Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 30 April 1941 — Page 11
kr
SECOND SECTION i
The Indianapolis Times
| WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30, 1941
+ Hoosier Vagabond
FT. BLISS, El Paso, April 30.—Maybe I wasn't raised to be a soldier, but I'm being one for a little while anyway, Well, kind of a soldier, Since I'm approximately 80 years old and 45 pounds underweight, they had to create a special branch to fit my special talents. It Is called America’s First Line of Defense. I am its bulwark. As long as I'm here, the country i8 safe, They gave me & private's umiform, and contrary to all Army traditions, the thing fit as though it had been made in Bond St. My first act as Pvt. Pyle was to tell & major to go to hell Shortly after that 1 decided I was sick of being in the Army, so have now turned in my uniform and retired on my laurels. At least I was in the Army long enough to get my picture taken, so I can show the next generation what & hero I was in World War II. That uniform business came about because of the fact that I've drifted in here for a few days to write about Ft. Bliss and all the new soldiers. They decided to put me through the regular routine just as though I were a ‘genuine incoming selectee. However, it didn't work out in all its finest details.
A Century-Old Past
The doctors shuddered and turned away at the first sight of me, the interviewers found me unqualified for any of the 275 various types of Army employment, and when I was finally assigned to the Cavalry all 7000 horses stampeded out across the desert. The only thing that really turned out well was the uniform, but a fellow can't justify an Army career Just because he happens to be born handsome, So we finally decided to let me do it my own Way, which is to stand around sort of sleepy-like for three or four days and just look and listen, That's what we are doing now. On with the dance. Ft. Bliss lacks only seven vears of being a century old. It has s&lways been near El Paso, but not on exactly the same spot. But it has been right where it is today for 48 vears. Tt is fundamentally a cavalry post. In fact the only full division of cavalry in America is stationed at Bliss. And incidentally, half the men in the
Inside Indianapolis (And “Our Town”)
AT THE LAST CITY COUNCIL meeting, a couple of City officials and a group of citizens arrived at the elevator door in a dead heat. If you've ever walked up to the Council rooms on the fourth floor, you know by this time that getting up there is & job to be done by elevator exclusively. So citizens and officials piled into the car and Bill Walker, the elevator operator, started it up. Tt didn't make the fourth floor, however. Just sort of eased up between third and fourth and hung there So Bill brought it down to the second and gave it the gun. The elevator almost made it that trip, but not quite enough to get the fourth floor door opened. Undismayed, William dropped down to the first floor again and really goomed up. But as it picked up speed, the honorable Mr. Walker got a little chill and slowed up and it was no sale again. This time Bill was determined to make it. He took the car all the way down to the basement and cut 'er loose. This time the car slowed itself just as it reached the third floor. The door was handy and the citizens decided that they'd had enough of this business. They got out. Well (vou'd know it), when they got out it was a cinch for Mr. Walker to deliver, the officials safe and sound to the fourth floor. . The City, you know, inspects all the elevators in town. How about home, sweet, home, boys?
Washington
WASHINGTON, April 30.—Neither business nor labor seems aware of the drastic interference with ordinary civilian production that is coming and must come if we are to make the war goods that are now
called for. Ohe businessman high in OPM tells me that defense will have to cut into ordinary civilian production by 20 per cent. Defense is now absorbing about 8 per cent of total industrial capacity. Those two figures suggest the vast gulf between what we are doing and what we are about to try to do. This will mean countless readjustments in business activity, which will affect the daily lives of everyone. OPM men have been talking in this vein to private groups of industrialists. But the country as a whole has not been faced with the facts. Neither has a host of small and medium-sized businessmen whose establishments are bound to be affected. There is need for high officials of OPM to speak out and for the President himself to give the public some jdea of what lies ahead. Otherwise there will not be the co-operation necessary to do the job.
