Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 28 June 1940 — Page 19

4 pa

to San Francisco by bus in exactly four days.

: YORK CITY, Tipe 28.—No doubt there are fiends in the audience who will say that who ‘crosses this continent on a bus when '

‘ Be. doesnt have lo, is. a fool.

Nevertheless, I personally am just about to set 3 .off across this continent on a . ‘bus, and if anyone considers me a fool, that is his privilege and

let him go to it. In fact, I would

- not be a bit surprised but what '

he’s right. I am making this bus trip in the hope of catching a wife. The . / movies and novels about the romance of bus travel have intrigued me, and it seems. to be a straw at which I should grasp. For when a man reaches the _— Ml stage where the girls look at : him {wice and don’t see him ther time, even four days and nights sitting in a 1S Shalt is a small price to pay for a single good

| There is also another reason. I happen to be, enin the art of making a living. And since - don't’ have sense enough to sit down and make 8 g up, I must go about the world doing things hard way, and then writing about them. So my ing the next several days will be made in riding , and writing about the .busses. “way my itinerary is laid out, I will travel “here: to Chicago on Greyhound, from there to Lake City on Union Pacific stages, and then San Francisco by Greyhound again.

No More Sleepers.

"National Trailways has become an ifmense bus network, but it won't be possible for me to ride that line. However, I imagine my experiences, if any, ill be typical of all lines. “= Riding straight through, you can go from here That surprised me, for I had thought it took much longer. ‘Of course that means riding day and night. And

os you have ta sit up, toe.. Greyheund did have sleep-

ers between Kansas City and Los Angeles, and between Los Angeles and San Francisco, but these have

Our Town

THE BIGGEST FISH ever caught around here was the one hooked by William Hein in 1897, just below the dam at Broad Ripple. Fortunately Mr. Hein's account of the adventure is still a matter of record. It’s as good as anything in the Odyssey, and HE a darn sight more believable. a . . “I just had a common pole.” said Mr. Hein, “and a line with a crawfish on the hook I wuz usin’ all day. I hadn't had any luck since mornin’, for the city folks wuz trampin’ up an down * the river and yellin’ around and tryin’ to keep the kids from fallin’ in and I thought I'd wait a leetle for things to quiet down, thinkin’ I could get a bass or -somethin’, maybe, when I start-

ed to pull up to see if my *bait wuz all right.

:s¢ “I give the pole a leetle yank and the hook wuz caught. I pulled the pole down close to the water get it’ loose thinkin’ the hook had got snagged on a log and pulled a leetle to get it loose, maybe, but it wouldn't come loose.

8 = »

#4 FA Log Comes to Life

Le i“

id.

«. The water was about seven feet deép and I wuz afeared I'd have to break the line. I didn’t want to do that for lines cost money. “I laid down the pole and caught the line with my hands and begun pullin’ real easy. I felt it give a leetle as though I had hooked a piece of log and ° wuz draggin’ it through the water. Thinks I, ‘well 1 guess I'll get my hook all right if I be careful,’ so I

* pulled real easy and in a minute I saw as the water -.got shallerer that I had what looked like a piece of

i log about four feet long.

- “I wuz standin’ at the edge of the water and leanin’ over, pullin’ as easy as I could. ‘I had out still about 12 feet of line and could see the log plain now, for ‘the water wuz only about two feet deep when, all of a sudden, the durn thing gave a flop

and sent the water five feet high.

“Then { knew it wuz no log at all.

