Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 30 November 1937 — Page 11

Vagabond

From Indiana — Ernie Pyle

Liberty and Dislike of Hypocrisy Still Cherished Virtues in Nevada; Wanderer Thinks He Knows Reason.

RENO, Nev., Nov. 30.—Nevada, like all Western states, had gambling in its pioneering days. But somehow, nobody can guite understand how, the reformers got in about 1911 and outlawed gambling.

Law or no law, Nevadans are going to do as they please. The gambling houses were soon running again, under cover. And before long they were wide open. The owners frankly admitted they were “paying off” to the politicians for this privilege. But that wasn’t the way Nevada had always done things. Public disgust ran high. The law was revoked and gambling became legal again. And it wasn’t legalized for revenue. It was legalized because the people didn’t want the hypocrisy of a political “payoff” going on under their noses. As a matter of fact, taxes on liquor and gambling are a very tiny * part of Nevada's total revenue. In Washoe County (which includes Reno and the state's greatest concentration of gambling clubs and saloons) the revenue from liquor and gambling is only one-tenth of the county’s whole revenue—$300,000 out of $3,000,000. The State of Nevada is in good shape, financially. And it is a taxpayer's paradise. The state has no sales tax. No income tax. No inheritance tax. No tax on intangibles. This word has got about, and many rich people have established homes in Nevada in order to escape these taxes in their home states.

They buy land, and put up castles. You see them scattered over in the foothills along the edge of Washoe Valley, and up arqund Lake Tahoe.

State Has Short-Term Residents

The Nevada residence law for citizenship (other than for divorce) is six months. But most of these rich people can’t spend half of each year in Nevada, because they have business to attend to elsewhere,

Nevada depends on two things—mining, and the raising of cattle and sheep. Farming and manufacturing are practically unheard of. The miner is a unique fellow. It seems to me he must be an optimist, a fool, a genius, and a gambler combined. That is not the sort of character to lie down and submit to being wrapped in a drawsheet of little interferences. : I sought among many men for the answer to Nevada’s doggedly remaining liberty. Most of them didn’t know. But finally I found one who knew. Nevada still has the free spirit of the old West because-— well, because it has no farmers! I came from a Midwestern farm and am proud of it: and so did the old Nevadan who told me this. And yet the theory is true; I am sure it is true.

My Diary By Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt

Arthurdale Homesteader, 76, Able To Provide for Three Families.

REENSBURG, Pa. Monday—Arthurdale is a grand place because I meet so many old friends there. This time, however, there were a number of new things to be seen—new equipment in the high school and new furniture in the library. We paid a visit to a man and his wife who have 11 children, the youngest one three months old. Their little 4-year-old was the first homesteaders’ baby bérn on the project. The mother, who is young and pretty, is proud of the family and cheerful about her many duties. She is a grand housekeeper and has her shelves stocked with canned goods for the winter. One of the homesteaders, who is 76 years old, told Mr. Pickett he had never in his life been so well off. He had dealt with the co-operative store and had spent about $400 cash during the year, had sold produce worth $126, had enough food set aside for his own family during the winter and had grown enough vegetables to supply his son and daughter and their families. Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Hamilton, a young couple, drove over from Wheeling and I was delighted to see them again. They are running a most interesting community forum in Wheeling. I think it is an encouraging sign that these forums are starting in so many places all over the country.

Forums Valuable in Democracy

I have been told that here and there opposition has been expressed to these forums. It probably comes from people who are afraid to have certain ideas discussed because they disapprove of them. This seems to me rather foolish because it shows, I think, a lack of confidence in our own institutions. I believe people should know and understand all sides of a question in a democracy. I never spend a day such as I spent yesterday without a sense of great humility. It is a triumph under certain material conditions to retain your selfrespect and to keep on living without bitterness. One of my old friends up Scott's Run has been eking out a skimpy existence by taking care of two very old men. Her husband is a miner, but he has had no work for several months. Yet she invited us into her kitchen with as true hospitality as you or I woulda‘ snow in asking someone into our drawing room. We spent the night in Morgantown and were on our way early this morning to visit the American Frienas’ Service Gommittee’s project in Fayette County, Pennsylvania.

