Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 4 March 1941 — Page 12

| ‘TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 1941

*.nd

} Hoosier Vagabond

COVENTRY, England (By Wireless).—We walked - through a street that was no man’s land. Utter destruction lay on both sides. One side had been brick houses, the other side a warehouse. Now both sides

were just piles of broken brick. We turned into an alley that had been cleared. A jumble of bricks had been pushed back from the line of the alley, and a little picket fence built around them. The fence was newly painted green. Back in the alley we found J. B. Shelton. He is living in a brick lean-to about the size of a double bed. It used to be a washhouse, and it has a fireplace at one end. “J. B.” hunted around for a couple of boards and laid them across boxes for us to sit on. The debris we had just passed used to be J. B. Shelton’s house and office. In fact, he had owned four houses in a row. They all make

5 one big heap now.

At the end of the rubble a twisted iron bed sticks out beyond the line of wreckage and gets in the way \ of the picket fence J. B. is building around his ruins. Since the bed lies in such a way that he can’t get it out from the rubble, he is sawing off the protruding ends with a hacksaw so his new picket fence will fit evenly along the line of destruction!

Introducing Mr. Shelton

J. B. Shelton is a case. He is not very young, except in enthusiasm. He wears leather leggings, and a funny kind of celluloid collar with no tie, and an old cap. He laughs and talks, and it is hard to get him stopped. He is a draying contractor, but his life interest is archaeology. In fact, he is Coventry’s official archaeologist., although this is merely a job of love and no pay. For years he has been digging up old Roman things around Coventry. He says the blitz bombs have unearthed wonderful things for him. He is, I believe, the only man in Coventry who is authorized to go poking in the ruins anywhere he wants to without getting arrested for looting. He had a museum of Roman things back there in _ his alley. It is all shattered and waterlogged now, and many of his prize pieces lie in the mud on the floor. But still he stands there amidst the debris and points at an old log and launches into its Roman origins.

By Ernie Pyle

stead of standing in an alley in Coventry where you can’t see a whole building in any direction. Finally we got him shunted away from his archeological talk and onto the night of the disaster. “Where were you the night of the blitz?” I asked. “Where was I?” he said, I was right here, right here in this alley, running up and down all night long.” x And then J. B. Shelton went into action. He made that night almost as clear as if you were living through it. “My house was already afire so I just tried to save the stables,” he said. His five horses were tied in their stalls in a frame building running along the alley back of the house. “All night I was running up and down the side of these stables, like this, throwing water on the boards. I got the water out of that open tank there.

“A Wonderful Night”

“Every once in a while & new place would catch. I'd get it out, and then the hay would be on fire. I'd get it out, and then some sacks of oats would be on fire. “Around midnight I got the horses all out. They took it fine. I had sacks reacy to put over their heads, but only had to do that on one of them. I took them out two at a time so they wouldn't be scared. I got them all out and tied theni to trees in that open space back there at the end. Then I had to come back and go after these fires again.” The picture of J. B. Shelton frantically working there, running up and down and throwing water, with incendiaries and heavy bombs and sparks and timbers falling around him, all night long—all this to save an old clapboard stable that isr’t worth $50—is indeed an incongruous one to have drawn for you. “Say, it was hot theré, mister!” Shelton said. “Sparks were falling just like rain. See all these holes in my old coat? That's where sparks fell on me. “When I'd hear a hig orie coming I'd go down like this.” And to illustrate he dropped flat on his stomach there in the mud of the alley on this bitter cold afternoon three months later, “The noise was terrific,” he said. “All night long the planes were diving) righit down on top of us. That warehouse there was all afire, and the sparks were a-flying. Say, I'll never see anything like it again in my lifetime. I wouldn't have missed it for anything in the world. Say, it was wonderful!” And I suppose that if you have the divine gift of looking gaily upon life and serenely upon death, such

Yowd think you were in a Harvard lecture room in- a night really would be wonderful.

