Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 25 November 1937 — Page 11

Vagabond

From Indiana— Ernie Pyle

Boom Town Prospector Is Rich at 73; After 20 Years on Nevada Desert Finds Life Is Hopeless Boredom.

WW INNEMUCCA, Nev., Nov. 25.—This afternoon I went out to the edge of town to see an old “desert rat” prospector. When I got there he said he wasn’t a “desert rat.” “I've got a good education,” he said, “and

all the money I need. I've got good clothes hanging in that closet. and I could put them on and go downs town and nobody would know me.” W. H. Harris is 73 now. His face is long and sensitive, and very wrinkled. He wears striped overalls, and ' shaves with an electric razor. He rolls brown-paper cigarets, folds the end, and smokes them without licking them. He talks in a quiet, melancholy voice, He was born in Virginia City, Nev, when that town was the hottest boom camp in the U. S. He says every gold mine he ever found has brought him trotible. Lawsuits come like rain, and greedy schemers move in on him. He thinks he won't look for any more mines, although he would like to be back in the hills. He is unhappy. Four years ago he moved in from the desert, after 20 years out there in a cabin beside his mine. He moved in because his family got sick of the desert. He owns two big homes in Alameda, Cal. His wife and son live there, and want him to come down, but he doesn’t think that would work either. No place to walk. He sees greed all around him, and he can't understand it. He gave a banker acquaintance a little piece of gold-bearing quartz, just as a memento for a watch fob. The banker had it pounded into dust and assayed, to see how much gold was in it,

Embodies ‘Spirit of Comstock’

There was a thing in the early days of mining in Nevada called the “Spirit of the Comstock.” It meant that whatever you had, you shared with somebody else. The “Spirit of the Comstock” is mostly gone now, but it does live on in Billy Harris. Ten years ago Harris invented a machine known as a “dry washer.” It's a washing-machine-like affair, you turn a crank, and a paddle inside makes a great whirring noise. Its purpose is to capture fine gold dust from gravel. instead of using a pan or rocker box. It gets dust that is so fine it would float away on the water of a gold pan. He could have made a fortune off these “dry washers.” He has letters about them from nearly every country on the globe. He could license a manufacturer, and the royalties would be handsome. But he lets a friend in California build and sell them without fee, and he signed away the royalty rights to a big company which makes them in the Philippines. He didn’t want to be bothered. He doesn’t care for glory, or more money, or what people think of him. He has reached the Utopian stage of simplicity, selflessness and indifference. And vet he is miserable. Life has withered away from him.

The Liberal View By Harry Elmer Barnes

Demand for Employees Under 40 Strikes at Third of Population.

EW YORK, Nov. 25.~A few vears ago Professor Walter Pitkin created a sensation by writing a suggestive book entitled “Life Begins at Forty.” But those who Teally better their condition after 40 are rare and fortunate individuals in American society today. The stark reality is admirably described by Channinz Pollock in a magazine article on “Death Begins at Forty.” He not only studied the general employment situation in the country as a whole, but sent questionnaires to 18 of the leading employment agencies in New York receiving replies from 13. They found that employers on the average, when seeking clerical workers, want only men between 25 and 30-and women between 23 and 25. The average age limit for both sexes was between 22.6 and 314. Only one agency reported any dernand for men up to 40. and not a single agency a demand for men beyond that age. When it came to executives 10 out of the 13 agencies which replied stated that employers always demanded men under 40. Only three agencies found that executives were occasionally employable up to 45. The net result was to reveal an average of 10.5 years during which an executive can find work between the minimum average age of 30.2 and the maximum of 40.7.

Younger Men More Adaptable

The major reasons given by employers for insisting upon employees under 40, and for the most part under 31, was that young persons are more adaptable and have greater endurance; that younger people will work for less money and become dissatisfied less easily, and that older employees are closer to the period of pensions, Mr. Pollock states the economic implications of this situation: “One-third of our population is over 40 years old; no work for anyone over 40 would mean pensioning or starving as many people as live in the states of New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maine, Connecticut, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

“Only 31.75 per cent of us are between 20 and 40, so that anything approaching a Universal decision that this is the span of industrial usefulness involves the requirement that 38 million of us shall feed, clothe and house the remaining 87 million.”

He is justly indignant about the whole absurd state of affairs:— ‘The whole idea is as fantastic as it is inhumanly cruel and economically unsound. Common sense tells us that, with ordinary care of his body and cultivation of his intelligence, the average man should be at his best around 40. For labor requiring skill, judgment and competence those first 40 vears might well be regarded as preparatory— 20 years of schooling, 20 years of apprenticeship and graduation into fitness to cope with the perplexities of bread-winning.”

