Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 17 June 1939 — Page 10

SATURDAY, JUNE 17, 1939

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DENVER, June 17.—-This column is written in an effort to stop the flood of letters from my friends which are all saying the same thing these days, to-wit: “Have you read ‘Grapes of Wrath’? You must read it. It is the book of the decade. It is powerful. It is moving. It is wonderful.” My friends, in the future please devote your letters to news of your chickens, your guava bushes, and when you had the car greased last. For I have read “Grapes of Wrath.” It is, as my friends say, a wonderful book. It is above all a tremendously significant book. It reports fully, for the first time, the pitiful migration of the blown-out dust bowlers from Oklahoma to California, and the ghastly things that happened to them there. It is a story we have all known about for several vears, but no writer has done anything of importance about it. It is even bigger than just the reporting ot a phase. For the westward trek of the OKkies is a mirroring of all the change and flux that is driving our people out to—nobody knows where. There are faults to find with “Grapes of Wrath.” It is the first of Steinbeck’s books that I've read—and I've read four—which I could criticize. Some of “Grapes of Wrath” doesn’t ring true. I can think of three things. ” = n

Three Points of Criticism First—It seems to me he went out of his way to put in filthy talk. No doubt there are farm women who talk as his do. But Steinbeck’s book is supposed to be representative of a class, and I don't believe the class does talk that way. Second—The central characters, the Joad family, are drawn a great deal smarter than the average blown-out dust bowler. Or almost the average farmer anywhere, for that matter. This family has insight, and a quick natural understanding, and they philosophize. The farmers I know, faced with a predicament, do not see things so clearly. : Third—I thought the ending was ridiculous.

Our Town

John Caven was the bachelor Mayor who had the Job of running Indianapolis during the Civil War, a period which brought with it a floating population consisting mostly of men and women who made it

their business to trim and plunder the soldiers of everything they had. The women were especially bad. So bad, indeed, that in 1863 Mayor Caven called the attention of the Council to it. Our jail was much too small to take care of all of them, he said. To take care of the women, Mayor Caven recommended the erection of a house of refuge or reformatory, but for some reason he couldn't budge the Council. : So nothing was done about it at the time. A year later. however, Stoughton A. Fletcher, a banker, made a proposition to the Council to give seven acres of his farm south of the city between the Bluff and Three Notch Roads for a reformatory if the city would do its part and put up a building. The gift was accepted and $3000 appropriated for he purpose. Plans were approved and contracts let. The prices advanced so rapidly. owing to the war, that the work had to be stopped in 1864 after $3000 was spent. All the city had to show for it was a fine stone basement. » Me »

A Bargain Is Struck

Nothing happened to the basement until Father Bessonnies, the French priest of St. John's, got around to it. Seems that Father Bessonnies had watched the buiiding of the basement because it was near some land he had purchased. Nobody could figure out why Father Bessonnies was investing in land so far away from his parish, but finally that, tco, was cleared up. Father Bessonnies’ land turned

Washington

WASHINGTON, June 17.—The beating which the Federal Communications Commission is taking in its attempt to impose censorship on international short-

wave radio broadcasts going out of the United States provides good evidence of the strength of our fundamental American institution— free speech. The recent action of the FCC was taken without hearings. The Commission—which ranks practically in first place as a nest of bureaucratic bickering, intrigue and blundering—simply announced one day that shortwave broadcasts for foreign consumption must “reflect the culture of this country” and “promote international good will, understanding and co-opera-tion.” So intense was the criticism of this section that the FCC buckled under the pressure and announced that public hearings to discuss the merits of the rule would be held July 12. Just to make its action as ill-tempered as possible, the Commission's order for the hearing ignored the protest of the National Association of Broadcasters and stipulated that the action was in response to a protest petition from the American Civil Liberties Union. Incidentally. the FCC chose to set its hearings on a date that falls in the midst of the annual convention of the broadcasters at Atlantic City. as if to make it as inconvenient as possible for the industry directly affected. = = tJ

