Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 16 March 1940 — Page 7

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Hoosier Vagabond = By Ernie Pyle

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SATURDAY, MARCH: 16,

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TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras, March 16.—The outstanding foreigner in all of Central America, I think * It pertectly safe to say, is Lowell Yerex. He is not an

American. He is a British subject—a native of Newe tries connected either by rail or highway were Guate-

U. S. can lay good claim to him, . for he once taught school in North Dakota, and he went broke in our 29 debacle. Yerex, in nine years, has lifted himself by his own bootstraps . from the ownership of a mere 25 bucks to a fortune of well over a million, And in doing it he has taken nothing at all out of Central America, but has probably done these Latin countries more ultimate good than any other foreign influence. True, he didn’t do it as a philanthropist, but that has been

Zealand. But the

the result.’ For he has opened up Central America. Opened the isolated jungle sections to the capital cities; opened the mountain valleys and the mines and the forests to the light of the outside world; even opened the various countries to each other. Opened them with airplanes. ‘The minute we set foot in Costa Rica and every minute since then in our northward travels, the strength of TACA has been almost constantly upon us. I am being very deliberate when I say that TACA seems, to me the most important thing today in Central America. For here is what TACA is: An air line with 56 planes; 32 pilots, all of them Americans: 30 American mechanics and 250 native helpers; 30 radio stations, 126 offices, 120 regular airports, 95 emergency fields. ;

Bought Out Rivals Further, TACA is today the largest carrier of air freight in the world. = Last year it flew 25,000,000 pounds of freight. And it carried 66,000 paying passengers in its 2,000,000 miles of flight over seven Latin countries. Sie TACA has become the only air service in, Central America, outside of Pan-American Airways. It has bought up everything else. . And Panair merely flies through; it isn’t interested in the local flying that forms the basis of TACA’s work. § Guatemala and Costa Rica have railroads running

Our Town

I HAVE WAITED until today to publish a piece about our fire department. For the reason that tomorrow marks the 50th anniversary of the BowenMerrill fire, possibly the greatest tragedy ever to visit Indianapolis. Prior to 1874 there had been only three fires to give the department any trouble—Kingan’s pork house (1865), Morrison's Opera House (1870) and the Woodburn-Sarven © Wheel Co. fire (1873), a tragic affair be‘cause of the falling of a wall on top of Chief David Glazier. It was the first death of an Indianapolis fireman in the performance of his duty. ~ For the next 17 years no fireman, to my knewledge, lost his life. Then came March 17, 1890. I'll never forget it. I was sitting in School 6, in the sixth grade run by Elizabeth Cotton. It was just about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the most dismal hour of the school day. Suddenly I heard the firebells ringing. I kept count. It was Box 45, the one that brought the whole department to the corner of Washington and Meridian Sts.” I couldn’t help wondering why it was always my luck to be penned up in school when anything exciting turned up in. Indianapolis. 2.2 =» a

City's Worst Tragedy

All of which explains why the big Bowen-Merrill fire had a good start before we kids got around to it. Soon as we got home Mother took us uptown and I distinctly recall that she was dog-tired when we ‘started. She had spent the greater part of the day planting sweet pea seeds. It was St. Patrick’s Day. By the time we got to the fire which was on the north side of Washington St. on ground now cov-

Washington

WASHINGTON, March 16.—By Time Magazine this week I see that several backscratchers of Ernest T. Weir, the steel industrialist who recently was apinted Republican national finance chairman, regard is, labor record as “fine and dandy.” & From the way the Republican publicity agent is talking around . Washington, it looks as if the Republican Party is preparing to go into the campaign offering Ernie Weir's labor record as its model labor platform. I don’t want to be riding Mr. Weir unduly, and his labor record may appeal to some as “fine .» and dandy.” But it is a matter of record that the Weirton Steel Co. used a professional industrial-espio-nage agency over a period of

years.

1% is a matter of record that in the spring of 1937 —soon after the Supreme Court had upheld the Wagner Act—The Steel Workers Organizing Committee, which has been recognized by U. S. Steel as a collec-tive-bargaining agency, formed a local union in Weirton and that when employees. went to work wearing their S. W. O. C. buttons they were beaten up and thrown out of the plant.

