Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 10 October 1938 — Page 9
‘Vagabond
From Indiana =Ernie Pyle |
Ernie Uses the Time While He's! Asleep to Explain How You Cross The Mountains in a Canal Boat
OX THE ERIE CANAL, Oct. 10.—You | leave Albany for a trip through the Erie Canal at 6:30 in the evening, and it is already getting dark and is pouring down rain. | Capt. Tom Thorsen swings her out into | the river, blasts a few times on the whistle, shoves the engine telegraph to “Full Ahead.” and we are bound into the night. My cold and I sat in the pilot-house
with Capt. Thorsen. He stood at | the wheel, steering easily through | the misty traffic of tug boats and | barges. We met a fast cabin cruis- | er, and that reminded Capt. Thorsen of the worst scare he ever had | on the Canal. It seems he whs meeting a cruis- | er just like this one, and it was | coming straight for his bow, He | says quite often these amateur | vachtsmen don't know one signal | from another, and he refrains fiom | blowing so as not to confuse them. | It was broad daylight anyhow. | But this cruiser kept coming right at him. As it got nearer he began to worry. As it bore down, he got scared. As it sped almost vpon him, he nearly yanked the whistle cord out of the cabin ceiling. The cruiser missed the big oil tanker by about six inches. As it passed, Capt. Thorsen saw that the driver was calm, unastonished, and—a woman! “Theyre with boats just like they are with autos,” he said. To which I did not reply. since women have always been very Kind to me, and if they want to ram oil barges it's none of my buwiness anyhow
We ground slowly up the river until we came, in the darkness and the downpour, to a fork in| the river, like a "Y.” ! Capt. Thorsen snapped on the searchlight in the bow, and its beam hit a big black and white sign | on the shore ahead. It said in huge letters “Erie | Canal—Champlain Canal,” with arrows pointing left | and right, just like a tourist sign. | We turned to the left, and entered the famous Erie Canal. Immediately you start up the steps which the Canalers call the “flight.” It is a series of five locks, one right after the other, and by the time vou | get through you're about 150 feet above the Hudson. | The “flight” is really a short-cut over into the Mohawk River. It was nearly midnight when we | reached the top and rang for “Full Ahead.” Then I | took my common house cold and went to bed with it, | thus ending my first day as an “Erie Canawler.” There probably are a lot of people in this world | who don't know exactly what a canal “lock” is. So I'll use this time while I'm asleep to explain Each Erie lock is a great concrete basin, about 45 feet wide and 328 feet long. The depth varies. The | smallest lift in any of the Erie locks is six feet. The highest is 40. Our ship is so big we have only a foot and a half | clearance on each side. We approach very slowly And it is amazing the percentage of the time this | huge ship slides right square in without bumping | either wall,
No Electric “Donkeys”
In the Panama Canal, your ship is hitched by | lines on either side to electric “donkeys,” running on | tracks. They hold the ship steady and also tow it in and out of the lock. But here the ship must do its own holding with | lines cast ashore, and it goes in and out under its | own power. | The gates ahead are closed, of course, when we come in. On the other side of them the water is much higher than we are. | Now the immense steel gates behind us swing slowly shut, and we are floating in the bottom of a box. Next, big underwater valves are opened elec- | trically, and water from the upper level comes pouring | into the “box.” The actual filling of the lock takes no more than five minutes. But the approaches are so slow that the over-all time in getting through is nearer a half hour. When the water in the “box” becomes level with the canal ahead, the gate in front swings open, and | we ease on out into the canal again, mavbe 80 feet higher than we were 10 minutes ago. Between Albany and Oswego, where we are going, there are 29 locks. On this trip of 185 miles we are ! raised through 19 locks, and then let down through | ten. We reach a high point of 420 feet above Albany Our engineer says his wife never has got it through her head how he can go in a big ship right | across the mountains. He says it even seems silly to | him sometimes. |
(Tomorrow—Colorful ‘Barge “Tows.")
