wire and says, “Gimme Mr. Gordon at White Horse.”

Boats Go Down

A history of the steamboatin’ on this White Pass & Yukon Route would make an amazing book. They lose at least one ship nearly every year. And unlike most lines, they don’t try to shush<hush their accidents. They tell you all about them. In fact, if you're out on deck with a camera the pilot will holler down and say, “The wreck of the Dawson is just around the next bend.” The skeletons of ships that were once like ours are strung all along this river. We've passed four already. They've lost around 15 boats since the line started, but never have lost a passenger. Most of the wrecks are caused by hitting rocks. Usually they're able to beach the boat before it sinks, and thus save the freight. Only once has there been a fatality. Tt was a weird accident. There was some dynamite in the cargo. One of the sailors had a gun in his pocket, and stumbled and fell down, and the gun went off and shot into the dynamite. It exploded, and set the boat afire. and the whole boat burned. Five sailors were killed We've got dynamite ‘with us on this trip too. But it’s out ahead on the barge, thank goodness.

Mrs. Roosevelt's Day

By Eleanor Roosevelt

Casual Post Road Meeting Brings First Lady Feeling of Friendship.

HY PARK, N. Y., Tuesday—On Sunday afternooh I stopped to talk to a friend ‘of mine who has a fruit ana vegetable stand between here and Red Hook on the Albany post road. 1 wish that T could convey to you a little of the pride I feel in this woman's quite ‘evident achievement. I have watched that stand grow for a number of vears now and its products show how far the farm has grown as well. Somehow or other, IT have & feeling that Mrs. Hamm is growing also. She presented me with a ‘basket ‘of ‘beautiful cherries and we talked for a while. She takes & great interest in the Historical Society and asked me if T was going to be able to speak for them ‘in September or October, and then said: ‘Some day when you have time, won't you stop long enough to let me have & chance to ask you & number ‘of questions? There are so ‘many things I would like to talk about.” Mrs. Hamm once told me she went to ‘meetings of every political variety because she likes to know every side of a question. While I was waiting for ‘my fruit, & boy, who was buving cherries, came over and held his basket ‘out and ‘asked if we would have some. Then he said he ‘was from Brooklyn and had been to a lake back of Hudson, N. Y. for the week-end. He ‘wished the President and ‘me good luck and 1 felt T had been talking to a friend. When Mrs, Scheider ‘came back to the car, she asked me: “Who is your friend?” I ‘answered: “I haven't the slightest idea who he is, ‘except that he comes from Brooklyn.” Yesterday afternoon I ‘motored ‘down to Mrs, Morgenthau's, where 1 am spending a ‘couple ‘of nights. Before long, she and her family will leave the Hudson River for their usual summer vacation. I know no one who has succeeded better than she has in giving her ‘children &n interest in ‘general affairs and it ‘makes them the ‘most ‘delightful ‘companions. I always look forward hopefully to their being at home when 1 go to visit her. IT dt afraid there is no more ‘encouraging news to be hoped for about Amelia Earhart. Much as I hate to acknowledge defeat, I think ‘we ‘will have to accept What seems how a ‘certainty, that she is added to the list ‘of ‘people who have lost their lives in ‘the interest of adventure and science. She would have it so, I know, and would not regret going, but those of us who knew her and realized her value cannot help but regret our loss. T ‘only hope it ‘will spur ‘us on to do something in ‘her ‘memory which Will carry on the ‘influence which her ‘personality and spirit brought everyone with whom she came in ‘contact.

Walter O'Keefe —

ING OROSBY'S pal, the fabled legendary John Montague of Hollywood, has just had his false whiskers pulled off, ‘and ‘the police know him by his ‘thaiden hame—Laverne Moore.

While this ‘mystery has been exciting Hollywood, | the ‘upper crust of Uvalde, Tex, has ‘taken up an- |

other mysterious stranger. He won't talk ‘either.

His ingratiating personality, his ready ‘wit ahd |

good nature have ‘made him a very popular figure and won't Uvalde be shocked when they discover that ‘this strange silent ‘man is ‘Garner!

People Who have tried to get statements out of |

Mystery Man ‘Garner claim he hever ‘talks about his past. He just wants to be known as & good fisherman. He won't ‘confess that he's a Democrat. It's ighty probable that if his identity is ‘reTe HO ae Ml Sah Se ‘to prevent his ‘extradition in

to Washington.

