Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 4 April 1938 — Page 9

- Vagabond!

From Indiana—Ernie Pyle

A Good-Humored Guide Shows Ernie Through Boulder Dam and Answers Two Usual Questions.

OULDER CITY, Nev., April 4—If you're ever in this neck of the woods (woods, my eye, Irshould say in this neck of the .sand) and don’t come to see Boulder Dam, it would be like. getting up on Christmas morning and not looking in your sock. Even though Boulder Dam is now on all the accredited lists of tourist attractions, don’t let that faze you. It’s a sight of sights. The Interior Department’s Bureau of Reclamation (which built the dam) provides guide service—facile-tongued young men in green uniforms and 10-gal-lon hats. You park your car right on top of the dam (the highway runs across ‘it). It costs you a quarter to go through. They wait till there’s a party of about a dozen. Then you step off the sidewalk into

an elevator, and it takes you 70 i (I know, be-

Mr. Pyle | tunnel. From where you are it is two blocks out to the powerhouses, for the dam is 660 feet thick at the base. | The guide stops the party and gives a little ch. He says you must keep with the group and ot wander away. For there are 90 tunnels inside this dam, and you could easily get lost. “And we Hom start looking for you till 11 o'clock tonight,” e says. The guide then tells you to proceed down he tunnel. | You come out into the right-hand powerhouse. There are four immense generators in here, each bigger than'a two-story building, and a fifth is being assembled. Their whirring makes so much noise e guide has to talk through a loud speaker. | After that you walk throughtanother brightly tiled tunnel going crossways of the dam. When youre in the center, the guide stops the party and says: This is the line between Nevada and Arizona. You people are in Neyada. You people are in Arizona. There is another powerhouse on the Arizona side, where we're going. The only difference between the two sides is that it takes you longer to get a divorce over here than over there.” The guide is full of information and trick comparisons - (the lake behind the dam would furnish water for everybody in the world for 26 years, he lsays). : : Candy Stand Inside Dam Way down inside this vast dam are offices, and 'futuristic-looking rest rooms, and a candy stand for workmen. It’s really just like an office building. The tour lasts about half an hour. Then, just for variety’s sake, you go back up in a different elevator. It takes you five seconds longer to go up than it did to come down. (I timed it both ways; nobody puts anything over on me.) : On the way up, somebody asked how many men were killed building the dam. That's the No. 1 question. The guide said: “There were actually 89 men killed on the dam. But more than 100 were killed on the highway between Boulder City and Las Vegas (24 miles) in auto accidents.” Up top once more, we went to one of the little balconies extending out from the sidewalk, where you can peek over and look right down the slanting face of the dam for nearly 1000 feet. If you fell over, youd be burned up from friction long before you smashed up at the bottom. It really gave me a sick feeling, looking down there, and .I had to step back.guickly before things went black. My last question was: “Has anybody jumped off yet?” : . The guide said “No.” And then he said, “I wish "somebody would, so I could say yes instead of no for a change.” So apparently that’s the No. 2 Boulder Dam question. :

My Diary By Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt

Warm Springs Patients Entertain President With Own Mystery Play.

ASHINGTON, Sunday.—During the President’s stay in Warm Springs, he has one meal with all

. the patients. All other guests in the hotel have their;

meals early on fhat day and then the dining room filled with patients in wheel-chairs or on movable cots. Those who are able to get about on crutches or with the aid of braces, usually push some other less active patient. This time it was a luncheon and the chef outdid himself in preparing delicious cold dishes with hot rolls and hot coffee. The children, of course, had their glasses of milk and I marvelled at the dexterity with which those youngsters handled their plates of food and their glasses of milk, despite handicaps of all varieties. One of Major Bowes troupes happened to be in this vicinity and came by to entertain the patients. The children gave a‘'play. Several of them were in wheel chairs. They had written it themselves and it was a lurid mystery play. ‘Then everyone filed by the President, giving their names and the state or country from which they had come. The President shook them by the hand and wished them well.

After it was over, I noticed a young man, cleareyed and in apparently good physical. condition, sitting in his wheel-chair quite near us. I asked him where he came from and he answered: “New York.’ His home was in New York City, but he was taking his master’s degree in forestry at the University of Syracuse when he was taken ill. He was working his way through and doing personnel work with the freshman class.

