Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 16 February 1940 — Page 21

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RIDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1940

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TT secono section

Hoosier Vagabond By Ernie Pyle

-QUEPOS, Costa Rica, Feb. 16—I've writien several banana columns from Parrita, but Quepos is really the place that deserves to be written about. It is one of the two brand-new towns created by the United Fruit Co. in this new banana land on the Pacific Coast of ; _ + Costa Rica. x Parrita is the work town, back in the jungle. It is inland. Hence this new banana country must have a port city—and Quepos is it. ' Quepos is about 40 per cent completed. It will be finished in less than a year. Already ships come in weekly for their banana loads. Parrita is about 15 miles back from Quepos, and a narrowgauge railroad connects the two. This summer all the offices and headquarters will be moved over here from Parrita, and then Parrita will revert to a small farm settlement. : Quepos will be one of the loveliest and most healthful places in the tropics. Until two years ago 2a mountain ran out to the sea and dropped straight ‘down into the ocean. Man had never touched it. Then , United Fruit came and blasted off the top of the bluff. Today it is a town, with lovely houses scattered at different levels all over the cliff. It is always warm, yet there is always a breeze from the sea. There is grass on their lawns; a school for their children; a hospital for their sick; .a clybhouse for their amusement. ” # 2

Paternalism With a Difference

When this vast plantation is finished there will be about 250 white men-and their families running it— and 13,000 peons. Most of the agricultural men are from the South, and most of the office men from New England. They all speak Spanish, and seem an exceptionally likeable bunch.

Our Town

I MADE IT MY BUSINESS the other day to learn why George Harmon, the guard at the Herron Art Institute, always appeared dressed up as a city fireman. Herewith the report: Mr. Harmon came to Indianapolis by way of Ohio in 1890 and got a job in the Big Four shops at Brightwood, a province which at that time had nothing in the way of public improvements, In 1894, a private waterworks including a number of street plugs was installed. They' were left-handed plugs, says Mr. Harmon. Soon as the left-handed plugs appeared somebody had the big idea that Brightwood -ought to have a fire department. Two volunteer companies were organized: the Wide-a-Wakes (at 25th and Station Sts.) and the Alerts (at Roosevelt Ave. and Olney St.). Each company consisted of 15 volunteers. First thing they had to learn was to pull an old-fashioned reel with 500 feet of hose to the fire. Mr. Harmon was a member of the Wide-gz Wake outfit and he still recalls the Moore Desk Co. fire, the biggest they had te fight. It was such a big fire that Dr. Johnson had to call for volunteers outside of the two companies. Dr. Johnson was the president of the Town Board at the {ime, a position which made him (ipso facto) Chief of the Brightwood Fire De- ' partment. To keep the extra volunteers in good humor, Dr. Johnson said they could run into Chris Lutz's saloon and. fortify themselves when the occasion called for it. It was his treat, he said. After the fire, Dr. Johnson learned somewhat to his dismay that the extra volunteers had run up g saloon bill amounting to $14. 8 # »

The Coming of the Automobile

In 1897, a year after the big fire, Brightwood was annexed. Fred Brommer (later captain of No. 11) was sent out to take charge of the volunteers, and two years later Brightwood got a real-for-sure engine house (No. 21). By this time something inside ‘Mr. Harmon told him he was cut out for a fireman. Mr. Harmon started as a substitute in Brightwood’s first engine house, but now that he looks back

‘Washington

WASHINGTON, Feb. 16.—Republicans are think- °

ing over the chance that they may have to face

President Roosevelt in a third campaign, and it leaves them slightly nervous. They have been burned twice and they know how it is. Just now they are

laboring under a mental hazard. They see how it ought to be possible to win against Mr. Roosevelt but they are as nervous as the golfer standing on the tee after hitting: two balls into the water. He is afraid the third will go in too, although in distance it is an easy shot to the fairway. As one Republican puts it, “Roosevelt would have us really scared about three times a week all through the campaign and then on elecBey tion day we would win.” Under secret traveling orders, Mr. Roosevelt left town on a vacation. He got away just ahead of a ¥ebruary blizzard and a crowd of Republican leaders arriving here for the Republican National Conimittee meeting opening today. : ss = = : Simplifying the Campaign More important, Mr. Roosevelt left without giving the slightest inkling of his intentions and he probably will not be back before Feb. 24, which is the last day on which he could withdraw his name which was filed in the Illinois Presidential primary to be held in April. Noting that, many Republican leaders became more convinced that Mr. Roosevelt would run, a thought which in this case certainly was not fathered by the wish. While I would be amazed if Mr. Roosevelt should permit himself to be renomsie: Republicans must prepare for any eventuality. :

