Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 5 May 1939 — Page 23

Vagabond

From Indiana —Ernie Pyle

The Dust Bowl Seems to Be Doing Better—in Spots—and There May Be |

A Crop if Only the Rains Continue.

i CITY, Kas., May 5.—The Dust Bowl is better. In spots. Today when we drove through the dust country a high wind was blowing. It roared against the side of the car until you could hardly talk.

Yet there wasn't a speck of dust. Water was standing in the roadside ditches. The land was moist from last night's rain. The Dust Bow! has had an abundance of rain this spring. If it keeps up, there will be a crop this yeAr. If it keeps up.... It doesn’t take long for the land to dry and the earth to start rolling through the air. Last night, for instance, just before the rain. The wind whipped up to 60 miles an hour. A California family, in a brand new Buick, got caught in the storm. They were badly frightened. They had never seen a dust storm before. They didn’t know what was happening. They came plowing on through. And when they drove into a garage here, their windows

Mr, Pyle

were mottled by the sand, and there wasn’t any paint |

left on their brand new Buick Around Garden City than three years ago. At that time the country nuded, gray, almost vulgar But now falfa. in these fields. There is a prosperous look. Garden City itself seems to be a booming little city.

Is the Government's hope for terracing and crop | the |

rotation and deep-growing grass restoring blanched and useless plains? The best answer I can give is—yes, seems to me if it were possible for ment to have this entire wind-blown area, control the management of every foot of it, the Dust Bowl could be conquered.

Ghost Town of the Plains

We stopped in the town of Forgan. Okla. If there ever was a town to make your heart sick, it is Forgan. Two-thirds of the store buildings in town are empty. The movie is boarded up. Unpainted and empty houses straggle back from the highway. Dust has killed Forgan. It likely will never recover. Just a few years ago, Now it is 200. Nearly everybody is on relief. I talked to one young fellow, just two years out of high school. He told me that every boy in his graduating class, except himself, is now on relief. He would be also, except for his pride, and the fact that his father has a job.

in spots. It the Governand then

The young man picks up a week's work here, a few |

days’ there. He manages to get along. But he said he could no more hope to get married and raise a

family than he could hope to flap his arms and fly. |

He would like to go away, but how? Morale seems to have ebbed low

be restored tomorrow the people Chey like relief too well I think he is too pessimistic about it. but a hypothetical one, for you can look around you and see that this land won't be restored tomorrow, or in

a thousand tomorrows

In some parts, a little known weed has taken hold | and serves well to hold | But that has become a case where | If you plant a |

in the last couple of years, the earth in place. the cure is as bad as the disease crop now, this weed QVEtWheIms the crop

————————

My Day

By Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt

Conversation With a Taxi Driver; He Notes Absence of Bread Lines.

ASHINGTON, Thursday.—An incident occurred the other day

amusing in New City a taxicab from which a young man was just alighting At the next red light, the taximan said: “You are Mrs. Roosevelt, aren't you? heard that you went about alone but I believe it, I just brought that from Wall Street. He says that it is very slow down there and it will be as long as Mr. Roosevelt is in Washington. in "29, just like the Wall Street fellows,

never did

I guess, but

I am doing better now, though But the breadiines are gone

a lot of breadlines not as well as in "29

so I'm quite contented because I think more people

are doing better.” It seems to me as though people were doing a good deal of thinking these days along social lines, which is, I believe, a good sign. Yesterday I enjoyed the outdoor sculpture show at Park Ave. and 39th St. very much. It is well worth seeing and the sculptors are quite right that their work should be shown out of doors. As you go in, vou face a bear done by Mr. Paul Manship. It is not a very terrifving bear, in fact he looks like a

* benevolent and playful cub and seems to welcome | ~ pther animal appealed to me very much |

guests. C

a delightt. Edward Greenbaum.

aig done by Mrs.

