Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 19 January 1938 — Page 9
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Vagabond!
From Indiana == Ernie Pyle
Chip and Brownie Gilman Prefer ‘South Sea Life' to Honolulu; Open Air Show Seldom Rained Out.
SLAND OF MOLOKAI, Hawaii, Jan. 19.— If you are going to get a little piece of land in the Hawaiian Islands and go native (or as near native as you can go nowadays), Molokai would be about as good a place as any to do it.
For it is off the beaten track; most of your neighbors would be pure Hawaiians; there are only about 75 white families on the whole island; there are lovely spots on the beach; there is still some land left for sale; and it's Ga WB only 40 miles to Honolulu, with a %: plane every day, in case you get 4 the screams and can’t stand it an- { other minute. Chip and Bfownie Gilman, I believe, come about as near to leading the “South Sea life” as anybody on % Molokai, and yet they're a long way TH :1 from what the storybooks have it. : CR { Brownie is really “brownie,” for Ric + % she’s hapahaole (meaning part white, although she’s mostly white) Mr. Pyle and she’s a wiry, devil-may-care citizen who says what she thinks and does what she pleases and loves it. Mr. Gilman is fron: a Honolulu business family. He can always have a job in Honolulu, but it seems he just can’t stand a collar around his neck. They own a spot of land right on the beach. Bamboo poles, strung with flowers, made a ‘‘compound” of their place. Their house is typically tropical—wide-roofed for rain, up a little for coolness, flimsy and roomy and simple. And facing the ocean is the open lanai where you sleep and eat and doze in your chair, right outdoors under a roof. And how do they make their living? Well, they've taken a 20-year lease on about 1000 acres of brush running from the beach clear back up into the mountains, and they'll raise cattle. Not in a big way, but just enough to give them a comfortable living. They don’t want much, The Charlie Morrises live on a knoll in midisland. Mrs. Morris is a lovely hapahaole, and Morris is a tall, thin New York expatriate who has wandered the earth and wouldn't think of living anywhere but Molokai. He is manager of the four theaters on Molokai. His pride and joy is the one in Kaunakakai.
Bananas Grow in Theater
It's an odd theater. It hasn't any roof, or any floor. In fact, it's nothing but some space with a high board fence around it. The seats are long wooden benches. Inside the fence grow banana plants and papaia trees and lots of tropical flowers. It sure makes you feel tropical to sit in there watching a show, with banana palms all around, and a genuine sky with genuine stars right overhead. Morris started it just as an experiment, and did so well he decided to tear it down and build a real theater. But the people of Kaunakakai raised so much cain thal he had to leave it the way it was. Bright moonlight doesn’t seem to hurt the picture. The show is rained out only three or four times a year. And as for wintertime—well, I went in January, and everybody was in shirt sleeves. Morris advertises it as the only “fresh-air-condi-tioned” theater in Hawaii. Which burns up the owners of the new, beautiful and electrically air-condi-tioned Waikiki Theater in Honolulu,
My Diary
Giving Children an Understanding Of Arts Will Develop Appreciation.
ASHINGTON, Tuesday.—We were all saddened by the news of Mrs. Bernard Baruch’s death. I left Washington on the midnight train to be in New York for the funeral today. Over and over again, it seems to me that the most futile feeling in the world is wishing to be of use to your friends and feeling that there is nothing you can do. We all of us experience that feeling, but somehow we never grow accustomed to it. Yesterday, for the first time, I saw a magazine for children of 12 years and under, called “Story Parade.” It is sponsored by Miss Barbara Nolan. Four copies fell into the hands of some young guests of mine and were received with great interest. I always think I am a good judge of a child's enjoyment of books. I have read aloud so many books to children from the age of 3 up, that, if I know the child, I can gauge its reaction beforehand. Never having been very good at playing games, I have spent much more of my time reading aloud to my children. In consequence I think I acquired both a taste for children’s stories and an ability to judge them from the child's point of view. Someone wrote me the other day and begged me to draw people's attention to the pleasures that could be found in the arts if you developed an appreciation of them. I know of no way to do this except through giving children an understanding of literature, pictures and music when they are young. Their own curiosity will lead them to study, if you can awaken an emotional appreciation.