ITHACA, N Y. Thursday—I must go back and tell you about a delightful play which I saw in New York on. Tuesday evening. “Two On An Island” by Elmer Rice is like so many other plays this winter, a series of episodes, but they are charming and clever. I was interested to find that several of the young actors and actresses, who did their parts extremely well, were theater children, so to speak, the sons and daughters of people I have known and enjoyed upon the stage. Now to go back to more recent - happenings. We visited the housing project in Syracuse in a near “blizzard yesterday afternoon, but the two houses I was able to inspect looked very attractive and I can vouch for the fact that the heating in this project is . They seem to have built with great consideration for sun, air and play space in the center of the block. The plans are simple but sensible and adequate. The rents, which include all utilities such as gas, electric light, heat and water, seem to me reasonable. The best gauge of the success of any project is the fact that the tenants who have been living - there are contented.” The manager told me that many ‘things had been said to discourage people from mov-

United Fruit provides them with houses, all furnished. It supplies their servants; their doctor, even

their transportation back to the States on vacation. |

It is, in fact, almost exactly the same benevolent paternalism that the Government gives its thousands at the Panama Canal. But there is a difference. 1 know many United Fruit men, and I have yet to hear one apologize for spending his life down here far from home; or see ope who fel his life was being lived in futility. ; : : Since the paternalism is the same, I've tried to “figure out what causes this difference in outlook. And the dnly thing I can arrive at is that these men are working under the t system. They are working to create and achfeve something; whereas those in Panama are merely maintaining something in a world of no competition.

“Another Snake Story,

There are plenty of snakes in the jungle. But seldom is anyone bitten. . One of the United Fruit men has told me just the kind of snake story I love to hegr, because it makes me shiver so. . He and*his native boy were on a gas-car, going from Quepos to Parrita. He has seen lots of snakes on the rails, and usually he just runs over them and cuts them to pieces. But on this trip he gradually became aware of something on the track far ahead. It took a second for it to sink in, and then he cut the switch and grabbed the brake lever for all he was worth. The jerk brought the native out of his doze, and when he saw what was ahead he threw all his weight on the brake, too. And the little gas-car, with sparks flying, jerked to a stop just a few feet from a boa constrictor at least 12 feet long and as big around as my body. They had been going about 35 miles an hour, If they had hit this snake, it would have derailed and probably killed them. They sat there horrified while the monstrous serpent swung its head around and crawled back into the bush. Throw me another banana, there, Heber.

~ By Anton Scherrer

he likes to think that his career started in 1901 when he was given a steady job under Capt. George Diller. at Fire Headquarters (Massachusetts Ave. and New York St.). That was the big day Mr. Harmon got Badge 10, the one he still wears. At Headquarters, Mr. Harmon was put on No; 1's Chemical, the wagon driven by Phil Keile. Bob and Colie were the two horses, as nice a team as ever graced the streets of Indianapolis. Bob stayed at Headquarters until the department .was motorized, after which he was pensioned and sent to graze in Riverside Park. |, Mr. Harmon stayed nine'years at Headquarters. In 1908, he saw the first automobile used by the department. It was a Marion made by the Overland people in West Indianapolis. Chief Coots used it as a runabout. Charlie Miller was the first chauffeur. The people out at the factory taught Charlie to drive. After which Charlie taught Walter Ilg- and George Harmon. They learned in the neighborhood of 44th and Meridian Sts., where there was enough room to turn around in. Ilg and Harmon got to be so; good that they could act as extra drivers when Charlie Miller was off duty. ET :