Washington

PHILADELPHIA, June 28. ~The people have saved

It must be

A the Republican politicians from themselves and have

forced them to nominate Wendell Willkie. That's all

Wthere is to it, just a determination on the part of a

; hr should never take

large section of the American people, regardless of

. economic status, that American politicians should noi repeat the «fumbling performance ot the Chamberlains and the Daladiers. ~That’s what nominated Willkie ~a determination among the Ef ‘people that democracy here should not fall victim to the ereeping paralysis that has laid it low abroad. I can show you letters and Rs telegrams from humble persons. and they have said it better ~ than I can say it. The Republican politicians didn't ahi Willkie. . Hoover was against him. Landon was against him until the nomination was in sight. Pew of Pennsylvania held out until after Willkie’s nomination had been assured. Those few who did

- see something in Willkie—Governor Stassen of Min-

nesota, Rep. Bruce Barton of New York, young

3 Rep. Charles Halleck of Indiana and several others,

were looked upon .contemptuously as Boy Scouts by e seasoned’ politicians who were tco slow to meaning of the Willkie boom.

s »

Bhey Sa a Big Man The professional politicians said the Republicans man who had been a Democrat had not worked his way up

cath, §

until recently, whi thro the errand-boy apprenticeship of politics. They said the Republicans should not take a man who had supported the Hull reciprocal-trade program. And to cover up, some of the reactionaries who. have been : doing : political errands for public utilities for years, lifted their hands ‘in praterdied

My Day

- HYDE ‘PARK, Thursday—The weather continues

to be the: strongest June weather I have ever known

a

' Yesterday began: with rain in a downpour, a thunder storm, then the sun, and suddenly another storm; sO 1 was indoors most of the day with a fire burning on the hearth. This was just as well, for. the accumulation: of mail was tremendous because we had been away in New York City for two. days. . Miss Thompson ‘and I worked just as hard as we could every minute. Strange though it may seem, Wednesday was the first full day that I have been in my cottage - sinee I came up here, except for the two days when the President ° was here, and those are always i busy times at the big house. I was given a rather inter“book the other day called: “Cavalcade of the 3 There is something really very exhilarating the story: of the building of our railroads and of ‘men who accomplished such gigantic tasks. These were great personalities and 1 am glad to have: nh some of them. J ne which. al 1 interests me in the tale various which have contributed

L

By Ern ie Pyle #

Boon discontinued. Foi some Féasohs, théy just didn’t work out. So far as I can find out, there are no more sleeper busses in America.

But nowadays all the transcontinental busses are!

air-conditioned, and they say theyre very comfortable. The one-way fare across the contineat is $41.85. But this summer, on account of the Fairs,

you can make a coast-to-coast round .trip for only.

$69.95. Half an hour before starting, I walked down to the corner on Broadway to buy a few things at the drug store. Just as I turned in, I heard a terrible screech of tires, and a thud, And as I swung around —I'saw a man being killed. He was jay-walking, as all New Yorkers do. The taxi was speeding, as all New York taxis do. The two mistakes came together, as they inevitably must. When I turned, the man’s body was in mid-air, rigid, flying through space.

2 #

One Out of 7,000,000

A cop on the far corner ran over. The taxi stopped, and the scared, tieless driver ‘ran back. The taxi’s

passenger stayed in a minute, and then melted away |”

into the gathering crowd. I didn’t go over. But the druggist did, and in a minute he came back and said, “He’s dead.” In about five minutes an ambulance came. It was time for me to catch my bus. What a curtain raiser for my 3000 miles of travel. I tried not to think about.it. He was just one man'out of 7,000,- : 000. At the instant he died, perhaps thousands were ' dying even more violently in Europe. The great, quiet spaces of the West where I was heading Seemed especially sweet. A Red Cap took my bags from the taxi. new 10-cent-a-bag system is in effect here. °

This

. Elwood, Ind., home of Wendell L. Willkie, tells tHe world that “our boy made good in Philadelphia. 3 Arthur F. Harrell, leader of Elwood’s Willkie-for-P resident Club, nals wp a banner on the outskirts of

the town,

1 had three pieces’ of luggage—my typewriter, a gi

medium-sized bag and a small bag. The Red Cap took twe of them. “Don’t you want to carry the other one?” he said. “It will save you 10 cents.” I believe it is the first time in all our traveling that I've ever seen a public servant try to save the customer a little money at his own expense. Those few thoughtful words of the Red Cap lifted me up like a kite. We were ‘off for California on the right foot.

