Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 21 September 1939 — Page 16
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1939 SECOND SECTION
“The Indianapolis Times
Hoosier Vagabond
IN THE CASCADES, Wash. Sept. 21.—In late afternoon of the third day of our pack-horse trip into the high Cascade Mountains, we came suddenly into a little clearing and there were two men, sitting before a campfire, cooking a meal. They were in overalls and their large back-packs were lying on the ground. They looked like men who lived permanently in the woods. I thought to myself: “Boy, here's a couple of real mountaineers. What big packs theyre lugging. Tll bet they think we're sissies with all these horses and everything.” We stopped to talk a while. The mountain hermits seemed coinmunicative enough. In fact, they even told us their names. They were as follows: 1. Al Smith, a rugged old potato of the Cascades— 2 printer on the Cle Elum paper, 2. Ray Green, a hard-bitten mountain goat—and superintendent of schools of Kittitas County! They were on their first day of a two-day pleasure hike, and Brother Smith said if he ever got home alive he'd be hanged if you ever got him up in the mountains again. His legs were just killing him, Moral—Things are not what they seem.
” ” LJ
Granddad Shows the Way
Our host on this pack-horse trip was Gilbert Brown, who is supervisor of the Wenatchee National Forest. He has been a Forest Service man almost all his life. He is five times a grandfather, yet he can out-ride and out-walk most younger men. When you are on a long pack trip, you get off your horse and walk quite a bit. That's partly to spare the horse, and partly because you get tired riding. On is 40-mile trip of ours I believe Mr. Brown walked nearly half the way. And when he did ride, he was on a horse that had never been ridden before. He was breaking him in on this trip!
It Seems to Me
NEW YORK, Sept. 21.—This is the World War. Until that realization comes home to America there can be no intelligent discussion as to what attitude the United States should take. Senators and others who talk in terms of “Europe's traditional disputes” and “quarrels about boundary lines” are blinking as they pass the graveyard. Already the tides have moved to a point where we have a good deal less than a completely free choice as to what our action ought to be. We are not at war, and we need not go to war, but it is not within our power to sav that this conflict shall not touch us. At the moment America is in a kind of nebulous no-man’s land between the fire of both sides. here is much which can be said for our remaining precisely there, but let us not delude ourselves by saving that such a position is in any true sense the equivalent of peace. Col. Lindbergh's opinion that our own shores are still bevond bombing range may be accepted as both accurate and expert, But the tides of batile are not limited by the flying range of planes. It is also merely of incidental importance to argue as to whether Germany has or plans to have submarine bases in th2 Western Hemisphere. The clash is more fundamental than that. » ” ”
The Time Grows Short
Borah and Nye and the rest are so preoccupied by the analogies of 1917 that they are blind to the fact that this is 1239. And it is later than they think. Never again can America be enlisted under the slogan "To make the world safe for democracy.” The
Washington
WASHINGTON, Sept. 21. —Those who think, as I do, that no issue has as yet arisen to warrant us sending several million American youths io Europe again are being taunted with the question: “Are we going to think only of our skins and our own pockets?” Says another: “This is not a backroom brawl. This is Armageddon.” I think it is very much to the point to be thinking of our skins —at least to be thinking of those American families whose sons would have to risk their skins. Certainly it is not for us armchair Kkibitizers, safe behind our trusty typewriters, to be lecturing our friends into sending sons to fight in Europe. Neither does it come with good grace from highly placed New Dealers, who have been so solicitous about the skins of the unemploved and the economic underprivileged, 10 be so horrified now by the thought of anyone wishing to save his own skin. I hope sincerely that this time the American people will think about their own skins—about the great skin that is America, providentiallv blessed by a degree of natural isolation from this crazy carnage in Europe, the America which shelters us within a potential paradise rich enough in natural resources to enable those so fortunate as to be Americans to live in the peace and comfort to which human beings are entitled. And to be ready to protect these treasures. Why not be selfish about America? Is there anything to be cherished more? » »
» It Sounds Familiar
But they tell us this war in Europs is not a backroom brawl. This is Armageddon. Yes. That's what they said before. You can find it now in Walter Millis’ “The Road
My Day
ST. PAUL, Minn, Wednesday. —Alwavs before. when I have been in different parts of the country and have had a full day in any one spot, I have
tried to spend part of it visiting either NYA or WPA projects. A number of times Mrs. Ellen Woodward has suggested that I see some of the regional and state offices administering the Social Security program. Today is the first day that I started out to do this. We got into St. Paul after 10:30 yesterday evening. I was particularly glad to see two old friends, Miss Adelaide Enright, who lives here, and Mrs. June Hamilton Rhodes, who is running one part of the women's institute program on which I am speaking tonight. First, this morning, came a press conference at 9 o'clock, and then a little over two hours with the regional director of the Social Security program. This region comprises five states— Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska. The regional office is in Minneapolis. Some of the states do not co-operate on the dependent children program, but there is general co-operation on the old-age assistance, on crippled children and care of the blind. 1 stopped at one of the refreshment stands run
.
