Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 24 August 1937 — Page 13
- Vagabond
From Indiana—Ernie Pyle
Calcutta Resident Heard of Gold | At Nome, and Today He Is a Tycoon | In the Good News Bay Business Life.
LATINUM, Good News Bay, Alaska, Aug. 24.—When a new metal strike is made in the Far North, a camp soon forms and grows into a village, and merchants come in and set up in business. There are businessmen who make it a practice to follow the new boom camps. They move in with a store or restaurant, and when the camp begins to die they move on to another one. The chances are that they make more money, in the long run, than ©€9 out of 100 prospectors. In 1900 a sea-faring Scandinavian named Pete Wold was in Calcutta, India, when he heard of the great strike at Nome. It was so infernally hot in Calcutta that he decided right there, that day, that he was coming to Alaska. Six years later—in 1906—he arrived. He became what is known in Alaska as a trader—a man who owns a small boat, and carries in supplies to the small coastal and river villages, and trades them for fur or whatever the native has. Pete Wold has been an Alaskan trader for 30 years. He owns a motorship named Fern, and every summer he loads up at Seattle and sails northward to do business with the natives of the Bering Sea Coast.’ Four vears ago Capt. Wold heard som= whisperings about the platinum around Good News Bay. So he put into the bay one day, and rowed ashore, and walked all around over the country in his house slippers. House slippers aren't much good for walking around here, for sometimes you sink half way to vour knees in the soft tundra. But Capt. Wold is stiil wearing those same slippers today, and—
Saw Good Future
He saw enough to convince him there was a future to Good News Bay. So on the next trip up he brought lumber, and built a store, and stocked it. Today Capt. Wold owns Platinum's only store. He owns 40 acres of the town site, and half the town is built on his ground. He is the real-estate and merchant tycoon of Platinum. His is the first boat here each spring. This year he came so early he was pinned in the bay ice for five days. Sometimes he makes two or three trips from Seattle in the summer. But this summer he is so busy around here lightering in the heavy mining machinery, and tending his real estate growth. that his ship lies idle in the harbor. He lives in a cluttered-up log cabin, and cooks his own meals.
He's a Big Employer
He doesn’t run the store himself. Has three people working for him—Ed Harwood, the manager, who used to run a newspaper in Cordova; Mrs. Harwood, and Einar Olsen. Mr. Olsen was the first white man to winter in Platinum. That was in 33, and once he was in the store three weeks without a single customer coming in. Captain Wold won't be Platinum’s only merchant for long. N. G. Hanson's new store is almost finished now. Its a large barn-like structure, roofed and sided with corrugated tin, and it has an apartment in the back for Mr. Hanson to live in. He'll give a big dance the night before the store opens. Mr. Hanson has run stores in other Alaskan boom towns for years. He likes the excitement of moving around to the new camps. And like most Alaska businessmen he dabbles a little in mining claims. His children are educated “outside,” and one of his boys is paying his way through the University of Washington by working at $7 a day and board in Strandberg’s Clara Creek camp this summer. |
Mrs. Roosevelt's Day
By Eleanor Roosevelt
Chilly Weather in Hyde Park Found Welcome After Indianapolis’ Heat.
