Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 25 May 1939 — Page 15

THURSDAY, MAY 25, 1939

Hoosier Vagabond

NEW YORK, May 25.—Well, I went to the New York World's Fair yesterday. Went at noon, didn’t

get home till 3 o'clock this morning, and spent $8 without ever knowing where it went. I went all alone, never spoke to a soul, took in

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anything and everything just as it came along, and had one of the best times I've had in years. I sat in a streamlined Italian train, saw television, got myself weighed, had a World's Fair “lucky penny” made, took in three girl shows, drove a miniature racing car, went up in the Perisphere and down the “Helicline,” saw a copper bowl floating in thin air, got a free shave, helped drill an oil well and almost danced the jitterbug. What I covered in some 14 hours at the Fair isn’t a 200th part of it, I suppose. The thing is so big you can’t put it into words. It is spectacular in size, in color and in variety. They're howling the blues up here about attendance, but I don't see how the Fair can help but be a success. Especially with susceptibles like me in town. This World's Fair, like all other world fairs just after opening, is not yet finished. But it's nearly enough finished that there's twice as much as you can possibly see. You can get to the Fair by auto, subway, bus or train. But I've found the best way is by train, from Pennsylvania Station. Especially if youre staying at a hotel. 2 5 =

Appalled by Its Size

You go by taxi or subway to the Pennsylvania Station Trains leave every 10 minutes. Fare is a dime. Youre at the Fair in 10 minutes, without a stop. It's as simple as pie. The Fair is so huge that your first glimpse of it from the train confuses and appalls you. But the thing to do is get a map and study it. There are maps in the official guide book, or they'll give you a nice map free at the Ford Building. The Fair is 120 acres big and there are 25 miles of roads in the grounds. Distances are too far to walk, unless you just do one section a day and then go home.

Our Town

Since our last meeting I made the acquaintance of a fruit tree 103 years old with still enough sap and ambition to want to keep itself going. Last year, for instance, it produced 20 bushels of pears, and unless the Coast-to-Coast tornado predicted by Dorothy Thempson turns up, I don’t see why the old tree shouldn't do as well this year To be sure, the old pear tree isn't in Indianapolis. It's right across the line in Hancock County, but its human associations are so wrapped up with those of our town that I thought, for once, I could ignore geographical borders and still live up to the title of this column. The tree was nothing but a sprig brought from the Old Country when Jacob Schramm, in 1836, acquired 1920 acres for $2170 and started his farm near what is now known as Cumber= land. “The earth is splendid,” he said when he got around to writing a letter to his folks back in Germany. As a matter of fact, the tree did so well in Indiana soil that it was christened “Der Koenig” (the King), a name by which it is known even today.

” o » Old Implements Still in Use

Besides planting the pear tree, the Schramms als6 raised a family—two boys and a girl. Mathilda, the daughter, married Henry Schnull which in turn gave rise to the Schnull children. With the result that almost everybody in Indianapolis bearing the name of Vonnegut, Mueller, Rauch, Glossbrenner—to mention only a few of the present generation—has his roots, like the old pear tree, in the century-old farm of Hancock County. Ain't Nature grand? Even more surprising is the fact that a grandson (Otto) and a great-grandson (Armin) still run the old Schramm farm. It's the most anachronistic

Washington

WASHINGTON, May 25.—Recently President Roosevelt asked the O'Mahoney Temporary National Economic Committee to gather suggestions as to how idle men, idle machines and idle money—all of which we have in abundance—might be put to work. It is a healthy sign that in the committee hearings no panaceas are being shoved at us, no Townsend schemes, no greenback mustard plasters, no magic medicine guaranteed to restore lost youth overnight. Numerous specific proposals are offered by witnesses as aids, though no complete cures. Witnesses generally emphasize that the most that can be done is to vrovide tools for both private and public initiative. Modernization of banking facilities to provide easier access to capital was offered as one helpful suggestion hy A. A. Berle Jr., Assistant Secretary of State and an expert in finance Only a few highlights can be distilled here out of Berle's remarkable discussion. We have done a good job in devising elastic money and short-term credit, principally through the Federal Reserve System, so that during the crop-moving season, for instance, the old money stringency has disappeared and the supply expands and contracts to fit the current needs of business. = = os