>

2. 8 Badge Still Glistens After that, Mr. Harmon was made a lieutenant and transferred to No. 2 (16th St. and Roosevelt Ave.). He stayed there 19 years. From there he went to Irvington to No. 25, a position he held until 1934 when he retired on a pension. The biggest fires Mr. Harmon helped to fight were those of Fahnley & McCrea, the Coburn Warehouse, and the Industrial Building. All were cold weather fires. It was 18 below zero on Jan. 20, 1918, the day the Industrial Building caught fire. The nastiest fire, however, was the Indianapclis Pdint Color Co. about 30 years ago. More firemen were laid off because of that blaze than any this town ever had, The fumes got into the men’s eyes. vik Well, three years after Mr. Harmon retired," the Herron ‘Art people staged their big Dutch Show, Because of the pile of priceless paintings and the big crowds to handle, a corps of special guards was or=ganized and included in this group was Mr. Harmon. He turned up in his fireman’s suit and Badge 10. He's still at the Herron wearing the same suit—the same badge, too. You have no idea how after 40 years of polishing, George Harmon's. badge glistens today.

By Raymond Clapper

At the Republican National ‘Committee meeting, the elaborate platform report prepared by a committee working under Dr. Glenn Frank will be submitted. It contains not only some of Dr. Frank's best gags but all of the material considered necessary to demolish the Administration. : But the campaign won't be as complicated at that. The Repuhjjcans don’t ‘need Dr. Frank's profound report. It will provide editorial writers with a supply of rainy-day material but the politicians can stick to one simple, central, powerful fact—the fact that ©,000,000 persons are still out of work. Then if Mr. Roosevelt runs, they can add the dictatorship threat.

Tough on the Democrats

. Even though the dream of Mr. Roosevelt running again ‘stirs Republicans uncomfortably, a third-term campaign would save them much thinking. ‘They wouldn’t have to offer answers to anything. They would simply dig out what they have been saying for eight years about Mr. Roosevelt's desire: to be a dictator. The tough job would be making a Democratic speech in defense cf a third term. Those Democratic speakers are the boys who would suffer. The Democrats have the satisfaction now of holding their nominating convention last but the Republicans are thinking of stealing the Fourth of July for their own show. Philadelphia will make a strong cash bid for the convention, and unless Chicago promises’ more to the Republicans than it did to the Democrats, Philadelphia will land the Republican convention. In that event it would probably he set for Tuesday, July 2, in order to permit a big Republican Independence Day show at the shrine of the Declaration of Independence. Republicans would do a war dance around old Independenée Hall and ring the changes on everything connected therewith except the old Liberty Bell itself. That's cracked and can’t be rung, even to save, the country from

bie By Eleanor Roosevelt

ing in, but that those who were now there were hringing others, so that the applications are increasing daily, I talked to one woman, who had no idea who this visitor out of the storm could possibly be, but who answered my questions/very cheerfully. She said she had never been so happy in her life. Aiter this stop, we started on out drive to Ithaca. The snow came down steadily and was already thick on the ground. Some newspapermen followed us and we made pretty good time until something happened to a coil in the engine. It was a most considerate coil, for it burned out (is that what coils do?) just outside a garage, so the car behind us pushed us in. We sat around and talked for an hour while we waited for another coil to be obtained and put in. -We proceeded on our way and reached Miss Rose's, at Cornell University, at about 7 wo’clock, but our newspapermen were lost on the way. I thought Miss Rose would probably t us to start out to attend several meetings, and Mrs. Morgenthau murmured gently in my ear that all she wanted was some food and a nice warm fire. When we arrived, we found that Miss Rose had provided just that for us. besides the company of several pleasant people. We spent a quiet happy evening. I was glad at about 11 o'clock to receive a phone message saying that the two boys who had driven us down had returned Safely 10 Syracuse. I can vouch that our driver was one of the ave ever seen and I really enjoyed the snow in spite of the delay. :

‘very

old is the house?” 25 ‘million American homes, mine, says Dr. Reed. : 2 8 8

Census to

By Emily C. Davis

Science Service Staff Writer

astic assistant director of the Bureau of the Census, and- dull-looking statistics - come ‘alive at the snap of his fingers. You can almost see them scurrying to

work—for you.

