Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 15 July 1937 — Page 17

3

} Vagabond

From Indiana — Ernie Pyle

There's Never a Dull Moment While Steamboatin' Down the Yukon River; Even Mounties Contribute to Fun.

STEAMBOATIN' DOWN THE YUKON, July 15.—If it were two or three weeks later, when the weather would be warm, I believe this Yukon trip would be among the world’s pleasantest things. Something’s happening all the time. There is always something new to look at. Things don't get monotonous. Time passes so swiftly that it seems just an hour or two between meals. The passengers do a lot of looking and pointing at shore, and plenty of talking to each other, and considerable bridge playing, and a lot of daytime sleeping. For we're usually up pretty late. This all-night daylight fools you. You think it's about 9 o'clock, and you look at your watch and it’s midnight. And we're liable to get up any old time. We were due through Five Finger Rapids at 2 a. m,, so we left calls, and about 20 of us got up to sec the boat shoot between two big rocks. (It isn’t as thrilling to see as to read about.) Ordinarily, on this first trip of the season, there are only a few passengers. But this year we have nearly 60 people. Most everybody is going to Dawson. Only half a dozen of us are going clear through to Nenana. 1300 miles down river, We have a good many gold-mining people aboard. and a few prospectors, and a territorial judge, and some businessmen, and several traveling salesmen,

Passengers Form Cliques

Already the passengers have divided into cliques. We have a laughing-and-bouncing section, who leap frantically about the ship all day with screams of hilarity. And we have a talkative section, who know evervthing and tell the other passengers what S ahead around every bend. And then there's the quiet section don't speak to anybody.

Mr. Pyle

There is no deck steward or master of ceremonies |

or anvthing like that. In fact, the crew is fhirly uncommunicative. and nobody pays any attention to you. But one of the waiters, a fine young fellow named Oliver Beahrs who is a medical student at the Uni-

versity of California, is a masterful amateur magician. |

Once on each trip he puts on an hour's sleight-of-hand show in the dining hall after supper, and makes a big hit Ten Northwest Mounted policemen are aboard. Thev're to be stationed at Dawson. It's the first time in the Far North for most of them. Two of them are married. and their wives are with them. : : The Mounties are striking figures in their bright red dresscoats and blue pants with wide yellow stripes. And of course people run them to death taking their pictures. I think everybody on board has been photographed at least twice with a Mountie. They submit docilely, and some of them ars camera fiends themselves.

Mounties Get Excited, Too

They are fine fellows, and human. ) bridee with the other passengers, they'll take a drink, they dance to the phonograph, and one of them, Jack Love. is a marvel at the piano. He plays for us two or three hours a day. on shore, and get as excited as the rest of us when they see anything. Today has been quite a wild-animal day. People report seeing all kinds of game. One passenger says he has seen five bears on shore. counted five moose. And several people say they've seen caribou swimming in the river. But I haven't seen anvthing. I never see anything. It seems to me shat I travel all around everywhere and never see a darn thing. I am so disappointed that one of the Mounties, the next time he

sees a moose, is going to yell so loudly I'll hear him |

wherever I am and come arunning.

Mrs. Roosevelt's Day

By Eleanor Roosevelt

Accompanied by Mrs. Morgenthau, First Lady Visits Miss Lillian Wald.

EW YORK. Wednesday.—Mrs. Morgenthau and I had a delightful time with Miss Lillian Wala vesterday afternoon. On Miss Wald's 70th birthday in New York City they did some very fine things for her, a park will always bear her name and friends

aided the Henry Street Settlement which she found- |

ed. But her neighbors in Westport, Conn, got together and made a book for her, one of the most interesting books it has ever been my pleasure to see. Westport is the home of many artistic peopie, but this book includes the names of alt her friends, even if their talent is only that of being able to love a fine human being. They all signed their names. Those who could draw, drew pictures, those who could write, wrote verses and prose. I think that book will be a jov to her in many hours when she has 10t the energy to take up any occupation or even to look at anvthing new. I was interested in the cover of the book, nicely worked in cross-stitch and designed so that many of her daily interests are right there for you to pick out. Two little Scotties down in the corner, ducks

which waddle down to the pond, others which eat | chunks of bread up near the house. birds of peace |

which represent Miss Wald and Miss Jane Addams are shown looking at each other—and many more amusing little reminders of a busy life full of associations. We were back in time for a swim before dinner and then we sat out on the porch looking over the garden and the swimming pool to the hills all around. The light of a young moon, rather dim as the sunset colors were fading out, became brighter as the davlight left and bathed us in a fairy light.

