Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 12 December 1939 — Page 13

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 12, 1939

Hoosier Vagabond

ALAMAGORDO, N. M., Dec. 12.—The White Sands of Almagordo shine with a dazzling light. You must wear dark glasses or the tears will come to your squinty eyes and there will be nothing in your vision but glare. There is nothing like the White Sands anywhere in the world, They are an albino Sahara. They are miles of drifted sugar. They are an ocean of utter white, They astound you and give you the creeps. Out on the sands there is no sound, no perspective, no single thing to break the vast whiteness. The dunes rise and fall in graceful mounds, some as high as ten-story buildings. There are shadows that make a camera jump. There are dreams and mirages and food for the sober. And for the little people—the Sands look so good that children eat them. These White Sands cover a strip about 30 miles long and 15 miles wide. What they are, really, is crystallized gypsum. They were made into a National Monument in 1933. Next to nature, I suppose Tom Charles is most responsible for the Sands. He has lived with them for 30 years. He loves them in the way one human loves another. His devotion is really what brought them in‘o governmental status and public acclaim.

Mr. Charles has been the Government's custodian from the beginning, but a couple of months ago he faced retirement for age. He couldn't bear to leave the sands, so he asked and was given the first and only concession within the Sands.

= »

Riding On the Clouds

He and Mrs. Charles drive the 20 miles from Alamagordo every day, way out into the heart of the Sands. He has a sedan with big air-wheels. He takes tourists a four-miie, 15-minute drive, for 25 cents apiece. He goes right up over the tops of dunes, runs along the ridges, swoops down the slopes. It is like roller coasting over clouds.

I went for a mild ride with Mr. Charles. And then Custodian Johnwill Faris wanted me to take a ride

Our Town

THE SECTION FROM the feeder-dam in the river at Broad Ripple, some seven or eight miles north of the city, is all that was ever completed of the Central Canal As originally conceived, the Central Canal was to start at a convenient point of the Wabash and Erie Canal, work its way south to Muncie, thence down the valley bf White River to the forks and thence by the most practicable route to Evansville. Thus hitching up the Ohio. On paper it represented one branch of the “Internal Improvement System” of 1838 a mighty slick scheme which promised to gc far in promoting transportation facilities in a country made up mostly of dense forests and a few scattered settlements. Considerable excavation was done at various points. In places it was almost completed for 20 or 25 miles south of Indianapolis and nearly as far north, but for the most part it was abandoned to be overgrown with weeds and underbrush. Every once in a while, even to this day, Brandt Steele returns from one of his romantic hikes with the news that somewhere around Martinsville he ran across more ruins of the old Canal. As late as 1870, the completed section from Broad Ripple passed clear through the city, mainly along the line of Missouri St. to Merrill St. Below the line of Merrill St, the Canal passed through private property and, finally, emptied into Pleasant Run near the river. Water never passed farther south.

. s »

The Old Broad Ripple Line

The water was let into the Canal at the feederdam in the spring or summer of 1839 and almost immediately the State leased water power to several mills. Most of them were around the Market St. lock where the raceway spilled into the river. Almost immediately, too, an enterprising chap by the name of Robert Earl started a line of canal boats running on scheduled time between Indianapolis and Broad Ripple. He even went further and advertised

Washington

WASHINGTON, Dec. 12.—-Our national political headliners have just been through the deflation which takes place at the semi-annual dinner of the Gridiron Club. As Washington correspondents, we observe

their tricks and stratagems at close range and twice a year we set out to expose them, trying not to be too serious about it The politicians submit to it with good grace, or try to give the appearance of doing so. It does them good. Men in public life tend to swell up with importance and to grow stuffy. No doubt many businessmen think that if they went into politics, everything would be different—logical and efficient and straightforvard—and that the Gridiron Club would be deprived Businessmen regarffl politics and poliWhat politics needs,

of material ticiang as notoriously inefficient. they think, is more businessmen. Yet, though that suggestion is so frequently made, it may not be without significance that businessmen are comparatively rare in politics. Of the numerous Presidential candidates in the field now—those regarded as having any chance at all—none stands primarily ag a businessman. Most of them are lawyers, but primarily they are all politicians. Indeed, the chief complaint against one of them, Thomas B. Dewey, is that he has not had enough experience as a politician, § &

Mr. Farley Explains

When you see the fumbling, the backing and filling, the straddling, the stalling that goes on in polities, it is natural to sigh for a good two-fisted outspoken executive who can get things done.