System Held Too Rigid

But in long-term operations—capital for plant co. - struction, for instance—our financial system is too rigid. The great need is for flexibility and accessibility regarding abundant capital funds (as distinguished from current operating funds) A complicating factor is the expansion of public social services in modern times, calling for huge out-

My Day

WASHINGTON, Wednesday.—I am sure that everyone of us read with supreme relief this afternoon that seven men have been rescued from the sube

marine Squalus. I cannot help thinking of the women and children waiting for each trip made by this bell. I can imagine all the heartrending human stories which play themselves out as these people wait and watch. All one can do is to pray and hope that, for all of them, there will come before long, a happy reunion with the men still on board. Mrs. Morgenthau and I spent a most interesting day at the New York World's Fair yesterday. It was Rural Woman's Day, but my part did not begin until nearly 3 o'clock, so, in the morning, we went first to the General Motors Building and my Frank Harting, took us on a little trip” around the world of the future. He wrote the script which synchronizes with the music and the scene which passes before your eyes and is justly proud of the whole exhibition, }

friend, Mr.’

By Ernie Pyle

But there are many ways of getting about. Greyhound has the bus concession, and they run big long busses with regular station stops, just like a train. Fare a dime. Also there are tractors pulling little trains around the grounds. And you can hire a uniformed boy to push you in a roller chair. They all look like college boys, and don’t seem to be doing very well. Yesterday at the Fair I saw one man on roller skates. Saw him several times during the day, and he was doing fine. But I noticed that by late afternoon his poor wife, who was trying to keep up on foot, looked pretty bedraggled. Public highways run right through the grounds. But theyre fenced off and bridged over or tunneled under, so that you never have to bother with traffic, and you can't sneak in from the highway, either. Theoretically, autos are not allowed in the grounds. But of course a certain number of big shots can always get special permission. And there are so many big shots around New York that the autos are becoming a nuisance. ” ” s

The “Children’s World”

There is a six-acre “Children’s World” where you

can safely park your children (for a fee) while you see the Fair. Incidentally, the only dogs admitted to the Fair are Seeing-Eye dogs, and their owners get in free. I saw two blind men using one dog yesterday. Imost anywhere you turn there is a place to sit down and rest. Thousands of benches over the] grounds. And most of the exhibition buildings have | ultra-carpeted and upholstered lounging rooms for the public. And there are many wonderful toilets on the grounds. The restaurant and drinking situation isn't perfect yet. True, there are plenty of places. But they vary in style and distance from where a whim hits you. The grounds are dotted with information booths, and everywhere you turn there's a uniformed policeman guide. More than 1000 of them. They are dressed something like Northwest Mounted police. They stand erect and waiting, holding a little baton under their arms. They are a fine looking bunch of young fellows, and completely courteous, friendly and intelligent. The Fair itself probably doesn't realize what a swell job they're doing.

By Anton Scherrer,

place you ever saw. Right along side of the most| modern farm machinery, youll stumble on to tools! and methods a hundred years old. And in actual use, mind you. If youll go out there a couple of months from | now, chances are you'll find Mrs. Schramm (Molly) | in the old smokehouse making her own soap and in| a nearby field her son, Armin, will be running the| most modern combine harvester. Mrs. Schramm says] it's profitable to manufacture her own soap because it makes use of grease and fats that would otherwise | go to waste. Better still if you drop in around butchering time, and watch them make their canned beef and tenderloin. And if there's anything better than their] sausage (mettwurst), I yet have to taste it. With the exception of orie little detail, it's made exactly the way Jacob, the original Schramm, made it a hundred years ago. = 2 2

No Worry Over Fuel The modern Schramms impregnate the sausage] with ground pepper, whereas the original Bavarian | recipe called for pepper-corns. I don't suppose, though, the Schramms will make another concession, come what may Nor is that all. The Schramms still use the anvil! with which the farm started, and they still have the! hand cradle used in harvesting wheat a hundred years | ago. The spinning wheels and reels used in the manufacture of yarn and cloth are still intact, too.! What's more, they have the broadax Grandfather | Schramm used to hew out the logs for his home and | the tool he used to split the clapboards to roof his| house. Even more surprising is the discovery that the| Schramm farm still has 40 acres in woods—the orig- | inal Indiana forest, mind you. It comes in mighty handy, says Mr. Schramm. when they want to build and repair. Not only that, but all their furnace fuel comes from this woodland. “I don’t suppose we used 10 shovels of coal all last winter,” said Mr. Schramm,

By Raymond Clapper

lays for hospitals, roads, bridges and such public works which are not profit-making enterprises in the ordinary sense. We have treated these public investments as ordinary Government expenses, adding them, if revenues are short, to the regular Government debt. Such construction expenses should fall into a separate public-investment category,

Then comes the problem of financing the smaller business.

