Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 26 March 1940 — Page 11

The

4 CARMELETA. Peten, . Guatemala, March 26.—In he thatch-roofed warehouse here at Carmelita lie . Breat| stacks of cream-colored blocks, waiting to je flown to the coast and eventually to land in the ouths of millions of stenographers. This is chicle. It is halfw lo between sap from a tree and‘a + stick of gum wrapped in waged paper. At -the warehouse, the Chicle Development Co. has a man who f tests the chicle blocks. He takes | a little drill-core of chicle, heats it, and runs it through a chemi=.cal test to find the amount of . moisture in the block. . These chicle blocks run about a third water, although you'd never know it to cut into one, for they seem dry inside. Chicle that tests 33 per cent water brings $34.50 - per 100 pounds. Chicle with only 24 per cent water j brings $39.03. Chicle of more than 33 per cent water ! refused. Chicle of less than 24 per cent water is ® eard of. Now the chiclero doesn’t get all this $34.50 for his 100 pounds. About $5 of it goes for freight to |the seaboard, and $7.50 goes to the Guatemalan Government in royalty, and 75 cents to freight-handlers, and about $9 to the contractor. The chiclero usually gets about $12. The average chiclero gathers about 2000 pounds of chicle in a season, although the best ones can make 5000 or more. Their income runs between $10 and $15 a week. Out of that they have to repay the contractor for their les and grub. : foe, x = y ; . . He's Not Gltting Rich { So you see the chiclero isn’t buying any yachts off us jaw-wagging customers in the States. is working he does get more than most Central Amert: ican labor.

| e. life of the chicleros is a. hard one. Health is not good among them. Damphess and cold take

|

Our T own

| HEREWITH all of which, in one way or another, have something to ~ do with the Indianapolis Fire Department. Item 1: The first fire of record around here was

the burning of Maj. Carter's tavern (“The Rosebush”) 1825. It wasn’t until June 20, 826, however|— after Nicholas

anapolis Fire Department was oranized. This volunteer company ad no apparatus except buckets and ladders. Every householder was expected to give all the

buckets” were made until some years later, probably not | until

organized. When they came, the buckets were big leather affairs that looked for the world like small beer kegs. They were made by| the harness makers and painted -a pale blue by Sam Rooker, our first sign painter. His * first sign made for] the Rosebush was destroyed in . the first fire. . Item 2: The Marjon Engine Company absorbed the . original company in|1835 and was organized to operate the Marion Engine purchased at the joint expense of the State and City ($1800). Two years later, the first * engine house was built on the north side of the Circle. * In 1851 it was destroyed by. fire. Without exception, . it’s the prize example of irony around here.

Paid Department Authorized

-41 Item 3: On Nov. 14, 1859, two City ordinances were «| passed; one disbanded the’ volunteer companies ‘and | the other provided for a paid fire department consisting of one steam and two hand engines and a Hook | and ladder company. The two men, whose business it was to stay at the engine house all the time, got $300 . apiece a year. As for the other -firemen, they got| $25 a year and the privilege of pursuing their regular. trades while waiting for fires to turn up.

f 7 |

Washington

WASHINGTO March 26.—I have a letter from a Republican’ whose profession keeps him in close touch both with | politicians and with currents of ” public opinion, and he is much disturbed at the - way things are going in his party. } He recalls a passage out of Senator Hoar’s memoirs to the effect: that in the Republican National Convention of 1888 Chauncey Depew turned thumbs down on the ‘man - picked for President and practically dictated the choice. “It seems,” this Republican adds, “that we are going back to the old ways fast, with one man dictating the Democratic choice and the prospects of a backroom conference picking the other. : Wonder what T. R., Dolliver and their brethren would say?” In that last [sentence, my/ friend put his finger on the trouble. | There is no T. R., no Dolliver, no elder La Follette—his two able sons gave up the Republican Party as a bad job—and no other men : lof like force to [provide the yeast in is has Ttt. ihe

