Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 15 August 1940 — Page 15

»

THURSDAY, AUGUST 15, 1940

Non

eh 3

"The Indianapolis

Hoosier Vagabond

CANNON BALL BAKER is an Indianapolis institution. In this automotive city he has been making a living for 35 years by setting automotive records, and he’s still doing it. At 30, Baker holds more auto records than any . five other men combined. They are records of endurance, mileage, mountain climbing, speed between cities, and such things. He has driven autos and ridden motorcycles 3,500,000 miles in his lifetime. At least that's what he says. But he didn't start until 1906, and that would mean better than 100,000 miles a year ever since. Thats 4 Jot of geography there, Bake. He has crossed the continent 118 times. He has crossed when he rode all the way in mud, and it took him weeks. He has crossed in three days and nights, driving all the way himself, and with only half an hour’s sleep. He has never crossed by air, He has ridden his motorcycle the entire length of Cuba, and around the Island of Oahu, and all over Australia, and across Tasmania. . He ‘has driven hundreds of miles in the Western sand deserts on railroad tracks, before they had roads. He has ridden across the Isthmus of Panama before the Canal was finished, following railroad and foot trails. Ld

Kept Pace With Times

You remember the fast city-to-city runs in the 20s and early ‘30s. Any two cities that didn't have some auto maker advertising a speed record between them weren't very hot cities. And coast-to-coast records were set right and left. But like the hoop skirt and the hair on my head, those things are gone forever. Inter-city speed runs dwindled to nothing about six vears ago. There isn't any sense to them nows—autos have become so perfect that all of them can go too fast. So Cannon Ball Baker kept up with the times, and his records today are of a different stripe. They are records of mileage per gallon. You may not believe it (but he has proof) —he has motored 2t the rate of 55.8 miles to the gallon of

» »

Our Town

TODAY'S PIECE is about my Blue China Period, that part of my childhood when my breakfasts were served on plates of the old willow pattern. Maybe, you had the same luck. Goody—then I don’t have to explain that the plates portrayed the story of the mild-mannered mandarin making love to the mincing maiden on the rickety old bridge. Time was when I knew the whole story of their great and complicated love. Today, however, I have great difficulty patching the pattern together. Somehow, though, I seem to remember that the story involved an understanding of Chinese perspective, quite a hard thing for a youngster to comprehend. Finally, however, I mastered the Chinaman’s notion of perspective, and in the due course of time I even learned to understand the sense of a mandarin handing a cup of tea to a lady 30 miles away. It was even more complicated than that for I distinctly recall that the mandarin with the cup of tea was sitting on the top of a hill while the lady was sitting in the valley below. Indeed, I learned to take the Chinaman’s point of view in my natural stride, with the result that when it came time to be initiated into the mysteries of H. H. Lee's tea stores, I was more or less prepared for the adventure,

A FS

on Operated Four Stores

Mr. Lee had four tea stores planted in different parts of Indianapolis and they were so much alike that if I confine myself to the one located at the corner of Meridian St. and Madison Ave. it will ba more than enough to .describe them all. Mr. Lee was a bearded Briton brought up in all the great traditions of that race. His stores were as

2

Air Lines in War By Maj. Al Williams

IT IS PERILOUS, as England has learned, to build national defense without a master plan known to all. Here's an example of how confusion results in disquiet and lack of confidence. Air-line pilots are constantly asking what they should do about the questionnaires from the Government concerning their experience, time in the air and willingness to serve in the armed air services. My answer is always: “As.

By Ernie Pyle

gasoline. That was with the wind. But he drove

right back again against the wind, averaged up the,

two, and came up with 39.2 miles to the gallon. How would you like to get that on your old gas-annihiator?

He does it with a manifold-and-carburetor de-|

velopment of his own. He's been working on it for years. make him a million dollars.

And he has another thing, too. It’s a perfection

He says it's perfect now, and he expects it to

of the old rotary-valve engine, which he has worked out in a one-cylinder motorcycle. And with that motorcycle he has got 154 miles on a gallon of gas! Furthermore, the thing is so smooth that he can ride from here to Bloomington, up hill and down, at five miles an hour without a buck or a tremble. This thing will make him another million. That makes two. ’ ” ”

He Liked the Name

Cannon Ball Baker is a hearty fellow. He has a big hooked nose, and loves to talk and laugh and show you around. I went out to the house to see him (used a pint and five-eighths of gas getting there) and spent the afternoon with him and Mrs. Baker. His real name is Erwin George Baker. He started motorcycle racing in 1906. As his records grew, he acquired such names as Demon, Warhorse, Daredevil| and The Fox. But it was when he rode into New York in 1914, at the end of a new transcontinental, that he got the name of Cannon Ball. A reporter on the Tribune! named George Sherman gave it to him. The reporter is dead now. And so is the “E. G.” part of the Baker | signature. He's in the Indianapolis phone book as Canon Ball Baker. But Mrs. Baker calls him| Erwin, and friends call him Bake.

