Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 8 August 1940 — Page 17

THURSDAY, AUGUST 8, |

940

The Indianapolis Times

Hoosier Vagabond

LAFAYETTE, Ind. Aug. 8.—Dave Ross sits staring out the window as he talks to you. He has Jack Garner eyebrows, except that they're steely instead of white. He purses his lips, and folds his hands across his stomach. He pauses long and frequently in the middle of a sentence, and you wonder if he’s forgotten what he was saying. But he hasn't. David Ross is 69, and has never married. He has been referred to as “Indiana's No. 1 Citizen.” He's an inventor, an engineer, a chemist, a manufacturer, a farmer and an educator. And he is president of the Board of Trustees of Purdue University. He is one of those few capable people in the world who make almost a profession out of elevating other people, through the power of his character, his knowledge, his energy and his money. He is all wool, without embroidery. Ross graduated from Purdue in 1893, and he has been paying back his alma mater ever since. He has given the school more than a million dollars, although it will make him mad to see it in print. More than that, he has given his time and his mind. He gave Purdue its airport. He and George Ade gave the Ross-Ade Stadium. un = EJ

Left Farm at 35

Everything has always gone pretty well with Dave Ross. As a child he liked the farm all right, but when he went to Purdue it was for an engineering course. Shortly after graduation he almost died of typhoid. and the doctors told him he'd have to stay in the open. So he went back to the farm, and never left it for 13 years. He was 35 when he ventured into the industrial world. Out there on the farm, he had thought up his first invention. It was a steering gear for autos He built ‘his factory in 1906. It is still going. Many of our 1940 passenger cars are steered with Ross gears, and more than half the trucks on America’s highways. He has built other factories, too. Another gear factory, and one for making a processed shale composition that looks like stone. It is called Rostone.

Our Town

LAST WEEK ON ONE of the hottest days of the year Donald D. Gerking of the International Printing Co, called up the Herron Art people and asked

for the measurements of the Venus of Milo. He said he'd hold the wire long enough for somebody to measure her statue, the one in Sculpture Court. In no time at all, Mr. Gerking got what he went after. “The Venus of Milo,” said an authoritative voice, “is 7 feet 1 inch tall, including her little pedestal.” I haven't the least idea what moved Mr. Gerking to ask for the measurements of the lovely lady unless, perchance, it was the same thing Louis Henri Reed went after more than 75 years ago. Mr. Reed was the nephew of B. K.' Foster, who was the State Librarian in the Sixties, and it may just be possible that the relationship had something to do with his being at the State House on the day in April, 1865, when the body of Abraham Lincoln lay in state in Indianapolis. Anyway, that was the day Mr. Reed made a death mask of the martyred President. Prior to this time very little is known of Mr. Reed's achievements as a sculptor. Right after the making of the mask, however, he was a busy man around here. For one thing, he began wondering what the original Venus of Milo looked like. Thirty years later, sometime around the turn of the century, Mr. Reed had his mind made up.

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A Baffling Problem

To get that far, Mr. Reed had to read everything ever written on the subject, and among the things he learned was the story of the way the statue was found. One morning in February, 1820, the ground caved in under the feet of two peasants on the Island of Melos. The men fell headlong into the hole on top of what turned out to be a long-lost temple. Right away news of the rich find reached the French Consul, who immediately rushed to the spot and separated from the heap a statue, 6 feet tall, which

Postwar Trade By William Philip Simms

(This is the fourth of five dispatches from Mr. Simms, who is just back from a tour by air of South American capitals.)