YDE PARK. N. Y., Monday.—As we stopped at our last gas station yesterday, the young man who serviced our car remarked: “I wisi the rain would stop so we could all dry off.” He did look
miserable. ; Miss Dickerman, Mrs. Scheider and I had really enjoyed the day in spite of the rain. We had stopped
in a little restaurant at Margaretville, N. Y., for lunch and I thought we were part of the crowd, till the girl who came to serve us murmured: “Are you Mrs. Roosevelt?” I saw several other people looking at me as though they thought I looked familiar. One person was totally unconscious of us, however. She was a little girl with tightly curled goldenred hair. who sat at a table across the room. I tried to make her smile at me. but she simply covered her face with her napkin and shook her head. She managed, however, to eat two whole ears of corn, which for her age, seemed to augur quite a remarkably good digestion. After a while, in the intervals of playing with her own family, she smiled at us. It has continued to rain most of today and, as we returned to a room filled with a large number of packages and bundles of mail, I think Mrs. Scheider and I are glad of our enforced inactivity. We have spent the day at our respective desks. I was very much interested to receive a request today from the young crippled girl I visited in Poughkeepsie a few days ago. She is anxious for books to read. I tried very hard to point out in a recent column that infantile paralysis, more than any other disease I have come in contact with, requires that little superhuman effort which is so hard to make, to go forward step by step, making new efforts mentally and physically. If patients can accomplish this, in the end they achieve greater happiness for themselves and those around them. I am very happy this young girl is making an effort to take an interest in books. I can hardly believe that on Friday in Indianapolis I felt warmer than on any day during the summer. Today I have had a {ire going in my living room and we had luncheon on a table drawn before it. Such changes as we go through!
Walter O'Keefe—
BUNCH of tourists has just returned from a European cruise highly indignant because they were not permitted to enter Russia. it seems that the Russians don’t want anybody to come into their country these days except Leon Trotsky. Stalin would love to welcome Leon with a 21-gun salute and a beautiful military funeral. It's a good thing the United States recognized
Mr. Pyle
:
The Indianapolis Times
Second Section
TUESDAY, AUGUST 24, 1937
Entered as Second-Class Indianapolis,
at Postoffice,
Matter Ind,
PAGE 13
Hugo L. Black: The New Justice
Called for Restrictions on Lobbyists, Salaries, Hold
(Seventh of a Series)
By Ruth Finney
Times Special Writer ASHINGTON, Aug. 24.—The fight against mail subsidies launched by Hugo L. Black during his first few months in office as a Senator came to a head during the 1934 session of Congress—and as a result Mr. Black was one of the busiest men in the Senate. He was made chairman of the committee which investigated airmail and oceanmail contracts and it proved to be a prodigious task. One byproduct was a citation to the Senate for contempt involving L. H. Britten, William P. McCracken and two others. After testimony had been taken for two months, Postmaster General Farley canceled existing airmail contracts and put Army fliers at work flying the mail. Senator Black and Senator McKellar (D. Tenn.) were joint authors of a measure “to create a permanent airmail service,” and spent two months getting the bill through Con-
gress.
The Congressional Record, during that session, was full of speeches by Mr. Black quoting testimony taken at his hearings, reaffifming charges of fraud in the original contracts, denying that the Committee had indulged . in wire tapping or use of dictographs, charging that prominent Republicans were officers of many aviation companies organized in the last days of 1928 and the first days of 1929; charging that numerous attempts had been made to authorize the letting of contracts without bids, and alleging that operators had met to decide “how the map will be carved up.”
2 ” n ARLY in the struggle Mr. ' Black made a radio speech on the ocean-mail contracts which
The thrilling secret which Mrs,
Black shared with the
new justice for 12 hours before his nomination to the Supreme Court was no longer a secret but a cause for unconcealed happiness when this picture was made after the nomination was confirmed. The couple is shown in the Capitol as friends offered congratulations.
probably sums up his position in the matter and his fundamental philosophies as well as anything could. He said: “Among other things which I personally believe should be done as a result of facts our inquiry has disclosed are these: “Prohibit by law free passes and special privileges on subsidized ocean and air lines to members of Congress, Government officials and others except on official business.
“Prohibit maintenance of paid lobbyists. “Drastic limitation on high salaries, expense accounts and perquisites to favored individuals and the maintenance of a fair, just and liberal wage level for the men who actually do the work.
