Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 20 September 1938 — Page 11

SRR a

Vagabond

From Indiana =_Ernie Pyle

The Wakefields Believe in Doing Things Right or Not at All and That's What Makes Life So Good.

WHITMAN, Mass.,, Sept. 20.—Of the dozens of little miracles that have built the eating place in Whitman known as the Toll House, the most miraculous seems to me that the builders—Kenneth and Ruth

Wakefield—apparently have never made a nistake. They have in reality, I suppose, made many. But he mistakes certainly don’t show, In finance, public psychology, or good taste—they seem to have an uncanny facility for doing the right thing. At the start, they decided to open every Monday morning with every biil paid. They're still doing that. By They do have an auditor now— Ry ™,. but once a week Kenneth Wakee & field sits down and personally writes “3 out checks for an hour. < o At times they have had to bor- - row from banks. They hated it, for that meant that somebody else had Mr. Pyle to tell them how to run their business. Over his desk Kenneth Wakefield has pinned two canceled notes for $5000 each. They symbolize the Wakefields’ deliverance from obligation. They don’t owe a cent to anybody, and they say they never will again. But all that does not explain the outlandish success of their eating-house. A thousand little points make up that explanation, but the biggest one is the fact that the Wakefields decided to run the ideal eating place—never to cheat nor to chisel. To run it from the diner's standpoint instead of the proprietors. Here's what I mean: When they started their original buying eight years ago, the wholesalers said to buy cheap, hard chairs, so the people wouldn't sit so long. The Wakefields bought easy chairs. The wholesalers said to buy large soup plates— get the people filled up on soup, because soup is least expensive and dessert is most expensive. The Wakefields bought small soup plates, and concentrated on elaborate desserts (such as pie with meringue 3 inches deep).

$300 a Month for Flowers!

At the Toll House youre welcome to a second helping of anything. Just the other day a man ate clear through two full-course dinners (two 14unce steaks) for the price of one. Of course they lost money on him. But they figure the bragging he'll do about how much he ate will bring them profits. The Wakefields throw away hundreds of dollars’ worth of slightly soiled menus yearly. They never cross out any item with pencil. There is no mussiness in their dining rooms. The Wakefield waitresses are instructed to talk with the guests (if the guests want to talk). There are eight hostesses, with three always at the door, that newcomers won't have that “lost” feeling. Every table at Toll House is set differently—silver and china and cloths of different designs brought back by the Wakeflelds from their travels. They spend $300 a month on fresh flowers for tables. Duncan Hines, the traveling gourmet whom 1I wrote about not long ago, said the average life of a good restaurant was three years, because as soon as success came the greedy owners started cutting down on quality and thereby killed the goose Bankers and other advisers tried to get the Wakefields to do that. But instead, they kept on spendin hey enlarged and modernized the Kitchen,

SO the

bo up new and fancier foods. Guests are invited to step into the Toll House kitchen. Alf Landon has been in the kitchen. And Jimmyv Roosevelt, who spent a good deal of time chatting with the workers. Everybody in the Toll House kitchen is sure he will be President some dav. As for me, I'd rather be the Wakefields than be

President.

My Diary

By Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt

Easiest Way to Get Information Is to Say One Doesn't Know.

The easiest way I

YDE PARK, N. Y.,, Monday know to acquire information is to say in my column that I don't know something. Immediately, someone either writes me the information, or puts it into some paper where someone else clips it out and sends it to me. There was a time when I never dared sav I didn't know a thing. I picked up all I could from the pecple who were talking to me and kept my mouth shut. In that way I gleaned sufficient information to give an appearance of understanding, but my knowledge was superficial. Since I have gathered up enough courage to tell people I do not know things, I discover they are not only willing to stop and explain during a conversation, but they are also entirely willing to write me. The people who do know things seem quite anxious and happy to impart their knowledge. I never again can say I don’t know the origin of Labor Day. for the Transcript-Telegram of Holvoke, Mass... on Sept. 6 published a complete history of the » earlv labor movement and the origin of this day. I was familiar with the fact that May 1, the European Labor Day, usually had a revolutionary quality, but the gradual evolution of our own Labor Day was very hazy in my mind. How Everything Piles Up After I returned home yesterday morning, evervg I did spend quite some time with my mother-in-law about our patient in Rochester, Minn, and I am glad to have continuous good news of him to report.

telling her all |

I had a little while with my neighbors, Miss Dicker-

man, Miss Cook and Miss Goodwin. The latter

just came back from England and it was interesting |

to receive her views on the European situation.

