Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 11 March 1941 — Page 13

Page PDF (11.86 MB)

Back to issue view

tat be oat EE TRE eh

RTT A TA Ul BAD tM MAR PR AN

« Tn — AA I th. <So

EE a

-—ew

he TE

BY BR le rl A

TUESDAY, MARCH 11, 194|

SECOND SECTION

Hoosier Vagabond

BRISTOL, England (By Wireless).)—It was midafternoon when I got off the train. We had come through the long tunnel under Bristol Channel, and

the compartment had been full of smoke. So I checked in at a hotel and went to my room to wash off the soot. i than three weeks since I had heard "a warning siren, a bomb or a gun, After a lull like that a fellow actually gets out of practice. You sort of drop your protective armor of expectancy. ' Thus it was that I was standing there all relaxed in a quiet hotel room, washing my hands, when all of a sudden there was » the biggest explosion I ever heard. it shook the windows, and Hi made the curtains puff, and to say that it shook me would be a criminal understatement of fact. My first conclusion was that it was a sneak daytime raider, but still it hadn’t sounded just like a bomb... So I sat down and tried to think. It couldn't be Hopalong Cassidy shooting it out with the cattle runners. It could hardly be the Navy saluting my arrival in town. It might be Armageddon, but I was not prepared to accept this theory. So, through a process of elimination, I finally figured out that it must be dynamiters, blasting some unsafe bombed walls just back of the hotel.

No Man's Land in Bristol

After my strength came back I called up some people to whom I had a note. “Gee whiz,” I said when we got together, “Bristol has certainly been knocked around. I didn’t know Bristol had had it this bad.” . “Why,” they said, “you haven't seen anything. Come on, we'll show you.” So we taxied to a certain corner where the street was blocked, and then got out and walked. It was the worst day I have seen this winter. There was a somber black rain that was nearly sleet, and a piercing wind that cut through any kind of clothes. And so, bent against the storm, we walked. Walked

through streets where on Saturday nights a hundred thousand people used to mill up and down, but where:

now all was silent. For this part is now closed to the

Inside Indianapolis (And “Our

THIS IS THE selective service story to end all draft yarns. It happened right here, too. Out at Jones & Maley, as a matter of fact. It concerns a young janitor ewho received a letter from his draft board ordering him to fill out his questionnaire. The young gentleman sat right down and wrote the Government to the effect that he was terribly sorry, but he was too busy out at Jones & Maley to help out at this time. » Yesterday came a telegram, ordering him to get to his draft board immediately if not sooner. Perplexed just a trifle, the young man showed his boss the wire. That gentleman blanched. “When were you due?” he asked fearfully. “The sixth,” said the young man blandly. We're not sure, but we think the young man is in the Army today.

Jaywalking Policemen

SEEING HOW EVERYONE downtown is becoming safety conscious lately and watching their cor-ner-crossing habits, we thought you ought to know that a traffic officer's worst problem apparently is a fellow officer. It happened at one of our biggest corners. The pedestrian traffic was on the curb when blithely out stepped a bluecoat and proceeded to

" march across traffic, oblivious of the corner officer’s

frantic whistling. « . « Incidentally, one of our boys

Washington

WASHINGTON, March 11.—High Administration officials feel most deeply that the fear hysteria which has expressed itself in the Senate in the Ellender amendment and succeeding ones, works to the disadvantage of this Government in the conduct of foreign relations. One official said the other day that we are not conscious of how closely we are watched and studied by foreign nations, particularly the totalitarians, seeking to discover how far they can go without danger. That is particularly true in the Far East. Tokyo is constantly trying to discover at what point the. United States would intervene to protect its interests. Would we fight if Japan grabbed at Singapore? Or only if the Philippines were attacked? Or would we fight then? When Japan knows the answer, its problem will be simplified. This Government's policy has been to try to keep Japan guessing. But a timorous, peace-at-any-price attitude in the Senate would, if sufficiently p.onounced, give Japan a tip-off that the Roosevelt Administration could not go very far without losing support in Congress. : That is why the Ellender and other similar amendments are undesirable to the Administration. They do not affect the President’s actual power. But they register a state of mind, a weak and fearful spirit, that is duly noted for the guidance of foreign governments weighing the gamble of aggression.