Vice President |

|

The Indianapolis

Second Section

Merch

(Second of a Series)

By MORRIS GILBERT

NEA Staff Writer

‘NJEW YORK, July 14.—If

an Eskimo in Nome wants to sell kayaks in Patagonia, he can get there in eight days. He would spend two of those doing 700 miles by sea. The rest of the time would carry him

* 11,337 miles by air.

That's the way the world is. For business or sight-seeing, airminded folk have a limitless choice. An extraordinary number of places almost anywhere on earth are at the end of commercial flying routes. A mandarin in Shanghai (or a simple tourist for that matter) might feel impelled to go to a city called Chengtu, 1311 miles away. He can do so on a regularly scheduled airline, Someone in Perth, Australia, desires to be in Daly Waters, Australia, in the quickest possible time. It’s 2252 miles off. There is an air service ready. ” » ”

HE Pacific is an air trade route. So is the South Atlantic, ‘Commercial flying has woven a thick web over the Americas and Europe. It moves on regular headway across Africa, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Malaya. America links up with China, is soon starting air business with New Zealand. That’s about all there is in the atlas. The most erudite geographers would find it hard to discover a continent, subcontinent, country or territory which isn’t today definitely affected by air trade—not just “hops,” but business. Such a geographer might feel like ‘picking a country at random. Suppose he picked Siam. In the first quarter of 1937, 482 passengers arrived or departed or passed through Siam on regular air lines. The geographer might pick what people imagine to be a ‘backward” country, Turkey. The Turks run a daily service each way between the capital, Ankara, and Istanbul. They are buying planes to expand this service across the Taurus Mountaihs to Adana in Cilicia and across the Euphrates River to Diarbekir on the banks of the Tigris. ” n 2

Ts geographer might feel like picking a place way off the beaten track, an idyllic island sort of a place, say, Madagascar. During the first two months of 1937 in Madagascar, civil airlines spent 231 hours in ‘the air, carried 169 passengers, and plan to fly over 150,000 miles this year. That's the ‘way the world is today. According to the best figures available last May to the U.S. Department of Commerce, 104 foreigh and three American operating companies maintain scheduled air services outside the United States, measuring 261.696 operation ‘miles. They fly the flags of 47 countries and colonies. Late figures for domestic air service in the United States show 21 companies flying 28874 miles. But these records do not include Pan-American’s new Ma-nila-Hongkong service, nor ifs Honolulu-New Zealand route which is already surveyed, nor the latest and greatest of all air routes, across the North Atlantic Ocean, between the ‘Old World | and the New, a route already in test operation. =u un ”n

HE first leg of trans-Atlantic passenger travel by air—New York-Bermuda, already on regular headway—peaks the world's commercial flying today. All right, let’s ‘gd. A flying trip to Bermuda gives the ‘passenger a taste of ‘what it ‘will be like to make the whole trans-Atlantic flight in the near future. A sleek limousine idles in front of Pan-American’s New York headquarters. That's a Tefinement unknown in other forms of transportation. What steamship company takes a traveler to the docks by limousine? Preliminaries of the trip are familiar to ‘ocean ‘travelers. Same customs forms to fill ‘out, same baggage declaration. Same cour-

Side Glances

out ‘on that hice, cool back porch of mine

‘ment of ‘Oommerce Bureau

U, 8, PA Fl J.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 14, 1937

Entered as Becond-Class Matter % ostoffice. Indianapolis.

at

PAGE 13

nd.

TN

. The diagrammatic sketch gives {he Pan-American Airlines have made to the problem of trans-Atlantic aviation. The plane ‘is ‘one ‘of the Clipper type used in the test flight to England but fitted out for survey work instead of passenger service. All ‘the ‘comforts of home is what the trans-Atlantic air service hopes to offer its passengers on the long hops between Europe and the United States. Above, passengers ditie in the salon ‘of ‘one of the big British flying boats; and at right it’s breakfast in bed

that entrances the ladies.

teous ‘porter to stow the hand luggage. The limousine purrs away “out the Island” to Port Washington. n n » RIGHT-WORK gleaming like a private yacht, a thing of proud, stream-lined beauty, the Clipper rides the quiet water beside the company float. The wingspread is majestic, the vessel's hull as seaworthy as if she were never intended to quit water. So staunch she looks, so fit for work at sea, it seems incredible that her real element. is air.

