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

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lianapolis

Times

Entered at Postoffice, Indianapolis, Ind.

Second Section

‘Vagabond

From Indiana == Ernie Pyle

PAGE 13

A Farewell Early in the Morning And 78-Year-Old Mr. F Is Off on Another Cruise Around the World.

Editor's Note—Ernie Pyle, after three years of traveling, is taking a vacation. Hence we are taking this opportunity to reprint some of his readers’ favorite columns, as indicated in their letters to him and to the editor,

ORTLAND, Ore., June 9.—Mr. F associates only with people he likes. He can do that because, as he says, he is 78 years old and doesn’t care. He happens to like us. Most of you won’t remember back that far, but I wrote a column about Mr. F once before. He is the man who retired at 51 because he had all the money he wanted, and has spent the last Quarter of a century (and then some) just going places. He is still at it. Mr. F is off on another trip around the world. I forget what this one is. Fifth or sixth. Mr. F always travels alone. By the very nature of traveling, he spends most of his life among strangers. That, plus his deafness (he is very deaf), gives him independence and freedom. He isn’t aloof. He likes people. But he likes to do what he wants to do. Mr. F has, it seems to me, more nearly approached perfection than anyone I know. Mr. F is young inside. He is full of funny stories, and he has an example for everything that comes up. You can tell when he has thought of something good and is about to say it, for his eyes start twinkling ahead of time. Mr. F is completely innocent of sham. For example, he hates stickers on traveling bags. “You can buy every sticker in the world in a shop in New York,” he says. He hasn't a superstition in the world. “I just wish I could think of a superstition I was afraid of, so I could try it out,” he says. He doesn’t like “joiners.” He describes “repartee” as the ability to say right now what most people think of two days later. Mr. F is a few pounds overweight, and the insurance company tells him to watch it, but he says he isn’t going to worry about his weight. He isn’t going to worry about anything. Mr. F is not rich. He was once. But he gave most of it away. Kept just enough to assure himself a mild income. He has to scratch around quite a bit to get his traveling done on his income. He thinks comfort is the main thing in life to strive for. He likes freedom. He goes to such places as Kansas City (where he doesn’t know a soul) &nd stays two months because he finds a comfortable hotel.

His Family Can't Stop Him

Mr. F takes only two small handbags when he starts around the world. He is a beautiful sight as he makes his way along, taking his little steps, peering through his glasses, wearing an overcoat that comes almost to the ground, and carrying a rolled

umbrella on his arm. He likes Colombo, in Ceylon, about as well as any place in the world. He has stayed there for a month or more several times, and is stopping there this time for a month. He has a family—wife and married daughters, in different parts of the U. S.—and they worship him and try to get him to stay, but after a few weeks he just ups and away he goes. It has been two years since we had last seen Mr. F coming around through the Canal on a freighter. We arranged to meet him here, and we spent two wonderful days together. He knocked at our door at 10 minutes till 7 the last morning. He had on his. overcoat, and had already sent his bags down. We had intended taking him to the station, and started jumping into clothes, but he wouldn’t have it. Mr. F isn’t blubbery. Maybe a little sentimental, but not blubbery. He had enjoyed his time with us. “You don’t know how happy I've been,” he said. “I want to do something for you. You've done everything for me. And I can’t do anything for you, because you've got everything. What can I do?” He turned around quickly and rang for the elevator. It was goodby. He is 78, and he'll be two years away on this voyage. A long, long time.

My Diary By Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt

First Lady Now Takes Up the Duty Of Opening Mrs. Scheider's Mail.

OUGHKEEPSIE, N. Y., Wednesday. —Mrs. Scheider is certain today that she has a great many friends she did not know existed. There are a good many friends who have sent her flowers and messages of every kind. In addition, there are a number of very kind notes from people who thank her for things which she has done for them in the past and tell her

how sorry they are she is ill. When her mail was brought in this morning, I took it from the nurse with a great deal of satisfaction, for I was now the one who opened the mail and decided what she should read, instead of the reverse procedure. Then I asked Mrs. Scheider if she knew one or two of the people who had written. She shook her head, looked up at the nurse rather apprehensively and said: “If everybody I have written to in the last six years is going to-write me now, no one is ever going to have time to acknowledge the letters.” I am very glad 1 did not read “The Citadel” until this week. Comparatively few books will hold your attention when you are very anxious, but “The Citadel” meets that requirement and it saw me through some very trying hours. I haven't quite finished it, but I think it is a most interesting book.

