Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 31 January 1940 — Page 9

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Hoosier Vagabond

_ BALBOA, Canal Zone, Jan. 31.—The nearly 4000 . White Americans who form the permanent staff of the Panama Canal are almost a race apart. It is "a hard thing to describe, and they themselves will _ describe it in a thousand .different ways, all frying to say the same thing. But to put it in a nutshell, you might say they are people who have had one of the fundamental - elements of living taken away from them (or rather, have given it away). And by that I mean the element of chance. Because the Government does everything for them; because it tells them where to live, what they can do and can't do; leads them by the hand, attends to them in work, play, sickness : and almost in love, there is no mystery for them to look forward to. One of their own, who sees them clearly, has -called them ¢“stall-fed.” They have traded off the spirit of living to insure th¥mselves security. They are voluntary convicts in a lovely penitentiary. Some friends and I were sitting one evening over a glass of beer. We were dressed in white suits, we were warm, we had money in our pockets. If we clapped our hands, a Negro boy would come running, Around us were palm trees, and beautiful scenery, and the teeming of peoples from all points of the world coming and going. :

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Same Old Routine

Yet these friends were melancholy. There was

in them a vague regret. They knew that 20 years from now they would still be sitting here in the evening after work, drinking beer possibly from the same glasses, talking the same talk.

They knew almost exactly what they would be making, and they could drive around and pick out almost the very house they would be living in after accumulating 25 years’ seniority. Their lives have been so arranged that the only possibility of anything different, anything startling, any change of any kind is a physical accident of some kind! : Now you might say that that’s what we're all striving for—security, and the sooner the better,

Our Town

THE STATE LIBRARY, the one run by Christo-

pher Coleman, has a copy of “The Tonsorial Art

Pamphlet” by M. J. Vieira, an Indianapolis barber back in the Seventies. Posthumous fame came to Mr. Vieira the other day. His name and achieve= ments were mentioned by Richardson Wright in his brand-new book “Grandfather Was Queer,” a monumental and highly articulate treatise which ‘has for its thesis the “Early American Wags and Eccentrics from Colonial Times to the Civil War.” It took Mr. Wright 358 pages to get them all in. Mr. Vieira turns up on Page 87. I wouldn’t for the world have you believe that I am critical of Mr. Wright's treatment of Mr. Vieira. Quite the contrary, I think it’s a humdinger. Just the same, the subject needs clarifying in one or two places and with that in mind—and nothing more, I repeat—I submit a few footnotes which, for all I know, may turn out to be just the thing to plug some of the holes left by: Mr. Wright. To begin with, Mr. Vieira’s first name was Manuel —certainly a good thing to know when it comes to handling a man biographically. Moreover, he was in Indianapolis a good deal earlier than anybody sus pects. The 1872 directory, for instance, lists him as an “agent.” Three years later, in 1875, he clerked for Frank J. Medina who sold hair goods, hoopskirts ‘and corsets at 12 W. Washington St.

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Partnership Short-Lived

The reason Mr. Vieira, a born and bred barber, didn’t practice his profession when he came to Indianapolis, was probably because the Negroes had the business sewed up.; William Russell, for example, had three of the best shops in the city at the time. And William Gulliver, another artist, was just about to retire. Probably because the Negro barbers were getting old or had enough to retire, the white barbers got a

Washington

AMARILLO, Tex. Jan. 31.—I have heard close friends of certain Republican Presidential candidates suggest that farmers are tired of so much Federal control and regimentation, and that it might be exceedingly popular politically to repeal practically the : entire program of Roosevelt farm aid. That might be popular with farmers in Ohio, Illinois and some of the more self-sustaining agricultural sections in the North Central states, although the protest from the Corn Belt when Senator Robert A. Taft proposed abolishing corn loans suggested that a wholesale repeal policy wouldn’t go even there. As for this plains country— including the Texas Panhandle, western Oklahoma, western Kansas, eastern Colorado and eastern New Mexico, such a program would be a sentence of economic death. Perhaps people should never have settled in such areas. But they are here and must be helped.