Then my brother came with seven guests for a | Without his enthusiasm I would |

swim and lunch. never have taken a swim on what was a very cold,

gray day, but T was ashamed to let him think that | only the gentlemen could stand cold water and, once

in. I found it rather pleasant and invigorating. They left late in the afternoon. ame up and I went back with her to see her husband and children and then spent a long evening going hrough the accumulation of mail. Among it, I found

a note from Mr. Angelo Patri and a small magazine |

entitled; “Youth Today.” Many of the articles are condensations from other publications of articles of particular interest to high school age youngsters. I think that this magazine should fill a real need for young people.

Bob Burns Says—

OLLYWOOD, Sept. 20—To read some of the speeches about how big business is being abused, you'd think that this is the first time in history when people have not been sympathetic with corporations. When I was a boy down home, the only corporation we know of was the railroad, and every time the Circuit Court convened, there would be at least a dozen cases where farmers was suin’ the railroad company for runnin’ over a town. I remember one time when the railroad lawyer got up to plead his case, he noticed there were only 11 men in the jury. When he spoke to the judge about it, one of the jurymen got up and says, “That's all

Mrs. Morgenthau |

right, judge, don't worry about it—Bill Hocks had to go home and tend to a sick hog, but he left his verdict with me.” (Copyright, 1928) o

The Indianapolis

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Times

Second Section

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1938

Entered as Second-Class Matter Indianapolis,

at Postoffice,

Air War ¢ © © © © © eo © eo o o oo ByMajAlVWVilliams

Germany and Italy Sprout Wings As Way to Power in Europe's

(Fourth of a Series)

IR power and the bombing plane are the poor nation’s new chance for world power. One modern battleship costs about eighty million dollars. That same sum will build about 2000 highspeed bombers each of which can carry 4000 pounds of bombs with a range of about 2000 miles. The whole lot can be built in half the time it would take to build the one battleship. ” o 8 S I toured Europe this year inspecting machinery and planes of the leading nations, it became increasingly apparent to me that countries best fixed with raw materials for air power are playing into the hands of their

poorer neighbors who are planning to squeeze the last drop out of aviation as a weapon. Russia's air threat is not what it’s cracked up to be. The products of her aircraft factories are not up to the workmanship standards of the rest of Europe's aircraft industry. France, at present, must be discounted because of internal turmoil and the upset conditions of her aircraft industry. Fighting against these Russian and French built jobs, Italians in Spain say that the Russian planes are not able to stand steep dives and I was informed on good authority that the muchpublicized Russian fighting plane, the Mosca, was completely wiped out by the gunfire of Italian and German planes, and by its own tendency to shed its wings at high speeds. » os 2 HE British have unlimited means of credit, but are hampered by fumbling and dilatory programs which have put them about two years behind the specified time table.

I am unabie to point out one glaring gap in the air rearmament of England. There are many little things, a multitude of confusing plans, multiplicity of aircraft types. and a hectic organization of what has bene branded the British “shadow aircraft” industry. As proof of this delinquency in the British production program, it is worthy to note that England felt it necessary to purchase 400 fighting planes from America, in spite of protests by her own aircraft manufacturers Lord Nuffield, the Henry Ford of England, prophesied more than two years ago that the “shadow aircraft” industry—scattered factories manufacturing various plane parts—would not work. He was kicked out of aviation, and given the job of producing tractors fer the British Army. During my visit in England, Lord Nuffield was begged to come back into the aircraft picture. His prophecy had come true. In addition, the British face the old-time bugaboo of seeing their Navy passing out as the first line of defense. All these factors have stymied England's drive for air power. And at present she's on a decidedly defensive basis in the air. ££ & # BIT pressed for some materials needed in aircraft production, both Germany and Italy have found ways around the problem and are going right ahead with production. Air power requires high speed steel in relatively small quantities. In this department both nations can meet the demand. Italy has enough aluminum and its alloys, but Germany lacks bauxite for the manufacture of these metals. Now getting bauxite from the Balkan countries. Germany anticipates being cut off and has been experimenting with chemicals and other low-grade materials available at home and is doing very well. As far as volume production of

fighting aircraft is concerned, I conservatively estimate that Germany is not only producing more finished aircraft per unit of time than the British, but also is turning out superior jobs. Every great aircraft manufacturer in the United States had a representative in Germany this summer, and I went through a few German aircraft factories with an American manufacturer whose name is known throughout our industry. ” 2 2 N one factory I saw 70 bomber wings mounted on electrical jigs, slowly moving through a shop. These jigs were tied together, and as one moved they all moved. And as each unit passed a given station, additional manu-