Inside Indianapolis (4nd “Our Town’)

THE FIRST SACRIFICE of industry for the defense of America probably will take place here soon. Raw materials are hard to get in some cases and we hear that two. factories may have to shut down, They

8 Rave little to work with. Metal companies especially

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IE TW a

_ two hostile air forces to exist in it.

are having a tough time of it and gf brass is being substituted in many articles for aluminum. Aluminum, you know, is a front line problem. in the business of making airplanes. It may not be long, ~ either, until you notice small objects going off the market. Fact is, those Cape Cod lighters for fireplaces are just about cleaned off the shelves. And so the man-in-the-street, if only in a small way, begins to feel the effects of Adolf Hitler.

More About the Sheriff

SINCE WE RAN an item yesterday about Sheriff Feeney, we hope you won’t think we're just trying to get in good with the law if we tell another story

about him today. But anyway ... Mr. Feeney met a friend in a North Side drug store and the man had his 6-year-old daughter along. “This,” explained father, “is the Sheriff.” The introduction didn’t register with the girl. . The father elaborated: “He's the same as a policeman.” : That being the case, said the girl, “Let’s see your badge.” The Sheriff reached in one pocket, then another, fumbled about and then turned red in the face. He didn’t have his badge. He'd left it at home, The Sheriff and the father reconnoitered and tried to explain how it was. But the 6-year-old shrugged and turned away. . Mr. Feeney was left standing, stripped of official

Washington

WASHINGTON, March 4.—Because his thinking “Is so closely attuned to that of President Roosevelt,

former Ambassador William C. Bullitt may be telling something when he says that Europe is too small for He says the British cannot make peace so long as there is an air force in Germany that can bombard London. In those remarks, which were part of his carefully studied address before the Overseas Press Club in New York a few nights ago, Mr, Bullitt, a White House familiar, gives us a possible clue to the shape of things to come. Nobody wants to talk about peace terms and the postwar line-up now, because whatever is said is apt to cause argument that would divert attention from what Mr. Roosevelt recently said was the first job—to win the war. But a good deal of discussion is going on among highly placed persons, and Mr. Bullitt’s refer-

. lence to airpower is in line with it.

Control of Air and Sea

Mr. Bullitt says that if the British win there will be a chance to establish world order on the basis of _ combined air and seapower. He doesn’t say it, but this means a combination of American and British air and seapower, as I explained in a recent dispatch. That is what is being thought of as the future policing force in the event Germany is defeated. Control of the air plus control of the sea is the combined goal of the de-facto alliance between the United States

. and Great Britain. Whether it comes about depends

upon American defense production. By keeping this in mind, one is better able to see the pattern of the enormous and complicated defense

My Day

WASHINGTON, Monday.—Mr. and Mrs. Hendrik Van Loon and Miss Grace Castagnetta, who played with the National Symphony Orchestra at their concert on Sunday afternoon, have been our guests over the week-end. Saturday morning I had a brief conference with the members of the National Religion and Labor Foundation, who were in Washington for the first national conference on theological education and labor. They had visited a number of Government officials and were interested in seeing the White Houge. I was glad to have an opportunity of seeing so many young people from theological seminaries, as well as older people who are ministers themselves. . There also were one or two leaders in the labor movement who are members of this group, among them my old friend, Lucy Mason, whom I was particularly glad ,%0 see. ; Yesterday I had an opportunity to spend a little while with Edward Bruce, and we had a number of guests at luncheon, including Mrs. George Kaufman, Miss Ruth Gordon and Mrs. Alice Duer Miller. The rest of the day was fairly quiet. This morning I am to’ New York City, where I have one or two 3rnoon engagements. A recent letter has brought my atisntion to the

