Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 26 August 1937 — Page 15

Vagabond|

From Indiana — Ernie Pyle

Walking in Good News Bay Country Is Tough Going, but Is Only Way To Get to Platinum Mine Diggings. (See Pictures, Center of Page)

PLATINUM, GOOD NEWS BAY, Alaska, Aug. 26.—There’s no sense in a reporter coming all the way to Platinum and then not seeing any mining.’ And you can’t see it by sitting in the village of Platinum. So Pilot Ralph Savory and I decided to Walk out to the diggings on the other side of Red Mountain. It's a mere 20 miles there and back. We

Started very bravely. Storekeeper Hanson brought me his rubber shoe-pacs in a pack sack, and Savory carried his hip boots over his shoulder. Dave Strandberg, a mining operator, walked down the beach a way with us, to show us the best route across the wide tundra to the mountain. The sun was shining, and there was no wind. Mosquitoes followed us in a swarm. Little birds flew up out of the tundra, and kept hoppihg ahead of us. We walked through patches of white stuff that looked like cotton. (Later I asked some people about it, and they said it actually was a form of wild cotton) Once a red fox Jumped up, Stopped for one backward look, and then whizzed out of sight. On the mountainside. a couple of miles away, we could see a hig herd of reindeer, hundreds of them. There wasn't a tree or a bush as far as you could see, but the earth was all green With short, coarse grass and little vines that looked like wild strawberries, but weren't. .

Boots Came in Handy

Walking was tough. The western Alaskan tundra ts full of what thev call “niggerheads,” which are tufts of grass-covered soil about the size of a bucket, sticking up a couple of feet. In some places they shiver like jelly when ‘vou step on them. But here they are hard, and you jump from one to the other. We, walked and walked. Three times we had to change from shoes to boots to cross marshy places. Finally we made the foothiil slope and started going up. As we climbed, the wind grew stronger off the Bering Sea-and blew ‘the mosquitoes away, and when we stopped to rest we were quickly chilled. We seemed to be far. far away from anywhere. We felt a great isolation from civilization, and a genuine closeness to the natural earth. We made Clara Creek in two hours and a half. This is Dave Strandberg's platinum camp. It is a creek bed a mile or so long. On one slope sit half a dozen frame cabins where the men sleep and eat. We stopped far up the bank and sat down on a rock, watching and resting. Finally one of the workmen, seeing the two strangers, quit what he was doing and came up to talk to us.

Work Never Stops

The 4 o'clock shift had just gone to work. Mining never stops during the season. They work three eight-hour shifts a day, including Sundays and holidays, from the last of May till late October. There are six men on each shift. Draglining for platinum is exactly the same as draglining for gold. The shovel gets a mouthful -of gravel from the creek bed, lifts it up, swings around, and dumps it into a large box. Dirt and water go rushing "along through this box. The dirt and rocks and water go on out the other end, and the platinum, being heavier, settles to the bottom. The pilot and I stood around for about an hour talking to the men and watching the stream of water making the dirt fly. We didn't see any platinum and we couldn't see any romance about it.

Mrs. Roosevelt's Day

By Eleanor Roosevelt

First Lady's Mail Indicates That She Is Being Impersonated by a Joker.

YDE PARK, N. Y,, Wednesday—At last the sun shines again. I have become interested in archery in the past few weeks and spent some time yesterday afternoon and a little while this morning trying to learn the rudiments of what seems to me a

Mr. Pyle

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The Indianapolis

THURSDAY, AUGUST 26, 1937

Platinum, Alaska's Magic Lure

Stampede Inn Is Social Center

p Re: Ernie white women as barber.

ANIA.

Prospectors Haroldson and ‘Wickiand made the discovery that

Platinum into a boom city. .

Pyle takes time out for a shave, with one of Platinum's eight

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turned

of Tiny Boom

NE AN AN ML ANN ee

Town

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Entered as Second-Class Matter Indianapolis,

at Postoffice,

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Social center for the 100 residents of Platinum is the Stampede Inn, left, where Margaret Culver, right, daughter of a test driller and a member of the younger set, often may be found.

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Mrs. Carl Berg and her daughter Frances ta only automobile in the town belongs to N. G.

