Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 26 February 1941 — Page 13

n Hoosier Vagabond

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 26, 1941

The Indianapolis Times

PAISLEY, Scotland (by wireless).—Great Britain’s Home Guard, which was not even in existence last spring, today is well equipped. Most of the Guard's arms have come from America. - In one post I saw American rifles and machine guns.

The Guard is well equipped with grenades. And the countryside is a network of tank traps and obstructions that even the local people don’t see or recognize.

Provincial England is determined that the Germans shall not pass. Of course there is some good democratic bellyaching against the Government, and derision about mistakes. There are thousands of hot - stove - league fighters who know how to run the war better. There are some shirkers, and no doubt even a few fifth columnists. And yet I suppose there never has been

a nation more unanimous in its mind than Britain

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now.

1f she ever stumbles in this war, I feel absolutely"

certain it will not be by the immoral Quisling route. Among the soldiers of Britain, and even among * the bombed people of London, I have found very few . who hate the Germans with the old fanatical frenzy . of World War days. But these middle-aged Home ‘ Guardsmen do.

- They'll Take No Prisoners

Most of them carry over their hate from the last ~ war, and it is intensified by resentment at having " to do the job all over again. It is further intensified by the fact that now they're fighting for their own

~ homes and families, right in their own streets and:

In Home Guard posts you hear the terms Boche” and “Hun” more often than you hear “Jerry.” . The Home Guardsmen say they intend to take no prisoners. They say they intend to use their bayonets when they get that close. I don’t know whether it has ever been definitely settled which is the stronger—steel or a man’s heart.

= I only know that Britain’s Home Guard is armed

go truck, picking up his outer coat as he did so.

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with a state of mind that is likely to make para- . chuting a very unpleasant calling.

- By Ernie Pyle

No doubt youve read that when the invasion comes the church bells will ring all over Britain. ‘We were talking about this the other night at a Home Guard vost, and as we talked I realized I had not heard a church bell singe I came to England. It is in fact against the law to ring a church bell today in Britain. They've even stopped firing the famous 1 o'clock fime gun from the castle in Edinpurgh, a custom there longer than anyone can remember. { .

A Fighting Pastor I talked to a Home Guardsman who is 60 years

old and has sevén service medals. He has fought

in Egypt, India and Africa. He was in the ‘Boer War and the World War. Now he is a billposter by day and a guardsman by night. On the side he is an informer for the Ministry of Information. And he has a son who went through Dunkirk. He just hopes the Germans will come—that’s all he hopes. And I sat until 3 la. m. in front of a glowing fireplace with Dsvid McQueen, a Presbyterian minister here in Paisley. . The Church of Scotland, you know, is Presbyterian. It used to be a part of the state. Presbyterian ministers here are highly educated in the classics. When you sit with Mr. McQueen you are sitting with a man of great intellect; oh Mr. McQueen is in the war. He has/raised thousands of pounds for | foldjers éntertainment. His church runs & canteen Ior the troops stationed here. Wounded R. A. ¥', fliers come to live with him in his manse, to recuperate. And Mr. McQueen is an ordinary private in fhe Home Guard. They wanted to make him a padre for the Guard but he wouldn't do it. He said that was the wrong principle. He said if they did that then they should make the pipe organist a bandsman, and no band is needed. So on every duty night David McQueen, Presbyterian minister, is out in the dark fields in uniform, patrolling up and down looking for Germans. When his turn falls on Saturday night he has to go right to church without a wink Sunday morning and preach two sermons. He says he has to keep the church cold in!order not to fall asleep while he’s talking. That's the Home ‘Guard for you,

Inside Indianapolis (4nd “Our Town”)

MAYBE IT'S JUST imagination, but it seems that the once popular sport of panhandling is undergoing a revival, In some sections where police are seen

infrequently, it’s getting hard to walk a block or two without hearing the familiar query: “Mister, could you spare a nickel for a cuppa cawfee?” In the old days, a dime used to be standard. Probably the worst pests are .those seedy looking individuals who fall into step with you and spin a long-winded tale of woe. No, they don’t want any money— wouldn’t think of taking it. But you just go with them to a restaurant and buy them something to eat? Some of them have polished the presentation of their appeal until it rivals the histrionics of a Shakespearean actor

S& Br-r-r-r-!