By Ernie Pyle
Here's Mr. Brown—five times a grandfather—yet he's strong and stalwart and robust. 3 And here's me—not a grandfather, not even an uncle, nothing but a beaming young godfather—and I am practically a cripple. Moral: The weak shall inherit the earth. I hope.
Finding Pasture a Problem
You'd think that in the forests, where everything is green and growing, there'd be plenty for the horses to eat, But there isn’t and finding pasture is one of the main problems on a long pack trip. Grass grows in natural clearings. So, whenever we came to good horse pasture, we'd stop and unsaddie and let the horses eat for an hour or so, no matter what time of day it was. At one place, alongside the pasture, was a swamp-
like lake full of water-lilies and grassy growth. And out there in the middle, belly-deep in water, was a deer, grazing. So few people ever come through these parts that the deer wasn't even alarmed. It didn’t run away. In fact, after a while it came out of the swamp and walked right up to within 50 feet of us, and stood there looking. The deer wasn't scared a bit. But, for that matter, I wasn't either. I don't see why a deer always has to get all the credit for not being scared. We were on the trail that parallels French Creek. I was at the head of our string of horses, and was off walking, leading my horse. The trail was very dusty. Suddenly I noticed strange tracks in the trail, and I called back to Supervisor Brown: “Say, there have been people along here! There's been a child, walking barefooted.” But Mr. Brown looked down at the trail, and then | he said: “No there hasn't. Those are bear tracks. An | old one and a cub.” At that point I stopped walking and got back on | the horse. It makes a horse feel badly if you walk | 3 all the time. Jt makes him feel out of place, and as though he weren't wanted. 1 always try to be con-| siderate of horses.
By Heywood Broun
: (Last of a Series) present issue is whether any democracy in any corner of the world can continue to endure. And it is not correct to say that the ideology of fascism and communism is precisely the same in spite of the palpable fact that Hitler and Stalin are partners for the moment. They will clash sooner | or later. But both the German dictator and the Russian dictator are in complete agreement on one thing. The contempt of the Reich for democracy is no whit greater than that felt by Russia. The closest analogy which can be drawn must enlist an old style of prize fighting now universally barred called “a battle royal.” This sport consisted | of putting some seven or eight fighters into the ring and promising a prize only to the lone survivor. | Under this arrangement many temporary alliances] were made and just as quickly broken. Inevitably the! final conflict narrowed down to a pair of survivors who battled it out for the prize. {
” n »
Let's Not Be Confused
{ This stage has not yet been reached in world af- | fairs. Three contestants remain. These are fascism, communism and democracy. The first two have decided that democracy is the weaker vessel, and they! are combining to wipe it out of the picture. After that they will go into action against each other. No matter how strictly neutral we choose to vote or remain or behave we cannot prevent the extreme right and the extreme left from taking a poke at us. This is the World War. And unless there is some feasible way for the United States to secede from | the planet we cannot declare ourselves wholly out. I am absolutely against our sending an cxpedi-| tionary force abroad. It would be useless. I am completely for our lifting the arms embargo. And! when the issue is drawn between democracy and the totalitarian state I am not neutral. I am for my country and for my religion and civilization as I have known it. This is not a backroom brawl. This is Armageddon.