Platinum mining

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AF ry LS LF YY T £4758,

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ke time off from ‘work at the roadhouse or hotel. Hanson, right, proud owner of the 10-year-old machine,

a ee SIN NNER

is a simple, unexciting operation. The dragline, center and in background above,

with high boom and scoop dumps ore-bearing gravel into the far end of the sluice box, where it is washed

across the riffles, depositing the metal.

dragline.

The caterpillar “bulldozer,” foreground, scoops up gravel for the

Major Battle Against Cancer Being Waged by Five U. S. Hospitals Operated for Ex-Soldiers by Veterans’ Administration

Second Section

PAGE 15

Ind.

Our Town By Anton Scherrer Rotarians Told That the Local Cost

Of Government Is Low, but That Is Only One of the City's Good Points.

1 WOULD be ducking a duty to my readers if 1 failed to tell them what Fred Hoke told the Rotarians the other day. Addressing that peppy body, Mr. Hoke said that, of 10 cities he could name, Indianapolis had the lowest per capita cost of government last year. The bonded per capita debt of our town, for instance, is only $80.16. Compare this with Milwau= kee ($107), and Cincinnati ($161.60), and yeu can see that we're sitting mighty pretty. The fact of the matter is that we're sitting prettier than even Mr. Hoke knows. For example, the chances of dying from cirrhosis of the liver around here are only .000077 as compared with 000087 in Wisconsin, which is where Milwaukee is. In Ohio, it's even worse—.000088, to be exact. It's the same, too, with the alcoholic route, Onlv 2.3 out of every 100,000 in Indiana die from drinking too much, Compare this with Wisconsin (3.3) and Ohio (38), and you can see what Mr. Hoke muffed.

Hoosiers Live Longer

That isn't all, however, A Hoosier lives longer than anybody else. I don’t know whether it's worth bringing up, but it's a fact nevertheless. For exe ample, a 42-year-old male's life expectancy is 29.33 more years in Indiana. A woman does even better (29.46). In Ohio, which is where Cincinnati is, it’s only 28.39 years for the men; 2064, for the women. And to make a real issue of the matter,

Mr. Scherrer

| in California, a 42-year-old man has only 27.32 more

years to live. I wouldn't have believed it, either, if

| IT hadn’t looked it up in a World Almanac.

With a World Almanac handy, you don’t have to be scared of anything California says. For example, 26 per cent of all the people in California are il=

| literate as compared with 17 per cent in Indiana.

I think I know what's the matter with California,

{ and so does Mr, Thrasher who runs another departe

ment of this paper. As for cirrhosis of the liver, it's 50 per cent worse than it is around here. Nor are the chances of staying out of jail in California any better than they are right here. Indeed, when it comes to that, the chances of getting into jail are about the same the world over,

Now Take the Climate Of course, there's the matter of climate. Well, I dug into that, too. The normal temperature of San Francisco (which is the one the World Almanac picks) is 50 degrees in January; 58 degrees in July. Certainly that isn’t anything to brag about. In Indianapolis the mean (a technical term) temperature is 28 dew grees in January; 76 degrees in July, All right-if you're bread minded about it and average the figures, using the accepted methods of life insurance actuaries and Chamber of Commerce secretaries, you'll learn that Indianapolis has a normal temperature of 52 degrees for the year as compared with 54 degrees for San Francisco. Figures are figures, as somebody before me said. There remains, of course, the chance of your being murdered. I'm sorry to have to bring it up, but you stand less chance of being murdered in San Francisco than you do in Indianapolis (.000026 as against 000074). On the other hand, the chances of your being lynched are less in Indiana than they are in California. The chances are, though, that cirrhosis of the liver will get you before you're lynched. Indeed, the more I study the World Almanac, the more I feel like sitting tight.

’ ‘ A Woman's View By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

Visit to Fleet Arouses Feeling of

Despair Toward Question of War.

