Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 13 May 1938 — Page 17
Vagabond
From Indiana = Ernie Pyle
An Aged Kansan Brought Plenty of Hate on Himself by Spending His Fortune Just the Way He Pleased.
HIAWATHA, Kas., May 13.—John Milburn Davis is 88 years old, has a long white beard, only one hand, and savs he's the worst-hated man in Kansas. People hate him because he spent his money the way he pleased. What he pleased was to put up in the local graveyard a memorial to himself and his late wife. Estimates of its cost run all the way from $50,000 to $1,000.000. When I asked some people in Hiawatha about the memorial, they said: “Be sure and go see it. It's a monstrosity.” So we drove out to Mt. Hope Cemetery, and there it was—11 lifesized stone images sitting and standing around two marbie-slabbed graves (one of which is still empty). a Six of the statues are of Farm- % > er Davis himself. Five are of Mrs. LY. Davis, who died in 1530 just after X & § their 50th wedding anniversary. In one statue Mrs. Davis is an angel, R with wings. Mr. Pyle What would be the 12th statue > is merely a big overstuffed sittingroom chair, carved in granite, with the words “The Vacant Chair” chiseled across the back of the seat. The statuary represents Mr. and Mrs, Davis at various stages of their 50 vears together. All were sculptured from old photographs. They are not exactly grotesque. After looking all around, we drove back to town. Farmer Davis was sitting on his front porch. He likes to talk about the memorial. Here is the whole story: He landed here in 1880, and got married. Somehow he made a lot of money. Mrs. Davis died in 1830. Mr. Davis doesn’t know what put the idea in his head, but he decided to put up a statue of each of them, facing each other across her grave. He wanted the best. He went to the local monument dealer. They decided to have the work done in Italy. They sent old photographs and in due time the statues came back. “I liked them so well,” says Mr. Davis, “that I decided to have two more made. So I sent some different photographs. And when those statues came back I liked them so well I wanted some more. I started it in 1931, and it took three years. Its all through now.”
Not Quite Enough for a Wager
T asked Mr. Davis how much it all cost. He laughed and said that's one thing he didn’t tell. Then I said, “Well, I guess it didn’t cost 8 million dollars anyway.” Mr. Davis squared around in his chair as though he were mad. and said loudly: “Have you got any real money that savs it didn't?” TI fished around in my pocket and could find only $3800 and some Kansas tax tokens, so we let it stand at a million. Around Hiawatha they say Mr. Davis spent all this money on the memorial to keep relatives from getting it after he dies. I asked him about that, and he said: “I didn’t do it for that reason any more than you bought that suit you've got on to keep somebody else rom having the money.” I asked him if he used up all his money on this memorial. He laughed and looked sort of sly and
said, “I'm not going to starve.”
My Diary
By Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt
Southern Guest Gets Permission
To Play ‘Dixie’ in White House. |
ASHINGTON, Thursday.—Yesterday afternoon two groups of people were received here. First a small group was brought to us by Congressman Mary Norton, the Women's Auxiliary of the B'nai B'rith, followed a little later by the Daughters of the Confederacy. As one of the ladies in the second group went by, she asked if she might return to the East Room and play “Dixie.” 1 assured her I would be delighted. It may be my Georgia grandmother in me. but I have always had a partiality for this most stirring of songs. A quiet evening, which enabled me to spend a good part of it alone with my friend, Mrs. George Huntington, who is staying here for a few days. I can't say. however, that we were entirely peaceful until Jimmy had gone off to make a speech to the Men's Club of St. Thomas’ Church and Franklin Jr. who had driven up with two friends for the afternoon, had started back to Charlottesville. I have just had a letter from a community group in Washington who are planning to give Sigmund Romberg's light opera, “The Student Prince.” It will be presented under the auspices of the community center on two different days in May. The group is entirely unpaid except for a few musicians from the National Symphony Orchestra. The reason I am so interested in this venture is that it seems to forecast a greater community interest in music in this
country. Breakfasts With Brother
My brother and one other guest had breakfast with me. It is a glorious day with a feeling of October in the air, or, as one of the doormen expressed it, “The air feels like the mountains today.” At 10:30 T rode slong the Potomac. Miss Muriel Lester, a very interesting Englishwoman, came with Secretary of Labor Perkins to lunch with me. Miss Lester is lecturing for the International Institute. Because she has recently returned from China and Japan, she is filled with the realization that individuals and not governments will have to bring. about eace. P Mr. Ralph Rorsodi and Mr. Chauncey Stillman also came to lunch to tell me of their ideas on community building, and they interested me very much. I hope to know a little more about their project from actual observation The first real garden party takes place this after-
noon.
