Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 29 August 1938 — Page 9

Vagabon

From Indiana = Ernie Pyle

Homing Pigeons Sometimes Exceed A Mile a Minute While Flying, But Some Are Too Dumb to Get Going.

ALBANY, N. Y., Aug. 29.— Thomas Mackie started a hobby when he was just a baby, and in his middle 50s he’s still _ wrapped up in it. The hobby is pigeons. Mackie is Albany’s No. 1 pigeon racer. His house is so full of silver trophies he doesn’t . know where they all are. They represent a lot of honor, but very little cash. Mackie doesn’t

make enough from racing to pay for his hobby. In t fact, it costs him about $500 a year. He 'is a carpenter, and work hasn’t been too plentiful the last few years. : Mackie’s latest victory was win‘ning the big July race that started in Marietta, O. His pigeon “made the 459 miles home: in 21 hours 48 minutes, which is about 22 miles an hour. Except you never, never say “miles an hour.” You say “yards : a minute.” Mackie’s winner aver- # gged 617.17 yards a minute. Fur=Mr. Pyle thermore, you never say “pigeon.” > You say “bird” It’s hard to say " just how fast a pigeon (bird) can fly, for you never know where all he’s been on the trip home. Racing pigeons stop frequently for water, and to eat grain in fields. ; Also, they don’t fly at night. If it’s a long race, the official timing stops half an hour after sunset, and starts half an hour before sunrise. Sometimes a bird will stop for a storm, although qge of Mackie’s pigeons came all the way from Cleveland in the

rain.

His fastest one was a pigeon that came home from Rochester, 198 miles away, at 66 miles an hour (1930 yards a minute). As far as Mackie knows, the rec=ord is held in England at about 75 miles an hour. A pigeon racer never goes to the starting point of a race himself. He ships his birds by express, in a crate, and he stays home to clock the finish. About the time he expects the bird home, he has to gather five members of the local pigeon club as witnesses. When the bird arrives, they take the numbered slip off its leg, put it in an official timeclock which stamps it, and then all six sign the slip. Sometimes a pigeon will circle and circle around his home loft before landing, and this almost drives "the owner nuts, because he can’t check him in till he gets hold of him. Pigeons aren’t as perfect as you might think. Some homing pigeons don’t know where they live. One good one out of four is the average. “And some pigeons are lazy, just like people,” Mackie says, “and won't try to get home.” Occasionally when they turn a pigeon loose at the start of the race he won't even fly.

Into The Frying Pan

. In this last race Mackie sent six birds. Four came back. He hasn't heard from the two others. If they come back now they’ll go into the frying pan.. Mackie doesn’t know whether a pigeon realizes he’s racing or not. He also doesn’t know what makes a pigeon come home. Obviously you can’t see 500 miles. some experts think it’s in the hearing, although he can’t figure what a pigeon could hear. But he says if you stopped up a pigeon’s: ears it would never get back. Pigeon fanciers give their birds long training flights. They'll either ship them to other pigeon mer for release, or simply ask the express company to release them at a certain city. There are two pigeon associations in America— the American Racing Pigeon Union, and the International Federation. The American Union has 26,000 members, and they have an annual convention at which 2000 show up. This year’s is in Milwaukee. Mackie always goes. : Some racing pigeons bring high prices. The record - js in England, where a bird brought $1000. But Mackie is lucky if he gets $10 for one of his. The ~average life-span of a pigeon is about 11 years. But Mackie has one 19 years old. He’s “pensioned.” Mackie doesn’t know how he got interested in pigeons. He remembers his parents asking him, when he was very small, what he wanted Santa Claus to bring him. He said “a pair of pigeons.” Santa did, and Mackie has been pigeon-conscious ever since.

My Diary

By Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt

Mayor La Guardia and His Family Are Luncheon Guests at Hyde Park.

