Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 2 October 1940 — Page 13

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Hoosier Vagabond

SPURGEON, Ind., Oct. 2—This is a column about coal-mining. Indiana is famous for corn, politicians, + authors. and coal. Southwestern Indiana is full of coal mines; . There are two kinds of coal-mining—underground *- ang strip. Underground mining consists of digging a shaft straight down, and working out from that through tunnels. Strip mining is simply stripping the whole surface of the earth off a vein of coal, leaving, it lying there exposed to the world, as though you had lifted a lid. Pike County in southern Indiana is one of the state's leading coal counties, and nearly all of it is strip mining. The Enos Cohl Co. strip mine is the biggest in the _ state, either underground or strip. Last year they took out 1,110,000 tons of coal, which is 122,200 car loads, or 300 trainloads, which is far too much for me to shovel, now or in the hereafter. : Fundamentally, stripping sounds simple. Why, you just take a shovel and dig till youre down to the coal. Oh, yeah? | Down here, the first vein of coal lies on an average of 50 feet under the surface. Between the sur- ' [face and that coal vein is a great deal of dirt, and huge layers of solid rock. You don’t move that stuff - with a pick and shovel. You move it by much blasting and with an immense machine that costs close to half a million dollars,

; Here's How It’s Done

FR)

Inside Indianapolis (And “Our Town")

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fo”

3 ‘ + 3 :

Let's start at the beginning. By drilling, the engineers locate a vein of coal. They start digging with an ordinary shover or drag-line.” They create a |hole. Then they bring in. the parts of this great stripping machine, and set it up in this hole. The machine is so huge that it takes three months to put lit together. : | It’s surely as high as a four-story building. It ‘moves on caterpillar treads that stand as high as your shoulder, and one steel link would be more than you could lift. Ahead of the machine they have been blasting into the rock, breaking it up. Now the big shovel starts

SOMETHING THAT the Indiana Democrats did in 1935 to show how much they thought of President [Roosevelt is coming home to roost with vengeance these days through the gentle “needling” of Republican friends. And all because our lawmakers didn’t bother to go to the dictionary. What they did was pass a resolution to “felicitate and congratulate” the President “upon the attainment of his fifty-third birthday.” And what did they do but start out with the usual “Whereas, on the thirtieth day of January in the year one thousand eight hundred and eighty-two there came into this world an infant boy who grew into manhood, virulent and strong, and —". . What they obviously meant was virile. Virulent, you know, means something else again. : We'd suggest sort of meekly that the next Legislature ought to do somethihg to correct Page 1563 of the Acts of 1935. Why, it makes us Hoosiers lock as if we don’t know how .to say what we mean,

Bats In The Belfry

THEY HAVE: BATS in the belfry over at City Hall. Really. There's a whole family of ‘em up on the fourth floor and they take over every evening when folks go home. The custodian says they squeak and flap around something awful, . . . The World ‘Series fever is on Indianapolis again and there must be 100 applicants for every ticket available here. Even _ So, some local folks drove down today just on: the

Washington

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. Oct. 2—We have heard so much talk about the efficiency of dictatorships in contrast to the fumbling inefficiency of democracy that the idea is liable to gain a dangerous degree of acceptance unless we stop to give it a second thought. This idea grows largely out of the efficiency of the German dictatorship and the inefficiency of the late French democracy. But we lean too heavily upon those examples. Against the efficiency of Hitler's 8 dictatorship you have the bungling i inefficiency of the Russian dictatorship. The Russain dictatorship has been at it more than 20 years. yet the war in Finland showed the inadequacy. of its military machine. Poland was a dictatorship but it wasn’t any more efficient than French democracy. We forget that Hitler was not the creator of German efficiency. Modern Germany always has been an efficient nation. German technology and organization were outstanding for years before Hitler and suffered only temporarily under the post-war chaos. : In contrast with the decayed condition of democratic France, was democratic Scandinavia with a highly developed, well-managed economy, bringing to those countries an advanced standard of living far out of proportion to their meager resources. They did not need dictatorships to be efficient.