New Books Today

Public Library Presents—

N order . . . to express the ideas of democracy, and to draw them together toward a system, in order that democratic action may be more selfconscious, more direct in its progress toward its goal,” the group of exiled European scholars known as the “University in Exile” has here published a collection of papers on the problems which have confronted democracies during recent years. The essays in POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC DEMOCRACY (Norton), edited by Max Ascoli and Fritz Lehmann, represent the divergent viewpoints of many individuals. They consider the relation of economic planning to political democracy, the various aspects of the labor conflict and their place in the democratic movement, the problems of leadership in a democracy, regulation of public utilities, co-operatives, administrative organization, and other questions which have of late challenged the attention of those who believe in democracy and wish to preserve it both from internal weaknesses and from the threats from without.

o ” ”

OW did it feel to be part of a “speakeasy”? How did it feel to be in constant fear of the police and to be on the alert to act quickly in case of a raid? Barbara Mullen knew all this when at 13 she became a dancer. She won contests in Irish set dancing, traveling around Massachusetts alone. In LIFE IS MY ADVENTURE (London, Faber) she tells how she feels about it all; about the life under her mother’s domination; about her love for her father ‘who had left the family and was in Ireland; about the humiliations of her speakeasy home and, in spite of all unthe fun they had with the Irish music dances.

Mr. Pyle

The Indianapolis Times

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER

(First of a Series)

By William Crabb NDIANA is proud of 9000 miles of state highways— important links in the nation's 15 billion dollar road system. Officials plan dollar improvement program this winter. Workmen are completing a $1,300,000 super-highway in Lake County, a 13-mile addition to the state's fourlane system. Yet, for every nine miles of state roads, a person has died in Indiana traffic this year. Two hundred more are doomed to died before Jan. 1. Injuries are being reported at the rate of 500 a month. Indiana's shameful traffic record is not unique. Thirty-eight thousand die annually on American highways. Disabled total 105,000. Another million are hurt temporarily in 6,500,000 traffic accidents. The greatest sum ever spent in the nation on highways in a single year was $1,600,000,000. Property damage and personal injuries cost that much annuaily.

Safety drives, enforcement campaigns and education programs have shown temporary results. But the slaughter continues. Why? Perhaps two law enforcement officers, in indicting present-day roads, have the answer,

o ” ” TATE Safety Director Donald Stiver said: “Four—and

a million

three—lane highways are death traps. They are conducive to high speeds. It is impossible to prevent over-lap-ping.” Sheriff Ray, commenting on the Marion County situation, said: “I want more men to patrol the best highways—they're the most dangerous.” Meanwhile, little-heralded experts have been working along this line. They say: “Bngineer and build the ‘limited motorway’!” “Engineer driver-error to zero!” “Engineer a better automobile!” Years of research have led Dr. Miller McClintock, director of Harvard University’s Traffic Re-

search Bureau, to this concluclusion: “If it were possible to apply everything we know about traffic control, we could eliminate 98 per cent of all accidents and prac-

tically all congestion.” = ” »

HE researchers have shown how. They have laid out specifications for all engineers to follow. Frank T. Sheets, American Association of State Highway Officials past president, makes this statement: “Mucii can and must be done in driver education and safety regulations for vehicles. But full realization can only come as safety is built into highways. The elimination of physical hazards, annihilation of congestion and freeing of traffic flow couid be accomplished by a systematic program.” The best engineers know what must be done. A few have attempted to put these principles into practice, but opposition has made their work largely in vain. What opposition? Corrupt politics, sales appeal and an uninformed and lethargic public. Let us first consider the causes of traffic accidents. ” ” ” HE National Safety Council reports 15 per cent of the drivers have nearly 100 per cent of the accidents. The other 85 per cent is the cautious, careful type of driver. Faults of automobiles are responsible for nearly one-fifth of the accidents. Faults of Yoad design cause the great majority. How the 15 per cent of the drivers smash up their cars, themselves, pedestrians and other drivers is explained by Dr. MeClintock’s researchers. He learned that traffic—a combination of road, car and man— was in reality a fluid in its complete obedience to the laws of hydraulics Applied to this flow of rubber, steel and flesh within the sluices

of the highway system, the laws of hydraulics could control the fac-

Side Glances—By Clark

“And what's more, we were to meet you here at three and go to a . mow". ;

‘movie! Here it is

* |

ASHINGTON,. Nov. 25 (U. P.). University of Michigan obtain two (of the often-discussed but seldom-

land sweetish with the peculiar odor |

| |

the New York Zoological Jand Arthur M. Greenhall of the

tors inherent in every automobile accident and highway congestion.

