Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 28 August 1937 — Page 10

|. Vagabond

From Indiana —Ernie Pyle

Cheechakos Plenty Glad to Arrive Back at Platinum After Hike Over Mountain and Along Bering Beach.

PLATINUM, GOOD NEWS BAY, Alaska, Aug. 28.—When the alarm clock went off at Olsen’s platinum mining camp, my friends in New York and Washington were undoubtedly sweltering over their noonday luncheons, all melty in their white trousers and sport shirts. But on Good News Bay it was 6 o'clock in the morning, and it was cold. Pilot Ralph Savory and I had slept in our flannel shirts, and we yelled when we pulled our cold overalls over our bare legs. The water from the washpan was like a slap in the face. It didn’t take us long to get outside into the early sunshine. They told us to climb straight up over the mountain, and down the other side to the sea, and then to walk the beach back to Platinum. It was only nine miles, they said. So we swung our packs and said goodby, and there was a preposterous springiness in our muscles. We were glad to be alive. By 7 o'clock we were halfway up the mountain. We were sagging a little, but we kept going. By 8 we were nearly to the ridge. “I wonder if we can see the ocean. or if there'll be another ridge?” I said to Savory. we could see it.

Reward for the Trouble

The ground began to level off near the top. We almost ran the last few steps, to see what really lay beyond. And suddenly it was there—one step and we were on top. And down below— Lay the beach, a thousand feet down. And all out beyond it, as far as you could see, the blue of the

Bering, immobile and silent. And peaceful. And high bare mountains over beyond the lagoon. And behind us, too. Little patches of fog floatingly screened their ridges, and unscreened them again. The wind was chill, and had a freshness and a body to it.

Mr. Pyle

The white smooth beach curved gently away like the |

beach of a Southern sea. Finally we started down. It was steep, and hard on our knees. I had had a bad experience of knee-itis from coming down a steep mountain too fast at Dawson, so we stopped and rested several times.

It Must Have Been the Air

No longer did we march; to say that we “dragged” would be more accurate. Our feet sank into the sand where the ebbing tide had left it soft. Twenty miles in two half-days is a lot of activity for a couple of cheechakos. Pilot Savory has been in Alaska several years, but this was the first time he had ever walked anywhere. Personally I'm one of the walkingest men in Ncrth America, but I'm not used to this Alaskan air. At last we passed another tent, and a young girl walked out and hailed us. She wore riding pants and boots, and a blue turtleneck sweater. She was very pretiy. She carried a red leather jacket, and an aluminum double-broiler. She was Margaret Culver, and she had walked out to her father’s drilling camp before breakfast, and was now walking back. She could walk much faster than we could, but she stayed with us. At first I tried to swagger a little in front of her to make an impression, but my knees hurt so I fell back into my natural plowman’s waddle. And so we plodded painfully northward up the shore of the Bering Sea—aching legs in slow steps building mile upon weary mile. And somehow, at some vague peint in our pilgrimage, we attained the oasis of Platinum. And fell blindly into our airplane, and lay there, ending our Platinum interlude.

Mrs. Roosevelt's Day

By Eleanor Roosevelt

President Comes Home for a Rest |

And Learns He Is to Go to a Party.

H*"E PARK, N. Y., Friday.—I rose early in my |

46 Per Cent of Japan's Income Poured Into War Machine as World Armament Race Pushes Nations Toward Bankruptcy

| penditures of any other great powyear the world bill for armaments |

cottage this morning, breakfasted on my porch and started for the big house to be there to greet the President on his arrival. As I reached our gate, a State policeman, usually our only one, greeted me and I asked whether the President had arrived from the train. He answered, “no,” and I sped down the driveway, The rain was falling gently, so I went out to the stable and told them I would not ride. I was greeted at the door of our house by one of our Washington butlers who had arrived ahead of the others. Hearing an automobile horn on the road, I dashed out to the porch, but nothing happened, not even an automobile materialized. I sat there reading and in a little while two motors came down the drive. From one, Col. Starling and Mr. Clark of the Secret Service emerged. I greeted them and told them I was beginning to despair of the arrival of anyone from the train, but at that moment three automotiles swept down the drive and the first one, an open one with the curtains partly down, was driven by my husband's chauffeur, Monte Snyder, and the President was at home! From the car behind, the Secret Service men got out and as my husband went into the house, I noticed Col. Starling nod to each one as he went off to his particular post around the house. Miss Le Hand, my husband and I sat for nearly an hour over the breakfast table and talked about happenings in the world, plans of various kinds and possible visitors. Then my husband went to his study and I went to the kitchen to greet the other people who had come up from the White House and to give the necessary orders. My husband looks well and not very tired, but Miss Le Hand looked as though the heat in Washington and a night on the train made sleep the most desirable thing in life. I encouraged her by telling her that when I had been back to the cottage and had done the mail, . I would bring back a few choice items from the President to her—just to fill up this one day when mail would not arrive from Washington! Yesterday was Miss Cook’s birthday, but we postponed the celebration until this evening so that my husband could attend. This is certainly going to be a busy evening. We will have to dine at 6 o'clock. Then our neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Moses Smith, are having a meeting of the Roosevelt Home Club, at which Miss Dickerman is to speak, and the executive committee of the Hyde Park Improvement Association is using my living room for a meeting this evening also. What a busy place this seems to be, just when the President is anxious to feel that nothing, at least in his immediate environment, is going on. He can’t feel that way about the world at large I fear, for every day I open the morning paper with dread of what may be happening somewhere in the world.