My Diary
By Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt
Deplores Deliberate | Of Nature's Beauty for Profit. |
ASHINGTON, Sunday.—I have just been reading a letter from a friend who had a little cottage built on the sand dunes on the Massachusetts coast | with a most beautiful view of the ocean. Sad to say, | when the wind and water decided to go on the ram- | page, everything she had was washed away and what | was once their cottage is sirewn about what is left | of the sand dunes. She has taken it very philosophically as far as personal losses go, but grieves over the | damage the storm has done to the physical beauty | of that part of the country she loves. I quite under- | stana her feeling, but when nature takes things into her own hands. one simply has to accept whatever she | does, for puny human beings cannot stand up against | her. That is why I can never quite understand it | when human beings deliberately ruin nature's beauty | for profit A good example of this is a place on the Hudson River which I frequently pass. It is a quarry which is gradually eating into Mt. Taurus, located almost opposite West Point. There are many other places not far distant which could furnish crushed stone, and vet this place is being quairied for someone's profit, I suppose. The natural beauty which would be enjoyed by so many is being destroyed forever. I often wonder why public opinion is not sufficiently aroused to do something about this particular desecration. but I am afraid many people, as usual, remain apathetic.
Praises Actor Fred Stone
Friday night, in New York City, I went to see | Fred Stone in “Lightnin’® as Mr. John Golden's guest. I had the pleasure of going backstage for a few minutes to tell Mr. Stone how delightful I found | his interpretation of the part. Years ago, I remember enjoying Mr. Frank Bacon in this same play | and my appreciation of it was even keener last night. | The rest of the cast is, on the whole, very good, | but it is worth while seeing Mr. Stone alone. | Yesterday we came back tc Washington, where my orgy of theater going continued. for I had the pleasure of seeing Mr. Massey in “Abe Lincoln in Illinois” last night. It is & most interesting play, very well acted. I am driving down to Charlottesville, today to see our son, Franklin Jr. and his wife, Ethel, and our voungest grandchild, Franklin III
Destruction |
Bob Burns Says—
OLLYWOOD, Oct. 10.—The other day I read | where 2a man had given up his business jest | when it was beginnin’ to bring him in a fortune be- | cause he found it was takin’ his health and personal liberty. It takes a brave man to give up a money makin’ business these days. I had an uncle who use'ta work for a railroad down home and one day he was on a box car that | got away. The car went rollin’ down a steep grade, | pickin® up speed and somebody hollered to him | and told him if he didn’t jump, he'd get killed. My uncle hollered back, “No, the comvany pays me by the mile and I'd be crazv to jump when I'm makin’ money as fast as I am now!”
(Copyright, 1938)
| as anybody else,” one voter says.
{ reliefers are so predominantly for
~The Indianapolis Times
\
Second Section
MONDAY, OCTOBER 10, 1938
Entered as Second-Class Matter Indianapolis,
at Postoffice,
PAGE 9
Ind.
AMERICAN INSTITUTE
PUBLIC "OPINION
Should persons be denied the right to vote because they are on relief? That suggestion was put forward recently by a women's organization with branches in several states, How much latent support is there for this idea among rank and file voters? The following exclusive survey by the American Institute of Public Opinion gives an answer, ” » ~
By DR. GEORGE GALLUP
| Director, American Institute of Public Opinion
EW YORK, Oct. 10.—With millions of American voters on relief supporting President Roosevelt and the New Deal, some social observers are wondering whether the “relief vote” may become a permanent bloc supporting the party and program which promises them most. Whether this is likely or not, the question has disturbed many observers and particularly those of conservative bent. One suggestion, recently advanced by a woman's organization known as “The Women's Rebellion,” would go as far as to take the vote away from persons on relief under the “pauper” statutes in several states. This suggestion, if supported generally by public opinion, would disfranchise millions of voters who have been overwhelmingly for President Roosevelt. How much latent support would there be for such a proposal?
To answer this question the American Institute of Public Opinion has conducted a nation-wide survey of voters
Dr. Gallup
| representing a careful cross-section of the entire voting
population. Today the results of this informal referendum indicate sweeping public opposition to the suggestion. Less than one voter in five says he would approve it, while four out of five would disapprove. The Institute asked:
“It has .been suggested that persons on relief should not be allowed to vote. Do you agree with this suggestion?”
The vote by sections is: New England Mid-Atlantic East Central West Central South
9 82 80 Ww 85
The prevailing viewpoint of the men and women in-
21 si 18 os 0 23
| terviewed in the Institute survey is that the reliefers are
not themselves to blame for the fact that they are out of jobs and on relief. “The reliefer has just as much right to cast his vote “If what helps the reliefer is going to hurt the rest of the country, let the rest of the country vote him down.” Several Republican leaders have taken the same general view, including Clayton E. Freeman, chairman of the New Jersey Republican State Committee, who has attacked the disfranchising move, calling reliefers the ‘“‘vietims and casuals of the unprecedented depression, deserving
not only our material help but also our understanding, | svmpathy and good-will.”
