Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 20 August 1941 — Page 11

WEDNESDAY, AUG. 20, 194]

The Indianapolis Times

SECOND SECTION

Hoosier Vagabond

mind than pairs

ST. PAUL. Aug. 20.—The family I have in makes an excellent living—and has for more 40 years—by manufacturing one and one-half of ice skates per day. Here is visible proof that it is still possible to exist on a high standard by doing something with your hands better than the other fellow can with a machine. Unless youre a professional ice-skater you have probably never heard of this family. But just mention the name Strauss to anybody who skates for a living, and I'll bet his ears will perk up. They say that nearly every : skater of any prominence in ~~ America, from Sonja Henie on £3 down, uses Strauss skates. And they all come from a little oldfashioned, cluttered-up. antiquish workroom in St Paul that resembles a country blacksmith shop. A few years ago. any column about this skatemaking family would have been solely about J, E Strauss Sr. But Mr, Strauss is 86 now. and the brun! of the business is in the hands of his son. John Jr. who is only 32.

Learned Secret in Italy

Strauss the elder was born in East Prussia. He came to America when he was 25. Before that he had worked all over Europe. He spent some years in Italy, working in an arsenal, and there he learned a secret. That secret was a process for tempering steel until it is glass-hard, but still retains its resiliency. There are marks on the shop window right now to prove these skates will cut glass. Mr. Strauss has never told the secret to anyone but his son. It takes the two men. father and son, to temper a skate blade. They temper a batch about once a week. They do it either at night or on Sundays. so hangersaround won't see them “That sounds kind of like the movies.” I said to the Younger Strauss. “Is there really a secret process, or ao you just say that?” “There really is,” he replied. There is nothing old-worldlv or mystic about the son. He is a frank, friendly young American with a sense of humor. When he says there's a secret process, you know it’s true.

Strauss sells skates for $20 3 pair, flat. There is

A LCT OF our local manufacturers are burning the midnight oil, trying to figure out all the angles of the defense priorities system. A few months ago, some of them weren't interested in seeking defense contracts or subcontracts—they had all the private business they could handle. Now they wake up to find they've got the private contracts, but can’t get materials to fill them. Some of the smart boys saw what was coming, managed to get a priority rating right at the start, and have plenty of materials now for both defense and private orders. It so happens that the defense priorities extend from the plant making the essential war products right on down the line. And so, as we get it. a firm that builds something needed by a firm that produces something etc., etc, etc, for a firm with a defense contract usually can figure out some kind of priority claim. But bv the time they do, the chances are they have such a terrific headache they just don't care any more.

Allison. Motor at Fair

THE BRAND NEW Allison 24-cvlinder tvpe aviation motor will be one of the highlights of the U. S. Air Corps exhibit at the Indiana State Fair. The motor, which the Army Air Corps is testing, is supposed to develop between 2000 and 2400 horsepower. The Allison plant, according to authoritative sources, is ahead of its production schedule for the first time, and mav reach the 1000 motors a month production by November. Allison's payroll still is expanding steadily, being near the 10,500 mark, it's reported. . . . And speaking of the Fair and the Air Corps—there’s quite a bit of competition among the

The Middle East

WASHINGTON, Aug. 20.—American support of a British offensive in the Middle East is indicated by Anglo-Russian pressure on Iran following the Roose-velt-Churchill agreements, and by the President's announcement of a plane-ferry service to that area via Africa. Nazi conquest of the western UKraine, threatening an extended drive into the Caucasus, prods British preparations that have been under way since the occupation of Syria. Unless the British can open a southern suppiv line to their Soviet aily quickly, the latter is in danger of losing the great Donetz war industries and then the rich oil fields. The United States is concerned indirectly because Russia is now the chief barrier to Hitler victory and to Japanese aggressicn in the Pacific, and directly because of American supplies. If the southern route is opened, supplies for the Red armies in the Ukraine and Caucasus and for the British forces will be chiefly American.