By Anton Scherrer

alive and I wuzn’t afeared of anything alive I ever saw in the water, so I laid the: pole down and run down the river about 10 feet and jumped in. I waded in between the thing—that is between it and the water. I could see plainer thén and it hadn’t moved after that one big flop. “I wuz within six feet of it when it moved a leetle toward the shore and wuz in water only 18 inches deep. I knew I must be quick, so I fell forward and grabbed the thing with both hands. By luck I got one hand in its, gills and wrapped both of my legs around it. Then began the fun, “There we were, the fish and me, in more than a foot of water and me: layin down with my legs wrapped around it and it fightin’ like a shark for deep water. I couldn't use one hand at all, for it wuz in its gills and for a few minutes it was nip and tuck.

End of the Struggle

“Some feller came along the kank just then and seen me flounderin’ around in the’ water. He thought I had a fit, so I guess, or wuz hooked on the line or somethin’, for he grabbed the poie and tried to pull me out. I yelled to drop the pole and help me for ros sake, but he just stood still looking like a durn 00 “Finally after I wuz tired out I got the other hand in its other gill and then I had him. I rolled over on top of him and got on my knees. In a minute I had him dragged out.” No doubt some of you old timers remember the fish Mr. Hein caught. For the better part of a week it was exhibited in a barrel in front of Henry Smith’s restaurant on N. Illinois St. . It was a Mississippi River mud cat weighing 33 pounds and not an ounce less. It was four feet long with a mouth that measured eight inches across. Its head had a circumference of 15 inches. Nothing more wicked came out of the river. Even more amazing was the fact that Mr. Hein was a midget of a man weighing only 87 pounds. Except for his full beard, he might have been taken for a kid. I don’t care whether you believe it or not. It’s the true story of the biggest fish ever caught around here—so help me.

By Raymond Clapper

horror at the thought of nominating a utility execuive The plain fact is that the people don’t care whether Willkie used to be a Democrat, whether he is a utility man, whether he lacks experience as a ward politician. What the people want now by‘every sign on the landscape is a man who has intelligence, energy and courage. They want a man who has some idea of what it is all about. They want a man big enough at least to realize that we have the toughest problems ahead of us that we ever have had. The politicians who opposed Willkie figured the country wanted a change from Roosevelt. Perhaps it does. I don’t know. But if it wants a change— I am certain it doesn’t want to change to some fumbling, dozing fellow who thinks that the job of a President is to go to sleep and let things run themselves. The: country may be tired of glamour —and I'm not sure of that either. But it is hungry for efitjent action and it wants a big man. A really big man. 8 ”

Voice of the People

That's why this convention was deluged with demands to nominate Willkie. Sure the utility people were pumping in telegrams. And so where thousands of ordinary citizens with no interest except in seeing the Republicans put up a good man. All that the Republicans start this campaign with is Willkie. .They fumbled the platform completely. By a lucky break, they at least have a strong candidate—a strong candidate and a weak platform.

2

* Willkie wil! have to write his own platform. Fortunate-

ly he is not under much obligation to the politicians, and if they are smart they will lean heavily on him and let him carry the ball. Willkie’s nomination is a triumph for public opinion. Public opinion has this time been ahead of the politicians. It has been more intelligent than the politicians. For that we can be thankful because this is the most difficult period that our generation has ever faced. The Repubiicans have chosen the best man available, i

By Eleanor Roosevelt

to making us a great nation, is the fact that in almost every case a great many people took tremendous chances of success and failure. They gambled with their possessions and their lives. The spirit of adventure was with them from youth to old age.

Today the challenge before us is very different, but if we could see it from that same spirit of adventure, I think we would make more rapid strides than, we have been making. The years of depression have made us less sure of ourselves, oversuspicious and overcautious perhaps. Take, for example, our attitude toward the acceptance of any foreign. political refugees. ‘The first to suffer from oppression abroad were the German-Jewish’ ‘people, but many other nationalities have followed in their wake. These people love liberty ‘and value it, and have had experiences which may be of value to us in reco nizing the propaganda methods used by totalitarian dictators. We must, of course, use caution, but we need not be cautious to the point of going back entirely on our traditional Bespitality to political refugees. Human life is precious, ‘human intelligence of a fine order is rare enough to make us want to preserve it. I sometimes wonder if we could not safeguard our-

selves and at the same time show some of our old|time generosity toward human beings who day are re)

in great misery and danger.

