Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 9 January 1939 — Page 9

Tir By Science Service

Prem Indiana=Ernie Pyle

Guidna’ Escapes ‘Are Frequent and Often Humorous as When Entire Prison’ Orchestra Fled in Launch.

(CAYENNE, French. Guiana, Jan. 9.— About 100 convicts a year leave here— free men. They are, however, mostly Arabs —from France's colonies on the Mediterranean. For some reason, the Arab seems to be able to save what little money he makes as’ a libere, while the Frenchmzn doesn’t. : There are scores of liberes here who are free to 80, but they’ lack the money. They have to. pay their

own transportation, you know. There are, however, about 25 Frenchmen a year who manage to get back to France. But from what I can learn, it’s a mistake.

‘Ten years is the least a man |

can serve here. Ten years in the tropics is a long time. A man’s whole mental and physical system changes. And a man isn’t so good ‘as he was after 10 years as a Guiana convict. They tell me that a large percentage of the returning convicts are dead with pneumonia within a year after they reach France. And another .thing—their life is no bed of roses after they get there. They are forever branded as Guiana convicts and treated like outcasts. S. M. Filipovich, the local Panair manager, makes a trip to Europe about once a year. Once he traveled to a small town in France to see the family of a convict he knew here. The family was not cordial, They were not interested in hearing from their .son. For them, he died the day he was banished. pri

In the little museum here in Cayenne sits a grim, brown thing. It is a homemade boat, in which two convicts tried to escape. - They escaped all right— to whatever Heaven happens to be reserved for good convicts. - They were on one of the islands. They made the boat out of their khaki uniforms. You can still see the stenciled number on each man’s blouse. They used the forks of limbs for stays. The whole thing is not much bigger than a washtub. It looks unstable, pathetic, desperate. They got quite a little ways in it. Their bodies were washed ashore, Escape attempts seem to be going on almost constantly here, and an amazing number are successful. Right now, there are eight escaped prisoners some‘where in the Caribbean, on their way from Trinidad to Cuba in a sailboat. They reached Trinidad about «six weeks ago.

‘Haiti Safe Refuge |

. They stayed in Trinilad a month. Trinidad won't let them stay, but it doesn’t send them back.

: Most of those who really get away, wind up in Haiti. It’s no good to try for Brazil, which isn’t far . away, for Brazil now sends them back, If escapees reach Venezuela, it depends. Venezuela will let them stay if they know a trade or have any useful service to offer. If not, she sends them back. They say one of the wealthiest and most prominent doctors in Venezuela today is an escaped French Guiana convict. Many of the escapes are ‘really funny. One night the Governor was giving a high-toned reception to the officers of a French warship. The best music in town was convict music, so the Governor sent to the penitentiary for an orchestra. He had' them dressed in spick white suits and black ties. There were seven or eight of them. Toward midnight the orchestra was dismissed, and left for the penitentiary. Instead, they went down to the dock, got into the battleship’s motor launch, and went to Brazil in it. : They're stifl there. There has been only ‘one American prisoner in French . Guiana since the war. He was a Southern Negro. He had served in the A. E. F,, and stayed in France after the war. But he got into some kind of a © mixup and wound up in the penitentiary at St. Laur- - ent. He was there quite a long time. One day an American freighter put in at St.

Mr. Pyle

Laurent. Our Negro friend somehow got on it and |

: just rode away. Several weeks later the Governor “got a poorly spelled postcard from our friend, saying he had escaped and was well. .It was postmarked from good old Norfolk, Va. :

My Diary :

‘By Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt

Clippings on Message Show How Differently People See Same Thing.

ASHINGTON, Sunday.—I must tell you some5 thing which has keenly amused me. In a very. large envelope bearing in the left-hand corner “Manufacturers Trust Company” with a New York City address, I found inclosed a part of a newspaper sheet. - It had been cut off just above the column written “by Gen. Hugh Johnson the day after the President’s ‘ speech to Congress, and in red pencil the following words were underlined: “Mr. Roosevelt first waved the - bloody shirt,” and then in the last paragraph “Weakness peers through every sentence.” ' At the bottom of the page was my column and here the words were underlined again in red: “I was, in spite of myself, swept into emotions that lay back of the speaker’s words;” and underneath in red pencil: . “You — fool.” : . ; In the same mail from an extraordinarily fine person, who seems to find black ink as good a vehicle for expression as red, I found the following words: “A marvelous speech, stating temperately the necessary position of democracies and wisely making the appeal to a unified country.” : How differently people can see the same thing: Our spring weather still continues and I managed yesterday and today to have some time out of doors. As we were riding home yesterday, I told Capt. Waddell, who rides with me, that I thought my horse was a spoiled baby, for she even has a preference for one side of the road and whoever rides with me always remembers this and rides on the other side.

