Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 25 February 1941 — Page 11

‘TUESDAY, FEB. 25,

1941

Hoosier Vagabond

PAISLEY, Scotland (by wireless) .—This is the city that used to make the famous Paisley shawls. It wasn’t until I came here that I discovered genuine Fae shawls haven't been made in 60 years. That , real hand-woven ones. But America still knows this city, at least indirectly, for as one person expressed it, “Nearly all the buttons that hold up the pants of America are sewed on with thread from Paisley. This is a great textile city, but it is neither shawls nor thread that I'm going to write about. It is the Home Guard.

You've certainly heard about’

Britain’s Home Guard, the civilian army which has sprung to arms to make an invasion of Britain im=possible. There are today something like 1,700,000 men in the Home Guard, which didn’t even come into-existence until last May. At first their organization was flabby and almost without direction. Today they are well equipped and well trained and, I can assure you, Jery formidable men. They are here literally to defend their Homey. Every city, town and village has its Home Guard. They drill, and practice marksmanship, and study plans. They are ready for whatever comes. - Today the whole force is uniformed. The uniform is brown, just like the Regular Army’s, but they wear white armbands with the words “Home Guard.” This may be abandoned, however, for in case of invasion the Germans could spot them too easily.

A Constant Vigil

A large percentage of the Home Guard are World War veterans. Practically all the members have daytime jobs. The Paisley Home Guard has a strength of several thousand men. Every so often each man is on duty all night. He spends most of his duty night cleaning guns, studying military tactics, and maybe drilling. There are a few cots, and the ones who have to go to work early in the morning are allowed to snatch a few winks. But for two hours every night each

Inside Indianapolis (And “Our Town”)

THE BUILDING BOOM has sent Indianapolis real estate men scurrying to the rural areas and suburbs north of the City for options on building lots. Their activities have forced realtors in the small towns, some of them clear over in Boone, Hamilton and Hendricks Counties, to get busy on options to protect themselves. In Zionsville, a group of business leaders are sponsoring plans for building 50 low-cost houses in ‘anticipation of the construction of a 5000-barrel Rock Island oil refinery 2% miles south of Zionsville along the Big Four Railroad. It will bring an estimated 50 families to the community. “The Standard Oil Co. is reported considering construction of a pipeline terminal in the vicinity similar to the Shell terminal just south of Zionsville. It would be used to store gasoline piped there from the company’s refineries at Whiting. That would mean further population expansion for the town. Some of Zionsville's citizens are eager to see the town boom, but a lot of others—especially those who moved there from Indianapolis for “peace and quiet” —look on all this expansion with a cold eye.

The Drill Problem

THE NEXT TIME your eardrums and peace of mind are shattered by .one of those pneumatic drills “hammering away outside your window, you might get in touch with -Municipal Court Judge John L. McNelis. He knows what to do about it. The other afternoon, as court got under way, the , familiar nerve-wracking noise started just outside the courtroom window. Judge McNelis sent his bailiff to “order it stopped. The bailiff returned with the news that telephone linemen were making some emergency repairs. “Go stop them—they're obstructing justice,” the

Washington

WASHINGTON, Feb. 25.—At a press conference the other day President Roosevelt said questions of ethics, morals and patriotism were raised by the action of newspapers in printing certain information that Gen. George C. Marshall, Chief of Staff, had given in confidence to the Senate Military Affairs Committee.

Senators leaked and newspapers printed the news. It was a vague revelation that Army and Navy planes were being dispatched to the Pacific fleet because the Far Eastern situation was serious.

Mr. Roosevelt absolved the reporters and the l:aky Senators but po.nted the finger at his favorite whipping boys, the news- ® paper owners and managers, and " the radio. Questions of ethics, morals and patriotism were raised because they had not, in the home offices, killed the Jagus references to the strengthening of the fleet air orces.

