Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 14 May 1938 — Page 9

8

he Indianapolis Times

SATURDAY, MAY 14, 1938 \

Second Section

Vagabond

From Indiana = Ernie Pyle Much Western History Was Made in

PAGE 9

Enter Second-Class Matter at Boctoffice. Indianapolis, Ind.

. iy Joseph, Ma, by ite Oty i . . | e Wrong Place to Leatn About It. | meen Housing: A Sleepy Giant Stirs Qur Town

where Jesse James was killed. This is the city where the world-famous Pony Expie press started. This is the city where thousands of Forty-Niners equipped themselves

Government's Goal Is Modern Homes to Rent as Cheaply as Slums By Anton Scherrer

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for the awful journey to the California gold fields. Yet in the bookstores of St. Joseph you cannot buy a book, booklet or pamphlet on the fascinating tradition of this place. You can't buy a book on the Pony Express. You can't buy a book on the FortyNiners, or the Overland Trail. You can buy all these books in Denver or New York City, but you can’t buy them in St. Joe, where it all happened. The Chamber of Commerce can give you the exact value ($75,162,785) of manufactured products in St. Joseph for 1937, but it doesn’t know whether Jesse James is buried here or not.

that corner, just across the street, is where it happened.”

sack of money. A tall stranger was loafing in the bank's doorway. The stranger said: “Young man, you're pretty young to be carrying so much money around alone. Don't you need some help? Better let me go with you.” To which young Mr. Andriano replied: “I may be voung, but I'm old enough to mind my own business,

of the old memories is being done by commercial places. Some of the West's finest historical paintings are on the walls of cocktail lounges. Here, the Robidoux Hotel is preparing to enshrine the memory of the Pony Express on the walls of its barroom. In a few days an artist will start splashing the whole story of those dramatic days on the plaster walls, in long murals. I'd like to see it some day.

My Diary

By Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt

Mrs. Garner Feels Strain of Being In Receiving Line at Garden Party.

HARLESTON, W. Va, Friday—At 3:30 o'clock yesterday afternoon I received a group of ladies who are here with the members of the American Law Institute. Shortly afterward, we held the first garden party of the year, given for the women executives in the different Government departments. At the party, the wives of the members of the Cabinet receive with me, which means that the line moves a little more slowly. When we finally had shaken hands with everyone, and Mrs. Garner and I started to walk across the lawn, she remarked that her knees felt the strain. I imagine every one of us found ourselves in a similar condition. I'm sure we were all glad to sit down. I had asked a group from one of our rural communities to come to Washington to give us an idea of the music and dancing which they are developing. They have built their own community house and every Friday night all ages from 10 to 60 meet there

this music and dancing spread to some of our more sophisticated communities. There is far more real joy in doing things yourself than in sitting back and watching other people do them. They played, they

Former Head Usher Honored

After our guests had gone, a little ceremony took place in the Red Room. Mr. Raymond Muir, who was head usher in the White House until recently, when he was transferred to the State Department, was invited to come in with Mrs. Muir. The members of the White House staff, who had worked with Mr. Muir, presented him with a gift to which they had all contributed. It was a very beautiful and useful wrist watch. I hope that he will have great pleasure in wearing it and in remembering the good wishes which went with it. A representative from every group which constitutes the working staff necessary io run the White House was present. This morning I arose at an early hour, for IT had to be at the airport at 7 o'clock to start for Charleston, W. Va, with Congressman Randolph. Our morning was spent at Red House, one of the Government homesteads which has been through many vicissitudes since its inception. I have not space to tell you my impressions, but tomorrow I think I can give you an interesting picture.

New Books Today Public Library Presents—

HEN on Oct. 20, 1936, Anne Sullivan Macy died, a sympathetic world grieved, realizing that Helen Keller, who had called her “Teacher” for almost 50 years—depending upon her perhaps as no human being had ever leaned upon another— wae alone again in a world both dark and silent. HELEN KELLER'S JOURNAL, 1936-37 (Doubleday), begun two weeks later, records a year spent in European travel with Miss Polly Thompson, a period of readjustment during which the indomitable will of Helen Keller rose to new heights. This diary, in which she sets forth her impressions of people whom she meets, offers her keen opinions on current events and describes her sensations of touch and smell and taste. It is a tribute to the memory of Mrs. Macy. After being allowed to “touch” Rodin’s Thinker at the Iouvre Miss Keller draws an analogy whereby she pictures her life as being hewn from the “formless, silent dark as Rodin hewed that mind-genesis out of the rock.” And the sculptor of that splendid work was Anne Sullivan Macy. A presentiment which Miss Keller feels is the fear that her hands which are her “eyes, ears, channels of thought and good will” often feel limp and cramped. The possibility that those two sensitive organs may fail her in their instructed service catches the heart. But as we leave her on the deck of a ship bound for a speaking tour of Japan, “where a great adventure awaits,” we know that her winged