By James Thrasher
URING the Little Theater's first decade, a lack of proper facilities continued to plague it from one year to the next. The Sculpture Court, though stately and impressive, was limited in its suitability. Furthermore, the stage had to be assembled for each performance after the Art Museum had closed at 5 o'clock. The Masonic Temple, which became the theater's more or less permanent home, likewise had
its disadvantages. Finally, in the fall of 1925, there appeared an architect's drawing
of the proposed new playhouse at 19th and Alabama Sts. It was an imposing structure, of Old English design; the accompanying story mentioned a “great hall and ballroom , . ., a Kitchen.” The fact that magnificence became somewhat modified by actuality probably is beside the point. The structure, dedicated Feb. 18, 1926, remodeled and enlarged in the summer of 1929, and still in use, was an infinite improvement and remains an adequate, if not an ideal, theatrical edifice. Meanwhile, in its temporary quarters, the theater was not idle. Occasional, and successful, trips were made to Anderson, Muncie and Greencastle, In the 1923-24 season the players made a motion picture, partly as a stunt and partly as a money-making promotion. Two years previous to this we find another landmark, the
By Raymond Clapper.
to War.” How Walter Hines Page, our Ambassador to Great Britain in the World War, wrote to Woodrow | Wilson about the first World War. | “It's a death grapple,” he said. “All preceding! mere ‘wars’ are not in the same class of events. It means extermination, not of the people of either na-| first Children's Theater production, but the utter extermination of the system of tion. either one or the other—English free institutions or ¥ & & German military autocracy.” | : . Still they insist now that this present war is dif- ne d Ulin Whi] has ferent. It isn't an ordinary war. It's a war of oo 'C © RWUIL1y exisuente, ideologies. Due - unspectacular from the Well, six weeks ago Hitler was fighting to crush | Pubic Viewpoint, Ques, through. bolshevism. Now Hitler and bolshevism are allies.| G0 0 Years Rt 1as ton ted For years the ideological war raged. But the minute t 1 lif BV je a mun ys oa Be it was to Hitler's advantage to make a deal with] a gi the oh 5s Instn bolshevism, he made it. And what of bolshevism's| & AVE Of 08 wa h em war against fascism? Stalin has made a deal with ren w 0 Je ise, in this world Hitler because he gets something out of it. They both °% a ani entertainment, carve up Poland and ideologies go out the window. ™MI8 ave come to look upon { the spoken drama as quite as
= = = : : , y quaint and archaic a phenomenon Let's Not Be Suckers
as the horse and buggy. All wars are fought under crusading banners which | on yha aekivilies progreswns are supposed to take the curse off the loot that the| Theater took on new life with the powers are after. | opening of its new playhouse. If there is one thing that is completely cynical it is| Jules Eckert Goodman's adaptawar, and if we think of anything except our own na- tion of “Treasure Island” opened tional interests in trying to determine our policies dur-| the new theater. Next season, the ing this period we are plain suckers. | group started out with a camBefore we old folks begin talking about sending paign for “a minimum of 1000 other Americans out to do the fighting, let's be sure that something very vital to the future safety and |
1. Margaret Beasley and George Somnes, former Civic Theater director, in a scene from “Bushido,” adapted from the Japanese and produced by Mr. Somnes. 2. The present Civic Playhouse at 19th and Alabama Sts. On the steps, left to right, are David Milligan, Civic Theater Workshop president; Mrs. Lucille Bomgardner, business manager, and Miss Anne Tefft, of the Civic office staff. 3. Edward Steinmetz Civic's present director. 4. A rehearsal scene for one of the Children’s Civic Theater productions, “Jack and the Beanstalk.”