facturing steps were completed. This type of mass production of aircraft also is standard in Italy. The Germans have gone in intensively for the use of magnesium. This metal is one-third the weight of aluminum and possessed of characteristics which in many instances are more desirable than those of aluminum. I saw entire streamlined landing gear struts for a German fighting craft made of a magnesium casting. The fabrication of these struts was a onetime operation. I saw sheets of magnesium being moulded and stamped by automatic machines, as cowling for the engines. Magnesium is brittle, hard to handle. My American aircraft manufacturer friend commented that we in America had not learned to handle magnesium sheeting as yet. I saw sheets of aluminum being stretched over forms where a one-time operation completed an intricately shaped covering for an airplane. Automatic machines, huge presses, accepted a flat sheet of aluminum which came out the other side bent and shaped to become part of an airplane wing, fuselage or cowling. These all are items in the rapid production of modern aircraft.

2 ~ ”

HE Germans and the Italians are using the unit method for speeding up the production of their planes. The fuselages are built in one shop, the engine mounts in another, the wings in still another, and so on with all the items which go to make up a completed modern aircraft. Each of these units, when com= pleted, is sent to an erection shop, where their assembly turns out a complete airplane in a matter of hours. An observer is amazed and dumbfounded by the intensive planning and attention to detail which must have been necessary for the rapidity with which these people cut the man-hour factor down to a minimum, and practically throw ships together. And the completed jobs are finished in every detail with every nut, bolt, screw in place, every accessory on board—even down to the firstaid kit in its own special cubicle. The Italians and the Germans also are devoting intense research efforts to the use of specially prepared wood for the manufacture of aircraft. In these efforts the Germans particularly have been successful with their laminated wood. The thin layers of wood pressed together and impregnated with a special glue are about as hard as iron. The resultant wood has the properties of soft steel, will not float in water, is cheap to produce, will not absorb water, and is of indefinite life.

” 8 2

OTH nations are interested in the war production of composite ships, that is, part wood and part metal. Records of the World War disclose that the life of the average fighting plane was 30 hours. For such short duration of life, metal construction is too ex-

Side Glances—By Clark

pensive. There's low cost, sufficient

strength, and much greater rapidity of production in the com= posite or all-wood airplane. Quality versus quantity of aircraft fabrication and performance in the air is even more highly stressed in the fighting aircraft than it is in a navy vessel or in the equipment of a land army. There's strength in numbers, of course, but quality performance in the air is not to be purchased on a money basis. That is the product of ingenious, creative, engineering minds. One Hollander, Anthony Fokker, almost licked the Allies singlehanded in the air. In the early part of the war he approached the British with proposed designs for fighting airplanes. The British turned him down. Fokker went to the Germans and in a long series of successful air fighters, he finally developed the one which stung the Allies to desperation, the famous Fokker D-T. & #& 8 IR power is what you have on the line ready to go, with finished planes and trained men to pilot them. Again the British

are way behind in the matter of

trained piloting personnel. They have also had a great deal of trouble with their training planes. One type of training plane figured so prominently in crashes that an Air Ministry member flew it and practically condemned it with restrictions. The trainers of the Italians, Germans, French and Russians apparently are satisfactory. Rus= sian man-power in the air is un= questionable. The air experts of all European nations told me this. The select few among the Rus= sian pilots are good, while the run-of-the-mill are worthless. The French just can't seem to get going with their training program, while the Italian Youth Movement apparently is providing pilots enough for the planebuilding plans of Italian air power. ° As evidence of the pressure

TOMORROW

Military aviation is a hit-and-run business in which only the smartest know how and where to hit and when to run.

under which the British are work= ing the trained air force person= nel, the Government recently sponsored a scheme for training any young man or woman in England to fly at the rate of $1.25 per hour. That's the cost to the student pilot. The Government pays the rest of the cost to the instructing agency. Germany's glider and sailplane efforts, which developed into a national sport during the last 20 years, supply basically trained pilots {0 meet the rapid aircraft production program. It is universally recognized that a student pilot, trained on gliders and sail planes, requires only one-third the instruction time of the ordinary student pilot, who started in on the power planes,

” 5 ”

UILDING air power only is the first stage in a long-time program for maintaining it. The next job intensively concentrates on design and research, whereby better ships can be produced, one type after anbther. Tne third and most important consideration is a plan or plans whereby obsolescent aircraft still serviceable, but not first line, can be discarded at a profit. This means selling to some foreign nation.