FIREMAN JOSEPH (BABE) LAWRIE—he used to play second base for the Indianapolis Indians—had a chilly ride the other day. He was changing clothes at Engine House 13, across from The Times, " when an alarm came. Minus his shirt he slid . down the brass pole and hopped on the departing In trying to don the coat while holding on to the truck, he dropped the coat and the unobliging chauffeur wouldn’t stop. So Babe shivered all the way to a fire a mile away. There he found an extra coat and, still shivering, went to work on the fire.

On Our H. Q. Status

THE NEWS THAT the International Brotherhood of Teamsters is getting down to brass tacks in its long-considered move from here to Washington, D. C,, * recalls the fact that Indianapolis is the headquarters city for quite a few national and international organizations. Several years ago we lost—also to Washington— John Lewis’ United Mine Workers headquarters.

‘Washington

WASHINGTON, Feb. 26.—No actual war cry has : been sounded; no provocative issue defined, yet belief - that we shall be in the war actively is growing here. + Dominant opinion as one talks around town is that « the chances.are more on the side of our going in. ; The greatest danger lies in the Pacific, as feeling here goes. At the same time I sense no rise in the martial spirit. There is little or no increase in the number of those openly clamoring for war. They have been rare voices and still are. Administration spokesmen are ‘saying we must he prepared for any sacrifices, that we may be compelled to defend ourselves, that we should be ready to give our lives if necessary. In short, you have the paradox of : a nation that seems to be heading toward war without any intense desire to do so. © This is repeating the experience of England. There * were no signs that the people of England were eager : to go to war, and especially to save Poland. Britain - had been pushed back one step at a time ~fter » Munich, yet never directly attacked. Finally i’, was r decided that as the issue would have to be faced ‘ sooner or later, it might as well be over Poland,

‘Trade and Freedom

. To some people, this is a war for trade. Senator " D. Worth Clark, of Idaho, opposing the lend-lease " bill, said England is fighting for trade. To others it is a war for freedom. President Roosevelt empha- ! sizes that issue. Perhaps the war is being fought for both trade and freedom. They seem to me to be ‘ two sides of the central question, two aspects of security, of the opportunity to live. Britain cannot live if she loses control of the seas, if she is cut off from the entire coast of Europe and from overseas “movement of goods. In that sense Britain is fighting for trade, fighting against economic strangulation,

My Day

WASHINGTON, Tuesday—We had rather an interesting press conference yesterday morning, and I learned a great deal about the present need for nurses in both the Army and Navy. The American Red Cross registers these nurses. and tries to keep an up-to-date list, but, of course, the average nurse thinks of being called into the services only in case of war. ; Here we are facing' a situation where we are not at war and yet where we have a dislocation of population, Young men: who would ordinarily be taken care of in their homes, are suddenly placed in a camp for training. The Army, particularly, needs a great many more nurses than they have had in the regular service. By the first of June, in fact, they want several thousand to report for duty. I believe when the facts are brought to their attention, many young nurses will answer this call. : How quickly things change! A few years ago, I

‘ find work. When I went to the graduation exercises . in the Harlem Hospital School for Nurses this wine ter, I was told there are not enough nurses in traine 5 to meet the needs of the New York City instins alone. course, the dai ay ead ¥

standards have been aise. They

Still remaining are such labor groups as the International Typographical Union, the Teamsters, the Barbers, the Carpenters and the Stone Cutters, not to mention the American Legion and the International Convention of Disciples of Christ.

Cheap at Any. Price

Col. Roscoe Turner probably will set the dedication of his new air school hangar and administration building at Municipal Airport for a day or two before the Speedway Race. The ‘genial colonel—he’s still the aviation irdustry’s most popular and colorful figure—shouldn’; have any trouble getting together quite a bevy of the big name fliers at any time, but with the added attraction of being here for the 500-mile-race, it ought to be a cinch to get them here. . . . And, speaking of aviation, it’s reported from reliable sources that it cost Wendell Willkie something like 50 cents a mile to charter the bi-motored cabin plane in which he and his party flew here from New York and return. It's 700 airline miles to New York, so that would make the round trip cost in the neighborhood of $700. That’s pretty high flying, but there weren’t any reporters bothering him while he was aloft, so maybe it was worth it.