What Rauschning Thinks

This hesitation and fear of war on the part of democracies has been of enormous advantage to the totalitarian rulers, in the judgment of Hermann Rauschning, who understands Hitler's methods about as well as anyone writing. His latest book, “The Redemption of Democracy,” throws much light on how Hitler takes advantage of just such a state of mind as the Senate has been displaying. Dr. Rauschning is regarded as an anti-Hitler propagandist but I am

My Day

GOLDEN BEACH, Fla, Monday. — From March 12 to March 18, the Girl Scouts will celebrate their 29th birthday. All over this country, groups of Girl

Scouts are preparing through their various programs to meet the emergencies of the future. The points which they emphasize in their training, are all points which make for better citizens in any community, Through their camps, they teach the building of health and the value of outdoor life. They develop habits of self-reliance and resourcefulness which are a safeguard in their everday lives. They "learn the value of conservation for the country and-for at home. Recreation is emphasized as a part of healthy, normal living and, above everything else, they feel they are a necessary part of any community in which they live, because they give service. They have already offered many hours of work to the nation in the defense program and probably have learned the first and most important lesson, that defense begins at home. The better you make your community, the better the defense of the nation will be. Their contribution to Pan-Americai | friendship

It had been more

the individual .

By Ernie Pyle

public. You can enter only with special credentials. It is No Man’s Land. 5 This part of Bristol is just as bare and ruined and destroyed as any 1918 village in France that we used to see in pictures. In fact, it looks exactly like those pictures. Only a few walls are left standing. There is such an incongruous maze of hanging, twisted girders as I have never seen. Tearing it all apart and hauling it away will surely be a greater job than building it in the first place. 1 Drive around Bristol, and all over the city you will find whole blocks knocked down and burned up. There is no other desolation as complete as in this part, of course, but there is a general scattered devastation that is staggering if you add it up.

A Strange Meeting

My friends and I wandered like children back and forth amid this sfrange land that used to be. I said almost nothing, for what was there to say? I had never known that anytiiing could actually be like this. In the midst of our wanderings I saw a familiar figure coming toward us. He was walking with a policeman down the middle of what had been a street, and he was huddled deep in his coat against the bitter rain. I knew the man well, yet so ghostly was the setting, and so strange this place we inhabited, that I could not believe a hwmnan gcquaintance of mine could be there too, in the flesh, on such a weird, mystic day. It was Gault Masgowan of The New York Sun. Neither of us knew the other was in Bristol. I have not seen him since to talk it over, but I believe he must have had the same strange feeling about me. For he came up and looked at me for a long time, in a puzzled way, before he spoke. We said a few words of surprise, and then walked on again in opposite directions, on through the kind

STRIKE DELAYS MATERIAL FOR AUTO PLANTS

Truck Frames for U. S. Army Transports Also Are Shut Off.

By UNITED PRESS A strike of 1700 workers at the Midland Steel Products Co., Detroit, halted production today on material used by the nation’s three largest autamotive companies for defense purposes. : The C. I. O.-United Automobile Workers ordered a walkout yesterday when union officials said the company had rejected demands for elimination of piece-work. A payincrease request also. was made by the workers. The plant supplies automobile frames for General Motors, Chrysler and Ford, including truck frames for U. S. Army transports. The company said it was engaged in “defense production,” and Edward M. Owen, a Michigan labor con-

of world I hope America never sees. I truly believe that if it were possible for you to come to Bristol directly from America, arriving blindfolded so you could not accustom yourself gradually by seeing lesser damage as you drove along, and let me lead you to this vast blocked-off graveyard in Bristol and then suddenly snatch off the blindfold and let the fury of the scene engulf you all at once—I truly believe there is not one person out of ten, be he man or woman, who would not stand there with tears in hiy eyes, and his head bowed in anguish and despair.

Town”)

stationed himseli at an alley in the middle of Washington St. yesterday morning for 10 minutes and taking out pad. and pencil, proceeded to keep tab of jaywalkers. He said that 63 persons jaywalked in the 10 minutes. And he claims that 60 of them were women!