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The Lesson of the Dust Bowl

Farming in this Western country can’t stand up under the strictly independent operations of rugged individualism. Co-operative action, Government assistance of many kinds, is indispensable. Farmers have learned that. They do not complain about regimentation from Washington. They have learned that Washington is able to help them out of their desperate condition. With Washington’s aid the Dust Bowl is being contracfed steadily. Once it covered parts of five states. Now it is mostly confined to western Kansas, . )

My Day

WASHINGTON, Tuesday.—I had no space to tell you that on Sunday night we went to see a performance of “Life With Father,” which was donated by the management and the cast to the Birthday Ball Celebration Fund. I knew that the President would greatly enjoy this play. While he no longer rocks with laughter as some of the younger people do, he appreciated all the fine points. When the cast came to supper with us after the performance, he told them how much he had enjoyed it. The youngest member of the cast proved an ardent student of American history and demanded - that I explain how Dolly Madison had cut the portrait of George Washington out of its frame when the British burned the White House. Stage children always seem to me precocious and more interested in intellectual things than the average child. Some one asked me the other day if I would please give, in my column, the recipe for’ yams baked in oranges which we had for lunch. Since it is quite le and I think many people may enjoy it, I give it here below, though if you want to look it up for

yourself, it was contributed by Mrs. S. R. Ombres and

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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 31,1940

True it is. And true that most of these people are far better off than we are. But it’s a quality of perverse human nature fo want to go out and win your own security, and to reap satisfaction from the battle and pride from the w'uning. Nearly all of us in the States are held by need and circumstance just as firmly to the grindstone as are these people in the Canal Zone. Yet there is something different. We THINK we can quit our job and go romancing for another. And they KNOW they cannot, : : They have surrendered the important quality of egotism—the eternal conviction that you could do it better than the other guy. : They have given up personal ambition, natural instincts of competition, all the lovely mystery of life, for a security that gives them a life of calm and a vague discontent. 2 8 = Not Said in Criticism It is not right to criticize the system that causes this. As massive a thing as the administration of the Panama Canal has to be run this way. And on the other hand, it is wrong to criticize the people who have made these cogs of themselves. Personally, I would go frantic within six months if my life were planned and ordered like theirs, but I'm not saying they've done wrong. My only criticism is that they aren’t very proud of themselves. If I've talked to one I've talked to a dozen who have that inner feeling of contempt for themselves. I{ is a vague thing—such a man merely knows that his life is good with the material things, and he is secure and well-fed, and yet he isn’t content. He feels he has done something wrong to his soul. And -maybe, on second thought, he has. Maybe his uneasy displeasure with himself is the only hope left in human character. Maybe if all 130,000,000 of us could tomorrow turn ourselves over to this great security of the state, there wouldn’t be any American people left but merely: 130,000,000 cogs dependent on the State. And maybe, if we could only know, a startling maJority of our 130,000,000 have found life too tough and would run like the rats of Hamelin to the

luscious graveyard of Being Taken Care Of, if they

had the opportunity.

By Anton Scherrer

grip on the business. Anyway, in 1876, we find Mr. Vieira plying his trade with I. B. Henninger as a partner. It was probably the five-chair shop in the old Y. M. C. A. building where the Rink people are. Apparently the partnership was of short duration because in 1877 Mr. Vieira was listed as working in the Grand Hotel barber shop, a six-chair affair, under the management of Harry Ashcroft. Mr. Vieira covered the subject from soup to nuts which is to say from prehistoric times to the state of hair culture around here in the Seventies—not only historically I would have you know, but critically as well. Mr. Vieira knew every worthwhile barber shop in the country and the fact that he did sheds considerable light on how he spent his time before coming to Indianapolis. As early as 1865, for instance, he worked for Antonio M. Delight, the “Prince of Barbers,” who had a 12-chair shop at Lake and Clark Sts.,, Chicago. Tony’s charge for a shave was 6 cents, for a haircut 12 cents, for curling 25 cents, and the same price for a shampoo.

500 Mugs—500 Customers

After his stay in Chicago, Mr. Vieira profited by visits to Cincinnati, St. Louis, New York, Boston and Philadelphia. He had his eyes open all the time just like Marco Polo. The Lindel Hotel barber shop in St. Louis run by Prof. William Roberson, a scholarly and very polite Negro, impressed Mr. Vieira most. It had lace curtains at the windows and vases of flowers all around. Statues, too. - In the center of the room was a large and beautiful marble washbasin with a marble pyramid nine feet high on top of which stood a candelabrum with 14 lights. The top light was inside a red globe and it-im-. pressed Mr. Vieira like everything. The cup case in Prof. Roberson’s establishment, said Mr. Vieira, was undoubtedly the largest in the country. It held 500 shaving mugs every one of which was monogrammed with the initials of a regular customer. By the time Mr. Vieira got te St. Louis the price of a first class shave had jumped to 15 cents. That was the price in Indianapolis; too, when Mr. Vieira worked at the Grand Hotel and spent his sparetime writing his magnum opus. :