The Auto Curtailment
As one step in this curtailment of consumer goods, OPM has induced the automobile industry to reduce production 20 per cent. CIO officials are denouncing this move, although compared to what will be done it was not drastic. CIO officials say this reduction of automobile output will reduce employment and cause serious price increases. The President of the United States Chamber of Commerce, opening the annual convention here, urged that the Government be careful not to cripple industry engaged in production of non-military goods. He cited Great Britain as a model, saying that the Britsh were careful not to do this. But at the same time Business Week publishes a report of what it calls “Britain's Revolutionary Scheme” for solving the problem of non-defense in-
My Day
HOLLYWOOD, Cal, Tuesday—Yesterday we lunched with Mr. Herman Lissauer and the board members of the modérn forum. I had an opportunity to talk for a few minutes with a representative of the Y. M. C. A. who is considering some youth broadcasts. In the afternoon, the members of the National Youth Administration Advisory Committee met here and the NYA Symphony Orchestra played for us on the patio in back of the house. It was & wonderful setting and I very much enjoyed the pitcure spread out before me as well as the music. The way in which the young musicians coped with a wayward wind, which came up and blew their music around, inspired everyone’s admiration. Governor Olson of California spent a little while with us, so the young people had a chance to meet him. I was particularly touched at his taking the time to come during such a busy period. He remarked that the State of California is a big state and its affairs could keep one on the go every minute. 1 was glad of an opportunity to talk with several people quietly at the end of the afternoon. Then we had an early and very peaceful family dinner and a drive down the hills into the city for the
| 3 3 3
By Ernie pyle
Cavalry, I've noticed, call it “Calvary.” There are around 20,000 soldiers at Bliss now, and | there will be 27,000 here by mid-summer, Around El Paso you hear people talk of 60,000, but that most certainly is just talk. I ‘don't see how they could build fast enough to house 60,000 men by summer, In the World War, there were 40,000 troops stationed at Bliss. A few of the old World War temporary buildings are still here, and still being used. Cavalry isn't the only thing here now, One whole end of the place is devoted to antiaircraft regiments, five of them, And“in between there is the Army Reception Center, where all the selectees from the Southwest get their first taste of Army life. Ft. Bliss is so big you can hardly conceive of it, yet it is by no means the biggest Army Camp in America. I believe Ft. Bragg, N. C, is three times as big as Bliss.
A Housing Problem
The post includes about 100,000 acres of land, and more than & million feres are under lease for desert maneuvers and target ranges. Not more than a fifth of the officers are quartered on the post, there simply isn't room for them and their families. They have to live in town, and city houses are getting mighty scarce. The early birds sure got the worms in this case. The commander of all this business is & hale and hearty Army veteran named Innis P. Swift. He has just. recently been promoted to Major-General. His father was & Major-General and so was his grandfather, He is & big man, and he is not stuffy. He is the kind who talks to his junior officers in such manner as this, “Okay kid. That's the stuff, boy.” There has already been much war-time building at Ft. Bliss, just this winter. But the place is so huge and everything so scattered and the desert around is so vast, that vou really can't realize how much new stuff has been added. Another huge building program is about ready to start. It will cost nearly $10,000,000 and will add 900 buildings and nearly 4000 tents to the already huge place. To say nothing of 30 more miles of roads, and 110 miles of water and gas mains. And before we get off onto regular Army life tomorrow. I want to be sure and get this historic item in—there are 16,138 electric light bulbs in Ft. Bliss at this moment.
This and That—
THE PROPOSED AIR SERVICE between Detroit,
People of France Hoping
a
Petain’s Popu And Public B Resists Nazi
larity Grows elieves He Advances
By ALFRED MAX (Special ‘Writtr for the Gallup Toll)
THE INCREASING tension between the French and
the British, and the real poss
ibility that the German drive
in North Africa may turn west, thus colliding with Gen. Weygand's army, makes the role of France and the future of France a question of paramount importance today. The military and political decisions in France today rest, of course, with two men—Detain and Weygand—but
back of these two men is there any vital force of French public opinion which must be taken into account? It is very difficult for public opinion in the occupied areas of France to assert itself on a given issue. But in the unoccupied area it is possible by taking one's turn in a line at the grocery store or at the butcher's shop, by piling into crowded third-class railway carriages with farmers going t© & hearby market or workers returning from their day's work, by interviewing peasant women carrying on their tasks in the field in the absence of their
prisoner husbands, or by sit-
Indianapolis and the Southwest is quite a plum for the three airlines going after it hot and heavy. Only one, of course, will get it, with Chicago & Southern
reported to be on the inside track. . .. The Western Union telephone operator corrects you if you ask for “delivery” instead of messenger service, And the messenger service man greets you with “delivery.” . . The gals in the basement offices of the Court House are unhappy about the influx of mice. E-e-e-k! . . The latest for cyclists is theft insurance with every bicycle.