That Flackville Mystery

WARMAN FLACK, who now lives in Florida, made two trips back to Indianapolis recently, we hear, to engineer the sale of a large plot of land he owns near Flackville, The sale price is a secret, we're told. Rumors have been flying around that the land has been sold to the Government for a munitions plant, but, the way we get itt the land was purchased by an oil company, which plans to set up a bulk plant on the land soon. Oil and gas will be piped to the plant from northern Indiana refineries. A $35.000 confract is reported to have been signed with a fence conipany, which indicates the size of the new plant,

Life of a Judge's Wife MRS. DEWEY KE. MYERS, wife of the Criminal Court Judge, made one of her rare appearances at her husband’s office last night, only .to find that he -was tied up-with the Richard Liese case. “This is the first time in months,” she wailed, “that Dewey and 1 have planned a dinner engage-

ment and now we're going to be late.” She was escorted to a seat of honor at the foot

ciliator, said he had notified the UAW a week ago that Midland Steel ‘was a defense industry.

Michigan Watching

The Michigan Labor Department planned “immediate study” of the strike to determine the extent to which automotive production might be disrupted. At Plainfield, N. J.,, a strike of A. F. of L. electrical workers shut down the Carnell-Dubilier Electrical Corp., which holds $1,500,000 worth of defense sub-contmacts. The plant employs 2400 workers. The union asked wage increases. High wages also were sought in the walkout of 1500 C. I. O. steel workers at the J. G. Brill Co. at Philadelphia. The plant holds a $418,661 Government order for gun mounts and ammunition. Strikes were in progress at 28 plants holding defense orders, involving at least $100,000,000 Government contracts. . : Developments in brief: At Los Angeles:—Bethlehem Steel Corporation’s fabricating plant closed by strike of 120 C. I. O.steel workers demanding wage increase. Plant produces sheet metal for airplane factories.

Explosives Affected

At Baytown, Tex.:—A. PF. of L. engineers and iron workers call 150 workmen from refinery construction at Humble Oil & Refining Co. Delays $12,000,000 tuluol plant essential to explosives. At Fairmount, W. Va.:—Fairmount Aluminum Co. plant closed by strike of 200 C. I. O. members. Union charges company declined to discuss grievances. At Milwaukee: — Allis - Chalmers Manufacturing Co., plant holding $45,000,000 worth of defense orders, remains closed by C. I. O.-U. A. W.

of the bench and heard her husband read the instructions to the jury, an hour's job.

By Raymond Clapper

not interested in that, only in his analysis of Hitler's tactics, which has been supported by events. . Dr. Rauschning says the dynamite with which Hitler has blasted his way to the nerve center of the democracies’ will power consists of a few simple ideas. One of these is the fact that older regimes are wavering and contradictory, afflicted with emotional paralysis and bewilderment, It seems: better to do nothing than to risk doing something wrong. All willingness to assume personal responsibility disappears. There are sudden and baseless alternations between unjustified optimism and black pessimism. Finally, Dr. Rauschning continues, the feeling becomes general that there is no use. Something like predestination is at work. Developments inherent in the logic of the situation cannot be opposed, There are no such things as convictions.

Why Hitler Succeeds

The secret of Hiller’s success is his wily use of the psychological inferiority of the older regimes. He is the new, the coming, thé vital element, as against the old, senile and ossified, These processes are more subtle and far-reaching than mere fifth-column act!vity. There is a disintegration of the will to seif-preservation, a blindness toward one’s true interests, a blindness toward mortal dangers that surround one, sometimes even including the morbid sense of well-being and fatuous trust in the future so characteristic of moribund personalities. Those words of Dr. Rauschning are verified in the experience of France, in the experience of England before Dunkirk, and in our own current experience as far as it goes. He says that only ruthless and fearless scrutiny of the real situation can save the day. All the mistakes that the democratic people of Germany made with respect to the rising Nazi movement are being made in other countries today, he says. These mistakes arise out of half-thinking, false optimism, complete misapprehension of the entire situation and reliance on old concepts no longer in accord with the new circumstances. \ His - analysis not only sounds plausible but it is pretty close to what some of the people in our Government think.

