Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 26 May 1939 — Page 19
FRIDAY, MAY 26, 1939
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ndianapolis Times
SECOND SECTION
Hoosier Vagabond
NEW YORK, May 268.—When Grover Whalen thought up that Trylon and Perisphere theme (if he did think it up) he probably had nd idea how genius had touched him. The thing has caught on like a new song hit. It somehow succeeds in really symbolizing the World Fair. It gathers in all the personalities of the Fair, and hands them to you—a tall spire and a round ball. They stand right in the center of the Fair, and they are immense. You can see the great Trylon sticking up above the Fair for miles before you get there. The Trylon is a three-sided monament that rises 150 feet higher than the Washington Monument. It looks like the Washington Monument, except it’s almost white, and is skinnjer. It is made of steel framework, sheeted over, The perisphere is an immense ball. You'll think I'm exaggerating when I tell you how big it is. Its a block across, as high as an 18-story building and twice as big inside as Radio City Music Hall! It, too, is made of steel, sheeted over. It is set over a huge circular pool, and is supported by eight square pilings rising out of the water The faces of these supports are covered with mirrors, and fountains play in front of each one. It is almost as though the huge grav ball were floating in the air, » » »
The City of Tomorrow
The perisphere 1s hollow inside to get in and go through a turnstile in the base of the trylon. Then you step on an escalator, and up vou go. It's the longest escalator in the world They have men all along to watch you in case you get scared, and other men at the top to help vou off. It's no place for you if you have escalatoritis (fear of escalators; That Girl of mine has it, and it's 8 good thing she isn’t along). But you can't fall off You get to the top and step off. Without knowing it you've risen through a tube running from the Trylon to the Perisphere, and when you get off youre
You pav 25 cents
Our Town
It won't be long now until somebody on the West Side turns up with the news that alligators have their home in White River. Like as not, they will be seen right around the Washington St. bridge. The rumor bobs up every spring, and I see no reason why this year should be an exception —especially not when you take into account the inescapable fact that animals, to say nothing of bugs, are going to have their way this year. All signs point in that direction. Indeed, from the way things look right now, it's only a question of time—maybe, only a matter of another year— when animals will inherit the earth. Chances are it will start with the bugs taking it over. All of which is by way of saying that, if you know at's good for you, you'd better believe the rumor that alligators have their home in White River. It's the gospel truth, as I have taken pains to ascertain. Not only that, but alligators have been seen around the Washington St. bridge ever since the turn of the century. It all goes back to the time George Merritt, the the Washington St. woolen mills, had his palatial home on New York St, fronting Military Park. Which is the same as saying that alligators were first seen in White River when Frankie Keeter was a little boy raising Ned on the West Side » » 5
Here's How It Started
To hear Mr. Keeter tell it, it was Mr. Merritt who brought the alligators to Indianapolis. To start off, he kept them in the big pond in Military Park which, more or less, served as his front yard. Nobody, not even Mr. Keeter, knows what moved Mr. Merritt to do it. To be sure, Mr. Keeter has a theory that,
owner of
Washington
V ASHINGTON, May 26.—On the gloomy subject of the national debt, it isn’t possible to disagree with the Republican National Committee which is devoting this week to telling the world that 40 billion dollars is a lot of money. That seems an enormous sum, particularly when it is described as the Roosevelt New Deal debt (which it isn't by half of that) It might also be pointed out that $31.844396000 is a lot of money too—and that is exactly the sum which national banks of the country reported on hand in assets and deposits on March 29, an all-time high. And 69 billion dollars is a lot more money than 40 billion being the amount of cash savings of individual citizens now as estimated by Dr. Donald Davenport, of the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration. in his testimonv before the O'Mahoney Temporary National Economic Committee, That enormous sum, which is more than half again as large as the national debt, represents the total savings of millions of people who are depositors in savings accounts and building-and-loan associations, policyholders in life insurance companies and contributors to old-age retirement or pension systems. ~ x »
Depression Costs Analyzed
This is a big country, with big savings. big capital and big debts. So much toward suggesting a sense of proportion. Now for the figures in the war against depression as prepared by the National Resources Board for the O'Mahoney committee. They cover Federal receipts and expenditures for the years 1831-38. Receipts
My Day
