Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 11 January 1939 — Page 11

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Entered as Second-Class Matter at Postoffice, Indianapolis, Ind.

~ From Indiana=Ernie Pyle WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11,1939

There Is Talk of Abandoning the Guiana Prison Colony, but This Seems Unlikely for Many Years.

AYENNE, French Guiana, Jan. 11.—Does France expect to eliminate its infamous penal colony in French Guiana? Well, I think the answer would be that it hopes to, rather than expects to. : It is being talked. A law was passed three

years ago that no more convicts of the “transporte” class would be sent here. There have been no shipments of any kind for : three years. The local people hoped there would never be any more. But now, out of a clear sky, a new shipload of criminals is on its way over. There are 800 of them, “relegues”—the worst type. The people here are sore about it. These 800 will be housed in St. Jean Penitentiary, up north, 125 miles from Cayenne, One: side holds that the penal settlement is largely responsible for ~ French Guiana’s present backward state. This school hopes that within Mr. Pyle five years the settlement will be . abandoned, and then it sees French Guiana opening and developing like a flower. The other group is for keeping the penitentiaries here. They feel that the whole country lives off the penal colony. But whatever France does, the penal settlement isn’t going to be washed up in five years. Provision would have to be made in France and the other colonies for taking care of future prisoners. And I can’t conceive of France ever shipping these prisoners back. If she stopped exporting convicts now, it would be 20 years before they could close the penitentiaries. And another 30 or 40 before the last old libere died. A hundred years ago Cayenne was surrounded by great plantations. French plantation owners lived in luxury, from the fruits of slave labor. : In 1848 slavery was abolished. The Negroes declined to work thereafter. The Jesuit Fathers were strong in French Guiana at that time. They asked France to send them 1000 undesirable characters to work the plantation. France did. That was the start of the penal settlement—in 1850, The Jesuit Fathers worked them, not as convicts,

but as colonists. The experiment was successful. But |-

a goverhor-general thought it would be fine for the . Government to reap the benefits of this convict labor.

Original Idea Lost

So from then on France sent-more and more convicts, it gof out of the Jesuits’ hands,-the original idea was lost, the plantations died. Today Guiana has entirely gone to pot. The old ' “families have died out, or departed. The jungle creeps in. In Cayenne, what used to be a boulevard of mansions is now a rutted grassy lane, barely fit: for a car. French Guiana needs capital. It is rich in gold, lumber, bauxite and tropical agriculture. The 30,000 here now are too easily satisfied ever to do any developing. Guiana appeals for colonists. : It wants mostly people of color, to blend with the native population. It likes the Indo-Chinese, and hopes more will come. It wants white people, too. It would like to have Jews, but not too many at once, say 1000 a year for a few years. . There is big money in French Guiana. And many obstacles—the jungle, the inertia of the natives, the wiliness of the politicians, the difficulty -of shipping, the stigma of the convicts. 4 But with humanity so rapidly running out of space, it seems not unlikely that 50 or 100 years from now, about the time the last picturesque old libere is curling up on the sidewalk and dying, this notorious place may bloom and become the good home for many decent men.

i’ My Diary i By Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt

Relief Not an Academic Matter But Deals With Human Beings

ASHINGTON, Tuesday—The New York Times carried a headline this morning: “Move to Cut ' Relief Furids Makes Gain in Congress.” It is so easy to see why it should make a gain in Congress. It is such 'a very obvious thing to do, but I always wish that these Government matters could just remain

in the limho called Government and never have to come down: to cases which invelve actual human beings. : I deal, of course, almost entirely with the cases "and the individuals. I choose at random from my mail a letter from a young actress in New York City, let out by the cuts in the art project. Evidently her ' formal education has been somewhat sketchy, but she must be at: least acceptable as an actress, for she has taken a number of parts in shows commercially produced and has worked on WPA for some time. With a child to support, I do not suppose it is very easy to save much on a WPA actress’ salary, so she tells me that when this notice becomes effective, she will have enough to live on for about a week and then what is shé to do? : : Another one from the South makes the simple statement: “My man is employed by — The pay is so low that we cannot all of us eat. The doctor says two of us died of pneumonia, but I guess it was starvation.”

