Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 12 July 1939 — Page 11

WEDNESDAY, JULY 12, 1939

Our Town

Indianapolis had a lot of ghosts a hundred years ®go. So many, in fact, that I have time only tor those who infested “Kinderhook,” a neighborhood which now comprises the block bounded by Maryland, Alabama and Georgia Sts., and Virginia Ave. The ghost-infested house was on the east side of the Avenue, one-third of the way south of Maryland St. Tt was the swayback remnant of Henderson's tavern, originally on Washington St., which Isaac Kinder had bought, moved, and fixed up as a tenement house. When Mr. Kinder finished fixing it up, everybody called it “Noah's Ark.” One of its occupants was a Mr. Meldrum, who made his livIng grinding bark for the tannery run by Yandes and Wilkins. Tt was he who spread the rumor that a man had been murdered in this house and that often, in the witching hours of night when everybody was supposed to he asleep, a lighted candle could be seen carried around by invisible hands.

» ” = Accepting a Dare The kids of Indianapolis believed every word of the story and, as a rule, went a half mile out of their way to avoid passing the place. Even grown-ups when abreast of the ramshackle old house hurried like everything to get past. Those going south ran until they got on the other side of Pogues Run. Back in those days there was a tradition in Indianapolis that ghosts couldn't cross the water. I don’t know ‘what possessed him to do it, but one beautiful summer night Elijah Fletcher in company with his brothers, Calvin, Miles and Stoughton, proposed passing Noah's Ark. Lige said no ghost could scare him. Moreover, he pointed out that if they went a half mile out of their way they'd be too late for the debating society that night. Well, believe it or not, when the Fletcher boys got

By Anton Scherrer

abreast of the house, they saw through the windows not only one ghost, but a dozen. Seized With terror, the kids hurried to the Seminary in University Park to tell the debating society about it. In the telling Lige said he had thrown a brickbat against one of the windows. To his utter amazement it had rebounded like a rubber ball. Brother Cal confirmed the statement. , The debating society, instead of proceeding with the business scheduled for the night, resolved to move as a man to lay the ghosts. Lige suggested that Jim Sweetser should advance and throw a brickbat against a window. If it rebounded, it was a sure sign of the presence of ghosts and all further action would de-

pend on that. " » @»

Wild and Woolly Battle

By that time most of the boys had weakened and only Jim Sweetser, Johnny Quarles and the four Fletcher boys remained. They approached the building in battle formation. Jim hurled the brickbat as he said he would. To his surprise the pane broke inte a hundred pieces. Jim's courage proved contagious and five minutes later there wasn’t a perfect pane left in the building. The interior was then carried by storm. All of a sudden, on the second floor, the hoys stumbled into a whole troop of ghosts. A terrific battle took place. The ghosts were soft and squashy and wouldn't stay put. And, anyway, the boys were working in the dark. Finally when the moon came out, the boys discovered that what they were fighting weren't ghosts at all, but a flock of sheep. Goodness only knows why they were spending the night in Noah's Ark. Next morning bright and early, Isaac Kinder looked up the kids’ fathers and presented them with a bill of damages. Tt wasn't as complicated as you'd think. All Mr. Kinder had to da was to look up the firm of Quarles, Sweetser and Fletcher, attorneys-at-iaw, Sure, it was that man Meldrum who gave the kids away.

(Ernie Pyle Is On Vacation)

It Seems to Me

NEW YORK, July 12.—As vet I haven't seen the Fair, and such a lapse makes me feel like a hick. Neither indolence nor too much work has kept me away. As a maiter of fact, when the horse races were at Belmont and Aqueduct I drove right past Mr. Whalen’s exposition. But since this occurred as I was returning there was not enough left out of my winnings to get me through the gate. The underlying reason which has kept the gulf between me and the Tryon is that I hate to walk and I don't like to be pushed. This all goes back to what might have been an international incident in Japan in 1911. There was no friction or stripping in those days, and an American could move safely through the Japanese lines with just one pair of pants. But in Yokohama there was trouble with a rickshaw man. = = =

