Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 23 December 1938 — Page 13

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From Indiana=Ernie Pyle

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. a Entered as Second-Class Matter \ = "at Postoffice. Indianapolis. Ind.’

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FRIDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1938 ty Buying a Shirt in Santos, Brazil, Is a a A Cinch, Especially When You Have = An Interpreter Handy in the Sfore. SANTOS, Brazil, Dec. 23.—Santos is ‘the ~~ leading coffee port of the world, and the natural gatewhy for the foreign commerce of

— the thriving state of Sao Paulo. I am ll out of shirts. The man at the

By Anton Scherrer

Shortridge Girl, 14, Finds Hiking With, Arnerican Youth Hostels Swell

desk says|there is a shop two blocks away. So I go there.

“Do you speak English?” I say to the man behind

the counter, | ; A fat, unkempt, friendly man at my side turns and says, “I do. I'll help you.” » “Then I want a shirt, a white shirt, not a sport shirt, size 14. He tells the man at the counter. He goes and gets a tapeline,. and puts it around my neck. He sends a boy for the shirts. The fat man says, “I speak German, French, English, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese.” If he speaks them all with the fluency he speaks English, it would add up to about one language. ; They think I am from England. The man behind the counter says he was in England once. I tell them I am from the States. Ah! They are even more friendly. I actually believe they like North Americans in Brazil. : I haven't shaved for two or three days; my shirt is dirty and ragged; my suit hasn’t been pressed in months. The men think I am a sailor off an American ship. | ; “I give you the number of Seaman’s Institute,” the man behind the counter says. He is very proud and he beams. “I was director of Seaman’s Institute from 1929 to 1932” He is pretty pleased. He stops sewing, and writes down the: address of the Seaman’s Institute, I thank him and put it in my pocket. He resumes sewing. |. Suddenly the fat man—-I think he is a German— grabs my hand and turns it palm up. Then he pulls an eye-glass put of his vest, and looks closely. . “A very fine hand,” he says. “Very good hand. Good for avions (airplangs). Some hands no good for avions. Some go up and then swoesh. (He makes

Mr. Pyle

motions of rising ‘and. then diving into the ground.) |

Your hand good for avions. You go up, stay up. (He. ‘makes good notions.) Nothing happen to you.” : It's an odd thing. The men know nothing about me, or that [ am fiying a great deal. It is out of a clear sky. It must be an omen. We'll probably crack up going to Rio tomorrow. I don’t know a soul in this city. It is lonesome eating dinner. Friends told me to come to this hotel. I don’t know why. The dining room is immense. I feel obvious and uncomfortable, even in my clean shirt. : : _. After dinrer I take a walk. The rich people are sitting at the outdoor tables, under the trees. A wall separates them from the common people. Uniformed chauffeurs wait for them. What am I doing in a - place like this? I don’t belong—couldn’t ever belong. I The beach swings in a beautiful South Sea curve. The waterline is far out now, and nobody is swimming tonight. I walk out into the dark, out over the hard 'sand. After awhile it becomes damp, where the re‘cent tide had washed it. | |. It is Saturday night, the night for promenade. ‘Back from the dark, I stand and watch the old Latin custom of strolling up and down. Boys in one direction, girls in another, | But this is not picturesque. This is sadness; frusitration. Their neat; clean dresses fit poorly. They are not ‘graceful. They are not pretty. What is there for them? They will stroll up and down forever. It goes round to 3 o'clock in the morning, and I ‘am still awake. I lie and read in Katherine Mansfield's. “Journal.” Her journal of unhappiness. It |seems terribly apropos. :

My Diary

‘By Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt

r

a

Wrong Address on Telegram Causes |°

| Long Delay in Reaching Czech Bazaar.