The British Contrast

On the very day that the patriotism and morals of newspaper managers were thus called intd question at the White House, the British Embassy here made an announcement. It was that Americanmade aircraft were being flown to the Far East from the Pacific Coast. The British Embassy does not usually give out news unless it thinks it is to the interest of the British cause. Thus on the same day we have the British Embassy advertising information and the White House questioning the ethics, morals and patriotism of newspapers for printing exactly parallel information about American moves. What Mr. Roosevelt thought was unpatriotic, the British Embassy evidently thought was good propaganda. Mr. Roosevelt tried to make it a question of patriotism. It is a question of judgment. Mr. Roosevelt has carried on a long feud with the press. He has licked the bankers and the economic royalists. He has them where they have to be good. There is no control over the press—yet. It is only human, perhaps, that he should be irritated. And I

~ My Day

WASHINGTON, Monday—Flying from Washington to Richmond, Va., yesterday morning was very pleasant. It gave me time before I left to see my grandbaby for a little while, and to have a very leisurely breakfast all by myself for the first time that I can remember this winter in Washington.

The baby is at the stage where everything goes straight into his mouth. Whether it is the beads around my neck, the spoons off the table, qr the newspaper which he grabs out of my hand. I discovered when little Johnny Boettiger was his age, that newsprint was evidently harmless, so I do not worry any more when I see it being chewed to a pulp. The car met me in Richmond and it took only three-quarters of an hour to reach Virginia State College. The plant has been greatly improved in the last few years through the use of various government set-ups. I ate a very delicious lunch cooked and served by the home economics girls and can vouch fer the fact ‘that this course is well given. The head of the department told me that when they are through it, the girls are prepared for 17 vocations. . Most of ‘these young Negro people, however, take

tions. 1 feel sure that they arg gradually

* spotted and wiped out before the 15 minutes are up,

By Ernie Pyle

man is actually out in the dark patrolling—looking for parachutists or anything suspicious. This patrol is maintained all over Britain by the Home Cruard, all night. that if they should spot a German landing party one man could run back and give the alarm while the others held off the attackers until help came. . The Home Guard is essentially a deep-line defense. The wiy Britain figures it, the Navy and the Air Force are the first lines of defense against invasion. If Germany should break through these, behind them on the land is Britain’s now formidable regular Army and an intricate maze of defenses that would astound you. The fourth line of defense is the Home Guard, whose duty is to prevent infiltration by the enemy back of the front lines—the thing that has destroyed so many other countries.

The Home Guard's Job

They estimate that a plane load of parachutists with everything planned perfectly, could jump out over Britain at night, collect into a group after landing and be ready with bicycles and machine guns to go .into action within 15 minutes.

It is the Home Guard's job to see that they are

or, failing in that, to interfere and hold them up until the regular army arrives on the scene. Théy say there is no spot in Britain, no matter how isolated, that cannot be reached in force by the regular army within an hour after the alarm is received. Every street and every country road in all Britain is patrolled throughout the night by the Home Guard. I have a friend who was driving along an east coast road one night. It was isolated, bleak and lonesome country. He stopped for a moment on personal business,. and stood looking toward the sea. Then he drove on a few miles, and stopped at a pub for a drink. Wiliile he was in the pub a Home Guardsman came up and required him to identify himself. Somebody had séen him out there in the datkneess. “And suppose,” my friend asked, “suppose I hadn’t stopped at this pub for a drink. What would you have done?” - “You wouldn’t have got four miles,” the Guardsman replied. You're being watched for right now at every yerossroad in every direction from heré.”

judge order od. The noise was stopped and cour resumed. Being judge has its compensations.

Mr. Billy Thom Roosevelt Jones

BILLY THOM, I. U. wrestling coach, is going to get the big head one of these days if people keep on naming their offspring after him. The latest is Frank Krahulik, Big Ten wrestling champ in 1936 and now employed at the local Chevrolet plant. His brand new son has been named Frank Thom Krahulik. = °

He follows the examples of two other Thom proteges—Paul Mitchell, ’34, and Howard Bush, "35, each of wiiom named their sons Billy Thom. A third protege, who became a father Friday—John Tatum, now a Broad Ripple teacher—chose ‘another name—for a reason. He named her Caroline Lee.