By Gilbert Love

Times Special Writer ASHINGTON, May 14. —Within a couple of years thousands of American families should be moving from dilapidated slum dwellings to neat new homes in public housing projects. For no more rent than most of them now pay for dank rooms with miserable

chunks of it are now being

presented to the U. S. Housing Authority, indicate that most of the money will be spent on row houses and small walk-up apartment houses, with a few singlefamily dwellings in smaller communities.

light and air to reach the dwellings. Federal regulations insist on plenty of windows. The number of persons occupying an apartment will be limited, and roomers will be forbidden. When rent bills come due, the tenants will actually “get something for nothing,” for the rents

will average only about half as much as if they covered the full cost of maintaining the buildings and paying off the money borrowed to construct them. The rest of the cost will be met by annual subsidies from the Federal and local governments. The Federal Government will contribute, each year, a percentage of the total cost of a project equal to the going Federal interest rate plus 1 per cent. At present, that would be 3': per cent. The local governmental units must contribute enough more to keep rents down to about the average being paid in the slums, or the average rent that slumdwellers can pay. In any case, the local governments must give 20 per cent as much as the Federal contribution. It is too early to predict just what the rents will be, but some indication can be obtained from rents charged in housing communities built by the Public Works Administration and turned over to the U. S. Housing Authority for supervision.

$ 8 84

Montgomery, Ala. In Birmingham, the average is $4.50; in Buffalo, $5.19; Cleveland, $5.71, $4.78 and $5.84 (three proj-

At most of the existing projects, utility services are ‘bought “in bulk” to effect a further saving for the tenants, and many of the contemplated projects will adopt this idea. Families living in Williamsburg Houses, New York, pay an additional $1.40 a month per room to

ad

a do 2 To Get Your Opinion on the Dirndl

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covered it with sheeting and are preparing to veneer the house with brick. At the right the foundation is being laid for another home.

cover heat, hot water, light, cook= ing and refrigeration. In Birmingham, light and refrigeration are supplied for 50 cents a month per room. In Buffalo, the cost of all utilities aver= ages $1.81 a room; Indianapolis, $2.13; Memphis, $1.17; Oklahoma City, $1.33; Toledo, $2.11. Families to live in the new “public houses” cannot have incomes of more than five times the rent, plus utility costs — except those with three or more children, which can earn six times the rent and still be eligible.

” » » F the rent turns out to be $5 a room, and the utility charge $1.50, a family of four can get four rooms and bath (the bath doesn’t count as a room) for $26 a month, including all utilities—if monthly income does not exceed $130. It is possible that rents will be cheaper in the new projects than in those built by PWA, In the first five projects for which money was granted by the U. S. Housing Authority, contemplated rents ranged from $2.70 to $4.25 a room.

These will be made possible by extra-large subsidies from the local governments, averaging 56 per cent of the Federal contribution.

high for families occupying the worst slum dwellings — relief clients, work-relief dependents, and other low-income groups.

and apartment buildings for the lowest-income class. The WagnerSteagall Housing Act apparently provides for such projects in the phrase: “Construction actively in connection with a low-rent housing project may be confined to the reconstruction, remodeling or repair of existing dwellings.”

Detroit is now conducting an independent project of this nature. It is building homes for some of its relief clients of brick, paving stone and wood that was salvaged in a street-widening job. The

the brick-veneer type and also was financed with an FHA-insured

mortgage.

houses, fully equipped, are costing $2000 to $3000 each. = ” » HE estimated cost of the U. S. Housing Authority's projects has drawn fire from a num-

By E. R. R. OUISVILLE, Ky. May 14—The Louisville Police Traffic Bureau has put into practical effect this year the results of a searching analysis of the causes of motor mis-

haps which in 1937 took 66 lives and caused 1255 injuries in the South's second largest city. Results of the study were startling in that they revealed with certainty that the unpredictable—and often uncontrollable—“human element” is almost entirely to blame for deaths on streets and highways. The Traffic Bureau found, in brief, that all the 66 deaths and 1036 of the 1255 injuries could have been avoided if Louisville motorists had eliminated the “10 most dangerous violations” from their personal driving practices. These violations in the order of their responsibility for death and

equipment, driving on wrong side of road (usually in passing other cars), improper turns (such as failing to wait for the passage of on-coming

EDUCED to bald statistics, the three most flagrant violations (i. e, those which usually bring the heaviest penalities in modern day traffic courts) — speeding, driving while drunk, and reckless driving, alone accounted for 41 deaths in

Louisville in 1837, or 62 per cent

‘Human Element’ Blamed for Louisville Traffic Toll

of the year's total, and for 455 injuries, or 36 per cent of the total.