prestige. He remains a Pretender until he can prove

otherwise. Cwilian and Military FROM CAMP SHELBY, we hear that members of the 38th Signal Co. of Indianapolis get their military “luxuries” only by fulfilling certain conditions. For instance: Admission at a recent chicken dinner was a stamped letter, addressed to the soldier's parents and dropped into a mailbox at company mess. * For a two-day leave over Washington's Birthday, the boys had to pass haircut inspection. For these regulations, perhaps Capt. William J. Soeurt, company commander, is responsible. ” ® 8 Art followers visiting the Hoosier Salon at Block's now are asking for considerable detailed information. According to Mrs. Merritt Woolf, sales committee chairman, and Mrs. William L. Sharp, general hostess chairman, many of the visitors want to know the location of scenes depicted, where the artist lives and just what kind of a guy he is. It makes it tough for those in charge. Sales, incidentally, are going fine. However, the Wayman Adams oil of three Negroes, “Three in the South,” was still available yesterday. It’s No. 1 on the program and the asking price is $2000. i

Lifesaver

COURTESY AMONG the arts often is a finely developed and subtle practice. By that we mean such gestures as that of Miss Mildred Dilling, harpist, last week-end. Miss Dilling had a little trouble with one of the Debussy numbers at Friday afternoon’s concert and she found herself momentarily astray. The string section quickly sensed her plight and “came in fast” to put her back on the right track. The next night all the string section was presented with packages of Lifesaver mints, personal gifts from a thankful Miss Iilling.

By Raymond Clapper

program here. As a matter of general defense we are building up a land army. But the two vital things are ships and planes. Ships are needed to get the planes from the arsenal here to Europe. Bombers can be flown but fighters, with limited cruising range, must be carried over. Possibly a way of hopping them over via Iceland can be devised but a better way might be to use British air plane carriers, which can haul more planes per trip than a whole convoy of freighters, in half the time. That idea has been considered.

Convoys a Possibility

So far as one hears around here, the thought of an A. E. F. to Europe does not appear in the picture. Some high officials think we may be driven to using our own ships and convoys to send material to England. No one can exclude that as a possibility, although it is not likely to be seriously proposed unless shipping difficulties become far more acute than they are now. If is on the list of those “if necessary” things, that may or may not come up. Planes, more planes, still more planes, until there are enough in England to take the air away from the Germans, is the objective. Almost everything else can be considered in the light of how it bears upon that. The hope is that if Germany is smashed from the air, then the resl core of resistance will break down. Undoubtedly an effort would then be made to break the various sections of. Germany apart, by holding out inducements for the formation of separate states in Bavaria and the Rhineland. That course is in the back of some heads. But all such ideas wait upon the day when enough planes are in England to overcome the German air force. That is the objective. Mr. Bullitt says either the Brifish or the German air force will disappear and the one that survives will control not only Europe but Africa.

By Eleanor Roosevelt

fact that those of us who do not suffer certain handicaps, often fail to be able to imagine what people go through who are handicapped. The letter came to me from one of the speech teachers in the New York City school system, who makes a plea that those of us who make fun of the stutterer, should stop and think how hard it is for “a sensitive person who cannot ask a simple question or use the telephone.” She Joust that our light-hearted jokes bring shame dnd suffering to many people. I can quite see that there would Le no element of mirth in a joke when you, yourself, are the victim.

The United States Office of Education, which is part of the Federal Securtiy Agency, is issuing a bulletin about an “Information Exchange” on “Educaice and is intended to act as a clearing house for tion and is intended to act as a clearing house for ideas and material on education and national defense.

Teachers who want to help in the defense effort of their country can do three things now. They can tell the office of education what kind of help they would like to have through it. They can explain what developments they consider important to their particular field of work in the present situation. They can send materials to the exchange which can be used by perhaps other groups in connection with the defense program. Education is such a vital part of national defense that I think Dr. John Studebaker has made a value able contributiori in developing 55 exchange,

«ii

By LELAND STOWE CE i Td) poe mes FTER 17 months of reporting the second World War, working in or traveling through 21 countries, you naturally reach some conclusions. I have tried to outline much of the essential background for my own conclusions in the previous seven articles. Certainly I am not more infallible than my colleagues, American correspondents in all parts of Europe, of whom I am proud to say I have never known one—not a single one—whose personal integ-

rity could be questioned. In their battle for the facts of this war American correspondents use all the brains, initiative and experience which is theirs to apply. Sometimes we are misled.