” ” 2 U. S. Steel Record Better Those are a couple of high spots out of this “fine and dandy” labor record. Republicans could better take U. S. Steel's recent labor record as a model. It would be much easier to defend. : A few days ago the Steel Workers Organizing Committee wrote in to me saying that within the last six weeks it had tried to rent office quarters in Weirton, which is an unincorporated community at the mill gates. Several locations were selected in

My Day

HAMILTON, O., Friday.—Such a pleasant surprise as greeted me ih Chicago! I had barely walked into the hotel, when the telephone rang, and it was_our son, Jimmy, to “tell me that he was in Chicago on business. JHe dined with us last night and breakfasted with us this morning, and I hope to see him again in New York City next week. Unexpected pleasures are always particularly nice and, because I thought he had gone back to California Some Hue ago, this was a real oy. I didn’t waste much time yes“ferday afternoon after my arrival in Chicago. First of all, I went to listen to a broadcast which the Chicago Tribune radio station dedicated to civil liberon ties and to me. The Chie&go WPA writers Project wrote the script, and it was certainly both estingly and dramatically done. . Then I was presented with a portrait of myself, paint ed by Mrs. Margaret Johannsen, who began her paint~ing at the age of 50. I am afraid that I was a sad disappointment ‘to her, for I had to tell her that I had no desire for portraits of myself and that I had refused over and over again to sit for one. I hope

~ that she will be able to’find someone else to whom she " can give this particular work of art.

There was a short reception for the members of thie committee of the Chicago Civil Liberties Union,

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across them, from coast to coast. The other countries do not. They had no connection at all, except by bull-cart or mule. North and South, the only coun-

mala and Salvador. Into that setup Lowell Yerex came with his airplane nine years ago. Today the farthest point in any one country from its capital is an hour and a half away. Out of the seven capitals of Central America run nearly 40 scheduled lines of TACA planes. A map of the TACA network-looks like a spider-web imposed upon Central America. Sn

Up in the Peten jungle it is six days'by foot or by|

mule from the “metropolis” of Flores to the chicle settlement of Carmelita. By plane it is 15 minutes. That is the reason, in one paragraph, why TACA is what it is today. .

Freight Is the Thing

In every Central American capital you can 'go to the airport early in the morning and see a row of planes on the line, pilots’in uniform, freight handlers busy, and great. stacks of freight in the warehouse waiting to be flown away. Planes take off with the same dispatch and system seen at Newark Airport. But within an hour after leaving, these planes are gliding in—not to another modern airport such as Camden—but to a bare slice cut out of the deep jungle, or to a wobbly little patch on a ringed-in mountainside. : TACA has never had a governmental subsidy. It does® have local mail contracts now, but that is a minor item. Freight is the thing. Every TACA plane carries freight. It carries passengers, too, but they usually distribute themselves among the freight. If you go out on a TACA plane you are liable to find yourself sitting on a crate of Klim. And a good portion of your fellow-passengers may be barefooted, with machetes strapped to their belts. : TACA’s formula for success is contained in the two words “deferred freight.” Central American air “shippers pay one rate—a rather high one—for freight that must go cut at once. They pay another rate—a very low one—for freight that may stay in the TACA warehouse and move when it can (which is never more than a few days later). As a result, there is always freight in the TACA warehouses; a plane never goes out without its paying load. 2

Expect 50,000 At 18th Annual Service Here -

By Anton Scherrer

ered by a part of Wasson’s store, the horrible catastrophe had taken placé. No two descriptions agreed as to what actualiy had occurred, but from muffled conversations gcing on all around me I could make out more: or less what had happened. It appeared that when the firemen arrived they saw immediately that the best, and maybe the only thing to do, was to keep the fire from spreading. Anyway, a crew of firemen went to the roof and another squad entered the building by way of the windows. Suddenly without a moment's warning the floors from the top to the bottom caved in. Nobody at the time had any idea how many firemen were trapped in the ruins, but the guesses ran all the way from a dozen to the whole fire department, 2 2 =»

The Roll of Honor

I was reasonably sure that it wasn’t the whole

department because when I got there I saw a lot of|

firemen working like mad to get their buried buddies. When it came time to count the casualties, it was learned that a dozen brave firemen had lost their lives. And the least I can do today is to record their names: Thomas A. Black; John Burkhart, Andrew O. Cherry, George S. #alkner, Ulysses G. Glazier, Albert Huffman, David Lowry, Espy Stormer, Anthony Volz, William L. Jones, George G. Glenn and Henry D. Woodruff. And lest we forget, there were also the injured: Thomas Barrétt, Fred Bloomer, George Diller, William Hinesley, Charles Jenkins, Eb Leach, William Long, Albert Meurer, Samuel Neall, Samuel Null, Wil‘liam Partee, Louis Rafert, William Reasner, Webb Robinson, William Tallentire and William McGinnis, who afterward died of his injuries. The tragedy sent a wave of horror through the town which quickly gave place to a desire to help the living. A fund of $50,000 was raised and I remember that all the schoo! children contributed. As a matter of fact, it was the only time Father ever allowed me to break by penny savings bank before it was full.