Child Pays Tribute I heard a story the other day which I shall never forget. When I drive past the Lincoln Memorial and pause to look at the statue of Lincoln, which is particularly effective after dark when the light plays upon it, I've often thought it beautiful and inspiring. One of my friends’ children, however, phrased the feeling that statue gives better than I could. Looking up at it, she said, “He looks as though it would be nice to sit on his lap.” A tribute to the man with the tender heart who truly was a father of his people, and a tribute to the artist who could portray his spirit.
New Books Today
PES, MEN AND MORONS (Putnam). Erudition and wit combine to tell the story and point the moral in a stimulating book on the “Bright past and dim prospect of a tottering biped” by a Harvard anthropology professor, Earnest Albert Hooton. HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN (Dutton), by Lady Cynthia Asquith. A vivid and comprehensive biography of England's lovely Queen Elizabeth. The text is enhanced by numerous illustrations. MAIDCRAFT (Bobbs-Merrill), a complete manual of instructions for the smooth and efficient maintenance of the one-servant home. A textbook of equal value for mistress or maid, by Lita Price and Harriet Bonnet. AMERICA SOUTH (Lippincott), a new history of our “Simese twin” to the South, by Carleton Beals, an author whose name appended to any discussion of South American affairs carries the weight of authority. SUCCESSFUL CHRISTIAN LIVING (Harper). Inspirational, modern sermons by one of today’s great’ preachers, Harry Emerson Fosdick. Included are: “When God Lets Us Down”; “The Peril of Privilege”; “Why Worship?”; “The Dignity of Being Up-to-Date”; “There Is No Death.” ECONOMICS FOR EVERYBODY (Morrow) by Mervin Crobaugh. A readable survey bf economic systems “from the pyramids to the sit-down strike.” EXPLORING WITH BYRD (Putnam). The most adventurous and dramatic incidents, already related in former volumes, of the career of Richard E. Byrd. ROOSEVELT—AND THEN? (Harper). Stanley High discusses the possibilities of a third term for Roosevelt, and the probable trends of New Deal policies.
dh ob
i oy
. HENEVER you don’t honestly want to say ves, say no. Say it pleasantly, say it gracefully, say it like a little lady. But say it.” Such was Laura Conway's sage advice to her friend, Ann McBride. THE SILVER STRING (Farrar) by Cora Jarrett is a romance and a character study—the story of a girl's groping toward happiness. In spite of two difficult marriages, the first to a sadist and the second to a man who couldn’t readily forget his first wife, we find
'Inside the C.1.O.! ......
Calls Steel Greatest Victory, Lays
Editor’s Note: This is the ninth of Mr. Stolberg’s 12 articles on the C. I. O. Today he tells why the strike in “Little Steel” failed, and sketches the swift strides of C. I. O. unions in various key industries. Of course Mr. Stolberg’s interpretations are his own, not those of The Times.
