Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 17 September 1941 — Page 1

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VOLUME 53_NUMBER 163

Nags s Gain io North And South Reds |

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FORECAST: Partly cloudy tonight and tomorrow; somewhat cooler tonight with lowest temperature 50 to 55.

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WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1941

ENNGRAD ND UKRAINE SEEM

May Be Forced Back To Don River.

On Inside Pages Details of Fighting ...... Page 3 William Philip Simms ...e.... 3 Legion Convention ..ccceees.0. 13 Hoover's Speech ......ce0000...'15

By JOE ALEX MORRIS United Press Foreign News Editor

Hitler's armies were officially reported smashing Russian positions

~|in an unprecedented battle for Len-

ingrad and pressing big-scale offensive operations in the Ukraine today, but the Red Army claimed new

gains on the central front.

Tremendous aerial bombardment,

"| tank-led . attacks and fierce hand-

Today Is Constitution Day, a holiday little observed in years gone by but inspiring a fuller meaning

during these days of world aggression and human slavery.

Typical of organizations endeayoring to instill

greater patriotism are the Boy Scouts of America, ‘who have issued a call for all boys to enroll in their program of citizenship training for youth.

STATE BUILDING STRIKES A SNAG

It Lacks Authority Under New Law.

By EARL RICHERT Quietly made plans of: the State Highway Commission for a new office building on the parking lot at Senate Ave. and Market St., across

(> from the State House, apparently

have hit an" insurmountable legal _ obstacle, a : The Commission obtained a 15-day ovtion on Sept. 1 from the Capitol Holding Corp. of Indianapolis, for the purchase of the lot for $87,500. ‘Commission officials since have discovered that while they have authority to buy and build, they haye no means. to do so. ‘The 1941 Appropriation Act was discovered to be different in that”it did not make any provisions for spending’ for such purposes by the Commission.

Need Someone. to Hold It

The Commission has ‘obtained a 7-day exfension of--its option, but the only hope, according to -Chairman James D. Adams, is that a “puisljc-spirited” - citizen. .buy the property and hold it until the next Legislature can correct the law. The property, he pointed - out, earns a rental of $460 a month. This would pay the buyér 44 pér cent interest on his investment. The option, which cost the State nothing, Mr. Adams said, was obtained ‘by Commission right-of-way men who learned who had the present option by searching tax records.. The ‘Capitol Holding Co., Mr. Adams said, had a 99-year lease with an option to buy in 1923. “We would just simply have closed that company’s option had we been able to buy,” Mr. Adams said. The lot has a 98-foot frontage on Senate Ave. and 202 on Market St., making the cost $875 a front foot.

Mr. Adams said that when the land}

for the new State Library Building] on Senate Ave. was purchased in 1931, the State paid $949.75 a front foot. The Commission chairman said that a new building was needed because the pre-war built structure (Continued on Page Seven)

- MURDER, INC., PLAYS BASEBALL WITH COPS

NEW YORK, Sept. 17 (U. P.).— . Members of Murder, Inc., were permitted to play baseball twice a week this summer to while away the

hours until they were needed in}

- court, it was learned today. The heavy tans sported by such triggermen as Abe Reles and Allie Tannenbaum led to disclosure of the outings. The criminals it, was learned, were escorted to Heckscher State Park at East Islip, L. I, and there played a team composed of police assigned to guard them. They Played for the customary picnic prize of a keg of beer and sand» ‘wiches. ;

' CANNON GETS HOUSE POST WASHINGTON, Sept. 17 (U. P.). ~The House today elected Rep. Clarence Cannon 4D. Mo.) who J ed Presid

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Signing of U. S.

sition, “but int

in residential neighborhoods. ; The City’s share in the observance of the historical day for the democracy - for the most part was her share in the defense effort. : Some patriotic. and. civic organizations planned special ‘observances including a display ‘of historical documents in the Indiana World War Memorial Building by the Indiana . Society ‘of ‘the Sons of the American Revolution.

Scout Leaders Meet

At 2 p. m,, the American United Life Insurance Co. was to sponsor a commemoration program in the home office auditorium, on Fall Creek Parkway. : Coming close to the opening of schools where organization for the new semester is still a big problem, the day was specially obse. ed in only several of the high schot and in a number of the grade scho Boy Scout leaders from the: Indianapolis ‘area ‘met at: the Scout Reservation to map fall and winter plans, including the role of the Scouts in national defense. Delmare Wilson, scout executive, said the ‘organization already had contributed to national defense’ by distributing posters for the nationat defense bond sale and by taking 8 large part in the aluminum drive. Adopted. in 1787 ‘The Constitution, originally consisting of a preamble and seven Articles, was adopted Sept. 17, 1787; by a majority of the 55 delegates from the 12 states who had begun their’ ddliberations in Philadelphia on May IR of that year. Before the Constitu went into effect it was necessary for three-fourths of the states to ratify the document. New ‘Hampshire on June 21, 1788, was Lthe ninth, but the ‘Government did not declare the Constitution in. effect: until Ihe first TWednesiay in March, 1789 :