In today's survey Republican voters join with Demo-
| crats in saying that the reliefers' right to vote should not
be taken away. The vote by parties is: Take Vote Don’t Take Away Vote Away 12% 88% . 32 68 « 19 81
Democrats Republicans Others
5 » 5
HE proposal indicates one of the most serious problems facing the Republicans, the fact that the lowest in-
| come group is almost entirely hostile to the G, O. P.
At the present time there are more than 3,000,000 per-
sons on WPA rolls alone, plus another million or two re- .
ceiving direct relief through State and Federal channels. Relief Administrator Harry L. Hopkins, one of the chief lieutenants of the New Deal, estimates that 90 per cent of those on relief approve the New Deal and support President Roosevelt today. Mr. Hopkins’ estimate comes very close to the Institute's own surveys, which indicate that more than four out of five reliefers voted for Mr. Roosevelt in 1936, and that 82 per cent of them are supporters of the President today. Moreover, the Institute's surveys shed light on why Mr. Roosevelt, Apart from the fact that Mr. Roosevelt made the first move to care for the unemployed on a national scale, the average
| reliefer fears that he will have a harder time getting relief
under a Republican Administration.
The Institute recently asked a nation-wide crosssection of men and women on relief: “Doe you think relief assistance would be harder or easier to get if we had a Republican President?” Eightv-nine per cent thought it would be harder to get. A sidelight on today’s survey is a comparison of the vote of men and women. The present suggestion that reliefers not be allowed to vote has come from a womens organization. Yet in the survey reported today oniv 17 women in a hundred approve the idea of disfranchising reliefers, while 21 men in every hundred favor it. » » ”
JITH the New Deal Washington deeply concerned over bogging farm prices and heavy crop surpluses,
| and wondering what the effect may be on the farmer's
cnn,
With several million voters on relief rolls, some observers foresee the creation of a class of voters dependent upon Federal aid and willing to support the party or program that promises them the most. This explains the recent sug-
Let Reliefers Vote, Public Says
Gallup Poll Shows Disfranchising Plan Opposed in Both Parties
Our Town
By Anton Scherrer
Robert Louis Stevenson and His Indianapolis Wife Got Along Fine Save for a Rift Over 'Dr. Jekyll’
| SOMEWHAT behind in my reading, it | ~ wasn’t until last night that I caught up | with a literary item to the effect that Robert Louis Stevenson never saw a performe ance of “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” What's more, that he did not want to see it because he had been hectored by his wife into changing the original version of the story to make it moralistic and never forgave himself. That's all the article said, but
to anybody brought up in Indianapolis the way I was, it let in a world of light. For the simple reason that the woman responsible for the butchering of Mr. Stevenson's story was none other than Fanny Vandegrift who, as a little girl, used to live at the corner of Michigan and Illinois Sts. opposite the pres-
ent Maennerchor Building. : | Fanny picked up her education
| Ward School which, by the way, is
jon W. New York St.. at the Third Mr | still standing. It's the drab-looking structure just back of the Y. M. C. A. Building. In all probability | she also went to the old high school in University | Park and, no doubt, that’s where she picked up the
Scherrer
i notion that a story, to amount to anything, ought to
It has been suggested thal persons on relief should not be allowed to vote. Do you agree with this suggestion?
YES—19% NO—81%
gestion that persons on relief be denied the right to vote. In a nation-wide survey conducted by the American Institute of Public Opinion an overwhelming majority oppose such a suggestion.
More than 3,000,000 men and women are on WPA rolls today and a great many others receive direct cash relief. How do these voters stand on the political questions of the day? Which way is their strength cast on election day? The following summary, drawn from recent Institute surveys, gives an answer.
Persons on relief overwhelmingly support President Roosevelt. More than four out of five of those who voted in the 1936 election were for Roosevelt, and the latest Institute survey shows 82 per cent still support him.
Although the country as a whole opposes a third term for Roosevelt, persons on relief say they favor a third term and would vote for FDR if he runs again (Reliefers who favor third term—60%),
Relief voters are the most consistent supporters of President Roosevelt's policies. A large majority of them approved the President's plan to reorganize thé Supreme Court last vear (7377), although the general public disapproved. By another large majority (837), reliefers went on record in Institute surveys as favoring the pump-priming and relief bill this summer, when most Americans were critical of renewed spending.
Although most voters throughout the United States— including most Democrats—disapproved of President Roosevelt's recent attempt to “purge” conservative Congressmen. nearly half of those on relief favored this policy (Reliefers favoring purge-—497).