Wheeler Blast Brings Action

What finally broke the resistance of FCC apparently was the blast from Senator Wheeler of Montana. chairman of the Senate Interstate Commerce Committee, which handles radio legislation. He rose on the Senate floor and said that, by this rule, the

My Day

HYDE PARK, Friday.—It was quite a thrill yesterday afternoon to present for the second time to Miss Jacqueline Cochran, on the part of Col. Kerwood, for the Ligue Internationale des Aviateurs, the trophy given to the best woman fiyer every year. She looks so young. it hardly seems possible that she has done so many things and is such an outstanding pilot. At lunch, I talked with a woman from Switzerland who has been traveling about our country by air and has gone as far south as Mexico and as far north as Seattle, Wash. I thought she might possibly be, like myself, just a passenger, but she told me that she is also a pilot. It made me just a little envious and I wished that the years could roll back and I could learn to fly! Life is full of coincidences. When I found myself being introduced to Nancy Bird—an appropriate name of an aviatrix—and was told that she flew one of the Australian flying ambulances, I felt someone had rubbed "Aladdin's wishing lamp for me. I was tremendously interested, for not long ago, in talking about the difficulties of reaching some of our isolated spots in this country, I had been told about this new S

By Ernie Pyle

I mention these things only because they hurt me a little. To me, the name of Steinbeck has been synonymous with truth in picturing the common and the lower-than-common folks of America. And now to see him overdraw, even slightly, makes me feel badly. Anybody, of course, can pick minor faults as I'm doing. But nobody but John Steinbeck could have written such a vivid and understanding book about the Okies. I wish everybody in California could read it. I've heard rich people in California speak so smugly and hatefully of these Okies that I could hardly stay in the room. Their reading the book, of course, wouldn't solve the problem, because I don’t think there is any solution. But at least it might put some wonderment into the heads of the smug, and ‘that wonderment might grow into a little compassion for a helpless and ignorant but fundamentally good people. ” ” ®

Problem Without an Answer

The deep thought and the vividness that have gone inte this book are staggering. After creating people like Ma Joad and Tom Joad and the preacher, I don’t see how Steinbeck can stand ever to leave them, or hear them spoken of critically by us weak criticizers. It is, in a way, a futile book to read. For a continuing human tragedy is presented, and no answer is given. there seems any possibility of an answer. These people, and millions like them, have no idea what sw become of them. And neither does anybody else. There is one litile philosophy running through the book which may not impress you, but which almost haunts me. It's the ex-preacher’s philosophy that “you've got to do what you've got to do.” If you're a right person to begin with, that little phrase seems to me to transcend all religion and formality. and rules for living. It means that if in your soul you've got to do a certain thing, then it's right for you to do it. I can’t quite explain it. And even Steinbeck's characters just talked around it, not exactly through it. It's something you know, or don't know. And I believe it is a thing that is fine,

By Anton Scherrer

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out to be what is now Holy Cross Cemetery, the first Catholic graveyard in Indianapolis. Father Bessonnies paid for the cemetery out of his own pocket, and it's pretty well established that the transaction just about cleaned him out. But broke as he was, he couldn't see a well constructed basement going to waste. The more he thought about the deserted cellar the more he thought of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, a cloistered order back in his beloved France who for 200 years and more had been doing what Mayor Caven had in mind. Father Bessonnies and Mayor Caven got together, struck a bargain, and to this day nobody knows who got the better of the deal. By the terms of the bargain the Sisters of the Good Shepherd got the deserted basement and land, and Indianapolis got a shelter for girls who want to go straight. » n n

Still Doing Business

The House of the Good Shepherd is still doing business at the old stand. It's quite a big affair now consisting of many buildings. The foundations of the original building, however, are the very ones Father Bessonnies found going to waste in the Sixties. On the inside, the House of the Good Shepherd looks like a bit of France transplanted to Indianapolis. Like the nuns of the Mother House at Angers, the sisters down in W. Raymond St. wear the same white habits with the same white scapulars. The same silver hearts around their necks, too. And they take the same four vows which, by the way, are more than is usual in other orders; for in addition to the three ordinary vows of poverty, chastity and obedience the Sisters of the Good Shepherd take a fourth one— to work for the conversion and instruction of penitents. At the end of their task, the white-clad sisters are laid to rest in the little cemetery in the garden of their convent. The last time I was down in Raymond St. I took a good look at the little graveyard. Almost every headstone registers the age of an octogenarian.

