Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 17 May 1940 — Page 20

FRIDAY, MAY 17, 1940

Hoosier Vagabond

. (Ernie Pyle is on vacation and at the request his readers we are reprinting some of Ernie's vorite columns.) NEW STRAITSVILLE, O., May 21, 1938.—Just to Took around over these rolling green hills of southern "Ohio, you wouldn't believe that Hell is only a few feet underneath. But just kneel down and dig into the ground an inch or two, and youll come up quickly with an “ouch,” and find your fingers nearly blistered. For there is fire raging under the earth. It is the world's greatest coal-mine fire. It has been burning for 54 years, and has destroyed all the coal—$50,000,000 worth of it—underneath an area of 36 square miles. The fire started during the miners’ strike of 1884. Whether it was set by miners, or caused by lightning, or was accidental— it's just as well not to ask around

these parts. ~ But it started anyway, and spread like a slow disease through the unreachable strata beneath the earth, » »

WPA to the Rescue

There was no way to fight such a sinister fire. Coal companies went broke trying to stop it. ‘They spent thousands of dollars filling up fissures in the earth which gave the fire air and kept it alive. But there were too many fissures. The last previous attempt to do anything about the fire was made, I believe, about 1900. Since then it has burned to its heart's content. And then, two vears ago, WPA came along. Today they have almost finished bottling up this fire. They haven't tried to put it out. They've merely dammed it off, so it can’t spread any farther. The country around here is hilly, and since the coal veins are not far beneath the surface, most of them are short, and run out to the surface on hillsides. There are only three veins now burning which go beneath the valleys and continue on into almost endless deposits. So WPA cut these three main arteries by building underground firewalls.

Our Town

ONE OF THE BITTER things to confront us men this week was the discovery that the new nylon stockings aren't run-proof after all. Seems that all this shouting for the past few months was just another false alarm. Apparently, the promised miracle missed the bus, leaving Indianapolis husbands no better off than they were before. I don't know whether Ive made myself clear. What the world was looking for, and certainly what we men had every right to expect after all these weeks of watchful waiting, was an indestructible stocking. To a degree, at least, that it wouldn't be subject to runs. I bring up the subject of runs in ladies’ silk stockings because of a rumor that they're worse in Indianapolis than anywhere else in the world. The rumor is more or less right, a thesis I am prepared to defend today.

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For the Benefit of Bachelors

Let me start at the beginning, if for no other reason than to give the bachelors of Indianapolis some idea of what I'm talking about. By definition, a run is a ravel*wnd = ravelin § silk stocking is a disentangled thread which, once it gets started, no power on earth can stop. Snooty people, who can abide ordinary language, call a run a “piano” because in the case of black stockings on sophisticated ladies, a run looks something like a keyboard. It's a nice enough simile as long as women stick to black stockings. I don't think much of it in the case of polyehromatic hose Well, let's suppose a run gets started. The next thing to determine is when it will stop. There's no telling. In Indianapolis it never stops short of 10 inches and it can go all the way to two feet. The average run around here is 17 inches which is two more inches than anywhere else in the country. You have

Washington

WASHINGTON, May 17.—There is a current rising hysteria in this country, sprouting from the idea that we ought to enter the war as a preventive measure to kill off the danger of later invasion of the Western Hemisphere, Rarely is the proposition stated so baldly, but that is the thought behind a good many words that are being uttered. That viewpoint, which fis steadily gaining ground because of the importance of some who hold it, now finds its thesis sharply opposed by the Senate Naval Affairs Committee in a most significant report which aavocated additions to the Navy. Because it is the voice of the Senate Naval Affairs Committee, this report is bound to become a textbook for those who believe the Administration is moving toward deeper involvement in Europe. Some passages especially relating to Japau seem unfortunately indiscreet, In effect the conmittee stands on hemisphere defense. It states that some of our best informed naval experts are of the opinion that the United States should not participate in the European war under any circumstances now conceivable, and that United States soldiers should never again be landed on a

foreign continent. »

Lack Necessary Weapons

The Senate Naval Affairs Committee says we are not prepared to participate in the European war, that we do not possess the necessary weapons. and that we should not consider our naval needs with any such object In view. We should, the committee says, profit by the experience of the last World War and avoid becoming too greatly involved in European affairs.