The TVA Experiment

We too are developing the technique. We already have it in private industry, which in mass production, in mass distribution, sets the pace for the world. There is nothing anywhere that matches an American automobile plant or an American chain store in smooth economy of operation. it We are developing it in Government. That is one reason why the TVA experiment, which has its operating headquarters here, is so important. Government will never be a simple affair again. ‘In a modern industrial nation of such size as the United States, the Government must undertake a certain amount of technical work, such as these large-

My Day

FALL RIVER, Mass, Tuesday—We did not get started quite as soon as we had hoped yesterday morning. The mail came and it seemed foolish not to sign the letters which had been so long on the way. So, with one thing and another, it was 12:40 before we actually took to the road ‘in holiday mood. The skies cleared as we drove along and some of the views of distant hillsides were very lovely. One, I remember in particular; green trees climbing up to sheer red cliffs and, perched on top, two isolated houses. I suppose there are ways of reaching these houses, but they looked as cut off from human approach as any chalet in the high Alps. I could not help thinking it | would be nice to retire there for brief periods now and then—if one could find the secret path up there and one down again when one wished to return to the world with its cares and its joys. We thought we had lost our New England roadmap, 50 we stopped at a gas station to get another one. Miss Thompson went in and a young gas at‘tendant| accompanied her back to the car to ask if we needed oil or water and to wish us a Pleasant trip. 3 : : dR li: !

~ WEDNESDAY, OCT. 2, 1940

“Looks Like No-Man’s Land

, drive.

By Ernie Pyle

eating. It runs day and night. It eats forward, tearing out the bank ahead of it and to the sides. It swings out and up, and dumps its debris on the side of the canyon it has been making for itself. When this machine has dug a ditch 50 feet deep and 50 yards wide and half a mile long, you've got a mighty good start on building a Panama Canal or something similar. And when you add up the miles and miles of separate canyons behind these stripping machines in southern Indiana, you've really got a hobgoblin piece of terrain. I had supposed the “open pit” of a strip mine was a vast hole in the ground, half a mile across and hundreds of feet deep. That's the way the copper, mines of the West are, and the iron ore mines of Minnesota. But stripped coal mines aren’t that way at all. They're just gashes in the earth, resembling crooked canals. And as the coal is removed from the bottom of each canal, the stripping machine turns around and starts back in the opposite direction, digging away one bank of the ditch, and dumping the dirt over against the other bank. :

That just goes on forever, and the result is a farflung series of high, bare-dirt ridges; really a NoMan’s Land. In order to get around among all these wild ridges of discarded earth, they leave a few canal bottoms from which they don't take the coal for maybe several years, and on top of this coal they drive cars and move their machinery. Coal-mining has a couple of colloquial terms that I never heard before. A friend of mine who superintends one of the mine tipples was telling me about a couple of his men getting into a fight. He said: “One of my empty-dumpers pulled a crowbar on a gob-picker and let him have it right ...” “Whoa! Wait a “minute!” 1 said. ‘What's an empty-dumper and what's a gob-picker?” So he told me. An “empty-dumper” is the fellow who kicks the chocks out from under the wheels of the empty coal cars, so they can run on down the track to the tipple. And a “gcb-picker” is a guy. who picks the sulphur pieces out cf the coal.

I got so fascinated by these terms that I forgot to}

have my friend finish his story about the fight. But I suprose some ham-varnisher probably broke it up

anyway.