Second White House Christening

" Capt. Waddell’s reply was that he would be. glad to have a good many like her, and he was afraid that I was spoiled and would never find any horse quite as good as she is. Considering her age this is a discouraging thought, and yet I know he is right. Ethel and Franklin had their baby christened here yesterday afternoon by Bishop Atwood, who has .so many close ties with our family and Groton boys in general. This is the second one of our grandchildren to be christened here and one of our. silver bowls,

rohd

Jncle Sam Cho U. §. Defense Must Keep Potentia

American detense ‘must present such s ‘potential OFFENSE: that nations

- contemplating attacking the United §ia then | decide not to. In this, the last of six articles written exclusively: for The

will think twice about it and then

Indianapolis Times by George Fielding Eliot, former army major and author _of “The Ramparts We Watch,” he sums up his recommendations for national

defense. : \ 2 8 =

By George Fielding Eliot Times Special Writer Fin

» ‘® 2 = i

AMERICAN defense must be capable of OFFENSIVE

ACTION when it comes

to actual fighting. ‘If is only

in this way that we may hope to impose such risks upon a contemplative aggressor that he will not think it worth-

while to challenge us in arns.

"It is only in this way that, if

we are challenged, we

may make sure that the issue of the conflict will be fought

out upon the

sea’ or in distant islands, far from

.qur home and firesides. .. “~ '. A navy maintained (including. its.air compo-

nent) at a strength sufficient to-afford us.domi-

nance of the seas, must always be the mainstay of

American national defense.

, It must be backed up by an army sufficient to hold such vital outlying positions as Panama and Hawaii, to: assure the safety of the various naval sudden ‘attack, and to provide a .§= ‘mobile force, land and air, fully adequate to deal with any raiding: expeditions against .our coasts. More serious’ attack against us will hardly-be un- . dertaken, even by the most reckless, until our fleet has been ‘disposed of. :

bases against

Our Army, in turn, must be of such a size, and

of such an immediate readiness for action, as shall

‘Maj. Eliot

the fleet, or. send be ‘in need of it. It is melancholy commentary ern civilization — by which" we mean the advances which modern. man has made over his predecessor. of prehistoric times—that it: is still unsafe for nations to -dispense with armed force. tJ ® i$:

INDEED, it is unsafé for individuals to do so; which is why

we have shotguns: behind farm-.

house doors and armored cays

manned with machine guns for

the transportation of ‘money be-

tween city banks. Of course, the! farmer can always cal] the Sherif: and the bank the police force to

lend a hand in case of danger. There is no international police force for a menaced nation to call upon, nor -daes it seem at all likely that there is: going to: be one, not at least in the life of our generation. The attempts which have beer: made to create the internationa: society. of nations which must be

the basis for any such police force

have proved dismal failures as far as protecting. Ethiopia, China, Spain, Austria or Czechoslovakis is concerned. Hence, for those peoples who desire to live their own lives. without being compelled continually to yield to threats of force from others, the only possible course is to arm: themselves as to be able to defy such threats. They must so arm themselves tha?’ the actual application of force against them will be as risky as for a bandit gang to attack an armored car bristling with machine guns. AY » s

N this respect, the United

enable it to provide, highly trained expeiiitionary forces ‘able fc ‘seize and hold bases for the use of immediate help to any American nation which may

on what we are pleased to call mod-

ooses |

whose further repercussions will become increasingly apparent in the - months * immediately before is. > 3

iC #8 8 NL HE United States, however,

retdins that priceless prive

ilege which for so long was Britain’s, of ‘ first: defending herself upon the sea

"Tt must not be considéred that the sea itself, forming as it does

a difficult barrier against air-,

planes is ‘an all-sufficient, protection.’ For the sea is. also a highway, .and is still the easiest + and cheapest means of transporting goods—or armies. © That is why it is necessary to dominate’ the seas “which "divide us from the other great powers of the world by means of a powerful navy, which; controlling the movement by sea of armed forces as well as commerce, shall enable us to command every means of access to the American continents from the sources from which danger may come. To sum up: We need an ade- ‘ quate national defense first of all to keep us out of war in ‘a world in which force is becoming increasingly the instrument of national policy and national aggran- ’ dizement. Second, we need the right kind‘ of ‘national defense to make sure ‘that if war does come to us, we shall be able to bring it swiftly to a victorious conclusion without subjecting our women and children - to ruthless slaughter from the air. Y

