Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 1 September 1937 — Page 14

Vagabond!

From Indiana— Ernie Pyle Life of Boy in Matanuska Differs

Little From His Cousin's in Indiana, Except That He Sees More Bears.

PALMER, Alaska, Sept. 1.—The Matanuska colony occupies only a small part of the Matanuska Valley. For the valley is about 125 miles long and, in places, 40 miles wide. Not all of it is good for farming. The valley floor is roughly rolling, so that the farthest you ever see on the level is a mile or two. There are little valleys all over the floor of the big he ground is heavily wooded With spruce and cottonwood. In fact, trees and underbrush are so thick in some places you can’t get through without cutting your way. The topsoil ranges from one foot to the incredible depth of 20 feet. In fact it's so deep some places that it spoils itself, because the water runs through it too quickly. : In the woods, you can dig down

valley.

a couple of feet and hit frozen |

ground the year around. But in the cleared spots it thaws through in the summer, Mosquitoes brush, although

are bad in the they don’t seem around houses where all the trees have down. But celonists who left a few trees rave mosquitoes. House flies are un-

Mr. Pyle

to bother been cut in the yard known. More Rabbits Than Bears Just a few miles frem the town of Palmer you can

see black bear. I say vou can, although I couldn't. 1

Television—Lusty Giant of

The Indianapolis Times

Second Section

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1937

American Equipment Now Is Rated Best in World

When will the visual world be piped into American homes the way

had a 30-30 rifle with me, and in exciting anticipation |

had offered the boys in the car $5 if I Killed a bear. But all we saw were 8000 rabbits. The climate of the valley is the finest I've heard of It doesn’t have the miserable chilly rain

in Alaska. the 60-below-zero stuff of the

of the coasts, deep interior. : They don’t have snow on the ground all winter. In fact. the first winter there wasn't enough snow for the kids’ sleds, and after January it was hardly below freezing. Last winter was colder, and went to 17 below. Each colonist lives on his farm. The closest farmhouse is less than half a mile from town, the farthest 11 miles. : : Roads run out from town in four directions, and side roads sprout out from these. The colony is surprisingly intertwined with excellent roads.

Everybody Has a Car Nearly all the colonists have autoniobiles. Some of them rattletraps, some shiny new jobs. There seems to be an unwritten law against driving less than 50 miles an hour, so when you take a ride you hold not only your hat but also your breath. The valley impressed me as being anything but a You're always seeing somebody, no matter where your farm is. You can run into town from any of the farms in a few minutes. And it's only 55 miles by good road into the “metropolis” of Anchorage. And I was thinking, as I drove around through the pleasant valley, that if I were a child again, a boyhood in Matanuska Valley would be little different from boyhood on a farm in Indiana—except that neighbors would be closer, and the sky prettier, and trapping better, and I could catch salmon instead of sunfish, and my first sight of a bear wouldn't be in a Zoo. In fact, I can’t think of a single thing, outside of maybe the annual Sunday School excursion to Indianapolis, that a boy can have in Indiana that he doesn’t also have in Matanuska. Oh, there is one thing, too. A Matanuska boy can't have snakes. Glory hallelujah!

My Diary By Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt

First Lady Likes County Fair With

Its Fortune Teller and Fat Lady. H = PARK, N. Y., Tuesday—Until today the Presidential household was rather calm and 1 thought how pleasantly quiet it was, but this mornIng, ever since 9:30, there have been people on our front porcih and delegations waiting to get in at the gate, I was late getting in from my ride as I had taken Mr. and Mrs. Frank Walker over to see the improvements we have made at the cottage. I found the woods were at last free of flies and was unable to resist taking a short ride through them. While I was still dressing, someone came up to say a lady from Watertown, Conn., and her small son were at the gate wanting to shake hands with the President and to see me. For a moment I could remember no one who had made an appointment, but finally I remembered her letter and although no date had been set, I decided as long as the lady was at the gate she had better come in. Amid all the other delegations, she stepped in and shook the Fresident by the hand and told him that her home was in Georgia, but she was now living in Watertown. Everyone had been most kind to her there, but the fact that Democrats were few and far between made her long to at least have her son remember that he had once shaken hands with a Democratic President. By the time I had said a few words to everybody, the shopping which I had meant to do in Poughkeepsie was out of the question. I am now calling my guests to lunch in preparation to taking everyone up to the county fair at Rhinebeck this afternoon. This is the first day of the horse show and if any of our children were at home, we would, of course, be showing some horses. But that particular interest will be absent this year, for we have no entries. I always love the county fair and would hate to miss walking down the street which has all the shows, the shooting galleries, the fortune tellers and the fat lady. The agricultural exhibits, the flowers, and the women's work are very interesting too. The 4-H Clubs’ exhibits and the solemn children with their calves and chickens, etc., always give me a thrill. For after all, agriculture is a basic industry and one without which we could not ~-' ~long and it is interesting to see the next gene 1 learning to do the job When I arrived last night, I found my husband back from his picnic and some of the household listening to a major sports event over the radio. I am rather glad it was on the radio, for I fear I would not enjoy it if IT actually could see what was described. I have seen a certain amount of boxing and I know something sbout the skill, quickness and intelligence required, but I don’t even enjoy a football game. My imagination always pictures someone being injured and the fear is usually far worse than the actuality.