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Three Proposals Outlined

Mr. Berle’s three immediate suggestions are as follows:

1. Create a public works finance corporation, with Federal Reserve Bank rediscount privilege, to finance!

self-liquidaiing public works. Advances also would | be made to municipalities for housing, hospitals and other necessary local improvement. Interest charges | would be varied depending upon the extent to which | the project might be self-liquidating, so that for! some only a nominal charge would be made. { 2. As a temporary measure, enact the Mead bill! enabling the Government to insure loans for small! business, thus placing the operator under the $1.000.-! 000 line, who cannot finance himself internally, on a par with large corporations. : 3. Create capital credit banks, whose business it would be to provide capital for those enterprises which need it, making such capital equally available either to Federal or local governmental units and to private enterprise. With these three bills, Mr. Berle said, we would have tools so that initiative and ideas could go to work, and so that our financial system could do what is expected of it, namely to permit men, materials and ideas to combine in satisfying obvious needs of the country, and also in meeting the increased demands which the less fortunate part of the population properly makes on the system as a whole.

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By Eleanor Roosevelt

This World of Tomorrow is, of course, primarily designed to show how highways and automobiles are going to function. But there is real imagination here, and one can get some real inspiration in social planning and in a vision of what the world of tomorrow may possibly mean in happiness and well-being for all of our people. Mr. Norman Bel Geddes has my appreciation and thanks for a grand show. We went through the rest of the exhibit rather hurriedly, for at 12:15 o'clock I was due at the Aviation Building and there Jacqueline Cochran presented

me with a plaque from the four big airlines, as their foremost woman air traveler. Of course, I Peceived this title only because of the fact that I am the President's wife, for many other people have traveled many more miles and probably to more useful purpose. Few, however, I am sure, are more interested in aviation and its possibilities in the future. We lunched at the Swedish Restaurant and I went through their exhibition. On the whole, I think we are planning our housing as well as they are, but we have much to learn from the Scandinavian countries in their general social planning.

We flew back to Washington thl§ morning.

(Second of a Series)

By Sam Tyndall HE selection of Indianapolis as the site of the nation’s first complete Federal aircraft experimental station, which is to be dedicated at Municipal Airport Monday, can be called perhaps a fitting tribute to a city which pioneered in the days when flying was looked upon as amazing. From the early days of experimenting, Indianapolis went into the “batty balloon era” with gay abandon. Carl G. Fisher was the town “sport” about 1909, riding around in high-powered runabouts—those with the gear levers on the outside. “Capt.” George L. Bumbaugh, who advertised himself as “Aeronaut and Instructor,” was Mr. Fisher's balloon expert. The first national balloon race was promoted by Mr. Fisher in 1909 to launch the Speedway which he had helped build. ¢ It was about that same time, when Indianapolis was an automobile manufacturing center, and budding balloon racing center, that Capt. Bumbaugh built the city’s first airplane. (Only they called them “aeroplanes” then.) Using the Speedway grounds as a workshop, Capt. Bumbaugh, with Mr. Fisher's financial help, built a biplane something like the Wright brothers’ ship, but also a little like the Farman, and, in addition, in some ways like Glenn Curtiss’ new plane. Capt. Bum=baugh boasted it had some entirely new features, too, which had to do with a stabilizer. In this experiment Capt. Bumbaugh was aided by J. Q. Noblitt, a budding engineer, and later widely known executive in the Noblitt-Sparks Co., Columbus.