WASHINGTON, Aug. 8.—The United States cannot shut Germany out of the Western Hemisphere

with a wall of gold. All the treasure at Ft. Knox could not permanently corner the products of North and South America and force the Nazis to buy them on our terms, In all my 15,000-mile journey up and down the principal countries below the Caribbean, I failed to find a single statesman or businessman, Latin or Yankee, who believed that the so-called inter-American cartel to purchase and handle Western Hemisphere surpluses would work out as a practical proposition. They agreed that if the United States were willing and able, year after year, to lay out from a billion and a quarter to two billion dollars to finance such a scheme, one of two things would happen. The totalitarian powers of Europe and Asia would either gang up on Uncle Sam to break his stranglehold on inter-American commerce, or else pay no attention to it and start developing their own sources of supply outside the cartel. un n n

Helpful Suggestions

Which of the two would happen would depend upen just how desperately Europe and Asia needed the meat, wheat, coffee, cotton, and other American products. And the betting would seem to favor the second alternative—namely, the development of new sources. And that, South American trade experts observed, would simply add to the Americas’ troubles. “If the cartel is out,” I asked, “what can we do

My Day

HYDE PARK, Wednesday.—I am entirely convinced that one of the things that must be done, if we are going to develop the Good Neighbor policy satisfactorily, is to make the Spanish language the second language learned by every school child in this : country. We elders had better do cl what we can, too, no matter how } haltingly, to learn this language spoken by so many people whom we must understand. Yesterday, the two South American ladies who came with their husbands to lunch with us were perfectly charming. One of them, in Spanish which I could understand but not answer, told me that in her country she belonged to the Socialist Party which corresponded to the Democratic Party here. She added

that the position of women made it impossible for a woman in her country to hold a public office, if she

were married and her husband held one. She regretted this because she felt that women had a contribution to make and she had held a position acceptably before her marriage.

By Ernie Pyle

In his inventing, he never draws plans. Just pictures the whole thing in his head, and makes the changes and alterations in his head, too. He can lay

a complicated plan away on a mental shelf for months, | §

and when he comes back for it, there it is, fresh and accurate. He says he has never had any desire for money. And yet almost everything he ever touched has made money. He owns about 1000 acres of farm land, and has three families running it. Two of them have been with him nearly 30 years. ants, but partners. Ross himself lives on one of his farms, 11 miles out of Lafayette. His land has been farmed continuously by the Ross family since -1820. He says it’s in

better shape now than the day it produced its first

crop. Ross drives to his office in downtown Lafayette every morning, and sits at one end of a long table like a directors’ table. He carries on the business of Purdue University, receives callers and students, makes any necessary decisions on his factories.

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His Hobby Is Youth

At noon he drives back to the farm, and stays there. If you visit him in the afternoon you'll find him wearing only “three pieces of clothing,” as he puts it—two shoes and a pair of shorts. He gets his hoe, and monkeys around out in the sun.

He has many guests at the farm. At first his manner seems gruff, but soon you realize it’s only a manner. He loaves people, and they're always welcome.

Ross’ mind still goes on searching—and researching. He was the impetus for Purdue's leadership in college flying. “First we had to learn to get airplanes into the air,” he says, “but now we've got to figure some way to get them out of the air.” He means the war. He's thinking up something now, not an explosive, gnaybe it’s a ray, to bring planes down. It wouldn't surprise me if he thinks of it, either, He has never traveled much. Just took one of those cruises to South America a few years ago. And never dabbled in politics much either. He has just invented, and made money, and acquired knowledge-—all for the purpose, it woud seem now, of giving it back to Purdue University.

Purdue is his life. It’s the only family he has.

By Anton Scherrer

has since been known to the world as the Venus de Milo. The Consul also found broken arms and legs, but nobody knows for sure whether any of them belonged to the Venus or not. As a matter of fact, nobody knows whether the statue was mutilated when the Consul arrived. There was, for instance, a skirmish between the people on the island and the crew of the French frigate which carried off the statue and it might just be possible, said Mr. Reed, that the Venus was hurt in transit. Be that as it may, the statue was without arms when 1t arrived in France. And ever since that day, men the world over, including Mr. Reed of Indianapolis (and maybe Mr. Gerking too) have cudgeled their brains to figure out what the Venus looked like before her accident. Some have put a shield or tablet on her knee, thinking that maybe she was reading The Saturday Evening Post or something. Others have claimed that she was holding a crown of laurel, and one or two] terribly matter of fact artists seemed to think she| was doing nothing more important than combing her hair, ” o ”