Walter O'Keefe—

nor

lonely place.

the sound world is today?

When will the frontier of television be con-

quered and that fabulous new field of scientific endeavor become a social instrument, playing its part in American life the way radio does

now? universal interest.

By Morris Gilbert

Here is the first of two articles that probe this subject of

EW YORK, Sept. 1..—-The world's best television system is in the making for American radio fans. It will have clearer pictures, better programs, wider reception and more perfect sets than any other country is

able to provide.

Were these not the aims of television engineers, it

would be possible to have a

form of television tomorrow.

The transmitting and receiving equipment have passed

every laboratory test to which they have been put.

Al-

ready the equipment is better than that in use in Great Britain, the only country in which regularly scheduled pro-

grams are being broadcast.

It is infinitely superior to the

equipment with which French are experimenting at the Paris Fair and which the Germans use for Hitler's propa-

ganda. Even though you can't don’t think there is anything backward about American television. The reverse is true. American engineers showed the way to England six years ago when a group of British experts came over to inspect the American layout and went home with blueprints of everything. The reason for the researchers’ ideal of perfection is that they want to give the public something for the $300 investment in a television receiver. Programs and widespread reception are essential to this, » 4 n PPROXIMATELY 80 sion receiving sets are in operation around metropolitan New York, mostly in the homes of researchers. Farthest away one in Westport, Conn. 42 miles from R. C. A's transmitting station atop the Empire State Building tower. About a dozen television receivers are installed in a radius of 10 miles around the Philco transmitting station in North Philadelphia and experts are “looking in.” There are three or four television laboratories experimenting elsewhere in the United States. That's the whole television audience so far. The 60 or so American engineers who “look in" are able to see pictures of things happening at a distance as naturally as Mr. John Q. Spivis and family hear the daily radio broadcasts. The receiving set looks like a big radio with a complicated control. The frame of the picture is about 7 by 10 inches. Sound accompanies action. The greenish color of pictures in earlier teievision reception was lacking in a program viewed at the Philco laboratories. The “tone” of the reception was practically identical to that of black and white movies.

televi=-

vet buy a television receiver,

O clear are the televisioned pictures that the motion of the second-hand of an ordinary watch, life-size, was clearly visible several feet away. It was possible to read the serial number of a dollar bill (also life-size) at a distance as great as normal eye contact. Within the year, one great technical advance has bern made. That 1s in standardization, due to the energy of the Radio Manufacturers’ Association, stirred out of a rather comatose condition by Albert F. Murray, its new president.

Some eight or nine elements of television technique have been standardized. Most important is the famous 441-line screen. Until the agreement engineered by Murray, R. C. A. had been telecasting on a 343-line screen. The finer one was adopted by all, and transmitting and receiving agencies now can pick up each other's broadcasts. That shows how far standardization has gone. It means when sets are put on the market they will be able to receive all television programs.

” n »

HE programs offered by the

British Broadcasting Corp. give an idea of what television— On a grander, more highly perfected scale—will offer its audience in America.