The Age-Long Problem

In one case it is Government, in the other the agelong problem of labor and capital. If it could only remain an academic problem and we didn’t have to _ think of it in terms of human beings, how easy it > would be. ‘But when it comes down to human beings, then it is different and I wonder if we don’t have to “solve these problems from the standpoint of human beings or else acknowledge that we are beaten and that something is wrong with both our Government and ‘our economic setup. I read with keen amusement the other day an article on the Kieran family in New York City. A pretty grand family I should say, but the thing which amused me most was the make-believe which all fathers go! through. They really are tremendously proud when one of their sons for the first time, stumps them. I kijow, because I live in a family where the father happens to have an extraordinary memory and a great deal of general knowledge. Some people are blessed with the kind of memories which retain everything they have ever read. The rest of us just bow down in shame before them. John Kieran (father) evidently is blessed in the same way, but when hs remarked: “How sharper than a thankless tooth it is to have a serpent child,” I am sure he did it with tongue in cheek, and a secret glow of pride. I have seen it happen once or twice, but it is quite a different thing I am sure, if it should be a

| fy daughter. I don’t think that should even happen! |

| Day-by-Day Science

PEEcHIAIRY is suffering from overpopularity and as a result is being asked to do the impossible. This is the opinion of a man who is himself a practicing psychiatrist. Dr. Gregory Zilboorg of New York City. In an address before the recent meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Dr. Zilboorg pointed out what in his opinion

«, may properly be expected of this branch of medical

science. Psychiatry, according to him, finds its greatest usefulness at present in the treatment of mentally sick persons as individuals. The more of these individuals who can be treated by competent psychiatrists the better. Such an extension of psychiatry, through treatment of individuals, offers some promise of Siecess in promoting mental health on a large scale. i : For the present, however, Dr. Zilboorg does not believe that psychiatry, which is barely 50 years old, can be expected to contribute to mass promotion of N mental health by being applied to intellectual propaganda, polifical reorganization or economic reconstruction, al

By Roger Budrow TOR years, Indiana streams have, in effect,

- bzen busy little dump carts,

ceaselessly. hauling good farm top-soil from around the roots of crops, down the length of the State and into the Ohio River. The Ohio River carries it tc the Mississippi, and the Nississippi to the Gulf of IMexico and everybody loses. Nobody did much about it until thi: Federal Government went

ino soil conservation experi-

mentation on a large scale. ‘The conservationists have one idea in mind—to anchor home soil to home roots and keep it there—and they have scores of ways of doing this. ‘Three projects have been estab-

lished in Indiana to show Hoosier =|

farmers the best ways of keeping tieir land down on the farm. These include the 40,000 acres

in Henry County, 35,000 acres in .

Eeaton County and the 25,000acre Leatherwood Creek Watershad in Lawrence County. In charge are the Federal Gov-

e:nment’s Soil Conservation Serve

ice, working with the State Agricultural Extension Service. Begun in Indiana three years ago with the Lawrence County project, the new ideas gradually have been taking hold. 3 2 8 2 ® A BENTON COUNTY. farmer 4 has this to say about his reactions when he first saw one of his neighbors putting new ideas into practice. “I thought my neighbor was crazy,” he said. “He was plowing

zig-zag across his fields. Then he

planted his crops the same way, and I knew he was crazy. Then I waited to harvest. He outdid me. That’s when I decided it was the rest of ‘us who were crazy.

Sure, I'm in the project now.”

The zig-zag method of plowing fields is the keystone of the conservationists’ idea. What the Benton County farmer saw was a scientifically proved process, known as strip-cropping. he The idea is to get the farmers to quit planting crops in straight rows, up-and down hill, and to plant them on a contour, keeping the same rows on a level.

