Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 7 October 1940 — Page 11

MONDAY, OCT. 7,

940

The Indianapolis Times

Hoosier Vagabond

EVANSVILLE, Ind, Oct. 7—Today’s column is about rodents, insects, bugs and things that bite in the dark. About them, and how to get rid of them. It’s aboyt an exterminating company. The Evansville branch is the farthest north branch of the biggest and oldest exterminating company in the United States—the Orkin Co., started in Richmond, Va., in 1901. There are about 50 branches of the concern, mostly in the South and Southeast —and that, incidentally, is where insects and rodents are the thickest. The company here calls itself “The Pied Piper of Evansville.” The exterminator boys have to take. a lot of ribbing from their friends. People call them ¢“PieEyed Piper” and “Brother Rat” and Rat” and “Mickey Mouse.” One of the boys said he didn’t especially care, but does wish they'd at least call him “Mr. Mouse.” The company lists the pests it fights here in the ~ following order: Roaches, waterbugs, rats, mice, ants, moths, bedbugs and silverfish.

Work on Contracts

Exterminating companies don’t work exactly as you and I might think they do.. Ninety per cent of their business is on yearly contract basis, among business places downtown. The local branch has around 200 contracts with stores, factories and such. These contracts are worked by an initial visit where the place is thoroughly cleaned out, and then by weekly checkups, and baiting for rodents. Most merchants wouldn't want to display a sign saying they were regular clients of an exterminating company, yet the truth is you're much better off trading

By Ernie Pyle

in a place that is checked by an exterminator every wee. It takes 24 hours to exterminate a private home. The boys seal up every single crack and opening with tape—a special kind of tape that doesn’t hurt the paint when you pull it off. Then they scatter dozens of little cork-like pads all over the house. As soon as the air hits these pads, a gas comes off and fills the house. It is hydro-cyanic gas, the same stuff they use for capital punishment in those new gas execution chambers in the Western states. It takes eight or 10 hours for the gas to do its work, but the house stays closed for 24 hours. It costs between $25 and $30 to exterminate a five-room house.

Tracking Down Rats

Roaches and waterbugs head the list of insects in Evansville. Most people confuse the two. Those things you see around your kitchen sink are waterbugs, not roaches. I guess it doesn’t make much. difference, however. Rats are a big thing. It is estimated that a farm rat does 50 cents damage a year, while a hotel rat does $5 damage. The average for the country is between $3 and $4. So the Pied Pipers of Evansville figure every time they kill 1000 rats they've saved somebody at least $3000. They get the rats with poison. They work in rubber gloves, so as to leave no human scent. They work late at night, while you and I are in bed, or should be. There is a great variety of ideas about rat catching. Several people in Evansville have ferrets in their homes. One store here keeps a weasel in the basement. It’s all in vain, There are also superstitions that if you paint a rat white, or hang a bell on his neck, or singe his hair and then turn him loose, all the other rats will iseve, The exterminator boys say none of these will work. :

Inside Indianapolis (4nd “Our Town”)

A LOT OF US in Indianapolis are worried about the National Bituminous Coal Commission’s move in hiking prices, but none of us are worrying quite as much as the School Board. You see the boost stands to cost the School City just about $12,000 more than the budget calls for. A. B. Good, the energetic business manager for the school system, has been keeping an eye on the situation and he ordered as many school bins as possible filled before a price rise, ‘but they beat him to it. He only had about 5000 tons in and the schools will use 20,000 more tons before winter is over. Mr. Good's estimate on how much the schools are hit runs about 60 cents a ton. The saving factor.is that all the school contracts have a clause permitting cancellation on two weeks’ notice. Mr. Good thinks the Board may have to do it to stay within the budget. He shuddered a little bit when he said it because he was thinking about the Smog. -