ARTHURDALE W. Va many people are worried that country will be imperilled” by inviting royalty to a picnic, particularly a hot dog picnic. My mother-in-law has sent me a letter she received, which begs that she control me in some way and, in order to spare my feelings, she has only written a little message on the back: “Only one of many such.” But she did not know, poor darling, that I have received “many such” right here in Washington. Let me assure you, dear readers, that if it is hot there will be no hot-dogs, and even if it is cool, there will be plenty of other food, and the elcer members of the family and the more important guests will be served with due formality. It might be possible to meet the desire of these interested correspondents if there were not quite soc many who berate me for too much formality and foo much courtesy. I am afraid it is a case of not being able to please everybody and so we will try just to please our guests. We had the garden party yesterday afternoon for the women executives in the various departments of Government and I think some of them must have been tired before they reached their very long line of welcoming Cabinet ladies. It seemeg to be the
Thursday—Oh dear, so the dignity of our
By Ernie Pyle
inside the Perisphere, about a fourth of the way up. Now a couple of men help you step onto a constantly moving circular platform, which slowly carries you clear around the interior of the big globe. There's another platform of people just below you, going in the other direction, What you see on this weird journey around the Perisphere is called “Democracity,” or “The City of Tomorrow.” The whole bottom of the Perisphere is covered with a relief map of cities, suburbs, factories, farms, roads, trees and everything. The lights gradually change from day to night. And above, the dark blue sky and the clouds and stars are so realistic you would swear you're outdoors. It gives you a nice, funny feeling. When you've made this circle, men help you off, and vou walk out of the Perisphere onto a big bridge, which runs back over to the Trylon. You can stand up there and look over the whole Fair Grounds. And look up the magnificent Constitution Mall, with its lagoons and statues and fountains and flowers.
® » ” The Architecture Impressive And you can peer down over the rail into the pool
far below. You get down from here by walking on a circling, gradually descending ramp, which goes
two-thirds of the way around the Perisphere. I think every visitor to the Fair should make this trip before he does anvthing else. It really is the spirit of the Fair The architecture of the Fair—I don’t know how vou'd describe it Except nearly everything is in oreat futuristic sweeps, and, instead of looking silly, it looks pretty good. There's hardly a building in the general exhibition area that looks like a building, They resemble everything from a bolt of lightning to a piece of cheese There are trees and grass everywhere. San Francisco has this Fair beat for a beautiful concentration of flowers. Yet, taking the entire grounds, this Fair) gives vou a greater feeling of freshness and greenness | than does the Golden Gate Fair. At first, evervthing is startling. And actually it gets on some people's nerves. But I've found that) after a few davs with it, you either calmly surrender | or else get to thinking you're a broad, jagged streak | of lightning yourself Anyway, you reach a par] with the Fair, and everything is all right.
By Anton Scherrer|
maybe, Mr. Merritt bought the alligators for his children to play with, but I don’t take much stock] in it; for the reason that Mr. Merritt’s daughter, | Jeannette, was somewhere in her thirties when the| pets were brought here. | As for Mr. Merritt's son, Worth, he was old enough | to be in the mills helping his father manufacture blankets. As for the younger son, Ernest, he was in| college at the time. Of course, it's always possible that, back in the Eighties, Indianapolis fathers were] buying alligators for their sons in college, same as| modern fathers are investing in bowls filled with | goldfish, but I hardly believe it. A more tenable theory would be to consider Mr. | Merritt as a philanthropist. His sympathies, for! instance, were always with the poor, and especially | the orphans, and it may just be possible that he felt] sorry for the alligators when he saw them in their | natural habitat in the South. I guess I forgot to say| that Mr. Merritt picked up the alligators while on a trip to Florida. » » »
Here's How It Happened
Be that as it may, this much is certain: Mr. Merritt brought the alligators to Indianapolis and kept] them in the Big Pond in Military Park. It was called! the Big Pond because of another and smaller body of water in the park at the time. That's the one they | called the Little Pond. A trickling. ribbon-like! stream connected the two. What's more, the Little Pond trickled into the Canal only a little distance off Catch on? Sure, one day the alligators took a notion to escape, found their way out of the Big Pond into the Little Pond and from there into the| Canal which swept them around the curve at Geisen-| dorf St. past the reservoir at Washington St. straight into the river where from that day to this they have made their home (possibly with some additions), to the bewilderment of the whole West End.