By Raymond Clapper

Once the farmer was a complete individualist. His farm was his. Nobody could tell him what to do with it. But Dust-Bowl farmers saw their farms being damaged by drifts of dust from the farms of neighbors who were neglecting proper preventive measures. The farmer who allowed his farm to blow over on his neighbor became a bad citizen. Texas enacted the “Wind Association Law,” which permitted county authorities to go on a man’s farm, declare it a hazard to the neighborhood, take the necessary preventive measures and assess the cost in taxes against the farm. Department of Agriculture soil-conservation officials, and farm security officials, have demonstration projects where farmers learn how to combat dust and wind. Government agents survey farms and stake off fields for contour plowing so that every drop of rain and every flake of snow can be saved for moisture,

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Government as Rain-Maker

Further west you have the Elephant Butte irrigation project where the Government provides cheap water. Farmers do not have to pray for rain. They call up on the telephone and get it. In that area farming has become practically a factory operation. Put in so many pounds of fertilizer and you know exactly how much you will grow. - Cotton frequently does better than two bales per acre, and averages 1.4 bales over the whole project. In most other sections a bale an acre is good. The Government has almost dried up the Rio Grande to do this and Uncle Sam is proving a more reliable rainmaker than Mother Nature. To take the Government out of agriculture in this whole Western area would be to turn thousands of families adrift, wreck whole communities, and doom the area to desert. Eastern politicians who think the solution of the farm problem is to ignore it will find, if they visit this area, that it can’t be ignored,

By Eleanor Roosevelt

can be found in her cookbook: “Katch’s Kitchen.” Cut the top off six navel oranges and with a spoon scrape out all the pulp. Wash six sweet potatoes and boil in salt water until soft. Drain and peel them. Mash them well with a potato masher, add three to five tablespoons of cream and two tablespoons of butter, a little grated orange peel (orange part only) salt to taste, a little orange juice and two tablespoons of sugar and beat until fluffy. Fill the oranges with this-and bake until lightly browned on top. Mr. and Mrs. David Gray reached us yesterday afternoon and their description of driving up from the sunny South sounds anything but pleasant. The roads were snowy and icy. They found themselves

marooned in a snowbank and, when they got out,

proceeded with great caution, counting at least 20 trucks overturned by the wayside and others marooned in snowbanks. I was glad to have them safely here, but feel a little sorry for the people who are searching for warmth in Florida at ‘the present time, for they tell me it was extremely chilly there. This is a quiet morning for me, but the house is all agog, for at noon today a galaxy of movie stars will come for luncheon gnd beforehand there must be photographs and movies taken, For the first time, the President is going to lunch with us, which is a cempliment to these young entertainers, for except on a Saturday or a Sunday, I have never before been able to lure him to luncheon, even on his birthday,

A

By Ernie Pyle

‘Meeting of the International Elec-

deliver a welcoming address to the

: a. m. with an address by G. A. Murray, folice sales enginser, Western State, regardless of their politics,

ndiana

"SECOND. SECTION.

——

SIGNAL EXPERTS CONVENE FRIDAY

Municipal Aids From Six States to Discuss Civic Problems.

Municipal electrical signal experts from six states will convene in In-

dianapolis Friday and Saturday for the annual- Midwestern Section

trical Signal Association. Mayor Reginald: H. Sullivan is to

visiting municipal employees and department - ‘heads. Police Chief Michael Morrissey and Fire Chief Fred C. Kennedy, also are to speak.

Dancers Here Help Swell Fund to Battle Paralysis

at the opening session on Friday.

Problems of police communications system and other municipal electrical signal work will be discussed at the two-day meeting, which is to be held at the Hotel Severin. Keach to Be Speaker

Arrangements for the meeting are being made by John J. McNellis, head of the Indianapolis Gamewell

signal system. Following the business meeting scheduled for 11 a. m. Friday, members of the Association will hear an address by Leroy J. Keach, president of the Indianapolis Board of] Safety.

tendent of the electrical department at South Bend, and Clem Smith, Indiana Fire Marshal. Mr. Smith is long to the I. M. S. A.” Fire Prevention Topie Saturday's session will open at 10 days.