“|Party. Hiram Johnson is tired. Norris has left the “party. Borah

11936 AU

gone. = ”

ver Again of insiders who Know what they

| J | money—yes, ) and a number of others. | | going, ft will be [little more than a corporation holding | company by the time they get through with it. | || A few weeks ago, about the time he was made | Republican finance chairman, Mr. Weir attended a | secret conference of an inside group of the National | Association of Manufacturers and was one of several

At the rate the party is

WASHINGTON, , Monday—TI understand that yesterday was th coldest Easter since 1890. In cor5 an testify that Miss. Thompson and I found the sunrise service at the Unknown Soldier's Tomb a triumph of the spiritual over the physical. ae I The seats were all taken in spite of the weather, which congealed both hands and feet. I saw Governor Price of Virginia opening and closing his hands as though they were getting numb and I was glad that none of the young people staying in the house had decided to get up to accompany me. Instead, I took them to the 11 o'clock service at St. Thomas’ Church.

I did not ride in the afternoon

s usual, we went down at 9:30 a. m. : DO e over the radio a said ja few words for the newsreels. Then I walked around the grounds x and poke to) the members of he. Georg e Washing- a

] oosier Vagabond |

Yet while-he. -

their toll in pneumonia and rheumatism. Malaria and!

OTHER disorganized list of items

- [bucket help he could, but no “fire |

the Marion Engine Company, was |

dysenter ate] ‘common. | How they can be the cnr friendly people they are I don’t know.

“2 By Ernie Pyle

Indianapolis

After [the chicle is tested it is. put into burlap B

it on their backs to the waiting plane, it is packed carefully in. the cabin | (to avoid shifting in the air), and off it goes to Puerto Barrios and America. | A fast twin-motored Lockheed freighter can make

sacks, about seven x to a sack. Then men) carry

five trips a ‘day, winging out 27,500 pounds between |

dawn and dusk. We did a little figuring, and found it would take a 20-mule train seven months to take out one day’s plane haul!

I took my knife and cut into a light-brown block |"

of chicle. It was gray inside, almost the color of finished chewing gum.| I cut off a hunk and put it in my mouth. It had no taste at all. But its chewing

consistency was exactly the same as that of a stick ‘

of gum. » ”

Boy, What Snakes

I said earlier that the chief cause of death among the chicleros was pneumonia. The second cause is snakebite.

In this jungle is the deadly fer-de-lance, or as it is known locally the barba amarillo, pronounced

-“barba-ma-ree-yo.” In Spanish, it means yellow chin

or yellow whiskers. A close friend of mineé~was in the jungle ago, with a pack train. - One of the natives to tighten his saddle girth. He put one foot back into the bush not more than six inches. The others heard him scream. They jumped off and ran to him. He was dead. That quick. The chicleros working out of Carmelita lose an average of four mules a year from the barba amarillo. And yet, I met a chiclero today who has been bitten four times by barba amarillos. His name is Tomas Requena, and there is no lexplanation for his being alive.| He's just a freak, in that respect. And just a few days before I came here, one of the chicleros killed a barba amarillo not 100 yards from the TACA radio shack. It lacked two inches of being seven feet long. Jeepers creepers, and shades of William Wrigley, as we-say in our chicls jungle Jargon, what snakes!

month pped,

By Huston Scherrer

Item 4: A year later, in 1860, arrangements were

made for a central alarm system. “The Council placed|- :

a watchman in the tower of Glenn’s Block, the build-

‘ing that was torn down to make room for the New

York Store (25 E. Washington St. to you youngsters). Here Charles. Rhodes was stationed with a field glass to look out for fires. When one was detected, the alarm was /given on a bell mounted on an open framework tower infthe rear of the building. The City had nine wards af the time, and the bell struék the number of the ward in which the fire appeared to be located whereupon the firemen went in that direction