Lincoln on kh seback

There are two statues of Lincoln. One of Lincoln as a young man is most appealing and the head is very beautiful rider going from court to court I imagine, and feeling a trifie cold and dejected. Nevertheless very fine My day has been spent as follows: A press conference at 11, a few minutes with Dorothy Ducas beforehand. She has been to Warm Springs, Ga. for the first time and has come back with enthusiasm for all she has seen. At the end of the press conference, a few minutes talk with a voung English newspaper woman who is over here to familiarize herself, I imagine, with the scene which will greet her King and Queen, ally At noon I went to breakfast, where Rose Bampton gave a beautiful program. I love to hear her sing. From there I went to the Church Women's League luncheon and spent a very brief time with them, and now I am preparing to meet the Colonial Danes.

Day-by-Day Science

By Science Service

F YOU lived on a farm when you were small, you probably were an interested

window or under the roof of the shed.

If you were brave enough and curious enough to | put a worker wasp on the nest of a different species, | you discovered that a vicious battle to the death was |

likely to ensue.

The worker wasp will tolerate or even fraternize |

with a strange worker of the same species, but is as antagonistic human species of Central Europe. These wasp battles have been put on a scientific footing by Dr. Phil Rau, psychologist of Kirkwood, Mo., who has watched them in orphan colonies in his laboratory and also has watched the wild insects in sheds and old buildings. “Animosity” runs in the family, Dr. Rau said in a report to the Journal of Comparative Psychology. Although you may have thought so all along, it has not been nearly so clear to scientists, because of the fact that the worker wasps who do the fighting for the colony never can hand any traits to the next wasp generation. The workers never have yvoung—that is reserved for the queen. | Observing the queen at battle is a difficult task. | But the queen, when she is unable to delegate the battle to workers, vigorous fight on her own behalf. She is unfriendly | to all alien queens, although she is not necessarily friendly to all queens of her own species.

Indianapolis Times

Second Section

the town’s population was 600. |

in this section. | One man told me that if the land were suddenly to |

wouldn't farm it. | | seems to have an authentic sound.

that's | what he said. But that question will have to remain |

| as they

| come gradually. | change acceptable, I always |

young gentleman |

It’s true that I was making more money : . | cially then things were very bad for a while and there were |

Then there is a smaller one of Lincoln | on horseback with his shawl around him—the circuit |

the face is |

tures.

so that she may write about it more graphic- | the Congressional Club |

spectator at the | familiar battles between warlike wasps at the attic |

to foreign species as are some of the

in wasps at least is instinctive and |

FRIDAY, MAY 5, 1939

Entered as Second-Class Matter Indianapolis,

at Postoffice,

(Second of a Series)

By Paul Harrison HOLLYWOOD, May 5 (NEA).—~With the double bill apparently headed for the discard, there is also evidence that the unhappy union between the movies and the radio is headed for the rocks. These are among the sweeping changes in prospect at the nation’s film capital. The demise of the double bill had been predicted on several occasions due to protests by an articulate minority of movie-goers. Nothing much happened except that many ,6 theaters, scrambling for a share of the declining patronage, began offering triple bills, bank nights and dishes. This time, though, the death knell

The reason is Hollywood itself has clamped down on double bills. Heretofore the movie-makers didn’t care what happened as long could keep on warming over a few stock plots, retitling them and selling them as “"B" pictures at small but sure profits. Such cheapies often were referred to as "the backlog of the industry.” Today they are a growing detriment to the industry and are spoken of as “the double-feature evil.” All major studios now are

| wondering what to do about it

Warner Bros. already are doing something, and their ideas are fairly indicative of what may be expected. I went to see Hal Wal-

| lis, winner of the Academy Award

for “a uniformly fine standard of

| production in 1938.” little |

York | As I came out after visiting my aunt, I entered |

Mr. Wallis believes the elimination of dual bills is inevitable as well as desirable, but that iv will To make the good shorts must be substituted. For a while the “shorts” will be quite long and will be called “featurettes.” But instead of dealing with fictional material they will be historical, biographical, soinformative or—especially case—patriotic. = ” ”

in Warners’