Mr. Pyle

New Books Today

Public Library Presents—

HEN she stepped from the train at Santa Fe that November evening in 1917, a new existence began for Mabel Dodge Luhan, and she tells about it in the fourth volume of her “Intimate Memories,” EDGE OF TAOS DESERT (Harcourt). Even as she left her copy of the Atlantic Monthly and of the New Republic in the train, so she left her social background in the past, the stuffy teas, her conglomerate circle of intimates—writers, artists, social lions and Communists. She was encompassed by Life with a capital L; was surrounded by the wide desert, was warmed by the brilliant sun; she gazed upon the purple mountains and smelled the pungent sage, she heard the rhythmic beating of the Indian drums. She was renewed, refreshed—she belonged to this wild country, and she began to be completely

4

Legal Aid Reduces Tragedy

(Last of a Series)

By William Crabb

HE murder of 37,000 persons annually is blamed on three traffic factors—the road, the car and the driver. Law enforcement authorities have assumed responsibility of engineering murder out of the drivers. Indianapolis’ experience is interesting: A year ago this month, local officials saw the city’s death toll mounting to a new high. An undermanned motorcycle police squad was ordered to

“bring in the violators.”

The number of daily arrests rose. The drive continued for a few weeks, but bad weather and the Christmas spirit brought a relapse. Then 1937 got off to an appalling start. During January and February fatalities were recorded at the rate of one every two days. Pedestrians were the principal victims. 2 = 2

Ts time a dual campaign was launched. Drivers and pedestrians alike were given notice the traffic laws must be obeyed. Three hundred motorists were arrested one week-end. Downtown traffic officers were given white cards to “serve” on pedestrians caught jay-walking. Again the drive proved temporary and the traffic toll continued to soar.

So Chief Morrissey requested Lieut. Frank Kreml, Evanston, Ill, safety expert, to install a permanent accident prevention system here. Meanwhile, an Accident Prevention Bureau was set up to operate until Lieut. Kreml’s arrival. Sergt. Ray Peak was made acting lieutenant and placed in charge of the Bureau. Lieut. Kreml stopped in Indianapolis on his way to make a survey of South Bend. A meeting of all City officials was called and the safety expert explained the purpose of his system which had cut traffic tolls in a dozen cities where it was tried.

” = =

ITH your co-operation, Indianapolis traffic fatalities can be reduced 25 per cent,” Lieut. Kreml said. City officials unanimously voted their co-operation. Several weeks later the City Council cut from the proposed budget the item which would provide equipment for Lieut. Kreml’s plan. Chief Morrissey has indicated the system probably will not be set up here as the result. So the local Bureau was given a long range assignment. Lieut. Lawrence McCarty, who had been studying traffic control systems in Evanston and Milwaukee, was placed in charge. With a handful of motorcycle men, Lieut. McCarty and Sergt. Peak faced the tremendous task of remedying one of the blackest traffic records of any city in the country. The Bureau opened a long range enforcement campaign on July 15. On that day traffic fatalities were equal to the 1936 record high Today, the traffic fatalities” are almost 20 per cent under last year. Injuries and accidents also have been reduced. The Courts, too, joined in the campaign. In June the average fine for a traffic violation was $2.72. In September the average exceeded $10. Indiana, however, has decided Lieut. Kreml’s services could be of value here. The newly-appointed Governor's Highway Safety Co-

Ws

The Indianapolis Times

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1937

ordination Committee requested him and four other experts to suggest means of reducing the State's automobile death toll. Maxwell Halsey, member of the Harvard Street Traffic Research Bureau, has been invited to suggest engineering improvements to the Highway Commission. Joseph L. Lingo of Purdue is to spend six or eight months assisting in enforcement of the new drivers’ license laws. J. Stannard Baker and Kirk A. Keegan of the National Safety Council are to study the State's accident reporting system.

"2 2 ”

HE Governor's Committee, whose slogan is “It is not smart to have an accident,” is composed of State Safety Director Donald Stiver, Motor Vehicles Commissioner Frank Finney, State Highway Commission Chairman Earl Crawford, and Superiniendent of Public Instruction Floyd McMurray. The National Safety Council says 15 per cent of the drivers cause all accidents. They do a damage of a billion and a half dollars a year. The Council charges: “Some are actually defective in sind or body . . . they have bar eyesight or are not strong enough to control a heavy vehicle, or their

senses are dulled by alcohol, fa- ®-

Indiana One of 13 States to Permit Bible Reading in Public Schools

‘ByL A.

tigue or carbon monoxide. .