My Day

WASHINGTON, Monday —VYesterday afternoon t went over to see and hear part of the program given by the Gridiron Club members at their dinner Saturday night. They repeated some of the songs for the penefit of the ladies, who are excluded from the dinner. What talent and wit there is among these gentiemen! They not only write clever songs, but they sing and act extraordinarily well. I enjoyed it very much and shall find it difficult to forget how much one can say in using the one word “Quack.” Last night the movie, “Drums Along the Mohawk” was shown here. Though I was not able to see the whole of the picture, 1 viewed some of the most beautiful scenes in color that I hdve ever seen. Among our guests were Mr. and Mrs. Ernan Forbes-Denis, who are English friends of my mother-in-law, and whom we have known for a number of years. She is the novelist, Phyllis Bottome, and on her way to Hollywood, I believe, to supervise a picture taken from one of her

A br corn hs mang, ME. Brn

By Ernie Pyle

with him. He admitted later he kind of gave me thé® works. Mr. Faris, it seems, read last spring about our trip down the rapids of the San Juan River. So he said to himself, “If Ernie comes here we're going to give him a real ride.” And boy did he! He ran straight up the side of dunes, and wham down the other side. You can't see the other side till you're over the ridge, and it's too late. Sometimes the other side is almost straight up and down. It was the roughest ride I'd ever had. Mr, Faris got a big kick out of it. So did I. Sometimes my breath would go clear away. Oh, it was wonderful. The White Sands are phenomenal in a dozen ways. They are a desert, yet not a desert. For anywhere you can dig down a few inches with your hands and find water. ; There are no snakes in the Sands, thank goodness. There are some skunks, however, and ants and other harmless insects. And there are mice which have gradually turned white over the centuries, through the mysterious process of nature called protective coloring. ” . .

Entire Area On Move

No janitor is needed for White Sands. Each morning the dunes are white and rippling and clean. All refuse is covered up. The wind does it. Few people take long hiking trips across the Sands, for the walking is too hard. Tourists may drive their own cars over the dunes, but a lot of them get stuck. Mr. Charles doesn’t charge anything to dig them out, but he should. Only a little sand, right on top, dries out and blows. Consequently the dunes shift very slowly, The whole area is moving toward Alamagotrdo—20 miles away—at the rate of eight inches a year. Alamagordo won't have to blow its evacuation siren very soon. Always the sands are cold. Just under the surface it 1s 568 degrees. In summer people come out by the hundreds, with blankets, and sleep away the sweltering nights. I think the day will come when the Government will allow a nice little white hotel to be built in one of the thousands of dune-surrounded cups. Nature is all right, I always say, but there's nothing like an easy chair and a soft bed.

\

By Anton Scherrer

his business in the July, 1839, newspapers. “The Boat,” said Mr. Earl, “leaves Indianapolis at 10 o'clock in the morning and returns at 6 o'clock inh the evening. Good order will at all times be maintained on the boat, and every attention paid to render those comfortable who may take passage. Fare $1.” Everybody at the time thought that Mr. Earls venture was the beginning of a hig boat line plying between Noblesville on the north and Martinsville on the south, It never materialized, however. There were a lot of things against it. The locomotive, for one. For another, the construction of the canal itself and, finally, its worst enemy—the muskrats, As for the canal itself, it didn't hold up the way it should because large portions of it were built up instead of dug out. With the result that every time a flood occurred the retaining wails had to be rebuilt. Of course, I'm talking about the state of affairs inh the beginning. Today things are in much better shape—good enough, anyway, not to scare the daylights out of us when we wake up at night and hear it raining. ® ® »