YEW YORK CITY, Thursday.—Yesterday morning ‘ I spent one of the most unprofitable hours imaginable! [ was consciops every minute that some- | where a number of people must have been waiting for me. I told myself that if I only had the proper kind of ingenuity I would find a way to extricate myself from my dilemma, but I found myself baffled everywhere I turned. = | Here is what happened. I left my apartment a lit- | tle bit late because my son, Jimmy, had come to | breakfast, but I thought I was only going to 25 W. 23d St. and expected to arrive there within 10 minutes of the time I had set. I reached that address to find \'a building with a shop on the main floor, but no | Czechoslovakian bazaar which I was supposed to be | attending under the auspices of the International | Business & Frofessicnal Women’s Clubs. | 1 wandered up and down both sides of the street and held my telegram with the address of the bazaar | in my hand. Finally, since no one was able to en- | lighter. me, I turned around and went to 25 E. 23d St. ' Nothing any more tert met me there, so I ‘went into a shop and asked permission ta use their telephone book. First I) tried Miss Lena Madeson Phillips’ telephone number. No answer. Then I tried | the office of the International Business & Profes- ' sional Women. No answer. | women’s division of the Democratic State Committee, ' thinking that those who ewe ‘waiting for me might have telephoned there. Sure enough, they had, but they left no address and only the telephone number which I had just tried with no success. I tried again, still no answer. Then I tried my own apartment and no answer, so I knew my maid was out marketing.

Hopes for White Christmas

An hour and a quarter had gone by and I found excited messages by this time, which told how many people were waiting for me. Unfortunately, I had other appoiniments, so 1 could not start out again immediately. | Finally, having discovered that the correct address was 25 West 43d St. I arranged. to , reach there 2 little before 1 o’clock. So ends a sad . tale which seems to be no one’s fault, for who can tell who made the mistake in the address on my telegram? | Yesterday snow was falling and I hope it will extend to Washington and that we will have a white Christmas, for I think {the south lawn will be a grand place for the three children to play in the snow with the two dogs which Franklin, Jr, is bringing up end parking with us at the White House during the Christmas holidays. I find thaj grandparents are very useful, not only to take over children when their parents feel the need of a change, but to give a home to the dogs. which may be temporarily homeless. These two dogs spent last summer with us at Hyde Park. One is a Great Dane nd one is an Irish setter, and they look upon the children as their natural playmates. The fourth child staying with us, Ethel and Franklin, Jr.’s, baby, is, I fear, too young to enjoy watching the others play, but he seemed to be able to coo very intelligently and happily to me the last time

‘we met.

| : | ° Day-by-Day Science By Science Servies "NDUSTRIAL research does many things, but where it comes riearest to most folks is in the improved quality of many products and in lowered costs to the purchaser. | | Se Back in 1318 we bought what we thought was a pretty good riibber tire for our automobiles whose rate . of wear was such that for every mile the car traveled it took 2.15.c2nts out of our pocket, Today, 20 years later, automobile tire cost per mile of travel is less , than a third of a cent. | : :

. Intensive research on the ways to produce a longer

rugged rubber and on ways to fabri- |

The girls are so poor, so homely, so yearning. |

Then I telephoned the |

Defense.” ” 2 ”

By Maj. Al Williams

Times Special Writer

is “may.”

below.

at speeds no army or navy ever thought of traveling. These Expressmen of Death were organized . into ‘air forces independent of armies and navies. They carry the war right to the man in the street, carefully avoiding the land and sea forces, supported by the man in the street,

dump the war right at his feet,

and ask him how much more trouble he wants. Fear of these quick answers gave Germany and Italy, the air power nations, the decision at Munich, kicking all

the known rules for running a war into a cocked hat. Munich tipped the apple cart, and as we regard the scattered apples, our respect for air forces and air power grows along with concern for our own national safety. As that lesson drives home, our concern develops into’ a veritable panic, and we begin to talk of nine or 10 thousand airplanes in an organization promoted above the job of serving our Army and Navy.

# ” ” ACH time our fighting aviation services showed promise of being able to run a war independently of the land and sea forces,

" Army and Navy leaders jumped

on the idea and pushed our errand boy aviation back to its original

status. And that’s where it is to-

Lack of Program Leaves United States Helpless Against Air Attack

- Former Navy test pilot and speed ace, Maj. Williams is an acknowledged authority on military aviation. His views on aviation’s part in the defense of the United States are summarized in this story, the fourth and final installment of the series, “Our Air

” ” »

HERE is no air power in the United States for the adequate defense of the country against air attack. We may be on our way to getting it but the word What aviation we have is in the status of errand boy for the Army and Navy, As errand boy, aviation does the scouting and spotting for the big guns