By Raymond Clapper

turn but in each case, the S. W. O. C. letter said, when organizers went back thé next day to sign up they were told by the owners that the S. W. O. C. could not have the place.

I passed that along in a letter to Mr. Weir and said I would like to have his side of the story. A secretary replied that Mr. Weir did not care to have any further correspondence with me. The Labor Board has a case now involving one of Mr. Weir's iron-ore subsidiaries, in which it is charged that a company union is maintained in violation of the Wagner Act. The case is still pending. These high spots do not cover the brutal story of the notorious “hatchet gang,” a squad of company guards which beat up union organizers at Weirton and chased them out of town. :

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New Publicity Technique

There must have been some reascn.why Fortune Magazine, in an article on the steel industry in its issue of March, 1936, remarked that Mr. Weir “treats labor with so little ceremony that even steel men, no social workers themselves, are appalled.” I notice by Time Magazine also that the Republican Party publicity agent warns the press that “not one smear will get by.” Two years ago the Republican National Committee hired a new publicity agent with the idea that he would do a smashing job on Roosevelt such as Charlie Michelson did for the Democrats on Hoover. But somehow it hasn’t worked out that way. and of late the Republican publicity agent has busied himself at trying to build up Ernie Weir and at feuding with newspapermen who bite the hand that hands them handouts. That feuding is a new technique in public relations. Maybe the Republican Party publicity director can put the fear of God into Washington correspondents so that they will not presume to criticize any of his angels. And maybe not. Anyway it will be an interesting experiment.

By Eleanor Roosevelt

and then Mr. Thomasen of the Chicago Daily Times drove me out to the small hospital on the lake where children with heart ailments are cared for. They have capacity for one hundred children. The doctor in charge, who is one of Chicago's leading pediatricians, is wrapped heart and soul in the work for these youngsters. If they are given proper care, they almost always get well. If not, they die. The average gain in weight for these little patients is a pound a week, and I think this is due to the fact that the management is extraordinarily good. “The food: is not anly appetizing, but very carefully chosen. gets a quart of milk a day and this is done in spite of a food cost which compares well with many insti‘tutions where the diet is not accomplishing such desirable results. : ; Children’s institutions are always appealing. As 1

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looked at these youngsters, I felt grateful that sol

many people in Chicago had been moved to give them a chance to live useful and happy lives. Somewhat sadly the doctor said to-me: : “We ‘can take a hundred, and we are the only institution caring for this type of case. There are approximately 10,000 children in Chicago needing this care.” Back at the hotel I had a visit from some acquaintances. Then Miss Frances Williams, executive secretary. of the American Youth Congress, who is at present on a trip through the Middle West, came to see us. These youngsters work hard trying te build a worthwhile program for their local councils and I have a great respect for the unselfishness with which their work is done, : :

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Each child|’

By Rosemary Redding NE THOUSAND of. the city’s children, instrumentalists, adult choirs and an expected 50,000 spectators will assemble about the Soldiers and Sailors’ Monument on Easter Sunday for an outstanding interdenominational celebration — the 18th annual outdoor Easter

Sunrise Carol Service.

Nineteen choral societies will take part. More than 70 organizations, churches, schools and business organizations, have contributed talent, materials and service—gifts to a service commemorating the “Supreme Gift.” It is believed to be the only children’s outdoor Easter service of its nature in the world. Similar services, but not primarly by children, are held each year in the Hollywood Bowl, in New York's Times Square, and in Montreal, Canada. : : There is a story other than that of the Cross and the Resurrection behind the Indianapolis service. It began Oct. 21, 1921. James. M. Ogden Jr., 7 years old, went on an errand for his mother. He was fatally injured in an accident. A month later Mrs. Ogden decided to do something for others in the name of little “Jamie.”