The Lady Was Annoyed

A voung lady from the steamer and myself took convevances to some nearby temple, where it turned out that colored picture postcards of Fujiyama could be obtained. I remember we sent one jointly to some friends saving, “Fujiyama is sleeping under blankets. . .. Wish you were here.” And while the merry mood was on I made the suggestion that we should exchange rickshaws for the trip back. “That's no more than fair,” I explained, “because my man has had much the tougher assignment. You're only a little elf vourself.” Maybe I said “lovely little elf.” In those days I had a bold and free way of speech with women. The young woman blushed prettily and was willing to effect the exchange. But her rickshaw man made a terrible row. He preferred the elf to the elephant as a passenger. That was understandable,

Washington

WASHINGTON, July 12.—President Roosevelt has revealed to friends that the administrators of the three new agencies set up in his recent reorganization orders will be considered as having Cabinet importance. His plan is to have the three new administrators sit with the Cabinet, at least once a week. The Cabinet meets twice a week. This means that Paul V. MecNutt of Indiana, who is to become Administrator of the new Federal Security Agency, will be virtually a member of the Roosevelt Cabinet. He will draw $12. 000 a year instead of $15.000, and he will rank below official “heads of depariments” on the State Department protocol list. But in power, and the working mechanism of the Government, he and the other two agency heads to ail practical purposes are to be Cabinet memuvers. They won't notice the difference except on payday and when they climb into tailcoats to go out into society. Jesse Jones. long chairman of the RFC, is head of the new Federal lending agency. John M. Carmody, formerly chief of the Rural Electrification Administration, is head of the new Federal Works Agency. Those two, together with Mr. McNutt, are the de facto additions to the Roosevelt Cabinet group. >

» = ®

Overshadow Cabinet Duties

It is probable that in time the three posts will be formally raised to Cabinet rank. They are more important than several of the Cabinet posts now. will have larger payrolls, handle more money, and have larger effect upon the public generally. When Mr. McNutt last week was offered the post

My Day

HYDE PARK, Tuesday.—I have ‘a verv pathetic letter in my mail which bears upon a subject I have talked about so often, that I almost hesitate to bring it up again. and vet it touches so many of our interests and is so vital to many of our unfortunate wards, . that I cannot help writing about £ it. A mother tells me about her boy, who after growing up and doing very well at school, suddenly went insane. The family spent all the money they could t© make him well and, finally, funds being exhausted, they put him in a local sanitarium. It was, I think, a county institution. He was LON there for two years and all the \ good which had been done by the Mss other hospital was completely lost. His whole physical condition suffered because of lack of proper care and food, and naturaly his mental condition suffered even more. This would never happen if people in every community really knew about their county, state and Federal institutions and watched them. carefully. Particularly should hospitals for the insane and "homes for the indigent oid and for very young children be visited frequently. These are three defenseless groups in our communities. While it is hard to understand how anvone could possibly try to gain any personal profit by making their lives miserable, still we know it is done. Cutting down on the inmates’ food, for instapce, is one

w

By Heywood Broun

because, although I had barely attained my majority, already I wore a 48-year-old size around the middle. But at the very least I expected some moral sup-

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“America’s Lifeline”

port from the man who was about to be relieved of | the white man’s burden and get a load of the young lady. He was, however, just as irate as his fellow | transport worker, The young lady stamped her left elfin foot in | hauteur and said, “Dismiss them both at once. We will walk back to the steamer.”