My Day

WASHINGTON, May 17.—T1 had a pleasant time yesterday with the girls at the Madiera School. They asked me far more personal questions that did the

boys at Choate School last week. However, I think they had a bearing on the thing which is in all our minds today, namely, personal responsibility in a democracy. No one reading the news today can fail to realize that this is a crucial moment for the world. The President has asked today for a greater increase in our national defenses. Of course, it is vital as the picture develops before our eyes, for us to understand the need of the ability to produce mechanized weapons of war in order to protect our manpower. One has but to read the record of what happened to Holland's army—one-fourth wiped out—to realize why we must have modern weapons of war. This, of course, we must face and must pay for. In addition, we must realize that, if democracy is to survive, it must be because it meets the needs of its people, Anyone who knows this country, knows that there are some people to whom the form of

government under which they live might easily seem.

immaterial because of the difficult economic situations théy have faced. The President and his Administration have been trying to meet and improve their oy \

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By Ernie Pyle

The short veins now burning will simply go ahead | and burn themselves out to the surface some day, and then go out. The three main veins will eventually | burn up to the man-made firewalls and not be able to go any farther. From 350 to 500 men, mostly ex-miners, have worked on the WPA job of building these under-| ground ba.riers. right through a ridge and taking out all the coal. In other words, they severed the vein. Then the tunnel was filled with mud. This was done by running it in through holes bored down from the surface, When the tunnel is full of mud, the ends are sealed with rock. Mud won't burn. When the fire gets to this wall of underground mud it simply has to go out. One of these barriers is already finished. It is 600 feet long; shortest of the three. The underground fire is up against it already. The other barriers—each more than a mile long—will be finished by fall. ‘The total cost will be $640,000. The saving in coal runs into hundreds of millions. ”

Roses Bloom in Winter

Despite the-spectacular proportions of this fire, it is not spectacular to the eve. True, you do feel the earth warm under your feet, and in places there are wisps of smoke rising from cracks in the ground. You have to go back in the woods to certain spots in order to see actual caverns where the fire has burned to the surface and the heat is still pouring out unbearably. Back there you do see pools of water too hot to take a bath in. And you see trees dying from the heat, and other trees which have simply burned off | at the roots and toppled over. You see sunken places | where the ground has dropped down into the firemade cavities below, You see a couple of farm houses from which the owners will have to move. Fire is burning right bel |

neath the houses, vet there is almost no visible evidence of it. Everything looks quite all right. And evervthing is quite all right—except that roses | bloom in winter, potatoes are dug out of the ground already baked, well water has to be cooled before vou can wash in it, horses disappear into sink-holes, gas puts out the fire in the cookstoves, and snakes are found gassed to death.

By Anton Scherrer

no idea what this means. It's ghastly. Figured in the most conservative way, it means that the mileage piled up by silk stocking runs in Indianapolis last vear was 100 miles more—more, mind you—than anywhere else of the same postoffice class. Altogether, the women around here ran up a mileage of close to 900 miles in one year, and all by way of runs in their silk stockings. The mileage is enough to take you to Kansas City and back. It even allows you to do | a little sight-seeing in Kansas City. You don't have to take my word for it. You can figure it out for yourself. All you have to know is| that Indianapolis has 88411 wives, 19,367 widows, 3564 | divorcees and possibly 90,000 daughters—a total of something like 200,000 who just have to have silk| stockings to keep going. ”

Tough on the Husbands

They buy on an average eight pairs a vear. Which is to say that for the most part their husbands foot | the bill. And bear in mind that eight pairs ard the | equivalent of 16 single stockings. It's important in| a calculation like this because I never heard of a run | in one stocking without its mate becoming affected | too. Not in Indianapolis, anvway. All of which brings m= to the point of today's| piece, namely that if the nylon people had produced | an indestructible stocking, or even one to last a year as some of us were led to believe thev would, things | wouldn't be in the mess they are today. | Certainly, Indianapolis husbands would be sitting] prettier. An indestructible stocking, the way I have; it figured out, would mean a saving of $1,500,000 a | vear, right here in Indianapolis alone. Sure, because

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They did it by digging a tunnel

ndiana

etailed

Dieppe p74

200,000 women multiplied by the price of seven pairs |

of stocking they don't wear equals something in the] neighborhood of $1,500,000. For the country at large with its 60 million women, | most of whom have legs, it would mean a saving of | $450,000.000—just enough to buy a nice looking navy to defend both our coasts, without bringing up the question of an additional tax or increasing the na-| tional debt. i