‘Blue Sp By Earl Richert DRIVING wind of almost gale velocity whipped .sheets of rain against the windshield of a ‘coupe approaching Burlington, Ind., late one April night. : The driver could see hardly four feet ahead. He kept the car moving at a snail’s pace. ‘Suddenly, just outside Burlington, he saw a black object on the road ahead, He eased the car to a stop. His headlights revealed a demolished car sprawled across the road. He jumped out and hurried to the unlighted wreckage. He found three badly injured men lying on the higHway. Other motorists stopped. One of them went to a nearby farm house and called an ambulance; another called Indiana State Police officers from the post at West Lafayette. Officers John R. Fisher and: Marion Robbins immediately found evidence of a two-car crash, though the one victim who had regained consciousness had no recollection of the accident. The officers collected every scrap of material they could find in the vicinity. C8 2 =

T= discovered truck -style clearance lights, broken glass, angle irons; wood splinters, straw litter, boards and a small deposit of blue painf left on the wrecked car by the hit-and-run vehicle. The straw litter led officers to deduce that. the hit-and-run vehicle was a truck. The blue paint and splinters of wood told officers of the color and structure of the

chance they’d run into tickets, somehow, someway.... “Of Thee I Sing,” which the Civic Theater is to put on shortly, calls for a phony néwsreel and Director Dick Hoover is doing his best to provide one. Lieber’s are taking photographs of Charles Headley (who plays Presidential candidate Wintergreen). and are raiding their files of 16-millemeter movie film to provide the sequence. Only stumbling block so far ‘is that the local M-G-M office can't loan Dick a clip of Leo the lion roaring. , Well, We're Waiting A CREW OF Government men has moved into town to appraise our Stockyards and the outfit will be hers for -some time going over things. This crew has just come from East St. Louis where they certainly stirred up a big scrap. In case you didn’t know it, a lot depends on what assessment the Government puts on a Stockyards. One minor item is that upon the valuation depends the charges the Stockyards makes oh the farmer for the use of its facilities. Needless to say, the Stockyards people are waiting, as they say in the books, with bated breath.

Hush, Boys, Hush!

THE INDIANA RETAILERS ASSOCIATION had the rival candidates for Governor as their guests yesterday at different times. The Retailers, however, declined tc say what either gentleman had said. If anything was released, they said, the gentlemen concerned would have to do it. At Mr. Hillis’ offices, it was announced that there would be no release on the matter. We tried Mr. Schricker's headquartérs. We were told that the Lieutenant-Governor would need two weeks to prepare his release. It must have been important.

By Raymond Clapper

scale hydroelectric projects. The Government must, in that respect, go into engineering work. It must do so with efficiency comparable to that in private industry. How it can achieve this operating and engineering efficiency under a democratic form of government is one ‘of the supreme tests. The Government is building armor-plate plants and going more heavily into naval shipbuilding. It is engaging in a steadily increasing number of technical operations. In these it would be disastrous to have the sloppy administration, the politicalized staffing, the blundering incompetency that afe so often associated with ‘political enterprises.

Test for Democracy TVA is an enterprise that puts democratic govern-

truck. A sample of the straw litter was analyzed at the West Lafayette post laboratory, showing that hogs had been carried in the truck recently. The neighborhood was searched for a blue livestock truck, but no trace of one was found. Stockyards and ‘sales ' barns north of Indianapolis were checked to see if a truck of this description had been there. But not a single clue was found. Then came the break. The officers were informed by telephone that there was a truck such as they were seeking at a certain farm. They visited the farm and found

The State House—

DRAFT CAUSES

State Officials Bombarded " By Queries and Some Are Difficult. By EARL RICHERT

“I am 28 and have false teeth. Will they take me in the draft? “My son is leaving California for Indiana on Oct. 15 and will be on the train all day on the 16th. How can he register?” Scores of -questions like these are pouring daily into the governor's office and National Guard offices at the State House and the Selective staff headquarters at 711 N. Pennsylvania St. via telephone and letter. . _ Some of the questions are so involved they would stump both

King Solomon and the Information Please answer-team.

Await More Inférmation Those which Selective Service staff officers here are unable to answer are being held-up until more information comes from

| Washington.

