Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 17 October 1938 — Page 9

Vagabon

From Indiana =Ernie Pyle

Ernie Can't Stop for Stories on This Trip to Miami, but He Takes The Time to Jot Down a Few Items.

OWN THE ATLANTIC COAST, Oct. 17. —This is. going to be quite an experience for us. We're lining out for a long and steady drive clear to Miami. No dilly-dallying. No pausing to dig up stories. No stopping in midday for a couple of hours. It’ll just be up early, pound the road all day, stop at dark. : In our three years and 75,000 miles of auto gypsying, this is the first time we've ever just hauled off and driven for days on end with a definite time and goal in view. And so, since we won't be digging for stories, I thought it would be fun just to jot down the little things that happen on a trip like this. Sort of like writing in a diary, except I never had a diary and wouldn’t know what to write in one. ‘We were off the boat at 7:30 this morning, in Norfolk. The speedometer on our car said 38,524. We're going to see how far it is to Miami. Do you care? We don’t. The car was in the shop in Washington day before yesterday. Blew a cylinder head gasket. At least that's what the man said. He said: “You've blown a gasket and maybe swallowed a valve.” I've swallowed a lot of things in Washington, but if a valve was among them, I must be in worse shape than I thought. You take a ferry from Norfolk over to Portsmouth, Va. It's only about 10 minutes. We stopped in Portsmouth to- get gas. A young man strolled along, took a good look at the license plates, and then came over and said “How about helping a Washington boy get something to eat?” That “Washington boy” business burned me up, and I said “No.” But now I've been taken down with remorse, and have been worrying about it all day. The North Carolina line isn’t very far from Portsmouth. Half a mile over the line, we pass a gang of convicts working on the road. A man with a double-barreled shotgun over his shoulder stands around indifferently. \ The country changes quickly. It becomes sparse. There are many Negroes walking along the road. Over to the right is the great Dismal Swamp. One of the awfullest places in America. People have gone in there and never come out. A live snake wiggles across the road in front of us. There are lots of wooly worms and bugs on the pavement, and frequently a flock of buzzards sits at the roadside.

That Southern Hospitality

We stop for lunch in Wilmington, N. C. Go into a small hotel coffee shop. As we pass the desk, the clerk asks if we'd like to clean up. Instead of showing you to the public washrooms, he has a boy take you to a beautifully furnished, regular hotel room on the third floor. No extra charge. Just Southern hospitality. : We got stopped at one of these state plant inspection stations. Back of the seat we had some flowers friends in Washington gave us. My wife said, “Oh, my flowers!” The inspector laughed and said “You can keep them.” The country looks poor. Mostly Negroes along the road. The two-wheeled cart is common down here. It hauls everything from hay to saw logs. Horses look terribly gaunt. Negroes apparently have a swell time. They walk along the road in groups, laughing and joking. In one little cross-roads village, a Negro was lying flat on the ground in front of a gas station, right where cars would have to pull up for gas. He was sound asleep. This evening in the little restaurant where we ate, the hostess came over and talked for 10 minutes or more. She said, “Ah do declaiah, buyin’ a steak heah is like buyin’ a pig tied up in a bag.” We're now in the South.

My Diary

By Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt

First Lady Gets to Meet Some Old Friends Between Trains in Chicago.

N ROUTE TO JOPLIN, Mo., Sunday—One pleasant thing about traveling is the opportunity it gives you to see your friends and acquaintances. It was delightful to change trains at Chicago on Friday and be met again by an old newspaper friend, and then to find Mrs. Cotsworth and her daughter, and Mrs. Flynn of the Burlington Railroad all there to greet me. Afterward Mr. Louis Ruppel of the Chicago Times came down to the train and I felt I had had a real reunion. I have never before stayed in the city of St. Joseph, Mo. Historically it is very interesting, for at one time it was the end of the railroad and many of the western trails started there. The streets are narrow in the business section, but I have never seen such a delightful network of boulevards and nearly all the houses in the residential district have trees, lawns and gardens around them. We lunched on Saturday at the WPA practice house where the training of girls for domestic employment is being carried on. Like every other place where people apparently have been accustomed to having untrained maids, there is need for education among the employers. They are not always ready to set up certain standards of employment, which are the only way of attracting the really well-trained women to domestic employment. We drove about the city afterward to see some of the building which has been going on at the state hospital for the insane and ended our trip by seeing a WPA recreation project for children, which seems to be doing exceptionally good work. They have reconditioned an old building and have a gymnasium with a stage at one end, a library, a club room and a game