Two of B. B. C.'s most successful broadcasts were the Coronation procession and the Wimbledon tennis championship finals. It rained during the coronation. Nevertheless, lookers-in got a clear picture of the regal parade. They saw Queen Mary in her coach. They saw the new King and Queen in theirs, faces clearly distinguishable through the rain and the glass of the coach windows. American experts watching this achievement were highly impressed. The tennis show was even better. Bright sunlight helped. Two

It's Tough Year for Hoosier B

In the

EE A A AA SPER ATS ENE Sa a

Qui‘e compiicated looking is the exnerimental television receiver when seen from the rear, Note the many tubes used.

cameras were used, one suspended from a high column giving a general view of the court; the other roving to pick up high points of . play in close-up. A commentator at a control station could switch at will from one to the other camera. The flight of the ball was clearly visible, the definition equal to, perhaps better than, ordinary movies. The success of these breadeasts conjures up visions of World Series

ugs, but

Insect Menace Is Serious Elsewhere

By L. A.

I'S a bitter, black year for Indiana bugs. According to Frank N. Wallace,

sects this summer than at any time

during the last five years.

Oddly enough, the abundance of rainfall is the cause. Precipitation

[keeps insects in green woods and

open fields, whereas a drought drives | Wrought by boll weevils in Southern | cotton and by grasshopper hordes in

them into cultivated land.

[ladybug

From the insect point of view, the

beetles These creatures,

are called beneficial

| because they feed on other insects,

Mr. Wallace says.

{winged flies—also are plentiful.

on 2

HILE Indiana is bug problem, have them.

without other states

these problems with every method | : GEL} 3 | ticks” in Texas, and the common | Peria weevil” which uses the thur-

lat their disposal.

'VE just been reading the newspaper accounts of |

the championship fight at the Yankee Stadium and it seems Clem McCarthy and Edwin C. Hill put up a better fight than Louis and Farr. Those people who can’t stand bloodshed and excitement had better go to the fights hereafter instead of hearing the radio version. The only one who was groggy at the end of 15 rounds was Clem.

One of Tommy Farr's seconds, hearing the McCarthy version, remarked to his pal: “Let's stop watching this fight in the ring and listen to the one on the air. It's much more exciting.” Louis holds the title, of course, but Schmeling is still holding the bag. a

¥ “

Since the middle of 1935, at least

its

| 40,000,000 man-hours have been de- ang Florida. The army | tick, | at its peak enlistment numbered 27.The work has cost millions and State Entomologist, Hoosier insects | will cost millions more, for not even are suffering from a depression. The | the best entomologists understand

| state has been troubled less by in- | completely as yet how best to Jes n-

' voted to the insect war.

725.

| stroy or control the periodic

| vaders.

| Midwestern grain.

| which ceaseless war is raged.

And they're fighting | fire pits. ! There is the tick family—“fever | COt'On, and Arizona has a “thur- |

{ Which crawls, but cannot fly.

a day.

u ” » UBLIC attention most often is centered upon the devastation |

Side Glances

“cattle ticks” in Texas, Louisiana |

By Clark

AB.

"This is about the only chance |

get to see my husband. When's

he's home he's always in the dark room developing pictures."

The “wood” or “dog carrier of Rocky Mountain | Spotted fever which is fatal to hu- | mans, is increasingly common in the | Middle Atlantic states, and exter- | mination projects have been carried [out in Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia,

” u u | SCOURGE in Northeastern states and the Great Lakes | | region is the European corn-borer. | | In Mississippi (and some other | states) Argentine ants march by the billion raiding gardens, apiagrocery stores, homes—any | place where food may be found. | Not even a river will stop an ArIt merely rolls up in | a tiny ball and floats across. The boll weevil has many cousins | and half-brothers which help destroy cotton and sweet potatoes in ge South. Florida has a “pink” | boll weevil which feeds on wild

beria bush as a home and attacks cotton. For 68 years the gypsy moth has | been decimating fruit and forest trees in the North and Mid-Atlan- | tic states, and in New England its cousin the brown-tail moth is a mortal foe of apple and cherry trees. | ” » ”

” ” rats! Maybe rats aren't enemies” strictly, but competent | statisticians have estimated that | rats cause a commercial food loss | of 189 millions of dollars annually | plus huge medical bills incurred | because of the diseases they carry. | The Biological Survey estimated that in 1936 the United States “rat population” was about 129,000,000, indicating a net annual food loss of $1.42 for each rat.