Here is the complete statistical breakdown “by offenses”: Speeding, 27 deaths, 209 injuries; driving while drunk, 9 deaths, 143 injuries; failure to yield right-of-way, 17 deaths, 230 injuries; reckless driv= ing, 5 deaths, 103 injuries; failure to obey electric signals, 5 deaths, 103 injuries; defective equipment, 5 deaths, 66 injuries; driving on wrong side of road, 3 deaths, 42 injuries; improper turns, 3 deaths, 112 injuries; failure to obey boulevard stops, 1 death, 27 injuries, and passing standing streetcars, 1 death, 1 injury. Armed with this definite evidence that human failure to obey rules of the road is the one major obstacle to cutting down death and injury tolls, Louisville officials have been “bearing down” this year, especially on speeders, drunken and reckless drivers.

will not under any circumstances exceed 30 miles per hour within city limits, nor 50 miles per hour on the open highway.

arrests for traffic violations last year werc followed up by convice tions in 90 per cent of cases. In the first three months of 1938, only 11 persons have died in Louis= ville traffic mishaps, which is in line with a general improvement of the motor accident situation throughout the nation.

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ber of sources. Critics have said that such features as landscaping, recreation halls and electric refrigerators are fine, but that their cost will either reduce the number of homes that can be provided or overburden the taxpayers, or both. Not many cost estimates for the new projects are available, as yet, On the projects that have already

got money from the U. 8S. Housing Authority, costs per family unit range between $5000 and $7000. Those figures include land, grading, landscaping, construction of the buildings themselves, and the cost of wrecking one slum house for every new dwelling provided, which the Federal regulations re= quire, : The house-for-a-house rule does not insist that the dwellings destroyved be on the site of the new projects. In some cities the new housés will be built on vacant or semivacant land, and the demolition quota met by pulling down unsafe buildings in other areas under city condemnation orders. Thus the authority will not have to buy the properties. Nathan Straus. administrator of the U. S. Housing Authority, belives the public housing projects will greatly benefit the communities in which they are located, as well as the slum dwellers who will move into them. “They will create new neigh-

their unit-cost estimates with the cost of private building, since they are accomplishing more than the mere construction of homes. De-

60 years—the term of the Federal loans. No matter how you look at it, the job of providing homes for the third of the population which is ill-housed, according to President Roosevelt's estimate, is gos ing to be one of the biggest undertakings in history.

Side Glances—By Clark

spirit will never falter,

Ey

"How do you expect me to drive any sense into your husband if you don't join in the, argument and agree with me?"

Jasper—By Frank Owen

Gr

"See—it drew her out of her hiding-place and she got there’ before the ants!"

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

1—Where are the Laramie

Mountains? 2—Who defeated Patty Berg to to win the recent Belleair Women's golf tournament?

3—What ships are exempt from paying tolls to pass through the Panama Canal?

4—-Where were John Rolfe and Pocahontas married?

5—What is the popular name for the American bison? 68—What is the “UAW”? T—Into what body of water does the River Jordan flow?

” ” ” Answers

1—-A Rocky Mountain range which extends through Wye oming and Colorado. 2-—Marion Miley. 3—U. 8S. Government ships. 4—Jamestown, Va. 5—Buffalo. 6—United Automobile Workers. 7—The Dead Sea.

ASK THE TIMES

Inclose a 3-cent stamp for reply when addressing any question of fact or information to The Indianapolis Times Washington Service Bureau, 1013 13th St, N. W. Washington, D, C. Legal and medical advice cannot be given, nor can extended research be under. taken,

Dress, but Here Are His Own Views.

