Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 20 July 1940 — Page 8
SATURDAY, JULY 20, 1940
SECOND SECTION
Hoosier Vagabond
RUSHVILLE, Ind. July 20.—For weeks I've been trying to think of some way to horn in on this Willkie thing, And then this morning it came to me. It's a bond that can't help but make us inseparable. The bond consists of farm land. It's like this: Willkie owns farms. own farms. Willkie loves farms. farms. With such a harmony of interest as that, I don't see how I can wind up as anything less than Secretary of Agriculture. In an effort to knit more closely these ties between us, I came over here to tramp around over Mr. Willkie's farms. He owns five hig ones here in Rush County, about 40 miles east of Indianapolis. They're neither a hobby nor a plaything. You won't find any polo fields or racing stables. They're real farms, run to make money-—and they do. They total 1407 acres, and it’s said Rush County is the only place in the world where Willkie owns real estate. He bought the first farm about six years ago and has been buying one a year ever since. He is doing it for investment, and because he loves to make things grow. The 1407 acres are assessed at $38,000. However, land is averaging about $115 an acre here right now. Which means that Willkie is worth around $160,000 in farm land. Not bad for a clodhopper.
” ” n Run on 50-50 Basis
Willkie’'s farms aren't run on a chain basis. Each has its own tenant, and its own bookkeeping. The only thing that ties them together is Willkie's farm manager—a lifelong friend named Miss Mary Sleeth. All the farms have a definite crop-rotation schedule—corn, wheat, clover, in successive years. That builds up the soil. Very little grain is sold. It is fed to cattle, hogs, sheep and chickens. All the farmers use tractors. and each has at least four horses. There are six families on the five farms, since one of them is tenanted by two families in partnership— a father and son. The farms are run on a 50-50 basis. Willkie furnishes the land and the buildings.
Our Town
ONE OF THE WORST scares Indianapolis ever had occurred on Sept. 23, 1902, On that day Theodore Roosevelt was in town. The Circle was jampacked with people, word having got around that the President would leave the Columbia Club at 2 p. m. to continue his trip through the West. At 2:15, the people began getting fidgety. At 2:30, there were whispers that the President had burst a blood vessel. At 3 o'clock, a rumor spread that he had been shot. Finally at 3:15 there were signs of something stirring. The President accompanied by Senator Fairbanks, Secretary Cortelyou, and Governor Durbin appeared in the doorway of the ‘Columbia Club. A path was cleared and all four entered a carriage. A second carriage was filled with Secret Service men. It was followed closely by another carriage containing Secretaries Loeb and Barnes and Drs. Cook and Richardson. Some people, more astute than the rest, wondered about the presence of Dr. George Cook, an Indianapolis physician.
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It's a Small World
The cavalcade swung around the Circle and down S. Meridian St By this time the procession had the appearance of going to a fire. People along the line of march said it was because the President had to catch a train. Everybody guessed wrong. The parade didn't stop at the depot at all. It kept right on, crossed the tracks, and turned east on South St. It stopped in front of St. Vincent's Hospital. Drs. Cook and Richardson escorted President Roosevelt to an operating room. When they got there, they found Drs. John H. Oliver, Henry Jameson and George A. Lung waiting for them.. At 4:15 Dr. Oliver performed an operation. Sister Mary Joseph stood by. After the operation, the President was taken upstairs to a private room where he met Sister Regina The President recognized her rightaway. The two, it appears, had met at Montauk Point, Sister Regina was one of the nurses who attended the fever stricken
Washington
