Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 9 May 1938 — Page 9

Vagabon From Indiana = Ernie Pyle

A Vicious Practice, This Idea of Stuffing a ‘Column With Excerpts From Letters. See for Yourself!

ENVER, May 9.—In reading other columnists, T notice they occasionally open up the mailbag and fill the column with ‘excerpts from letters written to them by fans, friends, enemies, critics and admirers.

This practice is, of ‘course, an accepted one. But there is one trouble ‘with it. Almost nobody reads the column that day. The reason being that people like to read letters ‘written to them, not letters written to somebody else. A secondhand. letter in a newspaper column is as dull as dishwater to the average reader, Take an example, Thisisout ofa letter my cousin Bob Bales wrote me from college in Illinois: “Two of my classes are a mile and a quarter apart. Anybody knows you can’t walk a mile and a quarter in 10 minutes, but ‘what can you do but try? I have walked as many as 125 blocks in a day.” See, that isn't interesting. Mr. Or take this one from the tax assessor of the District of Columbia: “You are requested to execute the inclosed blank and return it to this office ‘within ten (10) days <0 that it will hot be necessary to take more drastic action.” That isn't interesting, it's merely frightening. Some of mv most exciting letters come from my Aunt Marv in Indiana. She is nearly 73 now, but her mind goes so fast her pen can't keep up, .so she just leaves out the valleys of her thoughts, and writes dowh the peaks. Such as “Went club Wednesday. Strawberries and cream. Made talk Safe Driving. Everybody liked. Jennie Hooker came home with. Fine visit.” That is very fine in the bbddy of ‘a letter, but my Aunt Mary even carries it into the addresses on the envelopes. A couple of months ago she skipped completely over the city, and sent me a letter addressed simply “California.” 1 got it, too, what do you think of that?

Who Wants a Reunion?

And this from John B. Pyle of Hamilton, O:: “We may be related. Who knows? I would like to plan a national reunion of all the people named Pyle.” Are you readers interested in a national reunion of the Pyle tribe? I'm not. Frown Walter Lange of Pittsburgh: “We stayed all night at Death Valley Scotty's castle in 1930. There were five of us and it took three rooms. Next morning when ‘we inquired about the bill—well, there just wash’t any. No charge, and come again. ‘Quite different from vour experience.” Yes, quite different. If five of you stayed all night there now, the bill would be $200. And here is one from Santa Monica, Cal, ‘which savs: “I have never had anything nicer written about me ih ‘my life. It must have been my lucky day. Please accept my deepest gratitude and many modest blushes.” It is sighed “Norma Shearer.” Anybody sver hear of her? Now ‘vou see. Tt all goes to prove that writers make a great mistake when they use letters to fill up a daily column. It is a practice to which 1 expect never to

stoop.

Pyle

My Diary By Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt

First Lady Mears Friends’ Plans To Open Restaurant oh New Road.

YDE PARK, N. Y., ‘Sunday. —Friday morning 1 | tried to decide how many shrubs around my cottage had died during the winter, admired the little sprigs of lilies of the ‘valley and the pansy plants which are coming up. and rebelled at the thought of having to start off for Syracuse in the middle of the day There ‘were two members of the Delano family and Mis. Johnston Redmond from Tivoli, on the train, so the journey started off ‘very pleasantly. Mrs. Redmond told me that she and Mrs, Howland Davis have put an old stone house in order on the newly opened road between Redhook and Hudson. They are going to run a lunch and tea room there and will exhibit and sell antiques and Dutchess ‘County products. This is another outlet for those in the county who make things for sale. ladies do ‘will be ‘well done, so ‘people ‘will find good food awaiting them if they stop on their way to Albany or the ‘western part of the state. In Syracuse, our friend, Nr. Leo ‘Casey, was waiting for me. We motored to his house ‘where 1 dined and got ready for the lecture T delivered for the Harriet May Mills Memorial in the art museum. At the close of the lecture, I had an opportunity to 100k at a most interesting exhibit of international posters and a few of the ceramics for ‘which this museum is famous.