New Books Today Public Library Presents—
- O the extent that the radio becomes a democratic institution it must increasingly function as a means for guaranteeing to each and every individual broad, wide, varied, and richly shared contacts, open-mindedness for the consideration of possible consequences of proposed activity, and flexibility in thought and action such that these consequences may become determinants of activity in a changing environment.” IS AMERICAN RADIO DEMOCRATIC? (University of Chicago Press) is the attempt of S. E. Frost Jr, Associate, National Advisory Council on Radio in Education, te evaluate the radio services of this country by his own exacting standards. His answer is “No, because of the dictatorial selection of program material for private profit.” The outline given for the solution of the present day evils of radio consists of regulatory revisions of the law and practice. Mr. Frost believes also that the control of radio by a “Commission freed from the undue pressure of particular interested groups . . . would be a possible escape from undemocratic pitfalls.” ” = » N Indianapolis man, known as author of “The Lady Who Came to Stay” and ‘“Felicita’— Robert Edgerton Spencer—has in his new novel, DEATH OF MARK (Bobbs-Merrill), made use of the abundant new material presented by modern psychology. His story is concerned with the mental and emotional upheaval in the lives of Rita and Mark after an accident in which Mark is crippled for life. Mark's struggle, his break and period of madness, and his final readjustment make & powerful and moving story. Rita's problem is the realization that Mark recovered from madness is not the one whom she knew and loved, but an entirely different person. It is difficult to write of an emotional struggle
without becoming maudlin and sentimental, but Mr. admirably,
A
The Indianapolis
FHA'’s Liberalized Rules Bring Sharp
(Second of a Series) By Gilbert Love
Times Special Writer
ASHINGTON, May 13. —Maybe we are going to have a building boom after all. When the terms for insurance of mortgages by the Federal Housing Administration were liberalized in February, nearly everyone thought that construction would be stimulated but few anticipated anything like a boom. Many factors other than financing, it was pointed out, were injecting sour notes into America's rendition of “Home, Sweet Home.” Even FHA Administrator Stewart McDonald said “too much should not be
expected at once.”
In the very next month, however, despite the recession, mortgages taken by the FHA for appraisal shot to the all-time high of $95,161,202. That was a 40 per cent increase over the previous high month, March of 1937.
Most important of the lures set out by the liberalized FHA plan is the offer to insure mortgages covering as much as 90 per cent of the cost of a new house and lot in the $6000-or-less class. Buyers of such houses are also offered a maximum of 25 vears in which to pay off the balance, instead of 20 vears, and their annual mortgage insurance premiums are reduced from onehalf of 1 per cent to one-fourth of 1 per cent. Again, on all sured henceforth, the FHA insurance premiums is based on the unpaid balance instead of the full amount. Monthly payments are further reduced by elimination of an annual service fee of one-half of 1 per cent which lending institutions formerly could charge. Since the maximum allowable interest rate is 5 per cent, the total carrying charge is now limited to 5: per cent—and to 5% per cent for new houses costing less than $6000.
® » »
OLLARS-AND-CENTS figures show how much the home buyer saves under the new arrangement. Monthly payments on a 20-vear mortgage under the old rules averaged $7.26 for each $1000 of mortgage money. Now, on a 20year mortgage for a house costing less than $6000, payments average $6.72 a thousand. If the buyer of such a house takes the full 25 years, his payments will average only $598 a month for each $1000. Thus, if a person who wants to build a $6000 home can get a 90 per cent mortgage, he needs only $600 in cash (or a lot worth at least that much) and his monthly payments over a period of 25 years will be about $33.50. The 90 per cent mortgage, however, is a maximum. Some dissatisfaction has arisen because it was generally believed that anyone with $600 could walk into a lending agency and get $5400 more with which to build a $6000 house. FHA officials explain that their agents and the lending institutions must consider many factors before approving & mortgage. Unless the structural qualities of the proposed house, its location, and the age and income possibilities of the borrower are satisfactory, the maximum loan is denied.