The Paint Business Booms

I}? YOU'VE BEEN worrying about having to paint thos¢ window screens, stop worrying. That's easy. We're informed that something like 4800 galions of paini will have to be applied to give the Citizens Gas & | Coke Utility’s new gas holder the required three coats. The tallest in the world, the 396-foot holder will be aluminum colored on top, with the upper portion of the sides painted a checkerboard design—requiréd by the Civil Aeronautics Board. The rest of the sides will be bluish gray.

—F'rom Camp Shelby

CAMP SHELBY NOTES—Sergt. Bruce Bostwick, Indianapolis, staged an elimination heat to decide the fastest runner in the 38th Division headquarters company. He picked the fastest three, let them get their breath, then joined them for the championship heat. Sergi, ‘Bostwick won by a nose. . . . When Private John Wooster, anti-tank battery of the 150th Field Artillery, wrote to a relative that he had been put on Kitchen police duty, she wrote back advising him to be “easy on the boys while he was a kitchen police.”

By Raymond Clapper

thirk a fair-minded person must admit that in the past there has been some cause for irritation.

Ilowever, a change has occurred, or is in process, and thers is goed reason to believe that Mr. Roosevelt knows at least something about it. A number of newspaper publishers and editors have been making a sincere effort to co-operate with the Administration in defense. Some of the extremist spokesmen for the newspaper publishers have subsided in their carping criticism of everything that was done at Washington. Committees of publishers anc editors have sought out Administration 'officials, have offered to co-operate, have asked only to be teld what would help the defense effort. They have done this—not because they love Mr. Roosevelt —but out of patriotism, out of a desire to see this country make itself strong. Although they have not always been treated as such around here, they, too, are Americans.

“The Integrity of Words”

The newspaper world is responding as it has not responded in the last eight years to Mr. Roosevelt's leadership. A large part of the Republican press is deiending him against some Senators of his own party. Yet the press as a whole now has its morals and patriotism haled into question for a decision of judgment although if made the same decision that the British Embassy made with regard to parallel information. ‘Mr. Roosevelt's good friend, Archibald MacLeish, ina powerful little essay entitled “The American Cause,” remarks that the enemies of liberty are most dangerous in their sabotage of the mind. To destroy a manufacturing plant is one thing, Mr. MacLeish says. It can be replaced. “To destroy the integrity of words and to destroy the credibility of the users of words is another: Neither can be replaced.” Eriemies of liberty, “here as in other countries, practice the destruction of the integrity of words and the destruction of the credibility of the users of words.” { Mr. MacLeish regards President Roosevelt as a great champion of liberty, as I do. But it is a question whether Mr. Roosevelt will foster liberty by an attempt to arouse public suspicion as to the patriotism of the American press.

By Eleanor Roosevelt

reising the standard of living among their own people iri the State of Virginia. There was no convenient réturn plane, so I drove back in three hours and twenty minutes and arrived here in. time for supper. Cur house guests, Alexander Woollcott and his secretary, Mr. Hennessey, arrived in the afternoon and were setfled in their rooms, prepared to meet all the rigors of daily: acting in “The Man Who Came to Dinner.” | Mrs. Florence Kerr of the’ WPA, came to supper and also my old friends, Mr. and Mrs. Grosvenor Allen of Oneida, N. Y., and their daughter and son-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Albert Kerr,- whom they are visiting down here. Mrs. Allen broke a knee last year and has had a lot of trouble with it, and st) she is on her way to Tucson, Ariz, to convalesce. FEowever, she has lost none .of her old spirit and remarked to me in parting that she is coming back to take up all the things she has been longing to do during her period of inactivity. I did not know that I was bringing together two (Oneida County (New York) people, but Mr. Woollcott and Mrs. Allen have an equal interest in Hamilton (College and entertained us with stories about their nivtual aequaintances. Mr. Woollcott showed two reels of colored pictures in the evening, one taken in lligrineland, Fla., and one in the autumn and winter fa0owing his island and Vermont. The colors weré fiae most, beautiful I have ever seen and I only wish that al si guste mivies suid be gf esti aah