Jr, the
The Civic Theater, 1915-1940 | |
members,” and fell only 100 short of their goal. Several things happened in 1929 besides the depression, which has a part in our story. For one thing, the movies, cashing in on what had been thought a novelty, went to work with sound and caught the theater flat-footed. Coupled with the panic, the advent of talking pictures rocked Broadway to its foundations. Commercial radio became “big time” competition. Theaters closed: actors went to Hollywood if they were lucky, walked the streets if they weren't. Road companies almost @¥sappeared until, in the outlands, there was an acute danger of the living theater's extinction. ” on ” T seems more than a coincidence, then, that the Little Theater became the Civic Theater in the fall of that year. It purged all suggestion of the precious and arty from its title by even ceasing to spell theatre with an “re.” The programs became of more general appeal. There was greater emphasis on presentation of commercial successes and a stronger bid for community interest. Plays by Philip Barry, Noel Coward, S. N. Behrman, Rachel Crothers began to appear more frequently on the season lists. : In the spring of 1931, Mr. Somnes accepted a contract from Paramount Pictures and resigned from his Civic Theater post. At present he and his wife are producing plays professionally in New York under the firm name of Bonfils and Somnes.
. : ” > 3 : ! hg SE oly yi Republican Na: H. oosier B a r H ead E n { ers
tional Committee, just back from France, says: “It is! my opinion that the Republican Party should dedicate | itself to the task—not of hoping this country will stay | ® ® ® ace out of war—but of seeing that it does stay out of war.” |
The Republicans should not be allowed to occupy! that platform alone, | Times Special
for Governor
MUNCIE, Ind, Sept. 21. —Clarence Benadum, Muncie attorney and president of the Hoosier Bar Association, today announced his candidacy
By Eleanor Roosevelt)
“integrated bar” bill before the In-| bv a blind man, in the Federal office building, and giana Legislature.
|for Republican nomination in 1940 for Governor. He headed the association which] was formed recently to fight the |
JURY NAMED FOR
he seemed Vv h in hi k. Under th The. messile he seem ery happy in his work. Under the new! _ | law, blind people may have stands in public build- | 28 defeated. CARNEGIE ART SHOW ings, but no appropriation has been passed to arrange | “Throughout the campaign,” Mr.| Jor 2 revving un rom oO Suge can Benadum said, “I shall use my voice | Wi : $ v od. ose se ITT Sept. PP) — by — es to be most successful Shere and pen to arouse the people of our P SBURGH, Sen a Ly : Fs supervision can be provided and the blind people Staté to the fact that we are tax- An English, a Spanish and two New can be trained. |ridden and that our democracy has | York artists will serve on the jury Of course, the dependent children program IS heen captured by a powerful, cen- Of awards to judge the 347 paintings always of great interest to me and it is satisfying to entered in the 1939 Carnegie Intersee how much Miss Lenroot and the Children’s |tralized State government, ruled bY | ational Art Show, which opens Sureatt Jive aon wie Xo do te make the work of tax collectors, boards, bureaus and pere Oct. 19, it was announced to- ; commissions. day. Unemployment compensation is also of great in- 1 , ; terest to me, and I was delighted to find how closely| “I Will oppose regimentation of ea] o1 2ward Will eonsist of this part of the Social Security program is working the people, and integration and so- |g, o1ang painter and etcher: Hipoi a tre eves | alization of professions.” lito Hidalgo de Caviedes, Madrid, working closely with the NYA, al also should| Mr. Benadum was born in Dela-|Spain, portrait and figure pain he x mean a step forward in the whole picture of em-|ware County in 1881. He attended|2?d muralisty Bugent a Epe Ser ployment. After seeing the regional office, we came | ublic schools and Valparaiso Uni-| ono, Edward Hopper, I back to St. Paul and saw the State Administrator's |® pe “| York City. Homer Saint-Gaudens, office and the Employment Service. versity, and continued law studies director of fine arts of Carnegie InThis program, as a whole, means so much to all in law offices. He was admitted io stitute, will serve as chairman of the the people that I am deeply interested to see devel- the bar in 1910. During the World Jury. opment of high standards of personnel, so that in war he was a sergeant of artillery The art judges will meet in Pittsthe counties as well as at headquarters the choice *'|burgh Sept..27 to continue in sesof people who work on the program can be made H® Was prosecuting attorney from sion until they have completed the on a basis of ability, regardless of any other con- [1919 to 1923 and a Republican can-|work of awarding the $3400 in sideration. didate for Congress in 1924, prizes.
SC. WY . . .
