Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 27 June 1939 — Page 11

TUESDAY, JUNE 27, 1939

Hoosier Vagabond

MESA VERDE PARK, Colo, June 27.—The Rangers who take you about the fantastic cliff palaces of our early Indians in Mesa Verde Park will tell you that they're sure of very few things concerning these Indians. But the one thing they are absolutely certain about is the dates. They can tell you the very year a house was built. How do they do that? It's an interesting story. A Down in Tucson,”/Ariz., at the Steward Observatory, is a scientist named Dr. A. E. Douglass. His forte is not archeology, but weather. In the 1920's, he was trying to work out a sort of history of weather. He knew that weather affected the growth of : : trees. He knew that trees grow in rings. In wet years the rings are thick. In dry years, they are very narrow. In the rings of just one old tree, Dr. Douglass could find a yearly weather record for 200 years back. Well, he kept going back further and further. And then suddenly one day it dawned on him that right there he had the key to something the archeologists had been seeking for years. As simple as falling off a log, he could come up here and date these Mesa Verde ruins for the scientists. And he did. The science of tree-ring dating now is as exact as the science of finger-printing. The Rangers explain it to the visitors, but they say they just can't make

the public understand. So I guess I'll take a whack at it.

= » = Trying an Experiment

Say we go out in the yard and cut down a big tree. We study the rings on the stump. The outside ring (anybody knows this) grew only last year, which was 1938. So we count the rings inward. Let's say, to ‘make it easy there are exactly 200. That means the tree sprouted and began growing 200 vears ago, or in 1738. Now the rings on this tree vary so in width from

Our Town

Another thing that calls to Heaven for reform is the present behavior of candid photographers. It’s reached the point now that even weddings and funerals are not safe from them.

Take, for example, a recent wedding around here. The newspapers said it took place in the bride's garden. What they meant, of course, was that the wedding took place in the garden belonging to the bride's parents. I could press the point even further if I wanted to and prove that the bride never as much as pulled a weed; that she never pushed a lawnmower in her life; and that, as far as anybody knows, she never evinced the least interest in the family garden until it came time to have her wedding. I'm in an ugiy mood today.

To read the newspapers’ account of it, the garden wedding was a charming affair and delightfully informal. Soon as the hundred or so guests got the tip that it was going to be an out-of-doors affair everyone had the same bright idea and smuggled his camera into the garden in the hope of getting some snapshots of the happy couple and the lovely

bridesmaids. tJ 2 ”

- A Professional Gets Even

When the bride and bridegroom, already in the last stages of nervous collapse, received the rector's benediction and turned to face what they thought were their friends, there was a unanimous and sudden movement in the crowd. Before anybody realized it the unfortunate couple found themselves confronted by rows and rows of cameras of all shapes and sizes. You have no idea the number of cameras in Indianapolis. Each aggressor, having flattered himself that his idea was unique, was surprised at the unanimity of intent; but no one relented. The crowd closed in on

Washington

WASHINGTON, June 27.—When he first was brought into the Cabinet after his defeat for reelection as Governor in Michigan, Attorney General Frank Murphy looked like the find or the year. First off he turned in at the White House some excellent

recommendations for judicial appointments. He steamed up graft prosecutions. He seemed to be introducing some hard-fisted punch at Washington. In no time at all, Mr. Murphy became the new glamour boy of the Administration. As such he enjoyed a magnificent buildup. But Washington publicity and lionizing is heady stuff and there are indications that the abstemious Murphy found an exhilarating nectar too tempting for his ascetic inhibitions. Murphy continues to be the hero of the extreme New Dealers. His huge Department of Justice has become a new haven for their patronage. Murphy is taking good care of Tommy Corcoran’s boys. Yet I note some lifted evebrows around headquarters, and signals suggesting that Murphy ease off and settle back down to earth and work at his job.

Alcatraz Speech Resented

He hasn't been in the Department of Justice very long and much of his time has been spent hopping about the country making speeches, making grandentrance appearances where graft prosecution news was breaking, accepting honorary degrees—including one from the University of Louisiana in which he became closely hitched with Governor Richard Leche, who resigned because of illness while under fire of WPA scandal charges, but later delayed the resignation because of the serious charges levelled at the president of L. S. U,