The Empire at Stake

Although light armaments are now pouring into the Middie East depots from India, planes and tanks are from the United States. The tanks have been going around Africa to Suez, while planes take the quicker land-ferry route across central Africa. Under vesterday's Roosevelt order, this service will be enlarged and speeded up. To fill immediate Russian needs many U. S. planes now guarding Egypt will have to be passed on northward to British bases in Irag and thence to Russia. Even more than Russia is at stake. The bulk of the British Empire is involved—India, as well as the Middle East and Suez. This was forecast by the Churchill declaration the first day cf the Nazi eastern attack, giving his reason for the Angio-Russian alliance. Since then Foreign Minister Eden has contined to re-emphasize the point to Commons.

My Day

HYDE PARK. Tuesday.—We had a lovely drive vesterday. The roads through the Berkshires are always pleasant. and not too frequented. The Western Hemisphere Girl Scout Encampment, near Otis, Mass.. is situated on a lake, with plentv of trees to shade the tents and the cabins. When we arrived, the girls, representing 24 states and i6 countries, greeted us through three of their representatives and then everyone passed by and shook hands. After this, we started an inspection of the whole camp, which meant walking for nearly an hour and a haif, a pleasant activity after the long drive. My cousin, Mrs. Lyman Delano, went with me, which made the whole day especially enjoyable. . She recently resigned as chairman of the committee which arranges for these international encampments, but she is still vice-chairman and has a keen interest in scouting. My friends, Mrs. Arthur Choate and Mrs. Frederick Brooke, were both there and I saw many other familiar faces. Craft work is carried on in all the tents and the girls do a great deal of swimming, boating and hiking. I thought it particularly good that each unit cooked at least one meal a day and ate it in their own open-air dining room, for this gives a chance

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a rumor that Sonja Henie pays $30 for hers, but it} Isn't so. Her skates are the regular Strauss model, ! with just a tiny change in the curve of the blade. | In a stack of correspondence in an old desk in the] shop, they dug out one of Sonja’s letters for me. It was written from Oslo in 1935. Sonja. incidentally, | has about the most beautiful handwriting I've ever! seen. But she doesn’t spell quite as well as she skates. | Her letter to the Strausses said, in part: “I would not even dream of going into the cham-| pionships unless I was wearing your skates this year; | it's something about them that gives me so much | self-assurance in my schol figurs; I can even go all! cut in my free skating and take risks I would not dare

to try before, and my speed is at least 30 percent| §

more.” As if that weren't enough, Mr. Strauss a beautiful wrist watch. uring his 45 years of making skates the elder Strauss has had many opportunities to sell out for] a small fortune. But he wouldn't. And the son does! not intend to. either. |

Keeping It in Family

“It’s a nice business.” he savs. “By improving | things a little we can make twice as many as we do] now. But we'll have no mass production here. It] will still be by hand.” “What will you do when vour father is gone?” I asked. “Who will you get to help you, and to share] the secret?” | “I want to keep it in the family,” he said. “One of my nephews is mechanically inclined and we think he may want to go into the business. If he does, that solves everything.” | They now average about 450 pairs of skates a year. They have to hire one workman, but he takes no part in the steel tempering. The skates are sold in only a few places in America. Halle Brothers’ store in Cleveland has them, and Stanzione Shoes in New York | has them. The others are sold individually by pro-| fessional skaters, and there are only five of these. | I asked young Strauss if he could skate. He laughed and said that he did skate, although some-| what like a horse. But before I left I got out of hi that he can waltz and two-step on skates, so I guess! he’s past the falling-down stage. { There is one star in the family, though. That is] Dorothy Snell, who goes to National Park Seminary | in Washington. She is only 18, and they sav there are! few things nicer on skates than Dorothy. Her father, George Snell, is with the Tripie-A in Washington. Her mother is the daughter of the elder Strauss.