here was nothing else to see or hear but white |

clouds drifting across the sky and the wind sighing in the trees. While we sat, voung Henry Morgenthau went in and plaved the piano just inside the window—"The Moonlight Sonata,” some Schubert, “Old Man River.” Many things old and new floated out and life was calm and peaceful. This morning Mrs, Scheider and I drove to New York for my last broadcast. We had scarcely reached the apartment when I heard the sad news of Senator Robinson's death. I called the President on the telephone at once. Senator Robinson was a fine man and his passing will be a great loss to his friends, family and to the country which he served with his colleagues in the Senate. I am particularly sorry for Mrs. Robinson, who is away because of her brother's death iast week in Arkansas. Misfortunes rarely seem to come singly, hut somehow strength comes with them. I have appointments to see several people this afternoon.

Walter O'Keefe —

USSOLINT is planning to spend the week-end with Hitler and his two G-Men—Goebbels and Goering, Adolf has done everything to make his playmate comfortable. I hear he's installed a guest balcony. It should be a quiet week-end with only Der Fuehrer and Benito and a couple of hundred bodyguards. Hitler is probably hoping II Doochay will talk in his sleep so that he can find out what his real plans are When the waiter takes the order I hope Benito doesn’t absent-mindedly ask for a slice of Russia or a hunk of Spain. You can bet that neither one is reading “How to Win Friends.” Can vou imagine Mussolini or Hitler not talking about themselves? By the wav—I just figured out the origin of the famous Nazi salute. That upraised right hand is a habit Hitler got when he was a paper-hanger. That expiains the salute . .. but nobody can explain that mustache,

And a still quieter section, the lone wolves who |

They play |

They also watch for animals |

Another says he |

{ |

i

a

Wh

"The Indi

-

anapolis

Second Section

THURSDAY, JULY 15, 1937

Entered as Second-Class at Postoffice,

Indianapolis. Ind.

Matter

PAGE 17

Merchantmen of The Air

(Last of a Series.)

By MORRIS GILBERT

NEA Staff Writer

EW YORK, July 15.—For purposes of commercial

flight across the Atlantic,

the United States,

through the Departments of States and Commerce, proceeds on the principle that it is just as interested as gov-

ernments of any country “over there.”

That puts trans-

Atlantic air developments smack into the field of di-

plomacy.

When the old sailing clippers—those ocean-scorching miracles, designed and built in American shipyards and recognized as the ultimate triumphs of navigation under canvas—were in their glorious prime, these states grew

disunited and went to war with one another. Other nations promptly took advantage and world trade

passed to other carriers. When the World War ended. America was ripe to regain the maritime prestige won and lost in mid-19th Century, but did not. Now for the third time, the United States is equipped to hold

pre-eminence in overseas transport, this time by air This time it looks as if the chance wouldn't be permitted to slip.

MERICAN commercial aviation nowadays is without peer. The size of the country, the absence of national barriers cutting it up, gave the original advantage for development. Engineering, organization, financial resources and enthusiasm did the rest. General technique and material here and now are, in the | opinion of foreigners as well as natives, unequaled. And it seems clearly the intention of the Government that this position shall not be lost. Gone are the idyllic days when Pan-American, in its private ~apacity as a business organization desiring to trade, treated with practically all South America quite on its own. The Pacific, as far as Manila, was traversed without benefit of diplomacy, since there was no reason to touch foreign soil en route. Beyond that, the diplomats stepped in. The Hongkong terminus is British. Now interest shifts to the North Atlantic, and the whole venture hinges on official diplomacy because the whole affair is international. ” 5

RINCIPLES on whith the interested departments in Washington have functioned were prophetically laid down in a Congressional act in 1926, which declared that the United States “has. to the exclusion of all foreigin nations, complete sovereignty of the air spaces over the lands and waters of the

United States, including the Canal Zove.” It adds that foreigh commercial planes may fly in the United States only “if a foreign nation grant a similar privilege in respect of aircraft of the United States.” Very simple, and very fair.

But also very complicated in the working out. Negotiations between Britain, Canada, ana the United States concerning the trans-Atlantic program broke down temporarily as recently as last March because the BritishCanadian group insisted Montreal instead of New York, should be the western terminus. The trouble was patched up and plans went on.