“plant |

| | | » | H, YES—and

television studio—lovely | fashion show stand in the glare of intense light, |

models for a

the iconoscope camera apparatus) at left focused on them,

Fntered as Second-Class Matter Indianapolis,

at Postoffice,

cience

PAGE 13

Qur Town

Ind.

| By Anton Scherrer

| | | |

(heart of the transmitting

As a television picture looks to the observer—pretity Betty Goodwin, television announcer, before the camera,

and football tele-casts, Presiden=tial inaugurals and historic occurrences brought right into the parlor. American equipment is good enough to do it, when, as and

if it becomes commercially feasible to inaugurate regular programs.

NEXT-—Obstacles to immediate television in America,

Roosevel t Sees Need for Full Free Expression

By Raymond Clapper Times Special Writer NR SH INGHON: Sept. 1. «- No discussions can be more important at this time than those held this week at Williamstown, Mass., by the Institute of Human Relations. The theme is “Public Opinion in a Democracy.” President Roosevelt, in a message

to the institute. declared that “only | through the full and free expression |

of public opinion can the springs of democracy be renewed and its in-

stitutions kept alive and capable of

functioning.”

Two opposite conceptions of pub- | practice today. | One is that used by dictators, which |

lic opinion are in is that public opinion is something created by the government as a means of carrying out the policies of the dictator, The other is that in practice in the democracies. It is that public epinion develops out of a clash of free discussion and argnment and that the government, while participating in the debate, is under a moral obligation to be guided by the conclusions. ” 8 ”

HEREFORE, the freedom of the | | some saying he was a great man.

agencies of public discussion be-

comes of vital importance in a de- | | really makes me feel rather a fool is when people write and say that

mocracy. They are free of goveinment control in this country. Roosevelt, in his message to

institute, appears to question wheth-

er they are entirely free from other |

control. He asks whether we ean

Mr. | the |

be sure that we do not have “a

| spit

| of having her whole house screened

| do.

and so they wondered how to replace it,

small minority, powerful and aruviecu- |

late, which paying lip service to democracy, seeks by every means within its power to thwart the will of

the majority?” He says it is a duty

to see that the press, motion pictures and radio, “through adherence to the highest ideals of truth,

i justice and fair play, are maintained

as public agencies for the creation of wholesome relationships among the various cultural, religious, racial and economic-interest group: which make up the American people.” It has been said that dictators regard a frec press as a nuisance and

abolish it, and that believers in de- |

mocracy also regard a free press as a nuisance but thank God for il Roosevelt undoubtedly goes into the second category.

uw u ” VEN broader than this problem of the free press is the whole relationship of a people to its government. Dictators insist upon blind, unquestioning adherence.

| | | | |

The opposite attitude is that ¢x-|

pressed by Mr. Baldwin just before he retired as Prime Minister. He said that he received some telling him he was a fool and

“But,” he added, “one letter that

they trust me so much that they would follow me anywhere. I should not like to be followed that way by anyone.”

Nationa: sa.ety Council

The laws in some states require an absolute stop when a motorist approaches any railroad grade crossing. Other state laws provide that motorists always slow down and look both ways before proceeding across

the tracks.

The law of common sense makes it clear that it is good

business and smart driving to slow down always; better still, to come to a complete stop, and then to be absolutely sure that no train is coming

from either direction,

letters, |

| | { |

Cat Came Home to Roost, Flies Took Woman to Court and a Sketch Got Nuns a Cow in Good Old Days Here,

T'S time you knew something about Mrs, Louise Culman Schwartz and her experie ences, At least, one of her experiences, “I went to school on Lincoln Lane as it was called at the time,” says Mrs. Schwartz. “A large gray cat was sitting on a fence near the sidewalk where I was passing. In fun I in the cat's face. I never did like cats. A colored man was passing at the time, and when he saw what I had done, he said the cat would come to my room that night, And sure enough that night when I woke up, there sat that same big, gray cat on mv bed. I was so frightened that I put my head under the covers until the next morning when 1 heard my mother and told her, but the cat was gone.” Mrs. Schwartz crosses her heart and hopes to die if it isn't the truth, Be that as it may, let's pass to the next one, which has something to do with what Mrs, Wheeler remembers sure, the same Mrs, Wheeler who acts as secretary to Evans Woollen, and maybe Hugh McKay Landon. too for all I Know, Probably you, too, have wondered who is responsible

for the uniform literary style of the Fletcher Trust Co,

Flies to Court

Well, as T was saving, Mrs mother telling about a woman or thereabouts,

Mr. Scherrer

Wheeler remembers hep in Indianapolis in 1886, who went to the trouble and expense To keep out the flies, of course. Maybe you don't remember 1886 and the flies that year. The screened-in woman thought mighty pretty, when all of a sudden she was hauled into court, You'll die when you hear what's coming. Believe it or not, a neighbor, who didn't have his home screened, had sued the woman, charging that all the flies that couldn't get into her house came over into his, and he wasn't going to stand for it