The Baker home is full of photos and silver cups) :

and medals and testimonials. He has driven 40,000 miles on the Indianapolis Speedway in test work, al-| though he drove in the big race only twice. driven 5000 miles just up and down Pike's Peak. He, wants to valk up it now. In all his career he has been badly hurt only twice. Once in a motorcycle race, when the machine skidded and crushed his ankle. And once in motoring, when an auto that was standing perfectly still fell over on top of him,

NEXT-—Baker the Eater.

By Anton Scherrer

.

spick and span as anything you could find in town and charged with a smell unlike anything around here. As near as I recall, the smell was compounded of Edam cheese, Smyrna figs, Damascus dates, a blend of I don’t know how many spices and the exotic perfume of perhaps a dozen kinds of coffee and teas which he kept hidden in black japanned containers back of the counter. : The containers, I remember, were gorgeously decorated with Chinese pictures which in their way were Just as exciting as anything on the blue willow ware. Indeed, they were more exciting for they ventured beyond the field of love making which, after all, has its limitations. = n ”

Helped His School Work

At any rate, it was in Mr. Lee's tea store that I learned that the Chinese were interested in other things besides making love—in horses, for instance,

and boats and sports like shuttlecock and battledore, to say nothing of long pants. Except for Mr. Lee's store, I might never have learned that Chinese women wear long pants while the men go around dressed up in long flowing garments. As for horses, I distinctly recall that the Chinamen in Mr. Lee's store always mounted their steeds from the right side and with the right foot, too. When the horses were put in their stalls, they were backed in, which had the merit of showing their faces, and not their tails, in the pictures. Chinamen had some funny notions about boats, too. Anyway, in Mr. Lee's store they rowed their boats standing up facing the bow. Even funnier was my discovery that they hauled the boat on shore by the stern instead of the bow. Well, I learned so much about China in Mr. Lee's store that when it came time for my teachers to take up that part of the world, there wasn't anything more for them to tell me.

But who is going to see this angle of the entire picture? Who is going to prevent General Staff, Army and Navy from taking airline pilots for active service? Neither Service can be blamed for taking care of their own wants. That condition of “everybody for himself” will exist just as long as there is no centralized responsibility for the defense of the couniry. Everybody's job is nobody's job. The deficiency in qualified fighting pilots today—

He has §

Wendell Willkie will spend the next 10 days to two weeks at this house in Rushville, the home of Mrs. | awaiting Wendell with lots of Hoosier fried chicken.

Willkie’s mother, Mrs. Cora Wilk. By Edwin C. Heinke

Times Staff Writer RUSHVILLE, Ind., Aug. 15.—You can talk all you want to about that great big boom town of Elwood as far as Rushville is concerned. This little old town has nearly been forgotten in the roaring crescendo that will reach its peak when Wendell Willkie accepts the Republican nomination for President. But that's just the way

Rushville had it planned.

The sign, “Please do not disturb,’ virtually has been hung out all over town. They're not trying to cover it up. You can find out if you ask. Wendell Willkie is to stay in Rushville for 10 days to two weeks after the big splash at Elwood. “Peace and quiet is our motto. We're going to do just what Wendell wants us to do. If he wants peace and quiet, we're going to give it to him.” said E. J. Knecht, chairman of the finance committee of the local Willkie Booster Club. ” ” 8 H, SURE, there'll Le a little fanfare." They figure there Just has to be a certain amount of it. But they're going to get it over with in a hurry. Therelll be 15 autorhobile loads of Rushville citizenry going up to Indianapolis tonight to meet Wendell (that's what everybody here calls him). They'll escort him back to 322 W. Eighth St., where Mrs. Cora Wilk, Mrs. Willkie's mother, lives. Just, so everyone is satisfied, the Rush County Farm Bureau Band will play a few numbers on the Court House lawn tonight. They might even be playing when Wendell arrives, but there are no plans for that yet. on ” n R. WILLKIE can do just what he wants Friday un-

til around 4:30 o'clock, when

After

What's this?