Wax Miniatures oh Exhibition

Miss Mundy's ‘wax miniatures are also on exhibition ahd they are a very beautiful medium for this kind ‘of work I know of no one else who does these wax portraits quite so exquisitely. Back oh the train at 10 o'clock and “Saturday morning found me getting off at Poughkeepsie at 4 o'clock. I ‘expected tb be driven home quietly and silently and ‘anticipated creeping into the house and having at least three hours sleep. Instead, my entire household met me. Such devotion is almost ineradible. but I had some difficulty concealing the fact that it was hot entirely ‘welcome Instead of Sleep, we breakfastdd before 6 ‘o'clock and I was urced to ridge shortly thereafter. The rest of the dav, IT am glad to say, was peaceful with plenty of time to deal ‘with a tremendous accumulation oi mail.

New Books Today Public Libra Presents—

“HE life of Br Yor Mordaunt has been varied. An amusing childhood and happy girlhood were followdd Hy marriage to a sugar planter on the Island of Mauritius, That lasted two and a half unhappy vears: then she started on restless journevings to far places. First, she ‘went on a sailing ship to Australia, where she spent six vears, supporting herself and her small son by designing stained glass windows, among pther things! Then it was back in England to write, around the world for The Daily News of Liondbn, to Southern France, North Africa, Bast Africa, America, the West Indies, the Fast Indies, the South Sea Tslands, and on and on. Always she struggled against poverty and ill health, t0 that we ate filled with admiration of her fortitude, and are surprised that she could keep up such lively interast in people and places. People everywhere were attracted to her, and she made lasting friendships wherever she ‘went, To cap it all, the cannibals of the Trobriand Islands called her “Lady King” ih their language—the hame she has giveh her book, SINABADA (Greystone Press). » » » HEN Princess Sophia of Anhalt-Zerbia was # little girl, she wondered if she ‘were doomed to the bleak spinsterhood of impoverished minor rovalty. It was scarcely probable that any of Furope's few eligible suitors would be attracted to the daughter of ‘ah obscure Prussian prince. Her parents could not forgive her for being a girl; her childhood was a bare and forlorn existence, regulated by harsh discipline. But when she ‘was 15, ih 1844, Empress Elizabeth of Russian summoned her to the imperial court. A vear later she became ‘Grand Duchess ‘Catherina, bride of the Emprass’ abnormal and repellent heir Pater, Martha Fdith von Almedingenh, the descendant » Russian court attendants, ‘writes sympathetically of YOUNG CATHERINE (Stokes), whom history knows as the ruthless libertine ‘Catherine the &reat, and whose ‘early instincts of compassion and generosity were corrupted by her vears of enforded submission to the depravities and sinister intrigues of ‘court life. w»

I am sure evervthing these two |

Second Section

Prtered as Becond-Class Matter dianapolls, ha.

nt Postoffice,

PAGE 9

Hoover's Agents Leored

They Had to Develop Own Technique in Staging Raids

(First of a Series)

By Sutherland Denlinger

Times Special Writer

ASHINGTON, May 9.—The director's offices are on the fifth floor, far above the rattle of rifle ‘and machine gun fire ih the basement target range, where his agents prepare themselves against a hot ‘unlikely day. If you are waiting to see him you pass the time ih ah anterobin, Yooking at the exhibits ih the glass cases and at the bronze ‘plague oh the wall that lists those ‘operatives of the Federal Bureau of Investigation who have been killed

“in line of duty.”

By ‘the time you have exhausted these curiosities and are seanhing ranked ‘enlargements of newspaper cartoons

about law ‘enforcement, neatly ‘racked in swinging frames, a voung aid (Mr. Hoover's aids are all young or almost young) emerges from a connecting office. “The director will see ‘you now,” he savs. and vou follow ‘a Negrd attendant down a long corridor, carpeted ih turkey red. to where a door swings inward before you.