CHICAGO, July 20.—At this early date it is impossible to foresee how large the third-term question will become in the campaign. Never before has the issue directly reached the voters. There is this to be said. This question involves the issue of overreaching for power, which has been the point that has brought to Mr. Roosevelt his major defeats. He has suffered no major defeats when championing social and economic reforms, Only when a case has been made on the ground that he was seeking undue power has he gone down. Three major instances come to mind—the rejection of tke Supreme Court and reorganization bills and the failure of the purge campaign. The same line of attack which was so effective against Mr. Roosevelt in those instances will be dominant in the attack on the third term. I never thought there was much merit in the attack on the reorganization-bill campaign. There were extenuating circumstances tending to justify Mr. Roosevelt in his attempt to reform the Supreme Court and to rid the Senate of some of the worst saboteurs of the New Deal. Yet, notwithstanding these extenuating circumstances, the cry of dictatorship was overwhelmingly effective. And public opinion ultimately defeated Mr. Roosevelt. = n oS
A Clear Cut Issue
With regard to a third term the issue is much more clear cut. It is more easily comprehended by the average citizen. The tradition is sharply defined in the utterances of several Presidents, in the Democratic platform of 1896, and in the Springer resolu-
My Day
HYDE PARK, N. Y., Friday.—Since I wrote my column yesterday, I have traveled a good many miles. I cannot say that I was sorry to see my little cottage this morning. According to schedule, Franklin Jr. and I met at La Guardia field yesterday afternoon. Mr. C. R. Smith, president of the American Airlines, had very kindly sent a small airplane to take me from New Hackensack, N. Y., to New York City, and I must record the thrilling experience of actually being allowed to fly the little ship for part of the trip down while in the air. It was so smooth that there was no difficulty in keeping it on an even keel. I watchec the river below to keep it on the right course. I have always wanted to learn to fly a plane and even this smal} experience was exciting. Our trip to Chicago was smooth and uneventful. The Postmaster General, Mr. Farley, was kind enough to meet me at the airport. Before I left it, I had an interview with some of the newspaper People. We couldn't induce Mr. Smith to go to the convention
I don't
I hate
| By Ernie Pie
| The tenant furnishes the labor and machinery. They | split the proceeds even. Since the farmer has to furnish his own implements, horses, tractors and so on, it takes money to get set up: So Willkie lends him the money at 4 per cent, takes his note, and the farmer pays it back out of proceeds. | All the farms have electricity. All except one have | telephones. One has gas for cooking. All the farm- | ers have automobiles. All Have lovely farm yards and nice buildings. The Chamber of Commerce in Rushville wishes now it had “Before and After” pictures of the Willkie | farms. But nobody thought to take pictures before he fixed them up. He has spent quite a bit remodeling, cleaning up, and building new buildings. Fach vear he takes the profits from his other farms to fix up the new one he has just bought.
5 ” n Mecca for Tourists
Rushville is rapidly becoming a tourist center on account of the Willkie farms. Every week-end scores of autos drive slowly past each farmhouse, and two or three drivers will get up nerve enough to stop and come in. A family from New Jersey stopped at one ot them the other day. You see people out with cameras taking pictures. The farmers don't mind. In fact, they're sort of enjoving this new left-handed fame. Joe Kramer laughs and says he believes he'll charge a quarter admission at his front gate. The whole town of Rushville is hot over Willkie. And they think the campaign will do a lot for this section. This county has the reputation of being the biggest corn-and-hog county—for population—in America. Mavbe more big people might want to buy land here now The Rushville Boosters Club has put up signs outside of town, saying that Willkie owns 1400 acres in Rush County. Also, a sign is being put up along the road in front of each of the five farmhouses, saying that this is a Willkie farm. Quite a few newspapermen have been here to write up the farms, some from as far as Des Moines and Cleveland. I think it was the Cleveland man the farmers enjoyed most. He's the one who kept referring to something as “hahgs.” They didn't know what he meant for a long time. What he was trying to say was “hawgs.”