DON'T see how people can punish themselves with double bills and screeno and all that stuff,” Wallis said. “Of course, one answer is that more and more people are refusing to do it. ‘They telephone their theater for the time of the main picture and pop in to catch just that. And a great many other people, with less patience, simple stay home “We're convinced that single features with good shorts and newsreels will bring increased theater patronage. You can credit a more discriminating public for that.” The question of who will profit and who will suffer from a return of single bills is something that Hcllywood hasn't quite figured out. Wallis’ guess is that noboay will lose, and that the public willingly will swell the revenue by going oftener to see better pic-

RODUCTION are not likely to change much. This vear, for example, Warners will make at least 12 historical featurettes in Technicolor, each with a budget equal to that for a fulllength “B” picture. “Sons of Liberty,” recently completed, has Claude Rains and

Montague Love in the top roles, and it was directed by Michael Curtiz. The theater chain belonging to Loews, Inc, which is the parent company of M-G-M, was the first big circuit to inaugurate the dou-ble-bill policy. Now it is the first to announce that it will return gradually to the single standard. And as for that uphappy alliance between the movies and radio, the fact is both would like a divorce if each were not ufraid the other might win the custody television. Of course, television, born prematurely, is still in the incubator. But the specialists say it's doing as well as can be expected. Hollywood hopes and believes it can grow up only with the aid of films and film players. But it's really radio's baby Recently the worried moviemakers have been scurrving around effecting alliances with makers of television equipment. Some of these have not yet been announced. Paramount is associated with DuMont, and RKO with its rich uncle, the Radio Corp. of America. Metro or 20th-Fox, or both, may be tied up with the Baird company which already is telecasting in a few London theaters.

costs

1. Ronald Colman, left, and Cary Grant, movie stars as they appeared in “The Circle” broadcast over the NBC red network last winter. Colman later withdrew and his departure was said to be due to the movies’ growing distrust of radio competition, particularly as it involves a prospective battle over which industry shall control television. 2. This is how Ray Sax, right, stunt musician of the Pennsylvanians and Fred Waring appeared during a recent rehearsal for a television musical revue at the New York World's Fair. 3. Montague Love as George Washington in Warner Brothers “Sons of Liberty,” one of the new featurettes which film moguls hope will solve the double-bill problem. 4. Carole Lombard also was a member of “The Circle” cast orig-

inally, but dropped out with Mr. Colman.

advertising by sending 5200 pamphlets each week to prospective advertisers and agencies. The booklets, titled “Television in Advertising,” attempt to forecast the interest in Musak, a system of prospects of sight-and-sound “wired radio” which may be espe- broadcasting in selling products. sally applicable in distributing & » television programs. ; Hollywood is receiving plenty of Hun Sspyens Fie assurances that films, rather than . wood is confident of a much live talent, will make up the bigger stake in television than it bulk of television entertainment. now has in ordinary radio. William H. Preiss, head of Inter- All it has now is a mess of national Television Corp., pointed trouble with stars who can't fig ure why they should work so hard

out some reasons: Duplicates, with sound on film, can be made cheaply and broad- at the studios when they can cast from 9! a ingest make a week's salary with an eing sent aroun he country ' : : : hour's wor p § staover costlv Wires. : k in a broadcasting sta Programs can he edited and tion. About two months ago, on a Sunday, movie stars received an

censored in advance. ‘ Programs can be filmed with estimated $130,000 for appearances on the air.

regular movie studio facilities and movie players when they are con- Sunday also is supposed to be a veniently available. This would good day for movie theaters, but relieve one of the worst of Holly- that one wasn't. From Miami to wood’s current headaches because Seattle, owners of empty theaters set up a yell of anguish. They de=

radio broadcasts and rehearsals now seriously disrupt movie pro- manded that the movie makers withdraw their actors from the

duction. The National Broadeasting Com- competitive medium of the air. Since that day, Hollywood ex-

pany is anticipating visual-radio

Baird, in truth, has become a subsidiary of the Gaumont British movie concern. Warner Brothers is sitting tight with a controlling

ecutives have pointed to tucse de= velopments:

Tyrone Power went off the air. Metro announced discontinuance of its “Good News" program, the only surviving studio show, effective next July. Alice Faye was de clared to be off the air. A new Sunday show, “The Circle,” be= came a semicircle with the dis= appearance of Carole Lombard and Ronald Colman. But while filmoguls were taking bows for the removal of stars from the air, an official of one of the largest advertising agencies told me authoritatively that Tyrone Power's contract had been canceled by the sponsor; that Alice Faye hadn't had a radio contract in a year and a half, and that the Metro show also had been shelved by its commercial sponsor, a coffee company. The fading of Miss Lombard and other segments of “The Circle” had nothing to do with pro=tection of movie exhibitors. They simply. didn’t like their material. Power didn't like his material, either, nor his wage. “The sponsors and the big advertising agencies are getting good and sick of Hollywood,” said my informant. “We're especially tired of paying a lot of temperamental movie stars about 10 times what they're worth, “Merely as big names, their appeal has worn pretty thin. In television they'd be all right, but just as voices most of them are less competent than trained radio performers. I think most of the big air shows will be moving back to the East soon.”

NEXT—Hollywood woos foreign markets,

| have guessed that Dr. | Indianapolis at

body,

Side Glances—By Galbraith

is quite capable of putting up a || oF

8. PAT. OFF, ¢

"If | take this one, Mother, promise me you won't wear it before | use it at ie e Junior Prom!"

TEST YOUR

Everyday Movies—8Y Wortman

KNOWLEDGE

1—-What is the chief constituent of coal? 2—In which European country is the river Ebro? 3—How many square yards are in one acre?

4—Which state is nicknamed “Beehive State?”

5—What is chronology? 6—What is a post mortem? T—Name the Premier of Greece.

8—How are Justices of the U. S. Supreme Court chosen?

» ” 2

Answers 1—Carbon. 2—Spain. 3—4840. 4—Utah. 5—Measurement of time. 6—Examination of a body to determine the cause of death. T-—George Metaxas. 8—They are appointed by the President with the advice and approval of the U. S. Senate.

ASK THE TIMES

Inclose a 3-cent stamp for reply when addressing any question of fact or information to The ndianapolis Times Washington Service Bureau,

Aan

ie) [A ra

lili A ad Re

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

"We still wouldn't have to apply for relief if | could get a job some place—even to start from the bottom."

PAGE 21

Ind.

Our Town

By Anton Scherrer

West End Had Its Notables, Too, As Is Amply lllustrated by Citing Career of Progressive Dr. Eisenbeiss.

RANK B. KEETER dropped in the other night to remind me that the West End,

when he was a kid, was something to brag

about, too. There was Dr. Eisenbeiss, for instance, He had his office over Traub’s drug store at the northwest corner of Washington and West Sts, as busy a place for casualties as any 40 years ago. Doc could handle anything, says Mr. Keeter, and was especially good in emergency cases like cutting off a leg or extracting bullets. To look at Doc, you'd never suspect his courage for he was a mild-mannered man who talked with a lingering drawl as if he had all day to complete a sentence. At any rate, nobody could Eisenbeiss was the most wide awake man in {he time. That's why it surprised every- Mr except those on the inside, Wis when: Dr. Eisenbeiss brought the first X-Ray ma= chine to Indianapolis. Mr. Keeter says he knows what he’s talking about because he remembers that Dr. Eisenbeiss asked his father, Joseph B. Keeter, to teach him the rudiments of photography. Joseph Keeter ran the tin-type gallery in the West End at the time. Frank B. stuck his nose into it, too, with the result that he now goes around town bragging that he was the first kid in Indianapolis to see the photograph of a human heart in its natural environment, Nor was that all. When the Curie family dis« covered radium, Dr. Eisenbeiss was the first to bring it to Indianapolis. He paid $10,000 for an itsy-bitsy slice and kept it in a metal container over Traub's drug store. Everybody wondered what Doc was up to this time. Well, Mr. Keeter knows. And it's the right ane swer, he says, because it's something else that hap pened to him. It happened the night John Holtzman was electe ed mayor of Indianapolis. By this time Mr. Keeter was old enough to be a cub pressman on the News, In the excitement of getting out the election extras, he got his finger in the printing press and when they pulled him out, Mr. Keeter's finger was dangling by a thread. I'll spare you the ghastly details except to say that Mr, Keeter expressed a wish to see Dr. Eisenbeiss right away.

