Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 31 August 1939 — Page 15

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| THURSDAY, AUGUST 31, 1939

Hoosier Vagabond

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engravers Sore I...

ON THE TRAIL, Glacier Park. Mont., Aug. 31.— There should be some way to divide up the weather. While most of you readers have been suffocating in heat waves, I'm up here considerably more dead than alive from bitter cold. Today was November if I ever saw it. A day as cold and drear as a Vermont stone fence. Fierce wind and dark clouds and the feeling of snow in the air. This morning at Granite Park Chalet the wind was blowing so ferociously and it was so cold that Miss Irene Eldred, the manager, wanted me to stay over a day. And I almost did. That tin stove full of roaring wood was an awful temptress. But then I thought, after all, am I mouse or man? It was with great reluctance that I discarded the mouse theory. My two little sweaters might as well have been mere handkerchiefs wrapped around me. So Miss Eldred got out her leather jacket, and said to wear it, and leave it at Fifty Mountain Camp, and they'd send it back by the first pack train.

A Thrill at Ahern Ledge

The trail hung along a steep mountainside. The great ridges of rock rolled up and up for thousands of feet. The wind came roaring out of the vast valley below, and raked the mountainside and me. The backs of my hands turned blue. Around a bend I came upon Ahern Pass and Ahern Snowbank. One minute I was walking along level, on an easy trail across a gentle slope. And the next I was stopped, staring. looking down for hundreds of feet over sheer cliff. There was really no danger. eight feet wide Yet one cowbov I know, who has ridden everv foot of this park for years, says Ahern Ledge scares him

The trail was six

It Seems to Me

NEW YORK, Aug. 31 —A great many people are indulging themselves today in far too many rounds of “I told you so.” Again and again I have come across that self-laudatory line, “As I exclusively predicted last year.” In many cases the prediction was not exclusive, and, after all, there are still returns to be counted from the outlying districts. The craft of news comment or editorial expression ought to be a humbling one. In the course of years one begins to learn that certain judgments which he passed honestly and with fervor did not stand the test of time. The person who prides himself upon never having been wrong must either be a most indulgent evaluator or a fellow who never backed a good cause for anything better than show. I believe it is far better to be wrong once, twice or many times than never to have taken a bold chance. Nor am I denying the existence of certain enduring verities. But sometimes it is like that old parlor game called “Up Jenkins.” Certain hands are empty, ana just one contains the true metal. = = =

The Time for the Test

In the face of this fact there are those who would abstain wholly from opinion and eke out their lives like alley cats upon the fences of back yards. It is better to risk a judgment than to remain eternally a nsutral. Judas was a turncoat, Pilate a man on fixed post. And so no matter what the end result might be of remorse or retribution. Judas could take with him eternally the fact that for a time he had walked with divinity. I am not disposed ever to play the stern moralistis role with anyone who seems to me to have wilted under pressure beyond his strength. The stage and screen and many novels have made physical cowardice the greatest sin of man. It is not. I have known it to seize upon a man as if it were an undertow And fight as the victim would, the fierce tide might

+. Washington

WASHINGTON, Aug. 31.—Yestercay I suggested that after this crisis, or after this war, which ever it is. the United States should participate in a fresh attempt to end this age of international blackmail. Sooner or later the opportunily will come for us to assume the leadership. It will be to our national self-interest to do sc. Can anyone in this country, even though we are protected by the two oceans, have any feeling of security with rothing ahead but periodic recurring crises, with Europe swaying on the edge year after year? We are reasonably safe from physical harm. But we cannot escape sharing some of the cost oi these interminable and demoralizing events in Europe. Th? waste of manpower when eight million men are under arms 2nd taken out of productive labor, the waste of materials in excessive armaments that re breaking the backs of the great nations, the disruption of trau® and profitable activity of all kinds—all of this 1s bound to have ils economic repercussions upon our economy,

» » Our Hand May Be Forced Furthermore. safe from attack as we are, it seems inevitable that if present conditions continue we shall be forced in {ime to participate, or else submit to pressure upon Latin America and upon our interests in other parts of the world, upon our sources of essential raw materials such as rubber and tin which lie overseas. In time we, too. shall feel the pinch of the barbarian tactics now in use. Granted that the case does not make it worth our while now to contemplate going to war, we need a