One bright manufacturer that Dr. Reed knows of, cherishes figures showing the number of hogs by counties in the United States. Uninspiring? The bright manufacturer doesn’t think so. He produces lye. He knows that farmers have to use lye to scrape off bristles when they scald hogs. (They sell the bristles for brushes.) The more hogs eating their heads off im any county, the more likely the market will be good right there for selling lye, he reasons. He maps sales campaigns with census figures and county maps spread around him. Nothing dull about hog statistics to that businessman, says Dr. Reed. And all over the country are people like that lye manufacturer, who have imagination and astuteness to make the census work for them, The business census that began Jan. 2, will take an inventory of ‘affairs of 1,700,000 retail dealers, 180,000 wholesalers, 50,000 theaters and places of amusement, 50,000 hotels and tourist camps, and so on, three million concerns in all. There has been no business census since 1935, except a sampling in 1938. Ce Businessmen themselves helped frame the questions, suggesting what to put in, and while returns, .of course, are confidential, pub- ‘ lished tables of facts and figures will give many a businessman

DESCRIBES FRENCH WOMEN'S WAR AID

French women are helping the war by dressing in peace-time clothes, according to Mille. Eve Curie, who will speak on “French Women and the War” at English’s Theater tomorrow morning. Mille. Curie, biographer of her mother, Mme, Marie Curie, discoverer of radium, is appearing under the auspices of Town Hall. She believes clothes are much simpler because of the war but are not militarized.’ Women in France are now filling the position in industry and business of about 500,000 officers and men who have been mobilized, she said. ]

8 NAMED TO STAFF OF BUTLER MAGAZINE

. Eight Butler University students have been appointed to the editorial staff of the “Mss,” quarterly publication of the Butler English De-

partment. 3 They are Miss Madge Rutherford, associated editor; Lewis Vogler, poetry editor; George Wilson, art editor; Robert Pace, Miss Mar.guerite Ellis, and Miss Marilyn Morgan, copy editors; Mr. Pace and Miss Morgan, press editors; Miss Mary Clay, exchange editor, and William Starks, circulation manager. Freshmen editors are Robert Schalk and Miss Marilyn Alstadt.

2 HOOSIER FIRMS GET ‘ORDERS FROM ARMY

WASHINGTON, Feb. 16 (U. P).— Two Indiana corporations today shared in the Army's $2,614,735 “educational” orders. : They were the Kingston Products Corp., Kokomo, and the U. S. Machine Corp, Lebanon. Each received contracts.for shell machining, $44,372 going to the Kokomo firm and $38,055 to the Lebanon one. Under the educational program, the Army grants small contracts to firms so they may learn the technique of manufacturing supplies necessary in war time.

PLEDGED AT WABASH Times Special ; CRAWFORDSVILLE, Ind. Feb. 16.—Catl J. Klein Jr. of Indianapolis has been selected as a candidate for pledging to Wabash College chapter of Pi Delta Epsilon, national honorary. journalistic fraternity. He is seniors

: one-of ‘a group of two

‘“How many in your home, madam?” The housing census enumerator will get facts on The statistical results will be a gold

Create . Information Gold Mine

“How many rooms?” “How

Ye 2

i HAT js it"good for? Meaning, the huge tidal wave of census questions now sweeping the United States, - as enumerators descend first on businessmen, then on farmers and everybody, everywhere, to gather billions of facts and figures about the state of the nation. i ; Ask Dr. Vergil D. Reed, young-looking and enthusi-

valuable key knowledge of business conditions in his own, and competitive, lines. The man who makes tin cans, said Dr. Reed, picking a random example, is naturally interested in what the glass industry is doing. . The - business census will show what war . industries the United States is equipped for, and where the country is not prepared. : ® o 8

VEN more eagerly awaited than the business census, is the housing census. Why? Because 1940 will mark the first time in United States history that the Government has set out to learn exactly how its citizens are housed. In 25 million homes, in April, the enumerator will inquire: How many rooms in this house? Is it

lighted by gas, by electricity? How

is it heated? Does it have running water? How many residents? How old is the house? How is the mortgage, if any, held? 1s there a radio? And more questions besides, but you get the idea. Mil-