» n o rans rub, set up eddies and interfere when moving in the same sluice. That is “medial friction.” When two streams cross each other or join there is a churning interference called “intersectional friction.” When a stream moves in a sluice it rubs against the walls, piles up,

pours over and around obstacles and unevenesses along that wall. That's “marginal friction.”

Two Discover

25, 1937

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Intersectional

Entered as at Postothce,

BecondIndianapolis,

Second Section

PAGE 11

a -_———, e }

Class Matter > nd.

crashes like

that at the top are engi

neered

into impossibility

on the “limited motorway.”

New York is engineering the murder out of Riverside

Drive==hy

constructing a

few more miles of limited motorway. Dr. Miller McClintock, right,

America’s

ace in traffic

engineering. Below is shown a strip of road typical of better high-

ways.

It divides opposing

traffic streams with a center strip, but has no limited access.

And finally, when it moves along in its own sluice, a liquid flows faster in the center than along the sides. That is the flow is all in the same direction but.the faster rubs against the slower, setting up “internal stream friction.”

With these facts in hand, Dr McClintock applied the engineering solution of hydraulics ‘and derived the following answers: 1. Put a dividing island down the center of highways so traffic flowing in opposite directions no longer will scrape in the middle of

the road or biind all with head-

Secrets

Of Vampire Bat

~The air was hot, heavy

of thousands of bats. Two Ameri-

seen vampire bats. Mr. Ditmars found that vampire bats can assume a walking gait as

can scientists, piloted through barri- [agile as a four-legged animal; that its long thumb is used as a foot on |

cades of vines and down a slippery entry by their Panaman guides, slushed in the darkness through reddish mud and rancid water underground cave. One of the men squeezed info the farthermost recesses and then flashed cn a light. Overhead buzzed

a |pire is

the wing stalk, that it can gorge itself until it becomes almost spher-

of anlical and then ean digest its meal {while hanging inverted by its feet |

from the roof. Even more impor-

|tant, he discovered that the vam-

not a blood-sucking cres-

whirling mass of bats. Two speeci= |ture.

mens were hastily captured. Thus did Raymond L. Ditmars of Society

A WOMAN'S VIEW

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson UST at twilight yesterday three little boys with BB guns came around the corner and, taking aim together, shot out the street light. Then they scampered off, laughing. Now these particular little boys

will probably not end in the electric

chair. I know them; they are nice

lads whose adoring parents are chuckle-headed enough to let them have toy guns. And with the first play gun there stirs in the child mind the desire to destroy. That's

park, or some other target. expecting too much of youngsters to imagine that when they have guns they will not want something at which to shoot, or that sooner or later they will not be moved to take life in some form. With our horrible crime record, our expensive campaigns to eliminate the killers from our society, you might think the average parents would muster up sufficient courage to forbid guns, even toy ones, to their children. But vou should hear the loud out-

cries that follow such a proposal. | The very individuals who agree at |

once that dynamite isn’t a safe plaything for children will be the first

to protest when you point out that |

guns are nearly as dangerous. Wild game is vanishing yearly from the continent while our bill for crime prevention constantly grows. Isn't it time for American parents to face the truth on this question—

The vampire bat, however, does feast on blood, Dr. Ditmars explains in a paper published in the

Smithsonian Institution's yearbook. |

| |

¢ direction and 44 per cent

cures “medial cent of

light glare That friction,” cause of 17 pei accidents,

2. Separate the grades of intersections, clover-leafing them together for interchange, ending intersectional friction, which is cause of 19 per cent of accident.

3. Limit access to the highway from driveways, service stations, sidewalks and side roads, eliminating marginal friction, cause of 20 per cent of accidents.

4. Provide accelerating and decelerating lanes in each sluice to end the internal stream friction between ears moving in the same of the accidents have been prevented. u ” » PPLICATION of this plan is much more than mere road construction engineering, Dr. MecClintock says. It engineers the human element into a position where it cannot commit more than a few freak accidents. The facts are at hand while automobile speeds approach 90-miles-per-hotir, motorists continue to drive with 20-mile-an-hour ability and 15 traffic accidents every minute of the day and night kill more persons in 15 months than the A. E. FP. lost in World Wer action.

NEXT<What We Have to Work With Now.