The 'G-Man’s exploits in ‘violent action have been ‘well publicized; less ‘extensively his more important function as a ‘missionary Jeaven in the loaf of local law enforcement—and as ah exponent of scientific crime detection.

Sutherland Denlinger, Times special ‘writer, visited the ‘G-Men in their Washington fair, talked with ¥B1 Director J. Edgar Hoover, inspected the various departments ‘of the bureau. The result is a Jayman's-eye-view of ‘the greatest ‘anticrime laboratory in the world.

This ihner room, this heart of the bureau, is almost theatrically impressive. It is a long room and a wide room and it, like the ¢corridor, is ‘carpeted in ‘red. At the far end, a longish ‘walk from where ‘you are standing, is a great desk. ‘On either side of this desk stand large American flags, and on the back ‘wall above it is the seal of the Department of Justice ‘with “Federal Bureau of Investigation” ‘lettered along its periphery. » o » J EDGAR HOOVER is a short, w/ bulky man with dark eyes in a full, dark face, black eyebrows and black hair. His dress is neat and businesslike; he talks briskly, swiftly, fluently, You begin with a question about tive abbreviated tours that show the general public something of the bureau's methods and the results of those meth-

ods (as many as 1500 have visited the big ‘white building on PennSylvania Ave. in a single day) and he answers you: “I think that it is a good thing to let people know what ‘we are qaoing. . . “If ‘people can see what we are doing they will not have so many misconceptions,” he says. “Such as that ‘Wwe deal almost exclusively in crimes of violence. As you know, we handle a wide variety of cases, bank frauds and so forth. “Of ‘course, the criminals can come ih and see what we are doing, too, but if they have observed our methods it hasn't done any harm.” The director explains, and you share his amusement, that there is a ‘certain amount of petty pilfering going ‘on every day in the Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation. ‘We miss,” he said, “ash trays and match boxes and cards and little ‘things like that as a result of the tours. People take them as souvenirs.” » » HE director talked of the course of training given to net agents and to members of the National Police Academy, an ace tivity ‘of the buteau. ‘Classes are made up of 30 special agents in embryo and 30 peace officers from various ‘parts of the country, and even from abroad.

“These peace officers,’ “live ‘with our men for months, camp with them, work with them, and as a result they become our friends, just as you become friends with a man after, sav, a long fishing trip together.” Mr. Hoover explained that the training ‘covers fields in ‘which, prior to development by the bureau, no technique existed. Take the course in raiding which is given at the bureaus field training station at ‘Quantico. “Tn 1933,” Mr. Hoover said, “our activities were expanded to include

he said, three

Side Glances=By Cla rk

"| don't care how long it's besh ih the attic—| read where Victoriah sofas are very smart.”

| |

Jasper

J. Bdgar Hoover, director of the Federal Bureau of

movements of his agents in all parts of the country are recorded.

war oh crime.

bank ‘robberies and kidnaping cases and we were permitted to carry arms. We had for the first time, under this new arrangement, to do raiding “1 sent. men to the hig city police departments to learn the technique of raiding, and they came back saying ‘there is no such thing.’ Tt appeared that the police would just go up and ring the door bell and say ‘come on out.’ Or, if ‘it Were ‘In ‘a rural “area, they would just get out of the car and approach the house. “Sometimes the people for whom they were looking came out, and sometimes they didn't. Sometimes somebody would get killed. ” » ”

Tw tragic, looking back on it. We had to develop our own technique, ‘Of course, even in our earlier raids our technique was better than that of the police, but ooking back on it now it seems very faulty “Today our students work out raiding problems just as the army, on maneuvers, works out combat problems.” Mr. Hoover said that the present class—the seventh—includes a Mounty from ‘Canada, and that s00h, by an exchange with New Scotland Yard, an English peace officer will be taking the course In selecting the officers permitted to ‘enroll (200 have been graduated and there is a long waiting list) the bureau tries to get a wide variety of backgrounds. The difector’s goal is to link the bureau to local law ‘enforcement agencies all over the country by bonds of mutual understanding. And he is opposed to the idea of a national police department. “For ‘one thing, because of the popular opposition to it; it just doesh’'t fit th ‘with American thinking. For another, because such an organization might easily becomes a political tool.” n n n