They patrol in strength, so|-

(Contmued from Page One)

naked desert and far beyond Benghazi. The war in Africa has suddenly become almost as startling and incredible as the Nazis’ vic-

tory in Norway. Today, the remainder of Italianheld Libya, with its enormously important seaport of Tripoli, seems condemned to British conquest and nothing short of a military miracle can save it from that fate. Today British, Indian and Dominion troops together with “Free French” detachments are driving relentlessly forward into Eritrea, Ethiopia and Italian

Somaliland. Mussolini’s East African empire also appears to be doomed. These who took by the sword south of the Red Sea are now perishing by the sword and they possess no avenue of escape. You wonder what foreboding Ludendorff would have, were he alive today. All this is a sweeping reversal of anything there seemed logical reason to expect only a few months ago. It marks a breathtaking change in British power, British tactics and British spirit. It constitutes a stupendous reversal because it is perfectly true that Egypt lay wide open for an Italian conquest last July. At that time, due to their unwise reliance upon large French forces in Syria and Tunisia, the British had less than four divisions in Egypt. Hitler, so certain well-informed persons from Berlin have assured me, wanted Mussolini to unleash a great offensive upon Alexandria. It is stated that Hitler urged Mussolini to send his fleet to Alexandria and offered more than 1000 Nazi dive-bombers as his contribution. II Duce was afraid to risk his capital ships. I am told that he refused Hitler’s offer and advice. ” ” ”

Golden Opportunity Lost

HUS the Axis powers lost their golden opportunity to seize North Africa while Britain was still staggered by Dunkirk and the capitulation of a French Government, which had sworn it would never make a separate peace. Whether Hitler offered impressive aerial aid or not, the fact remains that: the Fascists should have attacked Egypt early in July and almost certainly could have broken through to Alexandria. But when the British had to fight alone they really began to fight. Immediately they rushed reinforcements to Egypt and the Sudan from all parts of their empire. Between July and November -they poured tens of thousands of Australians, New Zealanders and Indian troops into Gen. Sir Achibald Wavell’'s Middle-East-ern zone. They pushed many thousands of veteran British troops right through Mussolini's “Mare Nostrum.” ‘They ‘sent huge shiploads of airplanes, tanks, lorries and muftitions with them. This tide "of mounting military strength has never ceased to flow into Africa and it is more powerful than ever today. I know that this is true because I have just come home by way of Egypt, the Belgian and French Congos and West Africa. I reached Cairo on the day that Bardia was captured (Jan. 5). I talked with American and British correspondents who entered Bardia with the Anzacs, and also with senior officers in the British Middle-Eastern command and the Royal Air Force. Their testimony was unanimous. At last the British. had the power in Egypt and the rest of Africa. At last they were going to strike hard and keep striking. Bardia was only the beginning, they said. That’s exactly what it has proved

to be. ” tJ »

The British Are Confident |

AIRO was overflowing with British officers and men. So were other places, like Khartoum, and places even much further afield. All were full of determination and quiet confidence. In their minds there exists no question about the Italians being driven out of Africa and driven out completely.

“In Cairo you learn that the Libyan campaign was indeed worked out with supreme care and skill, but you also learn that the British have ‘mastered the art of swift, mechanized warfare, A great part of their dazzling dash from Sidi Barrani through Bardia, Tobruk, Derna and away . past Benghazi, has been due to the audacity, improvisation and flexibi lity of commanding officers and men alike.”

They are confident because they are strong and growing stronger: every day. They are in a winning mood because the three arms of British military power—Army, Navy and Air Force—have never operated with + such smoothlyoiled co-ordination and precision before. . Everything that the Chamber-lain-paralyzed British services failed so disastrously to do in regard to Norway has been done in both Libya and the Greek-Al-banian war theater, and done as if it had been perfected by months of rehearsal and preparation. In Cairo you learn that the Libyan campaign was indeed worked out with supreme care and skill, but you also learn that the British have mastered the art of swift, mechanized warfare, A great part of their dazzling dash from Sidi Barrani through Bardia, Tobruk, Derna and away past Benghazi, has been due to the audacity, improvisation and flexibility of commanding officers and men alike,

No German motorized units .