O far 1 have dealt with the most significant new unions in the C. I. O. And I have touched only passingly on those old and established unions which launched the C. I. O. and are still its backbone. Of these the three most important are the United Mine Workers, the International Ladies Garment Workers, and the Amalgamated Clothing Workers. All three have a long and militant history of industrial or semi-industrial unionism. All three have used Section Ta of the NIRA, the Wagner Labor Act, and the C. I. O. drive, in successive waves, to entrench themselves. The U. M. W. have 600,000 out of a possible 620,000 members; the I. L. G. W. 260,000 out of a possible 290,000 and the A. C. W. some 180,000 out of a possible 200,000 workers. They all renew their contracts with the employers automatically, and their strikes are very often mere stoppages during negotiations. This does not mean that they are all sitting pretty. Coal is a highly competitive and troubled industry. Electricity and oil are cutting into its over-expanded field. The needle trades have always operated in an ultra-seasonal industry. But these three unions are permanent fixtures in their fields. os ” ” TEEL was organized by the miners. And the textile industry was organized the two great clothing unions. ®n the whole, these two new organizations reflect the stability, progressivism and nonfactionalism of their parent bodies. And though not as yet deeply rooted, and in addition undergoing a deep crisis in the business recession, they are nonetheless permanently established in their fields. Under the chairmanship of Sidney Hillman the ‘Textile Workers’ Organizing Committee has at one time or another registered some 450,000 workers. Today it has some 250,000 of that (though by no means are all of these under contract) out of a possible 1,200,000 workers. This industry is difficult to or ganize for many reasons. Is it not really controlled by the manufacturers but by the big factors, by its selling end. It is dizzily seasonal, utterly competitive and unplan+ed, and steeped in the exploitation of its labor, most of whose wages for years have been between $56 and $11 a week. The agreements signed reflect these difficulties. Hillman organized as quickly as possible, often at incredibly low standards. A $15 wage is tops. At present the industry is only one-third at work. And the depression is of course hurting the union drive. Still, the union has grown eight-fold in one year and is here to stay. 2 ” ” | § steel we get a different pic ture. On March 1, 1937, United States Steel, with a marvelous sense for dramatic publicity, vol untarily recognized the Steel Workers Organization Committee. Today the S. W. O. C. has 445 contracts, which call for a graded
40-to-48-hour week at a weekly wage increase of more than $2,000,
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~The Indianapolis
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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 19, 1938
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000. The industry is more than 75 per cent organized, though unfortunately it, too, is one of the worst hit in this recession. But in Little Steel—in Bethlehem, Republic Steel, Youngstown Sheet & Tube, and the Inland Steel Co.—the union lost the strike last summnier. In Little Steel, John Lewis and Philip Murray no doubt made several serious mistakes. For one thing, the drive was put in charge of officials of the United Mine Workers. That was almost unavoidable. For, unlike the automobile and rubber workers, the steel workers had not developed their own leadership. ” 2 ”
NFORTUNATELY these old United Mine Workers used methods which did not apply in steel. called, every man quits until the new agreement takes him back to work. In Little Steel the workers were mostly raw recruits, who became restless as the struggle sharpened. J At the same time the various organizers, in their enthusiasm over the easy victory in Big Steel, exaggerated the number of men enrolled, which misled the top leadership into acquiescing in a premature strike. Among these organizers were a number of Communists, who pressed for a premature strike in the hope of entrenching them selves in the drive. Finally, Lewis, Murray, Clint Golden and Van Bittner did not appreciate the unbelievable ruthlessness of the barons in Little Steel, the reaction or corruption or both of some public officials, and the social backwardness in many of these communities. Eighteen steel workers were killed during the strike, 10 of them shot in the back by the Chicago police. But for all this, the steel drive is so far the greatest victory in the entire history of American labor.
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HE other basic or semibasic industries in which the organizational drive has proceeded with a minimum of factionalism are rubber, oil, metal mining, aluminum and glass. The history of the rubber workers offers a striking parallel to that of the automobile workers, except that the United Rubber Workers have escaped factionalism. The rank and file in both unions is very similar—simple, militant, direct. The rubber workers, like the automobile workers, began organizing under the A. F. of L. as far back as July 1933. The A. F. of L. did nothing. But the workers were all along gathering under their own leadership. And
In coal, when a strike is .
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Imes
Second Section
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Entered as Second-Class Matter PAGE 9
at Postoffice,
by Benjamin Stolberg ‘Little Steel’ Failure to Overenthusiasm
eT
41HEd FUVWY,
The termination of the walkout of Inland Steel Corp. workers :\ Indiana Harbor. Van Bittner, S. W. 0. C. Midwest director, signs a “memorandum of understanding” as State Assistant Labor Comissioner Arthur Viat, Commissioner Thomas Hutson and
Governor Townsend look on.
as in the automobile industry so in the rubber industry, the union was established in a series of great sit-down strikes. Early in 1937 it joined the C. I. O. In March 1937 it signed a contract for 14,000 workers with the Firestone company. The contracts provided for wage increases by negotiation, for a 36-hour standard week (with 40 hours in some departments) and time-and-a-half for overtime.