and hunted it up as best they could. | .» ” ” |

Fire Crosses Street ; |

Item 5: The watchtower in the Court House steeple was established: in 1883 with Frank Graham in charge. He was the first man to climb the 60 feet of rope ladder leading from the clock to the “watch house.” On March 17, 1890, he heard the alarm and saw the engines rushing [to the scene of the Bowen-Merrill fire. or| three hours he watched the smoke as it curled | up [from the basement and then darkness came. The s ee grew, strangely quiet and Graham figured that re was out. He reached for the telephone conne tin with Fire Headquarters and rang the bell. “Hello,” excitedly exclaimed the man on duty. “I think the fire is out,” said Graham. “Yes and it’s got the boys,” was the reply, “the roof fell in and killed|15 or 20 of them.” Item 6: Until 1874 no fire ever crossed a street in Indianapolis. The first to do so/was the one that

- started in Wright’s Exchange Block on the west side

of Pennsylvania St. north of Market. Before anybody knew it, two buildings across the street were in flames. Up until that time is was generally supposed that such a thing couldn’t happen, on account of our wide streets. And I still insist (Item 7) that of all the old fire horses around here, Dick and Ned were as good as any and a lot faster than most. They belonged to No. 10, the engine house at Merrill St. and [Russell Ave. right in the heart of the bailiwick ‘where 1 spens my boyhoed. | aE

Raymond Clapper

who led in a dj cussion of a huge billboard advertising and publici Ly campaign for this summer. during the Presidentia 1 campaign. The idea is to handle it under the auspices of the N. A. M. One of the major themes: would be something along the line of “Restore the American Way of Life.” It would be ‘non-political,’ of course. Yes indeed! You remember in 1936 the lady Republican who each day wrote that there were only so many more days in which to save| the American way of life by electing Governor Landon? What it all looks like is a hookup between the Republica Party and a large business group, represented in the N. A. M, ‘to repeat the type of campaign used in 1936 with spectacular lack of success. | ” » »

Progressives on Sidelines

~ At the moment there isn’t much else in the Republican picture. Such progressives as remain in the party [are on the sidelines, watching the party drift into anpther campaign under the same kind of inside Liberty League leadership that ran the 1936 campaign. Republican insiders figure that the times are moving their way, that it’s another 1920, that they can nominate anybody and ride in on th shoot the works when they get ta Wa I see just/one man in the Republican

| is strong enough to speak out against this drift

and to rally those who are opposed to making the Republican Party the tail of the N. A. M. That is Alf Landon. | I don't know whether he is interested in the fight. It would be rough. He woud be accused of creating dissension and of injuring the party’s chances. The Republicans can win this election only with votes that went to Roosevelt in 1932 and 1936. Unless Landon, or | someone like him, will undertake to exercise leadership in this situation, there seems little

"hope [that anything will turn the Republican Party

from |its resetionary destination. | \ : ®

By Eleanor Roosevelt

siiie|menti rs of the Boys’ Club of the Metropolitan Police, which was to play later. Later in the cay, the Montgomery County -(Maryland)| High School Band, the National Training School Band and the United States Marine Band played for the entertainment of our guests. The youngsters, | with baskets filled with. eggs, were all warmly dressed and seemed to be enjoying themselves 1n spite of the chilly air. « - I | went for a ride at 11 o'clock and at a little after 2 p. m. .I went out on the grounds again to ow many more children had braved the cold. At 2:30 the Rochester University Glee Club sang two numbers on the porch and then a few numbers in the East Room. At 3 o'clock, the small children, who usually come Easter Mondd#y afternoon for a party, arrived. They had their movies and ice cream and cake and a look out on the lawn and left before our official; visitors from Costa Rica arrived. I must tell you that the movie “Rebecca,” made from Daphne De Maurier’s book, is excellent, It holds your interest all the time and Judith Anderson does a wonderful piece of character acting as Mrs, Danvers. The two principals are charming and convincing. They were wise to. end the picture so that you can imagine the future will be happier

and| that Rebecca’s evil influence will finally pass Evil influences have a dreadful way, however;|

away. of stick ging around and one disagreeable person in {2 mily gan Shadow the present and ihe Tuture

[Trades Council

tide and

CLAIM BUILDING CODE VIOLATED

Delegates Make Charges to Safety Board.