room. Unveils Historical Painting

Their play supervisors are practically all WPA workers and this makes it very difficult to find qualified people to do this work. It seems to. me, of course, that it should . eventually be a part of the school organization in every city, for supervised play and occupation during free time is our best defense against the spread of delinquency among young boys and girls. The moving spirit here seems to be a young Presbyterian minister and, from what 1 hear, he has succeeded in making his church members work hard. . After returning from the drive around the city, I went into the Crystal Room of the Hotel Robidoux to unveil a most interesting historical painting which commemorates the old pony express which started from St. Joseph and went to Sacramento, Cal. Its riders were brave men and kept communication open between our far-flung Western settlers and the Middle West before the telegraph or the first train had gone through. The picture is not only historically interesting, but extremely decorative and colorful. It does credit to the painter, Mr. George Gray. We came in by train this morning to Kansas City, breakfasted and changed trains and are now on our

way to Joplin, Mo.

Bob Burns Says—

OLLYWOOD, Oct. 17—I haven't got anything H against classical music, but I believe its followers are divided into two classes—those who really know and appreciate it and then there's that class of people who jest go into ecstasy over it because they think it’s the proper thing to do. I know one woman who was jest thrilled to death when she heard that she was livin’ in the same apartment house as a noted concert violinist. One day she heard his violin going and she rushed over and knocked on the door of his apartment and when he came to the door, she says, “I jest wanted to find out the name of that wonderful theme you » were playing. It has such freedom and wild abandon about it!” The violinist looked at her with a frown and says, “Madam, I was jest putting a new E string ‘my violin!” i fn i

Mr. Pyle

11]

“AMERICAN INSTI PUBLICOPTNION

. Many Americans have wondered what effect a European war, or a Serious threat of war, would have on U. S. politics. The following nation-wide survey by the American Institute of Public Opinion shows the effect of President Roosevelt’s peace messages in the recent crisis on the President’s own popularity. #2 nn =

By DR. GEORGE GALLUP

Director, American Institute of Public Opinion. : EW YORK, Oct 17.—President Roosevelt's

° dramatic action in appealing to Chancellor

Hitler and other European leaders for a peaceful settlement of the Sudeten issue has been followed by the sharpest upturn in the President’s popularity ever measured in an Institute of Public Opinion survey. The Institute has followed the President's popularity month-by-month for more than four and a half years, but no event in that period has changed the trend of Mr. Roosevelt's popularity in such short time. The latest Institute index shows a i the President with 59.6 per cent of the . 11 major party vote, as compared with Br. Gallup the last reported figure of 55.2 on Sept. 18. ‘This is still, however, below the 62.5 per cent which the President polled on election day, 1936. The most remarkable fact about the President's upsurge in popularity is that it brings to an end an almost equally sharp decline, that set in after the ill-fated “purge.” Surveys conducted by the Institute of Public Opinion in the fortnight after the purge elections in Maryland and Georgia, Sept. 12 and 14, show that the President had dropped to 53.3 per cent in the Institute index. This is the lowest point in the President’s popularity since his second term began. Had such a trend continued it might have boosted the chances of Republican candidates in the coming Congressional elections. But the war crisis obliterated the purge from the front pages of American newspapers and overshadowed it in the public mind. Mr. Roosevelt's first message to Herr Hitler, Prime Minister Chamberlain and President Benes, Sept. 26, was the turning point. ’ 8 8 OLITICAL writers who reported that President Roosevelt’s peace messages had enhanced his popularity were

correct, the survey shows. Some of these observers are now wondering whether the President will be able to hold the

. gains that he has made.