By Eleanor Roosevelt

through the encampment held last summer, where 13 countries of. the Western Hemisphere were represented, was really a significant achievement. It will be followed up again this year by a similar gathering. I think all of us can be proud of what this organization and its members are accomplishing, and I want to wish them many happy returns on their birthday. We spent a fairly lazy day in the sun yesterday and read aloud Archibald MacLeish’s little book, “The American Cause.” He has the gift of words which sing as you read, and a way of expressing his beliefs which will be a help to the nation. I particularly liked his idea that the artists of the country can best make their contribution to the nation in constructive ways which lead to permanent benefits for the whole people. : : : Last evening, at the naval air station, we, went to a special showing of Mr. and Mrs. Armand Denis’ picture, “Dark Rapture.” I had seen it before, but found it no less exciiing and interesting than when they showed it at the White House. They are born adventurers and it seems to dgree ‘With them, for both of them looked well, young and full of vigor. They had fallen in love with Florida and have brcught two pieces of property here. One is known as the Indian Trading Post and has a bit of real jungle land on if. There, they will gradually accumulate the animals which they have already collected, but which are now scattered around. the countey, 3 |

strike involving 7800 men. Government settlemént efforts unavailing. At Chicago: — Negotiations between C. I. O.-Farm Equipment Workers and International Harvester Co. in stalemate. Four Harvester plants remain closed by strikes, keeping 13,000 men and $10,000,000 of defense orders idle.

LA GUARDIA TO AID IN MORALS CONTROL

WASHINGTON, March 11 (U.P.). —Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia of New York today helps the House Military Affairs Committee decide what would be a “reasonable distance” around Army and Naval camps within which to prohibit prostitution. Mayor La Guardia will be the first witness on a bill introduced by Chairman Andrew J. May (D. Ky.) which would make prostitution within “reasonable distance” of military establishments a Federal offense. The bill was prompted by numerous complaints May received—mostly about the “wrong kind of women’ —regarding morals at training camps. One was from ga group of Philadelphia mothers who were concerned about the welfare of their sons. “A lot of people have written in with statements they want to put in the record,” May said. “They are from the W. C. T. U. and a lot of others all over the country that I can’t .remember.” He expects the hearings to last two days. The second day will come later after the surgeon-general- of the Public Health Service, the Budget Bureau and “a lot of people downtown” have ga conference on the need of the legislation. War, Navy and Justice Department officials will testify after Mayor La Guardia today.

TERMS LEASE-LEND STEP TOWARDS WAR

The passage of the Lend-Lease Bill was termed a “long step toward American military participation in the European War” in a statement issued today by Joseph D. Persily, chairman of District Council 6, United - Furniture Workers of America. * The statement was issued following a meeting of the Council’s board of directors at which officers. voted to indorse the American People's Meeting to be held April 5 and 6 at New York City. Two delegates from; the District Council will be sent to the meeting.

OPEN HOUSE MARKS CAMPAIGN’S START

As a preliminary to the opening of the Flanner House building campaign an open house program will be held at the agency between 10 a. m. and 10 p. m. tomorrow. All persons interested in the work of the Flanner House and campaign are invited to inspect the departments in the Flanner House. A goal of $150,000 has been set for the building. campaign which will formally

get under way Friday. ow.

The object of pride of these beaming pupils of School 70 is an afghan which they hope will be used soon to keep some British children

warm. The girls furnished the yarn for the colorful afghan and did all the work, It is to be sent to England by

Bundles for Britain. The

girls are members of Girl Scout Troops 119 and 95,. which meet every Thursday at the school. Mrs. W. Stewart LaRue is the troop leader and Mrs. Robert Hollowell is assistant leader of Troop 119. Mrs. Harold Ries is leader and Mrs. Reed Clevenger is assistant leader of Troop 95.

Stowe Answers His Readers

This is the last of a series of articles in which’ Leland Stowe answers questions asked by readers concerning the stories he wrote following his return from the European battlefronts. : Some readers asked questions far removed from the subject of Mr. Stowe’s articles and these were not answered because they were considered outside the scope of the series.

By LELAND STOWE

and The Chicago Daily News, Inc.