As director of the Little Theater and the Civic Theater during half its existence to date, Mr. Somnes may be called, without too much fear of contradiction, the greatest single factor in the organization's success. As accurate a tribute to his ability as any may be found in this description by Mrs. Elizabeth Bogert Schofield, who has acted under every Civie director from the first production to the last season: . “George Somnes was a wellrounded man of the theater, informed in every department. He knew exactly what he wanted when he came to the first rehearsal, yet he never ceased to work toward greater perfection. He had the ability to clarify the conception of a part by a word or a brief suggestion, and was very particular about detail. If you made a single change in your spacing or timing, he knew it. Yet he was a man of infinite patience if he felt that you were trying.”
” ” ”
TT \ROM 34 applicants considered, Ir the Civic Theater board chose Hale MacKeen to succeed Mr. Somnes. Although he had grown up in Indianapolis, Mr. MacKeen had gained his theatrical experience afield. Like Frede ick Burleigh, Alfred Etcheverry and Edward Steinmetz Jr., his successors, Mr. MacKeen had studied at the Yale School of the Drama. He came back from the directorship of the New Orleans Little Theater, after experience as actor and di-
TEST YOUR: KNOWLEDGE
1—In which State are the Carlsbad Caverns? . . a 2—Who was the first woman to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross? 3—Name the colors in the flag of Eire (Irish Free State). 4—In what year did Lief Ericson discover Newfoundland? 5—What is the correct pronunciation of the word gondola? 6—Where is the isle of Patmos? T—Where is the original copy of the Declaration of Independence? 8—Which of the Twelve Apostles betrayed Jesus?
” ” ” Answers
1—-New Mexico. 2—Amelia Earhart. 3—Green, white and red. 4—A. D. 1000. 5—Gon’-do-la; not gon-do’-la. 6—In the Aegean Sea. T—Library of Congress, Washington, D. C. 8—Judas Iscariot.
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 undertaken,
rector with the Goodman Players in Chicago. and as director of the Vagabond Theater in Nashville. A feature of the 1933-34 season was “Booth Tarkington Night.” The famous author, who had been represented on Civic bills intermittently since the first season's “The Kisses of Marjorie,” was present to see his nephew, Booth Tarkington Jameson, as Willy Baxter in “Seventeen.” Mr. Burleigh, who took over in 1934, ,presented the Civic's first musical comedy as a special production observing * the theater's 20th anniversary. It was ‘Meet My Sister,” a German work done into English by Harry Wagstaff Gribble. It proved so popular that musicals were included on the next three season's lists. All were by Charles Gaynor, who came out from New York to provide facile and sprightly tunes and sketches until enticed to Hollywood by a studio contract.
Mr. Burleigh's brief but successful tenure of three seasons ended with his acceptance of a similar post with the Pittsburgh Playhouse. This brought Mr. Etcheverry, who came from Yale by way of the Theater Guild, to Indianapolis for a single season. And, with the appointment of Mr. Steinmetz a year ago, we bring the Civic Theater to its present stopping place. n ” ® HE Civic's change of policy and attitude has followed a familiar path, capable of being interpreted either as a weakening of
purpose or a natural and healthy process of growing up. Like the Washington Square Players and
most of its other models, it has passed from experiment and innovation to productions based largely upon the prognosis of popularity and remuneration. ince few American theaters are subsidized, the course is inevitable. Nor is a desire to please the public as grievous an error as the coterie may insist. Experiment is any art form's life blood, but the best of this newness is absorbed into enrichment of the art within its natural boundaries. To look for contemporary survivors from the days of the Civic Theater's birth makes the organization's continued existence the more remarkable. The mortality rate among the “Littles” and the “News” has been high. Except for the names, the Theater Guild and the Provincetown Players are scarcely recognizable from their youth, and even the brave and excellent Abbey Theater is slowly breaking up. We must conclude, then, that after this survey of landmarks, the Civic Theater's real heroes remain unhonored. Without new generations of tireless and selfless workers neither directors nor officers could have kept the Civie Theater alive. With them and all those who find in the theater the exhilaration of self-expression, the revelation of “the inherent beauty and pathos of living,” we may confidently toast the Civic's next 25 years.
Everyday Movies—By Wortman
[3]
In and Out of the Red With Sam
"l ain't takin' no more buyers to the Fair. Ya just can't get ‘em to concentrate on business with so many things to see."
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