Around the Town—
UNACCUSTOMED AS HE IS to public speaking, Chief Michael F. Morrissey was one of the hits of the last Butler journalism forum. Incidentally, it is understood that Butler plans to expand the forum to cover all topics next year with a “blue ribbon” panel of speakers each fortnight. . . . Wally Midalesworth has just lost 10 pounds. . . . We've found & public entertainment that doesn't need publicity or ticket sale drives to be a success. 'Tis the schools’ music festival May 8. Three thousand youngsters are performing and they can't supply enough tickets to proud parents and friends. The big problem is transportation. . . . Bill Evans, the schools’ public relations director, believes this business of strangers wandering around the Circle 'til they drop from exhaustion should be stopped. Suggests he—north, south, east and west markers at the various intersections.
By Raymond Clapper
dustries and warns that Britain's experience has influenced planning in this country. The British government has issued an order that companies manufacturing one line of consumers goods concentrate their production in a few plants and turn over both the labor and the buildings of the remaining companies for defense business. ¥ach industry is left to decide which plants will be shut down and which will speed up to handle the remaining business, Where voluntary arrangements are not made the government will step in. Exetremely serious complications resulting from such a process can well be imagined by any businessman and the British scheme is far more drastic than anything contemplated here.
British Needs Greater
Yet OPM officials know that production of war materials must be vastly speeded up. British requirements are larger than was anticipated. Much time has been lost through a slow start and through strikes. To catch up, to make the enlarged schedules required under the Lend-Lease Bill, many consumer lines will have to be cut. Much of this will be automatic through priorities because the shortages of materials alone will force diversion from civilian production. For that reason OPM is now pressing Congress to pass the Vinson Priorities Bill to give it mandatory priority power so that it may compel any manufacturer to disregard his civilian orders. OPM officials are thinking of making greater use of the machine tool shops owned by large corporations, the captive tool plants as against the commercial machine tool establishments which are already working practically 100 per cent on defense. They would like also to use available management and labor units in existing large corporations. The Reuter plan for turning automobile factories into aircraft plants went beyond practical limits in the judgment of most OPM officials but some more modest approach of the same kind is more and more recognized as essential. 3 The heavy tax program fits into this proposed civilian curtailment because it is intended, not only to raise as much cash as possible but to restrict consumer buying power sop that the shortage of goods will not produce price inflation.
By Eleanor Roosevelt
lecture. I was amused by all the precautions taken because of one threatening letter. After all, even if anyone should be foolish enough to try to create any excitement, so little would be accomplished. It is fortunate that we are not flying anywhere early this morning, for the skies are gray and I am afraid that over the mountains it would be foggy. It is a disappointment, for instead of breakfast out on the porch in the sunshine, we had to eat indeors. However, it is atmosphere created by the people that makes a difference in the early morning hours. Everyone seems happy in this household, The children feel as much responsibility about making the guests feel at home as do their elders. Yesterday afternoon, Peter, aged seven, brought me a gardenia with a most charming card attached, which he had WE himself. n this house, it is soon apparent that works hard. Mr. Melvyn Douglas aT YhoaY and is off .to the studio long before 9. Though he did not return until late yesterday afternoon, he worked again all evening. So many of us think that arfists’ lives are easy, but to create entertainment for our hours of ease requires much hard work behind the scenes. Los Angeles is a friendly city and it was nice to have & word with so many people as I went in and out for my lecture last night. I shook hands with as many people as I could in passing by. The mere expression on their faces showed that they
ting around the family table at dinner-time in & bourgeois home, to grasp the fundamental reactions of the French to their own troubles and to the main problems of the war, Out of accumulated observations of sentiment in Vichy, France, two facts come sharply to light: the first is that in the present struggle between England and her allies on one side, and Germany and Italy on the other, the French are overwhelmingly hoping for a British victory; the second is that a large majority of the French public supports Marshal Petain as head of the Vichy government.