By Anton Scherrer
men of Col. Roosevelt's regiment of Rough Riders. Bewildered as he was, the President remarked that it was a small world after all. Sometime around 8 o'clock that evening, the President was wrapped in a warm blanket and placed on a hospital stretcher. Escorted by a company of infantry, the patient was carried to a Pullman car a block away, by four Negro porters on the tram. That same night, the train was on its way to Washington. Sure, the President had to cancel his Western trip. Next morning Indianapolis learned what all the excitement was about. The swelling of the President's leg which made an operation necessary was the result of a bruise he received at the time of a trolley accident at Pittsfield, Mass., when the President’s carriage was run into and demolished by the car. Secret Service Agent Craig who was sitting beside the President at the time was killed.
un un ”
Language Enriched
For several weeks the President took no heed of his bruise. Said it wasn't worth worrying about Finally, however, it began to hurt. After starting on his Western trip, Dr. Lung who was part of the President's entourage noticed that something was the matter with Mr. Roosevelt. An examination revealed that the sconer something was done about it, the | better. Well, on the way to Indianapolis the train stopped long enough at Logansport to let Senator Beveridge get aboard. When he heard of the President's plight, he immediately wired several physicians of Indianapolis to be at the depot when the train rolled in. Which accounts for the presence of Drs. Oliver, Jameson and Cook. Gosh, I hope the Medical Journal doesn’t hop on me for revealing their names. The Indianapolis operation of President Roosevelt was significant because it enriched our vocabulary by several big words For one thing, the bulletin issued by the doctors after the operation read: ‘As a resuit of the traumatism received in the trolley accident in Pittsfield, Mass., there was found to be a circumscribed collection of perfectly pure serum in the middle third of the left anterior tibial region, the sac containing about two ounces which was removed.” Traumatism, it appears, is a gold-tooth word for a bruise. I thought you ought to know.
By Raymond Clapper
tion adopted by the House of Representatives in 1875, in which it was stated that a departure from the two-term practice “would be unwise, unpatriotic, and fraught with peril to our free institutions.” In his radio acceptance speech to the Chicago convention, Mr. Roosevelt said that even as late as last September, when the war began, it was still his intention to announce ‘clearly and simply at an early date that under no circumstances would I accept re-election.” But Mr. Roosevelt says it soon became evident] that it would be unwise to issue such a statement in| view of the dangerous world situation.
An Involved Story
The announcement Mr. Roosevelt had been thinking of making earlier is not at all the one that he actually made to the convention through Senator Barkley. The announcement Mr, Roosevelt says he had intended to make last September was that “under no circumstances would I accept re-election.” I What he authorized Senator Barkley to say to the] convention was something , entirely different. He merely said he had no desire or purpose to continue in office and that delegates were free to vote for whom they pleased. Mr. Roosevelt told the convention in his accep- | tance address that he had struggled with himself and had decided that after having drafted others to go to Washington to help with the defense, he too must submit to a draft. But when he drafted Republican Frank Knox to go into the Cabinet, Mr. Roosevelt said he was not going to run for re-election, or at least that is what Co!. Knox understood the President to say—so many people have been told. The story grows more involved the more we hear about it.
By Eleanor Roosevelt
with us, so Mr. Farley, Franklin Jr. and 1 were the only ones who drove to the Stevens Hotel. We spent a short time there and many photographs were taken. Then we went directly to the convention hall. | To me there is something very contagious about the friendly atmosphere brought about by meeting old friends. I was so glad to see them from all parts of! the country. I was delighted when Mrs. Henry Wallace arrived to sit beside me. We watched the balloting which put the Secretary over as Vice Presidential candidate Secretary Wallace is a very fine person and I am sure will strengthen the ticket. I have always felt in him a certain shyness and that has kept him aloof from some Democrats, but now that he will be in close touch with so many of them, I am sure they will soon find in him much to admire and love. Somehow I cannot feel this campaign is going to be in any way the type of campaign we connect with the routine of choosing a President every four years Whatever the people decide in November, I hope it will be done with the realization of the critical times we are living in. Above everything else, that any candidate, or any President, in these times, is powerless without the active participation of every citizen in working out the internal problems of this nation and their relationship to world problems,
As Elwood spruces up for Willkie Day, John Kincaid, high school head janitor, puts the finishing
touches on a sign proudly recalling the Repubiican Presidential nominee's attendance there.