YDE PARK, Sunday.—Before I write of more recent days, I must go back and tell you of my trip on Friday with Mr. and Mrs. Gray. As far as Chatham, N. Y., I know the general direction of the road, but from there on Mrs. Gray was supposed to know it. Old Chatham was what we were looking for, but we went to East Chatham instead and finally arrived at the house from the wrong direction and a half hour late. Of course, I said it was Mrs. Gray’s fault, but I had left home one hour later than I had agreed and had I not, we would have had a whole half hour to spare. On the way back, Mr. Gray directed us and, much as I hate to say so, I am afraid men, as a rule, are more reliable as to general direction. Saturday was a full

Mackie says

/

y for all of us. In the morning, delegates from a group of\young Ukranians, who hold a convention next ek, ) presented me with a beautifully embroidered blouse. Even though they are all Americans, it is evident that they have not forgotten the skills they brought to this country and they still do the most beautiful needlework. Mayor and Mrs. La Guardia brought five children to have lunch with us. THey take the upbringing of their children really seriously and are trying to teach them things in their formative period which many children are not allowed to learn until they are much older. I never saw such well behaved children. At 3 oclock we all attended the Roosevelt Home Club ‘meeting, which is held every year on Moses Smith’s lawn. A number of the old trees in front of his house have gone in the last few years, but he still has one of the most beautiful maples I know around here shading his porch. The setting with the house gaily decorated is charming and Mr. and Mrs. Smith are good hosts. Arthur Smith, who is president of the club, always invites his father to make a speech as host and he does it with humor and kindliness. -

Picnic at Cottage He mentioned the fact that the number of people

attending the party seems to grow every year. This -

year he did not suggest that the President give his home village a new postoffice. Thus he left it open for the President to remark that he hoped the town of Hyde Park rated a new postoffice before long— one is in process of building in Rhinebeck and another in Wappinger’s Falls. We had a picnic at the cottage in the evening and some dancers who call themselves “The Cheats and Swings,” from Woodstock, N. Y., came down to entertain the President with old-fashioned country dances. The gentlemen were interesting in their oldtime costumes, and the ladies were graceful and attractive. All the neighbors who came seemed to enjoy it and the party broke up a little before 10 o’clock.

Bob Burns Says—

OLLYWOOD, Aug. 29.—A lot of people have asked me if I would like to go back. over the ground I have covered so I could do some things different. I guess I'm a whole lot like my Uncle Hod. He says, “The most timid animal in the world is the rabbit and he back-tracks.” Uncle Hod wouldn't cage anything for anybody. He simply says, “Here it is - and you can make the most of it.” : One day when he was awfully tired, he walked . into a barber shop and slumped down in the chair and says, “Give me a shave.” The barber looked at him and says, “Youre slumped down too far

By Lee G. Miller

Times Special Writer

souri mule.

Republican.

Born 69 years ago in a log house in middle Pennsylvania, he took to the coal pits as a matter of course. “Father had a big pick and a big shovel,” he says, “and I had a little

pick and little shovel.”

He never attended school. But he inherited from his pious Welsh father a yearning to be informed, and before he was 20 he began to satisfy it. He learned his letters in Sunday school. A clergyman taught him Latin. His eloquence at a lodge meeting interested an attorney and he began reading law. When he was 23 he passed the bar exam, quit the mines, and hung out his shingle at Cumberland, Md. The next year he married the Cumberland girl who will help him celebrate a golden wedding anniversary five years hence.

FTER 10 years of law practice he was elected to the Maryland Senate, and here he sponsored a workmen’s compensation law, the first in America, which was passed amid much wringing of conservative hands. . That was enough to put the progressive label on Davey John and he has worn it long enough to be ranked as the Senator Norris of the house. He made his first bid for Congress in 1908, but his district, which stretches from the District of Columbia line to Pennsylvania and West Virginia, preferred a Republican : that year, as it had for a-generation. In 1910 he won the seat, and held it for six years until he tried for the Senate and lost. 3 President Wilson (who in 1913 had thought of making him Postmaster General) shortly appointed him to the tariff commission, where he served for eight years. Calvin Coolidge didn’t like his low-tariff views and offered to reappoint him only if he would deposit an undated resignation—an extraordinary proposition which Mr. Lewis rejected. So it was back to the political wars for Davey John. When he stood for Congress in ’28 the Hoover landslide was too much for