Want to Collaborate
YET THE VICHY policy, as officially stated by Petain himself, is to “collaborate” with Germany. Have the French been so much overcome by their military breakdown that they have lost their traditional sense of logic? How can they possibly reconcile their desire to see Britain win, with the approval of their present leader? At the time the armistice was ‘signed, there can be little doubt that there was an influential group of Frenchmen, especially in high military and political circles, who felt angry and bitter towards England, either because they believed that the British pre-war policy of appeasement towards Germany was responsible for the war and its outcome, or because they were convinced that Britain had nou given France, in the last stages of the Blitzkrieg, the full aid to which they felt she was entitled. Such Frenchmen believed, moreover, that Britain would not fight after the French collapse. There-
STATE ORDERED TO PAY $36,000
1 Hurdle Faces Schlensker In Getting ‘Good Faith’ Money.
French Opinion
The Gallup Poll herewith presents the first of a series of articles on public opinion in unoccupied France by Alfred Max, who has just arrived in this country from France. Although many articles have been written about France since her defeat, this is the first time an observer trained in the study of public opinion tells objectively what THE PEOPLE of France think about the problems of war. He is the head of the French Institute of Public Opinion, which was set up early in 1939 by Dr, George Gallup under the chairmanship of Professor Andre Siegfried, Alfred Max served in the French forces, first in France and then in General Weygand's army in the Near East until after the armistice. He has just spent six months in Vichy and other parts of unoccupied France, making an extensive study of the day to day reactions of the French people to the events of the war.
fore they saw no point in continuing the struggle in the colonies, as it was possible to do. After all, they argued, France had been defeated before in her history, and yet had risen to new heights of power afterward, and would rise again. »
» ”
Expected Good Terms
THEY THOUGHT France could come to terms with Germany without losing her independence, just as she had done in 1871. They failed to realize that this was not the old Germany of 1871, but the fanatical Germany of Adolf Hitler, But soon enough the French people awoke to the fact that England had by no means ceased to fight; that indeed she was now bearing the full brunt of the war, and that it was preposterous to go on repeating the German-made slogan that England would be fighting to the last Frenchman. While many French industrialists still practice “economic cooperation” with Germany in order to keep their factories running and their workers at their jobs, nevertheless the burden of German occupation, Hitler's decision to grab Alsace-Lorraine and parts of Northern France by expelling all French-speaking citizens, the methods of the German Gestapo in occupied France, the increasing pressure and intrigues of German agents in unoccupied France, all had the effect of stiffening French morale, until the day has now come when the French people agree almost to a man that the
of
Ta a
for British Victor
LR RN
Y
\ X & -
Marshal Petain Greets Mothers and Their Children on a Visit to Toulouse
k il r ii i 4
al N |
/ \ i d Ih
ras |
an
HE | ih
Ll
1 i Ww
The Jig-Saw Puzzle
fate of France is dependent upon a British victory. Unquestionably, if a poll were taken in Vichy France today it would show more than ninety per cent of the people on the side of
Britain.
Opinion the Same
THIS GENERAL feeling has been described by a London radio commentator, who said that the only difference hetween the proBritish and the anti-British in France was that the pro-British were hoping that the Englishmen would win the war, while the antiBritish were hoping that ‘“‘tHose damned” Englishmen would win the war. At the same time, there can be no doubt of Marshal Petain's hold on the French public. Unprejudiced observers who have talked privately with hundreds of French men and women in all walks of life all agree that a larger portion of the French public support the Marshal than ever supported any other French Premier in recent Vears. Petain is not popular because he has publicly advocated ¥FrancoGerman understanding and collaboration, but in spite of it. He is popular because the French believe, rightly or wrongly, that he is resisting the Germans to the best of his ability. Petain, they say, has signed an armistice. This armistice may have been founded on false premises, such as the belief that Britain
of Defeated France
would not fight. Perhaps it would have been better not to sign an armistice at all and have pursued the fight overseas, although that would have meant more dead, more wounded, an even greater number of prisoners, and that the whole of continental France would have heen taken over by Germany.