~ lions of facts and figures about

American homes — better and worse—will be garnered into the Census Bureau offices to be sorted, tabulated and announced. “A gold mine” is what Dr. Reed predicts the housing census will be to this. country. But like the “gold in them thar hills,” many nuggets in the mountain-load of housing statistics will have to be dug out. Up to:this year, there has been argument aplenty among experts over the state ‘of American housing. When the first nation-wide and comprehensive data are tabled, there will be a field day for soci= ologists, health and welfare offi-

Wizard Leaves

The City’s Ku-Klux Klan circles were getting back to normal today after the excitement of entertaining their imperial wizard, James A. Colescott. : The former Terre Haute veterinarian, who spent the day yesterday at the Hotel Lincoln giving the once powerful Indiana Klan a “shot in the arm,” was in Terre Haute today visiting his parents. He expected to return to the invisible empire's headquarters in Atlanta, Ga., later in the day. During his stay. here, Mr. Colescott greeted Klan leaders from various sections of the state and talked over plans for building a new leadership for the organization in Indiana. % Leaders Are Selected

Leaders for the Ft. Wayne, Lake County and Muncie districts- were selected during the day, and others are to be named after his return South. a ) The imperial wizard’s visit here was reminiscent of the Klan’s heydey. =~ « an Fiiere was the same shuttling back and forth belween separate suites in ‘the hotel. Quiet men, singly or in groups, unobtrusively made their way to one or the other of the headman’s suites, chatted behind closed doors, and then, just as unobtrusively, departed, and others took their place. ~~ Many, dodging the limelight, did their talking with Mr. Colescoft over the telephone, which was kept busy during the day. = °° Although it was announced from headquarters in Atlanta nearly a week ago that the imperial wizard would be at the Lincoln yesterday, apparently no advance reservation was made, leaving faithful supporters uncertain whether he finally

moxning. g = Easy to Interview

. In conferences with the press, the head Klansman proved genial and easy to interview. He was willing to talk on almost -any subject, except the names of local Klan leaders and the number of active members here and in: the State. w { ] «I have no interest in Stephen-

times, back in the early Twenties, and didn’t know him well, And be-

'|sides, he had. been tried and ban-

ished from the Klan more than a year before his trouble with the law.” Gila Objectives? The Klan has abandoned its “opposition” to Catholics,

Jews and Negroes and is opposing

With Visible Shot in Arm

would arrive. He did late in the

son. I only met him half a dozen

DARK FIGURES REPRESENT - POPULATION GAINED fucwr FIGURES REPRESENT ta a POPULATION LOST

A SCIENCE SERVICE FEATURE Symbols © Pictorial Stamsnes, Ine. NV € 10-4

Seeing gold-lined possibilities in 1940 census statistics is one, specialty of Dr. Vergil D. Reed, assistant director of the census. He says figures aren’t dull to thousands of Americans who have the imagination

‘to put the census returns to work for them. Are Americans still looking ‘westward-ho?

count this year will show what sections are gaining and losing population, and this statistical picture

shown above (right) will undoubtedly have to be revised some.

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The census of agriculture will

50 - &

discover what 7,500,000 farmers are

doing about their crops, what help they hire, what are their sources

of income, and other facts which will aid in solving problems of supply, demand and. profit. : '

those knotty

cials, city governments, not to mention building contractors,

plumbers, bankers, furniture deal- .

ers, lumber mills—and you can add to that list almost indefinitely. All of them will start digging to, extract nuggets of fact to aid their work. How much latent. purchasing power, for instance, a given community has, may be better judged from the state of its housing. That is a solid gold fact, if any business man knows one,

” o ” J HAT has happened to the Dust Bowl is to be revealed by the 1940 census. A man from the Dust Bowl region, who was a census enumerator back in 1920, wrote to Dr. Reed the other day. .He said there are exactly three

families actively engaged in farm-’ =

ing in two whole counties that he could name. When census figures are in, it may be possible to rate the success of new cropping and re-grassing schemes and soil conservation practice in Dust Bowl ° areas where the drifting soil is being stubbornly tamed agdin. More than seven million people in the United States run an independent farming business, and there is a vast lot of usable information to be had by asking them about it. Who is growing what, and where? Which ‘crops are profitable? Where are they profitable? Census figures will indicate these points. : } Take flax, said Dr. Reed. There is possibility of flax coming back

Local Klux =

~

those who want to combine the church and state. It would like to see all unnaturalized aliens deported and their jobs turned over to unemployed Americans. j Politics? The Klan is not interested in the Presidential race, unless ‘one or the other of the parties nominates “someone objectionable like Ai Smith.” But it is deeply interested im electing Congressmen who will demand return of the contrel surrendered to the White House two years ago and who will favor deporting aliens.