Unfinished Business

Some, indeed, even went so far as to claim that the statue wasn’t a Venus at all, but a Victory. They argued that her muscles weren't soft enough to be a Venus. Mr. Reed, I am happy to say, stuck to the Venus theory and, after 30 years of intensive study, produced a figure complete with arms and hands in one of which—the left as I recall—reposed an apple. Mr. Reed had it figured out that the only correct pose

He doesn’t call them ten-

By Tim Tippett HE sound of clicking shutters in Indianapolis is million-dollar music to the photographic industry. Each year, an estimated 50,000 amateur photographers in this city spend, penny by penny, an amount. which would place any one of them in the millionaire bracket—and they all con-

sider it money well used.

Fifteen years ago most cameras were of the box type—large, expensive to operate and just ‘fairly efficient.” Today, according to Indianapolis dealers, at least half of the homes in this city “can dig up some kind of camera.” They figure that there: are, at a minimum, 50,000 persons who own and operate cameras, According to them, the average “picture-taker” here is 26 years old. He (or she) owns a $30 to $40 camera and every time he drops by his favorite dealer's, he spends from 75 cents on up for materials. He never stops buying gadgets. About half of these amateurs develop their own films and the other half, naturally, have theirs developed at the dealer's. If an amateur is one of those who develops his own films, it means that half his spare time is devoted to his hobby. Chances are that he belongs to one of the more than dozen camera clubs in Indianapolis.

" ” n O longer is the average cam-

was the one suggested by the old mythological story of the reward of the apple of fruitfulness. Venus, you'll recall, received the prize and Mr. Reed por-| trayed her in the act of inspecting the apple to see] whether it was speckled or not. . My only reason for going into the subject so thoroughly today is to warn Mr. Gerking that unless he can do something more original than Mr. Reed,! he'd better drop the whole thing and start on something else. There are a lot of other things that need | restoring around here. For example, it remains for somebody to say what the lady on the Governor Hendrick's statue held in her hand at one time.

to cushion the economic impact of a Nazi victory in Europe on South America®” Here is something like a composite of the answers I received: 1. If any attempt is made to invade this hemisphere militarily, hit back with everything we've got—| particularly if the thrust is made anywhere near the| Caribbean, the Panama Canal or their approaches | 2. Do everything we can to increase our trade with! South America, especially imports. 3. Help reasonably with South America’s rearmament, It's silly to say that this or that regime is a dictatorship or that it has Nazi or Fascist leanings. Latin American regimes, with few exceptions, have always been dictatorships. 4. Find a way to extend long-term credit to buyers of American products. This could be done by Government agency or privately. " n ”

Cultural Aid Urged

5. Help develop communications, transportation, industries and so forth on condition that equipment and technicians come from the United States. Sell| productive equipment on terms which would permit such equipment to help pay for itself, as the Germans do. 6. Help culturally. Help build elementary schools, improve hygiene, train doctors, nurses. Increase manyfold the number of scholarships in American colleges and universities. 7. Use some of the $20.000,000,000 now buried at! Ft. Knex to put South America's principal currencies | on a gold or dollar basis, thus frustrating the reported | Nazi plan to tie them to the mark and “demonetize” | gold. What if we did eventually lose a hundred million! doliars or so, it is asked, in transactions like these? Wouldn't we get most of it back in the form of wages to American workers in the first place?

NEXT—Hands across the skyways,

By Eleanor Roosevelt

Quite evidently we could have talked at some length and with advantage to both of us had I been able to speak, as well as understand, Spanish. Some day, perhaps, I will have time to learn another language, and I am quite determined that it will be Spanish. In the meantime, I hope that in every school in this country we will teach the children to consider Spanish their second most important language. It should be as easy to talk Spanish as English. This will encourage our Latin-American neighbors to make English their second language. I must say they get on better in English than we do in Spanish, After our Latin-American guests had gone, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Patterson drove about the place with us and we sat for a while on the porch at my husband's ottage where it was delightfully cool. Then we returned to find Justice and Mrs. Felix Frankfurter who had just arrived to spend the night. I must tell you of a very charming gift which has come to me from a German refugee. It is an exquisite drawing of some dandelions with their leaves, some clover and other wild flowers. Under the drawing is written “Ellis Island—picked through the only bars that ever held a promise of freedom.” This particular refugee was only passing through the United States on a temporary visa with a more anent one entitling her to entry into another country, :