Walter O'Keefe—

ESTERDAY Moscow reported the case of a bright little Russian boy, 14 years old, who squealed on his old man. Rewarded by a summer vacation at a boys’ eamp, this manly little lad is now a hero to everybody except his father, who by this time probably has fitted on a pair of wings and taken his first harp lesson. It’s funny to think that 14 years ago his poor dad probably was going around buying vodka on the new “blessed event.” No wonder there's a decrease in the birth rate over there. And meanwhile in Italy flags are flying everywhere

because the Italian troops have taken Santander in

the Spanish war. These days an Italian patriot says, “I regret that I have but one life to give for somebody else’s country.”

He said he thought

a _— 23

North China, peasants hasten along the Nanyuan |

The Indianapolis

Along Death's Trail in North China

Horrified Peasants Flee Shell-Ravaged War

NERY TREE NRE A KREOR CE RRS ADDU

| Road sceking safety in the country. Youngsters

- Two “good Samaritans,” Bruce

a 3 aN A NN

and Sheridan Fahnestock, Amer-

ican writers, after 3500 panic-stricken “Pharisees” had passed by on the other side, helped this young Chinese whose toes were shot awav.

By E. R. R. ASHINGTON, Aug. 28. — Collapse of the Disarmament Conference following Germany's withdrawal from the conference and the League of Nations in October, 1933, lifted the last restraint to an armaments race which, nourished by increasingly disturbed political conditions in Europe and elsewhere, has been carried on with growing intensity. Germany’s repudiation of the Treaty of Versailles and Britain's acoption of a huge rearmament program have been the most spectacular features of this competition, but virtually every nation has joined in the race. The almost incredible result is that world arms expenditures doubled in the space of only two years, between 1934 and 1936, and there is every indication that they |

will go higher still in 1937. Last was three times as great as in 1913. Total arms expenditures rose from about $5,000,000,000 in 1934 to nearly $11,000,000,000 in 1936. It is es-

turn horrified eyes upon a slain cavalry horse.

War from the air poured its grimmest message and havoe into North China, where at Suiyan Chinese barracks were effectively bombarded by Jap-

er. In the fiscal year 1936-37 the defense item accounted for 11.4 per cent of the total Federal budget. The proportion in Great Britain

timated that in 1936, Soviet Russia, was 20 per cent; in Soviet Russia,

threatened on two fronts thousands | | |

000,000 for armaments. The Ger- |

of miles apart, spent almost $3,000,-

20.7 per cent; in France, 29.7 per cent; in Japan, 46.6 per cent, and

man expenditures have been esti- in Italy, 52.7 per cent. The propormated unofficially at $2,600,000,000. tion for Germany is not known, but

Great Britain, just getting its rearmament program under way, spent $847,000,000. This sum was exceeded by Italy's expenditures of approximately $871,000,000. The United States, although removed from the chief scene of tension, devoted nearly $1,000,000,000 to arms expenditures, :

2 td 2 HILE actual American expenditures were large, they were relatively smaller than the arms ex-

Side Glances

~GOPR. 1937 BY (YEA BERVIGE. INC. T. MREC. U. 5.

y Clark

", ©

“This fellow writes a dumb letter, but I'm going to give him a job. He let me copy his examination papers when we were tn school.”

not exceed 50 per cent. The poorest nations are spending relatively the greatest amounts on armaments. Few countries in recent years have been able to balance their budgets, and almost all of them have had to borrow money to finance arms programs. Even Great Britain, which has a balanced budget, intends to borrow $2,000,000,000 for this purpose during the next five years, while some