States is’ singularly favored by

geography. We have no predatory: neighbors with great armies ready to march across, our frontiers. And, as yet, we are out of reach of air ‘attacks coming from the bases of any power of dangerous proportions. 0 The first condition is that of an island, defensible primarily by sea. It was such a geographical accident which enabled the people of Great Britain to create their - huge, world-girdling empire while protecting themselves, and the routes of maritime communications along which flowed the trade which was the lifeblood of that empire, by means of a ‘superior navy. The second condition, however, does not longer apply to Great Britain, for .that island is separated from the air bases of potential enemies on the continent of

Europe only by narrow waters,

easily flown over. The inven-

tion of the airplane and its adap- -

tation to military use, therefore,

‘has laid the military and indus-

trial base of the British Empire, the. island of Great Britain, open to a form of attack with which the British navy cannot deal.

This fact has brought about an

enormous: and indeed fundamen-

tal change in the world balance

of ‘power—a change whose char= acter was dimly foreshadowed at

the conference of Munich, and

which we brought with us when we cane, is shortly ||

. going to be put aside as a christening bowl, I think.

The Jackson Day dinner, as far as the speeches | |i were concerned was very entertaining last night. I | I'S

felt very much honored, for I sat at the same table, though somewhat removed, with Senator Connally, ex-Senator Bulkley, Senator Byrd and Senator Glass. All the speakers told good stories which gave rise to much laughter, but some of the more serious aspects which. lay behind the stories give us all good reason

for thought in the future,

Day-by-Day Science

HERE is nothing much more fundamental than the constitution of the earth itself and the rocks that lie beneath our feet. In Washington there is a

modest-building full of laboratories where a handful | | BZ

-- of scientists are struggling with this problem. : During the World War the scientists at the Carnegie Institution’s Geophysical Laboratory interrupted

their program long enough to help create an Ameri- | Hi can optical glass industry without which our military

forces would be blind. Then they went back to fundamental research. ;

One of the researchers there was Dr. R. B. Sosman. | About & decade ago he was persuaded to join the research laboratory of U. S. Steel Corp. The steel |. industry, as well as the pure science foundation, |.

with steel-earned Carnegie funds, needed a man who

knew about quartz and silica. For this is stuff that}:

withstands the heat of furnaces. It is axiomatic in research that it is wisest to do a thorough, fundamental job of “pure science” knowledge manufacture. The by- ucts will pay industrial dividends in the

2

AR 3 § i : ¥ : 5 3 5 3 x ok : { Hph 1S a

% ‘Entered as Secon d-Class Matter at. Postoffice, Indianapolis, Ind.

)ses Fis Weapons al Foes on Their Side of the Ocean.

A Navy, with its air force, strong enough to give us dominance of the seas must always be the mainstay of American national defense. Above, fast, hard-hitting destroyers and their aerial “eyes” maneuver in the

Pacific. : rola oii

Aviation—

Talk of 10,000 Warpla Pilots of Airliners ‘See Red’

By Maj. Al Williams Times Special Writer LYING men, veterans and. fledglings, are talking mighty seriously these days about the air rearmament blather that permeates the fog over. America on the question of national defense. : " Whether they-axe too busy to read all the official propaganda or the air opinions of the “quickies,” they are definitely convinced the nation is going a bit daffy on the subject.

With only ‘the difference ‘to” be

Our Army must be sufficient to hold: our vital outlying

" vi ji positions,

such as Panama and Hawaii. Above, Army machine gunners face a

“gas” attack during war games.

-

8 0» BT

expected among individuals, they are united on one point—the nonsense of hoping to build 10,000 fighting planes in a hurry. The TWA

pilot who voices his opinions on

air defense has spent the last three days in California. d no matter what. his original ideas were, they have been. flavored or tempered by the reactions of people he talked to on the West Coast. ° The United Air Lines pilot, ditto, but from farther north on the West

Coast. The American Airlines pilot

grunts in disgust when 10,000 airplanes are mentioned. His aggressive disdain indicates he has tried out his opinions on people from one coast to another and at a lot of intermediate points, too. -

I happen to encounter an. out-

| standing Eastern Air Lines pilot

who roared to the altitudes of denunciation. How I wish I could tell you not only what he said—but how he said it. - se In short, seasoned flying men first burst into wild condemnation of 10,000 airplanes of the incubator type, ' and then start ‘snooping around for a reason why we should be in such a panic to get them, :

; 8 8 8 : TEx. all fear that there’s some‘thing in the woodpile that won't be disclosed until the drums and sucker music have taken their

toll of parades and recruits. ". They!