By Lowell Nussbaum LWOOD is a painter's paradise these days. Its maple-lined streets reek with the odor of fresh paint as the 10,000 or more residents doll up" their homes for the homecoming of the town’s most famous son, Wendell L. Willkie, the G. O. P. Presidential nomi-
nee,
Probably there are quite a few Democrats in the town but you can't tell them from Republicans. They're all excited and enthusiastic because the nominee is g0ing back home probably Aug. 10 to be notiiied formally of his nomination and make his acceptance speech from the high school steps.
The whole town has entered wholeheartedly into the sprucing up business. Not only are the residents using paint by the barrel, but theyre prettying up their lawns, replacing missing pickets in fences, razing unsightly shacks and abandoned buildings, and otherwise remedying the neglect of depression years. A waiter in a restaurant remarked that “if they postpone this ceremony long enough, Elwood ought to be the best looking town in America.” The enthusiasm of the home owners and business people has inspired even the railroads, churches, the State Highway Department and the big tinplate plant,
streets.
Willard Gardner, Indianapolis, is one df a telephone crew 'installing a 100-pair cable back of the high school for the notification ceremonies.
don't bother going to his Hall office. He won't be He's spending most of his time now at an old mansion on Anderson St., which is decorated with a huge sign: “Willkie Head-
ham, City there,
Mayor George O. Bonham, who formerly operated an auto sales agency, the committees are working out such problems as housing, feeding the throngs. adequate police and fire protection
n n on HE Highway Department has a maintenance (rew repairing chuck holes in the pavement of
State routes through the town, Several streets are being repaved by WPA in preparation for Willkie Day and the WPA workers aren't wasting any time. The Nickel Plate Railroad station was painted last week, and the Pennsylvania Railroad station has been getting a fresh coat of paint. Some of the residents solemnly swear it hasn't been painted in 30 or 40 years. But its brick work also is getting repointed and the stone trim is being buffed. Incidentally, the work on the Pennsy station is the cause of one Elwood resident buying a new car. For several vears, fellow workers have kidded Virgil Smith, who has the Elwood Postoffice’s mail hauling contract, about the old car he was driving. To queries as to why he didn't buy a new one, Mr. Smith invariably replied: “I'll buy one when they paint the Pennsy station.” The railroad did and so Mr. Smith did. As soon as the rainting was started, he turned up with a brand new coupe.
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BY: dolling up homes and busingss places is only a part of the preparations for entertaining an expected 200.000 to 300,000 visitors—20 to 30 times the town’s normal population, Numerous committees have been named and others are being
and other details. The town's one fire station is located in the center of town, With a couple of hundred thousand enthusiastic Willkie fans thronging the streets. getting to a fire in the residential district would be like one of those slow motion nightmares. ? So they're thinking about borrowing fire apparatus and firemen from nearby cities and establishing temporary stations in the out®ing districts. There isn't room enough in town to park, let alone drive, all the thousands of cars expected to be driven to Elwood on Willkie Day, so the committees have arranged with farmers to provide parking space pastures and cutover hay, oats and wheat fields.
a td 2
HE auto passengers will be transported to the ceremony site in special busses. Mayor Bonham's committee has the promise of 100 state policemen to direct traffic and handle the crowd, and expects to borrow 200 or 300 other policemen from neighboring towns, including an estimated 75 from Indianapolis. As for housing, there'll plenty, Mayor Bonham said. “We'll be able to find rooms for all those who want to stay overnight,” he said. “We are getting lists of available rooms not only in Elwood’s private homes and its one hotel, but also in hotels and
be
quarters.” The house, largest and finest in the town, was rented temporarily from the Carnegie-Iilinois Steel Corp. which built it many years ago as a home for its various tin plate managers. In the headquarters is a huge old table, reputed to have been stood upon by William McKinley, then Governor of Ohio, when he gave the dedication speech for the tin plate plant in 1892, the year Mr. V/illkie was born.
