Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 7 December 1939 — Page 22

| THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1939

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Hoosier Vagabond

.. SILVER CITY. N. M,, Dec. 7.—Tt seems to me that I've "already got friends living in caves all over the United States. And now I've made another one. His hame is Cornelius Cosgrove Whitehill, they call him Con.” He is 65 and happily married, rolls brownpaper cigarets without licking them, won't kill a single living thing, and lives in a cave simply because he likes it. It isn't a natural cave. It's a man-made cave, dug out of a hillside. It's four miles from downtown Silver City. When the new airport is built the planes will roll their wheels almost across Mr, Whitehill's roof. But they won't know it's his roof, because it's just country up there on top. ; Although originally from New Mexico, the Whitehills lived ‘for years in California. He was a contract painter there. Eight years ago he 20t lead poisoning, and had to quit painting and come back here. During his absence, people had simply taken apart the ranch house he once owned, and taken it home With them. Mr. Whitehill couldn't afford to build a new house, and didn't want to anyway. So he took his pick and shovel and began digging into one of his hillsides. Two weeks later he was living in it. When Mrs, Whitehill came on. from California eight months afterward, the cave was big and comfortable. un 5 5

A House for $20

Today it has four rooms, kitchen and bath. Tt is well furnished, clean as a pin, and more comfortable than the average farm house. Everv room is light, and the temperature is so even they don't need much fire. Their annual coal bill is only $6. The entire house cost less than $20. I asked Mr. Whitehill what put this idea in his head. He said he had always wanted to live in a cave. He feels he has a mission to demonstrate that cave-living is practical. His basic idea is to prove that anybody, with just

Our Town

WHILE THE REST of the world was sitting on the edge of a volcano last Thursday, waiting for the Finnish, Bernard Batty went out and planted a greatgrandchild of the Washington Elm. You can see it for yourself on the lawn south of the old Benjamin Harrison home which now serves as a shrine with Mr. Batty in charge. The tree is a gift of a Baltimore lady, Mrs. James H. Dorsey, wht is way up in the National Society of the D. A. R. Besides that, she is a mighty good amateur gardener which is why they made her vice chairman of the Committee on Historic Trees. Certainly nobody knows more about the Washington Elm and its descendants than Mrs. Dorsey. The fact of the matter is that, except for Mrs. Dorsey's family, the Washington Elm wouldn't have had any descendants. At the risk of intruding and laying bare the Dorsey family secrets, I'm going to give you the story from start to finish. In June, a Harvard law student hailing from Maryland, scooped up a handful of newly fallen seeds under the Washington Elm, the old landmark of Cambridge, Mass, which fell in 1923. (You youngsters might be enlightened to know that the Washington Elm was the first tree under which Washington first teok command of the American Army, July 3, 1775.) » = »

Seedlings Transplanted

Well, a week or Two later on returning home, Mr. Lewin planted the seeds inh his Maryland garden. Two or three years later, 13 of the tiny seedlings were transplanted to Mount Vernen. Another seedling was given to his brother. Only two of the Mount Vernon trees are still living. The brother's “tree attained a great height, but several vears ago it lost its top. For some reason, though, its roots staved alive and sent up a thicket of little shoots around the stump. In 1926 these little shoots ‘were taken up by one of the

Washington

WASHINGTON, Dec. 7.—Republicans composing the party's National Executive Committee ineet here this week considerably upset by President Roosevelt's attempt to delay the national nominating conventions. They wanted to hold their convention after the Democratic convention instead x ® gana Of before as has been the cus3 tom. But they think Mr. Roosevelt is proposing too much of a good thing. For many months, Republican National Chairman*John Hamilton has had in mind "holding his convention last. True, the Democrats, no matter who their candidate is, must run on ‘the record of the Roosevelt Administration. So far as that aspect is concerned, Republicans could meet either before or after the Democrats, without having their own platform affected. But another consideration enters. It is not alone the much-discussed uncertainty regarding a third term. If the Republicans meet first, they lose an opportunity to cultivate dissident Democrats. If the Democrats meet first, any candidate who is nominated will be viewed with-coolness by some important groups of Democrats. These hesitant Democrats may be disposed to wait and see who the Republican candidate is before deciding whether to stay with the Democratic ticket,