» ” »
Has Good Points
BUT THE ARMISTICE, as it stood, had some good points, they
argue. It provided that the French fleet, partly disarmed, would remain in French ports and that it could never be used hy the Germans and the Ttalians against France's former ally, It paid that France could keep a standing army and air force in her overseas possessions, untier certain conditions; and that her naval bases in the Mediterranean and outside continental France would not be placed at the disposal of the Germans or the Ttalians for attack on Britain and Britain's allies. These, and the fact that France was allowed to keep a Government of its own in unoccupied France, were the concessions which the Germans were willing to make in exchange for the abandonment by France of the struggle against Germany. But were there many people, outside France or even in France,
who believed at the time the ar- ,
mistice was signed, that these provisions would be maintained? Was it not likely that with Hitler's con«tinuous record of broken pladges the Germans would soon seize
'Built-In’ : uilt-In CLEVELAND, April 30 (U. P.).— Practical and not so practical devices for making the business of living a bit easier—or at least more diverting—went on display here today as the inventors of America in annual convention lined up their latest gadgets for public inspection.
Another legal chapter in the 17-year-old fight of Otto F. Schlensker to recover a $50,000 “good faith” deposit he left with the State Highway Commission in 192¢ was completed in Superior Court 3 yvesterday. Judge Russell J. Ryan ordered the State Highway Commission to pay $36,000 to Mr. Schlensker as provided in a special appropriation bili passed by the 1941 Legislature. The ruling was made on a suit
Johnson, of Hancock County, as a taxpayer. State be restrained from paying the
ter already had been adjudicated by the Indiana Supreme Court several years ago. Mr. Schlensker deposited $50,000 with the State Commission to guarantee good faith in transactions involving sale of truck parts to the State. Called a ‘Gift’
The money was placed in regular highway funds instead of in escrow and this technicality led to a long court fight 10 years ago. The Supreme Court ruled that the money could not legally be paid back since it had the status of being a “gift” to the State. In 1037 the Legislature ordered an investigation of the fund and a legislative committee reported back that $36,000 was due Mr. Schlensker of the original $50,000 after deduction for special audits and s in the original accounts. Another legal action is pending against Mr. Schlensker and his money in Circuit Court. Tn this suit Perry Easton asked the court to order Mr. Schlensker to pay him (Easton) for lobbying the &appropriation bill through the Legisiature.
felt kindly toward me, and many sent messages to the President,
case.
brought six weeks ago by John | The suit asked that the|
money on the ground that the mat- |
Circuit Judge Earl R. Cox several weeks ago said he would rule on the Easton suit after Judge Ryan, | ruled in the injunction
This yvear the inventions range from a tombstone with a “built in” phonograph for reproducing the voice of the dead to a fisherman's bell which rings when the angler {hooks a fish. Albert G. Burns, president of the |organization, admitted that many of
{the gadgets were intended only to
amuse. The exhibit had the serious |purpose of enabling investors to es- | tablish contact with manufacturers {who ‘might be interested in their | models.
Tombstone Invented With
Voice of Dead
Fibber McGee, the radio star, contributed a brain child which consists of a block of wood that may be attached to the steering wheel of an all-metal automobile, enabling the driver to knock on wood after narrowly escaping an accident, The model was said to have been submitted to the patent office on one day and recalled the next. There is a 'tnee-action toothbrush, a youth mask which is supposed to keep the human face forever young, and a ladder which adjusts automatically to uneven ground. The devices intended to serve a serious purpose included a drying cabinet for the laundry which sterilizes clothes while drying them through the use of infrared and ultraviolet lamps.
HOLD EVERYTHING
| |
GREEKS PLAN PARADE SUNDAY
Invite Participation of Military and Veterans’ Groups.
Military and veterans’ organizations, and their auxiliaries have been invited to join the Greek War Relief Committee in a perade at 2:30 Pp. m. Sunday. A mammoth flag will be carried by the Greek committee, Other organizations expected to participate are the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Military Order of the Purple Heart, Spanish-American War Veterans, and the Marine Corps League, with their auxiliaries, and the Servian, Syrian, Jugoslavian and Rumanian organizations of the city. The parade will form at North and N. Pennsylvania Sts, march to
Rast around the Circle and on to Tomlinson Hall, where there will be a program of speeches, Circuit Court Judge Earl R. Cox, will be principal speaker. James Angelo is chairman of the Greek Committee, Others are William Zilson, secretary, and George Viassis, Gus Powell, Harry Alexander, Nick Hantzis, George Geroulis, James Katsoulis, William Pappas, James Bookides, Angelia Angelopoulos, Thomas Marinos, Miss Tula Smyrnis, Mrs. Panagiota Georgopoulos, James Velonis, E. E. Tdwards, Joseph Alexander, Miss Georgia Bookides, Chris Leondiades, and John Prastas.