Those Pesky Muskrats

You can’t say as much for the muskrats, however. They're still at work. In the beginning they had the canal people worried more than the floods. And no wonder when you consider that an energetic muskrat with his burrowing skill can put a canal on the blink quicker than anything else. As a matter of fact, the pests were so energetic in the beginning that the Canal Company paid a bounty on muskrat scalps just to be on the safe side. When the Water Works people acquired the canal, they kept up the practice and paid a bounty of 5 cents for tail tips—out of their own pocket, mind you. And not only that, but they distributed traps free of charge to farmers living along the canal Which brings me to the point of today's piece, namely that the present water company still has two men out every day of the year watching for musk. rats. They spend all their time in the canal zone which, in the course of years, has been reduced to a mere nine miles. The water people stopped paying for tail tips some time ago, however. A good reporter, I guess, would have said that in the first place.

By Raymond Clapper

But there is no such simple formula for success in public life. The man who can step from a business career into the strange game of politics and succeed is rare and must have a special combination of qualities, Postmaster General Farley is a typical politician. He has worked at the trade all of his life, has been highly successful, and his standards—as the political game is played—are high. Speaking at the Wharton School of Finance the other day, he discussed some of the peculiarities of politics which have to be taken into account by any businessman who wishes to enter public life. First, he said, the businessman who goes into politics must be prepared to stand abuse year in and year out. And for the most pert it is abuse that he can do nothing about. He must see himself misrépresented, his words twisted out of their intended meaning, his actions credited to motives of which he was utterly innocent. 2

Compromise Is Necessary

He who goes into politics must abandon the pushbutton technique. He must consult and confer, listen patiently to tiresome advisers, and harmonize conflicting points of view, He must compromise on almost everything. At the same time, having all of this rubber in his makeup, he must be a man of character, his word must be 100 per cent good. He must ooze courtesy and generosity. He must fight hard but with moderation and self-control, must be wary of descending into person alties, or over-pressing an advantage. In short he must be practically a genius in his small way—with a touch of the saint, and of Machiavelli, He must be sensitive in understanding and estimating currents of publie opinion, always remembering that politics is not the cold science of the ideal but the delicate art of achieving the possible Is it any wonder that there are so few good politiclans, either among professionals or businessmen?

By Eleanor Roosevelt

Lindley and Mrs. Edward Costigan gave an account of the National Youth Administration Conference on Girls’ Projects which wae held in Denver. I think everyone was interested in this and I know it is very valuable to have the work for girls evaluated in an effort to find a greater variety of occupations and work experience for them.

Later I went to the opening concert of Mrs. Lawrence Townsend's regular winter series and enjoyed it

more than I could say. Madame Lina Pagliughi has a most beautiful voice and though her time in this country is short, I am sure that those who hear her will enjoy her,

Mrs. John Amadia, the flutist, and Mr. Egon Petri, the pianist, gave delightful programs. It was evident from the size of the audience and their applause that they appreciated every number, I think we have developed a little in the last 25 years, for I can remember during the World War hearing people say that they never again wanted to hear music by composers who happened to be of this or that nationality. I am thankful to say that so.far nothing as stupid as that seems to be felt. The one thing which is above war is art. We can still enjoy music aha pic and Unters and no matter what he natie on sa] fo BK ¥