By Raymond Clapper

This report may well become a center of much controversy. The chairman of the committee, Senator | Walsh of Massachusetts, is strongly isolationist and his views dominate the report which is far from tracking with some of the idfas held by members of | the Administration, and is likely to cause them con- | siderable embarrassment, =

Far Eastern War Dismissed The Naval Committee report is based upon the,

= "

argument that adequate naval power, supplemented | Te

by air strength and a relatively small army, gives us| complete protection. It states that the view held by! some, namely, that “we ought to fight now when we| would have Allies rather than take a chance of having | to fight victorious totalitarian states flushed with vic- | tory at a later date, is based upon an incorrect evalu- | ation of military facts.” No insular nation, the report | says, is ever defeated so long as she retains command | of her vital sea communications. \

The report goes into some cetail to make the point machine will choose between the, the East, a battle of monster guns ning the plaims of northern France week and the official fetuihs will When that if Germany can, by air and submarine, subdue | Pattern Makers League of North 288d, punctuated by the sharp were officially denied in Paris.

Britain's vast naval force around the British Isles, | the same fate would be in store for any naval force we could send over. operating at home, and protected by air strength, is| immune to anything except a superior battle fleet. As to Japan, the committee states baldly that at the present time the U. S. Navy could not undertake | a war in Far Eastern waters. We should have to in-| crease our fleet perhaps 100 per cent, and build an impregnable naval base in the Philippines. Says the committee: “The cost to us of such a war would be So great that we must, by every means in our power, avoid the necessity of having to undertake it.” That statement, made publicly, will not help the | United States in the present delicate Pacific situation, when the strategy here is to keep Tokio guessing as to what we might do.

[announced today.

Ly « hy ur WDENPEEL yo wa. | wMarshland)

Here is the latest in the series of war maps prepared by the United Press. Tt shows in detail {he fortifications, air and naval bases, water and

rail routes and natural resources of Holland and Belgium.

2 6M, UNITS HERE Monsters Roar and Men Die

TOHOLDNLRB VOTE ~~ /n Battle of

Collective bargaining elections | will be held under the direction of! the National Labor Relations at two General Motors plants here 100 Within the next 30 days, the NLRB ‘pyench plains around Rethel. One election will be at the Allison aviation engine division and the ot - 3 y nt i Othe: he Chevrolet commercial |, rotected by At Allison, those entitled to vote > production, maintenance and mechanical employees not in supervisory positions. They will vote to accept the United Aircraft Engi , CIcr Inc. the C. I b_aelC itm, 16 miles east of Brussels, and Auto Workers. or neither. ; the region of Namur, south of there Two separate elections are to be On the Meuse River. held at the Chevrolet plant. In one. | Paris Is Military Zone wood and metal pattern makers or! : model makers working on bench or Along the Maginot Line, far to

This area was extension

lines around Sedan. a western

the main Maginot Line.

ithe Germans also were fiercely the region of Louvain, Bel-

America ‘and the C. I. O.—U. A. Ww_|Stacatto of patrol clashes, and no In the other, all production and Spot in ‘western Europe was safe

On the other hand, our navy, maintenance employees, and me- [Yom the peril of aerial bombs. Ger-|if the Germans broke through.

chanical employees in engineering | Man civilians did not escape, The department shops, will vote to decide I British Air Ministry announced that

whether they are to be represented, further successful bombing atby the C, I. O.—U. A. W. or by the tacks on military objectives”—one

A. F of L.—International Associa- of the euphemisms in the official tion of Machinists. reporting of this battle, had been ———— | carried out again during the night. Paris was in no immediate . danger although the whole Paris SHRINERS PREPARE | region had been declared a military zone. In the first battle of FORMASS INIT TION &: Marne in the World War, the IA | (Germans had stormed across the leonfluence of the Ourcg River with held | the Marne and were finally held only 14 miles from