'Furnace’ to Heat and Cool
By United Press ASHINGTON, Aug. 24—Reversible systems geared to keep homes warm in winter and cool in summer are “altogether possible” for use in moderate, Southern climates, Lowell J. Chawner of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, said today. Mr. Chawner said that now a few “heat pumps” actually have been placed in operation in the United States and England. : “A combined installation for cooling in summer and heating in winter is attractive to contemplate and appears altogether possible in the Southern and Pacific Coast areas of the United States, particularly where electrical energy is available at low cost,” Mr. Chawner said. Such refrigeration systems would have difficulty in operating efficiently and at low enough cost to ke practical in sections where the temperatures often fall below freezing, Mr. Chawner said. u a o N such moderate climates, he said, the so-called “heat pumps” could generate an efficiency as high as 300 to 500 Per cent. Thus, Mr. Chawner explained, a unit of electrical or mechanical energy ‘could be transmitted into heat energy from a low temperature source to a higher temperature body in an
‘Homes Held Possible
[amount three to five times that of | the original energy applied.
Mr. Chawner said that despite the advance of science in other fields, the home construction in 1836 was
not far different from that in 1936. | The materials used are the same |
—brick, stone, lime. However, he pointed out that the advance in home comforts had been tremendous during the past century. Few houses 100 years ago had central heat, hot and cold running water, interior plumbing and installed baths; these are commonplace today. Ed
lumber, sand and
= ”
% HE provision of domestic shelter has been one of the slowest of the arts te r2spond to the widespread technical progress of recent times,” Mr. Chawner explained. “In spite of their slow improvement, houses had for many years provided fairly adequately for the protection of human life against the hazards of severe weather and had made possible some privacy of individual and family life." »
Despite the technical availability of modern home features such as plumbing and heating, Mr. Chawner pointed out that approximatély 12,000,000 Americans do not have these barest essentials of “modern
Side Glances
~b
RO
Russia a couple of years ago, because pretty soon, in
the light of recent events, even the Russians won't |
be able to recognize the place.
If those tourists were just anxious to see a lot of | people suffering they should have stayed in New York |
during the heat wave. The indignation of these returning Americans is hard to understand. Imagine anybody coming back from Russia alive and being sore about it. It’s too bad that they didn't keep our Americans out of Shanghai.
PREFER DEATH TO JAZZ
Bw Science Service KYO, Aug. 24. Jazz on an old-fashioned phonograph is so bad that even parasitic grubs commit suicide to get away from it. Such is the somewhat bizarre discovery of Dr. Yoshimasa Yagi, Japanese parasitologist. Silkworms in Japan are often badly afflicted by parasitic larvae, known as “kyochu.” Dr. Yagi put some infested silkworms in a tin can, put the can into the horn of an old-style phonograph, and turned on a loud jasz record. . The tes, annoyed by the et refuge Sith bodies of the silkworms anff there suffoca A ey
=
improvements.” By Clark
| |
1 | 1
“YPROHIBITION against subsidized companies employing Government employees with whom business transactions have been negotiated, for a certain period of time after they leave the Government service. “Prohibition against efforts to influence contracts or modificacations by members of Congress and party officials. “A limitation of profits to a reasonable return upon actual investment, “The construction of ships that will compete on a fair basis with modern equipment and with sufficient speed to be useful in case of national needs. “More stringent regulations compelling employment of Americans on our ships at a decent wage level. “A uniform system of bookkeeping with a penalty for improper entries. “Protection of honest stockholders from manipulative profits of bankers, brokers and promoters. 2 2 2 T= absolute prohibition or drastic regulations and limitations of holding companies, subsidiaries, associates and affiliates. “The seizure by taxation of unjust gains and so-called ‘profits’ of individuals whose fortunes grow overnight from investments of $40 or $250 to $6,000,000 or $35,000,000,
Bc i A AAP A RN Ka
Mrs. Black accompanied her husband to the famous
ing Firms and Profits
£0 Jeffer-
son Island outing in Chesapeake Bay, where she calmly fished while the politicos conferred. Mrs. Black, who takes little part in formal
Washington society, is devoted to her three children, Hugo Jr, 14;
Sterling, 12, and Josephine, 3.