It’s Not That Simple, Miss Hawes

I am also grateful for the Connecticut Nutmeg. This new magazine, which I read with the greatest interest, has so many contributors of note on a variety of subjects, that I think everybody can find something in it to give them a few moments of entertainment. In the last issue, Elizabeth Hawes gave me much joy. She suggested that those of us who had to attend our son’s weddings in the month of June should just pick out some nice, comfortable garment which will stand rain or sum, and not try

to decide on something new. That sounds eminently sensible. But oh, Miss Hawes, just try it if you have a family, or even worse, if you have to answer the questions of the press on what you are going to wear! All winter long I try to make four or five evening dresses sound like 15. You wear the same dress, but it must be black velvet with lace on one occasion—and the lace must always be priceless—and black velvet with sequins on another, or black velvet with orchids on a third. The editors wouldn’t like it if a truthful reporter wrote: “The same black velvet dress was worn on two previous occasions.”

Mr. Pyle

Bob Burns Says—

OLLYWOOD, June 9.—There’s nothing gets into H a fella’s blood like travelin’. Here my wife and I started to fly to some quiet place for a rest and we wound up flyin’ all over the country. It reminds me of this world traveler who has circled the globe 40 times, and has visited every little: nook and cranny in the world. When I asked him how he happened to become the world’s greatest globe trotter, he said, “Well, it all started when I tried to find a place to park my car.” (Copyright, 1038)

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(Fourth of a Series) By Thomas L. Stokes

Times Special Writer SOMERSET, Ky., June 9. —They take their politics very seriously in this southern section of Kentucky and in the hill and mountain country to the East. More sophisticated diversions are not plentiful. And nobody is more serious about politics new than some zealous WPA officials, including supervisors, timekeepers and foremen, who are translating literally in this region the word that Senator Barkley, President Roosevelt's Senate leader, must win renomination in the Aug. 6 primary over

Governor Chandler.

In some cases they are frank, blunt and open in their methods. These consist, according to numerous affidavits, in lecturing WPA workers about support of the Senator, threatening them with dismissals, actual firing in some few cases that have come to light, discrimination in type of work, and promoting the reregistration of Republican WPA workers as Democratic so they can vote for the Senator in the primary. This area is a Republican stronghold; its Congressman is Kentucky's only Republican in the House. “Papers” (as the local people call them) pledging the WPA worker to vote for Senator Barkley are being passed around freely on projects in Pulaski County, with demands that the workers sign them. A 65-year-old foreman, E. T. Rich, in charge of a quarry project, swears in an affidavit that he twas fired because he would not become active for the Senator, and that the area engineer for Pulaski and Russell Counties told him the only reason was that he was for the Governor. Area engineer is a responsible position in the WPA.

” un ” N his affidavit, Mr. Rich said that “George Nelson, the timekeeper on the job, brought some papers out on the job for the boys

THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 1938

The Relief-in-Politics Racket

Kentucky WPA Workers Claim They Were Fired for Not Backing Barkley

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to sign up showing whether they would support Barkley, that some

of the boys came to me and said that they were for Chandler and did not want to sign the papers and asked my advice. “I told them to be a man and if they were for Chandler to be for. him. There were 65 of them on the job and at least 25 of them came to me and asked me what to do, and I told them this looks like your meat and bread and I would suggest to do just what I thought was best. . “I didn't try to influence them for Happy or Barkley either one. I was trying to comply with the regulations of the WPA and keep

By David Dietz Times Science Editor

AYS to convert the energy of the sun into useful power will be sought at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in a series of researches backed by a fund of more than half a million dollars.

The fund, to be known as the Solar Energy Fund, was given to the institute by Dr. Godfrey L. Cabot of Boston and consists of $647,700. Scientists of the institute are to devote their time to studying methods of converting solar energy into electricity, steam power, or some other source of direct power.