Teaches in High Schodl

Since he has been in Warm Springs he has earned his way by teaching in high school and in one of the grades. He is-just being allowed to use crutches and I have a feeling that after he has accomplished his two full time jobs here, getting well and teaching school, handicapped or not, he will be of real;value to an employer. | Yesterday was cold and clear. Elliott, who arrived late Friday afternoon because of stormy weather, left _yesterddy noon by air and expected |to be with Ruth in New Orleans by early afternoon. | |

i

After lunch was over yesterday, I thought |there was nothing to do before going to the train, but my: husband blandly remarked: “I think we will call on Miss Pardee.” | : It seems strange to go to Mr. George Foster Peabody’s house and not find Mr. Peabody there. He was such a personality that he still pervades the house. It was pleasant to talk of him for a few minutes with . Miss Pardee. : ] - Then we paid g call on the President’s cousin, Mrs. Forbes Amory. At 4 o'clock we were on the and waved goodby to Warm Springs and the men of the party waved goodby to a real holiday. shed

$ ! x

Bob Burns Says— | i - FOLLYWOOD, April 4—Of course, bein’ a new ; Poppa, it was only natural for me to enthuse the other day about the wonders of nature. I was showing Grandpa Snazzy my new baby and I says “Just look at those little nails, those purty eyes, that cute little round head and little nose . . . all perfect.” I says “You can’t beat the wonders of nature.” | * Grandpa says “Well Nature’s purty wonderful all right, but man does some purty good work, too.” Fe says “The thing that’s got me puzzled is that thermos bottle, where you put in hot water and it stays hot and then you put in cold water and it stays cold.”

* I says “Well, what's so puzzling about £2”

Grandpa says “Well, what I want to know is, how does

hen to do

Then

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napolis Times

Second Section

F. D. R's Own Story of the

(Contained in an authorized advance publication of his notes and com-

~ MONDAY, APRIL 4, 1938

ments to “The Public Papers and Addresses Article No. I1-

On TVA and Regional Planning

(The President’s recommendation for dividing the nation into

seven great regions for planning the development of nat

1 re-

sources, submitted to Congress early in 1937, did not come into being

overnight.

Behind it lay several years of study, and the p

tical

experience of the famous Tennessee Valley Authority in the South-

east.

The following selection of the President’s own notes, written in

1937 and never before published, tells the story of TVA from its

beginning as an idea to its fruition as a vast public project,

d of

the creation of a national planning authority to investigate the possibilities of similar use of national resources of land and water else-

A here in the United States.) ; # # =

8 =

2 | S Governor of New York I had sponsored and brought about a state-wide planning movement to be based on a study of the proper use of the 30,000,000 acres of land in the State, in which each 10-acre square would be

separately studied and classified. Up to that time although

many cities, weary of “growing up like Topsy,” had begun to plan their future growth and development, little on a very large scale had been done for country areas.

Before coming to Washington, I had determined to

initiate a land-use experi-

ment embracing many states in the watershed of the Tennessee River. It was regional planning on a scale never before attempt-

ed in history. In January. 1933, Muscle Shoals with a group of officials and experts, and thereafter planned for the development of the entire Tennessee Valley by means of a public authority similar to public authorities created in New York while I was Governor, “e. g., the New York State Power Authority. This plan, for using the land and waters of these 41 thousand square miles, fitted in well with the project which had been urged for many years by Senator George W. Norris, for developing power and manufacturing fertilizer at the Wilson Dam properties which the United States had erected during the World War. We proposed to enlarge the project from the

Muscle Shoals development which’ |

was but a small part of the potential development, to include a

EHFA a 'Yardstick' For Credit Terms

A Comment of President Roosevelt From His Forthcoming Books.

(Editor's Note—The Electric Home and Farm Authority (EHFA). wa§ originally set up for the Ten-, nessee Valley, to enable people there to buy electric appliances on easy terms and use them with the TVA’s cheaper electricity. When it proved successful locally, it was extended .in 1935 to all parts of the United States. An interesting comment on this from the books by the President follows.)

It has been able to show all sections of the nation the possibilities of a cheaper method of distributing electrical appliances and elec= tric power through cooperation between Government and private enter‘prise. By June 30, 1937, the Authority had purchased about. 35,000 installment contracts with a total face value of over five million dollars, and was operating at a net profit -on its original capital without further appropriation. The “yardstick” of the credit terms of the Authority . has been an undeniable factor in a general revision of . installment credit terms all over the country in favor of the ultimate purchaser.