” n ”
IGNS galore greet visitors. Neat signs reading, “Willkie Road,” are being installed to guide visitors past the High School, where Mr. Willkie is to make his acceptance speech; his birthplace and the home where he spent his youth. Each of the three points of interest is properly labeled with large signs in red, white and blue paint. The High School has a sign reading, “Willkie'’s High School.” Schools Superintendent W. FP. Smith says that on an average of about once every 15 minutes most days, a car drives in front of the school, and someone jumps out and snaps a photograph of the school entrance. “One man walked up the school steps and then down,” Mr. Smith said, ‘‘explaining he just wanted to walk down the same steps used
El
Barrels of paint are being spread as the residents of Willkietown get ready to entertain an expected 200,000 tb 300,000 visitors.
Even the Democratic State Highway Department joins in the Willkie preparations by patching long neglected chuck holes in the
Times Photo,
Virgil Smith always promised his friends he'd buy a new car when
the “Pennsy painted its station.”
Well, here it is.
school building, and then drove away. Mr. Willkie's family used to go to that church.” Under Superintendent Smith's direction, floodlights have b-en installed on the high school grounds for the benefit of out-of-town visitors at night. The 91-foot flagpole on the school grounds has been given two coats of aluminum paint. Back of the school, a crew of tele=phone linernen from Indianapolis is installing a 100-pair cable in orcer to provide direct service for newspapermen, wire services and radio chains during the notifica=~ tion ceremony. ” ” ” EANWHILE, with scores of out-of-state cars in the town every day, Elwood stores are doing a thriving business in souvenirs.
by a future President. “The Rev. 8. L. Yoder, pastor of the First Methodist Church, told me a man got out of a car with an out-of-state license last week, walked up and touched the
homes ‘in such cities as Anderson, Tipton, Alexandria, Muncie, Noblesville and Kokomo.” Huge tented restaurants will be
provided to feed the crowd. ) I If you're looking for Mayor Bon- viner,
Son of Famed German Plane HALLECK T0 CONSULT Maker Studies U. S. Plants WILLKIE IN GOLORADO
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo, Arrangements to provide 700 Pull-| NEW YORK, July 20 (U. P). —|all-metal Dornier monoplane bomb-| july 20 (U. P.).—Wendell L. Willkie man cars on Spey tracks at El-| Claude Dornier Jr. son of Ger. E15 nave deer, a may complete arrangements this wood for Housing of thowsaiids ex. | many's outstanding builder anc a. sandard Dornier planes in the Ger. | Meek-cud for bis sprech ut, Elven pee of signer o ong-ra 3
man air force are the DO-17 mono- Ind, formally accepting the ReWendell L. Willkie, accepting the and bombers, has been in the United plane bomber with a speed of 200 Publican Presidential nomination. Republican Presidential nomination, | gia tes a year. working without sal- miles an hour, the DO-22 recon-| He planneu several days of comwere announced by heads of the ary in Detroit automobile plants and naissance-torpedo plane bomber, plete rest broken only by the visit celebration today. will enter an American university and the DO-24, a three-engined of Rep Charles Halleck of Indiana, ore the Republican convention at
Passengers who could not be ae-|this fall, it was learned today. |open-sea reconnaissance flying boat.|one of his top political advisers and f | Philadelphia
commodated in the special “Pullman| Dornier, an airplane pilot, came| gh ae roams be MORGAN 10 ADDRESS Rep. Halleck, who was to come
city” would be unloaded in Elwood here last July after graduating] stations and the trains then taken with honors from a German techSCHOOL CONFERENCE nere from Washington, visited Elwood—Mr, Willkie's “home town"—
to nearby cities for storage, officials njcal institution and went immelimes Special this week and conferred with local
said. i diately to Detroit. There he worked The speech was believed sched- several months, studying assembly BLOOMINGTON, Ind. July 20.— |officials in charge of the home-com-DeWitt S. Morgan, Indianapolis|ing celebration.