1 i

presidency,

&

Wendell Willkie Met Gov.

Are they proud of their nephew? Willkie, the nominee’s uncle and aunt, look over a magazine article written on “Wendell Willsie's phenomenal Presidential campaign before his nomination at Philadelphia.

It All Started at a Church

Meeting-in Connecticut!

There’s no doubt about it.

Baldwin—and There Was

Actually Born the Drive for the Nomination.

By CHARLES T. LUCEY Times Staff Writer

PHILADELPHIA, June 28.—If -there be left today men ‘of the mold |. of Hanna and Penrcse and all those once proud sachems ‘of Republican |: orthodoxy in politics, it. is for them to marvel at the amazing -story of}

Wendell ‘Willkie’'s nomination.

the rulebooks of politics. hour to hour.

The men of Willkie, half a dozen of them, who canfe: to Philadelphia ’ with hardly more than their satchels and some ideas, threw away all | They played by ear and improvised from

There was, for instance, the manner in Mien Mr. Willles pom.

ination was very nearly muffed. Nothing is more carefully rehearsed in a national convention than the presentation of the candidate’s name to the delegates. Here, except for the writing of speeches, it was done almest without plans. Governor Baldwin of Connecticut, one of the first Willkie meh, let his delegation ‘‘pass” when it was called on to nominate. He thought Indiana would take it. But Indiana ‘Pagsed’! ~ But when Indiana's name was called, a lusty “Indiana passes!” came from ‘the state’s leader. Almost frantic, Governor Baldwin rushed to where. the Indiana group was seated. Wasn't Indiana, he demanded, going to nominate Willkie? It was, of course—Rep. Charles Halleck was to do the nominating—but here was the moment slipping past. Hastily Indiana swung about and the nomination went on. Two years ago Samuel Pryor, Connecticut’s young national. committeeman, asked: Wendell Willkie to come up from New York to speak at a church anniversary celebration. He asked Governor Baldwin to soeak at the same time.

109-to-1—Three Months Ago! The thrée men met there, and this: was the birth of the group which grew up about Wendell Willkie ‘and urged him into politics. Three months ago Mr. Willkie

believed his chance of nomination for the Presidency was no better than a 100-to-1 shot. But he made a “speech at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco which was hailed far and wide. The reception that speech got showed him that, due in part to publicity he had received from his frequent appearances before New Deal investigations, people were interested in hearing his story. He. had a conviction that business had: been put in a bad light and that there was a need to tell a side of the. story which had been little hedrd. At his ‘own .expense. he set out to" tell "it—and that started Wendell Willkie on the way to the Presidential nomination.

So the Movement Swelled

He wrote a magazine article and took it to his friend Russell Davenport, them managing editor of Fortune, to ask his opinion of it. Mr. Davenport Tiked it so well he bought it. And so impressed was he with the man Willkie that he resigned his job to boost him for the

A young New. ‘Yorker, Oren Root; also without willkie's knowledge, began ‘to - organize: a volunteer Willkie+ {or Bresifen ‘movement: e movement swelled _— ast SAY. Governor Baldwin and-his C ticut delegation came to’ Philadelphia. Governor Baldwin was. the state's favorite son, byt he proposed his own withdrawal and a solid vote of ‘the Connecticut delegation for Willkie. = © These 16. votes probably were the first votes pledged definitely ‘to

Willkie. They stuck to him through.

out the balloting. In a small suite in the Benjamin Franklin Hotel a few men, met each

GUESTS, MY EYE! IT'S THE PEOPLE!

It Was a Happy Throng in The Gallerias—Their Candidate: Won.