» 8 " He Speaks Right Up

I stamped one of my feel, and, offering the fare and a moderate tip, endeavored to make a dignified getaway. The smaller of the two rickshaw men followed after, and he brought the cushion from his one-man cab with him. Indeed, he held it menacingly in the air above his head and made threatening noises, including a few lapses into English profanity. Quite obviously his tutor had been a cockney, but the little Japanese was extraordinarily fluent just the same. Even the young lady could catch the drift of his remarks. She was blushing all over again, but not as prettily as was her custom. I turned around to confront the fellow, who was all of four feet tall. “Look here, my man,” I said severely; talk to an American lady like that.” But he proved that he could, and he held the rickshaw cushion just a little higher. And I wondered on just which ear I would land if we should mingle and he applied jujitsu. Very tactfully I remarkad to the young lady, “It's just as well that neither of us speaks Japanese, I wouldn't be surprised if he's swearing at us.” Ignominiously we finally made the gangplank of the ship, and one of the cabin boys chased the Japanese away. I didn't see much of the young lady for the rest of the trip. She took up with a Princeton man who had played substitute on the Jayvee football team. It taught me a iesson. I don't like to go to places where you've got to walk or be pushed.

“you can't

By Raymond Clapper

as Administrator of the Federal Security Agency, one of his friends advised him against taking it. The reason was that it would be a ‘“‘comedown” for him after having been U. S. High Commissioner to the Philippines. Mr, McNutt was advised to hold out for a Cabinet job. This argument did not prove convincing because there is no Cabinet post which has the promotional possibilities of the Federal Security Agency. : In the case of Mr. McNutt, the post has a particular advantage in that it gives him a means of trying to overcome the hostility of organized labor which grew out of strike troubles in Indiana when he was Governor. » » 2

Other Posts Also Important

The other two administrative posts just created are likewise of very large importance in the Federal scheme of things. The Federal Works Agency, for instance, combines both WPA and PWA. In includes also the U. S. Bureau of Public Roads, the public buildings branch of the Treasury Department, most of the buildings branch of the National Park Service, and the U. S. Housing Authority. Chairman Jones of the RFC now spreads out by having added to his jurisdiction as administrator of the new Federal Loan Agency, the Electric Home & Farm Authority, the Disaster Loan Corporation, the Federal Housing Administration, the Home Owners Loan Corp., the, Home Loan Bank Board and several other agencies. Add the power of these three men together—Me- | Nutt, Jones and Carmody—and you have something | that about offsets in domestic importance the whole | Cabinet. Although Congress did not give these men | Cabinet rank, it is almost imperative that for ad- | ministrative purposes, they be considered in substance, if not in form, part of the Cabinet.

| |

By Eleanor Roosevelt

way of making money to supplement a somewhat slen- | der salary, There is one other defenseless group in any com- | munity, the men and women in our prisons, and we might add those who come out and return to live among us. State and Federal prisons, on the whole, | are improving year by year, but some of the county | Jails IT have visited are not fit for human habitation. | The men in charge are frequently incompetent. A | little attention on the part of the members of the community, particularly of the judges in the courts, would do a great deal toward improving these penal institutions. However, the man out on parole and back in his own community is faced by an extremely difficult situation. To go straight he must earn his living in a legitimate way, he must get a new start. There are organizations which help men and women who have come out of prison, but they do not reach down into the smaller communities and cannot cover the whole problem. Frequently an ex-prisoner is young. He has paid the penalty for his mistake. Sometimes he comes out with a firm determination not to involve himself in any further difficulties, but everywhere he turns his record faces him. It seems to me that every community should have a group composed of members of various civic organizations whose particular duty it is to contact these men and women for whom a job is almost an impossibility, except as a result of special effort, to

By Thomas M. Johnson

War Correspondent and Author

| (Written for NEA Service)

rd =

A multitude of posted warnings to trespassers and camera-carriers give the visitor to the Canal a feeling of being in a war zone,

—

Fear of Sabotage Spurs Canal Work

(Second of a Series)

NCON, Panama Canal Zone, July 12.—The open windows of the swaying observation car framed a picture in vivid greens and reds and blues, of royal palms and lush bottomland—amid which loomed an ocean steamship. Then rows of electric light poles, gray walls of con-

crete, and between them a water—the Canal.

narrow slit of nondescript

Along its bank, clotted dots of black, brown and

white. “Lots of men working,” old Panama hand. “I wonder.” World's Fair before you left

I said to my companion, an

“What are they doing?” He regarded

me oddly. “See the

New York?”