. My Day

NEW YORK, Wednesday.—Gray skies and a Hudson River that had white caps on it did not encourage us this morning as we speeded by motor from Hyde Park to the World's Fair. My aunt, Mrs. Gray, has not been to the Fair before and Miss Thompson and I were sorry that she should see it first on a bad day, but the rain held off until after lunch, so her initial glimpse was really very lovely. That green waterfall down the front of the Italian Building is something to remember and, as you look back from the steps of the Federal Building at the fountains, their very whiteness shows up better against a gray sky. . We went to lunch in the Danish Pavilion, having promised ourselves a meal from that smorgesbord table the last time we went there for tea. It was just as good as we thought it was going to be. We had picked up Miss Hicock and when we Jeft her office to take the bus, I reminded her that we had waited for several busses the last time we were there and the right one never came along. I found that I was not the only one who remembered this, for the young starter said: “You won't have to wait so long today, Mrs. Roosevelt, No. 6 will be

By Ernie ova

worse than any other place in the park. The first time he ever crossed there, it seems, he was riding | a horse that was blind in one eye. It happened to be the outside eve, and the cowboy says that horse just] tried to see how close to the edge it could walk. | So far as I know, there has never been an accident at Ahern Pass. But there was one last year at Swift Current Pass. (That's east of here, and not

on my trail) s 2 2 {

Tragedy at Swift Current

There is one place on Swift Current where the] trail hangs along the ledge, and it's straight up and straight down for hundreds of feet. And the trail is| very crooked. i They were dead-heading a long string of horses | up into the park. Park regulations require that un- | ridden horses be roped together. The last horse in| the string reared, or something, lost its ‘footing and | plunged over the side. One by one, it dragged the other horses over after it. The cowboy saved himself and the top horse only by quickly cutting the rope. Five horses went over. They dropped hundreds of feet before they struck. They say it was heart-breaking to hear their cries as they went down. When they finally nit, mercifully, they were killed instantly. Just beyond Ahern Ledge was the snowbank. It was about a block wide, and was set up on end at a better than 45 degree angle, and filled the little valley far above and below. The trail-builders had hacked and dug a path right across the frozen snow. There was still a long steel pike-pole lving there if you wanted to use it] to steady yourself. | I was glad to put my feet on solid earth again on the other side. Right in the middle of crossing the snowbank I thought, “Cutting this path has weakened the whole bank. My weight will break it loose, and the whole thing will go sliding and roaring down the valley, with me in it.” But later some cowboys said no, that it was packed and frezen as hard as concrete. It will be there all; summer, It would take dynamite to dislodge it.

By Heywood Broun

sweep him out beyond his depth. The truly tragic] timidity is that of the individual who lives so constantly with his fears that he stays indoors behind! locked doors. ! I say all this because under the shadow of war no man knows how his mind or his stomach will turn. It is only too easy for a news commentator to stigmatize a man or a nation as craven. Editorialists,| like seconds around a prize ring, are too prone to say. “Go on in and slug it out.’ My strong conviction is that the time comes when a country or an individual must say, “This cannot go on forever. Now is the time to meet the test] and face the monster.”

” 4 =

Who Is to Fix the Hour? I feel confident that this is true. It is along that! belief I would like to pattern my own behavior. But! in looking back I cannot remember any episode in which I beldly advanced against the slings and arrows. And until I can dig up such a memory I will no longer go too heavily into scornful castigation of those in authority who hesitate to set a zero hour. Rationally I am not a pacifist Non-resistance | would require a mass heroism even greater than that which war demands. Gandhi has made a good try, but it has not availed. No Minotaur of myth or history can be overthrown by a constant practice of appeasement. The time must come to say, “No.” But who is to fix that hour? I think it can be fixed justifiably only by the man who himself draws a sword and says. "I will go now, whether or not there are any to follow.” | I would like to be up to it. Once before I die I should like to play that role or at the very leas! be in close attendance upon that leader. But in the last war I was a cautious correspondent who nev-: quarreled with a conducting officer when he said. “This 1s as far as the newspapermen are permitted to 20.” I hated the sound of shells, even when they were not very close. The bullies of the world must be met and destroved. hut it is not for me or for vou. either, to demand that other people or other peoples go in and face the barrage unless we are prepared to stand by them shouider to shoulder and soul to soul.

| company

LIGHT COZEAN EICT NNO]

$2,100,000 Project Recalls Early Trials

By Lowell Nussbaum JJ EADACHES over public utility problems are nothing new to Indianapolis’ City officials. Yesterday, after months of consideration, negotiations for acquisition of the water company were broken off. Fifty-eight years ago, back in 1881, it was “this new-fangled electricity,” which everyone was talking about.