Wonder if the big G. O. P. boys will say anything

when they see this evidence of the Roosevelt Administration right

smack in the center of town?

they hope to line hin up for just a few minutes’ (not over 10 or 13) speech at Memorial Park. It's to be “non-political” as they term it, and they want Mr Willkie just to say hello mainly because after all it is some kind of a celebration, and the town is as warm-hearted toward Mr. Willkie as Elwood or any other city in Indiana. The Rushville High School Band is going to play a few airs, too, but they're not even going to get in uniform. There was a short conference about this over the counter in the Abererombie Jewelry Store, where Manley Abercrombie, secretary of the Chamber of Commerce, holds out, and they decided it would be too hot. Over on the Wilk porch vou'd never know that a Presidential candidate was going to be living there nearly two weeks, either. Lizzie Barber, the maid, has been :making some plans to fry the chicken the tenants of Mr. Willkie’s Rush County farms are

going to provide (each the same number of chickens, so there'll be no discrimination), Mrs. Wilk was over next door getting a new dress fitted. Some of the bedspreads were hanging on the line in the rear of the typical Rushville home.

n n Ld

ENDELL WILLKIE will get his rest in Rushville if he is ever to get any rest in this worid. When he awakens in the morning he'll hear the pair of mourning doves in the trees outside his window. He'll breakfast with his wife and her mother in the twostory frame house, and maybe he’ll go out on the porch. There'll be newly painted green porch furniture set upon two grass rugs. There'll be a little table upon which he can find an old-fashioned fan. There are three of them now—the old-fash-ioned advertising kind. One's from the Pitman-Wilson druggists, another from the Home

! Mrs. Wilk placidly sits upon the porch these days, unperturbed,

“Peace and quiet for Wendell” but nevertheless the feelings must

Thus the flags and bunting. on the

Town Bakery and the other, an imitation palm leaf, comes from the funeral home. Petunias, snowball bushes and spiraea adorn the lawn up close to the porch. The only concession to the fanfare at the Wilk home is a small, unobtrusive sticker in the. front window—"The Pride of Rush County,” with a small picture of Mr. Willkie in the center of it.

OWNTOWN it won't be much different during the Willkies’ stay. The banquet room at the Lollis Hotel is being cleared out for a headquarters for Mr. Willkie, But Proprietor Leo Durbin isn't pacing the floors and life goes on fits serene way at the hostelry. There's bunting and flags on the streets, but rot too much of it. There aren't any big pictures of the candidate. He was just common folk before. No souvenirs are being hawked, even though it might be that a

is the by-word of Rushville citizens, be expressed by some outward sign, store fronts,

few persons may roll into Rushe ville tomorrow to see Mr. Wille kie and hear his short talk. : Even Mrs. Willkie, who knows Rushville, of course, is somewhat disturbed that the party will up set the calm of Rushville, She talked with her and Mmry Sleeth, who Mr. Willkie's farms, over the telephone yesterday from Colorado Sprihgs, and said she hoped that they wouldn't make nuisances of themselves when they arrive tonight. Mr. Willkie will ride over to Elwood on the train Saturday morning and the Notification Day ceremonies will be climaxed by his acceptance of the nomination some time between 3 and 4 o'clock. Then he'll come back here. It's a bet that the Rushville lights will continue to go out® every night at 9 o'clock for the next two weeks, Wendell Willkie and one of the biggest shows on earth notwithstanding.

mother operates

That $8.50 State Spent for Lash's Track Suit

Has Brought Great Return, Eckert Declares

MEXICO NAMING

‘Slurp’ Urged | By Tea Taster; |

BOSTON, Aug. 15 (U, P.).—The ' best method of getting the most

- NEW PRESIDENT

the State| Police is to educate the public on ‘Electoral

and it is appailing—is directly attributable to lack of lonz-range planning and of concentrated responsibility for the condition of America’s air defenses.

No Long-Range Planning

Ever since 1933, when Hitler came to power, indi-

: ious ph s through viduals have known he was building a gigantic war | Flous ymaleu gels tious But tiie machine. Governments knew, too, but failed to act [COunLrY: in 9 Blue ami gold yank 3 Padin | suit bearing the shield and name of

Our Army and Navy continued to take major slices!

of the appropriations, with a dried crust or two tor | Ineiania iste Dolice. : our tiny air services. No long-range planning. No! And for two years complaints expanded facilities for training manpower for air-| have been coming in to State Police power, even though amateurs knew that air training headquarters from irritated taxpaycosts we. and airplane production costs money. |ers who want to know why their na now, after the air lines have developed their 3 : y “Iris pilot personnel to the point of establishing safety | Toney Is being wasted Reeping up records not even dreamed of a few years ago; along an athlete on the force.” There also come the delinquent military and naval air services | have been innumerable letters to wanting to strip them of this manpower asset. | the editor on the subject printed in The British frittered away their air defense bY | the state's newspapers blathering about depending upon air-line pilots in| . a case of emergency—because they, too, had failed {0 Enough is enough for Capt. Walter Eckert, the second in command

plan for airpower’s manpower. of the State Police.