Where the Relief Voter Stands
A majority of reliefers in an Institute survey last August said that had they been members of Congress during the past two years they would have voted to support “every measure recommended by President Roosevelt” (Reliefers supporting every measure—51%).
In the next two years a substantial majority of persons on relief want the Roosevelt Administration to be more liberal, rather than more conservative. (More liberal—67%).
Overwhelmingly, persons on relief think that it would be harder to get relief under a Republican Administration (Harder—=897%), and most of them think it would be hard to get back on relief again if they took a job and then lost it (Hard to get back on relief-—61%).
Most WPA workers (7279) say that they like their jobs, and most find them easier than their previous jobs (Easier—59%). But the great majority of persons on relief—whether on WPA or direct relief—believe they are not getting as much as they should (Not getting as much as they should—173%).
Like other American voters, persons on relief believe that the United States will have to continue relief assist ance permanently (Reliefers saying relief will be permanent—T5%). and prefer work relief to direct cash relief (Work relief—817%).
vote. a study conducted by the American Institute of Public Opinion shows:
1. That President Roosevelt still holds a majority of farm voters throughout the United States.
2. That he is less popular with these voters at the present time than a year ago, before the business slump and the tobogganing of farm prices occurred.
The Institute survey shows that Mr. Roosevelt has the support of 54 per cent of farm voters in the country as a whole. Sixty-two per cent supported him in the Institute survey of October, 1937. This is a decline closely consistent with Roosevelt's losses with city voters and small town voters over the same period of time. In the corn and wheat belt, however, where acreage allotments and falling prices have brought loud grumbles at the Administration's policy, the decline in Mr. Roosevelt's strength has been especially damaging. The survey shows that while 58 per cent of the farm voters in the 12 Central States were for Mr. Roosevelt a year ago, only 47 per cent—or less than a majority—are for him now. These States—including Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas. Nebraska, Missouri and the Dakotas—were long considered ‘normally Republican” by the G. O. P., and Republican strategists are
hoping they will lead a general trend back to the G. O. P. fold in coming elections. Southern farm voters are still strongly for the President. the survey shows, despite a loss since 1937. The following figures show that vote then and now: —Per Cent Favoring FDR— Year Ago Now sy 58% 7%
2 54
Farm-belt farm voters . Southern farm voters ALL FARM VOTERS »
HILE many factors may have been at work on the sentiments of farm voters in the past year, it is interesting to note that Mr. Roosevelt has declined more with corn-and-wheat-belt farmers than with cotton farmers. Corn and wheat have dropped from well over $1 a bushel on the Chicago exchange a year ago to about 45 cents and 65 cents, respectively, today, and the Government has rushed crop loans and benefit payments in order to bolster the farmer's income.
In a survey of farmers last year the Institute found |
{hat wheat farmers thought a fair price (on the farm) would be about $1 a bushel, while corn farmers thought they should have at least 75 cents a bushel. In spite of Government loans and benefits, many corn and wheat farmers are dissatisfied with what their crops have brought. (Copyright, 1038)
Side Glances—By Clark
~
a —
"Tinker says he won't be able to practice till the newsreel men get
through with him."
»
_~ 10-10
TEST YOUR
KNOWLEDGE
J
take up the foreign situation.”
1
Ful ita ae Wor tman
Reg U8 Pat OR. AR mphis reserved
Mopey Dick and the Duke
"Now that the Werld Series is over | suppose we'll have to
1—What is another * name for the chickadee? 2—-Name the capital of Poland. 3—What is kleptomania? 4—How many square inches are in 1 square foot? 5—In what country was indigo first employed as a dyestuff? 6—With what sport is the name Horton Smitlr associated? 7—What is the difference between interstate commerce, and intrastate commerce? 8—Name the two principal gases which compose our atmosphere.
#” ” ”
Answers 1—Titmouse. 2—Warsaw. 3—The name for impulsive stealing due to mental im- . bairment. 4144, 5—India. 6—Golf. 7—The first is commerce between the states; the second is commerce within a state. 8—Oxygen and nitrogen.
ASK THE TIMES
Inclose a 3-cent stamp fo 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 undertaken,
Hh —
| point a moral. After that she got married. She didn't marry Mr. Stevenson right away, however, because as fate would have it Samuel Osbourne got ahead of Mr. Stevenson.