As the war scare ends new problems and several old ones may detract attention from the President’s peace role. Some of these are the farm surpluses and the problems of spending and relief. It is even possible that the reaction to the Munich peace agreement will hurt President Roosevelt, even though the United States was not a party to its terms. On the effect and counter-effect of these trends in the next three weeks probably depend the fortunes of dozens of Democratic and Republican candidates for Congress, and the Institute is now conducting a survey to measure the prospects of the two parties. . At the present time, however, it is clear that President Roosevelt's course of action in the European crisis has been a boon to the Democrats and a blow to the Republicans. The principles set forth in the messages to Hitler, Chamberlain and Benes closely express the hopes and judgments of the American public itself. The President stressed the will of the people of the world for peace and the existence of treaties binding the Powers to negotiate before resorting to arms. He took pains to say that the United States has no entangling commitments with any foreign nation. 2 2 2 2 VEN the Republicans could find no fault with this. Former President Herbert Hoover speaking at a Kansas City Republican rally, said that Republicans would gladly support the President in his appeals for reason and peace abroad. The general public took the same line. Typical comments of voters who support Mr. Roosevelt in the Institute survey are: “I'm for him after his message to Germany; 1 thought it was a wonderful thing.”

“I've sympathized with him all along, but I'm more for him than ever after his message to Hitler.”

“Maybe I shouldn’t be for Roosevelt, but with Europe the way it is, he’s the only man for the job.” In less than a fortnight, Institute ballots show, the President’s popularity jumped from its post-purge low of 53.3 to

its present figure of 59.6—a gain of almost six and a half points. :

The following table shows how opinion shifted in different sections of the country: . i Before Peace After Points of Appeals Appeals Change New England States.. 45% 50% + 5 Middle Atlantic States 51 57 : East Central States.. 48 56 West Central States ,.55 59 Southern States ..... 65 69 Western States . a 70 1 : ® 8 = NE of the indirect results of the European crisis may be a new demand for further increases in the armed forces of the United States. py :

At a press conference this week, President Rooseveit forecast that expenditures for the Army and Navy would

Peace Plea Gains

Gallup Survey Records Sharpest Upturn in President’s Pop larity ]

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MONDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1938

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Roosevelt Popularity || Since Appeal. to |S

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After dropping to the lowest point in months as an aftermath of the “purge,” President Roosevelt's pbpularity has turned sharply upward following his recent messages to Hitler and other Europepn statesmen urging a peaceful settlement of the Sudeten issue. The American Institute of Public Opinion has measured President Roosevelt's popularity continuously far 57 months.

The recent trend tis shown above.

The Political Barometer

The following is a summary of reported figures in American Institute of Public Opinion political surveys. These surveys are conducted among a crosssection of the voting population in all states. Within each state the Institute reaches Democrats, Republicans and third party voters, farm, city and small-town voters and persons in all age and income levels, in proportion to their Aumbers in the voting population. +

Roosevelt Popularity Percentage of major party vote for Roosevelt (today) ccoccosccocesssscesses 59.6% Before Roosevelt peace message..cccsooese 53.3% Previous Institute survey (September) 55.2% 1936 Election ccccesecesssssssasscssssssess 62.5%

Third-Term Sentiment ' T

Favoring third-term for Roosevelt (August) 41% Previous Institute survey (June)..c.ccieeeee 30%

Congressional Seats

Estimated net change in House : * if election were today (Sept.) . Minimum G. O. P. gain of 60 seats. Popular Party Favorites Democrats (July)....1. Vice .President Garner 2. Postmaster General Farley 3. Secretary Hull

Republicans (May) ..1. Senator Vandenberg 2. Herbert Hoover

postponed forever.

3. Alf M. Landon

have to be increased, and meanwhile a survey of nationwide sentiment shows that the average voter is in a receptive mood for arms increases. :

The survey, conducted by .the American Institute of Public Opinion, asked a cross-section of voters in all parts of the United States:

“Do you think the size of the United States Army should be further increased?” “Do you think the size of the Navy should be further increased?”

Throughout the country, 65 voters in every hundred thought the Army should be enlarged. Seventy-one per cent thought the Navy should be increased.

HERE are good reasons, Institute surveys show, why the average American favors an even stronger national defense setup than that provided for in the record-breaking appropriations of 1938. First and foremost is his belief that a large Army and Navy will do more to preserve peace than to draw this country into war. A typical comment from voters in the Institute survey is:

“England and France found that it doesn’t pay to be weak. As long as the other countries are armsing, America should keep up.”