So, today he let loose. He declared he wanted it known once and for all and by everyone concerned that the only State money spent on Mr. Lash's athletic feats was $8.50 for the cotton and satin uniform. And if anyone wants to go to bat on the $8.50 spent on that uniform. Capt. Eckert is ready to go. “No other amount spent has brought the state so much in return,” Capt. Eckert declared. “He has advertised not only the state of Indiana favorably throughout the nation but has shown the type and character of the members of the State Police within the state itself.” And too, he has got two years’ wear out of the suit,

This, too, has brought complaints. Part of the work of

taste from tea, coffee or soup 18 to “slurp it,” says Delvin W,'! Dean, the city's new official tea taster. . A “wholesome slurp,” Dean reports, is the act of spraying the : liquid around in the mouth and ! over the tongue, bringing into play all the glands responsible for the sense of taste.

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

1—Where could one build a house with windows on four sides, all having a southern exposure? 2—Does the United States, Germany or Great Britain hold the world’s altitude record? 3—On which continent are the Andes Mountains? 4—1Is the George Washington Bridge in New York City a suspension

soon as they get a real plan in Washington, they will realize that they cannot touch the air lines or the air-line personnel.” These commercial lines, important now as a means of rapid transportation, would become vital in a real emergency. No corps of lawyers, even in a time of world peace, can draw up contracts between Government and industrial agencies which are complete in themselves. The Government is always changing its ideas about contract specifications, some of the changes being necessary, and many resulting from loose thinking.

‘Everybody for Himself’

Every contract for munitions inevitably necessitates repeated trips of factory representatives to and from governmental agencies. Railroads served in the last Worid War, but in a bhlitzkrieg-winged age airlines alone can do the job. Time is money in days of peace. In a war emergency it is life or death.

By EARL RICHERT For two years now State Patrolman Don Lash, the famous distance runner, has been competing in va-

y . College’ Meets; | safety matters, Capt. Eckert, explained. Five officers at every post

2 Dead, -Several Indicted designated as speakers and they

| In Political Dispute. take their turns at making talks

when requests come in. Don Lash| MEXICO CITY, Aug. 15 (U. P) .—

is one of these, and he isn’t allowed | , vivlys to make nearly all of the speeches TWO persons were dead and virtu

which are requested of him, the cap- ally the entire executive committee tain added. lot the Party of National Unifica-

Don aspired to become a state. (Prun) was under indictment policeman during his entire college] tiie Nege” career. He took the four-year State | today as Mexico's “electoral college

Police training course at Indiana went into session to choose & presiUniversity and the SIX Weel regular gent to succeed Lazara Cardenas. passed the physical’. examination| Indictment of the executive comand was admitted to the State Po- mittee on charges of conspiracy, selice force on Sept. 1, 1938. His ition, and revolution had been anSalary is 3135 month, nounced by Attorney General Gen-

“Don has been a darn good | officer,” Capt. Eckert declared. “He|aro V. Vazquez in what was taken (to be an administration move to

has benefited the state not only through his running, but through » which supported the his fine police work. He never goes Preak the party pol ed Al to a track meet without the ap-| candidacy of Gen. Juan Andreu Alproval of Superintendent Don Stiver, mazan, or cantilever type? and many requests for his at- Vazquez's action followed a week 5 which noted European canal was

C 3 wn. . z : wml terdadee 3 Hgts ate ried go Tot exhaustive questioning of more | first known as the Kaiser Wile taking a three-month rest from than 100 Almazanistas in connection| helm Canal?

running on advice of. his coaches With charges that they were plotting | 6—H. G. Wells is a prize fighter, that -he was running too much for to assassinate Cardenas and Gen.| author or actor? ' the time he spent exercising.” [Manuel Avila Camacho. the presi-| 7—In 1926 Manhattan Island was And if anyone still wants to go dential candidate. of the Cover bought from the Indians for $24, into the matter, Capt. Eckert’s phone ment Party. $124 or $1240? number at the State House is RI-| The indictments specifically names 8—Was the United States postal 4441. 22 persons, including four generals business ‘ever operated as a prie

and “other persons” attached to the vate business? TEXAS HORSES MAKE

party claiming to be deputies and Answers X CAVALRY INFANTRY Patrolman Lash doesn’t even get|