They don’t talk about it much down here, hut they think about it. “Danger—men working.” Working against the danger of catastrophe in Europe that may cut this

American lifeline, ere it can be made strong enough to withstand bombs from the air or from the hand of the groundling spy. Sabotage is the most immediate threat to the Canal . . . sabotage by one man or by a desperate group . . . in one piace or a dozen places. Which is why men in stained civilian clothes are working- in military-like secrecy— throughout the 500-odd square miles of the Zone, installing what Governor C. S. Ridley calls “15million dollars’ worth of gadgets.” From his office in the Administration building here, overlooking this “capital” of 35,000 souls including 10,000 American civilians, the Governor can watch the installation of many of those secret gadgets. “For Canal structures, Congress has provided everything I asked,” he says. “And I am glad to note the growing appreciation in our country of the importance of the Canal at this time.” Time! If Europe will give him time! Today under the blazing sun and in the rains, he has started men working long hours. Presently, under the arc-lights that line the Canal, more men will be working by night. The sooner that time comes, when Congress’ approval has been translated into cargoes of steel and manufactured

articles unloaded down here, the sooner all those gadgets will be in place. Then this linchpin of our naval defense strategy will be safe —plus. But that can scarcely be this summer. For months, perhaps a year, there will be danger. The spy has ample time in which to look about him.

” ” HE Canal's world-famous locks are ample targets for saboteurs. Roughly a mile long, each lock comprises one to three chambers, 1000 feet long, 110 wide, 70 deep. They are like concrete boxes with steel gates weighing hundreds of tons. To blow them up would require much more than a minute and a Fourth of July firecracker, but they are far from invulnerable. Best proof of this is that Governor Ridley has just secured $15,000,000 with which to start building a $27.000,000 set of bypass locks which he assures Congress would be “especially desighed and constructed to resist air attacks and sabotage.” The present locks were not so designed. ‘How might enemies-within-the-gates strike at the Canal? That is a favorite—and grim—argument just now in Panama's open-faced drink emporiums. Some say that the lower lock chamber at Gatun might be opened, then the upper one blown

MUNCIE TO GZGIN DIALING JULY 29

Timer Special MUNCIE, Ind. July 12 —Muncie’s modern diel telephone system will be ready for the cutover from the old manual type system on July 29, Indiana Bell Telephone Co. officials said today. Preparations for the switchover have been going on for several

months. During May and June sev-

eral thousand clients were instruct-

ed in the proper use of the dial system, The new system will require a complete revision of numbers. July 1, will be distributed a few days before the cutover. The change has required additional work from all departments and several Bell Telephone employees from Indiana offices have Neh transferred to the Muncie ofce. Manager George W. Dyke and L. W. Shumaker, district commercial superintendent, have been in charge of operations, both in the commercial and traffic departments. Unattended dial systems also are being installed at Albany and Eaton, to be placed in service the latter part of August.

SEWER GAS IS FATAL

TO MUNCIE RESIDENT

MUNCIE, Ind. July 12 (U. P).— Horace C. Everhart died last night from sewer gas asphyxiation despite attempts of fire and police department rescue squads to revive him. He was attempting to clean a sewer line under his house and had uncapped it, filling the small opening in which he was working with

telephone | A new directory, closed |

gas,

see that at least a chance is given to return to good citizenship, v

COMMISSION LETS BRIDGE CONTRACTS

Contracts for construction of a new bridge and repairs to another on low bids totaling $47,230 were awarded by the State Highway Commission today. One project is for the repair of a bridge on Highway 41 near Attica at a cost of $33,963. The contract was awarded to Wilbur C. Scheirer of Frankfort. George Harvey of Danville was awarded a contract to build a new bridge on Road 42 over Jordans Creek near Poland on a low bid of $13,267.