Too poor to build battleships, Germany and Italy were hard pressed to find the way to military power. They promoted, expanded and trained their aviation errand boy services, taught them the tricks of war and turned them into Expressmen of Death who could go places

day. But nine or 10 thousand airplanes for the air defense of America may mean the reorganization of our national defense system into a three-department af-

- fair, of Army, Navy and Air,

This would be a logical development, since our present Army and Navy are not prepared to administer any such organization, composed of 150,000 or more men, charged with selecting and purchasing more military airplanes than we have ‘built in the past 20 years, and faced with the gigantic task of training the entire personnel. : . Whether our Army and Navy

. can be compelled to acquiesce to

any such reorganization is the first “may” in the popular desire for air protection. Ym ie

Clark

Side Glances—By

The pursuit squadron and the planes aboard the aircraft carrier, the Saratoga, are members. .of our Army. and Navy air serv‘ices, respectively. ‘Such a division of military aviation defeats the purpose of an. air force, charges Maj. Williams, se

ISTORY is full of dismal instances where Army and Navy leaders have failed to collaborate and quarreled about overlapping jurisdiction and command, even when both forces were working at the same altitude. The present quotas of airplanes assigned to‘ the Army and the Navy are more than equal to the errand boy job set-up for aviation by these parent organizations, i. e. to act as the “eyes” of the fleet, and the “eyes” of the Army. Furthermore ‘the Navy is in no position to administer the affairs

| of thousands more airplanes, or of

air power, for that matter, without dropping back to operating from shore bases. And that is the province of the Army. ! Aircraft carriers might look like the answer to accommodating vast numbers of airplanes at sea, but such ‘is not the case. Air power requires different kinds of airplanes from those designed to serve as the eyes:of a fleet. Deck landing spaces and storage accommodations of the carriers are limited. These limitations deter.mine the sizes and types of airplanes that can be based there, and necessarily their range, and destructive bomb loads. This limits carrier airplanes to service with the fleet. im The Army needs the planes as-

signed to it—so does the Navy. Neither outfit dares to move without information from its “eyes.” Neither can afford to waste ammunition without firing directions from its elevated fire control stations on wings. The sensible solution is to give the fleet ‘and the Army a thousand planes apiece, let them use them as they see fit. ~ We have enough: air services. What we need is a great air force enabled to handle all air defe affairs, to work out the promising and dreadful future.of air power, The Army and Navy do not offer us such protection.

The only organization in this country which holds any of the elements of an air power setup is the . General Headquarters. Airforce, established as an experiment by the Army in 1935. Under one flying general this force operates in all fields of air war from pursuit to bombardment. Its actual strength is far below that planned (980 planes) and its program for the ‘development of strategically located air bases is far behind schedule. Its chief handicap is that it is landlocked. The Navy's jealously guarded jurisdiction over the sea prohibits the GHQ from flying more than 100 miles to sea. This restriction still stands in spite of the GHQ

bombers’ record fiight from the

United States to Argentina and return. But that’s what com-mand-wrangles amount to. ” ” ”

INCE we are not going in for intensive research to find out how to build air fighters that will surpass those of Europe, where

can we sell the thousands of me-

diocre planes—if we build them? The best of our standard fighters today are matched and outspeeded by Europe's bombers. Foreign single-seater fighters are 50 to 70 miles an hour faster than ours. Who will buy ours when we decide to unload? Germany and Italy sold all their old stuff to Gen. Franco and are disposing of later types in South America now. One benefit might flow from

Everyday Movies—By Wortman

=)

the present hectic plans for buying airplanes by the carload. There are groups in this country, with excellent automobile production records, but no airplane production experience, who maintain they can make dies and automatic stamping machines which. will turn out airplanes with the twirl of a crank. We will at least learn whether this is true or not.