Messenger of Mercy

WE'VE JUST run into one of the nicest things to write about, It happened at the corner of Washington St. and Capitol Ave. A blind couple was standing there, the man gently tapping the curb with his cane. Pedestrians flowed right past them, few even casting so much as a glance at the blind pair. They were standing there quite a few minutes when a boy on one of those special delivery motorcycles came by. (This was one of Ayres’). He took a quick look, wheeled his motorcycle around and

Washington

WASHINGTON, Oct. 7.—By all indications Roosevelt is far in the lead in the Presidential campaign. That makes it all the more puzzling and the less excusable that he should go out of his way to try to plaster a pro-Hitler label on Willkie. It isn’t true that Willkie is pro-Hitler. He has supported Roosevelt in urging aid for Britain. He has said it not once but over and over. He has not said it in a weasel-worded whisper. but has shouted it from one end of the country to the other. He has said it in face of Republican politicians who wanted him to make a political football of Roosevelt's foreign policy. To the anguish of vote-hunting Republicans, he publicly repudiated the support of Father Coughlin. Whatever history may say about Willkie, it will be grossly unfair if it does not give him credit for frankly and boldly placing the nation’s interest above party politics. Instead of giving credit where credit is due, Roosevelt, who thought he would have no time for poiitics, utilizes a leading question at his press conference to smear his opponent. A reporter asked whether the President had any reason to believe the Germans and Italians were working for his defeat. Roosevelt thereupon picked up a copy of the New York Times and read a paragraph from that newspaper's Rome correspondent who stated on his own that the Axis was out to beat Roosevelt.

Willkie No Appeaser

The President is no amateur in politics. He knows all the tricks. He knew when he read this quotation at his press conference that the resulting news dispatches would paste a pro-Hitler tag on Willkie. The incident followed up Henry Wallace's acceptance speech, which was largely devoted to the idea that Hitler was trying to elect Willkie. Governor Lehman of New York put in his oar to the same effect. The record shows that some Republicans are against Roosevelt's foreign policy. But they do not dictate Willkie’s stand, and they should have no more effect on him as President than Senator Bennett Clark and other isolationist Democrats have had on

Roosevelt.

My Day

HYDE PARK, Sunday.—I lay in bed on my porch this morning and watched the little yellow leaves drifting slowly down to the earth. It is warm still and the air is soft, but the leaves are covering the ground and that burning smell we all associate with autumn is prevalent.

There is something rather helpless about these leaves as they drift slowly past the window. I often think they are very like us, strong and proud so long as they are tightly attached to the branch on which they grew, but rudderless once they leave that center of strength. How strong we are so long as we have within us some central core of courage and conviction, and how weak and rudderless when that is shaken. We all attended the dedication of the schools yesterday and the President reaffirmed a belief which has always been ours in this country — that no dictatorship can take hold when there is free education. The point, however, is that it must be free and it must grow with the needs of the day. I wonder, sometimes, whether we shall insist on keeping it free. Freedom must include the permission to examine and discuss unpopular subjects and a tolerant attitude towards those who think differently from the way the majority may think at the moment.

parked it. He trotted back, helped the pair across the street and ran back to his cycle. We wonder if it made him as happy as'it made us.

Back to Citizenship

FEDERAL AUTHORITIES here are getting ready to repatriate about 30 women who were born right here and who lost their citizenship without knowing it. The Attorney General's ruling that women who married aliens during the World War and prior to 1922 had automatically relinquished their citizenship hit many local women by surprise. The group to be repatriated immediately went to work to regain their citizenship.

Thanks, Says White House

THOMAS E. HALSEY, the local detorator ‘who dedicated a song to President Roosevelt, has just received a letter from the White House signed by Malvina Thompson, Mrs. Roosevelt's secretary, expressing their “appreciation. . . . Southern Indiana towns in the general area of the Charlestown boom are attempting to benefit by that project. Salem, for example, is stressing the ‘only 45 minutes away” angle and picking up several new residents. . . . Mrs. James B. Newcomb called up to say she had an envelope she wanted to give our No. 1 collector of envelope covers, Edward L. Mertz, the pharmacist, who lives at 111 N. Kealing. . . . The Reserve Officers’ troop school at the Federal Building drew more than 300 the other evening and the officials were forced to move .the class out of a small first-floor room to the auditorium on the fifth floor. The subject of the evening was “Military Law” and they tell us that there were more snappy questions and answers than they've heard in many a day.