Sometimes we cannot tell all that we know or believe to be true. When it comes to interpretation and judgment we are like everybody else: We have to do the best we can with whatever logic and perception we have been endowed or have accumuldted. These, then, are my conclusions—based upon the most careful analysis of what I have seen and observed and upon the most measured consideration I am capable of making at the present time.

” 2 2

Believes Britain Will Win

BELIEVE that Hitler will have to invade the British Isles, and invade them successfully, within the next six months at a maximum—or Hitler will surely lose the war.

I believe that the British defense forces and the British people can and will repel the Nazi Invasion, however terrifically close it may come to succeeding—provided only that America supplies Britain with all the war materials it is capable of producing, capable of getting along without and capable of sending during this period.

I believe that a moment of enormous strain and acute crisis will probably come when the fate of Britain—and the fate of free, parliamentary government throughout the remainder of this country—will be decided, more than anything else, by American statesmanship and American nerves. . I believe THAT THE WAR WILL BE WON, for the freedom of the German people and fon the freedom of hundreds of millions on all five continents of the world — UNLESS the American people are stampeded into a blind ostrichism and fatalistic resignation when the hour for ironclad firmness and complete comprehension comes.

2 or 3 More Years of War

BELEVE the war should last for two or three more years. But if it continues that long, I believe it will bring the inevitable effacement of both the brown bolshevism of Hitler and the red bolshevism of Stalin.

If he fails to conquer the British Isles, I believe Hitler will shatter or destroy the Soviet system or take over part of Russia before the conflict ends—and still lose the war.

This is saying a very great deal, and I may be mistaken on several points or—Heaven forbid —on most of them. But this is what I believe.

Now to a few things which are more concrete than one observer's considered opinions. To begin with, there is the matter of the extraordinary amount of defeatism which is current in many parts of the United States about Britain's chances. I have been home less than'a month and traveling constantly. In my first five days in America I heard more defeatism about Britain than I heard in four Balkan countries throughout the entire month of October.

Rennes aa oon

These Balkan peoples, were live

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—By Leland Sto

Leland Stowe: “I believe that the British defense forces and the British people can and will repel the tion in those southeastern coun= Nazi invasion, however terrifically close it may come to succeeding—provided only that America supplies Britain with all the war materials it is capable of producing, capable of getting along without and capa-

ble of sending during this period.”

ing under Hitler’s heel or under

. his bootstraps. To me the defeat-

ism! among many Americans doesn’t quite make sense.

» 2 »

How Some Germans See It

ERHAPS we ought to consider the testimony of some persons who are very closely concerned with a Hitler victory or defeat. Here is one bit of interesting testimony which I can vouch for. Last October two German business men went to Bucharest, like many others, to “take over” Jew-ish-owned concerns. The Nazis were occupying Rumania and the Bucharest government was extremely anti-Semitic.

The Jewish proprietors didn’t dare ask for anything more than a moderate price for their business, but they were surprised when the Germans immediately said the price was perfectly fair and closed the deal without bargaining at all. When everything was settled, one of the Germans turned to the Rumanian Jews and said:

“Well, we have lost the war. But that’s not the worst of it. The terrible thing is this. When this war is over, the German people will take the place of the Jews all over Europe. We will be the most persecuted, hated race in all Europe. Wherever German troops are now stationed Europeans will shoot them. Wherever Germans appear, people will want to destroy us. That's the thing that’s worse .than losing the war.”

