Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 4 February 1938 — Page 15

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From Indiana = Ernie Pyle

Ernie Is Amazed by the Talk of a 'Race Problem’ in Hawaii, but He Learns the Japanese Are Feared.

ONOLULU, Feb. 4.—You could easily fill up Pearl Harbor with what I don’t know about the “race problem” over here. But since that’s the topic of conversation about half the time, I suppose I might as well take a hack at it. : ‘Hawaii is made up of the following races: Japanese, 151,000; white, 59,000; Filipino, 53,000; Hawaiian mixture, 32,000; Portuguese, 30,000; Chinese, 27,000; pure Hawaiian, 21,000; Puerto Rican,

7000; Korean, 7000; conglomeration, 3000. The total population is 391,-

Now I have no way of knowing what each of these races thinks of the others. All I know is the white man’s opinion of them all. And here is the way the white man feels about them, with esteem in the order named: White, simply wonderful; Hawaiians, lovable but irresponsible; Hawaiian mixture, ditto, with variMr. Pyle ations; Chinese, mighty fine people; Portuguese, noisy and make scenes, Filipinos, wild; Japanese and Koreans, can’t be Amerjcanized, and Puerto Ricans, simply terrible. Many white people in Hawaii dislike and fear the Japanese. They mean the Japanese when they speak of the “race problem.” They say no man can tell what the Japanese here are thinking. They say they aren't becoming Americanized, not even the second generation. They say that in case of war these Japanese would unquestionably be loyal to the Son of Heaven. Nearly every Japanese-hater has some Japanese among his good friends. But as a general feeling, the white Americans in Hawaii consider many Japanese - here arrogant, mysterious, disloyal and an increasingly grave problem in the mid-Pacific melting pot. Now for the other side.

Gets Youth’s Opinion

A young friend of mine, about 14, says his Japanese schoolmates are just as American as he is. He says they think like Occidentals, insist on dressing as we do, and want to eat and dance and play as we de. He says he doesn’t even think of them as Orientals, As for personal experience, I've dealt with dozens of Japanese over here, and I have not seen an instance of discourtesy or insolence. During my first few days in Hawaii I was amazed

at the way everybody talked about the “race problem.” For this hodgepodge seemed to me very colorful, and the races all seemed to be living together very peacefully. And I thought to myself: “Oh, pooh to all this talk. There isn't any real problem. If three or four more generations can go by before a big war, they’ll all be completely Americanized. Why, a whole new race may be rising up out of this melting pot—a_ fine new race of White-Oriental-Polynesian mixture. And it will be a superior race.” That's what I thought when I first came. Now that T've heard all the stories and how people feel about it over here and all— That's what I still think.

My Diary By Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt

Japanese Women Are Taught Flower Arrangement, First Lady Is Told.

ASHINGTON, Thursday—Last night I went to see Ina Claire in “Once Is Enough.” Sometimes we are fortunate enough to see plays in Washington before they are given in New York City. While the first few performances of any play are not as a rule the best, still I enjoyed every minute of the show. Last night, I thought the acting was excellent and the play most entertaining. Today I lunched with Mrs. Bankhead, the wife of

the Speaker of the House. I have rarely seen a more charmingly arranged horseshoe table. The flowers were very lovely and led me to inquire of my neighbor, the Japanese Ambassadoress, whether women in Japan were not taught how to arrange flowers as part of their preparation for married life. She told me flower arrangement was part of every woman's training, but they were far more economical in Japan because they used only a few flowers at a time. She added that she always felt a little sorry for the flowers because they had to be bent in so many directions to achieve the desired shapes. I like a few flowers in a vase better than I do a great number and I like a combination of colors, for you can do much more daring things with flowers than with any other medium. One look at a field of wild flowers will show you what a variety of colors you can blend, if you do not crowd them too much.

Hopes for Early Flood Program We were all very much distressed this afternoon to hear of the accident to the Navy bombers in the Pacific war games. I suppose it is absolutely necessary to practice in order to acquire proper skill, but it seems particularly sad when men die in training. We all know that whatever we do in life is hazardous and that we cannot always walk the path of safety, but such an accident is a great shock.