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various governmental branches this year for space in| the Fair. A large part of the Educational Building! 1as been turned over to them. Afraid to Leave, Governor? | GOVERNOR SCHRICKER seems to be allergic to] vacations. For vears, one thing or another has pre-| vented him from taking a formal vacation. Last vear, | immediately after his election. he announced he was | going to take a nice long rest by visiting Andrew! Jackson's birthplace in Tennessee, and a lot of other] places. He started out bravely, but was back in two] days. Things are relativelv quiet over at the State] House now, for a change, so the Governor opines he finally may get around to a vacation—next year. . . .| Deputy Sheriff Walter (Smoky) Davis is back on the] job after a 5600-mile automobile trip with Mrs. Davis] to San Francisco, via Yellowstone and the Redwood forests. . =. Howard Friend, State Chamber of Com-| merce research director, is busy fishing in Spider Lake, near Traverse City, Mich. . . . and Floyd Hunter, | secretary of the Council of Social Agencies, is some-| where in Michigan dodging hay fever.

That Gasoline Shortage

THE GOVERNMENT'S plans to limit East Coast | filling stations’ gasoline supply has some of our local] vacation planners worried. They figure that by the time the stations take care of their regular cus-! tomers. there may not be any gas left for tourists. A] Postoffice employee, we hear, is thinking about in-! stalling a large spare gascline tank in the truck of} his car before he starts on his trip East. . . . From the Indianapolis Kiwanian we learn that Frank Dun-| lop and family are on a vacation trip through Can-| ada: that the Louis Slicers left last week for Wash-| ington, D. C.; that Irwin Bertermann is “away for a| much needed rest” and is due back about Sept. 10;] that Walter Teer is on a three-week fishing trip in| Minnesota. |

By Ludwell Denny

The importance of Iran (Persia) to the Anglo-| Russian alliance, or to the Nazis, cannot be exagger-)| ated. It is between the British Middle East army in Iraq and the Red Caucasian army: it is likewise be‘ween Gen. Wavell’s forces in Iraq and those in India. | It controls the Persian Gulf sea route, at present the! safest of all British supply lines. It is the largest oil source for British land, air and | sea forces in the Middle East. And. since Britain overthrew the pro-Nazi govern- | ment of Iraq. it has been the haven and operating

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she sent young §

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700 Attend

Inside Indianapolis (4nd “Our Town”) >= 2 Sessions in

Old Church

By TIM TIPPETT Times Staff Writer PLAINFIELD, Ind, Aug. 20.— Under the century old oaks shading the Friends Church representatives of 60 Quaker churches in Indiana and Illinois have gathered here for the annual assembly of the Western Yearly Meeting. The more than 700 persons in attendance are hoiding their sessions through Sunday in the Friends Church, built to house the first Western Yearly Meeting just 84 vears ago this week. The building was destroyed by fire March 13. 1913, but its red brick walls rose again in time to

| serve that year’s meeting.

The Western Meeting, first held

| here in 1857, was a branch move-

ment that started in Richmond, famed Indiana Quaker settlement.

Area Widens

It was called the “Western Meeting” because it was to include only the western part of this State and part of Illinois. The name has stuck. although the areas have widened. Sitting back from the Old NaRoad, the local Friends Church is typical of many of its

YOUNG DRIVERS T0 SEE ‘MOVIE

|

2—Newfoundland is

Bradshaw Arranges Show-

By Erie Pyle Quakers Gather at Plainfield for Annual Meeting

kind throughout the country. The Quakers first became strong in Philadelphia, and as time passed they migrated westward. The church here is one step in that westward movement. Many of the migrating Quakers came to Plainfield and paused here, then decided to make their homes in the rolling prairie of Indiana. Most of them are within a few miles of U. S. 40.

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“The Plain People”

THE NAME of this town is one result of the settling. It stands for “the plain people” the quiet, industrious Quakers who did their part in creating a powerful nation from a once vast wilderness. Yesterday. in the coolness of the main assembly room, officers for the year were appointed.

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

1-——-Name the American freighter,

sunk in mid-Atlantic in May by a Nazi submarine.

part of Canada: true or false?