2 » Ld
A’=S0uon mortgages for the purchase of existing houses, and for constructing higher-priced houses, are still limited to 80 per cent, elimination of the service charges and provision for gradual reduction of the mortgage insurance premium will pare the
mortgages in-
FRIDAY, MAY 18, 1988
Housing: A Sleepy Giant Stirs
a N Ria a Sao R IS
3 4
Head of the U. S. Housing Authority and thus leader of the attack upon the nation's housing problem, Nathan Straus is pictured, left, as he visited a Brooklyn tenement district which is to be torn down. With him is Alfred Rheinstein, New York Housing Authority chief.
average monthly payment on such homes several doilars a month. The FHA expects to develop considerable construction through its revived program of loans for modernization and repair. A property owner can now get as much as $10,000 a building, without down payment, with which to finance almost any kind of repairs, new equipment or remodeling. These loans are to be repaid over a period of five years or less. A new feature in the modernization program, the insuring of simple loans of not more than $2500 for new buildings, is expected to be popular. These loans require no down payment, need not be investigated by the FHA prior to granting of the money, and have a 10-year repayment period.
» o u
MAN who wanted to build a small residence on cheap land could use such a loan if he did not have 10 per cent or more in cash or land value to swing a regular FHA-insured mortgage. The interest rate is higher, however, and the repayment period shorter, FHA-insured mortgages are not the only methods of financing home construction, of course. About half of the business is still being done by banks, building-and-loan associations, insurance companies and other agencies without reference to the FHA. Some of the institutions cooperating with FHA have complained about elimination of the service charge. FHA officials argue that increased business turned up by the liberal terms should more than offset this loss.
» » n
NOUGH about financing. Let's examine some of the other factors said to be retarding building operations. Those most commonly cited are: 1—Depression. 2—High cost of building. 3—The preference of a large proportion of the population for renting, rather than building or buying homes. 4—Concentration of the building industry on larger homes, ignoring the mass market. High building costs are usually blamed on the increased cost of materials and high hourly rates demanded by construction workers, but many authorities say that these are only the visible manifestations of a more fundamental difficulty. The charges against the building industry are concisely stated by Miles L. Colean, deputy administrator of FHA, in a booklet written for the Public Affairs Committee of New York.
” » ” E calls the industry an “agglomeration of interests . . . equipped to do expensive houses on a custom-made basis. It is
Imes
=: ostofice
Spurt in Mortgage Applications
Mortgage Status (Owner-occupied Units)
'Oecupied by Tenants o 528% Owned Pree Mm Tenure Not Reported 142% Mortgaged bh] ha &) oe Oeeupid V4 Owner win
Spaciousness (All oecupisd Units)
Very Spacious on ~
Occupancy and Tenure
Duration of Occupancy (All Occupied Units)
Lest Than | Year | to 2 Years 30.2% Wo” 110%
Value of Dwelling Unit (Owner.occupied Unita Only)
Monthly Rental (Rental Units Only)
$10 to $1 rt Month , HR $1000 to $2 131%
$15 to $20 per Month AT8%
Value Nat Repagtes EET) $20,000 and Over 12%
$5,000 to 47508
to $30 per Month . 250% 145%
The chart above reveals facts about the nation's homes, from a real property inventory conducted in 64 cities by the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, Department of Commerce. All figures are based on dwelling units,
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NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF HOUSING OFFICIALS *
—
The extent of Federal participation in housing since 1932 is recorded on the map above. indicated by circles are under the jurisdiction of the U. S. Housing Authority; by triangles, under FSA; by squares, under FHA; by diamonds, under miscelA black symbol project is occupied; a striped symbol, under construc-
laneous agencies.