In its modern sense “defense”

rheans far more than building a barricade at. the border to keep the enemy out. The Chinese tried that with a wall, which kept the Chinese in, but never kept an enemy out. And an aerial warfare “defense” means the possession of bombing squadrons which can reach the enemy at his home. For the cost of a single battle ship, about 500 Boeing four-en-gined bombers can be bought. A modern battleship costs between 70 and 80 million dollars. That's more than either of our air services gets in any years. s ” ” HE battleship is not, however, completely outmoded though the submarine cuts down its functions and the airplane took its cut, too. When the only likely approach to this country was by water, the fleet was the first line of defense. But now there's another way of getting at us— by air. And the fleet is no longer our first line of defense, if we develop an air force and air power which will bomb the daylights out of an enemy or threaten him with air attack: : : When the Italians first talked

of air power I saw their fighting

planes and the experimental units with which they would be replaced. I tagged the internal struggle between the Royal Air Force to mantain independence against the opposition of the British Navy as England’s chief danger in her drive for air power. “The Royal Air Force will have to lick the British Navy before it can work on the enemy,” was my prophecy more than two years ago. And that prophecy nearly came true. I saw the first glimmering of air power in Germany, and I saw French air power sink from top flight to chaotic impotency. Last summer I studied European air power, first hand and told the British it would be folly for them to tackle the air power of Germany and Italy. The Atlantic Ocean still looks broad. But so did the English Channel for centuries, until it was bridged by war wings. And this bridge forced the British to rele gate the British Navy to the status of the second line of defense. And so will the Atlantic be bridged and our navy be superseded by our air power as the first line of defense for America. Armies and navies fight armies and navies. Airpower attacks the

' civilians of enemy nations. Against,

this radical departure from ordinary warfare, we must have protection. And the only protection is in air power. I hope we can use the lessons of

Munich without the grim agonies °

of losing a war.

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

1—Into what body of water does the Ganges River flow? 2—Is aluminum a conductor of electricity? . 3—With what sport is the name of Bob Zuppke associated? 4—Which son of a minister, ~. succeded the son of a minister as President of the United States? 5—Which of the arts is called “the gentlest art”?

6—What is the mode of execu- |

tion for murder in Idaho?

7—In what year did Mussolini become Dictator of Italy?

. 8. = Answers 1—Bay of Bengal. 2—Yes. 3—Football. : ; 4—Grover Cleveland, who suce ceeded Chester A. Arthur. 5—Poetry (or poesy). 6—Hanging. . 7—1922, : » » a

ASK THE TIMES Inclose a ‘3-cent stamp for

reply when addressing any question of fact or information Indianapolis = Times

Way to Enjoy Summer Vacation.

. ® : N just a few months summer will be back in season; this seems, therefore, a reason= ably good time to tell you about Mary Frances Greene, a. 14-year-old Shortridge girl. If you know as much about Mary as 1 do, you'll be prepared to meet next year’s summer when it ccmes. Mary didn’t know what to do with her summers either until one dey she heard about the American Youth Hostels, a movement thought up by Isabel and lflonroe Smith, I don’t know whether they are husband and wife, or brother and sister, and neither does Mary. It’s the only thing, though, that Mary doesn’t know abouf, the A. ¥. H. Mary says the 'Smith | people picked up the idea in Europe. Over there one summer hey saw swarms of kids with knapsacks on their ° backs wandering from place to place taking in all the sights, When night came they had a liostel and host waiting for them. That's really the biz idea back of the movement, says Mary, to have hostels sprinkled at intervals of about 15 miles which is waat a healthy kid with a knapsack weighing 14 pounds can walk in a day. And keep it up, of course. : | A hostel may be anything, says Mary; a country home, a farm house or even a barn, just so it's equipped with bunks, water, and enough flour and things to get up a ineal. A hostel has to have a host, too, to know what it’s all about. : Thus far the i3mith people have arranged for . more than a huncred hostels in America. They're distributed in sever regions; New England, Pennsylvania and New York; the Great Lakes district which is big enough to, count as two regions; Colorado; Washington and finally Region 7 which takes in California. Isabel ind Monroe, you'll notice, haven't got around to Indi:ina, and it kind of worries Mary. So much so that I rather suspect that Mary told me about her experience last summer in the hope that the Smiths would get wind /of it and have a look at Indiana. i .