Jasper—By Frank Owen

Copr. 1937 by United Pesture Syndicate, Tue

"If you want any more dressing, you've:

Our Town

By Anton Scherrer

Sandwiches, Red Flannels and Even National Deficit Cause Enough

For Joy on This Thanksgiving Day. FOR all the good things of the earth we praise the Lord today. We are grateful for all the many blessings of the upturn and pray for strength to face the disappearance of the last pedestrian in Washington St. Grateful, too, that this year's Chevrolet has its nose straightened out, and that somebody finally got around to taking a census of the trees in Indianapolis, We praise Heaven that some of our sewers held out during the rainy season, that the apple crop is big enough to keep the doctor away and that another year has passed without the cop giving us a sticker Thankful, too, are we for the cultural enrichment of Venetian blind a garbage can called Savory, ana the Duke of Windsor Sandwich which the Ayres people =o gallantly exploited at the time the Coro nation Thankful

Mr. Scherrer

{no that. though many things in life change, some things remain the same-—<such as our symphony orchestra which, like last year, manages to get, results without help from the Democrats, Thanksful. too. that somebody licked Jadwiga Jedrzejowska at tennis, thus postponing for at least another year our wrestling with a language like that We are happy, too, that the flag still waves from the top of the Court House, even if it is sometimes upside down, We rejoice, too, for the Herron Art people's Dutch show--bless ‘em. Likewise for the horse in front of their place For Cecil Isbell, Tony Lazzeri and Tommy Farr, the only Caueasian who ean remain upright for 15 rounds, Thankful, too, are we for Booth Tarkington's story of Mr. Rumbin, the art dealer; and the revelation, garnered elsewhere, that the national vearly deficit, instead of being 700 million dollars as the Republicans had led us to believe, is only 695 million,

Other Things for Thankfulness

the Traders Point Crowd will Thanksgiving today the Blessing of the Hounds. Grateful, too, that Indianapolis now has a church dedicated to 8t. Christopher, the patron saint of travelers, which is just another name for As you probably know aren't enough pedestrians left for a saint with We give praise for the Strauss people, and fact that they are sufficiently interested in our type to carry red flannel underwear. We for the upward trend nf ladies’ hair; for the example of Mr. Juro Vedra of Breka, Yugoslavia, who mars ried for the 18th time at the age of 97. Grateful, too, for the Indianapolis telephone book which lists five businesses beginning with the word “Liberty,” and not one with “New Deal.”

We give praise, too, for the capacity of the human mind to remember. To recall, for instance, the coffee cake Otto Haueisen's mother used to make. And the herring salad of Mrs. Mathilde Broich. And, how we give thanks for Katrina Fertig, who taking time by the forelock, has already started her Christe | mas cakes!

| Jane Jordan— Obtrusive and Intolerant Goodness Repels Men Friends, Jane Advises. EAR JANE JORDAN-<I am so lonesome 1 don’t know what to do. After having had a husband fo love and cherish, then having lost him, it one’s life empty. Because I wouldn't do vile things, | drink and go to taverns, my husband left, me for a married woman who would do these things with him. He | how is living with her and neither of them is divorced, | I try to find something to fill this empty space but,

I can’t. I went with one man and got insulted: another said I was too good for any man: and others think because I have been married that I have to do | ‘wrong. What is wrong with evervone? Are there no good and decent men left? I hear men sav there are no good women left, but they are all wrong. It seems like the other kind of women get the good women's husbands. What do men want anywav? What am I to do to fill this lonesome, broken heart? No one | seems to want me NICE

Ale we

Devoutly grateful are we that

start its with

motorists {here

to bother

the

are grateful, too,

leaves

n u " Answer-—There is such a thing as being so good nobody can live with you, just as there is such a thing as being so bad no one can live with you. A person who | is really good is one who is sympathetic with human nature and tolerant of its frailities. When harsh intolerance of the other fellow and his desires goes hand in hand with the assumption of personal righteous= ness, the “good” person becomes simply unbearable | A really good person is not afraid of becoming con- | taminated by curroundings of which he disapproves, He may not care for taverns or for drinking, but he doesn’t reject them so vehemently. After all vile is a | strong word to ise about something which a sizeable | portion of the human race finds pleasant. Please do not construe this as a defense of drunkenness; it is not. It is simply that the good life need not exclude all the pleasures of the flesh, and he who thinks it does is apt to find himself without company. I imagine that the whole cause of vour trouble with vour husband did not lie in your objection to going to places where drinks are served, but in your gen=oral attitude toward life which was at variance with his. My guess is that you confuse goodness with gloom, whereas he was bent on the pursuit of pleas- | ure. Your complete lack of sympathy with his needs and the rigidity of your views repelled not only him, | but the men you have met since, In the main, men like virtue in women. No matter how hard they try to tear it down, they still like it, What they don’t like is a ‘condemnatory attitude toward themselves. They don’t like to be told they are vile, depraved creatures because they succumb to the dictates of their natures, They don’t like to be raked over the coals because of thelr instinct to play. You can please men without lowering your standards one whit if you will be cheerful and entertaining, praising their manly virtues instead of déploring their sinful natures. You also have a better chance of winning them over to your idea of the good life if you make it seem ‘a pleasant prospect instead of a deadly one, JANE J AN,