The State of Illinois is evidently going to have another siege of floods, for they report that the unseasonably wvarm weather and heavy rains may release an 80-mile stretch of thick ice on the Rock River running down into the Mississippi. I shall be thankful when we are embarked on a program which comprehensively deals with the floods at the source. Of course, it is a combination program of reforestation, soil conservation and proper dams, and will take a long time to complete. SD —————

New Books Today

Public Library Presents—

EDICATED to people who don’t make nuisances D of themselves with their knowledge of claret years and the prime date for Camembert, SERVE IT FORTH, by Mary Frances Fisher (Hamilton) is a cook book in which the recipes are there “like birds in a tree—if there is a comfortable branch.” The book is a collection of essays written by one who is neither old and famous, with friends whose names sound like a page in “Who's Who,” nor young and intellectually gastronomic. The unpretentious people whom she knows talk a little and eat more, but they are really very nice people, most of them. In a pleasantly casual style, Mrs. Fisher discusses everything from the fall of Rome to a treatise on the social status of vegetables. Her final remark is that a man is not a gourmand, much less a “fin gourmant,” by merely wishing to be sO. " » 8 PPEALING particularly to those readers who, in the past year or So, have been fascinated by jes of modern doctors and surgeons, THE DIARY OF A SURGEON IN THE YEAR 1751-1752 (Appleton-Century), a day-to-day account of the six months’ London medical training of John Knyveton and his subsequent adventures as surgeon in His Majesty's Navy, will yield a wealth of material, both professional and social. This book recently has been edited and transcribed by Ernest Gray. The medical world in the day of Dr. Samuel Johnson was composed of men whose drastic measures in their crude, and often cruel attempts to alleviate human suffering appall even in the printed word. It is difficult for us to visualize the problems facing the doctor of two centuries ago when the importance of our present antiseptic measures was unknown and the ¢ sanitation unrealized. Evidences of the foundations of modern medical and surgical practice and clairvoyant glimpses into the future of the pro-

fession are to be found throughout the diary.

U. S. Keeps Accurate Record

By Willis Thornton

NEA Staff Writer VW ASHINGTON, Feb. 4. —If you are one of the 37,000,000 people who pays for and eventually hopes to receive social security benefits, you may have had moments when you have wondered whether they were really keeping all those records straight, so you could “retire” at 65. You may have wondered if they are really keeping a record of all your wage payments, and if they are, whether they can ever find it among all those 37,000,000. I wondered, too. went to find out. Well, I'm convinced. When I saw my own index record pulled out of 37,000,000 others just like

it in exactly 35 seconds, my eyes

popped out. Three minutes afterward, when an elevator had carried me to another floor of the building, the ledger record of the wages paid me last year were in my hand. It was correct, too. So I think the 37,000,000 people who have been given Social Security numbers may feel that the Government knows what it is doing. When you become eligible for the old-age insurance benefits, the record on which they will be based should be complete and accessible,

/ So I

a & = N° bookkeeping and filing job in the history of the world ever approached this one. The records of 5,000,000 World War veterans kept by the Veterans’ Bureau is child's play; even the largest life insurance companies never tackled such a task. Without the most up-to-date machinery, much of it specially designed for the purpose, it would have been quite impossible even today to keep a running record of the wages paid to 37,000,000 people over a period of years. But it is being done today. Perhaps youd like to go with me into the place that is keeping your account with the Government. Down on the Baltimore waterfront, looking out over the harbor, is a huge, blank-looking building that used to be a soft drink warehouse. The Bureau of Old-Age Insurance moved here from Washington a little more than a year ago. Space enough in a suitable pbuilding simply was not available in Washington. “8 = ODAY, on eight floors of this vast building, 4000 employees of the Social Security Board keep its records. Here are the master indexes that enable clerks to find instantly the record of any one of 37,000,000 persons. Here, in a vast room as long as a city block, are the cabinets of “flexoline” indexes which are the master key. They cover nearly an ‘acre of floor space. Here are 12 separate but similar “accounting factories,” each keeping posted the wage records of the workers of one of 12 “regions” into which the country is divided. They occupy four acres of space. Here are machines that punch, tabulate, assort, post, check, and redistribute cards with a more-than-human accuracy and speed. ” ® » ERE are micro-filming departments photographing records on 16-millimeter films which will soon compress the

contents of 600 filing cabinets into.