No, I don’t know how many Germans feel this way today, but I know why this German businessman spoke as he did. It reminds me of another bit of testimony from a Japanese naval commander who had beea stationed for some years in Germany. » a 8 8

—And a Japanese View—

FTER France capitulated he was one of a select group of pro-Nazi naval officers who were taken on a tour of all Dutch, Belgian and French seaports. The Nazis showed them what they were doing and explained how they were going to invade Britain. On his way back to Tokyo the Japanese naval commander, speaking to a Balkan statesman who was an old acquaintance, made this remark: “The Nazis think they can invade Britain. Do you want to know how’ long it will be before they can invade the British Isles? Forty years, Monsieur. Forty years. Their airplanes, they can do nothing against British nerves. British nerves will win this war. Don’t make any mistake about that.” This, after inspecting the Channel port preparations, is the opinion of a Japanese naval com-

mander. Perhaps his 40 years were a figure of speech, but certainly he cut through to one of the most powerful factors in this war when he cited the incalculable importance of “British nerves.” Throughout eight months or the most terrific punishment that any nation, save the Spaniards, has ever taken, the nerves of the British people have never been shaken. According to universal testimony of on-the-spot observers, their nerves have not been touched, let alone shaken.

COMING

Leland Stowe has been flooded with questions from readers from all parts of the United States in c o nnection with this series of articles. Mr. Stowe is answering these questions and The Indian- 2 apolis Times will publish in series form this important question-and-answer feature, which promises to be every bit as exciting and interesting as these articles. °

This, more than anything else, is due to one thing. At this juncture of human history (perhaps we had better not say development) the British people are so incredibly fortunate as to have been born with what comes very close to . being the lowest quota of imagination of any people on earth. 8 8 =»

Break to Come in 1942

ECAUSE they are an astonishingly practical people, and so are not tormented by vivid imaginations, the British masses

go about their routine war duties amid showers of bombs with a courage and confidence that would otherwise be incomprehensible. From the beginning, “British nerves” have been ready and constitutionally adjusted for a long war. Everyone in Europe knows that the nerves of the German people, after eight years of war preparations cannot remotely measure up. You might as well compare Hitler’s nerves with those of Winston Churchill, :

When Britain has something faintly approaching air equality with Germany and

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HOLD EVERYTHING

] Corn. 1941 BY NEA service, 5 NE. Y, Ml y

“Thats bi ohh hos the caplis cnt

a good many squadrons of long-range bombers, you can be absolutely certain that German civilian morale will begin, however imperceivably at first, to crack. That moment, I believe, wili come during the spring of 1942, if not somewhat before then.

When I say that Hitler will have to conquer the British Isles within six months or lose the war, I have several things in mind: ee First, that Nazi leaders have admitted to their pro-Axis sympathizers throughout the Balkans, ever since last June, one important fact—namely, that Hitler's whole strategy was based upon defeating Britain before largescale shipments of American war materials could reach the British. Second, that the same Nazi spokesmen have admitted they must win the war BEFORE the United States could possibly enter it... Third, that their major battlefront must be on the propaganda front—to strengthen all the forces of isolationism inside America and to foster both defeatism and pro-Nazi sentiment in the United States. Fourth, that Balkan conditions warn very clearly of one thing— if the war goes into next winter Germany’s raw material and food supplies and her economic strain are certain to become an increasingly grave handicap.

” # #

The Oil Problem

HE problem of future supplies of heavy lubricating oils for airplanes and submarines is already of great concern for Germany, and it threatens to prove an Achilles’ heel for the Nazis if

the war goes on for many more,

months, Germany's stores of heavy oils are reported to be dwindling steadily and the Rumanian oil fields are deficient in this vital kind of oil—but Italy, too, must depend uniquely upon German and Rumanian stores for her future gasoline and oils. In a longer war how can the Axis keep going, with warplanes and submarines and motor transport operating at full potentialities, unless the Nazis get a great deal more gasoline and oil from somewhere?” . The Nazis could get them either by going through Turkey to the Mosul oil fields in Irak — if the - Turks will let them. Or by going all the way to the Baku fields in Russia’s southern Caucasus — if they invade the Ukraine or persuade Stalin to co-operate at his own suicide. In the case of either Mosul or Baku, there would remain the stupendous obstacle of railroad transportation. This is what renders the overwhelming proportion of Rumania’s gasoline production unavailable to Germany now, for she was only able to find transportation facilities for about 200,000 tons per month, by rail and by the Danube, during the last months of 1940.