ACATION NOTES: The fleet was in. Knows ing Midshipman Jack Hayes of of the U. 8. S. Oklahoma, we joined the Sunday afternoon throngs that were going in relays to visit the ships, hoping to see him as well as the dreadnaught which bears our state's name What a dreadful bore it must be for the gobs who are assigned to this Sabbath chore! From 1 to 4 they hauled fat women, stiff-legged men and wriggling children in and out of tenders, on and off the ships. Each load carried another bunch of

[ficers of the Veterans’ Administra-

far more complicated skill than I had supposed. The tion. The physicians of the Vet-

number of things to be remembered leave me constantly wondering about which particular thing I forgot, for there is an explanation for every one of vour mistakes, according to the book at least. ‘I have much more respect for the Indians than I ever had before. Some day, perhaps, all these things will become automatic in much the way that driving a car becomes automatic when you have done it over a long period. The people who once occupied this fair country of ours obtained much of their food, as well as fighting their wars, with bows and arrows. They shot them

Tumor Clinics which have been es- | age X-ray machines in the tumor | Hines a number of years ago and is

tablished at certain of the facilities | clinics of the Veterans’ Administra- | now in operation. The personnel of | tion. this unit has been conducting scien- | erans’ Administration are being in-

{ tific investigations to ascertain the | structed in the manner of, as well { cause, the best means for early |as the necessity for, the early diag|diagnosis, and the best type of nosis of malignant disease, the | treatment of cancer. | necessity for the eradication of pre- » " cancerous conditions and the im- : we { portance of referring suspicious T the present time clinical Te | cases of malignancy to a Veterans’ A search studies are being con-

[ducted by the Research Subdivision | Administration ‘clinic. {of Central Office, and the personnel ®

| By Gen. Frank T. Hines Administrator of Veterans’ Affairs a : [Pas of the increased mor-|°f the Administration. bidity and mortality incidence | . 2 Ww

of cancer in the general popula- | tion and because steps are being | taken by the Federal Government to

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T HINES, the Administration has a radium emanation | plant for producing radium gas or ; cols . | incidence in veterans, | radon. Approximately one gram Teton he he ey oe {and that special facilities would |Of radium is in solution, and, by ington, D. C., for the study of the | : : | means of the emanation equipcause and nature of cancer and to | have to be provided for their hos- | ment, ‘sulficient ‘radon gas'is mandevelop improved methods of treat- | pitalization. Accordingly, a turnor | ufactured for the treatment of all ment, it has occurred to me that | | In ad-

EVERAL years ago it became apparent that the disease was in-

creasing in »

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officers as

from every position, from running horses at moving objects—and yet we pride ourselves on the things we can do. We have no greater physical skill today. We simply have learned to use different tools, some of which are more complicated and perhaps more dangerous in their mechanism. I have been having an amusing experience. Letters have come to me from Wisconsin, New Jersey and Illinois, telling me how very sorry the writers were to have missed my call. Apparently I went to some restaurant or tea room, in which they also exhibited antiques. The proprietors being away, I left a little note explaining that I had come and was sorry to miss them, either written on a slate or register I suppose. Someone must have decided that it would be amusing to impersonate me and, as in the past, people from a number of places have told me they were constantly taken for me on trains or in hotels, I suppose it is not such a difficult thing to carry through a joke of this kind. “The only disappointment comes when I am forced to write that I have not been in any of these places this summer. My only trip far afield was to Indianapolis. Otherwise a day's motor drive would cover the furthest point to which I have journeyed. A little item in the paper this morning told of a Rochester, N. Y., public library where they have hit on a most entertaining way of stimulating the interest of children in reading. They have built a model Dutch well-house and named it, the “Wishing Well.” A child ean pull a rope and find a question on any subject in which it is interested. Attached fo the question will be the list of books which will give the i information. . BE racts the person who thought of this idea, for the fun of pulling a rope will provide many youngsters with new interests. I have often wondered why children’s libraries did not give “Jack Horner” parties every now and then, or treasure hunts. Either one could be worked out so as to stimulate the reading interest of the children in the community.