Meanwhile, researches are to go forward at Harvard University with the aid of a similar grant from Dr. Cabot to study means of increasing the utilization of solar energy through the growth of plants. It is hoped that the Harvard researches will yield plants which grow quicker or more luxuriantly than- present varieties and which can be converted easily into alcohol or some other form of fuel. It is a well-known fact that plants grow with the energy of sunlight. Using this energy and with the aid of the green pigment known as chlorophyll, plants convert the water of the soil and the carbon dioxide of the air into carbohydrates, the sugars and starches of their tissues. This process is known as photosynthesis. Chemists hope some day to be able to duplicate it in the laboratory. One of the first necessities is the understanding of- the nature of chlorophyll. Dr. James B. Conant, now the president of

Side Glances—By

Scientists Seeking Ways To Put Sun to Work:

Harvard University, devoted much of his time to this problem prior to assuming the presidency. o » 5 R. KARL T. COMPTON, president of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, points to the dominant role which sunlight plays in life. “This energy,” he says, “determines our climates, causes winds, ocean currents, and rainfall, and produces photochemical actions whereby a portion of the energy is stored up in plants. Thus solar energy is the source of our fuels of wood, coal, oil and gas, as well as the power derived from wind and falling water.” But despite all this, most of the sun’s energy is wasted. Dr. Compton points out that the amount of heat falling upon an acre of ground during the three months of summer is the equal of 250 tons of high grade coal. Some attempts have already been made to convert sunlight into useful power. Dr. C. G. Abbot of the Smithsonian Institute has designed an ingenious solar engine in which steam is developed in a flash boiler by concentrating sunlight upon an arrangement of glass tubes by means of parabolic mirrors. Certain types of photoelectric cells, like those used in light meters, convert sunlight directly into electricity. Whether such devices can eventually be made upon a large

{enough scale to develop enough | electricity to light houses or run ! factories is a question for the future.

Clark

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politics out of the job and at least not to influence the men in any way. About g week later I received a form 403 which showed that I was discharged, but it gave no reason for the discharge. “About a week later Mr. Zack Taylor, who is the area engineer for Pulaski and Russell Counties, came up on the job and he asked me if I wasn’t pretty mad at him for firing me, but I said I wasn’t mad because he fired me, but I didn’t like it because he didn’t have the nerve to come up and tell me why he did it. “Then he said ‘I haven't a thing in this world against you personally or nothing against your work,” and I said, ‘Zack what made you fire me?’ and he said, 'I fired vou because you was for Happy Chandler, and I had to do it to save my job.” » » y “PPAPERS” for Senator 'Barkley also are involved in a case in adjoining Russell County in an affidavit by Alvin Flanagan, 31, who was laid off in April after working for WPA for three years. “Before I was laid off the foreman called me off and said that I have a paper here that I would like for you to sign pledging your support to Senator Barkley, and I told him that I would rather not sign a petition supporting anyone. “I refused to sign the paper pledging my support for Senator Barkley, and I was dismissed from the payroll of WPA. I honestly believe that my refusal to support Senator Barkley was the cause of my dismissal from the WPA.” Political pressure on behalf of Senator Barkley by five other WPA foremen is claimed in other affidavits from Pulaski County. Art Hargis, 36, said the foreman on his job, Cleve Keeney, told him about two months ago “that the fellows on the job were going to have to support Barkley if they stayed on the WPA.” The same Cleve Keeney is mentioned in another affidavit as approaching Volantus K. Burgin, 44, who said he was told that he would have to support the Senator if he stayed on WPA. ” = » UBSEQUENTLY, Mr. said in his affidavit, he sprained his back and, on doctor's orders, was given lighter work as water boy. Before he had recovered, he said, the foreman told him he would have to give up the lighter job and go back to the quarry because he was for Governor Chandler. Later he was discharged. The reason given on his

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papers was that he “quit because he could not get a higher rate of

pay.” The foreman, he said, offered him a better position with more money “if I would support Senator Barkley but I refused to do so.” John Johnson, 40, of Eubank, who has been on WPA for a long time, said he refused to sign a paper for Senator Barkley when it was presented to him by a foreman and a week later was fired, the slip saying he had disobeyed orders and was loafing on the job. He can prove by every man on the job, he said, that he was guilty of neither offense. A foreman, Jim Yancy, was represented in an affidavit by G. W. Maynard, 71, as talking to the men on the job about the election and saying that those who did not sign a paper for the Senator would be fired. Jim Yancy also mentioned in his affidavit another foreman, Joe Lewis, saying that while lots of men were on a job “Joe Lewis said in a loud voice so we could all hear him that all of you have to reregister and support Barkley or it was your meat and bread, and if Chandler was elected all the jobs would be cut off.”