“A protection of the American shipper from unfair rates fixed by agreements of ship operators with each other and with foreign lines. “A prohibition against Ameri-can-flag shop operators holding an interest in the business or profits of our foreign competitors.”
= » ”
R. BLACK voted for ratification of the Great LakesSt. Lawrence Waterways Treaty and for taxing electric producing companies instead of electric consumers. He voted to confirm Rexford G. Tugwell as Undersecretary of Agriculture. He opposed confirmation of Walter H. Newton, former
secretary to Herbert Hoover, as a member of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board. } He favored a resolution urging that Government bonds be refunded at a lower rate of interest, and voted for the Thomas inflationary rider on the AAA Bill Among the most significant votes cast by Senators are those on the recurring question of reducing congressional travel allowances. Such a vote was taken in 1934 and Mr. Black went on record for the proposal, made by Senator Borah, to cut mileage allowances in half.
NEXT-—Mr. Black's answer to the question, “What happens to human beings when they are named to the bench?”
Hoosiers Voted 10 to 1 for Housing Act
As New Deal Salvaged Measure
By E. R. R. ASHINGTON, Aug. 24.—The first session of the 75th Congress, which came to a close Saturday, will be remembered chiefly for the Senate's rejection of President Roosevelt's plan to reorganize the U. S. Supreme Court. The sting of that defeat partly was assuaged for the Administration, however, by the Senate's overwhelming confirmation, four days before adjournment, of the nomination of the then Senator Black (D. Ala) to succeed Justice Van Devanter as a member of the highest tribunal.
The animosities of the Court fight flared again when the Black nomination was submitted, and it is doubtful whether anyone other than a member of the Senate could have been confirmed without weeks of debate for the post made vacant by Justice Van Devanter’s retirement. As it was, questions were raised as to Mr. Black's fitness for the seat, in view of charges that he had once been a member of the Ku-Klux Klan, and as to his legal right to take an office which had received an “increase in emoluments” partly as a result of Mr. Black's own vote for passage of the Supreme Court Retirement Bill earlier in the session.
A motion was offered by Senator Bridges (R. N. H.) to recommit the Black nomination to the Judiciary Committee for “public hearings and further investigation,” but it was rejected, 15 yeas and 66 nays, and the nomination was then confirmed, 63 to 16.
Senators VanNuys and Minton of Indiana both voted against the Bridges motion and for the confirmation. = » »
HILE the Administration was scoring this “victory” in the Senate, another defeat was being chalked up for it in the House. Despite the anxiety of a majority of the members of the lower body to go on record in favor of some form of wages and hours legislation before the session closed, the Administration Labor Standards Bill was withheld from the floor by a hostile majority in the Rules Committee, and all efforts to pry it loose resulted in failure. The House was able, however, to enact one measure desired by the Administration during the week of the session. That was the Wagner Low-Cost Housing SlumClearance Bill, which may be cited in future years as one of a very few constructive measures enacted at
previously passed by the Senate was subjected to considerable mauling, however, both at the hands of the House Banking and Currency Committee, which had it in charge, and at the hands of the House itself when the bill reached the floor.
” = »
NLY two record votes were taken in connection with the Housing Bill in the lower chamber. The first came on a Republican motion to recommit the measure with instructions to subject employees of the new Housing Authority to civil service rules. This motion was rejected, 140 yeas to 221 nays. The second roll call came on final passage of the bill—275 to 86. Tadiana representatives voting for the civil service proposal were Charles A. Halleck (R.), Samuel B. Pettingill (D.), Glenn Griswold (D.). Those voting against it were William T. Schulte (D.), James J. Farley (D.), Virginia Jenckes (D.), Arthur H. Greenwood (D.), Eugene B. Crowe (D.) and William H. Larrabee (D.). Rep. Finly Gray was paired against the proposal. All Hoosier Representatives, with the exception of Mr. Halleck, who voted against, and Mr. Gray, for whom no vote was recorded, voted in favor of the Housing Bill itself,
” n 2
T= House made a start before adjournment on one other important legislative project advanced by Administration during the session, namely, Government reorganization. After four hours of hilarious debate, it approved a bill to authorize salaries of $10,000 each for six administrative assistants to the President. This was the first, and least important, of the series of four measures into which the reorganization program had been split in the House. It was approved, 260 to 88.