Walter O'Keefe—

HE situation between President Roosevelt and the rebel members of Congress is something like the status of China and Japan. There hasn't been a “formal” declaration of war yet, but there's certainly plenty of fighting. A “fot of Congressmen and Senators have been wounded during the bombardment. Since last Saturday hundreds of them have been evacuated from washington, the stricken area. Some people think that Senators Wheeler, O'Mahoney and Burke should get the congressional medal of honor for conspicuous bravery under fire. Senator Guffey, who has supplanted Jim Farley as the unofficial spokesman for the White House, read the riot act to those who oppose the President's wishes. His conception of America is that it should pe a Government of the Democrats, by the Democrats and for the Democrats. A special session of Congress is

the public might be interested in learning what the Veterans’ Administration has accomplished during the past few years intits effort to control and treat cancer in veterans. This disease is appearing in veterans at an accelerating rate the same as obtains in the civil population. The present rate of monthly admissions and readmissions for cancer in Veterans’ Administration facilities is about 380. A total of approximately 700 veterans with cancer are being treated in the facili-

ties of the Veterans’ Administration | at all times. Most of these patients |

are being cared for in the special

clinic was established at Hines, Ill. |

This, by the way, is the largest cancer clinic in the world, and is one of the best equipped institutions of its kind. In addition five auxiliary tumor clinics were established at strategic geographical points. These are located at Veterans’ Administration Facilities, Portland, Ore., Los Angeles, Cal, Bronx, N. Y., Washington, D. C, and Atlanta, Ga. At

each of the tumor clinics there is | training and experience in the di- determine

cancer patients at Hines. dition there are two grams of radium in an apparatus known as the “radium bomb.” This apparatus is used for applying radium element in such conditions as cancer of the intestines, larynx and tonsils. All of the tumor clinics just mentioned have on duty cancer specialists who have had special

{of the Tumor Research Unit on gas[tric cancer and intrathoracic tu- | mors. Studies are also being con[ducted at the Hines Research Unit [on cancer of the skin and the { larynx, | In addition to the clinical studies, | research work is being done to show | the relationship of certain of the | endocrine secretions to the cause of | cancer. Assay methods are used to the quantity of the

available high voltage X-ray equip- | agnosis and scientific treatment of [endocrine secretions as an early

ment, and a sufficient quantity of radium to take care of the needs of

the veterans applying for treatment. | the clinics to co-operate with the | treatment

the disease. In addition outstanding consultants are -available at

| diagnostic test and also for the pur- | pose of ascertaining the effect of on certain types of

There are all told approximately 39 full-time medical officers in the | orcas. grams of radium and 11 high volt- | treatment of cancer cases.

Side Glances

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COPR. 1937 BY NEA SERVICE, INC. T.M. REG, U.S. PAT, OFF. &

By Clark

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! The tea ledles said we are going to Europe | there's no use making excuses, now.”

include such cancer specialists as Drs. James Ewing, Frank E. Adair, Max Cutler, Edwin Merritt, and a number of other men wellknown in the field. o

ACH tumor clinic is so organized that every patient is given the benefit of consultation by a

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combined efforts of the surgeon, the radiotherapeutist, the pathologist, physicist and other specialists are needed to decide upon the diagnosis and treatment in each case. It would seem, therefore, that the clinics of the Veterans’ Administration are fully equipped and competently manned for the diagnosis and

i treatment of this disease.

The Veterans’ Administration has not been content with the routine diagnosis and treatment of cancer, but has allocated funds for the conduct of scientific research. A cancer research unit was established at

NEW FUR PROCESSING SAFER

By Science Service ASHINGTON, Aug. 26.—The invention of a new method of felting fur by a Russian-born, New York City consulting chemist, Jack D. Sartakoff, may replace the basic mercury “carroting” process which has been used for over 300 years in the hat-making industry.

Biggest feature of Sartakoff's invention is it claims to eliminate the use of poisonous mercury to $ ” ‘men and work-

Then, too, experimental work fis [being conducted on animals in the | production of cancer by the external | application of carcinogenic (cancer- | producing) substances, and methods | are being applied for facilitating the production of cancer and for inhibiting cancer growth, in the hope that the nature of cancer production and ways of inhibiting cancer | growth may be discovered.