By Raymond Clapper

Willkie has stated his belief in aid for Britain so positively and so often that it is a cruel misrepresentation for the President to use the enormous publiciity power of the White House press conference to try to make it appear Willkie is sympachetic to Hitler. Because Roosevelt is near victory it becomes all the more desirable that he look beyond election day. He said the crisis was so great that he had to lay aside his personal desire to retire, and submit to the draft. It would seem equally imperative therefore to forego playing politics with the crisis and to be concentrating on what we shall face after the election.

Beyond the Election

First we shall face the need for national unity. We are a long way from having it. I have heen traveling around and I find no softening of hostility toward Roosevelt among the businessmen. They still

distrust him. They fear him. Roosevelt appears to be winning this election with mostly the same people who elected him betore. He has not won over the others. They are numerically small but they are economically powerful, and our system will limp on missing cylinders until their hearts go into the Roosevelt defense program. They want defense but they are afraid of Roosevelt defense. “ Roosevelt was vindictive after his 1932 victory. He was vindictive after 1936. Some of those who believe most strongly in the esesntials of his program, as I do, are fearful that after another victory this tendency wil show itself again and prolong the in-|. ternal civil division in an hour when we can ill afford it. Throughout these recent years of crisis, Roosevelt has been far ahead of his critics in understanding our needs. But he has made little progress toward healing the internal wounds that must be healed if we are to rise to our full national efficiency in this decisive test. Roosevelt could well, on the day after election if he wins, invite Willkie to take a conspicuous part in the defense program. Willkie has talents that would be invaluable to the nation in such a role. Nothing would do more toward inspiring the national unity and confidence so sorely needed and so grievously absent. But Roosevelt will make any such move impossible if he succeeds in affixing to Willkie a fake pro-Hitler tag.

By Eleanor Roosevelt

I think growth to meet the needs of the day has lagged in education during the past few years. We require open minds, for changes are needed and what they are we have not yet agreed upon.

Last evening we drove down to New York City to attend the pageant and concert presented by the International Ladies Garment Workers Union in Madison Square Garden. With rare foresight this union has put the arts to work. They have recognized the need which human beings have for bread and for dignity in labor, but they have also proved the need for inspiration and idealism. The arts answer this need. Labor needs music and marching songs. Labor needs the creative satisfaction gained through the drama, the dance, and many other avenues of selfexpression. A pageant on the nation’s growth and based on Walt Whitman's poetry called “I Hear America Singing,” was the high point of the evening. With labor's growth, the country has grown, for, after all, labor is the country. It is a curious distinction that we have made for ourselves between capital, as represented by people who handle money, and labor, as represented by people who, do the actual work. We are all people and we must work to fulfill our destiny. If only we would all recognize this fact and work together and make money work for us all without division and as one great group of working people, what a different place our world would be.

Now Leads In Indiana, Gallup Finds

(Continued from Page One)

Roosevelt's gains have been either halted or reversed in 15 states, including such vital states as New York, Ohio, Illinois, California, Michigan and Missouri.