ie ou i hn th me th

era the old box type. Small, compact cameras with a shiny cyclops eve surrounded by chromium handles and glittering gadgets swing from leather cases on many a Sunday stroller. Prices of cameras in local stores range from $1.07 to $273. At both extremes, they take pictures—good ones. And this price range is one of the answers to “Just why has photography become so popular

CUDAHY FACES . S. SCOLDING

Diplomats Wonder if London Interview Might Bring Envoy’s Recall.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 8 (U. P). — The State Department today awaited a personal explanation from John Cudahy, American Ambassador to Belgium, to determine whether he should be “disciplined” for an expression of personal views in ‘a newspaper interview in London. Diplomatic circles speculated that he might be recalled. That possibility had arisen earlier after the German Government, now occupying Belgium, ordered all foreign diplomatic representatives withdrawn from former Belgian territory. Mr. Cudahy was quoted in the interview as saying, among other things, that the German soldiers who invaded European Lowland countries early in May were better behaved, on the whole, than the American troops who went to France in 1917 and 1918. He also called for shipments of American foodstuffs to the civilian populations of Belgium and France who, he said, would otherwise face “hellish” conditions during the coming winter. Acting Secretary of State Sumner Welles plainly indicated that Mr. Cudahy may incur departmental “discipline” for his remarks, if the official text shows he was correctly quoted, and unless he has some extenuating reasons for such remarks. Department officials were embarrassed since Mr. Cudahy's alleged remarks might be interpreted as an unofficial protest against the British blockade of Germany, France and the other occupied areas at a time when England is anticipating a “blitzkrieg” invasion by Germany and Italy and this Government is throwing its full moral support to the British. Mr. Cudahy’s early recall from Europe was considered in most diplpmatic circles to be a strong possibility, both in view of his reported remarks and because the post to which he was originally accredited has disappeared, at least temporarily,

No, this is not a painting!

: Taken by Howard Cradick, 506 N. Drexel Ave. this photo, “Honduran Idyll,” won honorable mention in the Indianapolis Camera Club’s 1940 spring show.

It was the first prize winner in the 1109 N. Dearborn, one of the town's best amateurs, took

This likewise won an honorable mention in the club’s spring show. Georgia Pines, 140 E. 36th St., took it.

spring show. Earl A. Robertson, it, titled it “Pastoral.”

in the last few years?” Both bankers and bus boys can afford to dabble in “America’s biggest hobby.” Dealers say that the wealthy man will buy a camera which costs from $80 or $90 on up and then spend as much again over a period of a couple of years for doo-dads. ” ” ”

HE youngster who has to watch his pennies, starts from a dollar up. Both get the same amount of enjoyment. “Photography,” philosophized

Hoosier Goings

one local dealer, “is a ° great hobby. It brings the banker and the clerk and the housewife and the maid all to the same ground level. There is no social scale when somebody mentions cameras.” One amateur was standing in front of the dealer inspecting a glittering new machine. “Gee, I'd like to have it,” he lamented, “but I've already got too much tied up in my present stuff.” A few questions disclosed that he started taking pictures a year

On

TOO MUCH WATER

Two Edinburg Gardens Feel No Drought; 'Good Old Days' Gone, State Discovers

By EARL HOFF

THE CURRENT HOOSIER drought is the least of worries for two

Edinburg housewives.

What got them irate enough to complain to the

town council was too much water for their gardens!

It’s this way:

Mrs. Wren Thompson and Mrs. Levi Harrison own garden plots

near the town’s water standpipe. gardens, they say, and the damage so far has amounted to $62. The town board says it'll pay.