’ HEN again,” he continued, “1 am ‘opposed to such a plan because 1 think the local police might Be inclined to sit back and say ‘let Uncle Sam do it “We're good,” he admitted, “but we know that we must get better all the time. It is a bad idea to imagine that vou have a monopoly on _hrains.” Mr. Hdover has prejudices, and he is frank about them. He is opposed to wire-tapping and to the third degree; to dragnets and all

mass “drives” on ‘eriminals; to the practice of “hanging” crimes on a suspect, and to drinking on the job. ” 4 » BAUGHMAN the

i APT had been

A firing tommy guh in short bursts—“crack-crack, crackcrack.” The tommy gun's peremptory bark was muffled by the sound-proofing of the big subterranean target range where GMen learn how to ‘shoot and where those stationed in Washington keep in practice The Captain pressed a button, and the electric carrier moved the target forward for observation. The target was the black =ilhouette of a man oh a large paper sheet. There were numbers in white ‘on various portions of the paper desperado’s person, a number over his black heart, and a whole covey of numerals below his midriff. Most of the Captain's short bursts had gone into the midriff of Public Enemy No, X; none was off the target. The Captain sent Mr. X swaying along back into position again and once more raised his tommy to firing position, this time shoving the control forward to full automatic: “Of “course,” he ‘said, significantly—"if you really get mad at your man 1" The tommy roared into action at the rate of 600 rounds to the minute, rapped the swift rhythm of a deadly tap dance. Capt. Baughman is the ballistics expert for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and in charge of its firearms fraihing. He is also in charge of the bureau's varied argsenal and of the modern, armorplated target range beneath the big building. J » ”

Tors he said, holding up a riffe which gleamed dully beneath the electric lights in the anterocm to the target range, ‘is an auto=loading Winchester Tt takes a clip of ‘eight cartridges and is effective at 100 vards, although it will shoot up to 200.” “We nse two types of shotguns, he said, “a repeater pump gun and an automatic loader. Both are buckshot loaded with number 0.12 pellets.” He paused meditatively before continuing “We've found it to be a verv effective weapon,” he waid “It has plenty of penetration at 40 vards At BO vards one of those skinny birds can be right ih the middle

”

_ (opr. 1998 By Tita Feature

f Ih my VV

"| phoned hith we've got a hew baby, but he hung

By Frank Owen

up before |

could say 'foundling!"

Acme Photo

Trivestigation, at the ‘map in his office oh which It ‘is ‘the battle map of the nation’s

of the pattern and not be struck. But at 40, you ¢an count on it.” Next came a gas riot gun, one and a half bore, to throw a gas shell through a window or a door. The gas riot gun looked like #a small mortar. Its maximum range, said ‘Capt. Baughman, was “about 450 ‘vards, but it is effective, through a window, at about 75.” n ” n TEXT the Captain produced a parachute star shell which looked something like a war-time Very light but which was, he said, vastly more efficient, “You ah read a newspaper hy it.” he remarked, laving it to one side and taking from ifs case a weapon made familiar to everyone by ‘countless gangster movies. “The Tommy Thompson gun,” he elucidated, unnecessarily. “You cah use it from the hip, without the stock, but it is more effective when sea with the stock, It can be used as a sethiautomatie, or vou may push the catch forward and fire at the rate of 600 shots a ‘minute. You may use a box type magazine of 20 cartridges or a drum of 50 cartridges. There is also a drum which holds 100 cartridges, but it unbalances the

gun.” The FBI's arsenal also boasted “a Springfield ‘sporter, 30.06 caliber, with a range above thrée miles—identical with the Springfield military weapon,” and “a ‘monitor machine rifle, 30-cali-ber, using a box type magazine with a ‘capacity of 30 rounds. It can be semiautomatic or, by a shift of the control, a full machine rife with a rate of fire of 470 shots a minute.” Then we went into the range, a cavernous place with a low, armorplated ceiling above which is the bureau's conference room. Then he gave a demonstration with the tommy using tracer bullets to mow down a paper man. When the lights went up and the carrier drew the target back, the only whots Which had not struck theoretically vulnerable spots oh the paper mah were the two or three “finding” shots which had been fired to pick it up That's “You burn burns you, “Or, as We may, first vou light hith up and theh you burh him up