“A much greater number of drivers who have accidents do not know how to drive. They have never learned proper methods of making turns, backing or signaling; they do not observe right-of-way rules, stop signs, traffic signals, to say nothing of their obligations toward pedestrians and other highway users. “But a much greater number of drivers are neither defective nor ignorant of traffic rules. . . . They take chances by going too fast; they pass other cars on hills and curves; they cross railroad tracks without looking; they do not slow down at intersections; they expect other drivers and pedestrians to get out of their way regardless of traffic conditions.”

HE limited motorway eliminates all these driver faults, with exception of defectives, off the roads. Dr. Miller McClintock of Harvard, chief proponent of the limited motorway, has set forth four specifications designed to engineer the driver into channels where he cannot take chances and blunder; ‘where the road will compensate for his error and shortcomings. A dividing center strip to keep

Second Section

Entered as Second-Class Matter P AGE 11

at Postoffice,

a

Policing, as shown at the top, has cut deaths “The Slippery When Wet” sign is evidence of premeditated murder, because the engineer knows when he specifies tar binder for the bricks, the surface will be deadly. of Northwestern University, and America’s foremost traffic policing authority, after conferring with Indianapolis officials

among children substantially.

Franklin M. Xreml (circle)

opposing streams separate; grade separations at intersections to divorce cross-streams; limited access to eliminate driveways, most side roads, most service stops, pedestrians, bicyclists, local traffic, and fast and slow lanes to keep trucks and all slow moving cars out of the high-speed flow.

There are no left turns, no stop lights or signs, no headlight glare

equipment here.

trian is killed.

another wheel?

through the shrubbery of the center strip, no fixed objects, parked cars or pedestrians to hit, no trucks or streetcars or railroad tracks.

The ways that a driver can go wrong are almost all eliminated. But 9000 miles of Indiana highways are not likely to be modernized for some time. And 120

said no satisfactory safety program ‘could be carried out for the city until authorities provided adequate

Over the curb plunges the moronic menace (lower right) who does not know how to drive.

A pedesHer husband staggers against the

building. How soon will this fool driver be behind

persons are being killed each month, four a day. What immediate action can be taken? Rigid enforcement is the answer,

See this page tomorrow for

RADIO OPENS ITS EYES

NDIANA is one of 13 states which permit, but do not require, daily Bible reading in the public schools. The other states are Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Da-

| kota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Da- | kota and Texas.

Twelve states, however, have

| more stringent laws, requiring that

the Bible must be read each day in all public schools. These are Geor-

gia, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Tennesee and District of Columbia. Reading of the Scriptures in the schools is specifically prohibited in 11 states, Arizona, California, Illinois, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming. The State of Georgia, planning its school program for the next scholastic year, is considering a

step which will have the effect of according “textbook status” to the King James version of the Bible. The proposal, emanating from Georgia's Governor, is that textbook funds be used to place some 800,000 Bibles in the hands of Georgia school children. " # ® TN the early history of the country, the laws (and even the constitutions) of some of the American states favored specific sects so decisively as almost to give their beliefs the status of “state religions.” Legal sanction of such “state re-

|ligions” was never complete or abso-

lute, however, and those who have

studied the subject doubt if any state

ever has gone to the extreme of according to the Bible the status of geography, history and spelling books. Some contend there is considerable legal doubt as to whether adoption of the Bible as a textbook would stand the scrutiny of the courts. Because of the very newness of the proposal, exact precedents do not

exist, but the thesis is well established in law that public funds may not be used to advance the doctrines of any particular sect. And the King James version is inseparably identified with Protestantism.

Some years ago, a California school board bought King James versions of the Bible for public school libraries. The action was attacked by some persons as unduly favoring Protestantism, but the purchase was sustained in the courts. The courts held, however, that the school board could be compelled upon demand of citizens to give an exactly equal status to any other sect, and to purchase library copies of any requested version of the Bible (or other holy book). Most laws respecting the reading of the Scriptures in public schools have been enacted since the World War, apparently stemming from the strong sentiment in favor of conformity that characterized that period. The “antievolution” or “monkey” laws enacted in several states and proposed in many others after the World War were another outgrowth of the passion for conformity.