As a previous survey reported, President Roosevelt made striking gains in nearly every state during the first two weeks of September, while = American public opinion was reacting to the bombing of London and to the President’s deal involving destroyers and naval bases. But in 15 of the states shown in ‘the accompanying box of figures, these gains have not been continued at present. In the current survey, which covers the period from Sept. 20 to Oct. 2, inclusive, voters in every state were asked: “If the Presidential election were held today, would you vote for Willkie or Roosevelt?” The following figures give a comparison between the previous Institute survey and the present one: TODAY'S SURVEY Roosevelt Willkie Popular Vote (Major-Party Vote) No. of States.. Electoral Vote.. 499 SEPT. 20 SURVEY Roosevelt Willkie

Popular Vote (Major-Party Vote) : No. of States.. Electoral Vote.. 453

2 ” ”

ETURNS from Indiana indicate Roosevelt leading with 51 per cent of the major-party vote to 49 per cent for Willkie, a gain of two points for the President since Sept. 20. While Willkie has been checking President Roosevelt’s mid-Sep-tember upswing in states like New York, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan and California, the survey shows that the President has gained ground To some extent in 33 states all told. In four of these states— Massachusetts, Indiana, New Hampshire and Iowa—the Democratic gain has heen sufficient to push the state ‘into Mr. Roosevelt’s column at this time. The big question is: Can Willkie further reverse the trend in the next four weeks of the campaign? Many Republicans think he can. They reniind that four weeks before the Republican convention in Philadelphia last June Mr. Willkie was almost a hopeless “outsider,” with far less popular support than other prominent Republican candidates, and that Willkie, gathered both popular support and convention support in a last-minute sweep. They also point to the fact that Willkie has saved the crucial East for his final campaign efforts this month, Actually, on the basis of the vote in 1936, the survey indicates that Mr. Willkie needs to change less than ‘a million-and-a-half votes in the states north of the Mason-Dixon line to win. .

45% 10 78

2 » ” 2 ODAY’S Institute survey re-

veals that a large group of “undecided” voters — numbering about four million—may hold the answer to the question. Approximately one voter in 11 (9%) says that he is not yet decided on his vote next November, and supplementary surveys show that as many as 27 per cent of President Roosevelt's current supporters are not definitely sure they will vote for him. With public opinion in an unusually volatile state because of the war situation abroad, these “undecided” voters and those who are “not certain” about supporting Mr.

HOOVER INSISTS HUNGRY BE FED

Denies Sending Food to Europe Would Injure

British Cause.

NEW YORK, Oct. 7 (U. P.)— Herbert Hoover, answering critics of his proposals to send relief to famine-threatened Europe, said that he did not think anyone “desired to injure the British cause” but that Americans should “find a way” to feed an estimated 15,000,000 Europeans who, he said, face starvation this winter. Mr. Hoover was answering a petition signed by 15 educators and clergymen demanding that the United States withhold food and other materials "as an aid to the British blockade of Germany. “It is the keystone of American policy that we will lend ourselves to no plan which might directly or indirectly strengthen the enemies of democracy,” the petition said. Mr. Hoover asserted that “I do not understand that the statement issued by a group of sincere citizens in reference to food for the little democracies in Europe which are now occupied by German armies can be construed as opposition to saving the lives of millions among these people. That statement is rather an expression of a desire that nothing should be done that would injure the British cause . . .”

ELEPHANTS TO MEET The Elephant Club, an organization of Republicans in the Eighth Ward, will hear A. J. Fesler, former labor leader, at a meeting at 8 o'clock tonight at 1235 N. New

Jersey St. ¥

European Crisis

Help

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14 States Where Race Is Close

(VOTE IN GALLUP POLL BETWEEN 54% AND 46%

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1936 Aug. 4

Election

Aug. 25 Sept. 200 TODAY

Points of Change in FDR Vote Since Sept. 20

+1 +2 +3 +6 +2 +3 +2 +4 +3 +3 +3 0 +4 +1 0 +2 +4 +3 -1 -1 +2 +1 -1 +1. +1 +3 +5 -1 —1