BY FRANCISCANS

CINCINNATI, O, July 12 (U. P). —The Very Rev. Adalbert Rolfes, superior of St. Francis Monastery here, was elected Provincial of the

Franciscan Province of St. John the Baptist today at the opening session of the Triennial meeting of Province officers in suburban Mount Healthy. The Franciscan province comprises Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, New Mexico and Wuchang, China. Headquarters are in Cincinnati. New consultants also were elected, including: The Rev. Fr. Sebastian Ehrbacher, prominent Detroit educator and faculty member of Duns Scotus College, Detroit; the Rev. Fr. Bernard BEspelage, pastor of St. Francis Church, Sante Fe, N., M, and Chancellor of the Archdiocese there; the Rev. Fr. Baldwin Schulte, pastor of Sacred Heart Church, Peoria, Ill, and the Rev. Fr. Ethelbert Harrington, pastor of Sacred Heart Church, Calumet, Ill

fore the prow of an incoming vessel. Gatun Lake. 163 square miles and the world’s second largest artificial lake.

At the Atlantic entrance to the 43-mile Panama Canal is the triple lock at Gatun, pictured opening be-

Next to the lock is Gatun Dam, swelling the Chagres River to make

The waters’ rise and fall are

controlled by a concrete spillway. Locks, spillway and dam all are potential targets of bombers,

The German liner Bremen, largest passenger ship ever to negotiate the Canal, was barely able to scrape through the lock, as seen above, Note how easily a raiding party could jump from the deck of a big ship

to the lock.

to draw off the water from Gatun Lake. And then: The lake a mud= hole . . . the canal a dry ditch . . . and, littering canal and lake both, the warships of our Flect—stranded! Or, parts of the fleet in both oceans. Or in the Pacific when an enemy fleet attacked in the Atlantic, And a month to round the Horn! A cruel voyage, battering even battleships. Gifted, imaginative artists have painted that unpleasant picture. But this is wrong with it: Before Gatun Lake runs dry the emergency cofferdams and strong, new Madden Dam with its 22,000,000,000 cubic feet of exira water supply must be out too. Wrecking the hydroelectric plants at both Gatun and Madden woeuld be very serious, but the locks can be operated by steam, diesel engine— and even by hand, temporarily —it the locks themselves have not been too seriously damaged. Other objectives of the saboteur might be the hydroelectric power= house at Gatun, which generates juice for the Zone; emergency dams at Miraflores and Gatun, the Panama Railroad, only land link between the Atlantic and Pacific sides; and the record-break= ing shipping facilities at Cristobal. The other day, as the Ham-burg-American liner Wasgenland went through Gatun locks, a German messhoy heaved overboard a package—and for a moment the tropic air was heavy with tragedy. Soldiers and Negro laborers shouted. Bells rang. From the bottom of the lock chamber a special contrivance disgorged the package, which was opened amid tense silence, Then a gasped “Thank God!”

The package contained a flatiron which, the messboy explained, was his idea of a joke. But Americans remember too vividly how, then the huge Nazi liner Bremen went through recently, her vast bulk scraped either side of the 110-foot-wide locks, and from her decks to their surface was but a step. Suppose from that slow-moving Trojan Horse, with its crew of 700, should leap a chosen party. Suppose that, with submachine guns,