I was impressed tremendously

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J 0 “\ a . 1938 BY NEC SERVICE, ING. I MRECUSEF

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So et me eT .

"Come on, Paw—let's go look at the canned fruit. One pumpkin looks pretty nich like another."

Everyday Movies—By Wortman

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Wortmane

"She says she wants we should paint each room a different shade

of blue, and there's five rooms yet!"

Race

with the intense attention devoted by the Germans to this item. The German Condor, for instance, which recently flew from Berlin to New York nonstop, is so constructed that all four engines can be removed and replaced by new engines in 256 minutes. I know of one German fighting ship where the motor can be com-=-pletely removed and replaced by a new motor within 12 minutes. This quick replacement of power plant is equivalent to multiplying existing fighters by about two or three, To change motors in a U. S. Army or Navy ship, from two to 21, days are required, and to change the motors in a Douglas transport necessitates a layover of not less than three hours, The New German Junkers JU90. another four-engined giant transport, is accommodated for complete removal and replace=ment of engines within 40 minutes. These are factors introduced into the air equipment pictures by a nation which views air power as its new and probably last chance to compete with those nations which own a preponderance of the military equipment that has won other wars.

” EJ o

ETROLEUM and its by-prod-ucts are not only the lifeblood of commerce, but more essentially so of modern warfare. And an air war without petroleum is impossible. No nation can store enough petroleum to tide it over an intensive air effort involving thousands of planes. Ten years ago, geologists estimated that Germany and Italy were out of the picture for the next war. In Germany, the only free oil to be found is in the depths of the chalk mines, but in insufficient quantities to warrant the effort to raise it. German scientists, by a special process of hydrogenation, have been extracting petroleum from brown coal or lignite. When I was in Germany two years ago, the production of crude petroleum from brown coal totaled 135 million gallons. This year the production has been increased and the total will amount to 405 million gallons. It is estimated that within 2%: years the making of petroleum from brown rock will render Germany independent of the petroleum supplies of the world. By process of cross-licensing, similar factories have been set up in Italy, where in addition to unlimited quantities of brown coal, there are also inexhaustible reserve quantities of asphaltic chalk, containing high petroleum content. And so at least two nations, comparatively poor and lacking in natural resources, have contrived to meet the modest demands of aviation as a war weapon, and have concentrated on military development in the air. The advent of gun powder centuries ago tossed the hardware of chivalry onto the junk pile, and the war wings of air power today are nudging surface machinery along in the same direction.

(Copyright, 1938, by Pittsburgh Press Co.)

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

1—What is the nickname for the state of Idaho?

2—What is the name for the tackle by which life-boats on ships are lowered and raised? 3—Name the ninth month of the old Roman year. 4—-Who is Mamoru Shigemitsu? 5—Into what river does the Ohio River flow? 6—Do the Philippine Islands have a bicameral or a unicameral legislature? 7—Who participated in the last bare-knuckle fight for the heavyweight boxing championship?

EJ ” ” Answers

1—“Gem State.” 2—Falls. 3—November. 4—Japanese Ambassador to Soviet Russia. 5—Mississippi River. 6—Unicameral. 7—John L. Sullivan and Jake Kilrain,

» u 2

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 undertgken,

PAGE 11

Ind.

Washington

"By Raymond Clapper

Green's Announced Plan to Push 30-Hour Week Bill Due to Meet Opposition From Administration.

ASHINGTON, Sept. 20.— President

Green of the American Federation of Labor has announced that labor will renew its fight for a 30-hour week law in Congress next winter. In view of continuing unemployment the A. F. of L. believes such a restriction on working hours is necessary to spread employment, although the force of this argumsnt would be considerably weakened should industrial production rise rapidly during the next few months. This 30-hour week is an old objective of the A. F. of L. and is revived now when Mr. Green is anxious to have a talking point with which to recruit new union members and to dissipate the insinuations of his C. I. O. enemies that he is more interested in joining with employers to beat down John Lewis than in improving the conditions of labor. Soon after Roosevelt took office, the A. F. of L. drove the 30-hour week bill through the Senate. It was sponsored hy Justice Hugo Black, then Senator from Alabama. Not only did the bill pass the Senate but it was about to go through the House. The Roosevelt Administration was alarmed lest the bill should put in=dustry in a straitjacket. At this point the NRA was hastily thrown into Congress and was passed as a substitute for the Black 30-Hour-Week Bill. The big argument was that the NRA labor provisions were more flexible and would cause less dislocation than an arbitrary 30-hour limit.