The voyager knows that every

member of the Clipper’s personnel is a veteran, trained in years of service, product of the sternest curriculum any flier—whether commercial or military—can undergo. Behind them stands the record of Pan-American service, pioneer of ocean flying, acknowledged, by foreign experts as well as American, to be unique. It all seems very normal, very routine, Baggage is whisked aboard. At the foot of the comspanionway which leads down from the after hatch, the passenger is greeted by a steward and a purser. His ticket calls for a special seat

scientific approach

in one compartment, luxurious and gay. The steward produces magazines, papers, informs the traveler which compartment is available for smoking, offers writing material. » » ® AINTLY ‘comes the sound of the ‘motors. The craft has imperceptibly ‘quitted the dock. As she ‘turns, a panorama of Port Washington harbor passes the big portholes. Pretty yachts at anchor, a cat-boat heeling over ‘as she scuds across the light breeze, the wooded hills that line the banks. The ‘motors sound

LTHOUGH one of the country’s

most ‘modern, Municipal Airport ‘may have to undergo changes

| before next year to Keep pace with

the ‘enlarging ‘of transcontinental

| air equipment, it ‘was indicated to-

day. I. J. Dienhart, airport superintendent, said that with the larger airlines ‘planning ‘construction of 40-passenger, 60,000-pound ‘superliners, runways at the local port may have to be ‘extended. The concrete riunhways now ‘are 3200 feet long. Mr. Dienhart said the Departof Aeronautics is ‘considering reclassifying ‘the ‘nation’s airports and probably ‘will require a 4000-foot minimum for runways at ports serving ‘as ‘bases for transcontinental airlines.

P Se and

4 “" A . eo

|

Changes May Be Required at Airport To Enable "Superplanes’ to Land

OWEVER, Mr. Dienhart ‘pointed out that the local port will be forced to ‘undergo fewer changes than ‘most ‘of the nation’s airports. He said the local port has the advantage ‘of ‘possessing ‘clear ‘approaches” ‘and the ‘most up-to-date radio landing equipment. Extension ‘of the runways will be merely a ‘matter of raising funds for the ‘construction, he said. There is room to ‘permit ‘maximum length runways ‘of 9000 feet. Action ‘to tighten control oh the country's airports ‘was started by Departient of ‘Commerce officials after commercial ‘pilots warned that they could no longer “assume responsibility ‘for landings and takeoffs” at ‘the only airport in Washington ‘unless facilities were improved at ‘once. According to reports, pilots indicated they ‘were ‘considering a point blank refusal even to attempt to land at Washington in the new air liners. Under the ‘proposed Department of ‘Commerce ‘classification, pilots will be ‘permitted to land huge sky liners ‘only at ‘ports ‘classified ‘as “superports.” nr % % R. DIENHART said that the exact runway length to be required to win “superport” recognition had ‘not been ‘determined. The ‘proposed 40-passenger liners will have flying speeds of approximately 237 ‘miles an hour and landing speeds of about 68. They ‘will need broad, paved runways of 4000 to 5000 feet in length, Department of ‘Commerce ‘experts claim. The following ‘cities have runways shorter than Indianapolis: Newark, 3100 feet; Flushing, N. Y., 3000 feet and Sanh Francisco, 3000 feet. The girports ‘mentioned are among the largest in the ‘country. The longest runway at Boston's municipal airport is 4000 feet; at Pittsburgh, 3 feet: ‘at ‘Columbus, ©. 3500 feet; at ‘Cleveland, 5400 ‘feet; ‘at ‘Chicago, 4000 feet; at Kansas City, 5000 feet; at Albuquerque, 6600 feet; at Los Angeles, 3650 feet. * % % ACTLITIES are proportionately less adequate at smaller ports, notwithstanding the fact that aggregate investment in landing fields, public and commercial, probably is ih ‘excess of $250,000,000 at the present time. As ‘of last June 1, the Vhited States had 2366 air fields of all types, an increase of one-third from the 1782 on Dec. 81, 1030. Of ‘the D366 fields, 742 are mu-nicipally-owned and operated, 449 commercially-owned and operated.