3—Do cats and rabbits ever inter-

ing of ‘Coffins on Wheels’ For Violators. |

A group of juvenile traffic viola- 5

tors will be special guests tomorrow | |

center of the entire Nazi fifth-column army and Arab of Judge Wilfred Bradshaw at a!

Nationalist movement of Asia Minor. v . . . | The Nazi ‘Tourists | Thus strategically, economically and politically, | Iran is the best possible base for Hitler action. Al-| though the Nazi agents and “tourist” troops in Iran number fewer than 5000. they are engineers already in control of the country’s communications and officers capable of organizing and leading fierce antiBritish tribes. . : : The similar plot in Iraq earlier this summer failed | because it went off half-cocked. Even so the British had difficulty coping with it, and they still hold Iraq | only by the aid of martial law and troop concentrations.

patient in rocking along with Teheran's refusal to oust the Nazi “tourist” army. They fear the suspicious attitude of the two other neighbors in the Turkey-Iran-Agghanistan chain, which separates British and Russian areas. Afghanistan, the western gateway of India, is weak like Iran. But the stronger Turkey, already partly | encircled by Nazi conquest, should be placated before the Anglo-Russian alliance springs its trap on the Iran Nazis. Now that President Roosevelt is opening new supply lines to the latest danger zone, it is considered only a question of time until the allies take over Iran—either peaceably or by force, following the allies ultimatum to the Teheran Government.

By Eleanot* Roosevelt

for familiarity with outdoor cooking conditions. The girls who live in what they call the Enchanted Forest, which is a lovely grove of hemlock trees some distance from the main building, cook their own breakfast and supper. Camp Bonnie Brae has a stable and a number of horses with a very able teacher in attendance. I think this is the only Girl Scout camp I have ever visited where the girls could learn to ride. It has proved so popular that nearly a hundred girls signed up for this particular activity. None of them have had as many hours on horseback as would be required for really adequate training, but most of them have learned something about the handling and care of horses, a very good foundation on which to build for future horsemanship. We all lunched together in the main building and I was glad to see again Mrs. Leigh-White from England, who has visited many of the other countries in this hemisphere since we met last year. Mayor Putnam of Springfield, Mass, was very kind and drove Mrs. Delano and me to the city, while a state trooper drove my car. At the broadcasting station, I was presented with a beautiful wooden key to the city. I took part in the broadcast which went out to the other groups of Girl Scouts throughout the country, and which I think was later repeated to South and Central American countries. The drive home into a most beautiful sunset sky, was unforgettable. I arrived a little after 8, somewhat weary, but very happy to have taken part in this celebration.

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free movie—but afterward they will g

go to court, |

Accompanied by their parents, youths who have violated traffic ordinances in the last three weeks will report at Loew's Theater at 9 a. m.

titled “Coffins on Wheels.” Then they will be escorted to Juvenile Court by a bailiff and the trials of those most recently sum-'! moned will be held. Todd Stoops, secretary-manager | of the Hoosier Motor Club and a| member of the Indianapolis Cham- | ber of Commerce Safety Council,

their parents, describing the Safety Council's program of accident prevention. The safety movie is part of an| educational program arranged by] Judge Bradshaw for young traffic] offenders.

4—-Name a former cabinet

breed? member who is now serving as Ambassador to a Latin American country.

—Charlotte (Lotta) Crabtree was a

suffrage leader, a famous singer or an actress?

—What astronomical phenomenon

occurs whenever the earth, moon and sun are in a direct line?

Answers

to see a 17-minute safety film en- 1-Robin Moor. | 2—False, '!3—No. 4—Josephus Daniels, Ambassador to

Mexico.

5—Actress. 6—Eclipse.

8 o ” ASK THE TIMES

Inclose a 3-cent stamp for re-

Until now the Anglo-Russian allies have been Will address the young drivers and! ply. when addressing any question

of Tact or information to The Indianapolis Times Washington Service Bureau, 1013 13th St, N. W., Washington, D. OC. Legal and medical advice cannot be given nor can extended research be undertaken.