$5.500.000,000 wiil be taken from tax | revenues to pay rearmament costs. | ”

| tional wealth and yield no real re- | turn on the investment. On the

| contrary, they entail heavy annual |

| maintenance charges. President Roosevelt, speaking at | Buenos Aires last Dec. 1, declared that employment created by arms expenditures was “false employ- | ment,” and he warned that ‘“nations guilty of these follies inevitably face the day either when their weapons of destruction must be used against their neighbors or when an unsound economy, like a house of cards, will fall apart.” Last April, in a message to Congress, he noted that the United States was spending a far smaller proportion of its budget for armaments than other nations. Referring to countries devoting a much higher percentage to that purpose, he declared that “the principal danger to modern civilization lies in those nations which largely because of an armament race are headed

directly toward bankruptcy.”

” ” »

HE opinion is general that the arms race enhances the likelihood of war not only Lkecause of the competitive spirit which it engenders or sharpens, but because of the terrific economic strain which it involves, In some countries it »

it probably approaches, if it does]

Imes

Zone

Enterad as Second-Class Matter at Postoffice, Indianapolis, Ind.

Ruins of a little town in Suiyan, North China, reduced to shambles by the accuracy of Japanese bombing planes.

conquest.

already has reduced the standard of living, and it will inevitably have the same effect in other countries if

it goes on unabated. The danger is that the hard pressed countries, facing financial collapse, will resort to war as a desperate measure to try to stave off economic ruin. Undersecretary of State Sumner Welles said in a recent speech “if a war breaks out, no matter how free from involvement we may remain, we cannot stay clear of ils consequences.” He declared his belief and the belief of the Roosevelt Administration in the nccessity of working for ‘world rehabilitation through a broad program calling for (1) a “revitalization of international morals” to restore the sanctity of pledges, (2) abolition or reduction of trade barriers, and (3) limitation and eventual reduction of armaments. In recent months there have been frequent rumors that the President was considering summoning an international economic and arms-

anese planes in Nippon’s advance on the road of Such scenes of destruction are common sights throughout the area,

limitation conference. Both Musso-

lini and Hitler have told interview- |

ers that they would regard such a

move sympathetically. Britain, on the other hand, is apparently not ready to greet such a proposal favorably until its rearmament program has progressed further. The rumors as to action on the part of the President have been denied officially and repeatedly, the Admin-

| who don't know enough, or those Mr

istration apparently believing that the time is not ripe for such an | initiative. Meanwhile, armaments are piled | higher and higher. While eve-yone recognizes the grave risks in such a course, no one seems able to devise a practical or acceptable alternative. As Harold Butler, director of the International Labor Conference, said in his last annual report: “The general realization of the economic dangers of extravagant armsament programs coupled with the political inability to arrest them is a true measure of the eclipse of reason in international affairs.”

Second Section

PAGE 9

Our Town

By Anton Scherrer Survey of Indianapolis Mint Julep Situation Brings Conclusion That Higher Education Can Be Misused.

T great personal risk and no little sacri= fice I spent the past week tasting the mint juleps handed out over Indianapolis bars. It was an experience I wouldn't wish my worst enemy. I don’t know what's the matter—whether it’s because of the breed of bartenders we have nowae days, or whether it's the fault of the ultimate cone sumer—but whatever it is, mint juleps don’t taste the way they did when I was a boy. One reason they don’t taste the same is probably because we

have too many young bartenders who aren't old enough to remem-

| ber what a real mint julep tastes like.

Either that, or too many bartenders are college graduates. Which is by way of saying that most mint juleps turned out today are either the result of bartenders who know too much, Scherrer T'll dismiss the young bartenders because there isn’t much you can do about them except wait and watch them grow up. That leaves, of course, the college-bred product, which is a matter of consider= able concern to me—especially in the light of Alfred Brandt's recent discovery,

Bars Go Collegiate

Mr, Brandt's discovery of a Ph. D. running a downe town bar threatens real values as never before. Heaven help us if we hand over the only remaining depart= ment of our private life to what is sometimes referred to euphemistically as “the higher education.” Whatever else we do, we must not lei the college graduates get control of our mint juleps. We ought really, if we know what is good for us, examine every white jacket to see that it doesn’t cover a‘ Phi Beta Kappa key. ‘ Otherwise every drink hereafter will be mixed in the spirit of a new adventure—or a new deal. Which is just another way of saying that every mint julep will be conceived in terms of what our seats of learning like to call the “art of expression.” I don't know how you feel about it, but I think the time has come to say that a mint julep doesn't permit selfexpression.