By NEA Service ONDON, Aug. 29.—Is the current massing of huge numbers of Reichsfuehrer Hitler's troops following a plan which, earlier this year, won a German Military Academp prize for Col. Conrad, Chief of Staff of the 18th Army Corps in Salzburg? : The award was offered for the

best contribution upon the theme: “Military Attack Upon Czechoslovakia.” And according to the usually reliable and well-informed Catholic weekly, “Der Deutsche in Polen,” which is published for the benefit of Germans residing in Po-

ASHINGTON, Aug. 20.—When President Roosevelt speaks in Maryland next Monday he will go to bat for a little gray man who combines some of the salient characteristics of Abraham Lincoln, Cinderella and a Mis-

Rep. David J. Lewis or “Davey John” as his friends ‘know him, is carrying the New Deal banner in an overheated Senatorial primary against Senator Millard Tydings, who in the President's opinion ought to run as a

Mr. Lewis is 5 feet in height, but he has a towering record of legislative achievement. When he was 16 he couldn’t even write; now he is a member of the Academy of Science, He went to work in a coal mine when he was 9 (as his father had done at 7, his grandfather at 6) ; today he is a powerful champion of the unemployed —“America’s untouchables,” he calls them.

. him, but he came through in 1930 and regularly thereafter. During his early years in the House his contributions included the law creating the parcel-post system (over angry protests by the express companies), and the Clayton act provision exempting trade unions from the anti-trust laws. But his greatest legislative monument—social security — was erected under the New Deal.' For years he had been pounding for nation-wide unemployment and old-age insurance, and he was accordingly designated to sponsor the Roosevelt social security bill in the House. 2 ” ® HEN Mr. Lewis rose to speak for the bill, his colleagues listened in silence for 35 minutes as he appealed in such terms as these: “Even under slavery, the slave owner did not fail to feed and clothe and doctor the slaves no matter what might happen to crops or to markets. . . . The world does not owe a man a living, I grant you, but as sure as God rules the heavens, it does owe him a chance to earn a living.”

When he was through they sprang to their feet, applauding, shouting, surrounding him to shake his hand. : Long before the President loosed his court-enlargement plan upon a startled nation, Davey Lewis had been urging that the power of the courts be checked. Three “unwritten amendments” should be ex ged from the Constitution, hé said, namely, the self-asserted right of the courts to veto acts of Congress; the “distortion” of the due-process.clause to broaden the courts’ powers, and the ‘“suppression” of the power granted

- Congress to legislate for the gen-

eral welfare. In the campaign he. is being called a coattail rider and a yesman. But Davey John was 8 New Dealer before the phrase was coined. They call him a radical, too. And perhaps he is. But he is no funny-money man. His minority report assailing the Patman greenback plan for paying off the soldier bonus was a thesis on fiscal orthodoxy. And he is an advocate of heavier taxes for middle-class incomes, as against the sock-the-rich theory. “I have no patience

Nazi Mobilization Recalls Prize Plan for Czech War

land, the sense of Col. Conrad’s essay was as follows: The “necessity” for marching into Czechoslovakia would be based upon “incidents.” When Hitler gave the word, it would be the army’s business to move. : The essential feature of such a

campaign would be that it must be over—and won—within 14 days

and, if possible, in a shorter time. |

The world must be presented wich an accombvlished fact at lightning speed, especially so that Germany cculd be ready to face France if that country decided to help its ally. The attack must be quickly success-

APSO NEA SERVICE 1¢.250-U-S. PAT. oP.

Side Glaneces—By Clark

MONDAY, AUGUST 29, 1938

‘The Senator Norris of the House

at

Maryland’s Rep. Lewis, Backed by Roosevelt, Long Listed as Progressive

(Editorial, Page 10)

Rep. David Lewis with these Robin Hoods in taxa-

o tion,” he says. :

Davey is no Daniel Webster in appearance, with his stubby figure, his steel-rimmed spectacles, his furrowed face. But his colleagues respect his honesty, his intellect, his tenacity, and his scorn for demagoguery.

“Hoss Thief!”