Charges that the City Building Commission has failed to halt al-

Board today by nine representatives of the Marion County Building Trades Council. Safety Board members promised

«| & thorough investigation of the | charges, which ranged from allega-

tions that “combustible materials” were being substituted for noncom bustible materials in construction, to assertions that certain contractors were permitted to make electrical connections and installations without getting a permit. R. P. Irrgang, Plasterers Union business agent, said he knew of

struction of buildin He told the Bo: rd this constituted a fire hazard in addition to violating the Building Code. Roy Creasey, business manager for . the Electrical | Workers’ Union and a former City electrical inspéctor, said elecfric™ ranges are being installed without a permit and without “blue tag] inspection certificates issued by the Building Department. He said the Bui

ding Department made inspections jafter installation had been completed but that no changes were ordered if the work was found unsatj safely standpoint. The union business agents were questioned closely| by. Donald Morris, Safety Board member. Mr. Morris said he was particularly interested in Mr. Irrgang’s assertion that combustible materials were being substituted | for noncombusti- | ble’ materials in [Siepronr: buildings. Building Cominissioner George R. Popp. Jr, ephrtm inspections

made by his department, said that in some instances deferred inspections were permitted but that in every case a permit was taken out for electrical installations. ‘Mr. Creasey replied that “if the Building Department enforced the Building Code, it would need at least three additional electrical inspectors.” - “What we are trying to do is to see that the building code is observed by all contractors,” Mr. Creasey said. Other building trades representatives at the meeting were Carl Vestal, Iron Workers Union business agent; Charles Kern, of the steam-| fitters union; Clyde McCormick, of the carpenters; Horner Wilson, hod carriers; Charles Frauer, plumbers; Charles Wilson, sheet metal workers, and John Etchison, representing common laborers.

leged violations of the Building| Code were made before the Safety |

isfactory from al

Symphony

|

-»

AIRPORT ROAD REPAIR URGED

County Is Asked to Grade Banner Ave. for Use of Federal Aids.

County Commissioners today were

i faced with a request that they grade

and eventually resurface Banner Ave. from W. Washington St. south | to the new Civil Aeronautics Authority test station at the Munici- | pal Airport. The request was made by IL .J. (Nish) Dienhart, Airport superin-

that Federal officials have been “complaining about the poor condition of the road.” The half-mile stretch of Banner Ave. is “full of chuckholes and soon will be impassable unless it is graded,” Mr. Dienhart said. : “The road is used by Federal enrployees ‘of the test station, and traffic on the route will. be even heavier after the State Highway Department closes | High . School Road for improvements,” Mr. Dienhart said. “Federal officials said that since. they located the test station here, adequate road faciliies leading to it would not be too much to ask.” illiam A. Brown, president of the Board of Commissioners, asked Mr. Dienhart to put the request in writing ‘so “commissioners have a

proper basis for copfideration. ”

tendent, who told ‘Commissioners’

A drive for furids that will consolidate the present position of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and provide for its future was launched last night. 0. Lee, Mrs. Alfred W. Noling, Charles J. Lynn, Dr. G. H. A. Clowes, Mrs. Clowes and Kurt Pantzer.

Among those present were (left to right) Wallace

Spring Vaeation To Start Friday

Spring vacation was over today for parochial school pupils, but public’ school pupils will have to wait until Friday to start their holiday.

be five regular school days and two week-ends. There won't be any school from Friday until April 8. Yesterday was the last , day of a week's parochial school vacation.