My Day

HYDE PARK, N. Y, Monday.—I am afraid that in all the economy and the changes which are coming in the various plans for the WPA, the adult education program in which I have been very much interested, may suffer. I am interested in the whole program which includes, of course, an opportunity for adults to learn English, to have courses in citizenship, and history, and even, in some cases, to learn some handcrafts. I noticed in Sunday’s papers, however, that in New York City the whole program will be administered through the schools, and this seems to create a good deal of anxiety about the worker's education program. This particular program has been carried on with an advisory committee on which labor unions have had representation and, when they, themselves, have been carrying on an educational program, they have been able to increase their services with help from WPA teachers. As I understand the plan for New York City, at least, this help would no longer be available and workers wishing to take courses would have to take such courses as are offered through the school organization. These courses may or may not have special bearing on the subjects in which ard! interested. 5d > Ne 3 - i

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By Ernie Pyle

vear to year that they are individualistic, and easy to tell apart. Furthermore, any tree of the same type and from the same area will show the very same weather differences. The ring grown in 1848 will be the same on all trees of that type. Now let’s go into an old mission, and saw off the end of a ceiling beam. We study these rings. And now let's say that we find the 30 outer rings of this tree show up as exactly the same as the 30 inner rings on the tree we cut down ourselves awhile ago. That would mean that the tree in the old mission was cut down just 30 years after the tree in our yard

started growing. ”

® = Here’s How It Works We know the tree in our yard began growing in 1738. If these two trees overlapped by 30 years, then the log in our old mission house was cut in 1768. So we count its rings toward the inside, and find that it was 300 years old when it was cut. That means it started growing in 1468. Right in those two trees we have a weather-record and a year-record for 470 years. You see when they find a log in a house, the outer ring is the year the tree was cut, which means the year they built the house. That's how they date these old ruins. Now you might say: “Suppose they got out an old log whose rings didn’t fit any of the other rings we have on our charts? What then?” Well, it's no go. It would mean the log was older than we had carried our tree-ring chronology back. There is a gap between the death of that tree, and the birth of any we have on record. We can't tell what years that tree grew in, until we find a log or several logs that fill in the gap. Dr. Douglass has been able to fill in those gaps. By sawing off beam ends in old houses and missions and Indian ruins all over the Southwest, he has ied his tree-ring datings back to the year 11 A.

A log was found right here in Mesa Verde Park that started growing when Christ was 11 years old. That's as far back as they've got so far. But they're still looking for old logs. and they expect Dr. Douglass to plunge into B. C. almost any time now.

By Anton Scherrer

the victims. The bride acted hysterical and the groom looked scared as a rabbit. All avenues of escape were closed to them and the only thing left to do was to grin and bear it. I hope I don’t have to tell you what a bride's grin caught by a candid photographer looks like. The best part of the wedding, though, was a professional photograpner who had been engaged to take some pictures of the house and the decorations. The way things worked out he was right in on the Killing. When he saw what was taking place, instead of photographing the house as he was suppesed to do, he took a picture of the camera-armed guests swooping down on the unhappy couple He calls it “The Charge of the Amateurs” and says he's going to produce as a scathing indictment of thie candid photographers of Indianapolis when the proper time comes. I don’t see why he’s waiting. on ” ”

His Intentions Were Good

Even more alarming is the case of another camera friend I uncovered this week. He is a man somewhere around 50, which & to say that he is old enough to know better. Last week his wife's mother died and he was summoned to the funeral. He hurried to the city where the funeral was to take place and conducted himself with becoming dignity. At the close of the services, however, when the mourners filed out of the house. he was missed. He had disappeared suddenly and completely. A search for him revealed nothing. so the carriages were filled without him, and the cortege was moving away when an unseemly grin irradiated the preacher's face. What the preacher saw was the missing mourner concealed behind a convenient hedge with his camera pointed at the imposing procession carrying off his mother-in-law. Returning to Indianapolis, the missing mourner explained that he thought it would be a comfort to have a picture of his mother-in-law’'s funeral in the family. It was a very fine funeral and he got a peach of a picture of it, he said.

By Raymond Clapper

Murphy's horror about Alcatraz didn't sit too well. He thought the place was too cruel. He said he wanted to abandon it and build a prison farm for these super-hardened criminals who are too tough for other Federal prisons. This suggestion has been received coldly. What does Murphy want for these ultra-desperate criminals—pink boudoirs? If the system is too brutal, why not modify it? Why build another Alcatraz somewhere else? The suggestion didn’t make sense in some important quarters here. Murphy's recent economy speech caused questioning. He advocated cutting 1,000,000 employees off Federal and local public payrolls. This is a question of general policy which it is suggested might have better been cleared with headquarters before he went out on the platform with it. ” 2

Candidate for Vice President?