have yet slashed through more than 130 miles of enemy territory in a single day. No German tanks, on ‘any war. front, have moved with greater speed and

efficiency. ” 2

The War of Movement

T is no secret in Egypt that Gen. Wavell's commanders in the field have enjoyed the same freedom of action and decision which once made men like “LightHorse Harry” Lee and Gen. Sheridan and Gen. Forrest so devastatingly effective upon American battlefields. Gen. O’Connor, in particular, has been free to improvise according to the disposition of Italian troops wherever he has run them down and established contact with them. He has used tanks and motorized units with the same elasticity with which cavalry were used in our Civil War days, and he has manipulated them brilliantly. All of this means that the British have appropriated the war of movement as a striking weapon, and that Hitler’s army now enjoys no monopoly in this respect’ As a result of these surprising events and impressive developments, it would be a grave error to regard the African war &s,a mere sideshow, even thougli you should be tempted to be rash enough to dismiss the considered judgment of so masterful a strategist as the Kaiser's General Ludendorff. : In hard fact the British, beginning significantly with Winston Churchill at the top, have recognized that the European War can and may be won in Africa. Africa is the springboard and the drive to clean up the rest of Libya and

_Bizerte

= GREECE

Mediterranean Sea

MALTA

Next 600 miles, to

dh British Advance

=—— Main Roads

Italian East Africa will not be slackened, nor is it likely to fail. In this respect, the open lines of communication, across the “Free Belgium” of the Belgian Congo and the “Free French” of French Equatorial Africa, are an additional factor of great strength. The heart of Africa is solid for Britain and her allies. If or when Tripoli falls, the British will have a common frontier with French Tunisia, and Gen. Maxime Weygand’s Algerian and Moroccan armies may not regret to have this the case. = = ”

How Hitler's Hands Are Tied

HEN a British fleet can bombard Genoa in the tightest corner of the Italian coast, it appears highly improbable that Fascist warships will be able to prevent a joint land, air and sea assault upon Tripoli. Sevgral hundred Nazi bombers might conceivably make such an operation difficult, but they would have to face serious losses from fighter squadrons which are among the finest in the R. A. F., and the British fleet air arm.

Finally, Hitler would be compelled to weaken very greitly his air forces now in action against the British Isles if he were to try to save Tripoli for his deadweight, catastrophe-Jane partner, Mussolini. It looks more and more as though Adolf had his hands full elsewhere. As for Eritrea, Ethiopia and

', Somaliland, the Italian troops in

these colonies are completely isolated. Their supplies of munitions and gasoline must be running low. Their morale must be sinking to the zero point, and they are being attacked from Kenya, from the

Barce.

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Sudan and from every side by strong British forces who are riding a victory tide and riding it hard. For these marooned Fascist divisions, there is virtually no hope whatsoever, and they have never shown any stomach for fighting for a losing cause. It would not be surprising if they were pretty well finished before May, and that is equally true of Marshal Rodolfo Graziani's desperately depleted army in and around Tripoli.

» ” 8 s

The British Drive On...

AKING all factors into con- : sideration, it can be said with restraint that the British are very far on the way toward establishing a long and solid front from Somaliland across Northern Africa to Tunisia, But without counting chickens before they are hatched, these things have already been accomplished: Egypt and the Suez Canal have been rendered absolutely secure for a long time to come; the British Mediterranean Fleet can now use the splendid harbor of Benghazi for sorties upon Tripoli, Sicily and southern Italian ports; British air squadrons are now able to use Benghazi and the highly strategic island of Crete, as well as airfields on the Greek mainland. These developments mean that the springboard of Africa has suddenly begun to assume the importance which Ludendorff had in mind. Without naval control of the Mediterranean it does not appear that Hitler cam hope to challenge the British hold on Africa at the. present time, or In any discernible future.

Cirene Feb. 4

Jan. 30

El Mechili

Sidi Barrani} Dee. 11, 1940 |

But Greek victories in Albania and British victories in Libya have combined to knock Italian Fascism into a coma and to threaten Nazi security throughe out the Balkans. If there should be no attempted German invasion of Britain within the next two months, these will be two of the chief reasons for the adjournment.