So the all-Empire Atlantic route, a presumable fore-runner of an all-Empire world circuit, is for the moment in abeyance. But as Imperial Airways gains experience in long-distance flight —nothing in the Empire service as yet is comparable to the water hops involved here—the Montreal plan will doubtless forge to the front again. » ” n NITED STATES' planes are dependent on British-owned bases in Bermuda, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Labrador, and Ireland, so the answer eventually must be nonstop performance to and from Europe. Meanwhile, a long-term agreement between Washington and Portugal insures base facilities in the Azores and at Lisbon. British ambitions this side the Atlantic do not halt with the direct trans-Atlantic service. There is in mind an airline between British West Indies possessions and Canada. Another project is a strictly Caribbean service, whizzing ‘round a track pointed by various British possessions such as British Honduras, British Guiana, Trinidad, Jamaica, with halts in Colombia, Venezuela and the Central American states. ” ” » ASHINGTON has already had a diplomatic share in Pan-American expansion toward the Orient. Pan-American alone

Year's Delay Forecast For ‘Little TVA' Bill

| Times Special | ASH INGTON, July 15-1 | President Roosevelt's

| for regional development of

N addition to providing flood con- |

trol and aiding navigation,

Production of

| United States will apparently have | hydro-electric power at the so-called

| to wait another vear.

| multiple-purpose dams

was pro-

| The “Little TVA” Bill is not ex- posed.

| pected to pass this session. One |

| reason is the absence of Senator |°

Norris

promise of his early New Deal mes- | sage on TVA and called for crea-

natural floods, droughts and dust storms.

| ministration’s most ambitious step |

bottom.”

watersheds of seven great rivers.

‘Little TVA” Bill (Ind. Neb.)), who has been The House bill, somewhat different, forced by illness to leave Washing- | was fathered by Chairman Joseph ton. He will not return this session. |J. Mansfield In a message to Congress in June, | House Rivers and Harbors ComPresident Roosevelt carried out the | mittee.

Senator Norris introduced the

in the Senate.

(D. Tex), of the

The Norris bill will soon be re-

A | ported favorably to the Senate Agtion of seven regions to conserve |riculture Committee by a subcomresources and to prevent | mittee which has been holding { hearings, This was regarded as the Ad- | full committe is also expected.

A favorable report by the

The bill was opposed by the coal

in national planning which, the | interests, and criticized by the U. President said, “Should start at the |S. Chamber of Commerce and by | representatives of lake carriers and The seven regions were to be the | the Ohio Valley Conservation and | Flood Control Congress.

Side Glances

SS “le ~

| |

C

Lo : "Let's make our husbands take us out to the country club party. There ll be some men there who are swell dancers." *

in | plan | Some instances the projects would | the | provide irrigation.

The ace personnel of the participating airlines are assigned to navigate the transoceanic airliners.

The composite aircraft developed by the Short organization is suggested for use in trans-Atlantic It consists of two seaplanes, each driven with four motors. The upper plane, laden so heavily

service.

maintains M a n { 1 a-Hongkong service. In view of the reciprocity of air diplomacy, it is to be presumed to run this route. Probably it would not be profitable.

The Dutch wish to link up their East Indies K. L. M. terminus with Manila. It would afford air transport from the Pacific to Europe by an alternative system to Britain's Imperial Airways. There is reason to believe that Washington until lately has been entirely favorable to such a proposal from the Dutch, on the established reciprocal basis.

HE charge of monopoly which has been hurled at PanAmerican and Imperial Airways and the two Governments involved in connection with trans- _ Atlantic service appears to be un1 founded. On the American side, any air line which satisfied the requirements of equipment, personnel, and competence could obtain the necessary authorization. It so happens that Pan-American is out | in front, because of years of ex- | perience flying the Caribbean and | Pacific routes. Its pioneering on | the Honolulu-New Zealand branch proved a good achievement. The work of protecting Ameri-

NL he

Above is glimpse gineer and radio

NANA

by the power of

mile flight.

SN

developed by France, a type that might be

used in ocean flying.

can air sovereignty at Washington is just beginning. Japan may soon be in the picture with a proposal for a trans-Pacific run. Soviet Russia, pioneering on its great-circle route to the American West Coast, may have further plans involving us. Interested European nations are again apply-

it could not take off, would be carried into the air

smaller one could be released with fuel for a 3000-

into the cockpit, with co-pilots, enoperator on duty.

all eight motors. At 10,000 feet the

ET RRR RENERRRR A A WRAL Se

ing for temporary landing rights in connection with North Atlantic air surveys. The overture to the big international air show 1s coming, at quickened tempo, to its close, and the first-act curtain is just on the point of rising. It is the State Department at Washington which beats the time.