WOULD be ducking a duty to my readers if I failed to tell them that a dress known as the Dirndl is making some headway in Indianapolis—in certain circles, anyway. The wrong circles, too, it strikes me. I haven't any way of knowing what you think of the Dirndl, and even if I did I wouldn't be absolutely sure that what you think is exactly what

I think, any more than I am absolutely sure that

what I see is exactly what you see. Come to think of it, there is much

I suppose the whole thing is on | aqyuijpment, they will get in the experience of others that is ie Mr. Pyle the same principle as the old say- ligl nd Tt mtr oor Raa. ee aE not available to me. You, for in- | ing, “A man is never a hero to his ight, airy apartments or stance, can give me a clear idea of valet.” St. Joe has lived too long with its own his- houses, with gleaming the internal structure of your extory to be excited about it. \ : perience, even to the detail of tellathrooms 1 ficient : A However, I did meet one man with a Jesse James athe oms and e ing me when two things appear of ¥ story. The man is vice president of a bank, he is | Kitchens. kite Same ow of different colors, but : 83 years old now, he is as spick and span as a This transition from Whether red really is to you the Geneva diplomat, and a nicer old man you never : i wy same color that if, is to me is someVal : rags to riches in housing thing I'll never know. met in your life. : ; WN Well, it's the s iv wi Mr. Scherrer io His name is Max Andriano. He has been a banker | has been made possible by AA Dire § the same way with the { . , TORY ; 1: NN ARE R i : rndl. I haven't anyway of knowing, for instance, here for more than 60 years. In 1882 he was a mes- | tha five hundred million » IRR RRR N Ro ' | whether your feeling in the matter is anything like senger, daily carrying a big sack of money from one dollar loan fund voted by Evidence of increased building activity in Indianapolis is this group of three brick homes near Emerson Ave. and E. 10th St. Construction | mine, or whether, to put a still finer point on it, your bank to another. As we sat at his Ses dalking, he Sl : . LATO of these homes, which recently were completed, was financed through mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration. anger and my anger is qualitatively identical. For - pointed out the window and said, "Right there on | Congress last year. Large that reason, I think it's better to leave everybody,

except myself, out of today's piece, and confine my

; remarks entirely to what the Dirndl has done to my : ; ; allotted to various local ‘I'd Have Given Him a Cigar’ : as emotions. i . t ith hi housing authorities. Its done plenty, and the more T think about it the He came out of the bank one afternoon with his Plans of the local groups, as madder I get. In the first place, I can't see the

propriety of pouring a streamlined American girl into what was originally designed to serve a plump peas ant girl. If the American girl wants to live up to a Dirndl let her start with putting on some fat. Other= wise, there isn't any sense to the big strapping belts that come with all the Dirndls I've seen. Neither do the full skirts seem to fit the American scene. It

w and that might be a good idea for you, too.” The plans call for bathrooms takes a sturdy pair of legs—the kind grown in the : : equipped with plain but service- Tyrol—to wear the sort of skirt that comes with The lounger laughed, and Mr. Andriano says he able tubs. lavatories and toilets a Dirndl. never saw such a satanic smile on a man's face. Mr. Each kitchen will have a sink a . : . ashe went on alone, and delivered his money | oo To aS Tan or the proj- The Anachronism Worries Him : ; That night Jesse James was killed. Mr. Andriano hel : Teal igere or. The thing that worries me most, however, is the a S Killed, . he larger bu y - : went down to the morgue the next morning to look | tral furnaces and central laun= anachronism of the whole thing. I had an idea— at the corpse. It was the man who had spoken to him. | dries. wholly unfounded, I now realize—that the time wasn’t 5 “I wouldn't have talked back so smart if I'd known y 4 9 far off when our dressmakers would profit by what 3 it was Jesse James,” says Mr. Andriano. “I'd have HE buildings will be sur- our architects had done. Enough, anyway, not to ¢ a ee ih $6 MALY GUher Places that 7 rounded by landscaped recre=- Times Photos. place something historically in the wrong time. I Ha aS y OWher places that have | ation areas that will allow sun- Here is another Indianapolis home under construction in the 6000 Rapidly nearing completion is this house, located directly across the | guess I can’t do anything about it. but it's awfull » a touch of the Wild West tradition, the preservation block E. St. Joseph St. Workmen already have built the framework, street from the three homes shown in the upper photo. It is to be of 8 yvaing ; y

disheartening to find the dressmakers putting everye body into Dirndls when the architects are doing their best to fight themselves free of foreign influences. Of course, everybody doesn’t think the way I do. The other day, for instance, I ran across a champion of the Dirndl who ventured a prediction that the landscape, this summer, will be filled with Dirndls, Much to the advantage of the landscape, he went on to say. Well, I just can’t bring myself to believe it, At any rate, not until the girls around here put on enough flesh to fill a Dirndl. Maybe, I shouldn't have mentioned the subject at all,

Jane Jordan—

The Behavior of Some Men at 50 Explained by Desire to Be Young.