So far, the local staff has received

ment to the full test in its ability to plan, engineer |detailed information only on draff

and manage a highly technical operation, . Congress has given TVA its general charter. Congress decides what dams are to be built. Congress gives a number of directions as to the operation. Recently Congress directed a change in the method of compensating states for tax loses in the TVA area. Congress is the general board of directors. But you cannot run a business in detail from the halls of Congress. Operating executives must. have latitude within the lines of general policy. “So Congress created a government executive, the Tennessee Valley Authority, consisting of three men, with the auhtority comparable to that which private industrial executives have. First of all Congress gave the TVA management complete authority over personnel. It protected them against political pressure. Just a few days ago Democratic Senators confessed to each other in Senate debate that they had been unable to get jobs for constituents in TVA. One Senator reported that a jobseeking constituent bounced back on him with the word from TVA hiring officials that a recommendation from a Senator or a Representative was a disqualification. No pie-counter was set up here. TVA hired its own men in its own way. . From that starting point a number of things have resulted, all pointing—without regard to the controversial question involved in the TVA experiment—to the development of the kind of effective operating technique that democracy must have if it is to function in such a complex age as this.

: / By Eleanor Roosevelt

He added: “I hope you don’t come back wearin Willkie buttons.” A wise warning, since we ny journeying in the land of the “enemy,” who seems nevertheless to be a very friendly one. ! It is curious how some houses take atmosphere from the people who live in them. For instance, the room I was in last night in Westbrook, Conn. is one to which I always enjoy returning. At this season, the fire burns on the hearth and the most dapacious woodbox I have ever seen stands begide it. All the pictures speak of summer, however, and a bowl of cosmos and. one white rose serves notice that the garden is in bloom. The chairs are deep and comfortable. The desk is big encugh to invite you to work. There are books everywhere. In short, it is a room that is lived in and in which yofi could live. I used to think it was a gift from the gods to arrange furniture to make a room attractive. I don’t think so any more. There is something, of course, in having a flair for the right place for a chair or a lamp, but that may be acquired. The thing really necessary is that someone should live in a house so that the house reflects the personality and takes on the feeling .of warmth and companionable human relationships. . We were up early this morning and after breakfast and a little exercise we started off on our day’s i . oH % i Tr

administration: and registration. Detailed information on classification of ‘the registrants has not yet been received. Staff officers had no official information on the. “false teeth” question, but they “understood” that a person to be eligible for service must have at least three upper biting teeth meeting three lower ones and three upper chewing teeth meeting three lower ones. And the lady who called about her son was told that he should report to the local draft board immediately upon his arrival from California. Here is a sample of some other questions which were asked of Selective Service staff officers yesterday: 1 “My son is in the county jail. How can he register?” (She was told that all eligible prisoners will be registered by the jailor or warden at the time they complete their sentences). Registrars to Visit Hospitals “Young people are going to be called. Why don't you put young people on the draft boards so the would have something to say about their own fate?” (The caller was told that the Jaw specifies that draft boards members must be over 36 years of age, out of range of the selective service law.) : “Can a man on the WPA have dependents when he is a dependent himself?” (Officials said they would have to wait for more information before answering that one.) “What about those who are sick in the hospitals?” (Special registrars will be sent to hospitals on registration day.) Aliens are “pretty befuddled” over the draft with its registration blanks and questionnaires, officials say. Many of them have been working on - their naturalization papers and most of them have just registered with the government under the Alien Registration Law.

Communists Silent

It begins to look as if State Election Board officials will not be confronted with the problem of determining whether the Communist

November ballot. Although - Friday night is the deadline for parties to file their lists of candidates, the governor's office has as yet received no indication 'of -the Communist Party's

jdmention to fle a slats, gp

REAL QUIZ BEE

Party is entitled to a place on the |

The Indianapolis Times

.. These fragments picked up by State Police near Burlington resulted

in the solution of a

puzzling hit-run case.

SECOND SECTION.

Cases are often solved by handwriting analyses. Edwin Schroeder, the department's expert, examines a specimen

a blue, 1935-model truck. The truck was being repaired. 2 ”» 8 HE owner and his brother-in-law admitted they were out in the truck on the night the accident occurred. The brother-in-law was driving. But they didn’t want to talk. The officers produced a long blue splinter of wood and found where it fitted exactly on the truck body. This blue splinter broke the case.