» = "

F you have a farm that you've been running for years in just the same way that your father and your grandfather ran it before you, the chances are that th= conservation men could do you a lot of good. : If you decide it’s worth a try, here's what will happen: The conservation men. will tramp all over your farm. They'll note how much livestock you feed, how many there are in your family. what kind of crops you grow, how steep the land is and other facts and figures. When they get through, theyll have a map of your farm and sev-

eral tables of statistics worked out. : \ They'll probably tell you to start zig-zagging your crops and to rearrange your farm layout. If you've been growing corn on a strip that includes a rich piece of bottom land and some barren, hilltop ground, you may be asked to plant alfalfa’'on the poor soil or even to retire it from cultivation to pasture. : C8 » ”

O help you follow the new

rotation schedule, they’ll furnish the lime and phosphate necessary for the acres going into alfalfa. If you've gone this far with their plan, youll probably need new fences. The conservation men will help you put them in. As for the trees, they’ll furnish them too. The conservation workers say it would be a great help to them if the Grand Canyon could be moved from Colorado to Indiana, just to stand as an example of what damage can be done by lit=tle trickles of water running through a cornfield. There is no deep, spectacular

gash in Indiana terrain, however.

The damage done so far is of a type that most people least suspect. The lush, rich topsoil is gradually being washed away each year, according to the cone servation men, and unless stopped, there will be nothing left but the unproductive soil beneath. These experts say that 11 per cent of the volume of water running off Indiana lands into streams and out of the State is composed of silt—the same soil that can be kept in the State with careful planning.

Keeping Our Soil Down on the Farm

U. S. Conservation Experts Making Progress in Erosio n Fight

Upper photo shows runoff in the cornfield of a farm near Fowler,

Ind. Lower right, a gully caused by the heavy rains of January, 1937, on

a farm near Newberry, Ind., in Greene County. A lot of good farm land was washed away in situations such as these. It is similar conditions throughout the State that the Federal Government, through its Conservation experts, is attempting to eliminate. :

Left, a scene along the steep slopes of the Ohio River. Here a familiar weapon, strip cropping, or alternating contour ands of clésegrowing, soil binding crops of meadow, with similar bands of cleantilled crops such as corn, is being used with good effect in the battle

* . against erosion.

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TEST YOUR. - KNOWLEDGE

1—What country bounds Nicaragua on the north? 2—What is the freezing point of water on’ the Fahrenheit thermometer scale? 3—In law, what is the name of the criminal offense of contracting a second marriage by one who, at the time, is already married? 4—What ancient people wor- ~ shipped the god Osiris? .5—What is the popular name for Rocky Mountain sheep? 6—How many stripes are there in the American flag? 7—What is the correct pronunciation of the word hover? 2 2 = Answers 1—Honduras. 2—Thirty-two degrees. 3—Bigamy. ~ 4—The Egyptians. 5—Bighorn. 6—Thirteen. ~ T—Huv’-er; not ho’-ver. sn» ASK THE TIMES

Inclose a 3-cent stamp for reply when addressing ‘ any * question of fact or information. too The Indianapolis Times -

Washington Service Bureau,

1013 13th St., N.. W. Washington, D. C. Legal and medical advice cannot be given nor can

anthology takes

By Abton Scherrer

Just by Accident He Learns That Indianapolis Is Home of Champion Pygmy Pouter Hen (Pigeon to You).

ERE I've been spending all my life in Indianapolis, and not until the other day —s0 help me—did I learn that, the Grand Champion Silver Pygmy Pouter Hen lives at 433 N. Davidson St., along with 200 other

pigeons belonging to John Roeder and Fred

Robinson. a John and Fred began fooling with pigeons when they were boys more than 50 years ago, and you have no idea what they picked up in that time, When less imaginative kids were ‘collecting stamps and pasting them in albums, John and Fred were busy cleaning pigeon lofts and learning the facts of life. The fact, for instance, that pigeons practice monogamy, that they live in pairs, and that both parents take turns sitting on the eggs. For that matter, pigeons still take turns, notwithstanding the fact that the behavior Myr. Scherrer of parents in general has changed : . like everything since John and Fred were boys. Six or seven years ago, John and Fred decided to merge ‘their interests on the theory. that two heads are better than one in the pigeon business. Up to that time, they had been going it alone watching orfe

another to see that the other didn’t get ahead. Now

that they don’t have to watch one another any more,

|| it looks as if they're going to have the world beating

a path to their door. Anyway, it was lucky I got to see their loft when I did, because the way orders are piling up they’ll be down to a hundred birds before long. That's what it means to own “Miss Indiana” (band number 1655), the best pygmy pouter hen in the world. , A pouter pigeon, I forgot to say, is the bird with the unbelievable esophagus which when inflated makes a man-made balloon look nothing less than silly. ; There isn’t much doubt—none, in fact—that Miss Indiana is the champion pygmy pouter hen. She achieved her distinction last month at the Cleveland Show, when she licked the pick of the world. She was only eight months old when she turned the trick,