Side Glances—By

A WOMAN'S VIEW By Mrs. Walter Ferguson ] LAUDIA CRANSTON'S latest book of travels, “I've Been Around” (Lippincott), is timely because she devotes so much of it to Japan. To be sure Japan is in our bad graces these days, but that is

one reason why we ought to know as much about it as possible.

There can be no doubt that a movement is afoot to prejudice America against the Japanese.

Jasper—By Frank Owen

N\

Indianapolis,

Our Town

By Anton Scherrer

Let's Give Credit to Second-Rater; Sure, Old Generation Is Imperfect, But Here Is a Word in Its Favor.

OMEBODY told me the other day that I am a product of a second-rate generation. Right to my face, too. You can imagine what the rest of his talk was like. All right, for argument’s sake let's as-

sume that I am. Indeed, let me go even

farther, and admit it. So what? I can think of lots of things worse than being a product of a seconde rate generation. For example, a product of a firste rate generation, like the one we have now, isn't so hot, either. Anyway, it’s high time somebody was getting around again to cataloging the precise import of secondrate things. The last time it was done was back in 1845 when William Makepeace Thackeray wrote a most illuminating piece beginning with the sentence: “I have always had a taste for the second-rate in life.” He takes the words right out of my mouth. Mr. Thackeray's essay, I remember, concerned ite self mostly with second-rate plays, but he managed to get around to a discussion of second-rate poetry and novels, too. He was for them, you bet. He was for second-rate claret, too, I remember. “Second rate claret,” he said, “is notoriously better than first rate wine; you get the former genuine, whereas the latter is a loaded and artificial composition that cloys the palate and bothers the reason.” Second-rate beauty in women didn't escape him, either. “Your first-rate Beauty,” he said, “is grand, severe, awful—a faultless, frigid angel of 5 feet 9; superb to behold at church, or in the park, or at a drawing-room, but, ah, how inferior to a sweet, little second-rate creature, with smiling eyes and a second-rate turned-up nose with which we fall in love in a minute.” Mr. Thackeray was 34 years old when he wrote this, and I drag in the fact to show that he was old enough to know what he was talking about.

"Twas a Less Perfect Age

To be sure, Mr. Thackeray didn’t mention second= rate generations, like the one I was brought up in, when nothing worked very well—the days of blowouts, and the obstinacy of sewing machines. I don’t know whether you remember i or not, but back in my days, things needed fixing all the time. Even our umbrellas folded up at least once a month, and necessitated the periodical visits of a mender. It was that way all along the line. There was always something the matter with the lawn mower, the bicycle, and the sprinkling outfit we had. It was the age of the perverseness of inanimate things. At that, I wouldn't have missed it for anything. Indeed, I am thankful that I grew up in an age when things were less perfect than they are now. I'll go even farther, and hazard a guess that the present generation (the first-rate one) is facing a real peril in the smooth operation of its mechanical adjuncts. These highly perfected contrivances tend to exalt and soothe, when, as a matter of fact, they ought to challenge and humble us. Anyway, I can’t imagine what can possibly take the place of the marvelous discipline we kids received when we had to stay in out of the rain because the umbrella mender was so busy that he didn’t have time to get around to our house.

Jane Jordan—

Warns Girl Against Interfering With Marriage Plan of Boy Friend.

DZ JANE JORDAN—Are you getting a rake-oft from saloons and vice rings or are you just plain cheap? Are you a scrubwoman’s daughter or a truckdriver’s daughter, or do you write this stuff simply because it appeals to a certain grade of simpleminded sap who hasn’t any more sense than to follow the miserable “advice” you put out? You are getting some youngsters in plenty wrong. J.B. P.

Answer—The remark to which this letter refers is as follows: “After all, vile is a strong word to use about something (taverns) 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.” My mother was a dressmaker; my father, an audi tor. I have never been to but one tavern in my life and I was very bored. It is just that I do not mind if other people enjoy themselves in this way. It comes as a surprise to me that you associate scrubwomen and truckdrivers with immorality. Both follow honorable professions and the former is at least, very clean. Why should we have harsh words over difference of opinion? If you do not like taverns you can stay out of them, just as I do. But why should we try to impose our likes and dislikes on the rest of the human race?