In the same speech Murphy said there were too many appointments made for political purposes. He | had just announced that he intended finding a job in the Department of Justice for former Senator Tom Heflin of Alabama. a political lame-cuck who has come upon misfortune. Futhermore Murphy himself was appointed partly becausc he was out of a job. Murphy has been plaving vp to some of the antiRoosevelt Southern Senators and tossing them bits of

and Der Fuehrer are making an

By Milton Bronner

NEA Service Staff Correspondent

totalitarian states base their

of their subjects must be controlled by the state. No Christian believer can accept this, for all Christian faiths consider their beliefs a living force in daily conduct.

In there is little struggle; the Soviet masters are completely in control. In Italy the fight has not really begun, though thes conversion of the Italian Jeaders to German ideas of racialism and anti-Semitism indicates that inevitably it will come. It is in Germany that the battle rages with greatest severity. This conflict has been inevitable since Hitler took power in 1933. For the first few months he declared friendliness toward both the Protestant and Catholic faiths. By July. a concordat had been negotiated by Franz von Papen and Cardinal Pacelli, now Pope Pius XII. It guaranteed the preservation of Catholic schools, youth organizations, and the free circulation of pastoral letters. For a time Hitler adhered to it closely. For the Saar, with its large Catholic population, was about to vote on adherence to the Reich. But after the Saar had voted “Ja!” everything changed. The Catholic Center party had been dissoived long before. Now the youth organizations were forbidden. In the struggle for the minds of the young, Hitler would brook no rivals.

Russia

2 2 »

N Munich, in December 1935, the whole Nazi organization was used to terrorize Catholic parents into voting for state schools as against parochial schools.

Papal Nuncio Orsenigo and Adolf Hitler—the Pope's representative

effort to patch up the concordat.

ONDON, June 27.—The Christian World of Europe is deeply conscious today that not for centuries has Christianity been under such a drum-fire of attack. The seizure of the residence of the Most Reverend Sigismund Waitz, 75-year-old Archbishop of Salzburg, by Nazi storm troopers who immediately moved out the furniture and converted it into an office, underlined the conflict that is sweeping over Europe. This conflict is basic and inevitable.

The rulers of regimes on the principle that

all earthly and temporal activities, and even the thoughts,

A long series of persecutions followed. Nuns and priests were charged with smuggling currency. Priests were charged with the grossest immoralities. Catholic youth leaders disappeared into concentration camps and did not reappear. Cardinal Faulhaber in Munich denounced the ‘“‘demoniacal blasphemies” of the Nazi press. His house was fired on by ruffians. In 1937, and again in 1938, at Fulda, Catholic bishops signed pastoral letters attacking the war on Christianity and the censorship of Catholic thought and publications. The inclusioh of Austria and Czechoslovakia into the Reich brought thousands more Catholics under the Nazi sway, accentuating the problem. Efforts are now being made to patch up the shattered concordat. Recently Papal Nuncio Orsenigo visited Hitler at Berchtesgaden. There came, until the Archbishop Waitz incident, a lull in the wave of “immorality trials” and persecutions. Hitler is kneedeep in foreign affairs. In the conduct of these, world Catholic opinion is a large factor. Thus it is more than possible that some sort of a truce or working arrangement is in view between the Vatican and Hitler. The Protestant churches of Ger= many also are reeling after a long campaign of attrition by Nazi authorities. From petty interference all the way to persecution and internment like that of the famous Pas=tor Martin Niemoeller, the Protestant Church in Germany has been subjected to a long and bitter campaign of harassment. Most recent were orders from Secret Police Head Himmler that the Confessional church relinquish its share of the church tax, surrender its status as a corporation of pub-

By JAMES

patronage, a performance that was a little too obvious to please some of the Administration people. In short there is a susricion that the Attorney. General is running too hard for the Vice Presidency. | There also is some curiosity as to why Murphy made a change in the press officer of the Department of Justice, bringing in a former Hearst editor who was! busy a few years ago sprinkling the term “Raw Deal” throughout his pages. Anyway those are some of the things that are being mentioned and which add up to the hint in certain quarters here that the new Attorney General forget oe ballyhoo for a while and knuckle down to work.