£ x =

nes Makes

all want to know who.the United States is going to fight right now— on next Monday morning at 8:15, for instance. One would think I had called them all bad names or -had run off with their pay checks. As soon as I mentioned 10,000 fighting airplanes they dived on me. “Crazy as jaybirds!”—“Keewee dreams!”’—“More of the 1817 stuff of darkening the sky with warplanes!”—“Give me a plane and some of these wild-eyed planners of war, and I'll teach them something about war during peacetime!” —these are some of the printable specimens. inn I gathered that they are all against the 10,000 fighting plane idea and seem to have personal grudges against the fellows who advanced it. Here are some more samples I picked up—between gasps for breath: “Who are we going to fight—and why?”—“Where are we going to .get 10,000 airplanes?”— “And if we do get them who is going to fly them?”—*If we get them, by some magic, what will they be— more . crates like those flopping around now?”—*“Our laboratory research has been hamstrung for money, we lack engines and fast fighters.” : : ik Here's one that stopped me: - “I believe these fellows are going to plop us into the first war that comes 0! gr 3 » Phew! It was getting too hot.

Anyone Want 3 Polar Bear Cubs?

By Science Service EW YORK, ‘Jan.: 9—Anybody want cubs? ;

Harold Gillam, Alaska sourdough

pilot, has ‘em. ‘To put it mildly, he doesn’t want them. In fact, ‘he'd be perfectly ‘to part with them

willing for the price of their three stout:

cages and a year’s board. ‘To make it easier to get rid of them, two

‘| airlines, one ‘running from Alaska

to Seattle and the other from Seattle across the United States, have offered to haul them free of charge. Mr. Gillam tells a tall story about

Everyday Movies—By Wortman

———ee

three cute polar bear

the way in which he acquired them. He picked them up when they were so small as to weigh only 10 or. 12 pounds from an ice floe while on one of his Far North aerial journeys. - They learned to fellow him and have done so ever since, even overcoming such obstacles as leather harnesses, stout chains linked to telephone poles and a couple of other hazards that might daunt other animals, But not these three “cuddly” little bears, no, sir! That’s why 600 pounds of polar bear, in 200-pound lots, each one wrapped in fur, are now for sale.

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

‘1—In which ocean are the Falk-: land Islands? E 2—From what sort of trees is .bark obtained that is used in making quinine? *3—How is 1935 written in ‘Roman numerals? : 4—Name the mayor of a large Eastern city who was recently attacked on the steps of the City Hall. 5—Into what body of water does the Gulf of Aden empty? 6—What is extradition? ‘1—Which letter of the English alphabet is most used? - » ” »

i Answers 1—South Atlantic.

6—The surrender by one gov= ~ ernment to another, of a. fugitive from justice. - 1—“E.” : wis 2 » =»

ASK THE TIMES

reply when ad any

| locked the door, undressed, and

Inclose a 3-cent stamp for.

By Anton Scherrer Story of the Weary Traveler and The Unwelcome Guest Who Turned Qut to Be—Well, You Figure It Out!

JNDIANAPOLIS was full of ghost stories when I was a kid. Some, to be sure, | weren't much to brag about, but there was | one—a humdinger—that had all the marks of authenticity. ; Ci As near as I recall, a traveler blew inte | town by way of the old Madison Railroad and ask

for accommodations at one of the hotels on South

It. was midnight and he was very tired. The lande | lord said he could take himin if he ol didn’t mind paying for a double- LATA bedded room, the only one he had

§| left. He took it on condition that

‘the landlord would keep Ris part of the bargain and not sneak a fellowlodger in during the night. : When it came time to retire, the traveler examined both beds. One had a very decent counterpane; the other, a patchwork quilt. He picked i the prettier looking beds carefully Mr. Scherrer Jumped under the covers. He had slept an hour or more when he was awakened by a noise in the street.. He turned over and, by the light of the moon, he saw that: the bed opposite was occupied by a partially - dressed man wearing what looked like a red bandana handkerchief around his head. The intruder was half-sitting, half-reclining on the edge of the bed and he appeared to be sound asleep. ; The traveler was madder than hops to think that the landlord had gone back on’ his promise; but as the man was quiet and probably wasn’t to blame for what had happened, he decided to wait until morn= ing to give the landlord a piece of his mind. It was broad daylight when he awoke. The ine truder was still there, half-sitting, half-reclining and sound asleep, but that gave the traveler a chance to see what he looked like. He saw some things the moonlight had failed to reveal. For one thing. the | big, bushy black beard on the face of his fe. ‘ow= lodger. The biggest surprise, though, was the hande kerchief around the man’s head. It wasn’t a red bane dana, at all, as he had thought. It was a white handkerchief saturated with blood which trickled down his =

cheek and left its mark on the pillow.