” » » ROM Knox County, Jame:

Disney, 48, related in an affidavit how a timekeeper, Paul

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* opRONNG

Bain, handed out Barkley campaign buttons to the workers on the project He told the timekeeper he was not for the Senator and would not wear a button. “The said Bain then said ‘By God, are you for Happy?” Mr. Disney replied + that “Happy” had made a good Governor, but added that he was registered as a Republican and could not vote in the primary election. He was then told, he said, that he “had better go to the county clerk's office” and have his registration changed so he could vote in the Democratic primary. The foreman told him, he said, that he'd better do that and work for the Senator if he expected to hold his job, to which he retorted that he was not going to be forced to vote for Senator Barkley, but “had a right to be for whoever he pleased.” “The next day Parker Hemphill, who is foreman on that job, came and called affiant off from where the rest of the WPA men were working and took him down the hill over a hundred yards and put him to work by himself in a mud hole standing in the water and mud almost up to his knees. “Affiant had no boots and neither the said Hemphill or the said Bain did obtain or attempt to obtain any for him.”

Maj. Williams to Be Guest At British Air Pageant

Times Special EW YORK, June 9.-—Maj. Al Williams, famed precision flier and maker of many speed rec=ords, has sailed for England as a guest of England's big air show and pageant, June 25. The Times writer was invited by Lord Beaverbrook, whose London Daily Express is sponsoring the show. Later Maj. Williams plans to tour several countries on the Continent, reviewing civil and military aviation. With him on the Queen Mary he has his Grumman singleseater biplane, the Gulfhawk. This plane, a standard fighting ship of the sort used on Navy rarriers, has been modified to Maj. Williams’ specifications and clipped of its military gear. It has a 1000-horse-power Wright cyclone engine, and

Jasper—By Frank Owen

679 Oopr. 1985 by United Posture Syndioate, Tae.

"When | get married I'm going to insist that my wife do the ‘cleaning when I'm not around."

"Oh, you look swell, Papa—give him the $5 for his title if he'll

promise it's

not phoney!"

in power dives attains speeds upwards of 400 miles an hour. Maj. Williams’ reportoire at the English show will include many fighting maneuvers which he devised as a Navy test pilot and saw become standard military tactics. His research in inverted flying, for instance, was one of the citation points - when he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, and various aspects of ‘upside down” flying will be part of his exhibition. Lord Beaverbrook, a leading exponent of alr preparedness, travels in an American-made amphibian. Several years ago, when he felt England ‘vasn't keeping pace, he bought an American-made transport and had it delivered prepaid to the British Air Ministry.

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

1—-On which coast of South America is the republic of Chile? 2--In astronomy, what is the name of the path described in space by a heavenly body? 3--Name the president of the American Federation of Labor. 4-—-What college is located at Hanover, N. H.? 5—What is the mame for the art of flying a ‘heavier than air craft similar to an airplane, but not provided with an engine? 6-—Was former President Hoover a member of President Wilson’s Cabinet?

» » ” Answers

1-—West eoast. 2«-0Orbi

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-

| Sts, and almost immediately the | Germans

Our Town

By Anton Scherrer

Surprisingly Enough, the First Brewer in the City Made Most of His Money in the Sale of Yeast.

HINGS ‘everybody around here ought to know: The first brewery in Indianapolis was put in operation in 1834 by John L. Young and William Wernweg, contractor for the Na-

tional Road bridges. It stood on the south side of Maryland St., near West. In 1840, it was sold to Mr. Faux, a Frenchman, who had a lot of fun trading his beer for frog legs the boys brought him, Mr. Faux made most of his money not as a brewer, however, but by selling yeast to the housewives of the town to make homemade bread and biscuits. At that time, women didn't think much of baker's bread —men, even less. They insisted on having their bread hot at every meal. In 1841, or thereabouts, Mr. Faux moved his brewery to the corner of Noble and Washington of Indianapolis picked rt that part of town as a good place to live. William Spears was the first stonecutter around here, He established his yard in 1833 at the corner of Kentucky Ave. and Washington St. Frank Devine ney started the first mattress factory near the canal crossing Maryland St. The first permanent and profitable iron foundry was started by Robert Underhill, and for a while John Wood, our first baker, was associated with him. The first brass foundry was established by Joseph W. Davis in 1855. Three years later Garrett & Co. began a bell foundry on the Union tracks between Meridian and Pennsylvania Sts. The first machinery for making and dressing staves and barrel heads was brought here in 1856, and put in a shed structure near the river, south of Maryland St. by John D. Defrees and his brother, Anthony. Frederick Balweg was the first around here to think of making boxes, and started on the southwest corner of New York and Delaware Sts. Subsequently he moved to a much larger building on Madison oye. a little north of Morris St. The building is still ere.