President S. H. Dalrymple of the union is slow, shrewd, progressive in outlook, but cautious in tactics. And wherever factionalism rises, he nips it in the bud. Today the U. R. W. have 75,000 workers out of a possible 125,000. “8 nN N the old days the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers was known as the Western Federation of Miners, which in 1905 gave birth to the I. W. W. under the leadership of Bill Haywood. But in
1911 it rejoined the A. F. of L. , a rival Campaign conducted by
A WOMAN'S VIEW By Mrs. Walter Ferguson
O feminine trend is more noticeable than the growth of the Garden Club movement. I have many friends who are ardent workers in the organization and I also know several successful businessmen who raise dahlias or tulips or roses as a hobby.
I confess I often listen to the conversation of these friends with an open mouth, for to my notion nobody appears so learned as the one who flings botanical names about. Happily their gardens never look as formidable as they sound, because sometimes a flower with a name as horrenduous as the coreopsis, which always suggests a disease, is truly lovely and certainly deserves a sweeter title,
Gardeners, it is said, live close to reality. Their contact with the blessed soil keeps them sane, and their effort in helping the earth to blossom enriches their own lives as much as it may enhance the beauty of their surroundings. In all my talking with them 1 have not found one who expects a flower to thrive without sunshine or water or pure air, or to grow magnificently in less space than its kind has always required. As it is with plants, so it must be with humans. Babies, like buds,
should have sunshine and fresh air and good food and loving care in order for them to highest possibilities at maturity. It is wise for us to gardens as Candide did; ought not to forget that a perfect
reach their
cultivate our but we
Side Glances—By Clark
and in 1916 it purged itself of all wobbly trends. From then on until the NRA it merely vegetated in the metalmining industries. After the celebrated Ludlow massacre in 1914, when it lost the great strike at the Rockefeller mines in Colorado, its membership never exceeded 1500. But under the stimulus of the NRA it increased its membership to some 16,000 in 1936 and the C. I. O. drive has brought it up to 50,000 today out of a possible 150,000. In July 1936 it won recognition from the American Smelting and Refining Co. at Perth Amboy, N. J, but in August it lost a strike at the Suushine Silver Mine in Idaho, largest silver mine in the world. The leadership of the union under Reid Robinson is slow, honest and unexciting. And though the union has won some recent National Labor Relations Board elections, it is troubled by
the A. F. of L., which has absorbed the membership of the socalled “Blue Card” union. The latter was born during a strike, and
| | at one time was accused by the
National Labor Relations Board of being company-dominated. ” EJ ”
N oil and in aluminum the C. I. O. is handicapped by the fact that these industries are controlled by great monopolies with a rabid antilabor record. The
Oil Workers International Union, under Harvey C. Fremming, is up against the Rockefeller Standard Oil, the Deterding Shell Oil, and the Mellon Gulf Oil companies. On a national scale, it has achieved a somewhat shaky agreement with the Consolidated Oil Co. (Sinclair). But it has a'large number of local agreements in the distributing end of the industry. The union claims 65,000 workers out of a possible million, which is a step forward in this most. monopolistic of American industries. The aluminum workers, from the NRA to 1937, were organized in some 20 “federal locals” affiliated directly to the A. P. of L., which gave them little attention. In May 1937 the union struck the great Mellon plant at Alcoa, Tenn., in an effort to wipe out the differential in pay between northern and southern plants. The strike was lost, A. F. of L. officials ordering the employees back to work. The membership at Alcoa then split into three unions, one C.I. O, one A. F, of L., and one independent. The A. F. of L. and C. 1. O. are now fighting ‘it out
| |
HE Federation of Flat Glass Workers joined the C. I. O. early in 1936. It had been an industrial union in character from the outset and its president, Glen W. McCabe, had been a follower of John Lewis from the beginning of C. I. O. The Federation had enjoyed good relations with Libby-Owens-Ford in Toledo from its inception and was officially recognized and dealt with collec~ tively as early as 1935. ” on o OTH the big flat-glass manufacturers and Pittsburgh Plate were struck late in 1936, and the strikes were settled late in January, 1937, with average increases of approximately 8 cents an hour in both plants. Significant from the standpoint of C. I. O. history was that MecCabe made a close alliance with Homer Martin which he used as a leverage in prosecuting his glass strike. In many ways the glass strike was merely a battle of the automotive labor war. In spite of his success in the glass strikes McCabe was persuaded to resign early in the summer of 1937 under an agreement by which Paul Fuller, Lewis’ assistant, took over for the remainder of the McCabe term. McCabe, whose administration has been surrounded by charges of high-handedness and who has been under attack on other scores, is now trying to swing the glass workers to an A. F. of L. affiliation. Probably nothing will come . of this. The Glass Federation has been much too successful and is too powerful as a C. I. O. member ® allow of much chance of secession.