» » u Hope to Divide Democrats In such a situation Republicans would have opportunity to cultivate such rebellious Democrats and play upon the divisions within the Democratic ranks. But if the Republican candidate already were selected, such opportunity would be lost An important part of Republican strategy next

My Day

WASHINGTON, Wednesday --Two young people who had come up from Virginia with Dr. Latham Hatcher of the Alliance for the Guidance of Rural Youth, to broadcast with me in the evening, talked over what we would say at luncheon yesterday. The Alliance is attempting to bring the problems of rural youth and some suggested solutions before as many people as possible, There seemed so much to say and so little time in which to say it, that I was rather aghast at what we would be able to do in the short time allotted to us. This is a big problem. It embraces, first of all, what can be done to make rural life more worth while, so that more young people will want to remain on the soil and find it possible to tio so. Secondly, we have to face the fact that many > them must leave and, therefore, schools and communities should prepare them, not only for life at home, but give them every opportunity to be prepared for living in the city when they go there. One point they made struck me as entirely new, md that ‘was the fact that employment offices can »nly be found in cities. When I thought of my own rounty seat, Poughkeepsie, N. Y., I realized that the pmployment offices there are not very well equipped to jelp voung people to place themselves in the most jdvantageous type of employment, The young people and I happened to reach the

1888, William M. Lewin,*

By Ernie Pyle

a little land, can have a comfortable home and make a living without taking relief or asking help from anybody. Con Whitehill is a practical philosopher. He is occupied, contented, and satisfied that he is doing good. Nature is his church. On a knoll close to his house sits the brightly silvered skeleton body of an old Ford sedan. That old auto seat is Con Whitehill’s pew in the church of nature, He sits there at night, watching the stars and moon, watching the clouds and seeing the storms take shape and move across the skies. He thinks a lot out there. He likes things to be alive and pretty. A few yards from the Ford body is a big-bladed windmill. Every blade is painted a different color, and it makes a gay and vivid blur. Tt doesn’t pump any water, it just whirls around, to please Mr. Whitehill. Con has § cave for his 10 cows. Caves for his| chickens. A cave for a machine shop. A cave for their Model A Ford. A cave for & greenhouse, packed with luxuriant blossoming plants.

No Need of Relief

And he has an immense three-room cave which he wants to devote to the arts and crafts. He wants to make it a workroom for the people of Silver City | who have no place to paint and carve and model. | He feels that in a few years houses can be lighted | just by the electricity in one rock lying out there on| the ground. He is right now fixing up a solar water-| heater for himself, Mr. and Mrs. Whitehill have two children, both married, in California. Each drives home fréquently.

The Whitehills’ income is from their cows and

chickens. They are in no heed whatever of relief, and Mr. Whitehill wouldn't take it if he were. He says they could live like kings on $10 a month. And before long they are likely to have that much, and more. For their land is the only spot near Silver City level enough for an airport, Con will probably lease it to the city at a very small figure, but even a small figure will more than supply his wants. He doesn’t want the city to give him much money; all he wants is for people to appreciate him.

By Anton Scherrer | sons, after his father’s death, and sent to Baltimore to | his cousin, Mrs. James H, Dorsey. That was the start of Mrs. Dorsey's famous| Washington Elm nursery. The first tree from this group—a grandchild, mind you—was presented by | Mrs. Dorsey, that same year, to Memorial Continental Hall (Washington D. A. R. Headquarters). It was| planted on the south side of the building when| only 24 inches tall, You ought to see it todav—| a great big tree with a branch spread of 50 tect] and a height of over 55 feet, all in the course of 12

years. At a time, too, when nothing except, maybe,

the national debt grew in Washington, | Last year while making one of her periodical] visits to Headquarters, Mrs. Dorsey's wide awake eyes spied a flock of little root-shoots coming up in the grass under her pet grandchild. Immediately she | was down on hands and knees cheering them on. | They responded beautifully, and this past spring with the enthusiastic approval of the National Board, she supervised the removal of the little shoots fo her Baltimore garden, where she is continuing her work of developing sturdy, healthy descendants of the Washington Elm—great-grandchildren this time. | » n 5