The Indiana Vote: For the bill—Reps. Schulte, Farley, Griswold, Jenckes, Crowe, Gray, Larrabee. Ludlow and Greenwood, who was paired for the measure. Against the bill—Reps. Halleck and Pettingill. Not recorded— Rep. Boehne.
” ” »
NLY three Republicans supported—and 68 of ~—the Six White House Secretaries Bill. When the House took up the second Reorganization Bill, however, Republicans were under some embarrassment. This bill was almost identical with a measure enacted d the Hoover Administration. It
period of two years, the power to transfer, consolidate, or. ebolish Governmental agencies by Executive
order—subject to Congressional veto
of his orders, by majority vote, within a period of 60 days. Twelve quasi-judicial commissions were to be exempted. The bill in addition proposed to set up a new Department of Public Welfare, but not the Department of Public Works that had been requested by the President. On the final roll call, this bill received the support of 18 Republicans, with 47 Republicans voting against it. It was supported overwhelmingly, however, by the Democrats and was passed, 283 to 176. All Indiana Representatives voted for the bill except Mr. Griswold and Mr. Ludlow, who voted against, and Mr. Gray, for whom no vote was recorded. In the Senate an omnibus Government Reorganization Bill was favorably reported in the closing days of the session, but it remained pending on the Senate calendar at the time of adjournment. .
HOW DID T KNOW THAT GUY WOULDN'T GET OUTOF MY WAY!
SERVES You RIGHT!
TROUBLE AHEAD OR the first time in many moons Willie the Weaver is following a fairly straight line. It’s a new experience and he certainly misses the thrills of playing cross-tag with other motorists. He ran out of line just once too often. The dare-devil stunt of cutting in and out of the traffic lane for some fancied advantage is an important cause of highway tragedy. The fellow who acquires this very bad habit is headed for
Py Sooner or later he will
Qur Town
By Anton Scherrer New Dime Store Opening, Which Was Among Events 25 Years Ago, Resulted in a Call for More Police,
WENTY-FIVE years ago today Dr. and Mrs. Daniel W. Layman moved into their new home on Audubon Road. Mr. and Mrs. Leo Rappaport were spending the week« end in Chicago. Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas Mil ler celebrated their golden wedding. Dr. J.
N. Hurty returned from his vacation that day to learn that his grass hadn't been cut all the time he was gone. The thermometer in front of Henry Huder's
drug store fluctuated between 61 low and 84 high. It marked the day, too, of the opening of a 5-and-10-cent store on E. Washington St. Six policemen were there to handle the crowd, but it wasn't enough. Before reinforcements arrived, a lot of women on the outside who couldn't get in removed their hats and waded into the fray with the points of their hat pins. In the thickest of the fight, where blood flowed freely, six women reported robberies amounting to $60. It was the day, too, Minneapolis licked Indianapolis in both games of a double-header, Iron Man Rube Waddell twirled the first game, and started the second, but had to give way to Young, John McGraw picked the day to say that “there are times wheh I wouldn't hesitate to order a man to steal second with the bases full.”
Pupils Put One Over
Aug. 24, 1912, revealed, too, that Hans O. Steche han, in collaboration with Maverick Terrell, had writ ten a play called “You Never Can Tell About a Woman.”
The “Monte Carlo Girls” were over at the Empire; “Barriers Burned Away” at the Park. : It was the day, too, School Superintendent J. G Collicott was heard to say that the word “thru” had succeeded “through” in the Indianapolis schools. “The change came,” said Mr, Collicott, “without any notice from the school office. The pupils insisted upon spelling the word the shorter way, and the teachers did not object.” I thought you ought to know how it happened.