NEXT—Transport, Fur, Cannery, Radio and Others.
Heard in Congress—
Senator Reynolds (D., N. C.): I believe in being protected. I think we ought to protect our shores, and we ought to have a big standing army and a big navy and a fine air force, because when a fellow is protected he never has any trouble. I have never had any trouble with Mr. Jack Dempsey. I never expect to, but I respect that gentleman's muscular attainments. I shall never have any trouble with the junior Senator from Colorado (Mr. Johnson). He is about 6 feet 2. His shoulders are very broad, his hips are very thin, his arms, his biceps, are very muscular, The minute I saw him, I made friends with him. I am not going to have any physical encounter with him. (Laughter) I have always managed to make friends with those fellows who, I know, can beat me up physically.
Indianapolis,
Our Town
By Anton Scherrer
Firemen Felt Deeply the Loss of Their Youthful Friend, Raymond Horn, Who Was Stricken in China.
NEVER saw anything like the way
George Horn was wrapped up in his baby, boy. To be sure, there was some reason for it. For one thing, the kid was as pretty and pudgy as they come; for another, he was as precocious as they make them. You won't believe it, of course, but it's a fact that when the Horn boy was 4 years old, he handled two languages—
English and Chinese.
I can explain that, too. His father was a Chinese merchant who ran a little store on N. Delaware St., near the headquarters of the Indianapolis fire department, and it was in that bailiwick, sometime around the turn of the century, that Raymond was born. I haven't the least idea how his father ever hit on the name, For that matter, I don’t know where George Horn picked up his own name, either. Mr. Raymond's command of two languages came in mighty handy, and it was probably for that reason that he had more friends than ordinary Indianapolis boys. It was nothing for Raymond to talk to his father’s friends in their native tongue, and turn right around and greet the firemen in a language they could understand. Well, when Raymond was 4 years old, his father took him to China to the faraway village of Sun-Ning where the boy's grandmother, Ah Po, lived. Seems that Mr. Horn had kept in constant touch with his mother, telling her of her precious and precocious grandson, and the more letters they exchanged the more they settled Raymond's future. As near as I recall, Raymond was to continue his education in China under the watchful eye of his grandmother. When that was done, he was to return to America, go to college, and end up a big merchant— maybe in Indianapolis. It was all fixed, and as far as anybody could see, every detail had been attended to. There wasn't a chance of anything going wrong.