2 = ”

A School for War

T should not escape attention that Britain's African armies are being hardened in_action and perfected in motorized warfare while Germany's troops have been marking time or acting as watch dogs in occupied countries. For the British the African zones have become invaluable training schools in the war of movement. Simule taneously, closest co-operation be tween their army, navy and air force is being practiced day after day. This kind of training and this co-ordination may have far-reache-ing effects upon the future course of the war. Meanwhile, Hitler's surplus war strength is being drawn down into southeastern Europe, just about the last place where he wanted to use it. If he does use it there, ‘the transportation of vast supplies of raw materials and foodstuffs from Rumania, Bulgaria and Jugoslavia into Germany will be dislocated inevitably, and perhaps to a dane gerous degree. It is no longer Hitler who is calling all the plays in the European war. Things have changed a great deal since last September.

Tomorrow — Scandinavian Twie light.

PHI KAPPA PSI ALUMNI ELECT

Herman B. Gray Succeeds John A. Alexander as Local Group Head.

Herman B. Gray today succeeded John A. Alexander as president of the Indianapolis Alumni Associa-

tion of Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity. Mr. Gray was elected at.the annual Founders’ Day banquet of the local alumni group last night at the Athenaeum, at which founders of the fraternity and association were honored. The charter members were represented by Edward H. Knight, City Corporation Counsel who organized the local association in 1900. Other officers named were Robert W. Smith, vice president; Willis B. Conner Jr., secretary, and Dan A. Kaufman, treasurer. Of the original 39 charter members of the association, only 10 survive, five of them living in Indian-

apolis. They are Taylor E. Gron-|

inger, alumnus of the I. U. chapter; Walter D. Grubb and Mr. Knight, Wabash College; Orlando B. Iles ang Charles N. Thompson, DePauw, and Almus G. Ruddell, Leland Stanford Jr. University.

GUMP AND GUMP MARRY

PHILADELPHIA (U. P.).—A marriage license was issued here to

Handy Gump of Philadelphia RL Allena Gump of $ Chicaged :

CONVICTED IN THREE HOURS EL PASO, Texas (U. P).,— In three hours, a local man was convicted and sent to prison for 80 years for killing his former sweetheart.

HOLD EVERYTHING

COPR. 1941 BY NEA INC. T. M.

ALFONSO IS IMPROVED ROME, Feb. 25 (U. P.).—Dr.

Cesare Frugoni, chief physician to

former King Alfonso XIII of Spain,

said today that the condition of his patient was improved slightly.

PAY.

TO end you bw mt badge 0 0 o those moda”

1200 TO ANSWER 4TH DRAFT CALL

State’s Quota Is Reduced; Marion County to Send 120 Selectees.

The fourth Indiana selective service call, issued today, will take 1200 men for military service between March 10 and 18, considerably fewer than was originally expected. Lieut. Col, Robinson Hitchcock, State Selective Service director, said

the proposed call for 4000 to 5000 men, originally expected in March has been postponed until late in March or early April. Marion County will furnish approximately 120 men in the fourth call, which will bring to nearly 600 the number of men called in the County, and bring the State total|s__ to 6797 by the end of the new call. All the Class 1-A men who will go into service on the fourth call have received “warning” orders to be prepared for early induction. The local boards throughout the State have not as yet completed the third call which is placing 850 men from the State in the Army this month. : The third call will continue tomorrow when 150 youths will report at Pt. Harrison here for induction. Other deliveries on the third call

will be made on Friday and Satur-| be .

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

1—Which wild flower is reputed to be the National flower of the United States? 2—What is the maximum power on which any radio station in the United States is permitted to operate? 3—In the name “Honolulu, T. H., » what does T. H. stand for? 4—Under which President was Levi P. Morton the Vice President? 5—Name the capital of Spain, 6—Can two full moons ever occu in the month of February? T—Name the man who was a nome inee for President of the United States in 1920 and ran for that office while he was serving a sentence in a penitentiary, 8—What labor union is known by the initials UAWA?

Answers

1—Goldenrod. 2—50,000 watts. 3—Territory of Hawaii. 4—Grover Cleveland, 5—Madrid.

6—No. : 7—Eugene V. Debs. 8—United Automobile Workers of America. » tJ "

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