” ” ” AS CONCLUSIVE EVIDENCE that the “old days” definitely are gone are two items from opposite ends of the State. . In Elkhart two teen-age boys were fined $11 and costs each and sentenced to 30 days' for swimming. Even in the old swimmin’ hole, ruled the judge, you've got to wear a suit. In Floyd County bartenders were saddened to learn that it's not legal to issue beer checks. The State Excise Department ordered them to discontinue the practice because the chips contain advertising. ” n »

CLEM POTTERF of Wabash can’t figure out what makes his auto so attractive to other people. It's gone again. This is the second time within a month that the car has been stolen, and Mr. Potterf threatens to sell the vehicle when and if it gets back so that someone else will have to worry about it. ” 2 ” FT. WAYNE FRIENDS of James E. Gilbert have just learned how his ardor to get into the Navy led him into a double play. Named second alternate for appointment to Annapolis, he decided he didn’t have a chance and enrolled in a four-months naval reserve officers’ training course at Cleveland. When he got to the training school, he learned by mail he had won the Annapolis appointmént. Now he's got to resign from the reserve training course. "a 8 » TWO AUTOS collided in Idaville, but a nearby restaurant suffered most. The car damages were slight, but one of them spun against the restaurant and broke two large plate-glass windows. ; ® 8 =

“MY WIFE doesn’t want these

’

The standpipe overflows onto their

shoes and I'm returning them for a cash refund,” a Frankfort man explained to a shoe store clerk. For that remark, Mayor William Lockwood sent the man back to the jail from which he had been released only three weeks ago. The shoes, it developed, had belonged to Mrs. James Stuart of Russiaville until the man stole them from her husband's auto.

HUNTINGTON IS NEW DISTRICT CCC CHIEF

Lieut. Col. Frederick W. Huntington is the new commander of the Indiana-Kentucky district of the Civilian Conservation Corps. He replaces Lieut. Col. Clarence C. Benson. Col. Huntington has been on duty with the Reserve Corps in Dayton, O., for the past several years. Col. Benson has been assigned to the expanding armored brigade at Ft. Knox, Ky. Col. Huntington came to Ft. Harrison yesterday to assume his new post. He was accompanied by Col. William J. McGaughey, officer ia charge of CCC affairs in the fifth corps area.

Rarest Stamp Brings $50,000

NEW YORK, Aug. 8 (U. P.).— The most valuable stamp in the world listed as worth $50,000, has been purchased by the R. H. Macy & Co. for an unnamed client, it was made known today. The purchase price was not disclosed. Mrs. Ann Hind Scala of Utica, N. Y., who sold the stamp, had previously turned down offers of $38,000 for it. The $50.000 value is that set by Scott's Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue. It is the only known

example of the one-gent British Guiana atk oo as stamp of 1856. :

¥

ago and that he already has $500 worth of paraphernalia and that “I'm not finished yet.”

T was the miniature camera which started the big push in America. Small and easy to handle, i's fast lens made it a great favo, ‘te. But, like the box camera, it day seems to be on the wane. 1 e trend now at local dealers is toward the ground glass camera, “The amateurs cut their teeth on the minnies and are now

U.S. 1ST ARMY 0ES TO WAR

Maneuvers at Ogdensburg Are Expected to Develop ‘Offensive Spirit.