uled for about Aug. 10. line production and technical phases It was believed Mr. Halleck's visit
a RET tk of the automotive industry. DATELINE. ST JOE: He now lives here at the home of ’ » » POSTMARKED IN OIL the Ozalid Co. and former represen- superintendent of schools, will be |, 6 was for the purpose of contative in the United States of the one of the principal speakers at the cluding the Elwood plans, including —W. T. Wheeler, a hotel proprietor, of ’ student and said today he intended to let the et 2d Re A eu affairs, | Ary School Supervision, Monday and speech. tentatively ' scheduled for \ Tuesday. Aug. 10. northwest Missouri is developing new Dornier flying boat built at his te eee into an oil production country. | father’s works in Friedrichshafen, |ary school supervisors and summer 8 MEXICAN REBELS KILLED new oil well near here where free jantic service. The craft has been | With problems to be met in prepar-|The n®vspaper Universal in Maraoil was discovered this week. He cedited with a flying range of 6000 ing teachers for their jobs and in|vaito, Michochan State, reported quarts of the crude to his hotel and| The Dornier DO-X, a 12-motored| which they, are best fitted in the with a band of 20 rebels, killing ordered his clerks to put a smear transport, flew from Germany to|school personnel. Carl G. F. Fran- sight, inchidine the chief. One er was ed.
organized daily to work out the thousand and one other details of the celebration which will focus attention of the nation on the town for a day. Under the
Banana split signs on drug store windows have been replaced by signs reading, “Willkie Souvenirs.” One pharmacy spelled it ‘“‘sou=chairmanship of
ELWOOD ARRANGES FOR ‘PULLMAN CITY’
ELLWOOD, Ind. July 20 (U. P) —
F. W. Von Meister, vice president of 8ST. JOSEPH, Mo. July 20 (U. P.). i p P.). German Zeppelin interests. first annual Conference on Second=| setting the date for the acceptance “rest of the world” know that ge said he knew few details of a The conference, open to secondMr. Wheeler is part owner of a Germany, reportedly for trans-At- | School teaching students, will deal] MEXICO CITY, July 20 (U, P.) — was so elated he took several| miles. adjusting teachers to the jobs for|today that Federal soldiers clashed of it on all the outgoing letters, New York in 1931. Squadrons of the zen is conference chairman,
i
The souvenirs include postcards showing Mr. Willkie's birthplace or his childhood home; Philadelphia convention Willkie badges,
Willkie tags for autos, and numer« ous wooden toys, including a miniature two-holer outhouse with Mr. Willkie's name on the side, The Postoffice employees ree port their outbound mail is grow= ing by leaps and bounds, largely as the result of tourists mailing souvenirs home. One woman bought an expensive piece of jewelry and had the jeweler en=grave the word, “Elwood,” on! it. Almost, but not quite, forgotten in the excitement of preparing for Willkie Day is Elwood’s annual tomato festival, scheduled for next Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. If it weren't for the possibility that some other town might grab it up and keep it in the future, Elwood probably would gladly call off this year’s tomato festival,
TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE
1—=Which American colony was founded by James Edward Ogle= thorpe? . 2—0On what island of the Philips pines is Manila located? 3—Does the longest day in the Southern Hemisphere occur in June or December? 4—The name of the island on which the Statue of Liberty stands is Bedloe or Bedloe's Island? 5—~How many women are members of the U. S. House of Repree sentatives? 6—Name the Dutch Princess who has sought refuge in Canada.
Answers 1—Georgia. 2—Luzon. 3—December. 4—Bedlce's Island. 5—Seven. 6—Princess Juliana.
ASK THE TIMES
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