Democrats Leading—42 States

Electoral % Votes Roosevelt

8 South Carolina .... Nc 9 Mississiopi Cissus 12 Georgia, ..ievveness 23 ToXUS ..:viusvesen 10 Louisiana 11 Alabama 9 Arkansas 7 Florida 13 North Carolina ..... 11 Virginia .... 11 Tennessee 3 Arizona Nevada ........... Oklahoma ......... New Mexico ....... Montana ... Kentucky West Virginia Maryland .. Delaware Utah .. Washingtcn California .. Rhode Island ldaho Oregon 11 Minnesota 15 Missouri .......... 8 Connecticut

% . Willkie 1% 3 11 11

8 89 88 88 82 79 75 73 2 69 84 64 63 62 62 60 60 59 59 58 57 57 56 56 56 55 55

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POLITICAL SCORE AS RACE ENTERS HON

Electoral Votes

3S Wyoming |.decessss 6 Colorado 29 Illinois 20 ODi0...... . isesnen 36 Pennsylvania 12 Wisconsin | .Leceeses 47 New York] ..ceeee.e 19 Michigan | .L..canes’ 17 Massachusetts 11 lowa 4 New Hampshire ... 14 Indiana

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499 Electoral Votes for Roosevelt

% Roosevel .

Points of Change in FDR Vote Since Sept. 20 +1 +2 0 0 +1 +2 0 -2 +3 +6 +3 +2

a) Wwillk ® 20 0 00 000 57}

Electoral Votes 7 Nebraska B Maine .l.iscevenes 3 Vermont |.....vveee DES 4 North Dakota iseees DEF 4 South Dakota ...... 9d 9 Kansas ........~. DF

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Points of Change in FDR Vote Since Sept. 20 - ~4 0 0 0 +3 +2

16 New Jersey

that some margin of error pling operation, due to the

Roosevelt constitute a

Note by Dr. Gallup: The reader should remember

is involved in every samsize of the sample itself.

In the present survey the statistical probabilities are approximately 95 in 100 that the average error per state resulting from the size of the sample will not:

32 Electoral Votes for Willkie

exceed 4 per cent. Actaally] 1 in 13 election predictions

made by the Institute sin 5 Bs well as error due to size

causes (cross- secliofi error.

of sample) has averaged 3 tc 4 the above percentages for any

limitations should be born

1936, the error from all

¢ per cent. In interpreting particular state, these ind.

highly important factor in all

election calculations. i ” ” ” NOTHER question that will be weighed seriously by political leaders and ordinary citi-. zens alike is: How accurate are the Institute’s election studies? A final answer will not be pos-

sible, of course, until the Insti-

tute’s final election studies a month from now can be compared with actual election results. It is

well to remember, meanwhile, that a margin of error is involved in every sampling operation due to the size of the sample itself. Jn 13 state, local and national elections since 1936 the Institute’s

Roosevelt Would Win Again If Canadians Could Yofe

This is the fifth of a series of dispatches based on a recent tour of Canada.

By LEE G. MILLER Times Special Writer WASHINGTON, Oct. T7.—There may be Canadians who would like to see Wendell Willkie elected President of the United States, but this reporter did not encounter any such. If the Dominion could vote Nov. 5, it would deliver solidly for PF. D. IR. Even the “fat cats”—the type which, in this country, has loathed President Roosevelt and all his works—-are for him. The reasons are obvious—the pledge to defend Canada against aggression, the TU. S.-Canadian Joint Defense Commission, the 50 destroyers. Canadians are aware that Mr. Willkie’s views on aid to the British Empire are close to those of Mr. Roosevelt, but they regard a third term as the safest assurance of continued and accelerated aid to the Empire. American newspapermen saw six of those destroyers at a great base commonly referred to nowadays as “an eastern Canadian port.” The slim craft had, of course, been fully reconditioned. But further than that— When Canadian petty officers inspected their new quarters on one of the destroyers, they found three freshly roasted turkeys awaiting them. The officers’ library was fully stocked with books. Brand-new typewriters had been installed. And sO on.