” # o

Extended Supply Lines

T SEEMS highly improbable that Soviet Russia would let Hitler take over the Ukraine and the Baku oil fields without a fight. But even if Stalin let the Nazis in to manage and organize railroad transportation, Germany’s extended lines of supply would be formidably long and most dangerously exposed to satage. Just as railroad communications become increasingly exposed to “accidents” after Nazi troops have occupied Rumania, and now Bulgaria. There are not enough German soldiers in the world to patrol every mile of track through all of southeastern Europe and deep into southern Russia. And there are millions of Balkan people who are daily more interested in the breakdown or blockage of supply trains into Germany, especially carloads of food for which they will be quite hungry in another winter. These are but a few illustrative slants on the dangers to Germany of a war that goes beyond this year, from the angle of the sa

¥

tries from which Hitler must draw his sinews for war.

Much more could be said but it would merely reinforce the underlying fact that the Nazis run terrific risks ‘and face almost certain defeat, unless they can knock out the British Isles before autumn. If Hitler loses his great gamble, the tempo of Nazi collapse—when it comes —is likely to astonish a great many people. #2 #4 9

The Human Equation

AM of the opinion, though many are not, that Hitler, needing a blitzkrieg victory somewhere will strike the Soviets eventually, perhaps before another 12 months are finished. If he fails to conquer the British Isles he may very well try to frighten the British into a peace settlement by taking over the breadbasket of the Ukraine. Stalin might go or receive a mortal blow or become another Nazi prisoner, like Mussolini. But the great Russian open spaces also lured Napoleon to his doom. We nave been reading the testimony in Washington of various slide-rule experts, some of whom insisted that Britain didn’t have a chance to win the war. I don’t recall that the slide-rule experts have paid much attention to the British victories in Africa, or to the vast transportation and supply problems in the Balkans, or to the fiercely anti-Nazi senti=ment of the great majority of the people who live along these lines of transportation. Most important of all—and important beyond the power of words to portray—I don’t recall that those who have been ciagnosing the war without any first-hand observation on the farflung battlefronts of Europe have paid any attention whatever to the HUMAN EQUATION in the fighting and winning of wars. » ” 2

Miracles by Underdogs

HAVE been with the Spaniards. I have been with the Finns. 1 have been with the Greeks, and also with the British. It happens that I have been with four different peoples, all of whom have done on the field of battle precisely what the watching world thought was impossible. They were underdogs. They were terribly handicapped by inferiority in weapons of "all kinds. They should have been beaten right at the start, and yet they performed military miracles. The experts, the specialists on production capacities and performance of machines, had everything right from the mechanical angle—and yet they were stupendously, humiliatingly wrong. I have had the great good fortune to have reported wars with those who have fought as their adversaries never knew how to fight. I have had the privilege of being with those men and women who have shown the greatest fighting hearts of our generation. I have learned that it is not machines alone that hold overwhelming war forces at bay and win victories which stun the imagination of people all over the world.

It is the men and women who fight with machines, even with fewer machines or with inferior machines, who turn the tide of battles and of wars.

Leave out the human heart and you have rejected the only element that has changed, again and again and again, the a Sond and made it what

® =» = America Must Help

OU ask me what about the 3 war as I see it. yo As I see it the British people—

and I said THE PEOPLE—can win

and will win the war against Naziism. There is no doubt whatever about their being ABLE to do fit.

They WILL do it—and Hitler

and Naziism will be a nightmare of a memory within two or three years—IF the American people give the British all the “tools” they need, without fear and with out stint, and see to it that they get them and get them fast, re~ gardless of circumstances. If America doesn't do th well, you already know what