Payment of $4 Fee Places Peddlers On a Legal Footing in Indianapolis

By L. A. ANY cities regard some of the annual swarm of peddlers who each year invade them to sell anything from books to patent sink brushes as engaged in “interstate commerce,” because their wares are made in other states, but not Indianapolis. Indianapolis officials regard all door-to-door vendors, except hucksters working from wagons, as “foot peddlers.” The city demands nothing of them but a license obtained at the office of City Controller Walter Boetcher. Licenses are issued as of Jan. 1 and July 1 and are good for half-year periods. The fee is $4.

OME other cities, however, view the vendors’ invasion as violations of interstate commerce rules if the peddlers take orders for goods made outside the state in which the sale is solicited. They have tried to cope with the problem from that viewpoint. Cincinnati, Minneapolis, Norfolk and Sacramento have enacted ordinances aimed at controlling this itinerant selling. Other cities require a bond as a prerequisite to door - to - door solicitation. Others, like Indianapolis, impose a licensing charge. To stand the test of the courts, however, such laws must state specifically that orders solicited for delivery from another state are exempt. Also, license fees, if imposed, must not be prohibitive.

Green River, Wyo., has a novel type ordinance which has withstood two court tests. It prohibits canvassing unless the salesman has been invited to call. A U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals held the ordinance did not interfere with interstate commerce because companies have many avenues of approach to a prospective customer in addition to door-to-door solicitation.

ANY devices, such as bonds and in some cases privilege taxes, have been used in the effort to control itinerant merchants who set up temporary quarters to ply a re-

tail trade. Ordinances imposing such requirements usually are aimed solely at protecting the public from the fly-by-night tribe,

HE American Reta'l Federation sums up the situation with respect to itinerant vendors as follows:

“Where the motive behind an ordinance to control itinerant vendors and transient merchants has been to legislate them out of business, or to place such discriminatory burdens upon them as to prevent their operating effectively, the ordinance has usually proved invalid. But where the purpose of the legislation has been to equalize competition by imposing reasonable license fees, and to protect the municipality and

the consuming public against fraud, there has been only one real obstacle to smooth enforcement—the impossibility of taxation of interstate commerce by.the states and municipalities. “Two steps are necessa‘y to correct existing legal handicaps. One is ‘the revision of existing state laws and local ordinances so tnat they will stand constitutional tests. The other is the passage of a Federal bill which will legalize state control of itinerant vendors and transient merchants, whether they are in interstate or intrastate commerce.”

Hol: BUT—~

“ TT Tee AR ae Pod , Eo Sy “ny,

fr N-

SPEAKING of SAFETY —

RABBITS MUST BE ABLE TO

SHERIFFS OF THE OLD WEST HAD TOBE QUICK ON THE DRAW

' MOTORISTS WHO DASH THROUGH ON THE. : YELLOW" LIGHT HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO EXCUSE

2 JPR ees a

MAKE A QUICK" GET-AWAY”

FOR SUCH A DUMB STUNT —THEY'RE A MeNACE !

I) Hi

|

National Safety Council.

Our Town

By Anton Scherrer

Getting Home Before Beacon Atop Methodist Hospital Turns Off Gives Spiritual Satisfaction to Writer,

PREDICTED, once upon a time, thar nothing in this town would ever beat the Arlington Ave. water tank in Irvington, and to prove my point 1 remember pointing out its honest construction and lucid proportioning. Here, I said, is frankness, fitness and an unsentimental clarity of vision. Here—and by this time I had worked myself into a lather of enthusiasm— here, if you will is Beauty. For good measure, I threw in the general observation that Beauty nowadays, as it always has in the past, depends on the perfect functioning of its structure. It would have been ail right had I stopped there, but I didnt. I went on to say that nothing in this town would ever beat it. That's where I made my mistake. I have no excuse to offer, except to say that I had no way of knowing at the time that the Methodist Hospital people had a beacon tower up their sleeve. I didn’t like the beacon at first. For two reasons: (1) Because it looked too much like a lighthouse stuck in the middle of the nation’s greatest inland

city, and (2) because it looked too much like a symbol that stood for something.