Around the Town—

Someone called in to note that the committee appointments just announced by the Marion County Democratic Club include, appropriately, a Condolence Commiittee. It probably has something to do with the last election. . . . Tipton Blish, who reported for The Times & few years ago, now reports from his home in Seymour that he looks for the mailman to bring him & notice that he’s in the Army most any day now Edward E. McLaren, the insurance man, is starting for a vacation in Florida. . . . Wallace O. Lee, of the Indianapolis Power & Light Co. and a lot of civic organizations, is expected back from Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., next week. He joined Mrs. Lee and their sor there a week ago for some deep sea fishing and, of course, a bit of golfing. . . . Ernest Morris, of Scuth Bend, the Republican National Committeeman from Indiana, gave the goings on in the Legislature a little personal inspection yesterday.

By Raymond Clapper

just as Hitler, in the Nazi anniversary speech this week, said that Germany is “going to do business solely on the basis of German advantage,” and that no British or American interests are going to put a stop to the Nazi ways of doing business. At the same time it is a British fight for freedom, for the right to live without outside dictation. The shrivelled people of London’s East End, as one American observer pointed out, have no economic stake in British society. They could not be worse off economically under any system than they have been. But they are fighting and resisting, for the right, as one Shierver put it, “to crab whenever they damned well please.” :

Fear Is Instinctive

These issues are not as close and sharp to us. The war stillis a long way off, in miles. The danger that we are in is one that is far toward the horizon, like a ‘ornacdo coming up. The sky is black but we feel not a breath of the wind that is closing in around us in the distance. In Tokyo Foreign Minister Matsuoka says he wants to see the white man abandon Oceania and turn it over to the yellow race. That would directly affect only a few thousand

. Americans in the area. Our dollars-and-cents business

with all Latin America, if every dollar were clear profit, would not begin to support our miiltary establishment, 50 Some people think we could afford to let it go. Piece by piece the case can be argued away, showing how we really have nothing to lose that Takis very much compared with a single precious e. , Yet probably very few persons do not think it would be & calamity fo us if the Axis won. Our wish for an Axis defeat, which is almost universal in this country, springs not so much out of reasoning as out of instinct. It is the instinct for self-preservation that warns us thousands of times in ‘our daily lives long before we are conscious of the danger. Our instinct is more acute than our conscious reasoning. And in the long run, more reliable.

By Eleanor Roosevelt

need a better educational background and the training is stricter. It seems to me to be good training for a girl, whether she is going to earn her own living or is going to marry and live in a community. It will help her as a wife, mother and neighbor, If she takes up nursing as a profession, it offers her great satisfaction in service, as well as a fairly secure livelihood. . Miss Mary Eeard, national director of Red Cross Nursing Service; Maj. Julia O. Flikke, superintendent of U. S..Army Nurse Corps, and Miss Sue S. Dauser, superintendént of U. S. Navy Nurse Corps, spoke to members of my press conference yesterday, so I am sure that the conditions under which nurses enter the - services are well understood throughout the country. +My afternoon yesterday was spent seeing people who were interested in special fields. In the evening, Frederick M. Davenport brought his group, the National Institute of Public Affairs, to spend the evening. These young people asked many searching questions. They aré zn intelligent group of young people and I have always enjoyed meeting them every year. They spend a year here in the Government service and know many of the difficulties and complexities of Government machinery. Last night I was interested to hear that well over two-thirds of them are either in the Federal service, or in State Government service and are seriously undertaking these careers as a life work. It sptaks well for the future of democracy and I wish every. success to them, :

Scandinavian T

(Continued from Page One)

have always known how to die.

The Finns, too, have

always known there is only one road to freedom.

# » #

HESE thoughts of mine are merely outgrowths of the record of events in these three northern countries since the European war began: The inevitable crystallization of what I have seen, heard and experienced there. They are not things of my own making, but rather things

which have been done to me.