The Swing to the British Plan

The same arguments that held against the bill in 1933 hold against it now, five years later, and there is even less justification for it in the opinion of many in the Administration. Most important of all, Mr. Roosevelt obtained the new Wages and Hours Law which aims to scale down hours to 40 a week within the next two years. That, it is argued, provides ample safeguard against infliction of overlong hours upon unorganized workers, Union labor is already to a considerable degree on a 40-hour week and the trend is generally that way. With this general level of hours now in process of being arrived at, a drastic cut on down to 30 hours, forced arbitrarily, would entail difficult readjustment which is not necessary from the viewpoint of protecting labor in its working hours. It now has adequate protection and is more in need of jobs than it is in danger of being overworked. :

Government is only one party in labor relations and can do only so much. Much more effective action is obtained through co-operation between employers and employees, as has been shown in the report to Mr. Roosevelt on British labor relations. This report, while receiving little attention from the general public, has made a strong impression in Washington because it shows so clearly that it is possible for labor unions and groups of employers to work out their problems without bothering the Government. Employers there prefer to deal with strong unions. The unions prefer to deal with organized employers. Progress in this direction, rather than through a new 30-hour-week short cut, is desired by the more level headed persons in the Administration.

Jane Jordan—

Are There Any College Coeds Who Will Answer This Mother's Letter?

EAR JANE JORDAN—What do you think of a college encouraging snobbery. My daughters work for their tuition. They were very popular during the rush weeks, but when the snobs learned of their financial embarassment, they dropped them like poison and ceased to smile and gush over them. My girls barely received a nod from these sorority goddesses.

This year they seem to be marked girls. The organized do not recognize them, and they are giving my daughters and other unorganized girls a dreadful inferiority complex. Why even the frat boys are snobs and associate only with the “Blue Bloods” of the organized. Now I happen to know several of these snobs and they can't afford to organize any more than my daughters. Their parents are living far beyond their means, deep in debt, and they dodge tne collectors. Still they have money for cars, bridge parties and sororities. We own our own home and meet all our obligations and have little left for clothes and glamour. But still we are looked down upon by some because we admit we haven't the means to show off. My girls don't smoke, drink or pet and are well liked in our neighborhood. They have boy friends, but few in college. Why don’t the colleges emphasize the Golden Rule instead of snobbery? All popularity and beauty contests are controlled by the sororities. So why criticize the dictators of foreign countries when the same sort of hatred is taking place in our schools? Truly, I think sororities and fraternities are responesible for much of our disillusioned youth. MRS. M. E.

Mr. Clapper

\d s 2

Answer—I should be glad to have some collegs student answer this letter. I should appreciate let< ters from both organized and unorganized. I am not acquainted with the situation and do not feel able to speak with authority. I do know that snobbery is encountered in every walk of life from the underworld right up to the top. Wherever a few hundred people are gathered together, groups and cliques will form of those who consider themselves superior to the rest. The standards vary from intellectual attainment, social position and material riches. Personality plays a large part. In each group you will find some exceptions where people who do not meet the requirements have forced their way in through sheer power of personality. Rest assured that the snobs suffer as deep an ine feriority complex as your daughters are acquiring. That is why they organize. They need the prestige of the group to bolster up their egos. Your daughters are doing an admirable thing in working for their tuition. They are bound to come out of college with more strength of character than those whose families live beyond their means to provide social prestige for their children. This fact may not be apparent to them now but will be realized in later life when they compare themselves with the snobs who had the better of it in school. JANE JORDAN.

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

New Books Today

Public Library Presents—

ONG before acting was considered a reputable occupation, the talent and respectability of that famous family of players, the Kembles, were widely acknowledged. And in the year 1809 was born Fanny Kemble, who was destined to add even greater glories to their fame. ) Margaret Armstrong in her biography FANNY KEMBLE, A PASSIONATE VICTORIAN (MacMillan) records the brilliant career of this famous actress from the time of her debut as Juliet at 20 until her retirement as a world famous Shakespearean reader. Against a backdrop rich and scintillating with the heritage of the theater, the author has turned the floodlights upon a great actress and a real woman,

warm, impuisive, and generous. ¥