SUES TO RECOVER LINDEN BANK LOOT

. The Indianapolis office of the Federal - Bureau of Investigation today was named defendant in a suit by the National Surety Co. to recover $997.27 of the $2000.69 loot seized in the Linden State Bank robbery a year ago. The suit, filed in Superior Court 3, charges that the local FBI agents recovered the $997.27 from the two robbers after their capture and that the recovered money is still in the hands of the FBI. The surety company, which had insured the bank, states in the suit that it had paid the loss claims and should now receive that portion of the loot which was recovered. B. Edwin Sackett, director of the Indianapolis FBI office, said it was “customary to dispose of recovered money by court action.” He said it was a friendly suit and that the Federal Government requires courts to make -the legal disposition of: the

funds.

The public .school vacation will |

Honored guests at the meeting, which was held in the new

Naval Armory, were (left to right)

I o

Fabien Sevitzky, orchestra conduc-

tor, and Ferdinand Schaefer, conductor emeritus and grgahizer.

Times Photos.

Also proseht and making plans for their part of the drive were members of Team 52, who are (left to right) Mrs. Chauncey H. Eno, team captain; Mrs. Albert Scheidenhelm, Mrs. William Hall Jr. and Mrs. _Volney Brown. The drive will gontinne for 12 days.

TAX STATEMENT

DEMAND HEAVY

Convenience of Pay-by-Mail Method Is Stressed by Boetcher..

An unusually heavy early demand for property tax statements. was reported today by County Treasurer Walter C. Boetcher,

CITIES’ LEAGUE MAPS TAX FIGHT

Awaits Evansville Audit Before Filing Attack on Gross Levy.

| The Indiana: Municipal League today awaited an audit of the City of Evansville’s books before starting

a court fight against the application of ‘the gross income tax to municipal enterprises. Evansville was expected to take the lead in filing the court case bes cause -it has the widest diversity of revenues which the Gross Tax Divi sion believes taxable. The case probably will be a request for a declaratory judgment. It is expected to be filed in the Vanderburgh Circuit Court and then taken to the Supreme Court ‘as rapidly as possible.

League States Stand

The Municipal League believes that revenues derived from proper gove ernmental functions should not be subject to tax and declares that en<

sion’s regulation for taxing city ace tivities which are in competition with private business would raise property taxes. The Gross Income Tax Law was adopted to permit re duction of property taxes, \ The decision to file the suit was taken after a conference of the municipal league’s executive committee with Gilbert K. Hewit, Gross Tax Director, yesterday. The committee asked Mr Hewit to postpone the effectiveness of the new regulation until next year, so that the -eities could: present the problem to the 1941 Legislature and perhaps get a favorable bill passed.

Refuses the Plea

both by mail and over-the-couriter' taxes than for individuals to do so.

at the Treasurer's office in the

| Courthouse is heavier “by far” since

March 15, than it was for the same tax-paying period last year. The heavy demand is a harbinger of a‘'“good tax payment” by Marion County property owners, the Treasurer said. The deadline for payment is May 6. Mr. Boetcher emphasized that property owners could avoid: the inconvenience of standing in line at the Treasurer's office if they would pay-by-mail. To do this they must send in to the Courthouse office iast year’s tax duplicate together with a self-addressed stamped envelope and the new statement will be mailed back to them. Then by obtaining a postal money order and mailing the statement and money order for the amount of the taxes, and another self-ad-dressed envelope, the tax czn be paid and the new duplicate or receipt returned.

THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY

By Hendrik Willem van Loon (ILLUSTRATED BY THE AUTHOR)

CHAPTER 14

T may seem that I have some‘what: stressed the Athenian Democracy at the expense of all further experiments in government by the people. But it all happened so long ago that we are in: possession of every detail connected with this tragedy and can study the prohlem from that distance which alone allows us to be completely impartial and neutral in our final conclusions.

This so-called Golden Age of Greek Democracy showed us the magnificent achievements that could. be accomplished by a “government of the people,” when it enjoyed the leadership of men of exceptional ability, integrity and an unselfish desire to work only Jor the glory of the community at arge.

But it also gave us a clear picture of what must happen the moment thess men disappeared from the scene and their places are taken by those corrupt and dishonest individuals who use their oratorical abilities to hypnotize the masses up to the point where they will lose all ability to judge for themselves and will ac- . claim as the very men who will soon afterward betr them and carry them to destruction.