The American reaction to the “Peace of Munich” is that while war may have been postponed, it. has. not heen In a survey published last week -in The Indianapolis Times 60 per cent of the voters expressed - the opinion that the Munich agreement would result not in peace but in a greater possibility of war. oF

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TF there. is another world war, an Institute survey indi-

A cated & fortnight ago, only 57 Americans in a hundred think the United States can stay out. - Taken together, all these straws indicate that the pressure will be on Congress to vote Army and Navy increases at the next session. How much resistance will be offered by peace and economy groups is hard to forecast. ; o In the survey reported today the greatest opposition

_ to further Army and Navy boosts comes from the Middle West. Republicans are slightly less in favor of increases

- than Democrats. .

Section by section the vote in favor of increases is:

Increase Army New England ... 67% Mid-Atlantic ..........o0...0. 70 East Central ................. 63 West Central ...........:..... 56 Soh ....o0i000nei irri ‘75 WERE... ooo iininenees 68 2

In the Washington naval limitations conference and afterward, this country-led in the move for disarmament. It is possible that if a scientific sampling could have been made even a decade ago a majority of Americans would have opposed increases in the Army and Navy.

In two previous Institute surveys, in 1935 and .early in 1638, however, the voters approved increases by large - majorities.

Increase Navy 71% 7 - 68 58

“0 0c0000000 0s

(Copyright, 1938)

NEXT MONDAY—Would the Democrats or the . Republicans gain if, the Congressional elections were held now? How many seats would be likely to

Clark

Side Glances—By

"We ‘must. be improving—the neighbors are y ling, ‘Turn’ down.

al

day ol

—By Wortman

change hands?

TEST YOUR sr KNOWLEDGE

1—In astronomy, what is the: name of the path described in space by a heavenly body? 2—What treaty ended the war © with Mexico? 3. Who was known as the Great Pope? 4—Prom the top of what mountain did Moses receive the law? 5—Name the administrator of the WPA. : 6—Name the last state to be wy Bani) to the union. : — George Wash n sign / the Declaration gn dence? 8—What is chronology? : o » 8

Answers

1 L-Orhit. : % e Trea of Guadalu Hidalgo, iy pe 3—Pope Gregory I. 4—Sinal. : 5—rlarry L. Hopkins. 6—Arizona,. - T—No. 8—Measurement of time. TE, . ASK THE TIMES Inclose a 3-cent stamp tor reply when’ addressing any question of fact or information: Jo The Indianapolis Times Washington = Service Buream, 1013 13th St, N. W. Washington, D. C. - Legal and ‘medical

4 "time I've tried to uncover the origin

medica) | impressed her,

Matter

ur Town

By. Anton Scherrer

Note to the Lady From Irvington? Sure, Indianapolis Had Its Smart People, Those Like Dudu Fletcher.

1° AAKING use of the brand of blarney on

"™ which Irvington thrives, a lady from out there sent me a perfumed note to say

the ones concerning the smart animals we used to have around here, and winds up asking whether by any chance Indianapolis had any smart. people at the time. ” Sure, there was Dudu Fletcher, for instance. Dudu

was the 19-year-old girl who wrote “Kismet,” a novel that turned up

.| anonymously in 1877 in the famous

“No Name Series.” Our grandmothers lost so much sleep reading “Kismet” that they never did catch

up. P Dudu wasn’t her real name. She was baptized Julia Constance Fletcher, and I don’t know how she picked up her nickname. What's more, it’s none of my business. I happen to know that because every

_Mr. Scherrer

of a nickname, it turned out to be of such a private nature that I felt like peeping through a keyhole. Julia lived with her parents on St. Mary St. (the present 10th), and for all I know that's where she

| wrote “Kismet.” If not, the chances are that she was

in some out-of-way place that couldn't possibly be reached except by way of a ship. Julia got around a lot. Why, she even picked South America as her

; birthplace. That's because her parents happened to

be there at the time. Come to think of it, her parents are worth mentioning, too. Her mother, for instance, was the daughter of Dr. Cesar Malan, the noted Swiss

| divine, and her father was none other than the Rev.

James Cooley Fletcher, the oldest son of Calvin, the start of the Fletcher dynasty in Indianapolis.