Treatment by Telephone

Doc had a look at the mutilated finger and decided not to operate. Instead, he bathed it in a strong solu= tion, bandaged it, and sent Mr. Keeter home. In the meantime, the printing press went right on, unmind= ful of the tragedy. With the result that everybody knew that Mr. Holtzman was elected, never once sus= pecting what happened to Mr. Keeter that night. Well, the next day Mr. Keeter's finger started hurting like everything, and that night the pain got to be so unbearable that Mother Keeter picked up the telephone and begged Dr. Eisenbeiss, for mercy’s sake, to come to the house as quickly as possible. The tele= phone in vogue at the time was a box on the wall, the kind you had to stand up to talk into. Dr. Eisenbeiss listened to Mother Keeter's emo= tional account of her son's behavior and said he didn’t believe it was necessary to see the patient. He could treat him from his office, he said. In a drawling voice, he ordered the patient to be brought to the telephone and told Mother Keefer to put the receiver on the back of her boy's head, right behind the left ear. The pain stopped immediately. As a matter of fact, from that minute on, Mr. Keeter's finger began to heal. So fast, indeed, that he was up and around hefore anybody had missed him. Next time Mr. Keeter saw Dr. Eisenbeiss, he asked him what in the world he had done to stop the pain so quickly. You'll die when you hear this. Dr. Eisen= beiss said he held his $10,000 worth of radium in front of the mouthpiece of his office telephone.

Jane Jordan—

Bored by Visitors, Man Is Given Tips on How to Alienate Friends.

EAR JANE JORDAN-—I am aware of the fact that your column is not a “Wanted to Rent” column, but what is a poor man to do who is hounded to death in his own apartment? I can’t eat, sleep or read in peace. I work eight hours a day, and when I ceme home at night, I'm tired and hungry, and would like to relax. But first one roomer and then another pounds on our door and talks until my head spins around. My poor wife tries to be patient and will not offend peo= ple by cutting them short in conversation. She was of a well-to-do family and we lived in a better environment until Old Man Depression took our cottage home, and we had to move into a cheap apartment where folks co nothing but talk 10 hours a day. We are both getting to be nervous wrecks and I would like to find a place where folks work more and talk less, but T've worn my shoe leather out seeking such a place in vain. I'm 40 and sober, go to church every Sunday, pay my rent and attend to my own business. I hate to go crazy, as 40 is pretty young for a man to lose his reason. What wouid you do? TALKED TO DEATH HENRY. ” ” on Answer—The easiest solution is to move into a bungalow in the country with nothing to bother you but the furnace. You can lessen the labor of looking by advertising for such a place. However, if you must stay where you are, you must educate your wife on “How to Lose Friends and Alienate People.” There is a book of this title which contains some invaluable suggestions. Buy it and see if you can't find out how it is done. You can find temporary relief by claiming to have a fever, Say that you recently have been exposed to smallpox and aren't sure just what you are catching, Develop a sepulchral cough and speak gloomily of tue berculosis. Another dandy way to secure privacy 1s to talk about yourself and give others no chance whatever to talk about themselves. Let the theme of your conver= sation be “Big I and Little You.”

Tell the women how old they look and advise them never to wear a dress of that color again. Punctuate your conversation with “just like a woman” and exe pound on what rotten drivers women make. Don't forget the power of the sour remark. Always aim for their ears and see that they're nicely pinned back. JANE JORDAN.

Put your problems in a letter to Jane or: answer your questions in this column daily Je5a98: Whew

Scherrer

New Books Today

Public Library Presents—

(New Pamphlets)

SECRET ARMIES (Modern Age). A well-known

| writer and reporter, John L. Spivak, reveals the | espionage and propaganda activities being carried on

in the Americas by the agents of the Rome-Berline

| Tokyo axis.

A KEY TO NEW YORK (Modern Age). Anyone “young enough or old enough to enjoy exploring” will love this unconventional guide to New York, pre= pared by Rosalie Slocum and Ann Todd for both Yorkers anf visitors,