OGDENSBURG, N. Y., Aug. 8 (U. P.).—The United States First Army went to “war” today in intensive field maneuvers designed to develop an “offensive spirit” and surpass any feat of modern warfare. Starting before dawn, the exercises opened with small unit problems which will continue through next week and then culminate in a large scale engagement in which a “Black” Army will attempt to “invade” the St. Lawrence Valley, the gateway to industrial America, through a defending “Blue” Army. Outlines. Maneuvers The maneuvers, largest in the peace time history of the nation, will be based adage that the best defense is a strong offense, according to Lieut. Gen. Hugh A. Drum, First Army Commander and director of the games. Gen. Drum outlined the scale of the maneuvers last night in a meeting with 14,000 officers, warrant cficers and senior non-commis-sioned officers in the stadium of St. Lawrence University at Canton. He said that logical lessons for American armies can be drawn from Europe's war, and took the occasion to commend the compulsory military service bill now pending in Congress by saying that modern warfare demanded training far beyond that given citizen armies. He gave equal stress to industrial organization to produce modern arms and equipment speedily. He warned the United States to “stop basking in the sunshine of peace and the security of two oceans.” “In” view of the present world situation, wth the ever increasing danger: facing us,” he said, “we should comprehend, we must recognize the problems involved in creating a modern fighting army with unmistakable’ vision. “Otherwise the defeats recently experienced by great military powers may be inflicted upon our people. “Our enthusiasm and confidence in ourselves should not blind us to an honest appreciation of the complicated difficulties involved in modern war. We need to re-orient ourselves on the conduct of bagtle in the light of recent European ‘conflicts. oe

largely on the old]

entering the field of more perfect photography,” one well-known camera expert explains. The oldest of the local camera clubs is the Indianapolis Camera Club, which was reorganized in 1913. It was originally founded in the “wet print days” when the amateurs made their own paper and wet their own plates. Several of the charter members still attend the weekly meetings held Thursdays at the clubrooms on E. Ninth St. Other clubs have been organ ized at the Y. M. C. A, the Y. W. C. A, at the Allison Engineering Co., Eli Lilly & Co, R. C. A, the Department of Public Welfare, and at all of the public high schools, ” ” 2 WO of the more expensive sidelights to amateur photog= raphy here are (a) the motion picture camera and (b) color photography. Color photography, still in its infancy relatively speaking, has most of the amateurs here a little frightened. It’s still in the highly expensive stage, but it is becoming more popular steadily and is expected to be simplified soon. By next year, the average amateur will probably be deep in color work. That's how fast the hobby races along. Moving picture cameras can be obtained fairly cheap, but along with the camera must come a projector, a screen and other equipment. A good moving picture camera outfit costs upwards of $125. Many moving picture camera owners start by purchasing 8 millimeter cameras, getting experience on them and then later buy=ing the larger 16 millimeter equipment. Perhaps the one factor which has halted many a man’s hobby in the bud may well be the guardian angel of photography. Golf widows frequently complain and most. women aren't interested in any phase of a 50-year-old stamp. But more and more husbands are getting home at night to find their pet’ dark rooms as neat as the proverbial pins—and the camera widow turning out prints. Good ones, too. .

Japan Building 16-Ft. U-Boats

ROME, Aug. 8 (U. P.).—The Japanese Navy will soon put into operation a new kind of midget submarine, built of a secret alloy, which is the superior in many respects to standard-size submarines, the newspaper La Stampa of Turin said today. The new submarines, which have passed all tests, are armed with three torpedo tubes although they are only 16 feet long and of 1¢ tons displacement, La Stampa added. Capable of speeding 36 knots, the tiny craft also can submerge to a depth of more than 1800 feet which, the newspaper said, is about 375 feet deeper than ordinary submarines may safely go.

TEST - YOUR KNOWLEDGE

1—A thin, round stick of ash, about three feet long, used to practice fencing, is called a singlestick, foil or stickler? 2—What country does the figure of “John Bull” represent? 3—What was the name of the airplane fiown by Wiley Post and Harold Gatty in their flight around the world? 4—What building in Boston is called “Cradle of Liberty’? 5—For whom is the Monroe Doctrine named? 6—Is the index finger on the hand of the Statue of Liberty eight inches, eight feet, or eight yards long? T—Name the canal that extends from the mouth of the Elbe on the North Sea to Kiel on the Baltic. 8—Irn what country did the Mamelukes rise to power?

Answers

1—Singlestick. 2—England. 3—Winnie Mae. 4—Faneuil Hall. 5—President James Monroe. 6—Eight feet. T—Kiel Canal.

8—Egypt. s = =

ASK THE TIMES

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