‘| and right now, I'll bet, she doesn’t weigh more than

12 ounces, including her blown-up esophagus. Pregoclous, that’s the only word to describe J. & F.’s irds,

Acquire British Prize Winner

John and Fred have a lot of fantails, too, among them “Blue Jess,” the best bird shown at the London Crystal Palace Show last year. Soon as the boys heard about Blue Jess, they started negotiating for her. Sure, they got her. It cost them 40 pounds sterling, and another five pounds to bring her over. It figures somewhere around $225, the way the international money market stands at present. Blue Jess has a good round body, a head set in the center of the cushion, and good round circular tail, a good top feather, a good leg setting not too short, and hard shoeing feathers. All of which is a description of a perfect fantail. There’s no telling what Blue Jess

will bring to Indianapolis when the boys start showing her this year.

Chances are, too, that when Blue Jess gets down

to business, her children are going to give a good

account of themselves. Fred is going to see to that, because he’s the best breeder of pigeons anywhere

around here, says John. Indeed, to hear John talk :

about his partner, Fred spends all his spare time

i figuring out future pigeons and what they ought to

look like. The reason J. & F.’s pigeons have that slick look is because they get a .dose of Epsom salts and hot water once a week. It’s a trade secret. Another Dbrecious item the boys gave me is that their pigeons have a light underdown this year. It’s a sure sign of a mild winter. .

Jane ‘Jordan

Girl Advised to Ignore Piea of Man Who Jilted Her to Wed Another.

D== JANE JORDAN-—I went with a man for a year and a half. I was desperately in love and the wedding day was set, clothes. purchased and so forth, when he broke the news to me that he was to be married to another girl a month sooner than the date we had set for our wedding. I was crushed and

he acted as though it hurt him, too. The cause he gave was not lack of love but a difference of religion. He’ could not break the hearts of his devout family. We had talked about this many times before and I would gladly have changed my belief for him, but it didn’t seem to mattér to them. After being married for three months to this girl, he told me he realized his mistake very soon afterward and now wants to break with her and establish our former standing. He says that now he knows it is he who should be considered and not others. I love this man well enotigh to take him back but here’s the awful thing. I met his wife without her knowing who I am and I want to say that she is charming and cultured and just what any man would be proud of. I know what I went through and I don’t think she had anything to do with my heartbreak. I don’t want this dear girl to go throughithe same torment. I still love him, but do you think he really knows his own mind? He was married before, too. WORRIED. ” 2 EJ

Answer—You are better off than the man’s wife, for the worst of your heartbreak is over and hers is yet to come, if she loves him. Obviously he is emotionally unstable and no woman can find security with / him unless he himself recognizes that two failures in marriage are apt to be a neurotic symptom. Everyone makes mistakes, of course, but he who makes the same mistake over and over can no longer blame external events for his mishaps, but must look within for the trouble. Let this be a lesson to you. You trusted the man once and it proved to he an error in judgment for which you paid dearly in disappointment and pain. Why make the same mistake again? Nothing has occurred to increase your faith in the map’s reliability. On the contrary his lack of a responsible attitude toward his engagement to you and- marriage to another adds to the case against him. : ; : JANE JORDAN.

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

New Books Today

| Public Library Presents—

‘his NEW ANTHOLOGY OF MODERN POETRY * (Literary Guild of America, Inc.), Selden Rodman has provided a much needed compilation. The volume is one in which poetry sophisticates will revel—those who know that Zaturenski won the last Pulitzer prize for verse and that Gerard Manley. Hopkins through his sprung rhythm is influencing beyond any one else our very youngest poets. .The inclusions reveal authority in selection, and Mr. Rodman’s introduction is a most persuasive prelude to modern poetry. It exhibits this much discussed new form at its best. You will discover poets about whom you want to know more. It is a volume equally delightful for personal perusal or book review purposes. The biographical notes about the poets included are an extremely useful feature. ‘In short, the

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