By Raymond Clapper

FCC has taken unto itself the power to censor radio speeches of Senators. He told Senator Hiram Johnson of California, a violent foe of the Administration neutrality program, that his speeches might be held to violate the rule. He also cited the recent speech of Senator Key Pittman, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in which dictators were severely denounced, and doubted if that speech could be broadcast under the rule requiring that broadcast material “promote international goodwill.”

Mr. Wheeler warned FCC to reconsider its ruling and rescind it. The plain implication was that unless this was done Congress would step in to prevent a flagrant violation of the Communications Act. Revocation of this censorship rule is likely after the hearings have been held. A year ago an attempt was made to set up a Government station to broadcast to Latin America. Congressional opposition was so strong that this preject was abandoned. ” t =

Its Greatest Strength

For some time the Government has been interested in cultivating stronger relations with Latin America to fence off Fascist penetration. The State Department had a finger in this radio rule. There is strong support in Congress for the good neighbor policy and for close co-operation with Latin America. But not at the price of censorship and restriction of free discussion. The strength of American broadcasting in Latin America and in other countries has been its freedom from Government censorship. Practically all other news received over the air in foreign couniries is Gov-ernment-controlled, twisted and poisoned to fit Government propaganda purposes. Foreign listeners know that, by tuning to American broadcasts, they hear uncensored news, handled objectively and without ulterior propaganda purposes. To break down that confidence in American broadcasts by imposing Government censorship would be most unfortunate.

By Eleanor Roosevelt

service carried on in Australia and was anxious to hear about it. After lunch, I stopped for a minute to listen to some youthful speakers taking part in a forum on youth problems. This was held under the auspices of the regional meeting of Democratic women, which held its first day's session in New York City yesterday. From there, Mrs. Ernest Lindley and I went to the Columbia playhouse to werk on the broadcast which I gave last night with Kate Smith. It was fun to do this in the theater with her, for when we did one before, I was in Washington and she was in New York City, which did not seem satisfactory. Last night I attended the dinner given for the members of the Democratic regional conference and heard Postmaster General James A. Farley make an excellent speech, as well as Miss Fannie Hurst, Mrs. Herbert Lehman and Lieut. Gov. Poletti. It was fortunate that it was cool, so we did not mind our night in town. As soon as I was finished with the dentist this morning, we started for the country. A further evidence of Queen Elizabeth's thoughtfulness has just come to me in a telegram from Sir Alan Lascelles. She forgot to tell me that she had worn her woolen dress at Hyde Park and found it delightful. This makes me realize that I have not told you that I found my woolen dress just as cool as any cotton or silk one and am going to enjoy it for months to come,

And the deeper you read, the less |

By Norman Siegel

Scripps-Howard Radio Writer EW YORK, June 17.—It vears to become “sold”

months that the public has sets for home use.

television for the British

Broadcasting Co.

British manufacturers are now delivering on an average of 400 sets a week and can’t keep up with orders, according to Mr. Cock, who recently returned to England after viewing the inauguration of the NBC television service in this country at the opening of the New York World's Fair. “I foresee two years of distress and tremendous expense for everybody connected with Amer-

(Last of a Series)

took the British public two. on television. And it may

take Americans as long, if not longer. Although England is now in its third year of broadcasting sight programs, it has only been in the last seven

shown a desire to purchase

Only a little more than 3000 sets were bought during the first two years, according to Gerald Cock, director of

ican television.” he said, “but I believe that at the end of a very few years you will have established a new and very important industry.” It took the broadcast of a prize fight to stimulate British interest in the new form of entertainment. The fight program was telecast on a large screen in a London theater and proved so successful that additional public programs were scheduled. As a result of these the sale of sets immediately jumped.