Watermelons went begging at 22 cents for a big one.
Fifty years ago today, Indianapolis got organized to make Grover Cleveland's visit a pleasant one. John P. Frenzel was appointed chairman of the executive committee, and Senator Joseph McDonald chairman of the reception committee. Albert Sahm, who lives to tell the tale, was put on the finance committee.
Woman Took Prize
It was the day, too, John Clark gave a “neighe borhood picnic” on the North Side. The party went out into the woods, taking tables with them for progressive euchre. It so happened that there was a tie between three players, two gentlemen and a lady, which moved Mr, Clark to propose that the contest should be settled by a footrace, and, believe it or not, Mrs. C. C. Koerner won the prize. Refreshments were served. Aug. 24, 1887, was the day, too, the Soldiers Monument Commissioners picked 10 architects (ine cluding one from Indianapolis) to enter a competi tion for the design for their monument. The architects got $200 each for their pains, and the way things worked out, they all got left. The accepted design was by an uninvited competitor—one Bruno Schmitz of Germany. It wes the day, too, the thermometer in front of George Sloan's drug store didn’t go above 69 degrees, but that didn't keep Mr. Sloan from advertising Ar-Ben-Ine, “a beautiful amber jelly compound of arnica, benzoin, and glycerine, good for sunburn.” Tomatoes were scarce that day. The cool weather —5ee?
A Woman's View By Mrs. Walter Ferguson
Vacationers Laud 'Frisco for Its Huge 'King of Bridges’ Over Bay,
YyicanoN NOTES: San Francisco at last! The first thing that rivets attention as you drive in from the west is the bridge. From afar it is a long slender line against the sky but a closer view shows it to be a thing of incredible strength and mas siveness. Is there anything more beautiful than a bridge? Certainly nothing made by mortal hands, and here is the very king of bridges, so thrillingly lovely it takes your breath away. It soars across the water like a winged creature. In the very center of the wide bay it tunnels into the heart of a small island, and, emerging soars onward once more, like some proud Pegasus bearing lightly its human burden. God made the Pacific, and as a well-known wib once said, it is a great success. But also how wonderful it is that man made the San Francisco Bridge. Yet I daresay very few people know the names of the men who planned and built it. Huey Long will find a place in history and every schoolchild will prob ably be familiar with his spectacular career; yet none will know or care about the individuals who planned and executed this tremendous feat, or remember the names of those who died in its building. Isn't it strange that we, the people, realizing our ignorance of engineering, would never think of dice tating to experts about the creation of such a struce ture, while every mother’s son of us thinks he should have a say in Government affairs? It seems a pity we can’t educate a few men in statecraft, as we educate engineers, and let them be judged by their ace complishments. Good engineers take care that their bridges don’t fall down; they build not only for beauty, but for permanence.
Mr. Scherrer
New Books Today
Public Library Presents—
MONG the little heralded but valuable under takings of the WPA has been the compilation of the “American Guide Series” by the Federal Write ers’ Project. : HOOSIER TALL STORIES, compiled and written by the Federal Writers’ Project in Indiana, is one of this series. The writers have gathered here the anecdotes and yarns which have been told and retold by the village loafers about the country store and the courthouse bench. Some of them have a flavor of ths Paul Bunyan saga, some of the peculiarly Hoosier pioneer days and backwoods. These tales, unpretentiously related, will be welcomed by those who share the growing interest in the epic of America.
NE thousand money-making ideas, tested, tried and found successful, practical and most of all profitable, is the sum and substance of a little book by W. Allan Brooks—A SMALL BUSINESS OF YOUR OWN, (National Library Press). The. white-collar worker, the mechanically inclined man, the woman of culture, or the one who likes business, she who can sew or cook, the athlete, the driver of a car, owner of a camera, specialty salesman or the regular handy man, wanting work, spare oy full time, should certainly find in these pages just the right §¢ a. for creating or enlarging the family or