2 E.4 ” HE was a student of music. She had . directed music for the primary students at the Meridian Heights Presbyterian Church. Hers was a singing family and “Jamie,” perhaps more than any of that family, loved to sing. Music and children were two of her loves and she could think of no more fitting memorial than a living one of teaching a band of singing youngsters. She organized the Ogden Junior Chorale. Its members are mostly children in their ‘teens. The age limit is 8 to 18. Members are children with outstanding voices which Mrs. Ogden finds: through music teachers and those at the conservatories. There are strenuous hours of practice. They are well known in the city for their carolling at Christmas time. The organization is a non-profit one. Any contributions received go into a fund, now over $1000, for Riley Hospital. With this group as a nucleus,

The Story of Democracy

CHAPTER SIX 1 people of the Middle Ages enjoyed one great advantage over our own time. They not only had to work for a living but there was only one way in which they could (if they were fortunate) hope to make that living. They had to dig in the soil,

and as that soil, from the out- °

rageous treatment it had. received for almost thousand years, was completely exhausted, they had to dig very hard. That left them

little spare time for contempla- .

tion, and the few who loved to indulge in that expensive luxury

were buried in some cloister and.

as faithful members of the oldest of ail totalitarian states—the super-empire of the Church—they were very definitely conscious of the limits imposed upon their political speculations. a But they had already .been shrewd enough to discover the tremendous value of “quotes.” To “quote some one” means that you name another person as the authority for a certain statement or opinion which you insert in your own writings. ; k 2 =.» 1= mediaeval writer upon the dangerous subject of politics

used quotes, and in nine cases out

of 10, he quoted from Aristotle. It was true that that ancient Greek author had come to him in a rather round-about way. The original Greek had been translated into Arabic. The Arabic version had thereupon been carried to Spain and had been re- . translated inte Latin. This process of linguistic laundering had sullied rather than cleansed the original text, but nobody knew the difference and so nobody

cared. And ‘Aristotle was always a safe 3

Mrs. Ogden began the Easter Sunrise Service. For that first service the chorale was joined by choirs from the First Baptist, Meridian Street: Methodist, Roberts Park Methodist and Central Christian

Churches. Today the Ogden, group -

is augmented by many adult and junior choirs, chorusess glee clubs and groups of instrumentalists. It was hard work preparing for those early concerts but not so hard as the extensive preparations now being, made by several hundred persons besides the musical groups. : Mrs. Ogden does not have to go hunting for her organization. In the early years she summoned interested musical friends to help

her. Today church choirs send

word: “Command me and I will be ready.” Even the smallest churches want to help in this civic religious celebration. Many club-

women, normally busy, put aside

their work to help.

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ODAY volunteers are so .

: numerous that often some work must be “thought up” to occupy them. Many of these volunteers, just as the players in the Passion Play at Oberammergau, carry on their work from year to year. For example, only three young women have placed the lilies on the Cross at the Sunrise Service during ‘all these 18 years. No one is paid for the largest or the smallest service. It is’ truly a giving one. No funds are solicited.- No offering is taken from the vast audience. As Mrs. Ogden puts it: “I am not interested in passing the hat. Con‘tributions should come from the heart, not the hat.”

Besides the singing groups are numerous other co-operating agencies which donate services. They include the theaters, the florists, electricians, engravers, music ‘houses, - nurseries, binders, etc. The Red Cross supplies a first aid station at the Monument. : Each year an indoor service is planned for the Circle Theater, just in case of rain. significant that the weather has always permitted the outdoor service. WIRE will broadcast the entire service to listeners at home™

clubs, .

It seems:

1. An estimated audience of 50,000 witnessed the 17th annual

- service last year. (Rhoades Photo.)

2, Mrs. James M. Ogden . . . founder and director. (RamosPorter Photo.) .

3. Miss Ocie Higgins of Lebe anon , . . guess soloist. 4, The Flower Children . . « (front row, left to right) Jimmy Pelance, Carol Otto, Rosemary Arthur, Gordon Lee ‘Roberts, Charles Nakarai, Maribeth Shultz, Bobby Kitterman, Richard Holler and Mary Louise Smith and (back row, left to right) Joan Karl, Barbara Hobbs, Janet Ludy, Richard Kitterman, Ann Malone, Joan Bernat, Jerry Lee Wells, Joy Dee Campbell and Suzette Brown. (Fitch Photo.)