Senator Tydings

3

ful because Germany cannot carry on a long war. For .these reasons, the attack should be by a mass concentration of troops and war materials so enormous as to smash all resistance. If this were done, the situation of the Czech army would be hopeless, because it would be attacked from thé north, west and south all at once. ; 2 ® 2 T is assumed that Poland, Yugoslavia and Rumania would stand aside. No. help could come from Russia during the blow at Praha. The Russian Army would have hard going through the Carpathians and

troops from Vienna and Ratibor could easily hold them. The Russian

air arm is powerful, but would have’

a difficult time reaching Czechoslovakia and could be combated by the

‘German air fleets. Futhermore, as

a result of Stalin’s various purges of his military chiefs, Russia is not

capable of making a great war ‘ef-

fort. There remains France. But the French Army takes time to mobilize and could not do so before the Germans had smeshed the Czechs. . a As to the Czech Army, it if well armed, but the human material is miles behind Germany's. The attack would be made by great num-

Everyday Movies—By Wortman

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bers of tanks, mobile artillery and aircraft whose job it would be to totally demoralize the enemy. In addition the Mvaders would have the help of the Sudeten Germans. The retreat of the Czechs must be

turned into a panic flight. Praha must be taken quickly, because then the whole operation of the Czech Government would be paralyzed and demoralized. With Czechoslovakia definitely crushed, it would be very hard for the French cabinet to get the French to fight for a lost cause. 'But if they did, Germany could throw its main armies to the west, ready for all

events.

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

1—Who was the first President of the Republic of Texas? © 2—Name the manager of the Detroit Tigers baseball team, who was recently let out. 3—In what language was the original Magna Carta? = 4—What building in Boston is . called “Cradle of Liberty?” 5—What is the fruit of the oak tree? : 6—What is the highest rank in the U. S. Army? T7—Into what lake does the , Genessee River empty? 8—Which President of the U. S. lived the longest? ;

2 2 Answers

1—Sam Houston. 2—Gordon S. (Mickey) Cochrane. 3—Mediaeval Latin. Sh 4—Faneuil Hall, 5—Acorn. 6—General. T—Lake Ontario. 8—John Adams. : 8 = =

ASK THE fIMES

-Inclose a 3-cent stamp for reply when addressing any Juestion of fact or information e

to Indianapolis Times © Washington Service Bureau, 1013 13th St, N. W. Washing-

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

‘| has only one-seventh

Public Library Presents—

~ Second Section x

PAGE 9

Washington

' By Raymond Clapper

Most Southern Editors Consider Administration's Attention for Dixie. as an Ally, Not an Insult,

ASHINGTON, Aug. 29.—There hava been: two reactions to the recent Rooses velt Administration study of economic and social problems in the South. The first reaction was that of the polis tician, like Senator Pat Harrison of Missis« sippi, who muttered something about carpetbaggers and the South being able to run its own affairs, Possibly Senator Harrison didn't like the facts, for

the committee of Southern educators, industrialists and other publicspirited: citizens of the South reported through Lowell Mellett, director of the National Emergency Council, that Mississippi's school system was so deplorable that there were actually 1500 school centers in the: state without school buildings. The second reaction was to set civic groups and individuals in the South to thinking about ways of improving conditions. Typical of this activity was we c prance x of Southern Scripps-Ho - ; Of chs cities fn M1 Caper the South. They said the report to the NEC was the “key to the doorway of opportunity.” Using the condition pictured in the report as & springboard these editors decided that the first immediate and practical step was to remove discriminatory freight rates. These discriminatory freight rates shove up the cost of materials which the Southern manufacturer must buy and shove up again the cost of marketing his finished goods. He is forced to cut into his payrolls to keep on a fighting basis with his more favored Northern competitor. Southern Governors have a rate case pending before the Interstate Come

merce Commission seeking to remove these dise

criminatory freight rates on a selected list of articles.