By Eleanor Roosevelt

Of course, English and economics might well be included in any course for adults, but the history of the labor movement would undoubtedly not be included. Some other subjects would be treated differently if the student body was entirely composed of workers, or there were a mixed group with varied interests. Then, this question ol citizenship training is becoming almost an obsession with me. I have come across one or two such sad stories about people who have been in this country many years, have helped to develop it, and now are thrown off WPA because they are not citizens. Yet no one ever told them how to get their papers, or pointed out the desirability of becoming a citizen. One particular sad case came to light the other day in a letter from the young minister who is doing so much to help people in Scotts Run, W. Va. One of his best helpers was informed that he could no longer be on WPA because he was not a citizen, though he had lived over 30 years in this country and all his children were born here. He applied for local relief, but, unfortunately for him when work was steady and wages were good, he had bought his little home. Now his son and daughter, also out of work, had come to live with him. As long as he owned the little house, however, neither he nor his son could get relief. Finally, surplus commodities gave him a pound or so of beans and he went home and hanged De in his own little a Curious world,

is to know about diamonds—except where the first ones came from. As regards the esthetic, economic

and historical aspects, Mr. Eisenbeiss is an expert, which probably accounted for his presence here to address the joint conference of the Indiana Retail Jewelers Association and the Watchmakers Association of Indiana yesterday. But neither he nor anyone else has discovered the diamond's precise birthplace. The earliest and finest gems were discovered in the Golconda field of India, some 70 centuries ago. But they were found in a river bed, and diamonds don’t grow in rivers any more than they do on trees. Scientists throughout the ages have been poking around the vicinity, he says, but the No. 1 mine never has been located. The ancients discovered that only a diamond could cut a diamond, and primitive jewelry was made by rubbing two of the stones together until a few flat places were formed. Then along about the 11th Century A. D. diamond cutting became a little more precise. It was not until the discoveries of Ludovic van Bergen, in 1457, that the diamond's full beauty was revealed and the world really opened its eyes, Mr. Eisenbeiss explained.

South Africa Leads

South Africa provides about 90 per cent of the world’s diamonds today. The bumper crop was in 1928, when 700,000 carats (approximately 375 pounds) of rough diamonds were produced. Fifty-five per cent of the stones were fit only for industrial use. Of the remaining 45 per cent, half was lost in the cutting. Five per cent of the gems was perfect,

25 to 30 per cent nearly gg, and the

Diamond Origin Gem of

THRASHER

Adolph Eisenbeiss of St. Louis| remainder “dwindled down to rub- | knows practically everything there |

| |

The dfianopolis Thee.

Archbishop Sigismund Waitz of Salzburg.

Christianity on Defensive In the Dictator Nations

lic right, and turn over certain of its cathedrals to the Hitler Elite Guard for its neo-pagan ceremonies. In March, 1933, at about the time he took power, Hitler toid the Reichstag: “The Nazi Government thinks the two Christian churches are most important elements for the preservation of our national individuality. Their rights shall not be touched.” Four years later, Church Minister Hans Kerrl said: “The primacy of the State over the Church must be recognized. . . . The Nazi Party represents a positive Christianity. The question of the divinity of Christ is ridiculous and inessential. A new authority has arisen as to what Christ and Christianity really are—Adolf Hitler.” After Hitler took control, the German Protestant churches made an effort to unite their 28 regional state churches into one strong denomination. Hitler named his friend Ludwig Mueller, a former army chaplain, as his agent in the work of unifying the Protestant churches. The Nazis insisted on election of Mueller as Reich Bishop of the combined Protestant churches. But the churches chose instead Dr. Friedrich von Bodelschwingh. ” n 2 HE fight between the opposing elements has gone on ever since, Bodelschwingh had to resign. Mueller was put up to succeed him. The whole party machine was mobilized to put over Mueller. Threats were posted against any who might vote against him, and pastors were kidnaped to prevent their speaking in their pulpits against Mueller. Hitler himself broadcast for his friend. Under those circumstances Mueller polled "a twothirds majority. But opposition to Mueller reached such a point that he has now been virtually shoved aside, Minister Kerrl assuming his powers. The Mueller play was hot a complete success. All over Germany independent Protestant pastors met and declared themselves against Mueller and his tenets. The German Confessional Church was organized, which did not recognize Mueller or the Nazification of Christianity. Lutherans and Calvinists laid aside their long-standing differences to unite in opposition. Pastor Nie-

| moeller is one of those independ-

ent pastors. The former war-time submarine commander in his Dahlem church issued a& mani{esto containing a direct slap at the Nazis: “I testify that in the employment of the Aryan paragraph within the precincts of the Church of Christ, a violation of the Confession is perpetrated.” Systematic persecution of such

bish,” according to Mr. Eisenbeiss. | independent pastors followed. Dr.