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APT. BUMBAUGH put a twocycle 40-horsepower engine in the flimsy frame and took off one day in the fall. It climbed up 60 feet, then sideslipped, Capt. Bumbaugh sitting out in front moving the lever sticks. He said he got a little nervous and he brought it down without incident. Just then it was announced that the Wright brothers were to stage a flying exhibit in Indianapolis. It was to be the first in a sweeping tour of the country. Mr. Fisher had guaranteed the Wrights $25,000 for the exhibition, which was to be held at the Speedway. Additional bleachers were constructed and on June 14, 1910, the Wrights and their flying machines arrived. Indianapolis citizens motored and rode the ever-present bicycles out to the track, but few went inside the gates. They decided they could see the planes fly just as well from the outside. As the show got under way Mr. Fisher bet one of the Wright fliers $100 that the Fisher plane piloted by Capt. Bumbaugh could get off the ground quicker than one of the Wright ships. The bet was taken. The day before, Capt. Bumbaugh and Mr. Fisher had made plans to “show up” the Wrights. They put a new 60-horsepower Hariman motor in their plane. It would go about 60 miles an hour.

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

1—In which State is the Guadalupe River? 2-—-What is the basic constituent of pewter? 3-—Name the earth’s satellite. 4—By whom was the Statue of Liberty presented to the United States? 5—Name the Chinese aviatrix who is making a flying-tour to the principal cities of the U. 8. to raise funds for Chinese war orphans and refugees. 6—For which Government agency do the initials CSB stand? 7—Name the capital of the Re« public of Haiti. 2 = 8

Answers 1-—Texas. 2-Tin. 3-—The moon. 4—The people of France. 5—Miss Hilda Yen. 6—Central Statistical Board. 7—Fort-au-Prince. ” s 2

ASK THE TIMES

Inclose a 3-cent stamp for reply when addressing any ques= tion of fact or information to The Indianapolis Times Wgashington Service Bureau, 1013 13th St, N. W, Washington, D. C. Legal and medical advice cannot be given nor can extended research be undertaken,

SECOND SECTION

1. A group is shown here at the scene of the wreckage of the first airplane flown in Indianapolis. It was built by Capt. Bumbaugh in 1910 and once raced one of the Wright brothers’ planes here.

2. Capt. Bumbaugh built this plane in 1913 for Horace B. Hewett,

life insurance company executive,

3. The first plane flown and constructed here is shown taking off at the Speedway, center of “lighter-than-air” operations in the “batty

balloon days.” 4. Carl G. Fisher in 1910.

He promoted the first national balloon

races here and helped finance Capt. Bumbaugh's plane.

NTEREST in the race was worked to a high pitch. The “Captain” sorted his way through the bewildering array of bars and levers into the seat. With the Wright ship poised, the starter gave the signal. Bumbaugh got away first and the crowd shrieked. Mr. Fisher watched proudly. But just as Bumbaugh began to straighten out after a 150-foot ascent, he began to have trouble. He leveled

off the ship but the tail went up and the craft turned turtle, crashing 150 feet to the ground, Bumbaugh sprawled face down with the plane on top of him. He was rushed to a hospital where he was found to have three broken ribs and a severely injured back.

He had set {he stabilizer wrong when attempting to adjust it for the new motor. But he won the bet. It was a glorious day for the citizens of Indianapolis. Only a few knew that only $17,600 was taken in as gate receipts and that the Wrights declined to let Mr. Fisher pay the balance of the guarantee out of his pocket. Capt. Bumbaugh was back at the Speedway patching up his plane several weeks later. He flew the creation for almost a year after that until one Robert Elliott from Chicago came down. Elliott boasted he was an expert flier. Bumbaugh believed him. He let Elliott take the plane up. That ended the stormy career of the first airplane ever flown in Indianapolis. As Capt. Bumbaugh put it “Elliott was flying quite lively when he went into a dive.” Elliott wasn't hurt but the plane was crumbled like paper mache. “Anyway,” said Capt. Bumbaugh cheerfully, “you couldn’t guarantee a flight with the blamed thing.”