Cook Their Own Meals :

Which brings re to the point of today’s piece, namely, what Mary did with her summer. She started at Northfield, Mass., the headquarters of A. Y. H. and with three other girls and two counselors walked. 90 miles in eight cays. With that knapsack on her back, mind you. I; was the most fun she ever had, says Mary. ! : : : ‘At Spofford, N. H., for instance, they put up at a | hostel run by Fritz and Martha Richter, two Germans 1 who knew something about! hostels before coming to America. Enough, anyway to worm their way into the kids’ hearts with a real consisting of hamburgers,

Mr. Scherrer

of the time, however, the girls cooked their own meals. The cheapest meal they ever got away with cost them 6 cents apiece and consisted of hamburgers, vegetables, buttermilk, bread snd butter. Seems that hostelers thrive on hamburgers. The hostelers operate on a dollar-a-day budget. It works out somethirg like this: 25 cents to the hostel for the overnight fie, another nickel to cover fuel for cooking, 15 cents for breakfast, 25 cents for lunch and 30 cents for supper. It adds up to exactly $1. : That's the least part of it, though, says Mary. The greatest thing abou: the movement is the spirit of cooperation and unselfishness among the kids. Everyone helps out the other one. Nor is that all, says Mary. The spirit has spread through all the hostel loops so that farmers, owners of country estates, foresters and the like who at first felt they should bar city people from “their country” now welcome hostelers enthusiastically. Of course like all other good things there’s a catch to this one, too. You can’t be a hosteler if you are more than 21 years old which still leaves people like me wondering what to do with next summer,

Jane Jordan—

Sold His First Magazine Story, but Draws Scolding for Not Following Up.

EAR JANE JORDAN—My wife got a laugh out of your letter to Brown Eyes’ word-player husband, but the lauga wes on me. I parted company with the sciences in the fifth grade and indulged in pastimes more to my liking. I didn’t neglect my education, but read a great deal. At 17 I was a journeyman in my trade, but there was something lacking. I wanted jo write, but didn’t know the eight parts of speech from & like amount of red beans; so. I worked a lot kicked myself for not- finishing school, thought about writing, but didn’t write. Sev eral years went by. Then I wrote a story. After the third writing, I got the whoses and whoms fairly well straightened out. I sent it to a magazine editor, feel ing sure it would ome back, because I was not at home where good English was used. The editor bought. the stery. asking for more. A nationally known publisher wrote, askinz me to send any books that I might write to hin. I took the magazine editor's check and bought « new typewriter. I uséd the new typewriter to write two letters. To the magazine editor I wrote: “I am working on several stories. When I finish them, I'll mail them to you.” To the book publisher I wrote: “I am working on a book. I should be finished within a few months. When it is finished, I'll send it to you.” Both of these statements were untrue. The new typewriter has had two birthdays, but the ribbon hasn’t been changed. Writes nice yet, doesn’t it? ‘WILLIE THE WEEPER,

Answer—What’s the matter? Doesn't your wife inspire you either? | Or do you see through yourself? After all you belong to the great tribe of putter offers, so many of whom are writers. You'd rather make grand plans ‘than push them through. You simply lack the energy “po tackle a task when. you're tired. Always it’s tomorrow and tomorrow. Perhaps I can give you a few hints. If you can push by your first wall of resistance, and get down to work, sometimes you strike your ‘second wind. Isola= tion is a help. Black coifee is a help. Regular worke ing hours are a help. But the biggest help of all is the wolf yelping at your heels. . Some people’ feel -that a writer should 'be free from pressure in order to do ais best work. The environs ment must-be right. Inspiration must be present. But most of the people whom I know in the writing pros fession write because they have to in order to eat. Your first story was written to compensate you for a feeling of inferiority because you didn’t finish school. When you proved you could make the grade, you quit, Like all other worl, writing is a pain in the neck, isn’t it? JANE JORDAN.

Put your problems in a letter to Jane Jordan who will answer your question: in this column daily, .

New Books Today

Public Library Presents—

ALVIN COOLIL'GE was g baffling character, diff cult to unde'stand, difficult to reason Someone was needed to explain him; and Joseph Dinneen, Boston political writer, thinks William White has filled thet need in his biography, A PI

'| TAN IN BABYLON (Macmillan). Mr. Dinn

“It reveals him for wha he actually was far than anything ever written about Coolidge body, including Coclidge himself.” , :

sauerkraut, kartoffclklossse and apfelstrudeln.’ Mosts