Pork First Packed in 1835

The first pork packing in Indianapolis was done in 1835. In that year James Bradley bought hogs ready killed and cleaned by farmers, cut and cured them in a log cabin on what is now the southeast corner of Capitol Ave, and Maryland St. The business didn’t get a good start, though, until 1841 when John H. Wright with the help of his father-in-law (Jeremiah Mansur) and his brother-in-law (William Mansur) started a packing plant here, They bought the slaughtered hogs from the farmers and stored them in an old frame building on the northeast corne: of Maryland and Meridian Sts. Which leaves the piano makers to be taken care of, Believe it or not, Indianapolis had Robert Parm=lee, a piano maker, as early as 1843. As near as I can find out, he had his shop where the Ayres people now do business.

Jane Jordan—

Do Not Attempt to Match Gossip With Gossip, Jane Advises Wife.

EAR JANE JORDAN-—My husband, my child and I recently moved from a rooming house. The landlady is a gossip. When we lived with her she talked about all the other roomers and the neighbors, We moved away and she followed us up and told my new landlady all sorts of lies about me. I don't owe her a cent and my husband wants to get even with her; so we tell everyone of our experience with her. Everyone we talk to seems to know her past. Do you think it is all right to get even with such

people or is it better to let them rave on and show their own colors? A READER.

Answer—Gossip is like everything else; it dies when it has nothing to feed on. If you really want it to flicker out, don’t poke it. Left alone, the lady will soon lose interest in you and find something else to talk about, but if you retaliate you only add’ fresh fuel to the flame, There is one comforting thing about a person with an established reputation for malicious gossip. Nobody believes him. Even the truth is not believed when uttered by a slanderous tongue. Everyone to whom vou have spoken is familiar with the woman's history. Nothing you can do will make it any blacker nor help you one jota; so why put out so much energy when the results net you nothing?

” n ” EAR JANE JORDAN--I have read “Doubtful’s” letter and there is a great similarity in our lives. She has stated my problems so concisely that I am writing you to let you compare our letters, I quote: “I work all the time. He will never change. He nags. I try to talk in a civil conversation but it will end in a fuss.” My life, exactly! Like Doubtful, we are

childless. In your answer vou surmised that it was the home to which Doubtful clung. I, too, hate to lose my home. I loved my husband dearly when I married him five years ago, but uncivil treatment and contempt does not foster love. Nothing pleases him. He criticizes my relatives and friends and never gives me a good word at home, He says my conversation bores him although I am a college graduate. T want to keep my husband and my home but what chance have I? HOPELESS. Answer--If vou work and earn money you are fortunate for you do not have to spend your life in such an uncongenial atmosphere. A room of your own might be lonely for a time but it would be peaceful. Does your husband want a divorce, or must he have something to object to in order to satisfy the peculiar requirements of his nature? Would he come to himself and be more co-operative if he knew that you could not be persuaded to put up with him as he is? All you can do is find out, JA JORDAN.

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

New Books Today

Public Library Presents—

N 1870, a young carpenter of Denmark, finding work scarce in that country, embarked as a steerage passenger for America. Bitter disillusionment and not golden opportunity awaited him; jobs were few, poorly paid and often far between. During months of poverty and hunger, hostility and cruelty, he learned at first hand the hopelessness and misery to which poverty condemns the socially unfortunate. The son of a Danish school-master, he aspired to become a newspaper reporter. Eventually, after much hardship, that dream was realized and the ex-carpen-ter began his long career as writer and social reformer. Louise Ware presents JACOB A. RIIS (AppletonCentury) as a dramatic and usually successful champion of social reform. Ceéaseless warfare against sweat shops, tenement and slum evils, disease and crime, made “Jake” Riis a nationally known figure of his time, It was he who introduced to America an - invaluable weapon against tuberculosis-—the Christ mas seal. Though he died 23 years ago, his “fighting spirit” still challenges and inspires in his writings notably, “How the Other Half Lives,” and "The Making of An American.”

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