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ANCER specialists tell us that 4. the treatment of cancer | varies, depending upon the type and | site of the tumor. Whether deep | X-ray therapy, radium, or surgery [= the treatment of choice depends upon the kind of cancer, its loca- ( tion, the duration of the disease, and other considerations. Then, too, cancer is best treated in special hospitals in which the neces- | sary equipment and highly trained specialists are available. Finally, the matter of cancer education is receiving attention by | the professional and technical personnel, and the administrative of-

In the main men's felt hats are made from rabbit fur, most of which comes from Australia. But rabbit fur as it comes straight from the rabbit skin won't felt. It must go through what is called a “carroting” treatment involving brushing the fur while still on the skin with mercury dissolved in nitric acid. Sartakoff has found a solution of potassium permangan will

ly the use ‘of the mercury ‘carrot,

23 ¥

| Veterans’

HE administrative well as the physicians of the Administration are dis seminating information to veterans on the importance of the early diagnosis of cancer; the need for periodic health examinations to discover the disease in the early stages; and the necessity for consulting a physician and undergoing appropriate treatment for the disease and not temporizing with home remedies and quack “cancer cures.” It is believed that all of the activities just enumerated have resulted in an efficient cancer organization which is leading to a more effective control of the malignant disease in the veterans group and is resulting in the prolonging and saving of

many lives.

(Copyright, 1937, by Science Service)

DAFFY ALIN

By National Safety Couneil

BYE KNOW, ED, 1 GUESS THOSE

RESPECT TRAFFIC SIGNS

ANY a driver has fallen into trouble cicar up to his neck, because he failed to realize the necessity of reading and heeding roadside traffic signs. If the sigh says “Stop” you are not obeying the law if you just slow down. If it reads “Caution” you are only kidding yourself if you ignore it. Traffic safety signs wouldn't fool anybody; they are gospel truth, always. They advise the and warn the reckless and » ) It's foolish ‘to

giggling girls, obviously romance hunters. My visit was a sketchy affair because I had te keep up with the curious nose of Tomboy, which poked itself into a hundred forbidden places. Such masses of machinery, of cold iron, of gravy hardness! The enormous guns yawn hungrily. The airplanes, anchored high, seem primed for flight. The officers are stiff as ramrods, and the boys look vague. In uniformed sameness they lack identity, somehow. It's hard to believe they are moved by the same impishness which besets all our landlubber lads, Here indeed is a world unto itself. It is an ine spiring spectacle. Yet, seeing all those grim pray giants keeping their ominous watch, I felt once more the old despair. How can men living long in this atmosphere see the question of war from anv rational point of view, and if they did, what would happen?

New Books Today

Public Library Presents—

T was the day of the big sale at the Doane depart ment store. The band was playing; frenzied bare gain-hunters were harassing tired clerks. Suddenly a piercing scream arose above the general confusion, announcing the first of a series of mystifying murders. Why should anyone wish to kill commonplace, fat Mrs. Briggs? What secret was Carl Briggs on the verge of revealing when he was so mysteriously shot? One thing was certain: The murderer was still at large in the store, and until he could be caught, there would be safety for no one. It was little Miss Ethel Thomas (who called herself a “one-woman lynch riot”) who discovered the whispering window, who unearthed another horror in a huge paper bale, and who, finally, after a harrowing night in the stille ness of the deserted store, solved the entire mystery, Miss Thomas, despite her 75 years, pursued the mure derer with reckless abandon and found time to offer pungent bits of philosophy. You will be glad to meet her in THE WHISPERING WINDOW by Cortland Fitzsimmons (Stokes).

” ” ” I¥ an age when scandal and divorce are given a prominent place in our newspapers, theatricals, and novels, it is heartening to come across a writer such as Elmer E. Ferris. He does not think our mare riage system outmoded and doomed ro failure and hw written a very practical little book proving that mare riages can be successful. Wives are advised not to feed their husbands soggy potatoes, lumpy puddings, and still expect them to become presidents of their firms, There are “don'ts” for husbands. More important is the positive philose ophy which distinguishes MAKING A GO OF MAR. RIAGE (Winston) from similar books. Mr. Ferris is no silly sentimentalist, but he does hold to the sound, though often forgotten, psychological principal, that we find what we seek. “One rust develop a positive Siti vara human behavior.” Jealousy and suse picion breed only quarrels and , while toler«49 ance and good humor will produce opposites,