That is why some of them

are painful and sharp with disillusionment. ; Like most Americans, I had always regarded Norway

and Sweden as the well-nigh perfect democracies.

I had

always admired their progressive social legislation, their cleanliness and industry, their enlightened relations between capital and labor—all these so much more advanced

than in most other countries.

In Oslo, last April, I saw Norway’s capital occupied by 1400 Nazi infantrymen without a hand being lifted or a boo being uttered among more than 30,000 Osloans, nearly half of them men of military age, who lined the

streets, looking on.

Everything we saw during the next four days was

painful in the extreme.

The people were dazed and be-

wildered. They seemed to forget that part of their army, still true to traditions of long ago, was fighting desperately and bravely only 60 miles to the northward.

Certainly there were many courageous Norwegians, but there were many others who had never dreamed of the necessity of fighting for anything. Like the Swedes, they had had more than 100 years of uninterrupted peace. Their Socialist governments had always belittled the idea of strong national defense forces. They had placed social security far above national security. More than that, they believed in the immunity of geography. When Norwegians talked about the North Sea they sounded like many Americans do today when they talk about the Atlantic Ocean being 3000 miles wide— which it was until a few decades ago. Now it is less than 24 hours wide. The Norwegians understand all about that now, after their own disaster and when it is too late. so» 8 The Peril of Pacifism

T is not difficult to comprehend the unhappy fate of Norway and the _self - interested policies followed by Sweden if you take note of certain coincidences. Both these countries had had too much peace and too little hardship (perhaps too little danger is a more accurate expression) throughout several successive generations. Pacifism was their passion and so, too, was material well-being. The U.,8. A. of 1926-1929 was very much the same. In regard to their frailties, Americans and Scandinavians seem to have had a great deal in common. Wouldn't it be ironical, a few years from now, if some editor should be asking for an article entitled “The American Twilight”? As an observer, watching the grim steamroller of war roll toward and over the Scandinavians, it seemed to me that these people were spiritually unprepared for the dangerous life which an era of revolution imposes, whether you like it or not.. The dangerous life lay in their distant past. They had made a fetish of material progress, or a high standard of living, a la Calvin Coolidge and most Americans of his epoch. Even more than in the matter of weapons, they were psychologically unprepared for self-defense. This was why the Norwegians could not react swiftly, nor close up their ranks in time. Their peasants and sailors wanted to fight. Many of their white-collar class, at least in Oslo, did not seem to know how.

o # 2

Taking Care of No. |

DAY ‘there can be no question about what Norwegians of all classes would do and want

to do. But today it is too late. Even so, the record stands that many Norwegians. fought gallantly and so long as there was any possibility. They were those who were equipped to fight, those who were not betrayed, and those who understood the issue from the very beginning. These are the men who will lead the battle, another day, for Norwegian freedom. 2 When I think of Sweden I can think of few things to make me happy. I think of Sweden and I understand Col. Charles E. Lindbergh rather too well. I remember a conversation with a Swedish businessman, on a train, just after leaving Finland at the end of January, 1940, for a few days’ leave from the war. With absolute solemnity, the Swedish businessman assured me that America ought to save the Scandinavias by sending 400 airplanes to Sweden at once and 200 to Finland. The Finns had been fighting with their backs to the wall for two months and Sweden wasn’t fighting at all. Nevertheless, my train companion really thought that the Swedes ought to get twice as many American planes as the Finns.® I remember this remark so vividly because it became symbolic of so much else that one encountered in Sweden. The Swedes were always taking care of No. 1, somehow rather too obviously and vociferously.

They also contributed most -

generously to the Finns, in money and war materials—a natural

. thing when the Finns alone were

keeping Bolshevism away from the Swedish frontier. But the national policy could be summed up in the phrase, “No war—not a drop ‘of Swedish :

you have heard that idea expressed somewhere before.