.10—a duplicate basic record which will be filed in the Archives Building in Washington just in case of unforseen destruction of the Baltimore building. Here is a humming bee-hive working day and night shifts to get caught up wita a tidal .wave of data which is nearing its crest.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1938

iggest Bookkeeping Job on Earth

and

@

Skeptical Willis Thornton doubted they could ever fish his Social Security record out of the 37,000,000. he is, pointing to his index records, which it took a clerk 35 seconds to

find.

Unless the law is changed to admit groups now nov included in Social Security, the top is expected to be reached soon at about 40,000,000. By next June the record is expected to be about up to date. That is, the bureau will be able to give any client at a glance his balance and status at the end of the previous quarter. Though regular old-age annuities will not be paid until 1942, some 53,000 payoffs of lump-sum settlements have already been made to those reaching 65 before the annuity date. The average payment has been $27, ranging from a few cents to $358 top. 8 8 8 MAY felt the sum due them was too small to bother to collect it. The bureau is holding it for them, just as any private jnsurance company would do. The boys who have been shooting craps for Social Security cards are out of luck. The thing just doesn't pay off that way. Logically, if one Social Security card is valuable, more than one is just that much more valuable. But crap game winners who have amassed as many as 18 such cards have really won nothing. Earnings are credited, as they are reported, to the original holder of the card, and there is nc way for anyone else who may get possession of the card later to collect on it. Many strange problems have confronted the men who handle the vast file of information accumulating in the Social Security archives. Most frequent are the requests for information which it can’t give out. s = = Wis write in and try to

check up on their husbands’

income, suspicious that they may.

have been holding out on them. Collectors write in trying to determine the earnings of people who owe fnoney. The answer to all is the same: “No sale. Sorry.” The burean is trying to conduct this vast enterprise just like an insurance business, keeping its data just as private as any private company. The only exceptions made have been in cases where a dead body has been found, bearing no identification but a Social Security number, or cases of amnesia or insanity. Such exceptions are made only by the Board itself or the executive director, where it was clear that no harm, but possible good, might come as a result,

# 8 »

HEN data is posted up to date, the board will be prepared to furnish each client a report on request as to the status of his own account. Problems of identification do

He was quickly convinced. Here

of 37 Million Social Security Cards

Entered at Postotfce,

FIP FTE

d-Class dianapo!

Aisle after aisle of indexes like this, covering almost an acre of floor space, keep straight the records of 37,000,000 Federal Social Security clients. These clerks, keeping the index up to date, are among the 4000 employees of the old-age insurance division.

OMN

EMPLOYEE

ACCOUNT NO. $7 i

EMPLOYEE NAME

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Last cook

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LICENSES FOR DOE UNDER PATERY 1.772.002

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EMPLOYEE MASTER CARD 000000000000000030808

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Little punched holes in this “master card” tell the

whole story—to the machines. As

over a copper drum, tiny wire brushes trail over the brush penetrates a hole, it

card. Whenever the

arise. Not long ago a case turned up in which surname, first and middle names, birthday, city, and even mother’s name were identical. The coincidence attracted enough attention to warrant further investigation. This showed that a younger brother had applied for a job, and fearing a handicap of age, had given the name and other data properly belonging to his older brother. If for any reason a worker wishes to change his name, either legally or informally, there is no trouble about that. ” ” » O far as the bureau is concerned, anyone may work under as many names as he wishes, just so long as he keeps the bureau in touch with the changes so that all the wage credits to which he is entitled may be credited to the single account. The job of consolidating his record is the job of the bureau and its unbelievable machines. The machines don’t miss, for they are the most amazing accounting machines ever built. Everything is based on cards, not written upon, but punched with those little holes which make the record. ss 8 8 T= original application you filled out was transferred to a master operations card. The data on the original card was punched out on the new one. This is run through another machine on which a girl repunches the data from the original card. If it does not verify at every point, the machine stops, the card is thrown out, and corrections made. Once correctly made and verified, this basic card may be run through:

the card passes

makes contact with the an electric current and ac the card is punched correctly, through the machine can produce no error.