By FRED W. PERKINS Times Staff Writer 2 PHILADELPHIA, June 28.—“The galleries,” thundered Chairman Joe Martin in the Republican National Convention early this morning, “must be in order. Their occupants are nere as‘ guests of the convention!” : “Guests, hell!” shouted a voice in the foggy recesses of the great hall. “We're the people!” Just previously the impatient thousands in the galleries, most of them Pennsylvanians, had booed the Pennsylvania delegation of 72 when it failed to vote in its turn. The great majority of the huge crowd— 26,000 in a building designed for 17,000~wanted the Pennsylvanians. to vote for Willkie with no buts or delays. : But the Keystone state delegation, second largest there, missed - the boat, the bus and the hgndwagon. Never in political history, according to men who have been going to national conventions for decades, has such a thrilling battle been fought out in the open and with the crowd .taking such a vital part in it. Iv was a predominately happy throng during the balloting, with many of its members thinking they were having something to do with the outcome. Taft supporters, a bit glym, were .inclined to agree. The galleries « themselves refuted the charge that on the previous evening they had been “packed” with Willkie backers. , It" was uns thinkable that the same maneuven| could have worked on two succeeding nights—and with, 26,000 for the return appearance. In addition, there was a fervor about this crowd to show it had gathered for no sordid political ‘purpose. This was no directed turnout of political hang-ers-on, It was the people!

—Rep. Bruce Barton of New York, Rep. Halleck, Rep. Frank Horton of Wyoming, Kenneth Simpson, Governor Baldwin and Mr. Pryor, Willkie himself, of course, sold} ‘Wendell Willkie to the Republican| Party. Daily he met hundreds of delegates, and sat in on endless conferences’ with his stra board. He wore them down, “at ‘last; they worked-in relays while he went right on through an 18-hour day. Mr. Willkie today is surrounded chiefly ‘by young men—men like Governor Stassen of Minnesota, only 33, whose. announcement for the| "Hoosier-born New Yorker was one of ‘the “breaks” of the convention. These are the ones who will: help

mint to.push. the: Willkie Sampaigy sar al n

Mr. and Mrs. Frank

“Wendell will make the best what Dr. O. O. Hinshaw, Elwood carpenter. !

President since Lincoln.” ‘That's : druggist, is. telling J. Wo Truex, a

‘Here's a view of Mr. Willkie’s birthplace in Elwood, 2 modest two-story frame dwells ing which has become a “shrine” among those who believe the one-time boy leader of that “Willkie gang” is going to be the next occupant of the White House.

'

Farming is not the least of the amazing Mr. Willkie's diversified interests. Here's. a view of the Wille

kie-owned farm operated on a 50farms.

‘No One inAmerica Should > EarnM ore Than the President’

That's Exactly What Wendell Willkie ‘Said. When He Turned Down an Ficrease in Salary.

* By CHRIS CUNNINGHAM United Press Staff Correspondent NEW - YORK, June -28.—Wendell. Lewis Willkie, lican Presidential candidate, has been, in turn, a farm boy, baker's boy, wheat harvester, oil field worker, tent hotel proprietor, vegetable picker,

”

corn husker, short order cook, high

old head of the. $1,128, 501,778 Commonwealth and Sou ern Corp. util-

ities ‘system. .

Six months ago'he was a political unknown. Until four years ago | he had been a Democrat. He had attended the Democratic National Convention in. 1924 as delegate from Ohio, and had voted for President

Roosevelt in 1932. ‘Willkie was born Feb. 18, 1802, in Elwood, - Ind. (1930 population 10,685), the son “of Herman Francis and' Henrietta Trisch Willkie. His grandparents came to the United

States in :1848 ‘from Germany. /

As a boy he was prankish and Elwood parents seldom pointed’ him out as a model for their boys. When he was 11 he went ifito partnership with his brother Ed, selling small buildings to ‘farmers. Later he sold newspapers, drove a hakéry wagon ‘and at 15 entered the University of ‘Indiana. -

It took him seven years to grad-, uate, chiefly because he spent.a lot of time in outside work. He haryested: wheat in Minnesota, worked: in the oil fields of TexaS and Wyoming, operated a tent hotel in Colorado, picked vegetables in California, husked ¢orn. in Iowa. and for a'short time was “chef” in a

‘| small ‘restaurant.