2 o o

They Talked a Good War

ELL, the Swedes have got through so far without shedding their own blood, save that of a few volunteers who went to Finland and died in magnificent protest against a national policy which they (the idealistic and the lion-hearted) felt was as short-sighted and blind as it was selfish. I know a few Swedes like that and I shall never forget them. Unfortunately, I met so many others who had gone flabby with peace and prosperity. It was a common thing in Stockholm, during the days when the best of the Norwegians were fighting a lost cause just over the mountains, to see Swedish males expand their chests and declare, “The Nazis will never touch us. They know what we'll do to them!” Once I took the wind completely out of a young officer by remarking, “If you Swedes are such great soldiers, why are you always talking about it?” Suddenly he became thoughtful. It was a fact that these were the most panicky people I have ever met anywhere (although I must admit I wasn’t able to visit Wall Street in 1930).

"Divided We Fall’

ITH this much for background, consider how the Scandinavians tried to escape the war and what happened. Finland was bleeding and needed soldiers more than anything else, Britain and France were ready to send them, but Norway and Sweden were being strictly neutral. They wouldn't let Allied troops through.

Then Norway's turn came, and the Allied divisions—which might already have been in Scandinavia —couldn’t get there in time. . United we stand. Divided we fall.

A month before the Soviets finally smashed the Mannerheim Line, Finland appealed to Sweden for two army divisions. Naturally the Swedes were afraid of Germany. : Even so, had they been bold, they could have sent two divisions and called them “volunteers” just as the Nazis and Fascists had done in Spain. That was early in February. It is doubtful whether the Nazis would have attacked then. They were not ready to strike until April. Two Swedish divisions would have saved Finland .and tied up the Russians for another two or three months. In Moscow, in May, my own convictions of the previous February were more than confirmed by observers who have lived in the Soviet Union for many years. They said that two more months of the Russo-Finnish war would have completely shattered Soviet communications and morale. Chaotic conditions would have paralyzed most of the country and Dictator Josef V. Stalin's regime would have been shaken to its foundations. In any case, the Red Army and the Bolshevist system would have been so weak-

“In Oslo, last April, I saw Norway’s capital occu pied by 1400 Nazi infantrymen without a hand being lifted or a boo being uttered among more than 30,000 Osloans, nearly half of them men of military age,

who lined the streets, looking on.”

ened they would have been removed as a menace for the duration of the European conflict. Two Swedish divisions would have paved the way for this, and perhaps for a revolution against Stalinism in Russia.

# » ”

What Might: Have Been

AD Norway and Sweden taken the bold course of Scandinavian unity the Bolshevist

bugaboo would have been exploded, Allied troops would have been located where Hitler could not have conquered Norway in a single blow—the blitzkrieg against Holland and Belgium necessarily would have been postponed—quite possibly France would remain unconquered today, and most of Scandinavia, in all probability, would still be free. Blood would have been shed in these countries, but their people would not now be enslaved or faced with slavery. Certainly the whole ' course of Europe's fight for freedom would have been changed. In Sweden there were a great many, beginning with the royal family, who had a horror of combat above almost anything else. Swedish industrialists and bankers with influence insisted that Sweden must play safe: Swedes must never fight unless they were . attacked. They must never fight except on their own soil. They must not lose their heads over the sufferings of their next door neighbors. So the Swedes kept their heads—and what have they gained? The policy of neutrality at all costs, of material aid and “everything short of war’ has not saved Sweden. The luckless Swedes are now surrounded on three sides by armed Nazi divisions, Their country is shot through with Hitler agents, Nazi “businessmen” and Nazi Gestapo spies. No Swede can resist the demands of Nazi representatives and hope either to keep his position or to make any real business profits. Very few Swedes today can call their souls their own. They are completely under thé heel of Hitler. Swedish “independence” is a hollow sepulchre. Sweden will be swallowed up gradually, at the whims or con-

Maybe

HOLD EVERYTHING

COPR. 1941 BY NEA SERVICE, INC. 7. M. . :

PAY. OFF.

_ “Furthermore, I hope all your children grow up to be acrobats!”