How Tt Happened

Just about two months ago on the occasion of the D. A. R's Golden Jubilee, Mrs. Dorsey turned up in Indianapolis. And right then and there, without any | newspaper getting wind of it, Mrs. Dorsey was struck | with the thought that Mr. Harrison's yard ought to be the first to receive a great-grandchild of the Washington Elm. For the reason that Mrs, Harrison | was the first President General of the National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution. There is another good reason, though, why the By Thomas M. Johnson great-grandchild of the Washington Elm should adorn Mr. Harrison's yard. Mr. Batty said it came to him all of a sudden when he was planting the tree last Thursday. In that solemn and sentimental moment it occurred to Mr. Batty that Benjamin Harrison's great-grandfather—the Virginia farmer who signed the Declaration of Independence—was a bosom friend land. of George Washington,

1. The now Takes. Territory such as this is

recently constructed bombproof she

Soviet soldiers.

Her Natural

Times Special Writer

Times-Acme Photos.

ice-locked Take Saimaa, one of the many Finnish

hampering the Russians in their

attempt to penetrate into the interior of the little republic. 2. An air raids precautions worker and two children in one of the

Iters in Helsinki.

3. Finnish troops ih maneuvers before the war ferrying across a hody of water demonstrate the difficulty encountered by invading

4. A troop of Finnish bicvele soldiers in Helsinki,

Defenses

Slow Russian Armies

ANOTHER international David and Goliath tale unfolds as the fearsome shadows of Russia's millions of men and thousands of airplanes and tanks fall across little Fin-

The secret of the Finns’ defiance of Soviet might may

Mie in this story of the meeting at which Stalin outlined his

terms, then grinned: “How many soldiers can you send

against us?” “One hundred thousand,” replied stolid Finn Paasikivi. “Why, we can send two hundred thousand the first day.” “Then we will give each of our soldiers twé cartridges” grunted the Finh. “And already God has given us 60,000 lakes.”

By Raymond Clapper

vear will be to divide the Democrats. To make the most. of that plan of campaign, Republicans must hold back until the Democrats have named their own candidate. There are limits to the delay that either party can | accept without serious damage to campaign organization. Mr, Roosevelt suggests waiting until September to nominate the candidates. Practical politicians point out that while the speaking campaighs never begin until September, the months of July and August are devoted to the most important organization work of the campaign. All of this intense activity, of which the public sees | little, is most important in preparing the way for the | candidate's speaking later, and this work must be done before the active campaign opens. |

AVERAGE DELEGATE SPENDS $40 WERE. | Ee Lge | | The average convention delegate | | spends $4003 during his visit here, | a survey by the Indianapolis Convention and Publicity Bureau reveals, » 3 The Bureau selected three typical conventions—one national, one regional and one state—with a total registration of 1274. The names of 462 delegates were selected at random and they were mailed questionnaires. Replies received from 142 gave the $40.93 average expenditure for an average stay of 2.6 days. The average expenditures, according to the poll, were: Hotel, room and incidentas, $13.78; $11.10; retail store purchases, $9.56: local transportation, $1.84; gasoline, oil antl garage, $1.53; theaters and amusements, 5¢ cents, and miscellaneous, $2.58. This was the first similar survey made by the Bureau since 1032.