set up as a handicraft, luxury trade rather than as the massproduction industry which the
situation requires. “It will be prevented from becoming such,” he continues, “until the multitude of subcontractors with their corresponding labor unions can be diminished; until every item from a pane of glass to a bathtub does not have to be bought from a jobber on a retail basis; until a method of overcoming jurisdictional disputes between labor unions can be devised, and such restrictive labor practices as unreasonably limit ing production, requiring common labor to be done by artisans, and the forbidding of shop fabrication of materials can be eliminated. “Labor costs cannot be reduced until there exist responsible operators who can assure a sufficiently continuous volume of production to maintain a satisfactory
S—
tion; a white symbol, approved. The approximate sizes of the various projects are indicated by the three sizes of symbols; the smallest symbols represent projects for less than 200 families; the mediumsized symbols, 200 to 500 families; the largest symbols, 500 families and over. Not shown on the map are three 200-to-500-family projects.
Throughout the country a nume= ber of large communities are being built by “limited-dividend housing corporations” as longterm investments. The corpora=tions will be satisfied with rentals that will pay their costs, plus a small profit. ” ” ny HE rentals are usually much lower than for similar quarters elsewhere, thus assuring full occupancy. Insurance companies, and other institutions with large amounts of cash to be placed in safe investments, have shown considerable willingness to invest in these communities. The lack of small new homes is also being remedied. All in all, it looks af if Amerfcan housing is starting to emerge from the woods.
Projects
indicates the
annual wage level. Material costs cannot be reduced without the possibility of larger orders of more standarized products. “Organized talent similar to that which has produced the auto industry is required to transform the present chaotic conditions into a unified, economical, productive program.” » ~ »
HAT last paragraph contains the solution to the price problem as seen by most of the housing experts questioned by the writer. Here and there, the building industry is already using the mass-production idea to good advantage. The Farm Security Administration, for instance, has cut labor costs by 6 per cent at its rural resettlement projects by adopting a few standard plans for houses and setting up a sawmill in the center of each project.
Next-—-An analysis of public housing plans,
TEST YOUR
SEER 1930 WER SERUCE IC RES US PAT EFF. S-13
- an WP
|
"John offered milk free to the neighbors, but they expected him to leave it in bottles on their porch and have it there before breakfast,"
Jasper—By Frank Owen
KNOWLEDGE
1—-How many games were played in the 1937 World Series between the Yankees (A. L) and the Giants (N. L)? 2—Do any living species of birds have teeth? 3—Name the oldest of stringed instruments. 4—What is the unit of currency of Yugoslavia? b—For what government agency do the initials PCC stand? 6—What are homonyms? 7—Where is the republic of Honduras? " 8—Name the leader of the German minority in COzechoslovakia. ror» Answers 1-—-Five, 2—No. 3—The harp. 4—The dinar. b—Federal Communications Commission. 68-—Words that agree in form but differ in origin and meaning? T—Central America. 8—Konrad Henlein.
ond-Class Matter ndianapolis,
| wipe out the relief p ‘ ot Bo
Second Section
PAGE 17
Ind.
Our Town
By Anton Scherrer
Once George Dickson Gets Going He Can Run Circles Around Those Circus Elephants on Memory Work,
R EMEMBER all the talk there was re cently about the circus elephants and how they found their way around Indian apolis, just because they remembered having been here before? Well, that's nothing. Toe day's piece about George M. Dickson is go ing to make the elephants look silly, A less scrupulous writer no doubt, would classify Mr. Dickson as a man with an elephant's memory,
My professional pride and passion for precision won't let me do that, however. For two reasons: (1) Because it wouldn't be fair to Mr. Dickson, and (2) because the circus people might take advantage of ft, and henceforth bill their prize elephant as having a memory as good as that of Mr. Dickson--an ab-
| surdity on the face of it, bacause as
far as I know there isn't anybody, not even an elephant, that has any- mM thing like the memory of Mr, °F Dickson. You don't have to take my word for it. I can prove it. Take Mr. Dickson's latest trick, for example, A short time ago-—-in April, as a matter of fact—-Mr, Dickson got thinking about old School 3, the one they tore down to make room for the Federal Building. Back in the Eighties when it was going good with Mr. Dickson as a pupil, the old building had 13 rooms with 720 fixed seats. In all probability, 300 seats—certainly, not more—were occupied by boys, 1 don't know whether you know it or not, but Indianapolis girls ale ways liked going to school better than the boys did. Well, Mr, Dickson got thinking about the old No. 3 boys, and just for fun one night he began drawing on his memory, What's more, he got out paper and pen cil, and put down their names. I don't expect you to believe it, but in no time at all he had 220 names not merely the last names, mind you, but the names they were baptized with, too. Since then, Mr. Dickson has thought of 59 more boys, making a total of 279 names. And that's the way things stand as the paper goes to press today,
It Was Nothing, Fellows
At present Mr. Dickson is working on the girls, too. For some reason, however, it's much harder to remember the girls, says Mr. Dickson. At that, he remembers 65, and in all probability a lot more will turn up, because to tell the truth, he just started on the girls the other day. Mr. Dickson attaches no importance to his feat. He said anybody could have done it situated as he was. By which he meant, of course, that he lived right across from the school on Meridian St. and couldn't help seeing everybody that went into the school. Mr. Dickson's explanation might pass if you didn't know about his other tricks. The one, for example, when he got thinking about the old Zig-Zag Club, the bicycle crowd of the Nineties, There were 225 members in it, and one night last winter Mr. Dickson put down their names, too, relying on nothing but his memory. He got 186 right.