{ - ®. 2 a. once was an Englishman by the name of Thomas Gresham. He lived during the first half of the sixteenth century “he was Queen

eir heroes and leaders

Bad money drives out good money, and bad democracy will always ‘drive out good democracy.

As that august lady was always hard up for mohey (as all medieval sovereigns were bound to be in a day when most people went through life without ever seeing as much as $10 in actual cash), he was an ‘economic expert of no mean ability. Since Antwerp was then the great banking center of the world, he lived for many years in that city and it was there that he discovered that ingenious economic law which is still known as Gresham's Law. ’

money © will - invariably tend to drive out good money.” By bad money, the “Queen’s merchant” not only meant actual counterfeit money, but also inflated ‘money and every other form of currency that was not somehow or other backed up by absolutely sound assets. roi

Sir Thomas therefore never .ceased in his attempts to convince his royal mistress that only ever- - las protec

ect the “good money” of her ent ]

money” completely out of circulation. ’ » » » . E have since then learned * that Gresham’s Law 1s not merely ‘restricted to money but holds good for all other commodities, both of a material and spiritual nature. Bad theater will invariably drive out good theater. Bad music will have a tendency too drive out: good music. Cheap literature, un-

less carefully watched, will come. °

pletely: destroy good literature.

Bad manners will drive out good manners, and finally, bad Democracy will always drive out good Democracy unless all these who believe in good Democracy will band tegether into a strong group and will watch thereupon, both day and night, lest bad Democracy sneak [in through some unguarded loophole and corrupt the genuine icle, as one rotten apple will affect a whole barrel of good ones.

And I shall now rapidly run through the history 6f Democracy since the days of the famous Athenian experiment, to show you how the law of Thomas Gresham works when applied to Democracy. I must once more warn you that

it ‘is not a very happy story. But |

right now when Democracy on ail sides is being threatened by tyranny, we had better face a few unpleasant facts if we wish to . save ourse ves.

_N The Roman Ropaitie

activity on her part to

If the Legislature had intended to exempt cities from the tax, it would have done so, he said. = | Answering a brief of the cities of Indianapolis, Ft. Wayne and| Evans< ville claiming that courts had exe empted cities from other taxation, Mr. Hewit claimed that these cases

pute, but that the 1937 Legislature had shown clearly its intention not to exemnt cities from this tax. The Gross Tax Division, backed by a!ruling of the Attorney General, claims that it ‘would be unfair not to tax these activities of cities which are in competition with private en< terprise,. Included are such muse nicipal affairs as airports,- markets, 1ents, swimming pools, golf courses, parks and amusement grounds, cemeteries, housing wharfs and utilities.

Claims Business Support

Mr. Hewit claims | that “most businessmen. favor imposing taxes on government activities which invade private enterprise. Even if paying gross tax should mean en increase in property taxes, it would not be so great an evil as unequal treatment of businesses of the same character,

ther adds to. the, discrimination. n

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

1—-Did Congress ever have four sese sions?

name of which former President of the U. 8.2

3—What is meant’ ‘by a light year?

4—Who was’ the commander of the Bon Homme Richard?

5—Does’ summer officially Degin on May 21 or: June-21? 6—Do housé- flies bite?

7—Did England conscri * Jrishmen during the ‘World bs Answers 1—Ves, the 67th. ; | 2--Chester Alan Arthur. 3—The distance that travel in one year. | {4+-Johin Paul Jones. | S—June 31, & leet 6—No. : T—No.

light can

‘8 a ha : 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., Washington, D.C. Legal and medical : pdvice nor can

forcement of the Gross Tax Divie

Mr. Hewit refused, Saving that it 5 Mr. Boeicher said the demand is no harder for cities to pay gross -

had no bearing on the present dis<

authorities, -

If ‘ such activities are subsidized by the cities, this fure

2—“Prince Arthur” was ‘the nicke

7