» Ld

1936 Debt a Worry

Republican leaders also are frying to find $700,000 with which to wipe out the ‘debts of the 1936 campaign. ‘Chairman Hamilton has paid off $500,000 of the 196 debt and has managed to pay current expenses of party headquarters, which are the most elaborate ever maintained between elections. But the Republicans, who expect to make much o. the hudgetbalancing issue, rightly feel that they cannot denounce the Roosevelt Administration for going into debt when they themselves still owe a four-year-old party debt of $700.000. Furthermore, this ‘money is owed mostly to radio broadcasters, printers and the like, who are not going to be in any frame of mind to extend new credit when large debts are left unpaid from 1936. Meantime work is being done on advance campaign plans for next year. So far as headquarters organization work is concerned, the next Republican candidate will bekin his fight with a more complete assortment of tools than is usually the case. Most candidates walk into complete chaos.

SHRINE CEREMONIAL IS SET TOMORROW

By Eleanor Roosevelt

broadcasting station simultaneously in the evening] Shri A \ and did same rehearsing before we went on the ir hi og oy the I am led to believe that we must have made & goot Shrine ceremonial at the Murat! impression, for as 1 was leaving the studio, a message Temple tomorrow night, Nearly 75 | Was handed to me from a gentleman in Virginia, say- members will cross the Hot Sands. | ing that he would like to give one of the young people) Chapters from Hammond, Terre a job. I turned this offer over to Dr. Hatcher, be- Haute, Ft. Wayne and Evansville cause, of course, it would have to be investigated. I have been given an invitation to at-| am not sure that these young people who were talk-/ tend by Lloyd D. Clayvcombe po-! ing last night are through with their education and tentate. : ; | in a position to take a job. Tt was a gratifying inci- | Past potentates, serving as a redent and 1 hope that some boy or girl may get a job ception committee, are G. A. Richey. out of it. chairman; John E. Milnor, Arthur Both of the youngsters on the air with ‘te were R. Robinson, Frank G. Laird, Bdvery attractive and seemed quick and intelligent, for Ward B. Raub, H. M. Tebay, Elmer it is ‘hot easy to get so many ideas across in & short, Gay and Dr. C. E. Cox.

time. | ———— i Some very interesting people came in to tea vester- STATE AGAIN STOCKS WATERS WITH FISH

day afternoon. They had been youth hosteling through Europe and North Africa for nearly a year and a half,| Department of Consérvation employees this week completed trans-|

antl their stories of the adventures which come to | 4

those who walk and hitch-hike were most entertain-| ing. Besides, they had vivid impressions of the people | in many countries, the simple people as well as those! in power, so when they get around to writing about jerring fish produced in the State their trip, it will make good reading. hatcheries to Hoosier streams and

lakes, I had a short ride this morning. The weather is| h clearing beautifully, so that flying to New York City er or bier oe this afternoon should be pleasant. |ermen -has yet been completed. VirThe luncheon in honor of the ladies of the Supreme | gil M. Simmons, director, said, but Court took place today and is the first really formal | the total is expected to exceed that | function of the winter, | of 1938, \ 2 ¢

restaurants,

With their backs to those lakes, four million dour Northmen and women are fighting to defend their homes built by thrift—thrift in all save courage. Though Napoleon said that of all military obstacles the most serious were a desert, a mountain range and a river, he should have added “And Finland.” Neither Holland's rather dilatory flocds nor

‘Glad I'm

relatives of Mrs Mary Henninger gathered around | her yesterday afternoon to hear first-hand how, among other things, little grandnephew Marshall was. Mrs. Henninger lives with her daughter, Mrs. Marshall Hill, at 1921 Lexington Ave. and she had | just returned a few days ago from their native land. “Marshall,” she said, “Oh! he's | all right. After the war started, you know, I was talking to him and I said, ‘Marshall, have you seen any enemy airplanes yet,’ and he said | No.’ “Then I said that if there had been any airplanes, there wouldn't be anything in the papers about them. And do vou know what he said—he's 12, vou know—he said, ‘I'm going to tell the Fuehrer on you She paused and chuckled. The group laughed a little, and one said: : “See, you can't, even in your own family. say anything. Isn't that awful?” Mrs. Henninger, who has a hearty laugh and seems to like life a lot, said: “But the worst was the nights.