HOLD EVERYTHING

{

“There she’ goes swiping candy again—believe me, I'm gonna squeal to the missus!”

1. Albert Copeland . . gavel.

2. Illinois and Indiana representatives at the Western Riddle of Plainfield

3. Mrs. H. N. Wright, director of music.

pier ————

. calls the meeting with age-old Earlham

Yearly. (left) visiting with E. Leona

4. Two Indianapolis pastors plan their program . .. L. O. Brown

(left) and Errol T. Elliott.

politically a]

The officers are Albert L. Copeland, pastor of the Friends Church at Westfield, Ind., named presiding clerk, a position he has held since 1924; Homer Coppock, a teacher in the Chicago extension schools, recording clerk; Miss Lilith Farlow, Kokomo High School teacher, reading clerk; Mrs. Rachel Johnson, Russiaville housewife, assistant reading clerk, and Orval Dillon, pastor of the Friends Church at Hartonville, announcing clerk. Worship was led last night by the Rev. Edward Mott and ses-

“= MEIN

ER 3 Mein Kampf is the accepted bible of German National Socialism, the frenzied outpouring of wild political philosophy having for its goal the domination of an entire world by the Nazi “race.” The Times today publishes the ninth installment of Francis Hackett's powerful expose of Hitler’s fanatic purposes.

By FRANCIS HACKETT

WHERE OTHER men have dreamed about totality, Hitler has decreed it. Where others have argued Irredentism, he has shifted

hundreds of thousands of bewildered minorities. What matter if a thousand blow over. like froth from beer? Slap them out of existence

More drastic than Peter the Great, more dictatorial than Nero, more destructive than any known conqueror, Hitler can count on his nationals to prostrate themselves before him, to scar the beauty of Europe, to destroy the irreplaceable, to kill small children, smash hospitals, churches, asylums, to outrage the feeble, +0 overrun the innocent, to seduce the vulnerable, to torture the invulnerable, to. debase humanity both in themselves and in their slaves. One has to confess that democracy has been culpable. Helpful infidelity has operated in every society that Hitler has broken down. He has triumphed almost as much by the faithlessness of democrats as by the fanaticism of Naziism. He has done this primarily because he confuses the issue by anti-Marxism. In this respect, he has been ingenious. However, his major fraud is one the the democrats can nail. It consists in his arguing the common benefits of Naziism to the “master race” (that is, the Nazi Party) and the ordinary human person. un ” ”

Gestapo Is Pillar

NAZIISM, SAYS Hitler in Mein Kampf, not only recognizes the value of the race but by this also the importance of the person and therefore makes the individual the pillar of the entire edifice.” The pillar of his entire edifice, as the democrat views it, is not the individual. It is the Gestapo. “The master race” may benefit by its efforts, but the disi

Mr. Hackett

sions today were to be held in the Tent of Worship erected in the shade of the rambling front lawn.

n ” n ; A HIGHLIGHT of the year's

meeting will be tomorrow evening when Thomas E. Jones, president of Fisk University and national director of the camps for conscientious objectors, speaks. He will talk at 7:30 p. m. and the lecture will be preceded by a 5:30 p. m. supper for all Peace Minded Friends and a report of American Friends Service Committee. Mr. Jones’ talk will complete

senting individual is poison to Naziism. Viewed in the large, the democracies have been faithful to individualism. Hence Hitler reviles the “democratic mass idea” of majority and minority. He shifts emphasis to ‘a view of life which, by rejecting the democratic mass idea, endeavors to give this world to the best people.” The “best people” are Nazis. An American is appalled at this. And he laughs at the corollary of it, that no ordinary person is really a Person! For, while Hitler pretends to concede that the individual is the pillar of the entire edifice, he repeatedly denies that any non-German is an individual. His race contention is adamant and final.