Revered Classic in Juleps

Anyway, the best bartender I ever knew didn't vary his mint juleps by as much as a nuance—such was his reverence for the classics. He put a dozen sprigs of mint in a bowl, I remember, and covered them with powdered sugar with just enough water ta dise solve the sugar. Then he patted the mint gently— none of this violent crushing you see nowadays— after which he put half of the mint and liquid in the bottom of a tall glass—the taller the better. Next he filled the glass half full of shaved ice and added the remaining mint and liquid. When this was done, which took some time, of course, he added more ice until the glass was full. Then with a pontificial gesture, he added all the whisky the glass would hold, For some reason, too, he believed that a good julep deserved a good whisky. This bartender—God bless his memory—never got beyond the sixth grade of Mary Colgan’s School 6. I know that for a fact. Which, of course, raises the question whether a good bartender can come out of a university. Offhand, I should say the sooner he came out the better,

A Woman's View By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

Antidote for Divorce Is Suggested:

Make Estranged Pair Tour to Reno. ACATION NOTES—One glides as easily from Salt Lake to Reno as one slips from virtue to vice. As easily, but not half so fast. A distance of 531 miles separate the two. The road winds end=lessly over salt desert and undulating hills, through sweet sleepy valleys, past granite mountains, skirting several green oases where tiny villages drowse in the hot sunshine, The state of Nevada has 50,000 fewer inhabitants than the town of Tulsa. Carson City, its capital, is the smallest capital city in the United States, with only 1200 persons. The wonder is that Nevada manages to maintain its State Government at all. It couldn't if it had our politicians and depended upon the products of the land through which Highway 40 penetrates. However, it is rich in minerals and the famous silver lodes have given it a fantastically exciting history. In Winnemucca we saw a typical old-fashioned saloon, with all the trappings. The kind one now meets only in moving pictures of the Wild West, Somehow we like that setting for drinking better than the swanky cocktail bars now so fashionable, Rowdiness is not so out of place there. Women have taken all the romance away from the bars anyway. Once, when they were the rendezvous of men, they were mysterious, dangerous places. Now they are rather tiresome spots where people talk noisily and say nothing worth hearing. Utah is a dry state. Nevada a wet one. The former has cleaner cities. There is a filth, litter and stench that goes with public drinking that is not found in prohibition areas. Suggested antidote for divorce: Compel the quare reling couple to drive from wherever they live to Reno. They'd either kill each other on the way, or grow sentimental over the scenery and become reconciled. Reno is a smart little town with a merry ate mosphere, calculating, well-groomed, and after the

| simplicity of desert stretches it has a distinct Baby-

National Safety Couns®

A large number of accidents, a great many of which result in death, occur each year because some impatient motorist tries to pass the car

in front on a hill.

Safety authorities are unanimous in condemning this practice as one of the most dangerous of all traffic sins.

Stay in line

and be safe, It may take a few seconds more but it will be well worth

the delay,

lonish flavor. The shops carry expensive togs. The air sparkles with intrigue and romance. It will be a sad day for Reno if we ever get a uniform divorce law,

New Books Today

Public Library Presents—

HY live in the country? If addicted to crowds and to the show around the corner, be true to your city tradition. But if you are one to whom the bird chorus at dawn is not mere noise, who drinks in evening's ambrosial air with thanksgiving, who can laugh at a blizzard or a burst water pipe with the plumber in the next county—it's safe to try! Not without deep thought and wide investigation should one make the leap. If wavering, as an aid to decision read IF YOU'RE GOING TO LIVE IN THE COUNTRY, by Thomas H. Ormsbee and Richard Huntley (Crowell). It's really a grand book, guare anteed to cause one of two reactions—immediate realization that you “can’t take it” or a quick start on a prowl for a house in the country. What distance from the city is best; the matter of finance; the question of remodeling or building (the cost is. about the same); arrangements for water supply, sewage, fireplaces, furnishings, the debatable case of livestock—all of these and a thousand other questions engage the reader vitally. The authors write from the point of view of the Easterner, and they rather presuppose a love for the quaint and old. The book tends to overemphasize provisions for servants and for baths in multiple, the

| feeling being one of a general opulence—but for

minds that can subtract and divide this is of neo great importance. Whether your home is to be a simple five rooms on a half acre, or a gentleman's estate, here is much practical information in a “must book” for the prose peciive Bow dweller,

PY OI INE