The men admitted they had been .

in an accident but hadn't thought it was serious. The next day when they found out how serious the accident was they were too frightened to report it.

A month later the two men

were found guilty of failure to

render assistance to injured par--

ties at the scene of an accident and were fined $92.40 each and sentenced to 75 days in a reformatory. a The injured men recovered. : The solution of the case, one of

Our America

the toughest confronting State Police in recent years, demonstrates the value of that most simple police rule—collecting every available - scrap of evidence and then pursuing every possible lead, according to Police Supt. Don F. Stiver. This case was selected as the outstanding piece of detective work by members of the State Police last year. The four | officers who worked on the case received the State Police Board award for meritorious service. 2 8 =n | UCH elemental rules of police work as were used in solving the “blue splinter” case are drilled into’ police officers in schools sponsored by the department. ; “. If ordinary detective work cannot break a case, then the State Police laboratories, among the best in the U.S. are brought into play. The main laboratory, completely equipped for all sorts of analysis

Gall of Hitler's Plan Is

Astounding

By REX BEACH

AUTHOR OF “THE SPOILERS,” “THE BARRIER,” “ALASKAN ADVENTURES,” etc.

( Twenty-first of a series of articles by 24 authors)

- In spite of the fact that .democracy is threatened with extinction, there is an alarming indifference in this country as to what it is or what the results of its extinction may be. Probably that is because few of us Amelicans have taken time out to con- : sider what the democratic way of life means to us, either as individuals or as a people, and also because it has been difficult to get a complete picture of the new order which the dictators propose to substitute for it. It has been hard for us to : % make sense out Rex Beach of the meaningless -generalities broadcast by the German spellbinders or from the hysterical shriekings of the Nazi oracle-in-chief himself but now it is all made plain. The official mouthpiece of the Nazi Labor Front, Doctor Ley, recently proclaimed that Hitler has made Germany happy and it now becomes his irrevocable mission to bring Europe and the world to reason and to make them happy, too. We shall see in a moment just how that is to be accomplished.

We are told that the democracies are weak, inefficient, senile and corrupt and that they must make way for the young, vital, corruptible peoples. This war 1s being waged for our good: together the Germans and the Italians will make us and all the world as happy as they have made the Ethiopians, the Czechs, the: Poles and others. : It may help us to appreciate what the American idea stands for to outline the totalitarian scheme. Now that it finally takes shape, lets’ examine Herr Hitler's blueprint and see how happy it will make us. Here is what he sees: A German people in undisputed mastery not alone of Europe but also of the entire world: a race

- recognized by all others as superior

and ordained by right of birth to rule with an iron hand and te rape, rob and despoil by brute force as is now being done in every conquered country. A German Volk with an aristocracy of its own, a Herren class of Hitlers, Goerings and Goebbels, chosen to govern lesser Germans and the rest of us who are even lower down in the human:scale: a world held in bondage by German might: a world of sweat-shop nations toiling for their keep. . . A German people exercising the sole and exclusive right to bear arms and build engines of war; the rest of mankind eternally disazmed, disfranchised and doomed to economic slavery. i A German world in which only the ruling class will enjoy free access to culture, literacy and education, a class which will bestow upon all other among the number—the blessings of illiteracy and the priceless privilege of serfdom. There’s more to it but this is the general shape of the apochryphal visioh that came to Adolf Hitler as he sat in solitude read-

in-.

peoples—ours :

3 SRC

ing the stars and gnawing a carot: : The effrontery, the conceit, the incredible gall of it is astounding. That such a plan could be adopted and made holy by his 80 million followers indicates the ine .flated egotism, the preposterous vanity, the ruthlessness and vainglory of the German people.