That set him to wondering how the mutilated | man ‘had worked his way into the room. There was | |

but one door. He went to examine it. It was locked, = He returned to the bed to question his fellow-lodger when to his surprise, he was nowhere to be seen. There wasn’t even blood stain on the pillow. That set him to wondering how the fellow got out of the | The door was still locked. ii

The Landlord’s Story

By this time he was so mad that he went down~ stairs to have it out with the landlord. The lands lord didn’t know what he was talking about, and asked for more details. That gave the traveler a chance to. describe the intruder and when he got around to mentioning the man’s whiskers and his | bandaged head, the landlord turned pale. As a matter of fact, he broke down and said he'd tell everything, provided the traveler would keep it. a secret. It was a bargain, and then the landlord told about a party of men who had come to the hotel that week and while drinking at the bar got into a fight. Ome of the party, a man with a big black beard, was hit over the head with a pewter pot They bandaged his head with a handkerchief, but it Sign’ do any good. Se n order to hush up the affair and keep his competitors from talking, the landlord said he. had con= sented to let the men bury the body in the yard back a The He He Said he had a hunch at the time some wo turn u maki hat Somer p to e him regret

Well, that’s the way I heard the story when I a kid. What makes it authentic is a 1 a to high school, they tore down the old hotel to make | | room for a new building, and while digging for the foundations they came across the ghost’s skeleton,

-I don’t care whether you believe it or not,

Jane Jordan—

Man in Love With Woman Wronged By Husband Told to Be Patient.

Peis lane JORDANS am deeply in love with a! woman. e is married but her hus band is not living with her. He did her an awful wrong and it has ruined her health. Her husband has nagged at her to sue for divorce which she did but! I know she does not want the divorce, for she. still leves her husband. She will not go out with me. She is always alone and has such a sad 100k in her eyes, I am in a position to. support her. I have steady work and make good money and can give her a nice home. She is 32, blond, has blue eyes. is clean and neat and I love her very much. I am 39. I want her badly but I am afraid the judge will put off her divorce on account of her illness. She is afraid to trust anyone. I sent her a Christmas present but she would not accept it. She thanked me but said that as long as she was married she would be true to her husband. Please tell me how I can prove my love for her. I am sad and Llue and feel like killing myself, Am I right or is the little woman right. She seems so frightened all the time, JUST 39. Answer—Have patience. The woman has had a blow and needs time to get over it. Affections which have been deeply rooted cannot be transferred over. night. Doubtless she still hopes that she will be able to save her marriage and ‘does not want to jeopardize her chance of doing so by getting involved with ane other man before she is legally divorced. You should respect her decision instead of trying to rush her into a readjustment. i: Your friend’s courage is at low ebb. Her illness it an ineffective weapon against divorce. ‘Many womey retreat into martyrdom when confronted: with a painful problem. By being sweet, patient and pitiful they ‘hope to recover their husband’s regard, but it simply doesn’t work that way. This little lady will have te discover this fact.for herself, but as long as she holds on to her grief and disappointment she is not a good bet for you. It isa safe rule to cast off the old love before entering into the new. ‘Give her time. 3 A mature man is able to wait for- what he wants, The “now or never” attitude or “I'll kill myself if I. can’t get what I want when I want it” belongs to an. undisciplined stage of childhood which most of us have been obliged to give up. If you want to win the woman’s confidence you will have to show more strength of p and prove your ability to stand by

d urpose | anil the smoke of her battle with her husband clears.

®me | if +. Note—Mrs. M, M. has asked me for the address of ‘Lonesome’ who has not recovered from divorcing hi husband. I do not have this address but if “Lones some” cares to send it I will be glad to forward

JANE JORDAN.

to Mrs. M/ M. \ Put your problems in » letter Jordan who will - your ems: lef to ; answer your questions in this. column 4a: je ho — Tr

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