Copyright - 1938; copyright under International Copyright Tinion; all rights: reserved undef InterAmerican Copyright Union (1910) by Franklin D. Roosevelt; distributed by United Feature Syndicate. Inc.

I visited.

multitude of activities .and ‘physical developments.

(Editor’s Note — The President’s message of April 10, 1933, urged Congress to create “a corporation clothed with the power of Government but possessed of the flexibility and: initiative of a private enterprise” to put the Tennessee River to work. The Tennessee Valley Authority was created on May 18, 1933.) : !

TVA Begins |

The program began i the issuance of my Executive Order of June 8, 1933, starting the construction of the Cove Creek Dam (Norris Dam) on the Clinch River, the first of a system of publicly owned dams on the principal tributaries and on the Tennessee itself. Unified operation of ‘these storage and main-river dams is leveling off the seasonal fluctuations of the river, thereby reducing destructive floods and maintaining a channel suitable for nine-foot navigation from Knoxville, Tenn., to Paducah, Ky. At the same time a valuable by-product in the form of hydroelectric power is being produced. : This Tennessee Valley project was the beginning of the |fulfillment of the pledge of the Democratic National Platformi of 1932, calling for the “conservation, development, and use of the nation’s water power in the, public interest. . . .”

Flood Control |

of, Franklin D. Roosevelt”)

Senator Norris of “Father of the TVA,” ins

Norris. Dam. was completed and. placed in operation March 4, 1936. Wheeler Dam, on the Ten- °

nessee River, was completed and placed in operation in November, 1936. | In the case of Wheeler Dam, I found on- taking office that the Army engineers had already pres pared plans and were about to ask for bids for its construction, but that these plans contemplated no production of electricity. One of my first acts was to stop construction: and a little later the revised plans under the TVA made provision, at a very little extra cost, for very valuable production of electric current. | The Authority now has under construction three more high navigation dams on the Tennessee—Pickwick Landing, Guntersvile and Chickamauga—and one more storage project, wassee Dam on the Hiwassee River. The Norris project twice had occasion to serve in a flood-con-trol capacity, first during March, 1936. Then, from December, 1936, to February, 1937, severe rainfall occurred in the Tennessee Valley contemporaneous with the storms that caused the 1937 Ohio River flood disaster. The benefit of regulation afforded by Norris Dam was experienced again and again at Chattanooga, where on four occasions the augmented flow of the Tennessee would have risen above flood stage. Control of water means also conservation and, preservation of land resources. The Authority is making peace-time use of Nitrate Plant No. 2 electric furnaces in the production of phosphatic fertilizers.

The Tennessee

Erosion control and reforestation on steeper land in the Tennessee watershed are also being carried forward.

Power Production

Basic in the readjustment of farm life to bring about natural -storage of water on the land is

~ the wider use of electric energy.

\

The Congress, in adopting the TVA Act of 1933, laid down a definite policy to govern the Authority in disposing of this surplus power. To secure the widest use of this surplus power, especially in homes and on farms, Congress provided that in the sale of electricity, public agencies, states, counties, municipalities, and co-operative organizations were to be; given priority. 2 The Authority’s right to sell surplus power from Wilson Dam was upheld by the United States Supreme Court on Feb. 17, 1936. The Tennessee Valley Authority has adopted a definite policy of collaboration and co-operation with the various state and local governments. The Authority has been guided by a desire to avoid creating a feeling of dependence upon the Federal Government by the local community. (Editor's Note—Activities carried on by TVA in co-operation with local authorities cover a wide range, including health,

praska, sometimes called the inspects his famous namesake, Norris Dam, on the Clinch River in Tennessee. This

Valley Authority’s right to sell surplus electric power from Wilson Dam was upheld : by the Supreme Court Feb. 17, 1936. This recent

education, the development ®f recreational parks, and experiment on new types of equipment and processes for the electrified

farm. Among the latter are a

“walk-in” cooler for community refrigerating, new methods of freezing berries or preparing flax and cottonseed for the market, and even the development of a high-grade china from local deposits of kaolin.)

National Planning

The activities and accomplish-

ments of TVA indicate the immediate and permanent benefits which may come from the proper use of ‘land and - water based upon intelligent large-scale planning. : The Tennessee Valley can serve as an example and an incentive for similar development in other regions. It will be a laboratory for the nation to learn how to make the most out of its vast resources for the lasting benefit or the average man and woman.