Sees End to C. I. O.

The C. I. 0.2 It can’t survive unless it kicks out the Communists and foreign leadership in some unions: and gets good, sane American leaders. ; “The Klan membership? It's made up of the common people, the workingmen, the backbone of America; the same group that fights the nation’s wars is fighting now to keep out foreign isms. ’ Paul V. McNutt? “I don’t know much about him—haven’t followed his career. The only objectionable thing I hear people say about hin is that he is a dictator, and I don't, know whether that would hurt his chances.” President Roosevelt? “I think he made a mistake in sending a representative. to the Vatican, thus reopening the old fight over separation of church ana state.” ; ~The Republican Party? “If they're going to get anywhere, they’ll have to get rid of their present organization, including John D. M. Hamilton—and get a candidate for Presi- ; - \

dent.” : Night Riding Is Out

Night-riding? “That’s out. The Klan is sworn to uphold the Constitation. I can’t conceive of a situation where the Klan would be justifled in taking the law into its.own hands.” : Tne imperial wizard said he had ‘been asked recently whether he felt the press owed Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black an apology. after his recent decision reversing conviction ‘of three Negroes. 3 “I think Hugo Black did what any Klansman or any other just person would do in such s case. The evidence indicated these Negroes had been mistreated and forced to confess, and that’s un-American.” THEY'RE ALL SUPERSTITIOUS ' GUELPE, Ont. Feb. 16 (U, P.).— Although members of the 29th

Howitzer Battery of Guelph say they are not superstitious, every one

of the 180 members is wearing a | ‘foot: 4 4 ne e tunie.

as a fiber. Experimentally, it is ‘being grown in several states, including Georgia and California,

and possibly it rates as a commer- |

cial crop in California. How new crops such as this are coming along will be checked up, by the census of United States farms. “We hear a good deal about diversified farming in the South,” he ‘continued. “The census will show where gains are being made —which, regions of the South now have more milk cows, more poultry, varied crops. That will interest manufacturers who make poultry supplies and farm tools, and other goods for which the new crops and stock—and increased income—suggest markets.” : 4 8 8 ART-TIME farming is an angle of American economy that Dr. Reed says is worth watching. He thinks the census may show a spread of part-time farming that is very significant. “People started part-time farming as.a depression stop-gap,” he

‘explained. “But once started, a

good many suburban gardens have been kept up, and the suburban gardens ringing a city may prove to be one answer America’s question as to the future of agriculture. There has been a trend in recent years away from the farm, but part-time farming may reduce that trend.” Determined to get all possible facts about this country’s food pro-

LEGION SEES GAIN OF MILLION MEMBERS

‘The American Legion will observe its 21st birthday March 15, 16 and 17 with the largest membership since its founding in Paris in 1919. National ' membership is 70,000 ahead of the same date last year, and final figures should exceed last year’s mark by more than a million, according to American Legion officials.- : vs

The Indiana American Legion won fifth place in Departments in 1939 and now: has more than 33,300

members, according to Raymond B.

Townsley, state commander. ; Theaters throughout the state will include a patriotic film and a speaker at one performance in the near future as a co-operative move with the Araerican Legion. Legion posts will co-operate with local theaters ‘in preésenting an Americanism program and the Allied Theater Owners of Indiana has issued bulletins to its member theaters suggesting that such a performance be held.

SOUTH BEND YOUTH .