Mr. Osbourne had been private secretary to Governors Wright and Willard and as such looked like a mighty good catch around here. At any rate, looked all right to Fanny's father because it was he who built the young couple a cottage on the corner of St. Clair St. and Capitol Ave. where the Kahn Tailoring people now do business. The Samuel Osbournes lived in this cottage until they went to | California. During their absence Tom Taggart hought | the Osbourne cottage and had it moved to the southeast corner of St. Clair St. and Senate Ave. to make room for his own big house. As for the Osbourne cottage, believe it or not, it now does business as the United Tabernacle Baptist (colored) Church.
Trouble in California
Well, when the Osbourne family arrived in Cali fornia, things began to pop. I don’t know the nature of the trouble, but it was enough to move Mrs. Ose bourne to pack up the children and go to France. By that time it was 1875. A year later, at Fontaine= bleau, she met the 26-year-old Robert Louis Stevenson.
Mrs. Osbourne returned to California in 1878, and in August of the following year, alarmed by the rejgoris of her illness, Stevenson hurriedly crossed the | Atlantic. He traveled as a steerage passenger and then as an immigrant across the continent. In December, 1879, he arrived in San Francisco more dead than alive. Mrs. Osbourne nursed him back to life and then just the way it happens in story books, they got married. Sure, by that time Mrs. Osbourne had gotten a divorce. They spent their honeymoon in a desolate mining camp described in “The Silverado Squatters.” Their married life, as far as I can learn, was one of the happiest on record except, of course, for that little rift in 1886 when Stevenson wrote “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” :
Jane Jordan—
Husband May Rebuff You Because He Feels Inferior, Wife Is Told.
EAR JANE JORDAN—What do you think of a man who belittles his wife with such insulting remarks as “You're dumb, plain silly and ignorant.” My husband is on the verge of being prosperous. I'm young, attractive and have lovely children. I keep a clean house and am a good cook. I have been a devoted and affectionate wife, but now I have grown a shell of reserve. My affection for my husband is dangerously cool. Why do men kill a woman's love like that? TI have looked back over my life and I cannot see where I deserve such insults. WHAT NEXT.
Answer—Wherever we find an exaggerated state= ment it is wise to look for its meaning in the oppoisite. When your husband calls you dumb, silly and ignorant, I wonder if he doesn't fear that you outshine him and feels obliged to make these remarks to maintain a position of superiority over you? That is, he makes himself feel big by making you feel little, Now, I don’t say that ycu're to blame for the fact that he is always trying to belittle you, but I do say that I have never yet seen a man slam a woman {who has the wit and wisdom to make him f=el |strong and superior. | I wender what would happen if you patiently {ignored his remarks and plied him with flattery. I {wonder if you couldn't change the whole picture by digging underneath to see what has damaged the {man’s self-esteem. If vou could make him dependent {upon your approval, then your disapproval would be lall that is necessary to prevent his insulting remarks. If your shell of reserve worries him, fine! Bub {don’t make it too hard to break it down when he comes to make peace. I do not know whether he is |interested in another woman. If he is, don’t let him {pick fights with you so that he can put the blams on you. Fd 2 u
EAR JANE JORDAN—I am a married woman of | 35. I have three children and a wonderful hus- | band. but I am undecided as to what to do because | 1 am in love with two other men. Do you think TI | should give these other two men up for him and my | children or decide upon one of the other and start | life over again? Both of these men say they are in love with me and I really believe they are. Please | tell me what to do. SHIRLEY.
Answer—You haven't painted a very pretty picture |of yourself. You represent yourself as a destructive | woman who tries to win men for the purpose of turnling them down. The devotion of one husband and two lovers makes you sound like an emotional glutton. In | my opinion you aren't as important as your children. | Why don’t you try doing what is best for them? |
Note to Mr. and Mrs. J. W. P.—Apply at the Family Welfare Society for children to board. JANE JORDAN.
Put your problems in a letter to Jane Jordan, who wilk answer your questions in this column daily.
New Books Today
Public Library Presents—
N inspiring and enthralling volume of memoirs that will interest the layman as well as the mu=sician is MIDWAY IN MY SONG (Bobbs-Merrill), by the great singer of lieder and opera, Lotte Lehmann, Although she was born in Germany, her artistic life has been centered in Vienna and Salzburg, and now, since the Austrian annexation, she seeks American citizenship. : This is an autobiography filled with charm and good humor, one which stresses the most important moments and passes lightly over the trivial profes= sional jealousies and personal animosities which spoil so many musical memoirs. The title is most apt, for Madame Lehmann can look ahead, no doubt, to as many years in the concert hall and on the opera stage as she sees behind her. And aside from its literal interpretation, one knows that the development and progress of such a great artist will never cease as long as she lives and that she will always feel herself mid= way in her song.
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