The whole trouble was started by a Clevelander, Charles T.

| Brush, who, the preceding year,

had devised an improved dynamo and invented the arc lamp. In 1881, he formed and licensed the Indianapolis Brush Electric Co.,, headed by former Mayor John Caven, and the firm immediately applied to the City for a franchise to operate here. Officials were dubious. In the words of an early historian: “The company had great difficulty and delay in procuring a franchise from the City, as the Council had but little confidence in it, and when the franchise finally was granted, it was cautiously termed: ‘The So-Called Electric Light.” ” ”» ”n FTER granting the franchise, the Councilmen relaxed, but not for long. Undismayed by the City's dis= trust of their new industry, the immediately began building Indiana's first electric arc light generating station, at 224 S. Pennsylvania St. Almost simultaneously, it made the audacious proposal that it take over the lighting of City streets, replacing ‘he existing open flame gas lamps with arc lights. Councilmen snickered behind their hands. then politely rejected the offer. The same thing happened three months later, and again a year later, Had they accepted even the third offer, Indianapolis today still might have been boasting that it was the first city in the world to rave its streets completely lighted by electricity. This early history of the City's electric utility is recalled in connection with the approaching completion of a $2,100,000 improvement program at the Indianapolis Power & Light Co.'s “PerryK” plant, Kentucky Ave. and West St. » » »

HIS plant is a mixture of

modernity and antiquity. Here, in the shadow of a huge new

| building housing boilers as tall as

By Raymond Clapper

different kind of a world, where free enterprise and! trade again will have an opportunity. We should make this effort in spite of the dismal coliapse oi the previous effort at collective collabora-| tion. The League of Nations was a failure. Postwar British and French diplomacy was stupid and helped to bring on the present disastrous conse-| quences. Still the need is so great, the anguish of the trapped peoples of the world is so desperate, the! strain of these blackmail tactics is so nearly unbearable, the ultimate harmful effects to us are so certain. that the previous failure at collaboration should not stand in the way of a second effort. |

= = = The People Will Be Ready After the present crisis—or war—is over, surely the peopies of a number of couniries will be ready tor a new effort, will indeed be reaching for it, will drive their statesmen to it. Human nature will insist upon escaping trom this horror chamber. Certainly Great Britain, France and the small neutral couniries which are hit as hard, in a sense, as the major powers, wil want some surcease. We hear reliable reports that Italians don’t want war. Even the German people, row on war rations, are likely to be longing tor some other way. In 1833, President Roosevelt made a proposition to the powers that, if they would seriously reduce armaments, he would undertake to obtain the consent of the Congress to a standing arrangement whereby we would assist in pressure against aggressors. Europe wasn't interested then. ! Mechanics are a secondary consideration at the] moment. Once the will to a saner method of adjust- | ing differences becomes stirred and focused, the ma- | chinery will be found. | The time to move has not arrived. But the time is here to begin thinking about it in America.

|son’s resignation at a special meet-| ganization in 1933.

an eight-story building nestles a little old building which back in the nineties was considered the last word in electric light and steam plants. A history of the City published In 1897 referred to its as “one of the finest in the world, and among the largest.” The little old building, now nearly a half century old, hasn't been torn down because it still is “used and useful.” On occasion, when there is heavy demand for steam, the comparatively new boilers in the old plant are fired. Improvement in the newer building, which has been enlarged and modernized completely during the last two years, will be completed probably in October. In 1897, the historian referred to the Kentucky Ave. and West St. plant site as having “capacity for almost indefinite expansion.” But when the company began its improvements two years ago, all the available land was filled, and it was necessary to “go up in the air.” » ” 5 HE plant's new smokestacks soar 278 feet above the street, only 6!'; feet lower than the top

The Indianapolis Times

SECOND SECTION

Times Photo.

These giant smokestacks at the Indianapolis Power & Light Co. “Perry-K” plant are within 6; feet of being

as tall as the top of the Soldiers and Sailors’ Monument.

plant to be completed in October.