It is not only necessary that a:

plan be formulated for the conservation and development : of natural and human resources; it is necessary also that there be a continuous planning agency—one which is always functioning— with facilities to consider new inventions and new - discoveries

Side Glances—By Clark

. 0.)

Jasper—By Frank Owen

Cope. 1938 by United Posters Syndieate, Ina. (4-14

a

i "Jasper sd s ‘Look—one on andl’ "os

Entered as Second-Class Matter at Postoffice, Indianapolis, Ind.

ew Deal

p LI:

‘was the first of the Tennessee Valley Authority projects. Senator Norris, indicated by arrow, is shown at the dam when it was about two-thirds completed.

picture shows installation of a power line in a , rural home after a co-operative organization had been formed to buy electricity.

and new changes and new conditions. The National Resources Committee is the agency we set up in June, 1935, for the work of continuous planning.

Its function is to conduct in-

vestigations and surveys, make reports and lay plans before the responsible officials in state, city and Federal Governments. The decisions with respect to these plans and the execution of the plans are left to the officials themselves.

The work of the Committee

has been of two major types; first, to assist and stimulate local and state planning boards to develop plans and: policies within their own jurisdictions; and sec- - ond, to develop plans in a strict= ly advisory capacity for Federal agencies and to act as a cor-

relating and co-ordinating plan-.

ning agency for them. The Committee has been cooperating in (1) urban planning, (2) county planning, (3) district planning and (4) state and regional planning. ” Real progress has been made on such problems as flood control, reclamation, power development, etc.,, in the Pacific Northwest, New England, the St.. Louis Region, the Ohio Valley, the Upper. Rio Grande Valley; and extensive reports and recommendations have been made. > In performing its other main function—national planning—the Committee has collected and is collecting into one place all the facts upon which planning can be based—facts about stream flow and flood control, about soils, about rainfall, forests, wild life, recreation needs, transportation and mineral resources. ; On the basis of such information a major activity of the Committee has been the advance planning of public works, and the formulation of a public works policy ‘designed to fit cycles of business depressions and booms. The experience of PWA in 1933 showed the effects of lack of planning, lack of engineering data and programs when public works

are adopted as a means of pro-

viding employment. The Committee has called attention to. the fact that “we live in a rapidly changing world where plans must be constantly revised, reworked and reoriented. We can set up social objectives but we must not cling to outmoded methods of procedure.” In other words, it has pointed out the impossibility of. a blueprint as a national plan. Planning is essential for the benefit of human beings. Accordingly, the question of population problems has also been considered —problems of numbers, health, _education—in brief the whole subject of human resources, in much ‘the same fashion as its reports have discussed natural resources.

Co t 1938; co t under Interna. tional Copyright nion; all Tights reDalen (1910) by Frankin Db. Nossovalts distribuigd by United Featurs Syndicate,

NEXT — Saving Homes and

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reason.

PAGE 9

Our Town

By Anton Scherrer

Your Columnist Is Tickled No End When He Hears the Weather Bureau Is Going to Come Down to Earth,

T tickles this department to be able to report that the Weather Bureau people are going to move. They are going to leave their high perch on top of the 15th story Consoli-. dated Building and settle in the fifth floor of the new addition to the Federal Building. This is a move in the right direction, if you ask me. The sooner meteorologists make up their minds to observe the weather from the point of view of the

man in the street, the better it will be for everybody concerned. If 1 had my way I'd make them work on the ground floor. What's more, I wouldn’t even give them a room to work in. I'd ake them work outdoors—if possible in the rain, without an umbrella—and see how it feels. The trouble with weather reports is that they are written by men who don’t get around much. It works put, of course, that the men responsible for our thermometer readings have no idea what the man in the street has to put up with. I don’t know whether you know it or not, but this is the first time in the history of Indianapolis that the Weather Bureau has made a move in the right direction. The Bureau started Feb. 4, 1871, in the Blackford Building which was where the Merchants Bank now does business. Sergt. C. F. R. Wappenhans was put in charge, and when he had everything fixed up to suit him, the official thermometer of Indianapolis was placed at exactly 47 feet above the street level. In 1881, however, the thermometer started going up. That's when Mr. Wappenhans moved to the building where the Kresge Building now stands. In its new location the thermometer was placed at 52 feet above the street level. Four years later, Mr. Wappenhans moved again—strangely enough, too,

Mr. Scherrer

without leaving the building. I guess he must have.