Admiral Yarnell's troublous tour of duty as commander-in-chief of our Asiatic fleet is almost over. He

is planning—or was, before the new crisis loomed up—to sail for home next month. But it looks now as if he may have some more excitement before he says goodby to the China station. When the Asiatic command was

handed to Admiral Yarnell in 1936, it was a sort of consolation prize in

Japs Learn Our Admiral Yarnell Means Business

By LEE G. Times Special Writer

WASHINGTON, June 17.—America’s No. 1 diplomat in the Orient, the man who will make the decisions in any emergencies affecting United States citizens in the beleaguered foreign concessions of Tientsin and Amoy, is not a professional diplomat at all, but a naval officer. He is Admiral Harry Ervin Yarnell, a 63-year-old Iowan with the face of a clergyman and the determination of a mule-skinner.

lieu of the coveted appointment as commander-in-chief of the U. S. fleet. But, as it turned out, the lesser job became in many ways the more important, and the Admiral carved for himself a place in the history of our Far Eastern policy. For it was he who laid down the law to the Japanese, in September, 1937, and served notice that U. S. warships would come and go as they pleased in Chinese waters, regardless of Nipponese warnings. He is said to have promulgated {that policy without consulting either the Navy or State Department. And the policy still stands, despite the protests of various peace societies and Senators. Here is what he said, in orders to all ships of his command: “Naval vessels will be stationed in ports where American citizens are concentrated, and will remain there until it is no longer possible or necessary to protect them or until they have been evacuated. “This policy, based on our duties and obligations, will be continued as long as the present controversy between China and Japan exists and will continue in full force even after our nationals have been Warned to

MILLER

leave China and after opportunity to leave has been given. ...” In other words, Admiral Yarnell] was taking no orders from the Japanese, and American citizens could |

continue to do business in China as long as there was business to do. In line with that historic statement of policy, he defied Japanese demands that foreign vessels stay out of the Yangtze. The Japanese have learned to respect him. They have found that he means what he says. And he has said plenty to both the Japanese and Chinese on occasion—after the sinking of the Panay, for instance, and after the death of a sailor on his flagship, the cruiser Augusta, from a shell fragment of undetermined origin. Admiral Yarnell is a man of medium height, spare and wiry, with steel gray eyes that don’t miss much. His subordinates have standing orders to keep him supplied with the latest books on international relations and naval strategy, and to corral for his luncheon table American businessmen, reporters and cameramen from whom he may extract firsthand information about conditions and events in China. His knowledge of Far Eastern geography is encyclopedic. President Roosevelt and Secretary Hull are said to place the fullest reliance in his judgment. British and French admirals in the Far East lean on his counsel. The Emperor of Japan and the King of Siam have received him. Senator Gillette (D. Towa) has introduced a bill to give him the distinguished service

3 {oe A } The British Derby on May 24 was telecast in five London theaters. They were packed with people who paid $2.50 a seat to

see the broadcast on a large screen. Although the pictures had a grayish cast and the wideangle shots were slightly blurred, due ‘to the bright sun that prevailed at the point of origination, the show was enthusiastically received. Several New York theaters have installed sets in their lounges, merely as a matter of curiosity. A number of the hotels also have installed them. As for the sale of sets in the New York area, where television 4s now being broadcast on a regular schedule, there isn’t much action. ”» ” 2 NLY 400 sets have been sold to date. Cost of the sets, which run up to $1000, plus an installation charge of $50 required by one manufacturer, is the stumbling block. The public is curious about television, but not to the point of purchasing sets at that price. A definite stimulus to the sale of sets was provided by the recent telecast of the Baer-Nova heavyweight fight by NBC. Dealers in the New York area stayed open late to show the program. It was the first television broadcast of a professional fight in this country and proved to be one of the best shows yet telecast. The financial problem is still the chief clog in the road to nationwide expansion. No progress toward the solution of this problem is anticipated until network television is established. At present this can only be done through two methods. One employs the use of the co-