He Knew His Brazil

Julia’s father, a very learned (Princeton) gentleman, was an author, too. He wrote “Brazil and the Brazilians,” a book that went into several editions back in the Fifties. The reason he knew enough to write ‘a book about Brazil and its people was because he had been a missionary down there. For the better part of 10 years, I guess. - To be sure, it doesn’t always follow that a writer profits by first-hand acquaintance with his material. Take Herman Melville, for instance. As far as anybody knows, Herman didn’t have more than a scraping acquaintance with whales and yet he wrote the best fish story ever written, while Jonah, who had inside information on the subject, wrote the worst. Consider Julia, too. She picked a Turkish name for her book and I doubt very much whether she had seen anything of the Orient up to that time. After that, Julia saw a lot of the world, however. She settled in Rome and became a favorite in the literary circles of that city. She kept right on writing books. Plays, too. Maybe you don’t know it, but in 1903 Dudu Fletcher of Indianapolis dramatized Kipling’s story of “The Light That Failed.” The reason it escaped you is probably because Dudu’s literary career—a very distinguished one, by the way—was hidden under the pseudonym of “George Fleming.” I don’t know how she picked up that name, either,

Jane Jordan— Two More Express Their Views on

The Multiple Marriage Question.

Das JANE JORDAN—You are tough on those who marry young and often. I have been mare ried three times and frankly I am not ashamed of it. 1 married first at 15. The man was 10 years older. He bought me my first silk hose and a fur coat. He tried to buy my love and failed. The next marriage was at ‘18. He was older, too, but again I learned it was not love. Both men knew it but coaxed and pleaded for a chance to make me love them. My third husband, a friend of my second, fell in love with me when I was 19 but never told me until after I'd been divorced. I tried to tell him the same as I did the first two men but he wouldn’t listen. But he was jealous after marriage because ‘I couldn’t love him. I think now that no one should marry before 30, but the fact that I did doesn’t mean I'm wicked or not capable of real love. When I found I couldn’t love three I quit, but why condemn those who do what they hope is right? ME TOO.

Answer—I did not say that people who married many times were wicked. It is not so much a question of whether they are good or bad as whether they are wise or foolish, adult or infantile, stable or unstable, co-operative or unco-operative, adjustable or inadjustable. I pass no moral judgment on the much married, What I said was that a person who repeats the same pattern of failure in his life should inquire into himself for the personality defect which causes such failures instead of blaming the partners. Take yourself for example. You made your first marriage for silk hose and a fur coat. who marries in order to get things is infantile in her attitude. Since you were only 15 at the time, your attitude is not surprising. However, you learned nothing from the experience, ’

and let all three spend their time coaxing you for affection. I'm afraid you're something of a baby yet, and while I wouldn’t call you wicked, I do:doubt your capacity for unselfish love unless you adopt a more mature atitiuge toward love and marriage. » » 8

EAR JANE JORDAN—I am a man of 40 and cannot agree with you on multiple marriages. I was married to a- woman who had been married twice before and I still love her. She was young and popular and I wouldn’t take no for an answer. I thought I could make her love me but just because I couldn’t is no cause to down her. You say the English people found nothing admirable in Wallie Simpson’s marriages. Do we have to marry someone a group of people admires? BOB.

Apswer—You might ask yourself why you like lose

only when they meet opposition, who are perpetually attracted by the unobtainable. One doesn’t marry a person because he or she is. admired’ by a group of others, but we do have-a right to raise the storm signals when we find one who has many times failed to adjust to a similar site uation. It is quite possible to establish a satisfactory life in the scheme of things as they are unless one unconsciously prefers to swim against the current for reasons of his own. JANE JORDAN.

Put your problems in a Totter to Ji answer your Questions in this column groan, wie wil

[New Books Today Public Library Presents—

“NETTING married was nothing. I had the Gere

J man measles on my wedding day and a raging temperature, so that I was married under a force draught as it were, and afterward I went back to bed . and opened a ‘fresh box of Kleenex.” Thus begins Margaret Halsey’s diary WITH MALICE TOWARD

| SOME Simon & Schuster). When her husband was

appointed to an exchange professorship in England she accompanied him; and in this book she gives

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as mat. ani thas, makes eer

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that she had followed my pieces, especially

The woman |

You've married three men whom- you did not love

o

ing. There are those who are stirred emotionally