T all started back in the blustery fall days of 1930. On the banks of White River two little communities had sprung up. Later they were to be called ‘“Hooverville” and “Curtisville.” Little shacks had been thrown together out of odd pieces of wood and tin and rags. Reporters went out to look at depression first-hand. They came back with their stories. And in these stories one strain kept recurring. The reporters said it verbally “It's not those shacks that get me. It's those kids. No shoes, no pants, no dresses, no coats. It's awful.” Out of that thought was born The Indianapolis Times’ Clothe-A-Child Campaign. That December in 1930 saw 380 children clothed. It was inevitable that such an enterprise would grow. Last December The Times clothed 1821 children. » » N THRE early years, all the Clothe-A<Child work was done right in The Times editorial room. Mothers and children would come into the office to tell their stories. Donors would meet the children they wanted to clothe right there It came to be part of the Christ mas rush. Reporters wrote their stories between stray words from tired-eyed little boys and girls, slipping them nickels and patting their heads. Everybody wae broke long before the week ended. But it wasn’t from squandering. Every. body was contributing nickels and dimes and quarters toward the unfortunate families sitting in the office. It wasn’t any theoretical ideal. It was real. Hunger and cold and need sat there. You couldn't blink at that. But a few Decembers ago eve erybody woke up to the fact that it the newspaper was to get out, offices had to be found for Clothe-A-Child. Offices were found in the building next door. It takes eight persons to operate it. It's one of the biggest Christmas aid projects in the world. And Ine dianapolis built it,

» ” »

HE basic idea of Clothe-A-Child was to clothe needy children.

better

GROUP FORMED BY ASSESSORS

James Cunningham Heads New Association of Township Aids.

James F. Cunningham, Center Township Assessor, today headed the new Indiana Township Asses sors’ Association which was formed at a meeting yesterday in the Claypool Hotel. Membership in the association is open only to the state's 89 elected township assessors. In the remaining townships, the Trustee serves also as assessor. The organization is to become affillated with the Indiana County and Township Officials’ Association. Mr. Cunningham said it will seek more equitable assessment laws to replace the “antiquated” statutes now in existence. Besides Mr. Cunningham, officers named were: First vice president, Leon Granger, North ‘Township, Lake County; second vice president, Mrs. Clara L. Reeves, Greencastle Township, Putnam; treasurer, Paul BE. Teegarden, Washington Towne ship, Marion County, and secretary, Andrew .Dunn, Pigeon Township, Vanderburg. Elected directors were James L. Kingsbury, Warren Township, Marion County{ Alonzo H. Heath, Union Township, Montgomery; Bdward Huber, Troy Township, Perry; J. Bverett O'Connor, Stockton Township, Greene; Mrs. R. CG. Mitchell, Huntington Township, Huntington; W. 8. Freeman, White River Township, Randolph; W. A. Blake, Michigan Township, La Porte; Milo J. Sprang, Wayne Township, Allen; Earl A. Kinley, Wayne Township, Wayne; Mrs. Mary Stout Dugan, Wayne Towne ship, Marion County, and Carl Smock, Perry Township, Marion County. / Albert M. Thayer, Indianapolis attorney, was named corresponding secretary and field representative,

BOYS SNATCH PURSE Nell Bettis, 863 Middle Drive, Woodruff Place, told police that two boys snatched her purse near her

home last night and ran. Whe purse

That idea has never

been changed. There have been minor changes in technique from year to year. These had to come. What worked in clothing a few hundred children couldn't work in clothing nearly two thousand. Clothe-A<Child is actually fool« proof. That's the beauty of it, perhaps. All that is necessary is that the need be established. A family's religion, or creed, or race has nothing to do with need. Once the need is established, the family is listed by Clothe<A«Child. Not every needy child can be clothed, of course. There just isn't that much money. When the money runs out, those children at the tail end of the list are une clothed. The hope is, naturally, that every case of real need can be handled. Contributors have their choice. They can come to the office and meet a child and take it out to the stores. They bring the child back later. If they're too busy, the Clothe-A-«Child shoppers do the job.

For several years a Judge has called up and asked for a little girl to clothe, Every year it's the same story. The car drives up in front of the office. The judge's

secretary comes out and gets the child, They drive to the store, clothe the child, take her to lunch, and then bring her back thrilled and cheered. Next day they're back, this time for a little boy. Next day the same thing. One day, one of the girls in the office started to say something. The judge's secretary misunderstood. “Oh, no,” she cried, “do get us another. Don't spoil it. We're having the grandest time of our lives." ® » HEN there's the group of fac tory employees who save all year ‘round. At Christmas time, they call up and ask for more than 100 children.