2-26

venience of the new masters of Europe. :

The’ New 'Realism’

ATEST information from Stockholm assures me there is a great band-wagon rush toward “realism” among Swedish leaders today. “Realism” means playing partners with Nazi gang-. sterism. It means compromise with terrorism, resignation to fear, abjection before brutality and a way of life based upon falsehoods, abdication to the low= est instincts and practices of human beings. Yet there now remains scarcely any other alternative for the Swedes—unless they want to be martyrs. If they had been made of that kind of stuff, how could they have waited so long? In brief outline, this is the tragedy of the Scandinavian peoples. I have summarized it without emotion and with: all the restraint that the facts will permit. The picture of Sweden is not a pleasant one, but I did not paint it. It has been painted by Swedish actions and words. You can understand how it happened. You can pity the Swedes—but that sentiment is one of the saddest things on earth to be forced to feel toward any people. This is why I would rather not return there for a long time. It would be too unbearably sad. Nevertheless, if there is a great and overwhelmingly important lesson for Americans anywhere in Europe today, it is to be found among the shades of the Vikings and in the torturing twilight of the Scandinavian countries. Some day they will have another dawn—providec they learn by bitter experience and provided they come to believe that dawn is something worth fighting for. Some day — provided Britain is not permitted to go down.

” o s

UT the Norwegians and the Swedes are not far away from the American people. They are very much like us in many respects. They honestly believed they could remain free, alone and all by themselves.

They liked to think that their favorable geographic position had protected them from invasion for over 100 years, and therefore it would protect them just as adequately in an era when airplanes have made ponds out of both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The Scandinavians believed wholeheartedly in material wellbeing, in social insurance and sensible labor laws and public hygiene. They believed in clean bodjes, and forgot about fighting hearts — or made that item entirely secondary in their education. They watched Adolf Hitler's expert propagandists and foreign agents boring from within, using the oldest Bolshevik technique, all over Europe and in their own lands. But they chose to believe, as one young Swede expressed it to me, that “No Swede would ever betray his country.” He might as well have said that no Swede or no human being anywhere loves money. So long as there is greed and selfishness and overweening ambition, treason will remain a powerful political factor throughout the world. Hitler is intelligent. He knows that very well. :

in. You cannot keep “realism” or “being sensible” or “adjustment to the new era” out of any country, regardless of its size, with 60-ton tanks—even a million of them. You cannot bar treason with 16-inch guns or with thousands of flying fortresses. Sweden's fron tiers are still technically invioe late, yet she now has parliamene tary government only by suffere ance. One of these days that, too, will disappear, falling to earth with the empty shell of what was once Scandinavian freedom. The Swedes played it safe—or did they play directly into the hands of the expert propagandist poisoners of Hitler, Goebbels and Himmler? The Scandinavians had a great and. splendid idea, the idea of free and progressive, democracy. They showed what liberal parliae mentary government could do for the material well-being of their citizens. ; But they got self-satisfied and somewhat fleshy. They were very human. They forgot that an idea, if it is great, must be worth live ing for and worth dying for. They forgot that—until it was too late. That is why twilight has fallen over Scandingvia, as it may yet fall over America. What about the Finns? They lost a war—and won a victory . that will live forever. There is no twilight in Finland. That's all,

Where Does Russia Stand?

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

1—What quadruped was called “tiger-ass” by the ancients? 2—Which sport is called the “sport of kings”? 3—Brass is an alloy of which metals? 4—Under which President did Wil~ liam J. Bryan, Robert Lansing and Bainbridge Colby serve as Secretary of State? 5—What proportion of the land area of the earth does the U. S. S. R. (Russia) occupy? 6—Does hard water cool more quickly than soft water? 7T—Of whom is it said that he was

Tomorrow:

“First in War, First in Peace, and -

First in the Hearts of His Coun= trymen”?

8—Who used the ‘Rattlesnake

Flag”?

Answers 1—Zebra, 2—Horse racing. 3—Copper and zinc. 4—Woodrow Wilson. 5—About one-sixth. 6—No. T—George Washington. 8—American colonists in 1775. ” FJ s

ASK THE TIMES

Inclose a 3-cent stamp for ree ply when addressing any question of fact or information to The Indianapolis Times Washeington Service Bureau, 1012 13th St, N. W. Washington, D, C. Legal and medical advice cannot be given nor can extended re= search be undertaken.

SOUTHLAND ECHOES

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