drum beneath, completing tuating the machine. Once a million passages

A machine that thinks like 2 man. Punched cards are fed in at the left end, and the machine produces a typewritten record of wage

payments on the

entry no matter how many

the machines a million times without chance of error. The machines are simply incredible. A collating machine, for instance, receives master cards and wage cards. Ib “reads” them as fast as 240 a minute, placing together the wage cards and master cards that refer to the same person. If one man receives wages from more than one employer, this amazing machine will place with the master card all the wage

als.

successive entries computing totals on the “adding machine” figures acros

same time.

column.

ledger sheet ai the right end. The device auto-

matically turns up the sheet by electric eye to the proper line for a new are made, meanwhile s the center.

cards referring to the same individual. There are huge computing machines, six feet long, into which are fed the employer's record of total wage payments and his card records of payments to individuBoth run through at the If they balance, the machine records the fact in one 1f they do nct, it sets down the discrepancy in another column.

Side Glances—By Clark

"Color, cut out and paste—color, cut out and paste!" Where is it

_ getting me?

|

about us.

A WOMAN'S VIEW

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson FP youd like another example of 4 inches of tail wagging 96 inches of dog, consider the District of Columbia and the United States of America. In Washington the politicians swarm with their bootlickers around them, thick as flies about a molasses barrel, while the taxpayers in the working belt wait

fearfully to see which way the tail will move the next time.

Not only the Government but the powers of radio and press are concentrated in the Capital. If you believed only what you heard or read you would have good reason to think there were only three inhabited spots in the United States —Washington, New York and Hollywood. The spaces in between might be entirely barren of population, so far as any attention is paid to their opinions. ] In the Middle West, along the coasts, in the deep South, citizens toil and pump out the money that keeps the financial fountains flow ing in our political heaven, and day after day we have pumped back to us the information that Rep. So and So had a verbal tilt with Senator Blank, or that Mrs. Cabinet Member prefers spinach to broccoli, or that a Supreme Court

Justice takes a stroll in the park

on occasion. . For years we've been fully informed ‘about what the White House, the Congress, the Supreme Court, the Cabinet and their hangers-on think, do and say. I wonder if they are ever curious

Jasper—By Frank Owen

Copr. 1938 by United Poature Syndicate, Ine.

_ foot slips!”

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"Tek! Tsk! We almost get the sheet wrung out, and then your

Second Section

PAGE 15

Matter iis, Ind.

Our Town

By Anton Scherrer

Ohio Columnist From Indianapolis, A Bit Homesick, Devotes a Whole Article to Olga and Her Success.

ANYBODY old enough to remember the Johnstown flood will recall David Gibson who used to run with the Old Gang around here. Today he runs a chain of newspapers over in Ohio—what’s more a column yclept “What One Man Thinks”’—and last Saturday he dedicated his whole column to Indianapolis. That's

how homesick he was. Listen: “1 first knew ‘Olga’ in her early 20s as a fellows

patron of ‘Pop’ June's restaurant. At that time she was head trimmer and principal sales person in Bertha Samuel's Millinery Store right next door. Very tall—almost a spear-like figure—large blue eyes, corpse-like white skin, a large nose, determined mouth and chin, blacl. hair parted in the middle, brushed tight to her head and gathered in the form of a bun at the back of her neck; dressed in black gar- mr, ments with flowing lines and talked in a rich, low contralto voice. Olga used to sit at a rear table in ‘Pop’ June's restaurant, with a book propped in front of her. One day, a dog of no particular breed drifted into the place. She wiggled her little body, wagged her tail and grinned, in spite of the fact that she was very hungry and cold. She was fed to fill and for years remained a part of the good will and fixtures of the institution, George June (Pop's son) named her Trimmer. “Trimmer always sat next to Olga in a chair as she ate her meals. Between bites and her book reading, she petted and talked to the dog. “Olga had long been a voice pupil of Alexander Ernestinoff, but he wisely confined her training to her natural limitations and her ambition, which was stage entertainment, “One day the Elks gave a benefit in the largest local theater, the program made up largely of proe fessional acts, but Olga was given a place of ade vantage on the bill. Her act topped the performance, “At that time, Tom Nawn, an old trouper around the vaudeville circuits, had a series of one-act sketches and through George June's suggestion Tom made a place for Olga in his company and trained her to the improvement of her act. “Olga’s first professional solo appearance wa$ in the old Hammerstein Music Hall, New York, later cove ering the subway circuits around Manhattan Ise land, and finally as a headliner through the West, bas she did not appear in Indianapolis until five years ater,