They are part of a $2,100,000 improvement program at the

of the Soldiers and Sailors’ Monument Instead of the usual horizontal boilers, the two new boilers at the plant, each 25 feet square, extend straight up to a beight equal to the ordinary eigiit-story building The boilers, said to rank among the dozen largest in the world, are fed Indiana coal, pulverized to the consistency of :a'cum. The coal is crushed so fine that it ignites the instant it eiters tne 2000-degree temperature of the boiler, burning just like lieating gas or fuel oil. An average of more than 18 carloads of coal— 900 tons—is fed into the boilers daily. Among the new equipinent in the plant is a huge “topper” or high-pressure turbine for generating electricity. n = n TEAM leaves the boilers at high pressure, 670 pounds, and first is used to turn the “topper” turbine. It comes out of the turbine at only 250 pounds pressure. Then, instead of being wasted, it is used again to power two lowpressure turbines. Steam not used in the “Perry-K"” plant (the K stands for Kentucky Ave.) is piped through a large conduit 1400 feet to the “Perry-wW” plant, at Washington and Blackford Sts, where it powers several low-pressure turbines. From there, the same steam is piped down-

Jackson Also Expected To Quit Gross Tax Post

Clarence A. Jackson, who yesterday resigned as State Unemployment | Compensation Division director effective Sept. 30, is expected also to! relinquish his post as Gross Income Tax Division head, “in the next |

few days.”

The Unemployment Compensation the Unemployment Division of the| Board, which accepted Mr. Jack-| Treasury Department since its or-

He was ap-

By Eleanor R oosevelt ing, immediately appointed Wilfred | pointed by former Governor Paul V.

| Jessup, Richmond attorney, as new; McNutt.

right along.” Sure enough, it was the second bus. Miss Hicock urged us to see Finland's exhibit first, | so that was our first stop. I have a beautiful glass| bowl which was presented to me last spring by the Finnish Minister, so I was especially interested in| their glass exhibit. I thought some of their pottery was charming, and their moccasins made me think a little of our own Indians’ work. Later on, much to| my surprise, I found some of the designs in the hand-' woven rugs in the Greek exhibit very similar to the designs in our American Indian rugs. After lunch we spent nearly an hour in the Federal Building. We all agreed it was a remarkably well arranged and instructive exhibit. The dioramas are really beautiful. The siory oi government is told not only by the written word, but also by charts, maps with electric lights to point to the spots where different things exist, pictures and actual scenes which make tt easy to comprehend the objects of government and the efforts made by different agencies to achieve certain results. On coming out, we found the rain falling, but by, walking rather quickly we reached the Greek Build-' ing without any damage to our clothes. I had not realized that rugmaking was an industry in Greece,

director. Mr. Jessup is a member of the Board.

Gilbert Hewitt Mentioned

Reported to be in line as suc-

cesor to Mr, Jackson as head of the

Hewett, now Division assistant director. Mr. Jackson's intention to resign, reported several weeks ago, came after he was offered a position as executive secretary of the State Chamber of Commerce.

day from Washington,

formally accepted the offer. However, it is believed that he

{

‘Gross Tax Department is Gilbert |

has informed the Chamber of Com-

merce directors of his intention to accept the post, Board Approval Needed Mr, Jackson's resignation and Mr. Jessup's appointment must be ap-

wire will | projects.

The post of gross tax director is!

appointive under the

Board.

Treasury

2 REMC PROJECTS

GOVER 8 COUNTIES

Two REMC projects which will

on bil Tues- | Pring electricity to 2852 families ‘in| , Y where he has €ight Indiana counties at a cost of |

been assisting Federal Security Ad-|$1,061,000 are to begin soon, 'ministrator Paul V. McNutt, has not Rural Electrification Administration |

{announced today.

the |

It is estimated that 911 miles of |

be erected in the

two The projects will be lo-|

cated in White, Pulaski, Benton, | Jasper, Porter, Starke, St. Joseph |

ut they explained to me that refugees from Smyrna! proved by the State Treasury Board, |

had brought their art with them. to find that a refugee group can contribute something’ which has become an important industry.

Treasurer and Auditor.

and La Porte Counties.