Diamond values, he says, rank along with death and taxes among the sure things in life, and he has records from 1550 to the present day to prove the statement. The average price for good stones remained around $100 a carat for hundreds of years. Recently, however, the price has begn going up, until the better gems bring about $200 a carat today There are fluctuations, of course. In 1919, when the world’s currency was in a -tottering state, diamonds changed hands so quickly that the carat price shot up to $1000. Has Sentimental Value, Too

Mr. Eisenbeiss even knows why precious stones are precious. «Man has put the diamond in its present position because it is the only object which resists wear, because it is the most compact form of wealth known to the world and is easily transported. «Gold is bulky, and it tarnishes and wears; radium is much more compact and valuable, but it brings death to the user. Besides, diamonds perpetuate sentiment through the ages, and sentiment rules the world, in spite of all us hardheaded businessmen.”

REPRESENTS C. D. A. AT NATIONAL RALLY

Times Special DETROIT, June 27.-—Miss Elizapeth O'Hara, 3164 N. Illinois St., Indianapolis, State Regent of Catholic Daughters of America, will represent her organization. at the 18th bienpial national convention of the C. D. A. here July 11-14,

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

1—For which State is “Gem State” the nickname? 2—What is the name for the tackle by which lifeboats on ships are lowered and raised? 3—Who was recently nominated as Minister to Uruguay by President Roosevelt? 4—What is the name for the ancient religion and mythology of the Japanese? 5—Name the capital of the Dominion of New Zealand. 6—On what river was the trial trip of Fulton's steamboat “Clermont” made? 7—What is the correct pronunciation of the word mystery? 2 2 o2

Answers 1—Idaho. 2—Falls. 3—Edwin C. Wilson. 4—Shintoism. 5—Wellington, 6—Hudson. 7--Mis’-ter-i; not mis’-tri. 2 = 2

ASK THE TIMES

Inclose a 3-cent stamp 1us 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-

Hitler in church—at memorial services in St. Hedwig's Cathedral,

Berlin,

Alfred Rosenberg and beer— Hitler’s religious mentor.

Jacobi of a Berlin church was attacked by Nazis. A bomb was thrown in the neighborhood of Dr. Niemoeller's church in Dahlem. Of "18,000 Protestant ministers in Germany, it is estimated that 1300 have been in prison or under arrest since 1934. Dr. Niemoeller, after a stretch in Moabit Prison in Berlin, was sent to the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, where he remains. ” ” ” HE attack on Christianity in Germany is not only physical, in the form of persecutions, but philosophical. There is a concerted effort to undermine Christian belief and supplant it with a new paganism. This philosophical attack is led by Alfred Rosenberg, prominent Nazi editor, and a mentor of Adolf Hitler, whose views on religious questions he is believed to have greatly influenced. The attack takes two lines: (1) Rejection of the so-called ‘“‘Semitic” elements in the Bible, including all of the Old and much of the New Testaments. (2) The effort to create a new “Germanic Christianity,” which old Christians insist is merely neo-paganism. These Nazi philosophers “prove scientifically” that Jesus was not

Pastor Martin Niemoeller—still in concentration camp.

of Jewish, but of Aryan blood. In an outline for a German-Nordic religion, Felix Fischer-Dokeleben says: “I am certain that if Jesus could see what the Four Evangelists and the Apostle Paul have made of him, he would cry out with dismay, ‘What have you foolish men made—a God of me'” In later pages this author says that the early Saxon books represented Jesus as a stern “Hitler-nature.” Thus the churches of Germany, hedged hetween a physical persecution of which the imprisonment of Rev. Martin Niemoeller is a symbol, and a deluge of propaganda for a new German religion, are facing difficult times.

# Ed n

N Russia, the crushing pressure against the churches which fol lowed the revolution in 1917, appears to have let up a bit. It is now estimated that perhaps half of the Greek Orthodox churches in use in 1913 are now being used in some form by their congrega= tions. In Italy, though there is nom= inal peace between church and state, there are deep underlying conflicts, especially over the training of children and the marriage laws. The increase of the anti=Semitism and German-style racial beliefs in Italy as German influ=ence mounts there have drawn repeated protests from high officials of the Catholic Church. Even in Spain, traditional stronghold of the Catholic Church, a Jesuit editor was recently arrested by Dictator Franco, and the inevitable conflict between totalitarianism and religion may lie beneath the surface. Christianity is fighting a defensive battle over a large part of Europe today.

ies—By Wortman

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