The German

no place at nights. And when you | windows.” Mrs. Henninger went to Germany | ih April after 50 years in this country. She said that she could | detect no animosity on the part of |

ple to either the English or the | French. For that matter, there was | no hatred of the Poles. “People mostly said, ‘We ‘didn't need this war.’ Before it started, | everyone said ‘Hitler doesn't want a war. He was in the last war. He | doesn't want a war.’ “Then the war started and they said, ‘Hitler wants a war.’ And] everyone was downhearted and the

was in the first draft. He was 43, had two children and had served | ih the last war. And he had his| own business. t00. But he wash't a member of the Nazi Party. They | were the first to be drafted.” | Mrs. Hill, her daughter, said: “For all these years us kids have

».

| been hearing what

SECOND SECTION

Switzerland's ubiquitous mountains

‘equal Finland's natural defenses.

» ”

INLAND bristles for an invader. Her lakes form nearly 15 per her ‘area, an interlacing network

that makes fighting around them like threading a mystic maze. They afford uncounted thousands of narrow causeways where a few grim Finns with machine guns could stop thousands, even were the shores not abattised with the dense forest that covers 70 per cent of the country. And nearly 20 per cent is tundra a white hell of snow-covered, marshy plains virtually impassable to armies save when frozen, in dead winter. The Master Strategist has been kind to Finland. The Russians first attacked at Suojarvi, north of Lake Ladoga. Russians claimed Finnish artillery first shelled them on Finland's southern border at the lake. There are railroads and highways there, and slightly fewer lakes; ‘but there, too, is what Finland optimistically terms her Maginot Line of fortifications which Russia demands she surrender. Russia has attacked

» trouble 60,000 cent of

with

a wonderful place Germany was. I guess it's all right and the people are all right, but it's the politics.” Her mother continued, telling that it was punishable by death if anyone was found reading and talking = about the pamphlets dropped in the early days of the

| war by the British bombers.

“Why, even in the railroad station there was a sign that said, ‘Be careful what enemy is listening.’ “And vou couldn't buy anything unless vou went to the Court House for a permit and then they'd search your wardrobe to see if you had your quote of what you wanted.” Mrs. Henninger told of having to get dollars from a son in Amerfea for passage back, although she had enough marks if she had been allowed to spend them. She told of how she booked passage on a

Holland-American liner and sailed. | spent | one full night anchored at sea be-| cause the captain the day before

She recalled also how they

had sighted four mines. She told of an uneventful passage except that a ship's officer in-

“My heart fell

She at her fright. Then she said:

“I'm glad to be back.

laughed heartily

IT guess 1

now.”

BELL PHONE ASKS STOCK SALE 0. K.

The Indiana Bell Telephone oo)

today filed a ‘petition asking the

Public Service Commission to affirm | KNIGHTSTOWN. nd. Dee ¥

‘women cried. Where 1 was staying, the sale of four million ‘dollars A jasting ‘memorial to Ohristmas in a little town of 1700, the man worth ‘of ‘common

stock to

American Telephone & Telegraph

The sale of the stock was completed under an order of the Com- | mission and the new petition seeks decorate *it for this holiday season “formal approval ‘of the completed Lights will be strung around the

transaction,

| termine the feasibility of joint

you say—the

in my shoes. T| 'had & light, you put blankets at the told him, ‘1 don't need a lifeboat. son, Jackson 8. ‘Cheshire, Walter L. 7—Has there ever been a no-hit, nos | 'T'd jump in the ocean right away.”

the a

from the Gulf of Finland. She may count on brushing aside Finland's two coast defense ships and five submarines, and presently sweeping up the mines and thus reach the fortifications. n GAINST land has (1) her courage, and perhaps 500,000 men (mostly militia and ill-equipped as to heavy artillery). First line airplanes may total 100 against Russia's 5000 to 10,000. Air planes cannot bomb lakes or, effectively, forests — but they have bombed strategic centers and attempted to hit railway and power stations. Quite possibly they will presently reduce Finnish resistance to guerilla warfare, but the lake: will still be fingers tripping the none too nimble feet of the Red Army's transport. To conquer Finland will cost many a rouble, and many a life. Soviet Russia's ohvious desires are for a frontier protecting Leningrad from future attack by some ally o conqueror of Finland, and for island and land bases which would restore to Red Russia the complete ‘domina-