Night light ont ‘existed at oo HR ae a at 98 commercial fields. ted fields in all classifications ‘totaled 705, including

ERS

Government aeronautical experts are ‘emphatic ih asserting that any ‘municipality that hopes to be a link ih sky lines of the future ‘must begih planning now for “supérairports.” Th ‘some few ‘of the larger airports, extension of Tunways and other facilities to ‘handle larger planes probably will be relatively simple and inexpensive. In others, as ‘in Washington, ‘actual relocation of ‘existing ‘ports will be imperative. Spokesmen for the United States Bureau of Air Commerce assert that the ‘whole situation holds a vivid object lesson for ‘cities, large or small, that have airport improvements underway, or that ‘contemplate the building of new airports. Wherever ‘possible, such airports should be planned for the future— and so planned from the start, Expert téchnical advice is ‘called for, 50 that investments today will not

| be found to have been wasted 10 | vears hence,

SPEAKING Of

| |

|

louder. The traveler feels the gentle action of the craft. Suddenly, he realizes that the Clipperwis air-borne. She is in her real element. The flight has begun. He and his 30 fellow-voyagers settle down to life at sea. But it is life at sea telescoped. No strolls on ‘the ‘moonlight deck, no interminable days of idling, no posting, noon after noon, of the ship's position and run. Tt is an accordion-pleated sea voyage, finished before anyone gets used to it. There is little sound from the motors. The vibration is less than ‘on an express liner. And there is food as delicious and ‘meals as complete as any chef can prepiire, for the days of box-luncheons have long since passed. 4 o HE ‘Clipper levels on her cotirse. She is the comrade of the ‘clouds. She moves with a stately quiet ‘which belies her speed. There is sunlight now, a cobalt sea below. Then suddenly —for the timé has ‘passed 0 quickly—a glimpse from the portholes Teveals Bermuda. The grotip of islands stands out clear in the sun, stirf creaming on the beaches, ‘colors of the palms, the houses, the sand, the coral splashing in gaudy tropic brilliance. Five hours out of New York, the argonauts are sipping Planter's Punch ‘on ‘a hotel veranda in

Hamilton. That's the way the world is

»

® today.

NEXT — International aviation rns smack up against problems of diplomacy.

Heard in Congress=— Senator Glass (D. Va.) —It seems to mie the Senate has been treated

| 'to ‘more lachrymose rhetoric than

| | |

| ‘ever before in the history of the

Republic. 1 ‘individually think that more ‘economic blunders, if not in

some instances ‘economic crimes, have béen perpetrated by ‘Congress in the name ‘of starving people who never starved and freezing people not ‘one of whom has ‘ever frozen than ‘the imagination can conjure up. » % %

; sath WH. McReynolds (D. Tenn.) =Not long since ‘down in my section two ‘old ‘colored ladies went to ‘get relief. They got their basKets filled, and as they walked ‘out one said to the other, “I am SO sOrry that my husband died last year. Poor old John, it is too bad that he ‘could not be here to help enjoy this relief.”

SAFETY

Not to the mothers, you can be sure.

on

Our Town

By Anton Scherrer

Local Girls Aren't Doing as Well as - Their Mothers Did in Getting to Altar After Troths Were Plighted.

JNDIANAPOLIS girls don’t make the head way their mothers did. Maybe you, too, have noticed it. A lot of people have. I bring up the subject today, because a survey of what is happening around here

reveals the rather alarming fact that a lot of Indianapolis girls had to wait almost a year to get married last month. Time was when an engaged girl was as good as married. Nowadays it takes anywhere from six months to a year. You can prove it for yourself. All you have to do is to note the date of the girl's engagement, as published in your favorite newspaper, and compare it with the day she marches to the altar. You can't miss the item, because there's always a picture of the girl, and an exhaustive description of how her veil was held together at the wedding. It’s not the veil, though, I want to talk about today. What concerns me is the unbe= lievable and somewhat appalling lapse of time be= tween the two ‘events. You'd be surprised to learn what the Spaniards have done in the same length of time, to say nothing of the Wasson people right here in Indianapolis. Well, as I was saying, Indianapolis girls don't make the headway their mothers did, and I'm in a posi= tion to tell you why. Getting around this town the way I do, I get to listen to a lot of things I'm not supposed to hear. Anyway, I'm going to tell you.