The Indiana Shrine Council : business meetings in the Murat near Meaux,

Temple today preparatory to the | the outskirts of Paris on Sept. 9, |

conferring of degrees on more than |

By Eleanor Roosevelt

situation and all future Administrations ‘will have to |

continue their efforts. We need a united front here as well as the more tangible front of creating war materials. It requires | greater co-operation and it will require greater selfsacrifice really to make democracy something for which every citizen will feel he will willingly die, because with its loss, will go economic as well as intellectual freedom. Much has been said in this country about not wanting to participate in foreign wars and people who have said it, must now face the fact that foreign wars come very close to our own shores. We will always have not only the religious groups, but many groups who feel that war is wrong. I cannot imagine how anyone could feel otherwise with the picture before them today. But when force not only rules in certain countries, but is as menacing to all the world, as it is today, one can not live in a utopia ‘which prays for different conditions and ignores those which exist, I have a great belief in spiritual force, but I think we have to realize that spiritual force alone has to have material force with it so long as we live in a material world. For years 1 have hoped that we could stop ‘war as an instrument for settling any national ‘and international difficulties. I have worked for it and shall continue to work for it. However, one has to face the ‘world as it is and, without discarding one's ideals, mee( the realities of the day and keep on ‘working for ‘what one hopes will be a better future. .

COWDRILL TO RULE

This time, however, the armies were fighting with weapons far more devastating—guns 40 feet long, tanks weighing 90 tons. airplanes with diving speeds of 500 to 600 miles an hour, and automatic small arms capable of laying down screens of fire.

100 candidates late this afternoon. Among those attending the event, | the first Shrine Council here in five vears, was George F. Olendorf, Springfield, Mo., deputy imperial potentate. A feature of the program was to! be a parade of more than 650 uni-| formed Shrines through the down- Dead Already in Thousands town area at 2 p. m. { Their battleground stretched Heine Moesch is to be dramatic {across the fields and forests of Beldirector of the ceremonial ‘which. will begin at 4:30 p. m. Fred B | McNeely, illustrious potentate, is chairman of the day's program.

vain, *through the Ardennes woods, until a week ago a stene of peaceful farming and industry; and along the mighty bulwark of France, the Maginot Line. The battle had already raged for two days and the dead were beON UNION DISPUTE lieved to number many thousands. i | Unofficial German quarters in Robert H. Cowdrill, National Berlin said yesterday morning that Labor Relations Board regional di- the following seven days would derector here, ‘was to rule today on termine whether Germans could the validity of 13 votes challenged win a lightning war or would have in the collective bargaining election 'to fall back to defense positions at the Hicks ‘Body Co. Lebanon, for a long war of emplacements. yesterday. | The ‘British counter-Attacked The election will be decided by vesterday to drive the Germans the disputed votes, since they could | from Louvain, a historic university Rive victory either to the A. F. of|ecity, the “martyred city” of the L. Federal Union or the independent | World War. Hicks Employees Union. The A. F. of L. union now has 78 votes and miles below Louvain, British the t ‘union 85. : reinforcem

@ SAA

By UNITED PRESS ; . . A battle of annihilation between the main Allied ‘and German armies, Francis G. Batvett, a Progressive, President of the Indianapolis Safety Board raging on a 125-mile front in Belgium and France, reached to within both claimed today to be leading Education Council at its meeting miles of Paris today where the Germans had poured onto the northern! for election as president of Inter-! yesterday at the World War Me-

The German assault force—a swarm of tanks trailed by motorized and marching infantry, had broken through the tof the Maginot Line, weaker than!

In the devastating clash of arms, assailing |

gium, near Antwerp, Brussels, Lou- |

In the center around Namur, 30 and up ents ‘charged in lin’

Preserve this ‘map to aid in following the ‘war,

2 DISPUTE VICTORY 7 Annihilation IN,T,U. ELECTION

Claude M. Baker incumbent, and

ECH OFFICIAL NAMED BY SAFETY COUNCIL

Edward E of Tech High School,

Green, vice principal was electad

forial, Miss Mary McGee, principal of School 2, was elected vice president; William A. Evans, director of safety education of the Indianapolis school

national Typographical Union. Mr. Baker said that unofficial refirst French defense turns from 222 unions which voted — ‘Wednesday showed him in the lead, | and bolstered the retreating Bel-'19,633 to 17,303. He said that John, gians. | T. Conley was leading Woodruff | ci oram, secretary, and Murfay A. At the south end of the line, the Rahdoiph, a DE 0 Dalman, principal of School 81, Germans threw ir ei (election ‘as Secretary ‘and reasurer,yisgsurer, Mr. Evans ‘is the ‘outeHie Tet. a Tull Wwelght ati1g 643 fo 17.219. There ‘Were 750 going council president. gino ine back of Sedan. | unions voting. | The French conceded nothing there,| ‘My. Randolph said his figures | although the Germans had claimed! from 258 unions showed: | to have pierced the Maginot Line in| Barrett, 18,766 and Baker, 17,393; two places. Wild reports that Ger- Randolph, 18,577 and Conley, 16,779. | man mechanized units had broken! The union's canvassing board will P.) James Allen,

through the line and were overrun- start counting the ballots late next waka, was Killed insvantly today he was struck by a fast