‘BEING SOUGHT HERE|

Judge George Rulison of South Bend, on behalf of Mrs. Carl Haggard, has’ wriften Indianapolis friends ‘asking that they search for her son and persuade him to call Mrs. Haggard immediately. According to the letters, some of which were: received today, the youth, Keith Curtis, came to Indianapolis to enlist in the Navy, Feb. 5, but instead sought other employment here. Judge Rulison said Mrs. Haggard had received postcards from her 20-year-old son but that he had given no address, and that it was “essential he get in touch with her 3h, once”

SYRIAN-AMERICAN + SPEAKS AT CULVER

CULVER, Ind, Feb. 16—Salony

‘Rizk, a modern product of the

American melting pot, will speak at Culver Military Academy here Mony. , Mr. Rizk was born in Syria. His mother died at his birth, After the war he learned his absent father was an American. After five years of haunting the American Consul's office he got a passp He will tell his s subsequent Fs

in th

The new head

duction, the Census Bureau has divided the United States into nine

regions for agriculture fact-gathe ering. This, Dr. Reed explained,

makes it possible to ask New Enge: land farmers about their own po=

' tatoes and cranberries and other

products without bothering them to even look at questions on tung trees or oranges. Dividing the country nine ways, census takers plan to get specific information on such points as how Florida is doing with guavas, papayas, avoe cados; how the Southwest is make ing out with different kinds of cote n. Health, as well as wealth, hinges - on the census. ~“Vital statistics,” Dr. Reed puts it, “are .like the reconnaissance ‘wing of an army, pointing where to strike.” hi The tuberculosis curve, for exe ample, has been down since 1900, Statistics have shown where the disease was most prevalent, -and that helps in fighting it. It is the cities and states; of course, that repart births and deaths and causes of death to the Census Bureau. This reporting goes on regularly... But birth ahd disease and death trends are most significant when told in terms of rates—so many to the thousand or hundred thousand of the people. And that is where the 1940 census comes in. The new census will give the vital statisticians up-to date figures showing, not merely the entire numberof the population, but the mumbers of people of different ages, in different states, in counties, and cities. Life expectancy tables, figured from ‘birth rates and trends, are the basis of life insurance. These figures are important, says Dr. Reed, to 64 million policy holders of life insurance and annuities. Censuses have served wars, from the days when Moses counted “all

that are able to go forth to war in =

Israel.” = Peaceful though the United States is, and wants to be, it is conscious of defense these days, and wants to know its man power. The census of 1940 will provide . ‘Army and Navy with information regarding men in different age groups; also the regions where specialized workers are grouped. The Army would have liked specific information from the population census—names and addresses of types of workers and specialists valuable in military service. But the Census Bureau clings to its policy of assuring anonymity to the public. Your census return is confidential, and even the War Department may not consult it. ‘Only statistics are released.

SIX HOOSIERS SENT TO NAVAL STATION

Six Indiana boys, one of them from Indianapolis reached the U. S. Naval Training Station at Great ‘Lakes, Ill, today after their enlist ment yesterday. The local youth is Richard A, Beam, son of Mrs. Alma M. Huberti, 341 S. Keystone Ave. He is a former Tech pupil. The others are Lloyd Stevens, 19, son of Mr. and Mrs, C. B. Stevens, of Waldron; Leslie R, Davis, 21; son of Mr. and Mrs. R. L, Davis, Pendleton; Cleo J. Pitser, 19, son of Mrs. Flossie M. Pitser, Dune kirk; Reese C. Clark, 18, son of Mr, and Mrs. C.. W, Clark, Peru, and Eugene G. Gipson, 21, son of Mr, and Mrs. J. W. Gipson, Perp.

"TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

1—To the words of what popular - anthem is the air of “Anacreon -in' Heaven” sung? 2—What is a bird organ? 3—Under what Government departe ment does the U. S. Marine Corps

~~, operate? 4—Which of the following U. S. Presidents failed to be elected when running for a third term, James. Monroe, James Madison or Theodore Roosevelt? 5—Where is Duke University? 6—What two Republicans were ape pointed by President Roosevelt “ to his Cabinet? 7—Is ammonia a chemical element? 8—The leader of which political party was recently sentenced to a term in jail? FA 2 nn ® Answers —“The Star-Spangled Banner.” 2—A mechanical flute-like instrue ment that produces liquid trills, 3—Navy Department. 4—Theodore Roosevelt. 5—Durhar “ C. ‘ 6—Henry A. Wallace, Secretary of Agriculture, and Harold L. Ickes, 7—No. : : 8§—Earl Browder, of the Communist Party. 2 : s 8» 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., Washing= “ ton, D. C. Legal and medical

advice cannot |