EAR JANE JORDAN--I wonder if you can tell ma why some men at the ages of 50 and more try to draw the attention of young girls. Do they think they are attractive to them? TI have a husband who does this wherever 1 go with him. Have such men no respect for their wives to flirt when they are with their wives? And what do you suppose these young girls

think of a man who will try to flirt with them in the presence of his wife? I have almost decided never to go anywhere with my husband. I never say anything to him about it as I know it would do no good. If he wants to flirt why can't he do it when he is alone and show me a little respect when I am with hm? A READER,

Answer—Nobody likes to grow old, but some accept it more gracefully than others. To repeat the behavior of adolescence at 50 is to betray the gnawing hunger to be young again.

and take part in the entertainment. The significan : things in Pts development are that they i oo VERAGE rents at these proj- Critics of the public housing [injury were: Speeding, drunken| Safety-minded citizens have| borhoods and revive old ones,” he Forty tien has besh called the dangerousage. Ib dependent upon other people's talents and that young ects range from $7.12 a room program have charged that, even |driving, failure to yield right-of- [formed a voluntary organization | said. may be the prime of life so far as the intellect is cone and old enjoy themselves together. I think these two | per month in Williamsburg with the heavy subsidies, the | Way, reckless driving, failure to|known as the "30-50 Club” Mem-| The public housing planners | cerned, but emotionally one begins to dread the dee things are important enough for us to want to see | Houses, New York, to $397 in jentals in large cities will be too |Obey electric signals, defective [bers take a solemn pledge that they | hold that it is unfair to compare .

parture of youth, Some people gather their forces for a second blooming and unless they are aware of what moves them they are apt to be a little ridiculous to their onlookers.

Vi danced and they sang and I think everyone on the | ects); Indianapolis, $4.43; Mem- _ | traffic before making left turns),| Louisville’s 1937 total of 66 dead | fending the construction costs bi 4 lawn nad a good time. I, for one wanted to join | Phis, $4.61 (in two projects); theo . re mal Murs a failure to observe “boulevard stops,” | was the lowest since 1933, viz: 1034,| themselves, they remind their Men aren't the only ones who make a pathetic stab : them. Oklahoma City, $5.38; Toledo, tt os i My De passing standing streetcars. 82 deaths; 1035, 72 deaths; 1036,| critics that they must put up | to regain the pleasures of youth. We see some middle i $5.03. 8 y PR 71 deaths. Police announced that| buildings that will last at least | aged women dressing like college girls, spending hun-

dreds on cosmetics, running to romantic movies, living on love stories and doing many giddy things. Your husband 1irts to reassure himself that he is still quite a wow with the fair sex. Some girls may laugh at him, but if even one shows him a little attene tion it is balm to his soul. You can’t help him by showing your disgust and impatience or by letting him see that you think him a fool. You only can try to satisfy his yearning for admiration and appreciation at home. But naturally his behavior makes you pretty tired, and the greater your scorn, the more his need for the opposite ine creases. JANE JORDAN,

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

Bob Burns Says

OLLYWOOD, May 14.—A man who worries hime self a lot to make a lot of money ain't gonna be any better off in the end because after he gets it, he'll worry himself to death tryin’ to keep it. The other day I met my uncle, Skinny Flint that's my stingy uncle—and he told me that his nerves were all shot, I says, “Well, maybe you're workin’ too hard,” and he says, “No, I've got plenty

of Foney and I don't have'ta work. All I do now is sh.”

I says, “Well, fishin’ oughta be the best thing in the world for your nerves,” and he says, "'Yeah—well you Just try fishin’ without a fishin’ license.” (Copyright, 1938)

Walter O'Keefe —

Ho vwoon, May 14—New York City's politie clans will soon be members of the country club set when Mayor La Guardia opens the summer city hall in a Long Island country club. The well-dressed Councilmen will now take the flannel out of their mouths and wear it elsewhere. It'll be pleasant for the wives of politicians to luxuriate on the club veranda in the late afternoon sun waiting for their husbands to come in with a bag full of matches votes, This summer executive mansion will cost a little extra money, but as usual the taxpayer plays the role of caddy and goes around holding the bag. Note on National Defense—Uncle Sam's air forces are holding a sham battle off the Atlantic Coast, and it's safer to fight over the water, If they staged the struggle over Jersey City one of the planes might be

disabled by a stray bullet,