By Raymond Clapper
total 50.7 billion dollars. Of these receipts, taxes brought in 29.7 billions and borrowings (representing the increase in the national debt) brought in 21 billions. Remember that when Mr. Roosevelt took over in 1933, the national debt was $22,500,000,000. | Now for expenditures for 1931-38. Running ex-| penses, including defense, veterans’ payments, interest and AAA, totaled 29.6 billion dollars—almost exactly equal to the 29.7 billion collected in taxes. » = =
War Cost Us 24 Billions The borrowings of 21 billion almost exactly equal | the items classified as emergency relief (66 billions), | net plant (11.7 billions—covering public works), and | estimated amortization on the net plant (2.9 billions) | If you take out of that the 11.7 biliions of net plant | structures from which we shall draw either monetary | or social dividends over a long period, it leaves some | nine billion dollars as the real deficit indicated for the 1931-38 perind. | That's trick bookkeeping, of course. It serves onl) to suggest roughly that we have over the last eight! vears of depression paid our running expenses with taxes and used a little more than half of the borrowings for useful public construction while scattering a! little less than half in nonproductive relief as the price of saving depression victims from starvation. { But let's say that the 20-billion-dollar increase in the national debt which has occurred in the last eight | vears was all devoted to the war against depression, | with no tangible public works or other values surviv- | ing from the expenditure. Put it all down as money] that has gone up the chimney in a struggle against the depression. The war against Germany ran up| the public debt about 24 billion dollars. Every man will have to figure out for himself the relative merits | of borrowing 20 billion to fight depression and 24 billion to fight Germany.
By Eleanor Roosevelt
biggest garden party of the vear. The gentlemen who watch over the grass on the lawn requested that our receiving line move three times to keep the lawn from being ruined.
Nine of us left Washington this morning on a trip to West Virginia. We are staying at the Arthurdale Inn, which takes care of any guests who visit the homestead. This little inn, situated on a hilltop, gives one a charming view of the countryside and a part of the homestead. It is a simple, comfortable place in which to stay. I have to begin, however, by taking our visitors to Scotts Run, for no one can understand what is being done in the homestead until they have seen Scoits Run as typical of the surrounding mining region. Yesterday, I had the opportunity of talking for a few minutes with Mrs. Christine Heinig, who was brought by Dr. Mary Davis to see me. Mrs. Heinig organized the National Child Research Center here in Washington, in which my daughter and I have always taken an interest because one of her children went there for a time. Because of her work, Mrs. Heinig was chosen by the Australian Government to organize a program there for the preschool child. She is on her holiday, but she went to England to interest people there in the work in Australia and now she is here studving anything that she thinks will be useful. Mrs. Heinig left Columbia University on leave to go to Australia and I think we should be very proud of an American woman who is doing such an interesting piece of work. d
AVIATION IN INDIANAPOLIS
HE dedication of the Civil Aeronautics testing station at the Municipal Airport Monday will climax 12 vears of aviation enterprise here and may launch Indianapolis on the road to become the nation’s civil aviation development head-
quarters. The most recent period of aviation growth here began almost
simultaneously on all fronts—private, commercial, military—in the late Twenties after a postwar slump in air activity throughout the country. Indianapolis’ air pioneering, however, dates back before the Wright brothers flight in 1903. After the barnstorming era here in the early 1920s, when aviation was built around the cast-off military Jenny planes, military aeronautical training came to the city. The first of three hangars was constructed at Schoen Field (Ft. Harrison) and the 464th Pursuit Squadron of the Army Reserve Air Corps was founded with eight Jennys and one DH4-type plane. The 265-acre field was dedicated in 1923 and named after Lieut Carl Schoen, an Indianapolis pilot who received his flving training here and who was one of the first pilots killed in World War air combat. Two vears later the Indiana National Guard air force, the 113th Observation Squadron, was moved from Kokomo to Shoen Field. In 1926, the National Guard unit was moved to the State-owned Stout Field in Mars Hill. The field was named for Lieut. Richard H. Stout, squadron flier who was killed here. » » ” LTHOUGH commercial activity was limited here, aircraft factories were springing up in other cities. By using the war surplus of the famous OXS5 Curtiss engine, farsighted young men began building small planes for commercial purposes. The first of these was the Swallow Aircraft Co. in Wichita, Kas, established by Matty Laird, Buck Weaver, Walter Beech and Lloyd Stearman. They were laying the foundation for the aviation business. Aviation was booming throughout the country and the last needed touch came with Charles A. Lindbergh's flight across the Atlantic in 1927. The first “bounce” here came in 1928. It was to mark the beginning of a decade of constant aviation progress. The vear before the first airmail service, the Embry-Riddle line serving Chicago, Indianapolis and Cincinnati was inaugurated here. It operated out of Stout Field. A group of New York bankers then formed the Curtiss Flying Service. Thev established modern hangars at airports throughout the country, set up a sales, service and passenger business. One of these Curtiss units was placed at Stout Field in the spring of 1928. The organization constructed a $125,000 hangar. The first general manager was Indiana's War ace, now Lieut. Col. H. Weir Cook, who left the Army air service in 1928. Col. Cook is credited with shooting
down seven enemy airplanes during the War ” ” ” ITH the Curtiss outfit located in Mars Hill, Stout Field hummed with activity. Flying schools were established.