Hospital people, I argued—to myself, of course— should be content to let well-enough alone, and not permit the seat of our troubles to stand for something—least of all, a lighthouse. But that was before the beacon wrapped itself around my heart, Today, I wouldn't know what to do without it. :

Co-operation With Radio

The lights turn on sometime after dark, depending on the season of the year. In winter, and that’s really the time I enjoy it most, the lights turn on sometima between 5 and 5:30 p. m. The uncertainty was a bit

Mr. Scherrer

| disconcerting at first, but not enough to annoy, for I

have learned by practice that no matter when the beacon begins beckoning, I still have time to reach the sanctity of my sitting room to hear all of Amos 'n' Andy, and then some. It may not always be worth hurrying home for, but that is no fault of the beacon. In summer, it works the same way. I still have time to reach home to hear Amos 'n’ Andy, because working hand-in-hand with the hospital people, Amos 'n’ Andy have moved up their schedule to meet that of the beacon.

Really a Thrill

The lights turn off (winter and summer) sometime around midnight, and nothing I know of equals the spiritual satisfaction of getting home before the beacon goes out. The hospital people, whether they know it or not, have provided me with the greatest thriil since the County Commissioners stopped hoist ing the cold-wave flag to the top of the Court House steeple.

I bring up the subject of the Methodist Hospital beacon today, because for a while last month it didn't seem to click the way it should. Something was wrong with the lights. I don’t know what. It's fixed now, however, and you have no idea what a difference it's made in my life. That's when I discovered what the beacon meant to me.

A Woman's View

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

Banker's Big Deal and Housewife's Fine Pie Seen Serving as Same Alibi.

NE of the sweetest of sentiments is the idea that men seek money and success only to gratify their women, and that women slave in the home and suffer in beauty shops merely to please men. A constant stream of propaganda has promoted the theory, which is one reason why it's so universally popular, Both ideas are alibis. That's all. The husbands, being fed up with domesticity, invented the legend of the office grind and the demands of industry and became in time “Tired Businessmen.” When howls were raised at home about their frequent and prolonged absences they could always make a quick answer. “But Mama, I'm only doing it for you and the. children.” Nor is the feminine nature any more forthright. Every woman whose talents lie in housewifery fondly believes and loudly declaims that she works her fine Bere to the bone only to satisfy the wants of her menolk. To be sure, the truth is something quite different, but we scldom raise the issue. The wife who toils to bake flaky biscuit, and angel food light as a feather, is moved mostly by inordinate pride, a vanity which she would probably be the last to recognize as such. Man wishes to succeed so that he may feel important, and woman likewise. The girls hope to be beautiful so they can make a stir in their social circles. They dote on the envious looks of their associates just as the highly successful man exists for the delight of receiving the admiration of his‘ fellow financiers and the motion-picture star feeds upon the homage of her public. So far as that goes, we are all cut from the same cloth. Each must have notice and each goes about getting it in some fashion or other—the banker with his big deals and the housewife with her pies. And so long as we can kid ourseives and one another, I suppose there's no harm done.

New Books Today

ENT By her editor to investigate relief activities in America, Maxine Davis chose Chicago as a sufficiently typical place for observation. Later she went to England and Sweden to see how these nations handle their problems of unemployment and relief. The result of her survey is THEY SHALL NOT WANT (Macmillan), a book written with understanding, an honestly critical spirit, and, at times, a robust indignation. In America she sees a nation slow to realize her own problems, reluctant to admit them, and too much addicted to the “wishful thinking” which prevents her from the realistic approach to them which the writer found in England and Sweden.

” ” “

RACTICALLY buried in bunting, its street lined with glaring placards, and its bandstand filled with blaring music, Billingsgate on Cape Cod is celee brating Old Home Week. The town officers are plane ning to lift the town debt forever by the festivities, but someone is as determined to throw a wrench into the machinery, and chooses a shotgun for his purpose. Asey Mayo, famous local sleuth, is called in to protect the town's interests and to keep the Old Settlers happily unaware of theft, biackmail and murder. Asey maneuvers into a perfect pattern the weird calls over the swamp, the swaying figures in front of the antique shop and the prize glass of jelly. And the crime is solved. Phoebe Atwood Taylor's mysteries are always ene joyable. FIGURE AWAY (Norton) is no exception, It is full of human and amusing folk, and presents a not too insoluble riddle besides that engaging, wisecracking speed fiend, Asey, whose main interest is to get the nasty business over so that he can catch the bluefish which “was runnin’ lickety split out in the bay.”