moved nearer the roof. because in the moving the thermometer went up 23 feet. If you've kept up with me thus far, youll know that Mr. Wappenhans now had his thermometer hanging at 75 feet above the sidewalk. ;

Temperature Goes to 154 (Feet)

It hung that way until 1896 when the Weather Bureau moved to the Majestic Building. I don’t know what' got into Mr. Wappenhans at this time, but without telling anybody he hung his thermometer at 154 feet above the sidewalk. It stayed this way until 1915 when the Bureau moved to the Consoli=dated Building with John H. Armington in charge. Mr. Armington went Mr. Wappenhans 40 feet better and hung his thermometer at 194 feet above the sidewalk. : : ; You'll be surprised to hear about the next move. If IT have my figures right (and I have) the official thermometer of Indianapolis is going to drop more than 100 feet, and get that much nearer the sidewalk. Anyway, when I called up McGuire & Shook, the architects of the Federal Building, they told me that the first floor over there is 73 feet 1% inches above the sidewalk. The pent house is about 30 feet higher. The new thermometer is going to be hung somewhere between those two points. Just where, nobody knows, because you never know what the Weather Bureau people are going to do.

Jane Jordan Man Who Can't Renounce Gambling

Poorly Equipped to Be a Husband.

EAR JANE JORDAN—I am a young girl of 22 but my life is full of problems. When I was a child in school I was not very smart. This made me rather backward. I fear to make important decisions. I am engaged to marry a man who has but one bad fault. It is gambling. Otherwise he is very nice.

My family refuses to give me any advice on this mat-

I am in love with this boy but I am afraid of what will happen in later life. Is there some way to correct this fault? JH. B. PF.

Answer—I am afraid I don’t-feel any more com= petent to advise you than your parents. I haven't enough information to form any conclusions. Some men gamble with a small part of their income but never cut into the basic needs of life. Others gamble away their very bread and butter and will beg, borrow or steal money from others to lose in gambling. : When a man who can’t afford to risk his meager funds in a game of chance does so without reason or judgment, we must consider his action as a symptom of something wrong in his personality. His behavior is that of a child who expects fortune to come to him through some fo of magic. : His senseless optimism about winning hasn't a leg . to stand on in reality. He regards himself as a char= acter in a fairy tale, such as Aladdin who had only to rub a lamp to have his wishes realized. These fairy tales spring from the deep, unconscious wishes of the populace to live carefree and irresponsible lives, removed from distress and conflict, lives in which they always are rescued from the hate and malice of others by fairy godmothers, angels or slaves: But life is not like that, and he who cannot renounce the hope that it is, is poorly equipped for adult experience. ' Unless your young man is willing tc face the deficiencies in his nature which impel him to lean on luck instead of labor. you are right in fearing the future as his wife.

ter.

” H s

EAR JANE JORDAN-—I am a girl of 16 and a -

senior in high school. I do not have many dates and the ones I do have are fixed up. I am nice looking, have nice clothes and a nice home, but I never -am asked for a date by the same fellow again. TI like to go out and| have fun, but I do not like to spoon. Could this be my fault? I can think of no other POOR ME.

Answer—There are plenty of popular girls who do not spoon; so that can’t be your trouble. Some girls

are very skillful in the way they avoid this problem.

They never make a boy feel undesirable because of their refusal. On the contrary they make him feel like temptation incarnate from which they must flee for their lives. It is hard to say exactly how they contrive to be so provocative that they keep a boy hot in pursuit. I can give you no infallible instructions. Usually a girl who fails to interest boys is not actually interested in others—only herself. Try to tear your thoughts loose from the moorings of self and think of the boy you are with. If you have real curiosity as to what he is like, what he thinks and believes, what he enjoys doing most, you can draw him out on these subjects, and after he has talked about his own sweet self for a season, lo, he will think you the most charming of creatures. = JANE JORDAN. |

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

Walter O'Keefe—

OLLYWOOD Cal., April 4—The way Congress is a: acting it begins to look as if “it can’t happen ere.” 2 Those 100,000 telegrams mean at least a million words, and about 500,000 of them were the word

“stop.” With the messenger boys streaming up Gapi-

tol Hill the natives say they haven't see so ny

| uniforms since the doughboys were demanding the

bonus. | Reading all those telegrams may have an effect on the speeches of Congressmen. It may teach them to say things in 10 words, od :

Either the taxpayers are plenty sore

FR Ae LE Huh > who