Local directors of the Indianapolis Curtiss unit were James A. Perry, president; Col. Cook, vice president and general manager, Norman A. Perry, Paul Ritchey, J. A. V. Smith and C. M. Williams, directors. The North American Aviation Co. was formed by the same Curtiss founders. A subsidiary of this was the Transcontinental & Air Transport Co. Later in 1928, T. A, T. began operating an East-West passenger and mail service through the Stout Field and Curtiss depot. The Embry-Riddle line began hauling passengers in addition to mail. As though the word was “get into the aviation business,” commercial air enterprises began to spring up. One of the first here was started by Robert Shank, one of the nation's first airmail pilots back in the early 1920s. He and Robert Brooks founded the Hoosier Airport, northwest of the city on Road 52. Capitol Airways, founded earlier by Elmer Jose, local investment broker, was becoming a sales, service, and flying school business. At the same time there was an engineering company in Indianapolis that had been doing some work on old warplane motors for the Government and which was experimenting with plane motors of its own design. This was the Allison Engineering Co., founded about 1913 as an experimental engineering plant by an Indianapolis millionaire, James A. Allison, close friend of Carl G. Fisher, and with Mr. Fisher, one of the founders of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. ” ~ »
HE Government was buying some of the Allison engines for military planes but the plant which also had developed some valuable high-speed engine bears ings. was not considered by the
TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE
1—Name the largest of the five continental divisions of the earth. 2— Which President of the U. S. was called “Old Man Eloquent”? 3—Name the science that treats of plants. 4 Who won the Masters Golf Tournament recently plaved at Augusta, Ga.? 5—In which country are kane garoos native? 6—On what river is Sacramento, Cal.? 7—What is the plural of four-in-hand? 8—Which State has the smallest population? ” . »
Answers 1—Asia. 2—John Quincy Adams 3—Botanv. 4 Ralph Guldahl. 5—Australia. 6—Sacramento River. 7—Four-in-hands. 8—Nevada. ” = »
ASK THE TIMES
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lt L &) public as any important factor in the nation’s aviation development With aviation expanding, the need for municipally owned and operated airports was growing greater. Plans for an Indianapolis Municipal Airport were made in 1928. The local Chamber of Commerce was chiefly responsible for the promotional drive. Mayor at the time was ll. Ert Slack, who worked with the City Council and the Chamber of Commerce in planning the field. Local aviation experts differed on the best sit2 but it boiled down to three possible locations. They were, first, north of Stout Field, second, south of 10th St. and northwest of Ben Davis, and third, the present location, six and one-half miles southwest of the downtown section. The city administration couldn't make up its mind but it seems that one Cedric Erald Fauntleroy of New York made up everybody's mind for them. ” » n
HE was the personal representative of C. M. Keyes, chairman of the T. A. T. board.
Keyes was called the “Harriman
of aviation,” one who was interested in flying depots for his passenger and mail lines. Mr, Fauntleroy came out and looked around, without even knowing that the present site was under consideration. He called up Col. Cook and said: “Cooky, I have just the site, natural drainage and everything.” That clinched the matter as to site but then the administration didn't know how much land to buy. The public had the impression that the administration would buy perhaps about 300 acres. Paul Moore, the Chamber of Commerce aviation adviser and one of the leaders in promoting the airport, learned that the administration had bigger ideas about the airport plans than anyone suspected. He learned they planned to buy as much as 1000 acres, In September, 1928, the City bought 947 acres at the present location at an average of $292 an acre. In preparing the land the
1. Air view of Municipal Airport, showing the new runways. 2. The Bureau of Air Commerce radio experimental station which is to be dedicated Monday. 3. I. J. Dienhart, airport manager, in the radio traffic control room. 4. Col. H. Weir Cook, war ace and one of the early boosters of aviation in Indianapolis, ready for a flight,
City tore down and removed eight houses, barns and other buildings. A total of 107 acres adjoining the right-of-way of the main line of the Pennsylvania Railroad, to the north, was set aside as an industrial area.