—How does it happen that the story you wrote about Norwegian treachery has been contradicted by C. J. Hambro, Norwegian Premier, and many others who were present on the scene just as much and more than you? CARL PETERSON, Chicago. A—I am glad you ask this question because upon returning from Europe I find my integrity as a reporter has been severely attacked by some Norwegian-Amer-icans. - I do not bear them any animus for I believe they have been misled.

It seems I have been portrayed as indicting the patriotism and courage of the entire Norwegian people—something that I have never dreamed of doing. In my first dispatch about what happened in Oslo and in Oslofjord, I was very careful to state that the Nazi plotters were aided by only a few traitors. I have been told .that the first efforts of the Norwegian Legation in Washington were to deny that there had been any traitors at all in Norway.

If this position was taken by the Norwegian legation it. was certainly a mistake, for there is no country in the world where Hitler cannot find a few men to serve his purposes, and that is no reflection on the masses of the people in any nation.

I regret ‘that I still have not had an opportunity to read Mr. Hambro’s book and what he said about me. I can point out these facts: Dr. Edmund Stevens of The Christian Science Monitor and Warren Irvin of N. B. C. were with me in Oslo. The three of us had to work hard for three days in order finally to find out what had happened in Oslofjord and aboard the Norwegian ships near Horton. As leader of Parliament, Dr. Hambro was obliged to leave Oslo about daybreak on the morning of the German invasion. He was fulfilling his duty by accompanying his government to the north. As a consequence, however, it has always puzzled me how Dr. Hambro ' could have learned in any detail about how the Germans got through Oslofjord, because he could not stay on the scene and spend three days trying to find out as we did.

The main details of the -events - in. Oslofjord were obtained by the United States Naval Attache in direct communication with Norwegian sailors ‘and. officers on the spot and these details were identical with those I reported in my dispatches.

I think it only fair for Nor-wegian-Americans to know that the woman who acted as interpreter for the United States Naval Attache, while he obtained this information, was Mrs. Day Morgenstierne, an expert linguist and a teacher in the School of Foreign Languages in Oslo. Mrs. Morgenstierne, it happens, is the wife of a close relative of the present Norwegian Minister to the.

Went to War Over Poland —Why didn't England and

France go to the aid of Poland whep she was. in distress, although they guaranteed Poland the aid? FRANK CZECH, Chicago. A—Britain and France went to war over the issue of Hitler's invasion of Poland. The events of the first year of war seem to have demonstrated very clearly that they were not in a position to get men or important military aid to Poland to avoid her defeat. Q—Why, in your opinion, with France completely at his mercy last June, did Hitler not occupy the entire country? If a French Government, was desirable why did he not insist on a puppet regime, with his stooge Laval running the show? SYDNEY A. METCALFE, Chicago. A—I think Hitler didn’t have the machinery ready to occupy all of France ‘in June, and was also very much afraid of the effect it would have in consolidating French resistance. He wanted to make the French .anti-British, and German troops in every French village would have been a great liability in that respect. In regard to setting up Laval in charge of everything, Petain stood in Hitler's way. The Nazis were forced to try and get their puppet regime bit by bit. Q—What, in your opinion, would happen if the Nazis lost this war? Would the Japanese declare their treaty with Germany invalid by renouncing it? DONALD G. UNDERHILL, Downers Grove, Ill. A—If the Nazis are defeated I suspect quite a number of very highly placed Japanese militarists will begin thinking seriously about committing hara-kiri. They will know perfectly well that Japan’s imperialistic ambitions are due to be thwarted very soon. 2 s s

U. S. Production Vital

—Considering the industrial plants—iron, coal, etc.—now controlled by the Nazis, can the Allies keep abreast or surpass them in war “tools” so desperately needed by the English to win the war? ROWENA MANN, Chicago. A—The only way the Allies can keep abreast of or surpass the Nazis in production of war materiels is by a steady increasing volume of. American production,

and that safely delivered in Britain. If we make sure that Britain actually gets everything that America can send her most Euro-

pean neutral authorities are con- .

vinced that Germany cannot keep up the pace. 8 8 =»