NEXT = Tdentifying Wanted Moh,

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

1— What is homicidal mania? 2—TIn what country are the 1940 Olympic Games scheduled to be held? 3—Where is the city of neshurg? 4— Who was the first woman member of a Presidents Cabinet th the U. 8.2 5—What is a dvnameter? 6—Who won the 1937 Tndianapolis Bpeedway auto race? 7—How many points has a Maltese cross? n » »

ANSWers

1-=Ah insane desire to take life, 2—=Japan. 3-—8outh Africa 4—Frances Perkins Witson). F—=An instrument in the nature of a micrometer tube attached to the eyve-piece of a telescope for measuring its magnifying power, 6—Wilhur Shaw, T=—Fight

iv,” he waid. before he

the way it him up

Johan-

(Mrs, Paul

ASK THE TIMES

Thelose a 3-cent stamp for reply ‘when addressing any question of fact or information to The Thdiahapolis Times Washington Nervice Burenn, 1018 13th Nt, N. 'W., Washington, OD. OC. Tegal and medical advice cannot be given, nor can extended research be ‘whdertaken

| Bells, ‘two of

| ‘and is therefore

“| t6 marriage

Our Town

By Anton Scherrer

A Thorough Spring Housecleahing Netted Bernard Batty Something More Than a Collection of Dirt,

T tickles this department to be able to report that Bernard Batty—a mere man— turned in the best scorecard for the most thorough housecleaning of any held in Tndianapolis this spring. Myr. Batty is the curator in charge of the old Benjamin Harrison home oh N, Delaware 8t, the property recently acquired by the Arthur Jordan Poundation. The Jordan people bought it with the

idea of turning it into a memorial, and from the way thuigs look, it won't be long now until Mr. Batty has the place looking just the wan it did when Mr, Harrison lived in it This spring Mr. Batty tackled the attic. You'd be surprised to learn what all turned up Among other things, there was a thro “foot high, metal statue which 160ked for all the world like an old-time hitching post When Mr. Batt showed it to some of the old-time around here, thev completely lost their heads and said it was the very one that vsed to stand inh front of the Harrison home. Mr, Batty had his doubts but he Rent his mouth shut, He's glad he did, b cause when he dug déeper into the attic, he found book which explained evervthing ikki The Book was gotten out by The New York Recorder and carried the title of “Pro Patria: A Te: timonial from 26382 American Patriots to Benfamih Harrison, President of the United States.” Beems that, back oh Jah. 31, 1892, The Recorder proposed that a fund be raised by dime subscriptions from which to melt and present to Benjamin Harrison, Secretary of Btate Blaitte and Becretary of the Navy Tracy silver statuettes of Boatswain Charles William Rigein of the U. 8B. Steamship Charleston. The statuettes were intended as testimonials from people showing their appreciation of the prompt way the President and his Secretaries handled the attack upoh Amer ican sailors in the streets of Valparaiso, Chile, oh Oct. 19, 1891. Boatswain Rigginh was the =ailor killed

Mr. Ncherrer

| that day.