The «> mbined projects will pro-

It is interesting composed of the Governor, Staie vide nearly 192,000 man hours of {employment in direct labor alone,

Mr. Jackson has beeg director of the REA reported.

town, at lower pressure, to heat office buildings and stores. En route to the “Perry-W” plant, the steam conduit is tapped by several large industrial plants, including Kingans, which uses the steam first to generate electricity for the packing plant, and then in its plant processing work. The “Perry-K" plant originally was built in 1893 by the Indianapolis Light & Power Co., one of the 10 predecessors of the present company. The original installation at “Perry-W” was made by the former Merchants Heat & Light Co. in 1909. Records of early Indianapolis reveal that the first arc lights in Indianapolis were turned on at Union Station Jan. 12, 1882. The Brush company’s largest customer for some time, it used 16 lights on an all-night schedule. At that time ordinary commercial electric current was available only from 1 p.m. tol a. m. A newspaper story describing the inauguration of the new lighting system said that ‘objects could be seen clearly from one end of the building to the other.” It added that the building was lighter inside *“‘than it had been since the roof was put on.” Incidentally, the first residence in the city lighted exclusively by incandescent light, which closely followed the arc light invention, was the former home of Michael Spades, which at that time, 1889,

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

1—Does the U. S. Constitution prescribe any qualifications for Justices of the Supreme Court? 2—In which state was the first oil well drilled? 3—Who defeated Frank Murphy in the election for Governor of Michigan? 4—Why does the boiling temperature of water differ at varying altitudes? 5—What is the full name of Senator Bridges? 6—How many cubic feet are in one cord of wood?

” » ” . Answers

1—No. 2—Pennsylvania. 3—Frank D. Fitzgerald. 4—Because it is affected by atmospheric pressure which changes according to altitude. 5—Harry Styles Bridges. 6—128.

ASK THE TIMES

Inclose a 3-cent stamp for reply when addressing any question of fact or information to The Incianapolis Times Washington Service Bureau, 1013 13th St, N. W., Washington, D. C. Legal and medical advice cannot be given hor can extended research be undertaken.

had been soid to the Columbia Club as its clubhouse. Meanwhile, the Brush company had succeeded in getting a shortterm contract for 120 arc lamps on the principal streets. . By 1892, the City's suspicion that the “So-Called Electric Light” was impractical had been overcome and the City awarded the Brush firm a 10-year contract for a minimum of 750 lamps at $85 a lamp on a moonlight schedule. Although i, was the first in the field, the Indianapolis Brush Electric Co. didn’t retain its “monopoly” long. In the spring of 1885, the Jenney Electric Co. was formed to manufacture electrical equipment. Soon it went into electrical

production and got a contract for .

lighting the streets of the then separate town of West Indianapolis. Its officers were Daniel W. Marmon, president; Addison H. Nordyke, vice president; Brainard Rorison, secretary; Amos K. Hollowell, treasurer, and Charles D. Jenney, electrician.

» ” ”

ROM then on, there was a steady succession of new companies and mergers. In 1886, 28-year-old Charles C. Perry, then a railroad telegrapher at Richmond, accepted a job as a “sort of utility” man with the Jenney Electric Co. That marked the beginning of the Perry family's long years of

activities in the electric utility business here. Several years later, Mr. Perry, for whom the present “Perry-K" and “Perry-W” plants are named, quit the Jenney firm and organe ized his own company, the Mare mon-Perry Light Co. Associated with him were Mr, Marmon and Thomas A. Wynne, formerly with the Jenney come pany. The new company began busi= ness in the rear of the old Sexntinel Building at 117 W. Market St., now part of the site of the William H. Block Co. store. Its prin cipal purpose at that time was to furnish current for the old Park Theater, which was electrically lighted for the first time Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 29, 1888. Soon they got a contract for lighting the English Opera House and the Grand Opera House, and built a second station in a barn in the rear of the M. H. Spades residence, now part of the Colum=bia Club site. In 1892, Marmon-Perry bought control of the Indianapolis Brush Electric Co. and formed the Ine dianapolis Light & Power Co. Among the later light companies which flourished for a time were the Home Heating & Lighting Co.; Marion County Hot Water Heate ing Co.; Peoples’ Heat & Light Co.; Merchants Heat & Light Co.; Merchants Public Utility Co. of In= dianapolis, and the Indianapolis Light & Heat Co.

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