Bridegrooms Are Particular

My investigation shows that Indianapolis bride= grooms nowadays insist on having their girls delivered to them in reasonably sound condition. This takes time. More than you think. 1 Know of one case on the North Side, for instance, that took ‘over 18 ‘months. Tt entailed the removal of her appendix, tonsils and wisdom teeth. Even then, the prospective husband wasn't satisfied. He made the prospective father-in-law come through with a H-year ‘guarantee. Outside of that, however, Indianapolis bridegrooms have ‘thade little progress since I was a boy. Cer= tainly, they have achieved no other victories. They still have to pay the clergyman his fee, and buy monogrammed cuff links for the ushers—despite the fact that the bride, as a rule, picks the ushers. That's why the ushers last month were such a lot ‘of funny=looking ‘men. If the bridegroom had something to say abotit it. the ushers wouldn't all be fat and bald. Nor would they all be the bride's brothers.

Male Pictures Needed

Come to think of it, the modern bridegroom won't amount to anything until he gets his face in the newspaper the way the bride does. 1 don't insist on a ‘descriptive rhapsody of what he wears, but 1 would like to know what he looks like. Better still would be a group picture of the two. That's the way our fathers ‘did it. Father, 1 re= member, reclined luxuriantly in a horsehair chair, and ‘mother stood beside him holding tight to something. Both looked scared, but at any rate, it showed they ‘meant business.

A Woman's View By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

Problem of Career vs. Parenthood Is Presented by Feminine Who's Who,

DISQUIETING feature of the American Wom-= ah's Who's Who is pointed ‘out by Durward Howes, the editor. More than 39 per cent of those considered worthy of inclusion in its pages have nod children, ‘while 28 per cent have only one child. The inference is plain. Women who are making contributions to science, busiriess and the arts are neglecting ‘motherhood, which is not strange for at Teast two reasons. Generally such women feel too busy to bother with babies. But the second and stronger reason is that motherhood lost its glamour a long time ago. Tt's all very well to repeat the ‘old sentimental phrases, They are flaunted in our faces at intervals, notably ‘on Mother's Day, when we manage to feel mushy and tearful. But generally they 6 in ‘one ear and ‘out the other without leaving any mental im= pression. Nobody actually believes them any more, And as for stirring the ‘emotions, dogs answer the pur= pose better these days. It's easier to wring sobs from the public by doing a touching little eulogy on a puppy than it is to waste one’s effort praising ‘mothers and babies, What's to prove it, do you ask? Well, for one thing, this feminine Who's Who ‘itself. When such a hook is published, where do the editors go for material? Every woman in the book is selected for something other than the standard of children produced. Aid ‘we've no quarrel with them there. But We dd

Mr. Scherrer

Hope that some of ‘our great minds will turn their at«

tention to the solution of this social problem. How 18 the siuperwoman to manage what the superman has always found =o simple—parenthood and a ‘career simultarieously? Certainly no waste could be worse than this. When

tops in feminine achievement, ingenuity and brains aren't handing down some of that ability and genius

to the younger generations, whatever they may ac«

complish ‘must come under the head of lost motion,

New Books Today

r= job ‘of motion picture reviewer and manus soript reader for “squire” afforded Meyer Levin

| ..OTHERS ARE DOUBTED == STILL OTWERS ARE LAUGHED AT ROY SAEETY SIGNS MOST BE TAKEN , SERIQUSLY => | READ EM AND

HEED

ample time for his first serious novel 2 OLD BUNCH (Viking Press) consists of Jew= ish poys and girls who were graduating from high school on the West Side of Chicago in the year 1921, Their subsequent successes and failures in their cho= sen professions are governed by the events which constitute the social history of Chicago and America from ‘the years 1921 to 1034. The fortunes and misfortunes experienced by these boys and girls are common to the young e any religious hationdl group in America. lives of. these people constitute a representative crosss section of the American middle and lower middle class. Perhaps the novel suifers because of its extensive ather than intensive treatment of character and episodes, yet it mever loses force and drama,

® n ”

present religious persecution in Germany under Hitler has provided an incentive for a deluge of material oh antisemitism. Joining the ranks of the writeis on this subject is ¥ g Vewivohh with his latest novel, TRUMPET OF JUBILEE (Harper) The first part of the book will perhaps be more f= telligible to the Yeader than the latter half because reveals conditions as we already know them. The degradation of German Jews under Hitler is again described. When Kurt Weiss is murdered, his wife Gina and their son Gabriel seek refuge in America, But Gina's Jewish relatives in America appall hen The older Jews are Babbitts, while the younger ones are without religion and are frengiedly ambitious for The Tatter part of the novel ifcludes ih its scope thie Maturity of the son Gabriel and the distint : tion of Westerh society. The international war 1040 between G——— Bwes oa Yomifiarien Natt