» »

attack Finland

Back,” Woman NEW OITY PURCHASE Says After Trip to Reich UN IP SATURN

debid advertisement by City Departments purchasing the same commodities will meet with Mayor Reginald H. Sullivan at City Hall Saturday morning to work out details of the plan. The question on the possibility of putting the plan into operation next year has been left to (he discretion of city ‘departinent heads, according to the Mayor. Committee members are: Louis C, Brandt, president, and Leo F. Welch, vice president of the | Works Board; Dr. George W. Kohlstaedt, Health Board president, and Albert F. Waldman, City Hospital business manager; Leroy J, Keach Safety Board president; Albert H Gisler, Park Board vice president and A. C. Sallee, City Parks super- | intendent. |

A City Hall committee to

19 MORE ENLIST IN U. S$. ARMY HERE

Nineteen more local men have en- | listed in the U. 8. Army, Sergt. Lawrence W. Sherfese, local substation

| structed her in how to get into a ‘commander, announced today. They | After the war started, we could go | lifeboat.

are: Arthur T. Bailey, Thomas R. Wil- |

CHRISTMAS TREE TO BE PERMANENT

{ Times NXpecial

huge ‘evergreen tree—will be planted on the public square here | this week. ’ Flooded with requests by numerous ‘civic ‘organizations, the Town [Board voted to plant the tree and

tree next week.

» kL}

tion of the Gulf of Finland that Czarist Russia enjoyed. What lights the shadows is that Russia also wants Petsamo, Fins land's port on the Arctic Sea. Pete samo is outlet for Finland's nickel, of which Russia has none, and has a big, ice-free harbor, whence Mu= mansk could be seized and Russia invaded as British and American troops did in 1918.

un o

RR San if she is bent on an effort to dominate the S-andis navian peninsula, must consider the possibility of war with Britain whom most of the time since 1918, she has rated her deadliest enemy If Russia were to obtain a foots hold on the Norwegian coast, that would mean a quick outlet for Rus« sian naval power dincluding nearly 200 submarines) intéo the Atlantic, Could Norway stand for that? Could Sweden? ‘Could Britain? Even, perhaps, could Germany-—uns less she were very dure of Russia, who would then hold at her mercy Germany's supply of Swedish iron? The questions help to explain Fins land's stand. The Finns may nes gotiate again which quite possibly is all Russia really wants

Gosh! How Time Flies

Times Specinl EDINBURGH, Ind, Dec. 7--8ix months ago, RHscoe Barrett, of Edinburg, was in an automos bile wreck in Shelby County. Ha discovered his watch was missing and notified the Sheriff and all Jewelry stores in the vicinity of the loss Recently, the watch turned up in a Shelbyville jewelry stors where it had been taken by a man for repair. The possessor claimed he found it in front of his home in Shelbyville several weeks ago. The watch was returned to Mr, Barrett

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

| | 11% adopted alien children taka

the citizenship of an American citizen father? 2—Name the largest fresh water lake in the world, excluding the Great Lakes of North America, 3—What is a pulmotor? 4 Which religion was founded by Mary Baker Raddy? 5—~Name the city in California with the largest population, un game pitched in World Series baseball?

» » » Answers

2=Victoria Nyanza (Africa), 3==A ‘mechanism for restoring suse pended respiration, 4— Christian Science, 5—1.0s Angeles, 6—Thirty-tweo, 1—No, ® 2 5

ASK THE TIMES

Ynclose a B=cent stamp for reply when addressing any question of fact ‘or information to The Indianapolis Times Washington Service Burean, 1018 13th 8b, N. W., Washing ton, D. ©. Legh! ahd ‘medical advice cannot be given aor can HO research be ‘uhdere