Jane Jordan—
Thinks Boy Should Allow Fiancee The Wedding Ceremony She Desires,
EAR JANE JORDAN--I love him very much, but he thinks I don't because I won't consent to be married outside of the church. He says that if I love him enough I would be willing to do what he wants— to be married by a Justice of the Peace in some small town. I told him that this would be impossible. After all, he has nothing to lose but I have. Don't you think that if he loves me enough he would do this for me? JANIE,
. Scherrer
Answer—Unless the young man has a violent prejudice against your religion he ought to be willing to do the thing which would make you feel comfortabhle about your marriage.
Of course he does not understand how important it is to you or he would not ask you to set aside the beliefs of a lifetime for his sake, He does not know that even though vou made the intellectual decision to marry outside the church that you are powerless to change your emotional reaction against it, For his own sake, if not for yours, he should avoid starting out in marriage with a wife who is overwhelmed by a feeling of guilt, You could not avoid punishing him as well as yourself for your act, He says if you love him you will renounce all you have been taught for his sake. On the contrary, if he loves you he will want you to enjoy the blessing of those who are important to you so that you can re gard your marriage with the serenity so important to your happiness and his. In my opinion it would be far simpler for the young man to make the concession instead of asking you to make it. ” » ” EAR JANE JORDAN-I am a boy of 1 and was engaged to a girl of 20. We fell out over a little thing. It started by my asking her if she was playing true. I think she was now that it is too late, but the engagement is broken. Do you think that if she had really cared for me that we would have broken up over this?
Answer—No, I don't think she really cared for vou or she would not have permitted so small a thing to come between you. Either she seized upon your remark as an excuse to break her engagement or she is too touchy to be comfortable. Why don’t you wait until you've met more girls and have a better basis of comparison before you become engaged again? JANE JORDAN.
Put your problems in a letter to Jane Jordan, who will answer vour questions in this column @éaily,
Bob Burns Says—
OLLYWOOD, May 13.—I don't know why some actors figger that they have'ta put on a “front.” No matter how much money they're making, they al ways have'ta give the impression that they're making a whole lot more. The other day an actor was complainin’ to me that his income had been chopped in half and he was goin’ in debt all the time. I says, “Well, why don't vou try living within your means?” He drew himself up indignantly and says, “Well now, I may
be poor, but ain't that bad off.” (Copyright, 1938)
Walter O'Keefe —
OLLYWOOD, May 13.-FElliott Roosevelt wanted to take a poke at a fellow in Louisville the other night because said gent made a derogatory remark about his dad. The President must be proud of his boy, and everyone approves Elliott's attitude, but if he's going to take on everyone who makes cracks about his father he’s in for a gang fight. He could be busy in Wall Street alone for months. However, there might be a practical solution to the affair if Elliott were to pursue his pugilistio tendencies, They could charge a small admission to every one of the younger Roosevelt's encounters, and with the temper of the country's businessmen what it is today this fund should raise ‘enough money to A . dd L
Cp iy a 1