It is easier for us to understand the drab doctrine of communism than to grasp the full measure of this fantastic Teuton | dréam. Stalin would like to crush capitalism and kill every owner of a bank book but thus far he has expressed no desire to swell his own vanity by actually enslaving ‘the world. Neither has he proposed to reduce the rest: of hu‘manity to a level of want lower than that enjoyed by his own people. He merely wishes to have us share with them in the general equality of destitution. | As to Fascism, it now appears to be merely an Italian translation of the Nazi creed, but it is no less bloody and intolerant. Listen to a quotation from Popolo d'Italia, official sounding board for Hitler's hired hatchet-man, the pompous Mussolini. “England. must be destroyed! All the material and spiritual forces cf Europe should unite .around” Germany and Italy for this vital work of liberation, after which Europe will tranquilly resume her historic administration of civilization. . . . If, later, humanity desires rationally to solve the British problem, it should sterilize at least two million Englishmen.” : Now that it becomes plain how civilization is to be administered by the dictators and we realize how far they propose to go in making us really happy, it's almost a waste of time to ask what the democratic’ idea stands for. Ours isn’t a perfect political and social system, nevertheless it is the best one yet devised. It has flaws and weaknesses, to be sure, but they are nothing as compared with the appalling injustices, the monstrous cruelties of that tyranny proposed by the madman of Berlin and his anthropoid ally. If you like that sort of thing, by all means oppose the draft, belittle the emergency and write your Congressman to delay our defense program. If you don’t] like it, rise up in wrath and demand that we meet with full force, both physical and moral, this menace to everything America stands for. Po it new, for there is no time to ose. |

Edna Ferber urges all of us to become better members of that greatest of clubs, the United States of America, in the next. article: of this series on “Our Country.”

BILL LOSES IN HOUSE WASHINGTON, Oct. 2 (U. P.).— The House yesterday defeated a bill which would have authorized President Roosevelt to prohibit importation. of expropriated properties, or products derived from the proper|ties. The bill was aimed primarily .|at stopping importation of Mexican oil taken from expropriated. prop=-

£}

work is maintained: in the State House basement. Smaller laboratories, containing a drunkometer and a modest but practical photographic laboratory, are maintained at each state- post. Officers are trained to use the most simple scientific tests. - For example they can use the Benzidine test to determine if a splotch .on the ground is caused by blood. A specimen of the ground is placed on a piece of white paper and a chemical is applied. If the specimen turns blue, the officer knows ‘it is blood; but, if not, he knows that the splotch is not worth wasting any more time on. If he finds the specimen to be blood, he sends it on to the state laboratory where ‘it will be determined if the blood ‘is human or animal’ . : 2 5 2. HIS is #4ypical of nearly all police laboratory work. The simple scientifi- tests are made by the officers themselves or by the technicians at the posts.

At City Hall—

BOMB AND GAS RULES AWAITED

Safety Board Believes Fire Department Will Be First Raid Defense.

By RICHARD LEWIS

There’s a good deal of curiosity at City Hall about pamphlets now in preparation by the War Department outlining municipal defense measures against air raids and gas attacks. = City officials believe that civilian defense in the United States will be largely the business of local governments, under War Department supervision. The Department's pamphlets, based on the ® experience of the British Air Raid Precaution Service, describe the establishment of warning systems, shelters and firstaid stations. : Safety Board members have been trying to get all the information available on the operation of fire departments in the beleaguered cities of Britain. They believe the City’s fire. fighting forces would be the first line of civilian defense against such attacks.

65,000 Fingerprints Taken

As a precaution, the Board yesterday ordered the fingerprinting of all applicants for posts in the Fire Department. This procedure has been standard in the Police Department for years. In a discussion of fingerprints y terday, Police Chief Michael Morrissey disclosed that 65,000 Indi anapolis residents voluntarily sulmitted their fingerprints to the lice Department as an aid i tification. | The fingerprinting was: done by the WPA in public buildings throughout the City about a year ago. OO Wever, the Police Identification Bureau would be happy to have the prints of anyone who wishes to place them on record, he said. Fingerprints are particularly valuable, in a non-criminal sense, in finding missing persons and identifying accident victims. 3 ” ”

New Flasher Asked

That railroad crossing warning signal for 46th St. and the Nickel Plate tracks is on the way. The Safety Board yesterday asked the City Legal Department to prepare an ordinance ordering installation of flasher signals at the crossing.