Father Returned Alone
Well, that's why Mr. Horn took his son to China. After a few months the father returned—alone, of course. The firemen looked him up right away to learn how their pet was getting along so far away {from home. “He is gone,” said his father. The simple answer satisfied the firemen, because they knew how misere able Mr. Horn was without his boy. After a week or 50, they asked him again. “He is gone. Raymond is gone.” Months passed, and then suspecting something wrong, the firemen questioned him closely. It turned out that Raymond was dead and buried in the Un
Scherrer
“Foon Mountains, two miles from Sun-Ning, the home
of his grandmother, Raymond was stricken as soon as he arrived, and all tipe doctors in the neighborhood couldn’t help him. The trip cost him every cent he had, said Mr. Horn. Raymond's father, a pathetic figure, stayed in Indianapolis long enough to earn the price of another ticket to China. Just before he left, the firemen brought him a wreath to take along.
Jane Jordan—
Unfounded Jealousy Is Symptom Of Psychic Disorder, Jane Says.
EAR JANE JORDAN—I have been married for seven years and we have two children. Our home life has been above the average, I believe, except that my wife continually accuses me of philandering. These accusations have absolutely no foundation and she carries them to the point of absurdity. If I happen to drive a different route to work, I must be picking up some woman. Any extra care in dressing for work means the same thing. Common courtesy to mutual women friends is interpreted as flirtation. My vehement denials are construed as a sign of guilt, When I become flustered and angry in my denials, that also is construed as a sign of guilt. I always have been moral, both before marriage and after. I can’t find anything in my actions that would justify her suspicions. Some explanation might be found in that she is an avid reader of those true story magazines where infidelity is found in practically all the stories. She also picks up all the gossip about such things among neighbors and relatives. Another contributing factor might be that her mother lived with us for about a year until her recent death which, we believed, was hastened considerably by the unfaithful ness of her husband, my wife's father, and led to their estrangement. Also my wife’s brother and sise ter-in-law both have been guilty of infidelity. WORRIED. ” EJ ”
Answer—Anybody who is obsessed with an idea which has no basis in fact is sick. If your wife felt compelled to wash her hands every hour in the day because she fancied they were dirty, you would take her to a psychiatrist tor treatment. Likewise, jealousy inspired by reasons which are invented out of thin air, is a symptom of a psychic disorder and should be treated as suci. I would not attempt to diagnose your wife's case in this column, for it would not be accurate. It is obvious that her family experience has caused her to fall ill, but I could not trace the development of her trouble back to the point where imagination replaced fact in her reasoning, nor could I show you how to. open the logic-tight compartments in her brain and teach her to distinguish real evidence from false. This process of re-education is a job for an expert and is a time-consuming precess. It took a long while for her to get to the point where she ace cepts imaginary situations as true and it will take a long while to train her to think normally again. It is a striking fact that children often repeat the unhappy experience of their parents. Your wife's brother has repeated his father’s experience, and your wife is doing her utmost to bring her mother’s fate down on her own head. She has done everything a woman could do to provoke you to the very behavior she abhors. Sometimes a girl who has been disappointed in men becomes too emotional over women. Uncone ciously she discards men and would rather spend her time with her women friends. So strong is her cone viction that women are the desirable sex that she cannot see how her father, brothers or husband can resist them. Her jealousy, oddly enough, is often die rected toward the women whose friendship she would like for herself alone, rather than toward the men whom she suspects of dishonorable intentions. Such a warped view is curable in the majority of cases but it requires considerable skill to make a jealous person able to recognize the hidden causes of his own malady. JANE JORDAN.
Put your problems in a letter to Jane Jordan who will answer your questions in this column daily. J
Walter O'Keefe—
OLLYWOOD, Jan. 19.—The businessmen of the nation are taking excursions to Washington to confer with the President. It's surprising to know that they've got enough money left to pay their fare. * The idea is to let them look at the books and accounts of the Government. This should be a great help to them all, because if they ever glimpse Uncle Sam’s financial plight they'll realize how much better off they are themselves. This trip will give them a chance to shake hands with the President, but the chances are they’d much
man and woman are as much a part | of our lost Eden as flawless
Ann at the end of the adroitly handled story strong iil \
Ab 3 De for rs in. other- aluminum That, Mr. President, i what I call
rather stay home and shake hands with Ww ; PA diplomacy. Laughter $ A
comme Wa pmemies pb