One of the big stores opens up after hours. The more than 100 employees line up outside the store. Special busses pull up, carrying the children, As each child steps off, one of the employees steps forward to take the youngster in charge. They spend as much as $14 or $156 on a child, There are other factory groups, too, which follow similar systems. They take as many children as

Victor Moore Has Jokes And an Orchid for City

By LEO DAUGHERTY Vietor Moore, who, in collusion with Sophie Tucker, is making Ine dianapolis laugh, cracked the hardboiled eggs for his breakfast today, and then made another crack about Indianapolis being one of the best show towns along the stem. Mr. Moore, who currently is an ambassador to Russia in “Leave It to Me” at English’s, and who positively refuses to divulge his age, said he began entertaining Hoosiers about 30 years ago. Then his act was called “Change Your Act or Back to the Woods.” That was in George M. Cohan's “Forty-five Minutes From Broadway.” It was so successful that he came back about three years later in his first starring vehicle, “The Talk of New York,” another Cohan gem. In both “45” and “Talk” he played the part of “Kid Burns.” During the 30-year interim, Mr. Moore has been here countless times in vaudeville. Mr. Moore affixed his spectacles, smiled at a tempting half grapefruit, eriep toast and those eggs and then welcomed his valet, Maurice Elliott. “He's been with me for 30 years,” Mr. Moore said. “First thing I know he's going to ask for a steady job.” That's the kind of a crack the folks pay $3.30 to hear Mr, Moore

pull,

6 CELERY ‘GROWERS SUE CITY OF GOSHEN

Times Kpecial GOSHEN, Ind, Dec. 12 —8ix East Goshen celery growers have asked $136,000 in damages from the City of Goshen for alleged damages to their land by construction of the Rock Run Creek dam. The growers contend that the construction of the dam has raised the water table under their land adjoining the creek, causing a decrease in production,

INJURED BY TRACTOR Injured yesterday by a tractor at his home near Ninevah, Ind., Hilan Smith, 37, today was reported to be in a serious condition at Long Hos

Mr. Moore was worried at his breakfast, William Gaxton and Miss Tucker, his co-stars are supposed to appear on an afternoon radio broads cast with him, The latter two were detained. “I've got to be three people, myself and them,” Mr. Moore moaned. Mr. Moore is still riding the trains and making his berth in a hotel room because he wants to keep the legitimate theater alive, “When the movie is made,’ he said, “there is nothing you can do about it. Nothing to correct something or make it a little better, On the stage, you can see how the people react. In my time I've looked out there and seen a few sour faces, but they were in the minority, Audiences everywhere are pretty much the same, good. “Road shows are the only way to keep the theater alive.” Mr, Moore, who played “Of Thee I 8ing” for 81 consecutive weeks, and the other stars of this company insisted that there not be a No. 2 company. Probably the meekest man in the theater, in “Leave It to Me,” he is an unaffected elderly man from Topeka, Kas. Off stage he's unaffected. But he's always affected by the applause because he thinks it shows appreciation and is a reward for a man doing his chosen job well— making someone else laugh.

CLAIMS FEW H. S. GRADS CRIMINALS

A high school diploma means practical immunity from prison, Rodney Howe Brandon, Illinois Commissioner of Public Welfare, declared here yesterday. He addressed members of the Indiana University Club of Indianap-

olis at a luncheon at the Columbia Club. Mr. Brandon asserted that children should be forced to remain in School Saul they ave 18. u this} Nels one, he said, the cost of crime

pital here. He is suffering chest in-|the U. 8,

LRA Fe

oh TTA } * 75 | “ 180 oy

a

EY BET IT

==

Times Photos.

1. WFBM Studio scene during the recent Lum 'n’ Abner broadcast,

2. Mrs. Donald T. Campbell at work in Clothe-A-Child headquar-

ters. Mrs. Campbell, well-known

in social service work for many

years, now directs the Clothe-A-Child office.