Before Lent this year more than 1000 persons ‘were contacted to help with ' the: event. ization ‘nucleus is a general comsmittee with Mrs. Henry Ostrom as co-chairman. : Before the service became so large, Mrs. Ogden attended rehearsals of the various singing groups. This year she has delegated the chairmanship of those groups, to Mrs. E. S. Cummings. Leaders of the children’s groups and adult choirs began rehearsals separately in Pebruary. Next Sat-

‘urday (March 23) the combined

groups will réhearse at Christ Church. At rehearsals the lead‘ers attempt to give the children a spiritual as well: as materidl preparation. The traditions of the songs and stories of their composers are related. Miss Ocie Higgins will be guest soloist this year. ? 2 ” HE co-operating agencies include ‘persons. like Mrs. Charles Schwert. The late Mr. Schwert was a bird fancier. For many’ years he supplied doves (white homing pigeons) for the service. Again this year Mrs. Schwert will see that the doves in their wicker baskets are behind the rustic cross. They will be released just after the processional of flower children as ‘“rep-

The organ--

resentatives of the kindly thoughts of man released and upheld by teachings: of Jesus.” These flower children, 50 of them, are much too small to stand at attention during the hour-long service. During the early part of the service they are: kept inside the monument under the supervision of Mrs. Claus Best where they will hear traditional Easter stories. They will come out only long enough to place their flowers at the cross. These flowers are taken to. children in the city's hospitals after the service. The rustic cross, “emblematic of the Nazarene’s Supreme Sacrifice,” will be erected on the steps of the monument and surrounded ‘by greenery on Good Friday. A 8 8 8

ATURDAY at rehearsals, the participants will be given a diagram showing where to stand. A number is given each child and he or she will stand on a corresponding number marked on the steps. Each detail is worked out so that every part of the concert is timed to the minute.

Mrs. Ogden will arrive at the Monument about 5 o'clock Easter morning. The crowd will begin gathering until at the beginning

of the service, if like last year,

the sea of faces can be seen ex-

tending for two blocks down Meridian, Ohio and Market Sts. Many come ‘early’ to get : the vantage. points: The north segment “of ‘the Circle will be roped cffi at midnight Saturday and park .. benches placed there.

“Rooms at English’s are often re-

served in advance as the windows of that hostelry serve as reserved seats. The Columbia Club win-

dows, too, are choice seats for the . audience, /

The children arrive at the’

. Monument, about 5:45 o'clock and

attend an Easter Service. Beginning about 5:30 the Chimes of Christ Church, played by Frederick Weber, and the Scottish Rite Carillon, played by Sidney Giles, ring out Easter hymns as the crowd gathers. Trumpeters will give: the call to the service. Old Glory will be flying from one.

of the staffs on the Monument.

In the early years. the state flag was used on the other. This year a group of QGirl Scouts will raise the Christian flag. The program to be announced later will then begin under Mrs. Ogden’s direction. ; It is one of the nation’s most distinguished Easter services. It started because of a child. Children built, it. And children will keep it growing.

By HENDRIK WILLEM VAN LOON

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Final destruction of the Athenian. democracy gave the cause of “rule by the people” a bad reputation.

person from whom to quote. Before his erudition, even the highly suspicious Church Fathers had

bowed their pious heads with deep . ca ‘reverence. | A

Yes, Aristotle was the ideal

diaeval writers, but unfortuna

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ideal, that famous disciple of Judas is as good as that of

Plato hated tiemocracy almost as : as Carlyle

Jesus!” (By the way, you' will “observe that I use “quotes.”)

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intense dislike for de-

ly understandable. Under the clever leadership of Pericles in the Fifth century B. C., the city of Athens had enjoyed—for a few brief years—such an outburst of democratic glory that even today the world is still talking about this Golden Age. , But I said it had lasted only a few years. It had started in 444

" B.C. It had been all over in 429

B. C. And most people laid the blame for this defeat to the outarageous misrule of the Demagogues (the rabblerousers) who succeeded Pericles and who, hiding benind their contemporary bill-of-rights, had merely used their own liberty of expression to enslave all those who did not agree with them. The final destruction of the Athenian Empire, after the treason of Alcibiades (usually regarded as. the best, example of an, aristocrat gone democratic), had given the cause of “rule by the pebple” such a bad reputation in the eyes of all well-balanced and reasonable-minded people that according te Aristotle (who of course had an axe to grind), democracy was the perversion of that “desirable forin of government” which one might call “constitutional government.” To Aristotle this meant the rule by the majority of all free and equal citi= zens as opposed to a monarchy or

an aristocracy. And so, as early as the Fourth éentury B. C. there were already people who were-beginning to recognize the vast difference that exists betwen “democracy” and

“self-government.”

" NEXT—Democracy Works Better in Small Countries than in Big ountries,

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