Statistics Speak of Woe

These freight rates are regarded by this group of Southern editors as the source of other evils. They force low wages. Low wages mean poor health. Harry Hopkins recently stated that although the South had one-fourth of the nation’s population, it of the national income. Southern than half as much per customer richest states. You can spin out editors felt that

retail stores sell less as stores in the 12 these statistics by the yard. The it was time to do something. So, instead of regarding the Administration’s ree port as an insult, they accept it as a general guide, intended to be helpful. They propose to urge State Legislatures to set up laws establishing fair contracts between tenant and landlord, to put some money into fighting disease, to abolish the poll-tax so that ordinary folk can vote, to enact modern labor legislation,

1a

3

to revise taxation of natural-resource industries so

that, while not penalizing rational development, they will prevent exhaustion of these resources and produce revenue much needed for schools and public-health work. wt

The Scripps-Howard newspapers are not alone in

this. Other editors, and the South has some of the most progressive and intelligent in the country, have long been fighting for these things.

Jane Jordan—

The More Boy Friends the Merrier, Columnist Tells 16-Year-Old Girl,

DE JANE JORDAN—I am a married woman of 48. My husband is 54. Two years ago he had to go out of town to work for a while and was gone 10 weeks. I went to stay with him and he seemed to be changed. We always had loved each other very much. There was a married woman where he stayed and a couple of persons told me he had been out with her, but I could not believe it. Later I found a letter he had written her sending his best love. When I told him I had the letter he seemed hurt but I said I would forgive him if he would not write or see her any more. Now I am sure he is all mine again but in my mind the thought goes over and over day after day, “Why did he do that?” ‘I am afraid to ask him why he did this and sometimes I can’t love him for

these thoughts. Should I go on living with him?

Answer—Don’t take it so seriously. After all what does it amount to? The relationship you have with

your husband is far more sound and endurifi§jthan this temporary flirtation. It is

already dead. Do forget it. husband is suffering from the 50-

Doubtless your year-old blues. He feels that his youth is fleeing and

this episode was only a pathetic little stab at re= capturing it. It is too pad that you caught him. Otherwise it would have died down leaving him feeling slightly foolish, perhaps, and you would have been spared the heartache. Well, you must forget it. You can shut it out of your mind if you fill your mind with other things. What you need is a more humorous attitude toward human nature and iis follies. For heaven's sake don’t leave your husband; you'd punish yourself more than “him. : 1 : i 8 8 #

DEAR JANE JORDAN-I am a girl of 16 and a high

. school senior, I am going with four boys at the :

present. Do you think this is wrong? Two of the boys are not in town very often. The other two both live in the neighborhgod and I see them often. One of them asked me to go steady but I refused even though I like him a lot. Do you think I should break. with the others and just go with one or two? There are plenty of girls in the same situation who would like to know whether or not they are doing wrong by going with four or five boys at the same time.

Answer—At 16, the more the merrier so far as boy friends are concerned. Your task is to get acquainted, to have many friends in order to have a better basis of comparison when you make your final choice. Most girls would brag about having four boy friends. Why should you apologize? :

Note to Mrs. E. J. H—I do not have any informas tion about a Ladies’ Exchange in Indianapolis. i JANE JORDAN.

Put your blems in a letter to rdan A Tins Ia his i FB ordan, whe will

New Books Today

1

BE aiNG today to assume an important place in Europe's shifting and dramatic alignment of nations is a revitalized and vigorous modern Poland. In spite of her ages-long travail of conquest and oppression, the division of her territory among Russia, Austria and Prussia after the third partition in 1794, the resulting loss of her identity as a nation for over a century, and the fact that she suffered only less devastation than France and Belgium in the World War, the indomitable Poland again shows her spirit. The land which produced Si illustrious medieval king; Thaddeus fought by the side of Washington

wo : i "I told Mrs. Green my two dngle sons are coming, up:next week-end "According to our budget, we're supposed to go out tonight and. and right aw telephoned her daughter. Ella o-come tose her." spend $23 on recreation and social av icoment sf ng avey she felep Horied herlau ghar Ela tecome fase hers ;

RY

in the chair for me to shave you.’ Without movin’,

Uncle Hod says, “All right, then—gimme a haircut!” (Copyright, 1938) ;

1, D. C. Legal and