they mowed down the surprised, outnumbered guard, sent a party to place explosives in the lock gates. Or even blew up the Bremen herself, gagging the canal with that mass of twisted metal, If not the Bremen, then any other of the 32 foreign ships transitting the canal each day. None of them iz thoroughly inspected now, and if they were it would be hard to detect explosives cleverly hidden. In war, American crews would take foreign ships through-——but how about a timebomh? To cut up and remove a ship would take a week to a month. And the hostile force need not come from aboard a ship or even from as short a distance from the canal as Panama City. Some think it might come from among the Canal Zone laborers, 12,007, mostly West Indians and Panamanians, bossed by white Americans who get six times the $55 a month paid the laborers. In spite of that the great majority are loyval=but lately proof has come that a few are not. ” ” ” HY isn’t there more foreign spying on the Panama Canal today than ever before? For today is the crisis, Today we really are just beginning to work against time—and war-to install protective devices for the locks and other vulnerable spots, to improve antiaircraft and other defenses. Just the season for spy= ing! But instead, the spies seem to have holed up. They are less in evidence than at any time in years. It may have dawned upon these foreign agents that even a democracy may have spy-hunters, who can card-index them and their activities. Many are tabbed for internment camps the minute war comes. Perhaps that knowledge has scared these “amateurs” into their holes at the very time when they should be most active. Are there places now to be taken by the sinister figures of first= class professional spies? Europe has them as we have not-—-career= men in secret service, for a lite=

time trained and experienced in the tricks of their devious trade. A few are here already. Now comes evidence that more are on the way All American agencies concerned have worked together in recent months to comb the thronged, twisting streets of Panama City and Colon for secret enemies. Foreign employees are being re=placed by Americans. Secret pa= pers and photographs are jealous= ly guarded. The spy-hunters have scrutinized land leases, eas= ing out of the Zone the last of the recently celebrated Japanese bare pershops that could eavesdrcp on conversations of soldiers and sail= ors, ” ” ” . OOD evening, Doc!” With a gold-toothed smile, the little brown man invited me into his shop, close to the Fortified Islands and the American “capital” at Balboa but just out= side the Zone, on Panamanian soil. “Fifteen cents haircut,” grinned the Jap. “Credit if broke.” “That's how they get the gob and doughboy trade,” said an American who knows. At 15 cents a haircut, credit if broke, there seams to be so much business in Panama that the Jap= anese barbers have an association, limited to 240 members. When a vacancy occurs, they supply the newcomer with tools. The spy-hunters won a naval battle recently when they swept from local waters the last of the Japanese fishing boats, the spy= flotilla. Like ill-omened birds, these followed our fleet wherever it went. Being powerful motor= boats, often with radio, they could report on target practice, but they especially liked to watch Fleet transits through the Canal. Near the Fortified Islands, where are some of our big guns, they found fishing especially good. They even tried to buy land for a fish cannery. But the final tip-off came when there put into Panama a hand=some, speedy and rather rakish craft with powerful radio and other equipment and a large crew, Simple fishermen they seemed to be—by day. But in the evening sometimes they were observed in dinner coats. In fact, some of these simple fishermen were entertained at the Japanese Legation—which pro=voked investigation that disclosed that half of them were reserve of=ficers of the Japanese Navy. So a certain American went to see President Arosemena of the Republic of Panama. Panama then forbade any fishing at all in her waters by any but Panamanian vessels. ‘ After that blow, the Germans took over much of the spying for their little brown brothers. There are some 2500 Germans in Panama, of whom the most influential are active Nazis, paying dues. They became more active—until last fall their turn came. Four Germans were arrested for taking photographs they had been expressly ordered not to take, in a fortified area. Hans Schachkow and Ernst Guhrig were tried and convicted. Gisbert Groos and Ingeborg Gutman await the result of an appeal.

NEXT-Can the Canal defend itself against an attack.

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

1—In what country is Great Slave Lake? 2-—For what labor organization do the initials I. L. A. stand? 3-—Which eity in South Carolina suffered from an earthquake in 1886? 4—Which varsity crew won the four-mile race at the recent Intercollegiate Rowing Association regatta at Poughkeep= sie? : 5—Name the capital of Georgia. 6-—-What is the product of 5 multiplied by 15? 7—Which state has the motto, Sic semper tyrannis? » n o

Answers 1—Canada. 2—International Longshoremen's Association. 3—Charleston. 4—University of California. 5—Atlanta. 6—12. 1—Virginia.

ASK THE TIMES

Inclose a 3-cent stamp for 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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