Poodle Was Forgotten

“Her entrance in the Hoosier capital one Monday morning for a week's engagement was in the nature of a grand, triumphal solo parade. She emerged from her sleeper, sent all hand baggage to the hotel by cab, and walked up Tlinois St. clad entirely in white with a peacock feather boa about her neck. A huge ostrich feather on her hat bobbed up and down. “Olga neither looked to the right nor left. Fol. lowing her by 12 paces was a thoroughly subdued little man, her piano accompanist and secretary, carrying Koko, a large, white, snapping poodle. “Olga stopped in ‘Pop’ June’s restaurant on the way. Trimmer was asleep in a chair as Olga entered, The dog took one look and ran for the kitchen, but another look and she hesitated to the recognition of her old friend. She wiggled her little body, wagged her tail rapidly, and gave little barks and yelps of delight. “During the week of her hometown engagement Olga ate all her meals at ‘Pop” June's with Trim mer at her side while Koko remained in the baggage room of her hotel.”

Jane Jordan—

Advises Jobless 47-Year-Old Mn

Not to Stress Too Much His Age.

EAR JANE JORDAN-I often read your column and know it is not a “situation wanted” column but for months I have walked the soles off my shoes looking for work and no one will have me because I am 47 years old. I tried selling and did not make my shoe leather and my wife and two children are in dire need on my small earnings. We were ordinary, well-living people before the depression which tock away my job and little home and forced my family to live in dingy quarters, half-fed and clothed. I'd gladly work on some estate or surburban place for the rent of a little home. I would do any kind of honest work. I don’t want charity. I don’t drink and I never wronged anybody in my life, but because I am 47 years old no one will hire me, Will you please ask through your column for someone to give me a living chance? MR. GRATEFUL.

Answer—As a rule I do not publish letters in this column from people whose only purpose in writing 1s to seek employment. You recognize the fact that this is not a “situation wanted” column and I do not expect response to your letter. My purpose in answering it is to warn you against putting too much stress on your age. Forty-seven is not old. Some positions require younger men but there are others in which maturity is an advantage. A survey of the successful men in the United States would show a cheering percentage of men in or around your age in many walks of life. People usually accept us at our own estimate of ourselves. Therefore it is dangerous for you to get in the habit of thinking yourself old. It will make you apologetic when you ask for a job and that attitude is a severe handicap to a man of any age. You have had unusual conditions to meet in the industrial life of our country and deep discouragement is perhaps unavoidable. Nevertheless, it is possible to live through hardships without cutting into your self-esteem to the point where other people, particularly employers, feel that you are defeated. 1 wish I could tell you how and where to get the honest work you want, but I can’t. I can’t even tell you exactly how to maintain courage in the face of disaster. I only can point to the fact that some people who have gone through what you have hang on until they are able to lick the situation. Can you?

Scherrer

» » ® EAR JANE JORDAN—I am a girl of 18 and for the past five months I have been going with a jealous boy of 21. I am very much in love with him and he also is in love with me. He drinks a little and cannot hold a job. To tell you the truth he is not dependable. Now I have met another boy of 22 who is the opposite of the former. He loves me and I like him very much, Should I continue going with the latter or try my best to help the former? , PUZZLED.

Answer—It is not up to you to reform a boy of 21, I am not sure you could make him. dependable no matter what you did. Give the trustworthy boy a chance. He deserves it. JANE JORDAN,

Put your problems in a letter to Jane Jordan, who will answer your questions in this column &aily. ————————

Walter O'Keefe—

ALM SPRINGS, Cal, Feb. 4--One of these days the businessmen of America are going to get lonesome for 1920. At least they could tend to their own affairs nine years ago—they didn’t have to run down to Washington every 5 minutes to find out the signals for the next play. | Of course, from the standpoint of progress it is provably confusing to let them even visit the Capital, ev are liable to go sightseeihg and think that Cone gress is really the Arlington Cemetery

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