Mr. Scherrer

2 #" #

Dear Jane Jordan—In my crowd of young people there is a young woman of 23 and a boy of 20 who thinks he is in love with this young woman. She is married and has two children but is separated from her husband. She has put the children in a home because she works at night. She plays a piano, and the boy is studying to be an orchestra leader. I really believe that it is the music that attracts the boy to her. So far I haven't said anything to Bob about this woman as she is a very good friend of mine and lives at my home. He says that as soon as she gets a divorce he is going to marry her, but I hate to see him ruin his life. I am a young girl of 18 and I am in love with Bob. I have not told him that I love him. I want to see him happy and he says he is happy with her so I have kept silent. Please tell me if I should drop out of the crowd and forget Bob or do something about stopping this affair between Bob and this woman? BETTY.

Answer—I don’t see how you can stop it for the more you say against it the more desirable you make it seem. There is nothing like a little opposition to give fillip to a love affair. Both of your friends would

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interpret your interference as jealousy instead of any real interest in their welfare, and they might be right, Since the boy is only 20 he may get over his feeling for the girl long before she gets her divorce. The most effective stop to his marriage will be his financial set-up. It is hardly likely that a 20-year-old boy studying to be a musician has enough money to support a woman and two children, even if she helps by working. Your cue is to stand by silently and see what hap " pens. Never meddle with the lives of other people, After all you don’t actually know that this marriage would spell ruin although it does look unwise on the surface. JANE JORDAN,

Your comment on the problems which interest you is ine vited. The best letters will be published.

Walter O'Keefe—

ARIS, Nov. 30.—In 1919 the doughboys debated the question who won the war. Now, 18 years later, the European statesmen don’t seem to know. Today the French premier and foreign minister are visiting London, talking with Prime Minister Chamberlain and Anthony Eden about what to do with Adolf Hitler, the home in the real sense of the that’ noisy little brat who belongs to the next door word; . they have no rights. But neighbors. individually not one woman in * France feels he should stay in his own backyard Japan wants war. They abhor vio- and play, but Adolf has grown ‘into a big boy now and lence. If they were organized they ha wiahis 10 40 over 10 ANie and Flay like his sum

out against war.” : ok i J es sms

Their action in China is enough of itself to do that. But no matter how repellent such actions may be, our emotionalism often drives us off the deep end before we have mastered the facts. Miss Cranston pounds home one point over and over again. It is this: Against Japan's will, Western leaders intruded upon her island privacy, And kecause the greatest virtue of the Japanese character is curiosity, “an enormous earnestness about knowledge,” Japan mechanized her industry and has become the most thoroughly Western of the Asiatic countries. Also we account her the most advanced and, what naturally follows, the most dangerous. Japan is eager, industrious, ambitious, and having been taught to think that battleships are glorious and conquest laudable, we are now alarmed at the manner in which she has followed our example. “Officially,” Miss Cranston says, “the Japanese women are still in

happy in January when the Indian Tony “looked at her from under his beautiful three-cornered eyelids.” From that meeting, she tells of the love which developed between them. She describes the Indian tribal dances and feasts, their Pueblo life, and tries as did D. H. Lawrence to understand the mysteries of their dark Gods. She builds an adobe house, she entertains many visitors and she gives a glowing picture of the colorful Southwest; but first and foremost she tells the love story of Mabel Evans Dodge and Tony Luhan the gentle, inscrutable Indian. & 8 -& NOVEL, MANY PEOPLE PRIZE IT (Morrow), just published by a onetime Indianapolis boy, Joseph Chamberlain Furnas, now resident in New York, is receiving much favorable attention. Author of the widely distributed “— and Sudden Death,” of articles on Russia in a well-known weekly, and of a first novel, “The Prophet's Chamber,” collaborator with George Crouse Tyler in his “Whatever Goes Up,” and on the staff of the Readers Digest, Mr. Furnas has had varied and considerable writing experience. This novel is the sophisticated and pessimistic picture of a New Yorker's life-search for the power and satisfactions money can buy, so far as he could envisage them, and his final frustration through his misjudgment of the woman he chose to produce an heir after he had cast off his first family. Though completely and thoroughly moral in its implications, the story is told without squeamishness and will not |

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= ’ Ls -_ W-30= Copr. 1937 by United Feature Syndiesgte, Inc.

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be enjoyed by those who prefer to read only of the pleasanter aspects of life. a

"Listen, Doctor, we're atraid he has swallowed the page that tells do if he. swallow something.” & y 3 WS : Q ®

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