Electric Co. Mr. Murray is to speak tems.”

to be delivered by J. W. Whittington, public relations committee, Interna-

States to be represented at -the meeting are Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa and Wis consin.

the sessions.

SEEKS VIEWS OF eso STATE FARMERS

Division, fire and police department Committee of G. 0. P. Legislators to Convene Here Feb, 9 and 10.

A Republican Committee of ConOthers who will speak at Friday's gressmen will move into Indiana session are W. F. Qualls, superin- next week to feel the political pulse of agriculture in the Middle West. Led by Rep. Clifford R. Hope of to speak on “What It Means to Be-|Kansas, the committee will convene at the Claypool Hotel at 10 a. m. Feb. 9 and continue sessions for two

Farmers from all parts of the

on “Police Communications Sys-|have been invited to present their views on the solutions to agricul~The closing convention speech is tyre problems in the Midwest. Two Indiana Republican Contional Association of Electrical In-|gressmen, Rep. George W. Gillie of spectors, His topic is to be “Prevent- | Ft. Wayne and Rep. Gerald Landis ing Fires Through Electrical Safety.” | ,¢ 1inton, will assist in conducting

Rep. Hope said the manner in which the hearings are conducted

MASTODON TOOTH SHOWN AT GOSHEN say anything,” he said. “There are

GOSHEN, Ind, Elkhart County Historical Society’s e of the hearings is to get comchist: sittaction is a mastedon plete information on all farm prob-

foot Tuna 10 the Couniy in 1009, drafting legislation. a relic of bygone aeons when pre- | STS to aid in g leg

historic monsters roamed the Mid- is being assembled for use in draft-

promotes a free and full expression

lof ideas from those in the audience. *Only. rarely do tiie Congressmen

no cross-examinations.”. Members of the committee, which has held similar sessions in several

Jan. 31.—The| \. .. tates, stated that the pur-

Politically, however, tHe information

west. The society’s museum here also displays a Bible printed in Germany in 1527 and a section of the flag of truce Gen. Robert E. Lee carried when he surrendered to Gen. Ulysses 8S. Grant at Appomattox.

MUSEUM OBTAINS

Allen County-Ft. Wayne Historical

the fort.

force. , Also on display in the society’s

about 50 years ago.

hawk,

Jout of court,

ing the party platform farm plank.

City Hall's No. 1 hot potalo, the

(OLD MANUSCRIPTS |, Clty Halls Xo. & bot pote. toe

FT. WAYNE, Ind, Jan. 31.—The City Legal Department today. li It was tossed there yesterday by Society has purchased manuscripts [the Safety Board after members adrelating to Zebulon Pike, who com- | mitted they weren't quite sure which manded old Ft. Wayne, and Maj.|of two State laws and one City J. Francis Hamtramck, who built ordinance, if any, they could en-

* While the Legal Department ponmuseum at the Swinney Homestead |ders the question, there will be no are several silver pieces taken from more enforcement of the tail-light Indian graves in Spy Run cemetery matter. Enforcement which began a

Among them‘ week ago today was abandoned is a double cross dated 1796, TH when Municipal Court Judge Charles

ear rings and a brass pipe toma-|Karabell threw the tail-light cases

Times Photos. 1. Hundreds of Indianapolis persons attended parties last night to celebrate the President’s birthday and raise money for the na-tion-wide fight against infantile paralysis. At the Marott Hotel, George Marott, Mrs. M. Clifford Townsend, and Governor Townsend (left to right) led the grand: march. Immediately back of them was A. B. Good, chairman of the Marion County arrangements. 2. Also at the Marott were Mrs. Floyd I. MacMurray, J. W. ‘Bosse, Mrs, J. W. Bosze, W. S. Akin and Mr. and Mrs. Albert Losche (left to right). 3. Butler University students took part in the festivities. Left to right, dancing, are Derothy Daniel, Robert Pitcher, and Ross Stevens and ' Eloise Wilson. The picture was taken at the Marott Hotel. ' 4. Watching the dancers for a moment were (left to right) Mrs. Eilene Wilson, Chicago, and Mrs. Esther Tripp. 5. At the Indianapolis Athletic Club, William F. Dudine, Indiana Appellate Court Judge, and Mrs. Dudine danced. 6. At the Murat Temple, William Hixon, Fred McNeely, Murat Temple potentate, and Robert Lay took part in the ceremonies.