” 2 2

Two Added to Police

John A. Jones of 627 W. 30th St. and John F. Sullivan of 3630 Kenwood Ave. have been named to the

created by the resignations of Patrolmen Frank Zunk and Orville Hudson. Mr, Jones and Mr. Sullivan were next in line on the merit list. Their appointments, effective Oct. 11, will bring to 28 the number of new men named to the Police Department in the past two months. Patrolmén Zunk and Hiidson were retired to pension and will receive honorary hadges marking their services with the Department.

8 2 2

RCA Plans Filed

Plans for the new addition to the RCA plant on the East Side were filed with City Building Commissioner George R. Popp Jr. yesterday. They call for a single-story factory building 200 to 500 feet just north of E. North St. and east of Kealing Ave.’ The building will be of steel

and: masonry construction. *

Police Department to fill vacancies]

If a comprehensive test is required, the headquarters’ laboratory is called on. There are several thousand dollars worth of equipment in the laboratory here. There is complete equipment for identifying bullets fired from all types of. guns; a lie detector; portable X-ray equipment for examining the contents of packages (this is used especially for bombs); highpowered microscopes for the examinations of hair, dust traces, bits of cloth, etc.; an ultra-violet light for detecting chemical eras< ers on paper and invisible writing; a complete set-up for analyzing the alcoholic content of breath and blood, and a complete photographic set-up. “By training our officers to the high degree of efficiency which they now Have and by backing them up with the most modern lahoratory equipment, we figure we have reduced the chances of the criminal to slip by to the lowest possible margin,” Supt. Stiver said.

Singers to Fight ‘Air Raid Blues’

LONDON, Oct. 2 (U.P.).—Nine professional singers and a pianist have been organized to run the nightly gantlet of bombs and shell shrapnel, going from air raid shelter to shelter entertaining the people of London and its suburbs. The group will attempt to banish “air raid blues” by singing popular songs and leading community singing. The singers have promised to appear at any specified shelter. on 15 minutes notice, regardless of the intensity of the bombing.

WHITE HOUSE VENDOR IS AN AMERICAN NOW

WASHINGTON, Oct. 2 (U.P.).— Steve Vasilakos, Greek-born peanut vendor who for 16 years has sold his wares to thousands of White House visitors, notable and otherwise, is now an American citizen. Steve, who came to this country about 30 years ago, set up his push=cart at the northeast corner of the walk outside the White House grounds in 1924. He tried for his citizenship papers twice previously, but failed in the ‘examination. He got his papers yesterday. During his peanut reign two wives of Presidents—Mrs. Grace Coolidge and Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt— came to his rescue when local police sought to oust him from his corner. Although Steve failed also to pass the third written examination for his final papers yesterday, Judge James: W. Morris decided to give them to him after a 15-minute talk. Steve's only comment on his new status:

“I like-a dees country best of all.”

1 TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

1—In what famous battle did Jean Lafitte, the pirate, fight? 2—Is Sauterne a sparkling wine? 3—How many mills are in one cent? 4—Which river forms the boundary. between Texas and Mexico? 5—Giulio Gatti- Casazza, who ree cently died, was an operatic impresario, motion picture producer, or circus manager? 6—Who followed Thomas Jefferson as President of the United States? T—For what do the stand? 8—Does hot water crack a thick glass more easily. than .a thin one?

initials C. P. A.

Answers

1—Battle of New Orleans. 2—No. : 3—Ten. 4—Rio Grande. 5—‘Operatic impresario. 6—James Madison. T—Certified or Chartered Public Accountant.” : =i 8—Yes. a Lae EJ 2 ASK THE TIMES Inclose a 3-cent stamp for reply when addressing any question of fact or information to The Indianapolis - Times Washington Service Bureau, 1013 13th St, N. W, Washington, D. C. |Legal and medical advice cannot

be given nor can extended re--.search be undertaken. 5 53