” » ” T that time the T. A. T. was flying passengers in the day and sending them on trains at night. An ideal setup. A natural east-west drainage condition was found. The soil was bad, impervious clay eliminating possibility of construction of any but hard-surfaced runways. Three runways were laid out, one 1100-foot and two 2000-foot strips composed of 26-foot concrete slabs six inches thick, The entire field is underlined with drainage pipes in herringbone fashion. There was considerable trouble with the contractors. One {firm folded up after beginning the job and all in all it tock two years to build the airport, at a cost of approximately $800,000. The airport officially opened Oct. 25, 1930, when west-bound T. A. T. landed with passengers and mail. That marked removal of operations of the airline from Stout Field and the collapse of the Curtiss Flying Service. The depression had set in. With the opening of Municipal Airport, Elvan Tarkington, formerly associated with the Curtiss organization, moved a flying school he had started to the Municipal. Central Aeronautical Corp., another commercial flying enterprise, began there, T. A, T. became the Transcon= tinental Western and Air, and the American and Eastern Airlines used the airport for their fast increasing passenger service, ” ” n HE Department of Commerce awarded the airport its highest rating, A-1-A, July 31, 1931, There was not much doubt that the Indianapolis airport was a “natural” for indefinite future expansion. Flat country with no obstructions, it was considered then one of the finest in the country. Nearly all the local operations, except the were shifted to the port and, despite reports to the contrary, Bureau of Air Commerce officials themselves singled out in 1933 the local airport as site for the radio testing station. The credit really goes to Eugene C. Vidal, Bureau of Air Commerce
aviation military,
chief at that time; Col. J. Carol Cone and Maj. H. W. Schroeder, also of the Bureau Indianapolis, they had decided, was unrivaled for accessibility, strategic location and economy
Mr. Moore, one of the airport's founders, was named its first superintendent Maj. Charles E. Cox Jr. was the second, the aire port developing rapidly under his administration, and I. J. (Nish) Dienhart the third. Under him the airport has had a remarkable period of growth. The Bureau of Air Commerce chose the local port for scene of testing instrument landing equip= ment more than a year ago. The Government's radio range beam tests were made here.
It wasn't hard to see the local port was the Bureau's favorite, Mr. Dienhart obtained WPA labor, added runways, taxiways, improved the field. Airline sched=ules were stepped up to the point where there are now 14 planes using Indianapolis as a daily stop= over, Plans for the testing station were announced to the public. This was followed by rumors that private concerns manufacturing airplane instruments were consid= ering moving here. EJ n n
HE City purchased 58 addie tional acres bringing the total to 1015 acres. Mr. Dienhart announced huge runway eXe pansion plans to increase the landing ways to a total of 27,900 feet, capable of affording safe landing for the largest airliners yet envisioned.
The Civil Aeronautics Authority, successor to the old Bureau of Air Commerce, announced that $800,000 worth of equipment would be installed in the new station, that every type of radio and landing and runway lights would be tested. It was to be the [first complete governmental aircraft radio teste ing station, consolidating three re= lated but formerly separated units,
In the midst of this good news for Indianapolis, the Allison Engineering Co. broke into inter= national prominence with the disclosure that it has developed an airplane motor which some aviators consider one of the “keys” to America's national de=fense—the newest development in high speed performance. It was a V-type 12-cylinder liquid cooled motor, The Allison plant announced it would treble the size of its plant to manufacture 800 high-powered motors for the U. S. Army. n n un
ODAY Indianapoiis is air= conscious. It is considered possible that several aviation con= cerns will locate here. There is talk of establishment of an instrument landing school at the airport. Leaders in the aviation induse try will be at the Municipal Air= port Monday to dedicate the testing station. So will “Capt.” George L. Bumbaugh, who be=longed to the balloon period of aircraft here and who constructed in 1010 the first airplane to fly in Indianapolis. Capt. Bumbaugh, who now makes toys in the top floor of an E. Washington St. building, will see the inauguration of a new period in local aviation history in which Indianapolis may very well become the nation's center for aircraft development—just as it was in the days when he was the only man to hold all four flying licenses.
a
Side Glances—By Galbraith
f , SOPR. 1939 Wy NER SERVICE: ING, TN
(6. U. 8 PAT. OFF.
"I'll be a little late for dinner—Rudolph is still waiting for an inspiration,” .
Everyday Movies—By Wortman
"And the next time you will write 'l won't pull the braids of the girl
in front of me' not fifty, but a hundred times."
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