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Aided by Class War WHAT AIDED Hitler for

past decade was the danger to

democracy from class warfare. Once the Marxist pushed the claims of every man-along his inflexible doctrinal lines, the democrat was between two fires: that of the best people and the dictatorship of the proletariat. In the Danubian states, where Communists had early erupted, “the best people” were quick to look to Hitler. But democracy, based on ‘the importance of the person.” is in essence opposed to the dictatorship of a master race. It sees the dilemma that the New Order puts to it, but it refuses to admit the importance of persons simply as termites, whether the termites are Communist or Nazi. Both Communist and Nazi have attacked democracy. They declare it “outlived,” “outworn.” And each proposes to be appointed receiver to the broken-down notion of “the importance of the person.” What do interested parties answer to these persuasions? A Communist may say, Russia is right: what's the importance of the person in a bread line? What's liberty to me? A man without a job is a man without a country. I'm a pawn, under the iron heel of capitalism. To hell with capitalistic democracy! The courts are packed. The cops are brutes. I have no “importance as a person.” ;

the

” o H

Democracy’s Need

TO WHICH the capitalist may retort; you are too important as a person. You're on relief. You're W.P.A. Give me a one-party government that I can deal with. I'd rather have a sure 10 per cent than a pack of troubles. Give me Hitler. Between these two, democracy

7 :

No

the report of the peace committee, Other reports to be given ‘during business sessions include that of the executives, organization, evan=gelistic, pastoral and church extension; Christian education, Christian stewadrship, missionary work and prohibition and public morals. The Friday session will include the appointment of Earlham trustees, the nomination to Earlham Foundation and the report of the Earlham trustees. Among Indianapolis visitors te the Western Yearly are L. O. Brown, pastor of the Second Friends Church there and Errol T. Elliott, pastor of the First Friends Church there. All business sessions are held in the uitra-democratic' method of the Friends Church with any of the 12,000 members in Indiana and Illinois entitled to participate and vote.

KAMPF, ..0.. Americ

By FRANCIS HACKETT assum

is “under stringent need” to steer its resolute course. Hitler's proposal is to terminate rather than solve “the impor= tance of the person.” His contempt for the masses has never been concealed, and while it is the defeated nations who at present keep his dynamo going, supplying wheat, cattle, fat, oil, wool, in return for Nazi cuckoo clocks, it is still a slave-driving Germany that he must keep recruited, crystallizing pride and hate, as against fear amd hostility. He proposes an international servitude more drastic than has ever existed before, And this servitude is to be per= manent. Democracy has neither a right nor a chance to survive if it re= mains a mere pig-pen for the average sensual man. A democrat can indeed be compromised by torpor and the slavishness of his habits but the privilege of being reckoned as Person, whether Jew or Pole or Negro or Slav, comes be= fore everything else. It is the priv ilege that Hitler repeatedly denies,

2 n -4

Flame of Faith

TO HIM the individual is the mere creature of what he various= ly calls Fate or Destiny. He cane

not understand that to be a dem= ocrat is to work out one’s destiny, This is the privilege that the democrat holds to be worth dee fending by arms. Whether his stake in the country is a million or a nickel, has a psychological heritage to which nothing can be added by a master race. The Pilgrims cared for religious freedom. The Colonies cared for political freedom. The immigrant Irish cared for freedom from oppression. The Italians, the Slavs, the Jews, the Poles fled from the conscriptions of poverty and the army. There burns in the heart of democracy this flame of faith, and it is fed by a million memories. But the wise democrat has learned from Hitler that these privileges are not self-perpetuate ing. They were torn from a master class, and they are threatened by a master race. Only the surfeited who have grown fat on the unearned increment of democracy or the infate uated who ask the miracle of the loaves and fishes can be numb when it imperiled. There are plenty of these, talking of “war bee tween two imperialisms” or the “permanent wave of the future,” but there remain the innumerable host of plain people who un=derstand that their importanse is now finally in question. Tomorrow—“Hymn of Hate.” 1941,

(Copyright by Francis Hackett} ’

distributed by United Feature Syndica

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