| Those little things made a big >

American gobs are still on hand at this port, a dozen or so to each destroyer, familiarizing the Canadians with each detail. They seem to get along fine, except for a complaint that the Canadian lads have dated up all the girls in port for the duration. Canadians don’t differ much from their neighbors to the south. One visiting editor was sought out at a Canadian air training center by an aviator from his own state, who is now busy instructing Canadian student pilots. He told how he signed up: “This Canadian asked me a lot of questions about my experience and so on. Finally he asked my name and I gave him my last name. ‘What are your initials?’ he said. I told him ‘B. O.’ and he said, ‘Why hello, Stinky!’ “You see, they're just like us!” That incident was recounted by Clark Howell of The Atlanta Constitution at a dinner at which leading statesmen of the Dominion were present, and they loved it. These Canadians have, besides a lively sense of humor, an ability to take punishment. At Petawawa, an Ontario training camp where artillerymen ari engineers have 100 square miles for their exercises, we were taken past a decontamination station for the treatment of gas casualties. We visitors were shivering even in our topcoats and gloves, as it was a cold day. To our astonishment we saw a young Canadian, stripped, and standing under a cold shower—in the open. And he was laughing at us! “He ought to get the Victoria Cross,” said a major of artillery, his teeth chattering,

average error from all causes has been between three and four percentage points.

Applying this average error to i the state-by-state figures reported |

today reveals that in 14 states— with a toal of 238 electoral votes —the race is extremely close, that is, between 54 per cent. and 46 per cent for one candidate or the

WOMEN TAKE UP FOREIGN STUDY

Intern ational Relations Group Meets First Time At “Y’ Tomorrow.

It is expected that about 50 women representing Indianapolis Protestant churches gill attend the first meeting of a n international relations discussion group tomorrow at the Y. W. C. A. The meeting will | begin at 10:15 a. m. and continue until 2:30 p. m with a cafeteria lunéheon served af

noon. Mrs, Calvin KE. Hamilton, International Relations Department chairman for the dianapolis Council of Churchwomen, isi charge. 3 Mrs. Hamilton said the grou will attempt to clarify the responsibility of Christian women in the For

Mrs. Leonard A. Smith, forei policy chairman for the India League of Women Voters, will lead the devotions. On the committe with Mrs. Hamilton, in addition t¢ Mrs. Smith are Mesdames Ral J. Hudelson,: John R. H. Full Merwyn Bridenstine and Willia F. Milner. At the all-day meeting, the fir of four scheduled for the fall a winter, topics to be discussed ar “What are the things we want mo in the world—for nations and dividuals?” “What are the unde lying principles necessary to th success of any world order?” “Wh £

tier. The states include New 'k, Pennsylvania, Ohio, IndiIllinois, Michigan, Massa= setts, New Hampshire, Wis= sin» Kansas, Iowa, Colorado the Dakotas. y far the greater part of those tes lie in the great quadrant northeastern states which Mr, rlllkie has selected for his home=setch campaign.

d organization is necessary ta ve our ends?” “What is the ren of the United States to such organization?” “What is the re« nsibility of Christian women in inging about this world?”

TEST YOUR: | KNOWLEDGE

— What is the slang term for the ‘securities of companies engaged in the manufacture of munitions ‘and other war supplies? -Which fall flower is nicknamed Fmum”’? ame the novel for which Mare jorie Kinnan Rawlings received the Pulitzer Prize in 1939. ‘In which Middle Western State

is the Miami River? -What is the sign of subtraction

. called?

Which is heavier, milk or cream? — For what invention is Simon

. Lake notable?

an, head of the British Purchasng Commission in the U. S, or n American labor leader?

Answers

Mi _Invention' of a’ modern type of 'submarine.: Head of British Purchasing Com-

mission. s = =

ASK THE TIMES

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ly when addressing any question

fact information to , Indianapolis Times Wash1gton Service Bureau, 1013 13th £t., N. W. Washington, D. C. egal and medical advice cannot e given nor can extended re-

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