FIVE FROM HERE JOIN PURDUE FRATERNITY
Alpha Gamma, Purdue University chapter of Alpha Phi Omega, national service fraternity, has inducted five Indianapolis men into
membership. They are Warren Burres and Robert Turner, graduates of Tech-
nical High School, and Donald E.
Brewer, Richard Lancet and Philip Sigler, all graduates of Shortridge.
what was denied them under the terms of the armistice convention? Distrust of Hitler's pledges was the basis for the British naval action at Oran. And it is quite true that in the months following the armistions the Germans have tried over and over again to obtain control of Trench naval bases in North Africa,
» ” »
Petain Refuses Offer
THEY HAVE attempted to lure Petain into going beyond the terms of the armistice by offering cons cessions which might have ins creased his popularity at home, such as returning a certain nums ber of war prisoners and allowing the Vichy Government to come back to Paris, thus cutting the size of occupied Trance by half, And when they found him adams ant they threatened to occupy tha whole of France, or to create internal disorder by raising German controlled occupied France against Vichy France, or even to overthrow Petain and have a more pro-Ger« man Premier at Vichy. Yet apparently Petain did not budge an inch from his original position which, as generally une derstood hy the Trench publie, may be stated thus: “1 consider the armistice as a bilateral convention. 1 shall carry out its pros visions but shall not go further.” Today the Germans, with the new prestige of their Balkan cams paign, may at any time turn again to Vichy with more pressing and far-reaching demands. What will Petain do? The Trench people like Petain because they sincerely believe he is putting up a fight in the face of increasing German pressure, This belief may or may not be well-founded, but the faith they put in him is not blind or irras tional, Tt will persist only as long as he gives the French people res newed and convincing proofs of his will and his ability to stand up to the Germans. Tt is generally assumed in Trance that should the Germans make good their threats and actus ally violate the armistice hy occupying the whole of France or attempting to seize naval bases by force, Petain would resume the fight at the very point where it stopped in June, with the fleet and the military resources of the French Empire, which, although small by themselves, would be of some value to the British who could use French naval bases and airports in North Africa and Syria. That the Germans hold the same belief is the only explanation of their resorting to persuasion rather than to force in their deals ings with the Vichy government.
NEXT-The inside story of the ousting of Pierre Laval,
BUTLER CO-EDS VIE FOR BEAUTY PRIZE
Three Butler University co-ed: will represent the Butler Newma: Club in the Ohio Valley Province “Miss Newmanite” contest durin: the annual convention at Columbur. O., Friday, Saturday and Sunda)
The co-eds are the Misses Joan Fox, Mary Anne Deery and Janc Hardman. Pictures of co-eds fron 30 colleges and universities hav:
been sent to Bing Crosby, the mo tion picture star, who will pick th | convention queen hy remote con [ trol, | Others who will attend the New | man Club Province convention fron Koch, Ixy and Mis
Butler are Robert Helm, J. Robert Dietz Deette McGrath.
TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE
1A staiactite is an Icicle Jikr limestone formation suspende from the roof of a cavern, Wha! is a stalagmite?
Washington St, then go West to | 91s coffee grown commercially ir
| Capitol Ave, North to Market St.
Hawaii? 3-—-What rank officer in the Arm: is called a ‘“‘shavetail”? 4-—Name the Presidents of the United States whose first name: were James, 5-Henry L. Stimson is Secretar: of State, War or Navy? 6-—Boulder Dam, the Empire State Building, or the Great Wall of China, is the only man-made structure on earth that is like. ly to be visible from the plane! Mars?
Answers
1-—A like formation standing or the floor. 2—Yes. 3—8econd Lieutenant, 4 Madison, Monroe, Polk, Bu chanan and Garfield, 5—War, 6-—CGreat Wall of China. "8 ®
ASK THE TIMES
Tnelose a 3-cent stamp for ree ply when addressing any of fact or information The Indianapolis Times Washe fngton Bureau, 1013 18th St, N. W., Washington, D. ©. Legal and medical advice cannot be given nor can extended Toe search be undertaken,