Junkmen Not Wanted

Mr. Batty's housecleaning also revealed another book, “Acts of Assembly Now in Force th the Colony of Virginia,” published in Williamsburg fh 1779. Tt was the gift of Dr. C. N Gallup of Old Mystic, Oohin, Mr. Batty also found Dr. Gallup's letter that ‘went with ‘it. The Doctor satd he wanted the President to have the book becatise it mentions the name of

Benjamin Harrison, a Virginia farmer, who was one

of the signers of the Declaration of Tt turns out that Virginia's Benjamin the great-grandfather of our own The biggest event of Mr. Batfv's however, was the day he rah across Mr. Harrison's gymnasium outfit It consists of a pair of Thdiah clubs, a set of pulling weights and six pairs of dumbwhich are iron Mr. Batty doesn't intend to anything. He's got it figured out risons thought enough of a attic, they eéertainly to keep.

Independence, Harrison was

housecleaning

the Hf the

give that thing to put it {i thought it was g6od

funkmen Harfhe

enough

Jane Jordan—

Jane Thinks Fear of Competition Causes Girl to Seek Married Mah.

EAR JANE JORDAN=-1 am a girl of with a married mah of 28. 1 am sure that he does not love his wife and did not even before he met me, In time I think that I can marry him, He wife even if 1 will not mars I know that he could make me happier than earth, Binde 1 do not want to be him

19 th love

see him once ih a while?

A READER

Answer—I doubt very much {if the voung man wil be as interested in you after his divorce, if any, as he is now. If he were frée to marry again he might be much more cautious inh making love to a girl nine years younger than himself The man’s interest in you fs the =urest means of striking a blow at his wife. Even if she doesn't know about his threat to her security it is still present and

| a sources of satisfaction to him

Let us have a 160k into vour own motive: Wh at 19, with 0 ‘many voung unattached men to chooge from, have vou elected to love a disgruntled married man? For one thing, a bachelor is free (6 assume the responsibility of the girl who loves him harder to There is more ¢o before vou can stand o single man's life. Wh which has caved

vol happier than

oot petition to be overcome as the one and only girl in a is there about this married vou to believe that he could anyone else on earth? Is it ‘not partly the ease of the attractive girl ean assuage the misundere=tood man

man

ma ke

Almont, feelings

conagrest ? an worded of a married ” ” » JORDAN] first thought von

what J

1 ve the

FAR JANE can't wrote in my slightest idea that 1 men and women not mate Of course didn't sav that 1ove was a higher form of Jove than that which lead: and neither did 1 I am among those happily married and would He the last to statement of that kind PAIN

magne

fetter t6 vou to give slo lel

platonie

who are make a

anvihing in vour let After all, 1 db

what Wwak

No. vou didn't =a: remarks 1

and 1

Answer ter to lead to the not know vou at all in vour mind when vou wrote

made conldn't tell the letter

JANE JORDAN

Put your probléts fh a Telfer to Jane Jordan, whe will

answer vour questions fn this column daily

Bob Burns Says—

OLLYWOOD, Mav 9-1 would be the last one A the world to sav there sitch thing as gettin’ a break ih business but 1 d6 think the main thing is to pick out the line of work vou're ent out far, 1 have ah uncle down home Who's a prety sues cesnful Blacksmith and he was tellin’ me the other dav what a lucky thing it was for him that hae chose blacksmithin’ as a profession, He maid At first I kinda wanted to Be a dentist, but if 1 had followed that, 1 would probably have =tarved to death.” 1 Ways, “What

ain't no

makes vou think 260?” And he wavs, Well, I've been runnin’ this blacksmith shop for 10 years and fh all that time, no ond

ever come ih and asked me to pull a tooth.” Copvright, 1938)

/ Walter O Keete— Benator Minton f= pouting the Renate flom He thinks that nlannad journalism.”

wav the New Deal to buy advertizing

OLLYWOOD, May 9 : out loud on the United States should have 1{ the Hoosier Senator had hi: opponent: wouldn't even be able space in the daily papers Ax chairman of the Benate Tobby Committees Sens ator Minton inherited the job formerly held By Hues’ Black. who believed that silence is golden Whah tha golden opportunity comer along The Benator should reread the Constitution 1" gunrantees there that {f Little Mary Mixup gets hit by a fruck we Americans have the right 10 see & po lice Teport of the accident,