MARRIAGE LICENSE SALE NEAR RECORD

A new record for the number of marriage licenses issued in January was expected to be set in the County Clerk’s office today.

The all-time January record of 319 |:

licenses set in 1938 was expected to be topped. A total of 311 licenses had been issued up to the close of Clerk’s office last night.

Legal Department Trying To Solve Tail-Light Riddle

Two statutes, one enacted in 1926 and another in 1939, require taillights on parked automobiles after dark. So does a City ordinance which follows the 1926 law. The Safety Board asked the Legal Department whether the 1936 statute supersedes the 1926 law and the ordinance which the Board was attempting to enforce. It was believed at City Hall that if the Legal Department rules the

‘1926 law and ordinance invalid, the

Board will not seek to enforce the 1939 law which requires a front light as well as a tail-light to be lighted on parked vehicles after dark, oT g

City Donates

Thousands of

Dollars to Tiny Victims

Indiana’s children, who are crippled by infantile paralysis or who will be, were heirs today to thousands of dollars which sympathetic citizens spent here last night as they had a good time. : In celebration of the birthday anniversary of the President, who originated the public drive for campaign funds against the disease, Indianapolis folk danced and held social events, profits from which will go to research into cause, prevention and cure. : All events were sponsored by the Merion County chapter of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis. Proceeds will be divided equally among local and national agencies for the war against the dread disease. : Fifty per cent will be prorated among the Riley Hospital, the City Hospital, the James E. Roberts School for Crippled Children, and School 26 for crippled Negro chil-] dren. The remaining 50 per cent will go to the national foundation. One of the highlights of last night’s program was Governor M. Clifford Townsend's dinner at the Indianapolis Athletic Club. It was attended by public officials, members of the local chapter’s executive and advisory committee and prominent citizens. Speakers at this dinner included the Governor; A. B. Good, Marion County chairman; Adjt. Gen. Elmer F. Straub, state chairman of the campaign; Mayor Reginald H. Sullivan; Wallace O. Lee, president of the Marion County chapter, and Mrs. W. D. Keenan, county vice chairman. “The President by his example has done more for the encouragement and rehabilitation of infantile paralysis victims than anything we can do in co-operating in this campaign,” the Governor said. “I think it is a good thing for America that on one day of the year leaders in the country can get together, without politics or anything else, to do a good job.” Adjt. Gen. Straub announced that this year’s proceeds from events throughout the State will be double those of last year, but he declined to estimate any total. Following ‘the dinner the Gov: ernor, the Mayor and their parties toured other affairs in the City. They visited at the Hotel Antlers, Kirshbaum Center, the Murat Temple, Marott. Hotel, the Coliseum,

Naval Armory and the Walks bk Casino, ’ i

South Side Turners and the Loyal Order of Moose and the SyrianAmerican - Lebanon Brotherhood clubhouse. 4 i Sports events to raise funds in« cluded roller skating at the River side rink, ice skating at the Coliseum and basketball games at the

Mayor Sullivan also went ave

Southport gymnasium and Speed- -

way High School. Other events were at the Lake Shore Country Club, at the Indiana Ballroom under sponsorship of the Central Labor Union, and at {St, Matthew’s Parish House. A benefit basketball game is to be played tonight at Decatur Central High School.

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

1—What is a micrometer? 2—Under the Constitution of the U. 8., where is the power to de= clare war vested? 3—Name the capital of French Guiana.

4—Does the human heart ever rest?

5—What is the name of the twin bright stars in the constellation of Gemini? ‘ 6—Who defeated John L. Sulli for the world’s heavyweight boxing title? Tha] 7—Which country lies north of Belgium? 8—What relation is Charles Edison, recently appointed Secretary |of the Navy, to the late Thomas Edison? : 8 o 8 | Answers |

|

1—An instrument for measuring minute angles and distances. 2—Solely in Congress. : 3—Cayenne. o 4—1It rests between the beats. | b—Castor and Pollux. 6—James J. Corbett. T7—The Netherlands. 8—son. ie ; s = a ASK THE TIMES Inclose a 3-cent stamp for reply when addressing any question uf fact or information to The Indianapolis - Times Washington Service. Bureau, 1013 13th St, N. W., Washing-| ton, D..C. Legal and medical advice cannot be given nor can extended. research be’ under=

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