Senators-elect, and consigned them to the First District Penal Court. |1—At the North Pole. 2—United States. a vacation to make up for the time! and works on through to 9 p. m. On| CAMP BEAUREGARD, La. Aug. he spends at track meets each year | "cok days and from 9.a. m. to 1a./15 (U. P).—The 109th Cavalry, And the total number of days spent ™: On Saturdays and Sundays, just| composed principally of National 5 AU jor Of days Spend hikb all patrolmen. He gets one Guardsmen from Tennessee, was away for races exceeds only slightly! o a > the two weeks vacation he would 9%) & Week off. : of 2f00t today. if he didn't ter tl | He also is assigned to his share of| The Guardsmen ‘were assigned go Sou’ omer Lhe meets, the night work in police blockades... Texas Loses. for the: ama aS - | neuvers—and would be riders were

Capt. Eckert said. 5 aL. . All expenses to and from we, Sd [Filer checkups, Oapt. Ecke Y meets are paid by the Amateur Ath-| “The only concession made, the tossed by all the horses but one, captain said, is to station Lash at an old nag that answered all sigBloomington where he can work out| nals, showing it had served in the

are |

By Eleanor Roosevelt

My Day

HYDE PARK, Wednesday—The mail again has brought me something of real interest because it is an original idea. In Long Island City, N. Y., a new organization has been formed. It's called the SelfEmployed Actors Association. The Long Island StarJournal gives a picture of the success of this group's first performance in a vacant lot. The actors also sent me a book covering, in entertaining fashion, many of their problems. I must say they have been very ingenious in finding answers to their various problems as they arose. Their president is Claude \ Marsan. They apparently intend AY to be not only actors of success- } ful plays. but to produce and sell iR a drink which will add to their revenue. They already have procured a truck and are giving their plays in different sections so as to have a daily audience. I can only say that I hope this novel idea, which includes a serial play and various original acts, prospers and brings great success to those who have conceived it and are working on it. In these days we want people of initiative to find new things to do to meet unusual situations, and certainly this is a good example of the type of thing which can be done.

I also have a letter from a young man who has been attending medical school in Nebraska. He is going to give up his studies because of lack of funds, but he does not make a personal appeal. He simply states that he thinks medical students are as important io the defense program as any other group of workers and that they should be developed by assist-} ance from the Government. He adds that such students as these do not want something for nothing, but are willing to work, now or in the future, to pay for whatever assistance they may be given. I cannot help feeling that he has put his finger on something which may have been forgotten, namely, that defense extends to so many different lines that we cannot just produce soldiers and mechanics for the Army or for defense industries. We will need doctors, musicians, painters, carpenters, cooks and any number of people who will carry on their professions in peace-time as well as in war, but who will form the reservoir from which we draw when need comes. Hence we cannot figure them in any general defense program. We had a little rain yesterday, which was very welcome but it lasted only a short time. Miss Julia Parker, one of our neighbors, came to lunch and in| the evening we sallied forth to dine with Mrs. George | Huntinglon, who lives about 15 mis up the Hudson | River. Today I am driving to New York City day. :

Don Lash . . . races cancel vacation, Those indicted included Emilio Madero, Prun President; "Eduardo Neri, secretary; Effrain Brito Rosado, one of its organizers; Alfonso Gomez. Morentin, noted Mexican economist, and Generals Adolfo Azueta, Jacinto Trevino, Roberto Cruz and Marcelo Caraveo. It was rumored that some of these had already been arrested. Maria Trinidad Jimenez Mendoza and Rafael Sanchez Moreno, both tas, were killed, and seven| of fact or ‘information to other persons were injured when| The Times Wash= several truckloads of armed peas-| ington Service Bureau, 1013 13th ants, shouting “Viva Avila Ca-| St, N. W. Washington, D. O. macho” opened fire on a cluster of| Legal and medical advice cannot Almazanistas who had thrown stones|_ given nor can extended Tes

3—South America. 4—Suspension. 5—Kiel Canal. 6—Author. - T—§24. - 8—Yes. ss ® 2

ASK THE TIMES

Inclose a 3-cent stamp for re=’ ply when addressing any question

letic Union. Lash flies in order to! The men herded

stay on his job as long as possible] Bp and to get back as quickly as pos- on the track there on his own time.| cavalry before. sible. | Don also gets some time off from their new-acquired horses back into And he gets up at 5 a. m. every patrol work to make speeches at| the corral, keeping out the only one morning to exercise on the Indiana various schools and to safety or-/ they could ride. for a busy University track at Bloomington. ganizations. He has become quite] ®hortly afterward it lay down | He ‘goes on patrol duty at 9 a. m.| popular as a public speaker. and died. :