I don’t know the outcome of the trial, and neither does Mrs. Wheeler, It really doesn't matter. because it’s funny enough without knowing the end. At any rate, I hope it is, ;

she was sitting

Job for Artists

All of which leaves me enough room to tell about the nuns of a Catholic order not far from Indian apolis, A lot nearer than you'd guess, too. I dons know whether this story is true any more than you

I can’t go to the bottom of everything. Well, these nuns had a cow, but the animal died, Finally, one a sketch of of the statue of St.

of the nuns hit upon the idea of making a cow and placing it at the base Joseph. A few days later, some good neighbors who had seen the sketch, turned up with a cat. The nuns giggled like everything, and, of course with all the giggling going on. the good néighbors couldn't help finding out that the nuns wanted a cow and not a cat. ’ They got it all right because the next day the good neighbors led a cow to the convent, Thank good = ness, some of my stories have a happy ending.

A Woman's View By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

Rare Views of Celestial Stars Found Easier to See Than Those of Films.

ACATION NOTES: Gable, but we have Jupiter, a rarer vision. Out here in filmland one pays dearly to look at the earthly stars; those in the heavens can he gazed on for nothing. A treat for anvone and an especially thrilling event for an inquisitive small boy is a visit lo the Griffith Observatory. It diadems the brow of a peak overlooking Griffin Park, gleaming through the trees, a white Grecian temple of a place, dedicated to celestial explorations. The road leading to it is a spangled path of glory looped through the dark, a golden stairway to the stars, Once up there the city and its environs are spread at one's feet as if the ubie verse had turned upside down. The sky is beneath instead of above. There was a full moon which low more brilliant those overhead globe dominated th with Jupiter to the right red Mars glowed angri! When vou go to the movies that everybody elie took the same ni are overwhelming. not to say trampling the same seemed t{rve, Evidently all | southern California decided also to visit the great telescope. Throngs of men, women and children strolled about studying astronomical displays far too abstract for the average brain to comprehend, For an hour they sat crowded together under the arched dome to hear a lecture and watch the demonstration that accompanied it-—a replica of the sky which 18 stunningly realistic. There for our special benefit sun, moon, planets and starlets marched in procession

Can't seen

lay the

eves on

Clark

four moons of

The silver

near

iade the spaces \ nan cene an the feel The crowds her +OIKS In

vou hn Ail Lion

Yet m

above us.

What lies beyond those moons? The thought nagged at us as we nosed our way back to earth's cone fusion,

New Books Today

HE New Deal's effort to help depression victims among the country’s creative artists and writers is responsible for a new caravan-type book of prose, verse Americana and drawings, AMERICAN STUFF, just published by Viking. What does a writer do when he isn’t working for WPA? The answer is he still writes. This book was assembled and selected by a committee of literary men from the “off-work” writings of some 50 writers and 16 artists who are or were among the more than 6000 employed by WPA to compile the American Guide Books, Viking found the stuff interesting enough to print, and the rovalties il any will be distributed among the 66 contributors. The 66 include some well-known writers, and many who appear between book-covers for the first time, It is a grand and encouraging by-product--By H. L. ” n R. MORRIS FISHBEIN, the editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association and whose

”

| column appears daily in The Times, has performed a

much-needed public service by writing an authoritae tive book upon the subject of dieting, The book, titled YOUR DIET AND YOUR HEALTH, will be published by Whittlesey House on Aug. 30. Dr. Fishbein, writing in simple, nontechnical lane guage—and with frequent flashes of humor--sets out to tell you the fundamental facts about the diet. If you read the book, you will have the information which you need to keep your weight under control

| and at the same time you will have sufficient knowl«

edge to avoid the dangerous types of dieting fads, One interesting chapter of the book is devoted to “Debunking Diets,—By 8, 8.

DEYN PAT