KILLED BY TRAIN

MIEBHAWAKA, Ind, May 17 (U. 74. of Misha-

Britain plainly feared an invasion It] their automobiles at night to keep | KNOWLEDGE {German parachuters from seizing] 1 , NI A | N - IIs Yellowstone the name of a

Ibe ‘announced when the board has Grand Trunk Railroad freight Now far back of the battle front, completed the count. [train at a downtown crossing here, lenlisted 250,000 men in a “para-| fchute-shooter” army, ordered civil-| them, and organized a vast corps of | mobile nurses. National Park, Natjonal Forest or National Monument?

TEST YOUR lfans to remove spark plugs from | | The battle scene was in chaos. sity court system in eities ‘with |

Steps for reorganization of (he

batteries , . . { : [Datteries on ‘the ‘ground. —THey ™y “ypeup cof elected ceity “court 4='Vinat ‘fom Gf government las

ASK THE TIMES

Inclose a 3-cent ‘stamp ‘for reply ‘when ‘addressing ‘any question of fact or information to The ‘Indiaapolis Times Washington Sérvice Bureau, 1013 13th 8t., N W., Washington, D.C. ‘egal and ‘medical advice cannot be given hor ean ext Tesearch be ‘under.

renin and. entrench “rooms J10ges discus steps {o ‘provide Ce city buildings and streets, rumbling Uniform operation, procedure and s.r; {He ‘equatorial ‘eiroumterence ltanks and trains of supplies. records, and to encourage filing of of the Earth greater or less than | They dropped high explosive more civil cases in these courts. the circumference through tive bombs weighing a ton which Oe ce ann the Poles? holes in N ! ; S . t x meat ti pon, Eetsuson Tataselie William, 0-Whet Tati word meshing “u ling. "Tanks clashed with tanks, ‘big | Naftzer, Kokomo; Benjamin A Ball, (CISC 00 SUV’ is commonly fguns with big guns and man with | Richmond; and Robert C. Smith, use n schools and colleges? Iman over a vast countryside of bar- | Indianapolis Municipal cour t| T=Which U.S. Supreme Court Jus'ricades, ‘wire entanglements ‘and | judges appointed by the ‘Governor,| tice has been mentioned as a (debris. will be invited to attend the next| possible Démocratic Presidential It was the battle, fantasy ‘writ- meeting. : candidate? ers had 1magined for decades. ‘The 8—Does hair grow after death? | Allies called 1t the battle for -eivilization; Germans the battle tor the Answers next 1000 years of German destiny. AL Iya i | The concentration ot all these BY RUNAWAY HORSE X Nulitife) hati. : 'men and all this death-dealing tury | 2=The Moluceas, inthe Bast Tndies. linto such ‘a small region—an Amer- Apparently frightened by the 3=-Catfish, dogfish, goosefish, hog‘ican motorist on a casual Sunday Navy motor traffic, a horse driven| fish. |afternoon drive could trave. the DY David Wassey, 53, of 306 8. New 4=It is ‘a Republic, ldistance ot the whole battle line in Jersey St, ran ‘away today in E. 5<-Greater 'three hours—meant perforce that ‘washington St. 800 block. [8=~Curriculum. ‘men were dying in greater numbers AS the horse lurched forward, Mr. 7 William ©. Dotiglas. there than they had died in any ‘Vassey Was thrown from his wagon. 8 No. ‘battle in history. "1 ihe horse galloped across Pine and | | The ‘French Maginot Line proper Ono Sts. and knocked down a rail‘from the Rhine River to the Moselle yond flasher ‘signal before he ‘was Iblazed into action. The “Big Ber- Was | tha” cannons there formed a deep Ho ital SSey ‘was “treated ‘at City undertone to’ the sharp din ot the — ooPival | northern battle. . The Germans, LL ‘claimed ‘that the French had | SPONSORS CARD PARTY opened up their big fort guns first "Townsend Club 54 ‘will sponsor a on the German town of Rasfatt, card party in the Veterans of and that their big guns had opened Foreign Wars Hall, E. Washington

on Hagenau in Alsace-Lorraine and ny Sts, at 8:30 ‘p. 'm, to