HERE was one other plane in the city at that time. It was a Farman, and it belonged to a family of “aerial artists” . . “barnstormers” they were cailed later. Indianapolis held the monopoly on the national balloon races for four years. During that time Capt. Bumbaugh constructed airships for several Indianapolis men, including Hahns Lieber, Russell

Shaw and Horace B. Hewett, grain cradle manufacturer. Ray Harroun who won the first 500-mile auto race here in 1911 built his own motor for a plane which Bumbaugh aided in designing. By 1913 Capt. Bumbaugh was recognized as one of the outstanding aircraft experts of his time. He held Government licenses to fly an airplane, spherical balloon and dirigible airship. He was later to become the only man in America to hold four aircraft licenses, the last allowing him to fly a “flying boat.” He even designed a 225-foot dirigible which was to be constructed by The American Dirigible Airship Co. of Indianapolis. It was to be the first passenger dirigible airship in America. One of the incorporators of the company, W. K. Belles, founder of the Reserve Loan Life Insurance Co., died suddenly and the plans stopped there, The general public was beginning to catch the “feel” of aviation's possibilities and many were being carried away with their enthusiasm. ” ” ” APT. BUMBAUGH in a story written under his own name in a paper Oct. 12, 1913, said: “Although airships and flying machines have been developed to a state nearing perfection at a pace almost as rapid as the auto and more rapid than the locomotive, the auto and the locomotive will not be rendered useless by the invasion of the aerial vessels as many are inclined to believe. “While it is possible to cross the ocean in an airship or balloon if of proper construction, these voyages must always be uncertain and far from economical. “There are some places accessible by no other means where airships could be used to advantage, yet one must bear in mind that a large balloon or airship becomes an unmanageable monster in a windstorm. “The airships will render the Navy uscvless as a factor in warfare which will be a boon to mankind as it will free the people from a burden of taxation. “I firmly believe that the airship ultimately will be the means of preventing all warfare and the

Side Glances—By Galbraith

medium through which an international peace treaty ultimately will be effected. “Ballooning is absolutely safe with a good balloon and experienced operator. The auto is much more dangerous.” During the war years, however, aviation activity in Indianapolis came to a standstill. Capt. Bumbaugh manufactured a few gas balloons for the War Department and produced 1800 wicker balloon baskets. It was not until after the War (about 1920) that aviation active ity started up again. The Government began selling “dirt cheap” thousands of unused war planes—the J N 4Ds or “Jennys” as they were better known. At the same time the Canadian Government dumped on the market unused Canadian Curtiss war planes, the Canuck. New “Jennys” that had cost the Government $3000 to build were bought for as littie as $150. Those who had learned to fly during the war quickly took advantage of the situation. They bought them up and organized circuses and passenger promotions. It began the barnstorming tours. Persons with the planes could get $5 per passenger for short flights around the city.

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NDIANAPOLIS had its share of the barnstormers and the first came into being in November, 1920, when a group of Indianapolis men incorporated the Indianapolis Aerial Co. with a capital stock of $10,000. An airfield was laid out at 30th St. and Emerson Ave. in Irvington and Harold K. Brooks, later associated

with other commercial aviation venturcs, was the chief pilot. John P. Koehler, pharmacy owner, was president; Dr. John Kingsbury, vice president, and Leslie Sanders was secretary. Dr. Thomas Dugan was another who took part in the venture. ” 8 ” HE aerial equipment consisted of two Canucks and an English Avro. Mr. Brooks and two other pilots took passengers aloft, The price was $15 for five minutes. Long lines of landlubbers waited for the rides. Sunday was the big day, with parachute jumps and other daring “feats.” The directors found, however, that they . couldn't make any money. “The cost of overhauling the planes was too great.” The organization folded after three seasons. The ground work for the Army Reserve Corps airport at Ft. Harrison, Schoen Field, also was laid about 1920.

Aviation activity here again came to a standstill between 1922 and 1926. It was typical through=

out the country. It should be remembered that it was the barne storming pilot who kept aviation alive in that gap between the war and the rise of commercial avia« tion, training schools, passenger airlines, mass production of planes for private ownership. In the late 1920s the seeds for the growth of Indianapolis as a

future national aviation center were being sown.

NEXT: Aviation Comes of Age in Indianapolis.

Everyday Movies—By Wortman

1939 BY NEA SERVICE, INC. T. M.

, PAT. OFF, *§

"Why can't you look distinguished in your clothes—like Anthony Eden, for instance?" ”

’

In and Out of the Red With Sam

"As soon as he puts his second foot in the elevator, call him

| back, 'cause then we'll be sufe he won't pay a cent more."