His classmates at Indiana called {him a “radical” because he participated in street-corner debates, fostered campus revolts, wore a red turtle-neck sweater and chewed to‘bacco. He graduated in 1913. : “The following year he taught high school history at Coffeyville, Kas. He gave that up and returned to Indiana t@study law. ¥rom 1916 to 1919 he was partner with his father in-the law firm, Willkie & Willkie. He had on April 6, 1917, ‘however, enlisted in the Army, served in|2 France and’ been commissioned a captain in the 325th Field Artillery. And ‘before he sailed to war he had married the new librarian: in Elwood: Her name was Edith Wilk. They were married on Jan. 14, 1918. After the war he became a member of the law firm of Mather, Nes-

elt, ui & Willkie, in Akron, O.- Hel

50 basis by Louis Beriemier. - J

school teacher, lawyer and 48-year-

left ‘the firm in 1929 to join the legal department of the, Commonwealth: & ' Southern, a company which. seld power in 10 states from Michigan to Florida.

In 1933, B. C. Cobb, then president of the firm, told Willkie, then 41, that ‘he was in line for the Presidency In ‘January, 1934, Willie was elected .president of the utilities corporation.

Because he doubled power sales; the corporation directors éffered him an inérease in his. $75,000 annual salary, but he refused it. “That's ‘more than the salary of the President of the United States,” he said. “No one in America should earn more than the President.” Willkies then was a Democrat, but his leanings veered toward the anti- | Wh New Deal side when the Tennessee Valley Authority was set up by the Government in the territery. tovered by Commonwealth & Southern. The Government offered to buy out the Corporation’s Tennessee electric company, but- negotiators could not agree on a price. When the deal finally. was made, David Lilienthal of the TVA handed Willkie a check for $78,000,000 for the Tennessee company. Lilienthal, ‘also an: Indiana native, said at the time: “This is a lot of money for a couple of Indiana farmers": to. — kicking. around. »

21-year-old. “ Philip “Willkie, , who a| failed to graduate from Princeton University this year because he did not get a passing grade in history. Philip had been chiosen by his class as “most likely .to succeed.” i The _Willkies * are Episcopalians, although + Wi

the Repub- |’

attended the!

Methodist Church when be lived in Indiana. pero har dad

. Willkie raises hogs dn his five or more

9

gon

FOR ITS BIG DAY

| Neighbors: Run “Run. From House

To House as Radios Blare Out Results.

ELWoOD: Ind, June 28 «. P). —The home town of Wendell Wille kie- made plans today for the Ree publican Presidential candidate’ S aCe ceptance speech from the "steps of Central High School, ‘where-he- was graduated.’ This city of 10; 000 roared. with exe citement last night as radios blared Willkie’s spectacular rise during the six ‘convention - ballots. Neighbors ran from house to house spreading the news and* Shoung; “he’s doing it.” ; . Both of Eiwoad! s fire trucks, sirens whining, and the entire police force, led the parade that ‘developed - even before the nomination was ‘won. ‘Hundreds of ‘automobiles toured ‘the leafy streets with horns toting; ‘and

‘flags waving from windows. x The frame house where Willkie was born already has become amas jo sightseeing ' point in- the town chief claim to fame previouse ly ha heen its ‘tomato festival, ‘For. weeks fences and telephone poles in the countryside. surround ing Elwood have been Plasieres: with signs’ proclaiming, “Elw! Home of Wendell Willkie.” The candidate's ‘parents did not. live to see ‘their ‘son’s ‘triumph. Mis ‘mother died early this year, and ‘his father, an: attorney here. for many, years, ‘died abut ‘10 ‘years ago, - However, he has. scores of {rela

-_

| tives: in the town from. ‘which: he

Most of them

| moved 20 years a “along rural fele-

live on farms,

‘| phoney lines. -He ‘has returned oc.

casionally in’ recent. years to: visit them: He was.. last. ‘here for ‘his ‘mother’s funeral. s Three brothers. and’ ‘two ‘sisters. are living, but all have. moved trom E-