8. The famous Mile-of-Dimes

record,

they can, Some take five, some nearly 100. There are sports teams and lodges and sororities and fraternities and clubs and all manner of groups which combine for the same purpose, They take anywhere from one child to 25. This perhaps is the closest index to the character of a city. A small basket of food costs only a little. But clothing a child costo from $8 to $14. The average is about $10. It's not small money. Clothe-A-Child last December represented an estimated outlay of more than $20,000. There's your city for you.

§ Mile<-Of<Dimes didn't come at the start, It came into being in 1032, It has become so popular that, like Clothe-A-Child, it's an Indianapolis institution in itself. The Mile-of-Dimes is for those who can't afford to clothe a child directly. The dimes lle on the sidewalk in front of L. 8, Ayres & Co. and the 8. 8. Kresge Co. right up to Christmas eve. Then they're picked up, washed and counted, But the money is spent long

ATTACK ‘EXTRA MARRIAGE COST

Methodist Pastors to Ask Ban on Certificate Sale by Clerks.

The 1041 Legislature will be asked by the Indianapolis Methodist Ministers’ Association to pass a law prohibiting the sale of marriage license certificates by county clerks. The measure would end the practice of many county clerks in askin young couples to pay $2 or $3 additional for a certificate after they already have pald the statutory $2 for the marriage license, ministers explained. The action was taken at a meeting yesterday after the Rev. E. Arnold Clegg, pastor of the Capitol Avenue Methodist Church and chairman of the public relations committee of the Church Federation of Indianapolis, reported on a recent visit of his committee to Charles Ettinger, Marion County Court Clerk. The Rev. Mr. Clegg sald that “there has been many complaints of deputy clerks persuading young couples to pay the extra money for the marriage certificates. We asked Mr. Ettinger to have his clerks point out that only the $2 was mandatory, and he promised co-operation.”

TURNS DOWN JOB, WIFE ASKS DIVORCE

Times Special SOUTH BEND, Ind, Dec. 12—A woman was granted a divorce here today after she testified that her husband had sold a $25 suit she purchased for him and refused an

$8 a week dishwashing job because he “wasn’t born to wash dishes.”

DROPS PAN, SCALDS FEET

Juanita Harmon, 14-year-old Washington High School girl, scalded her feet last night at her home, 801 Centennial St, when sh dropped a pan of hot ' she was CAITYL was trea

a

and (lower), the Clothe-A-Child

--

beforehand. Estimates are made daily, the money advanced by The Times and the children clothed, The dime laid down toe day will be spent tomorrow, Only once has the Mile-Of« Dimes been used for other than Clothe-A-Child. It was placed in operation in 1037 at the request of the American Red Cross for the aid of flood sufferers, » ” »

LOTHE-A-CHILD is still growing, It will continue to grow. Already this month more than 725 children have been clothed. Lum ’'n’ Abner, famed radio and stage stars, pitched in to help, Station WFBM gave more than two hours' time. Lum ’'n’ Abner worked like slaves at the micro« phones, And then—Lum calmly handed over $10 as his personal contribution. Abner followed suit. And the staff of WFBM took a child, too. All that little children should not suffer. That is the reason why the most famous and the most popular tele phone number in Indianapolis is Riley 5551.

Peace Reigns at Manual High

IS THIS A a “war of nerves”? The Manual High School Ger« man Club today invited the French Club to be its guests. The program: “Hansel Gretel”—in German. . It was not decided whether the

French Club will retaliate by ask« ing the German Club to attend a performance of “Les Miserables” in French.

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

1—Where is tho island of Luzon?

2—Can the President pardon a pere son convicted under a State law?

3—What is a hygrometer?

4—~What 1s the correct pronunciae tion of the word adamant?

5—Who was recently elected presi dent of the Professional Golfers’ Association?

6—Name the large university at Ithaca, N. Y.

T—How many gills are in a gallon? » » . Answers 1—It is one of the Philippine group, 2—No. 3—An instrument used to measure humidity. 4—Ad’-a-mant; not ad-a-mant’. 5—Thomas Walsh. 6—Cornell, T—Thirty-two.

In yesterday's question No. 4 the identification “India, '.' ¢” should have read “Ionian '» /'

ASK THE TIMES

and