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KNOWLEDGE

1—Can the Panama Canal locks accommodate the S. 8S. “Queen Mary”? 2—Name the founder of State of Georgia. 1 3—How many players comprise a polo team? 4—_Must a veteran have an honorable discharge from World War service to be eligible for the Federal soldier bonus? 5—What is the correct pronunciation of the word intricacy? 6—Name the second largest of the Great Lakes of North America. 2 ” =

Answers

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1—No. 2—James Edward Oglethorpe. 3—Four. 4—Yes.

5—In’-tri-ka-si; not in-trik’-a-si.

6—Lake Huron.

ASK THE TIMES

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

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Busy hands turning out the parts that go into the television receiv-

ing sets for American homes. duction line.

axial cable. At the moment it costs $5000 a mile to install this line. NBC uses close to 24,000 miles of wire to link its vast networks. A similar television coaxial cable connection would necessitate an outlay of $124,000,000 for wire alone. Engineers have been experimenting with an automatic radio relay system of booster stations that would pick up a program at regular intervals and relay it without the use of wire. This, too, is a costly process. ” 2 ”

NOTHER possibility, still in the experimental stage, is a new antenna hook-up invented by Vladimar K. Zworykin, noted RCA television engineer, who perfected the electronic tubes used in television transmission and receiving today. Mr. Zworykin's discovery is aimed - at extending the distance at which a television signal can be picked up. At present the limit is the horizon. If practical, Mr. Zworykin's hook-up would open a new transmission field, leading to comparatively inexpensive network hookups. The telephone line, used in sound radio transmission and originally regarded as impossible for the carrying of a high definition television picture, may yet figure in the final solution of the network problem. It was used for the first time a a few weeks ago to transmit an NBC television broadcast of a sixday bike race from Madison Square Garden to the station's transmitter at the Empire State Building. While NBC and Bell Laboratory engineers were encouraged by the results they both warned that the test proved that it is possible to use a phone line only for short transmission and did not indicate that today's network lines could be transformed into television carriers. Another factor delaying: release of television will be the Federal Communications Commission. Its contribution to date has been the opening of the ethereal spectrum to 300,000 kilocycles thereby making room for 19 different television channels. Seven of these

TEST YOUR | Everyday Movies—By Wortman

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Here is industry's newest pro-

channels are now being allocated for experimental sight broadcasting. The commission recently concluded a thorough investiga‘ion .f television developments in this country and as a result of that study has decided still to withhold its blessings from the new industry.

” ” on : E feel that television technology stands at approximately the same point on its

road of development as did the automobile business’ immediately prior to the advent of mass production,” the commission reported. “At that time, with the Selden patents controlling the industry, automobiles were few, expensive and hand-tooled. It appeared they would remain a luxury ate tachment to the wealthy household. “Had the Government been asked at that time to fix standards of performance for the automobile industry as the Federal Communications Commission is asked to do for television, it would have been very unlikely that any agency of Government could have foreseen the change which swept over automobile engineering in a few short years as a result of {free private enterprise and uncon=trolled competition between engineers and manufacturers.” Eventually, the commission will give its approval to the standards set up by the Radio Manufacturers’ Association, and stations will be licensed for commercial broad= casts. Until then television will continue in an experimental stage. Those who purchase sets today will take part in this experimentation. From a program standpoint, the eventual television schedule will employ a technique strictly its own. It will not be movies as we know them. It will not be sound as we know it. It will not be the theater that we know. It will not operate on an 18-hour daily schedule. One thing is definite in dis cussing television at this time, And that is, it is here. Sight is joining sound on the American air waves.

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