U. S. Shares Responsibility. —Do you think the attitude of

the isolationists of this

country is more reprehensible than Sweden’s neutrality because this war is ours, being an aftermath of the last through our failure to make the ‘“League” a potent peace power? EDWIN L. ARKINS, Chicago. A—Beyond question America’s refusal to join the League of Nations seriously diminished that organization’s ‘authority and eapacity to maintain international peace. Of course we are not without our share of responsibility for the tragic story of the last 20 years. You cannot be a world power and at the same time disassociate yourself from world events. , Q—How serious is the submarine and U-boat menace to Britain? Is there danger that this will so reduce her fleet as to break the blockade and destroy her naval power? ELEANOR OLMSTED MILLER, Jacksonville, Ill. A—The losses that the Nazis have inflicted upon British shipping and Allied shipping have certainly attained serious proportions. Unless the British can get most of the war materials which they so greatly need from us, and get them quickly, Britain may be open to defeat. Q—How can the conquered peoples organize on their own soil any sort of effective revolt when they have no arms or means of getting them? DR. B. KOPSTEIN, Chicago.

A—Conquered peoples cannot

. organize armed revolt, but they

are already organizing sabotage of various kinds in most of the occupied countries. As the Nazis’ lines of communication become ‘more and more extended this increasing sabotage is likely to do a great deal to slow up Hitler's armed forces. .

In another year or two, if the war goes on, Britain should have an army of 3,000,000 or more veteran troops. Wherever she lands an expeditionary force she will find millions of men in the con-

HOLD EVERYTHING

A VICE, INC. T. M. REG. U. S. PAT. OFF.

“Rat's try. it-out on. the ducks!” .

quered countries waiting for arms and burning with desire to use them against the Nazis.

I think Hitler has transformed Europe into an enormous recruiting ground for armies of liberation for tomorrow.

Q—When Hitler is defeated, how long will it be until Europe has built up another world war situation, or is there a way to avoid it? THOR E. HOLTER, Chicago. A—The chief hope of preventing the development of another world war situation for the next genera-. tion lies, it seems to me, in the establishment of -a peace founded upon a miximum of economic as well as political co-operation be=tween the European nations. Such co-operation almost inevitably would have to be based upon some kind. of federation or union between all European peoples or groups of European peoples.

After this war I believe there should be a greater opportunity to achieve this than at any time in this century.

Ukraine Easiest Conquest

—In your articles you twice stated that in case Hitler fails to conquer Britain he may turn against the Russian Ukraine and the Caucasus. How would you explain his fighting on two fronts? M. SARKISIAN, Chicago. A—Hitler will only fight on two fronts if circumstances force him to do so, as he' may. shortly do in regard to Greece or Turkey. If Hitler cannot conquer Britain he has got to conquer somebody for home consumption. As I have said, the Ukraine promises the easiest and richest conquest that now remains anywhere within Hitler’s reach. ‘

Hitler Can't Sit Back

—Why is Hitler's victory over Britain essential in order to maintain ‘a state of subservience of those countries already conquered? If Hitler fails to vanquish England, what recourse would these defeated nations have in recovering their lost autonomy of government? FRANCES. GREGOR RYAN, Chicago. A—Hitler has committed himself - to knocking out Britaim. ,Therefore he cannot sit back and consolidate his continenta! conquests until this main issue has been decided. If Hitler fails to invade Britaim this year the people of the Nazioccupied countries will steadily increase their passive resistance and sabotage until at last they get an opportunity to fight. : a. 8

For a Wiser Peace

—In your opinion will it be necessary after the British win the war, for the entire world, smal] nations and large, to maintain great armies, or will former President Wilson's ideas of a permanent peace be put into use? A—-If Britain wins and continental Europe is liberated, I be= lieve a much fairer and wiser peace is both possible and probable after this war than after the last war. It should be possible for several groups of European nations, such as the Scandinavian group and the Balkan .group, to. pool their economic interests and their national defenses. It should be pos sible to set up one of several fed erations of nations in Europe. I would expect that the Européan peoples, having learned a bitter lesson, having learned farther toward the establishment of an international . police force than

they were ever able to do under ;

the old League of Natiqns system.