Warm Spell Over: Cooling Rains Due

TODAY'S TEMPERATURES

a.m..." 10 a. m.... 74 am....71 11 a mi... "71 8a m.... 70 12 Noon ... 79 Sa.m....7 1p m... . 80

THE AUTUMNAL heat wave is ‘over, . and showers and cooler: ‘weather are Indianapolis bound, ‘according to the Weather Bureau. There may be showers today and tonight and low temperatures tomorrow, the Bureau said. ‘Yesterday's temperatures ave eraged 78 which was 11 degrees above the normal. A high of was recorded at 4 p. m,

TIMES FEATURES ON INSIDE, PAGES

Clapper senses 13 Jobson: Seve 14

Foie:

ss sven A

1{Movies .... 8, 9} Obituaries

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Constitution

Quietly Observed in City

oa = i : There. was. little fanfare wi Indianapolis today as the City celebrated Highway Commission: Finds | fhe. 154th. anniver

of ‘busy faetories turning ‘out detenge srifiaments “The only outward sign that thé day was any different than the other 364 in the year was the patriotic display of flags downtown and

“of the U. S, Constitution by the nd was the everyday hum

REDUCE STATE PROPERTY TAX

{1-Cent Rate Cut to Save

Average Person 35 to 40 Cents a Year.

The State Board of Finance today reduced the State Property Tax rate from 15 to 14 cents, effecting a

saving of about 35 or 40 cents for the average Hoosier taxpayer. The action was approved unanimously by the three members, Governor Schricker, State Auditor Richard T. James and State Treasurer James Given. The motion for the reduction was made by Mr. James who said the estimated State revenue was sufficient to permit the 1 cent reduction which will cut about $385,000 from the State’s income next year. This 14-cent rate will be payable

_|next year.

The 1-cent reduction was made in the State general fund levy, making that levy now 3.15 cents. The other State levies were left as they have been for the past several years. They are: Seven cents for school relief, 3 cents for teachers’ retirement, 35 of a cent for the board of agriculture, 2 of a:cent for the Wolf Lake project, .2 cent for the

‘State Forestry Division and .1 cent

for the New Harmony memorial, In commenting on the reduction, Mr. ‘James said “naturally I was pleased by the action of the Board

‘lof Finance in adopting my recom-

mendation to reduce the State Tax rate to 14 cents.

“This reduetion is based on 8a}

careful estimate of revenues.” The estimated balance of the

‘| State. General Pund. with the 14-

cent rate will be put about $7,000,000, an amount sufficient to meet obligations, on June 30, 1842, Mr. James predicted. J

Nazis Threaten

-ported driv

to-hand fighting were reported as the Gérmans threw their full weight into direct assault on Leningrad, which some indirect reports described as ablaze. War front dispatches described the Eastern Front developments as follows:

NORTH—Berlin said that German forces, despite heavy casualties, had pushed back the Russian defenders of Leningrad in most desperate fighting that seemed certain soon to decide the fate of the former Czarist capital. ported the Germans pushed back through a strategic village in one counter-blow and said that the enemy had been unable to advance.

SEvTRAL e Red Army rehe Germans ans back-to tke railroad ‘of Yartsevo, 35 miles northeast of Smolensk, after inflicting some 10,000 casualties and opening the way for “investment” of the ruined town of Smolensk. BALTIC—The Russians said they had defeated two Nazi attempts to seize the island. of Oesel, off Esthonia, with naval and parachute forces, sinking two enemy cruisers, a destroyer, five troop-filled transports and 80 small craft.. Thousands of Germans were drowned, Moscow said. :

SOUTH—The Germans, who claimed to have broken across the Dnieper defenses at various points, said that big offensive operations were in progress toward the Crimea and the big Ukraine industrial areas. Nazi dive bombers were reported leading the attacks on railroad centers and on retreating Russian forces. Moscow did not mention the Ukraine fighting.

Can Budenny Hold?

On this front, the ability of the Red Army under Marshal Semyon Budenny to halt the offensive over proad plains that favor blitz tactics was uncertain. ‘London experts expressed fear that the Russians faced a gradual withdrawal to the Don River, some 125 miles eastward, for a winter stand. The southern front apparently stretches from the mouth of the Dnieper, facing the narrow isthmus leading to the Crimea, northward along the Dnieper * bend” and then swings northwestward in the general direction of Kiev, which London heard was: encircled. German forces made one of their most important break-through actions at Kremenchug and, on the basis of meager reports, appeared to have struck northward from the river toward Priluki and northeastward toward the railroad junction of Kharkov. These operations were intended to join with another German advance from Gomel and Chernigov southeastward, enclosing Kiev in a steel circle. Elsewhere in the war, the British’ bombed and started fires at Karlsruhe, in the industrial sector of southwestern Germany, and Berlin reported that German submarines in the North Atlantic had

sunk six enemy merchant ships

totalling 27,000 tons.

to Seize

More Hostages in Paris

By UNITED PRESS Violent resistance to German

occupation forces continued in various European zones today. and

military authorities at Paris threatened to seize hostages “from

tion” if terrorist attacks continue.’ At Stockholm, at least 31 sailors were killed and 11 injured : series of terrific ured sank three of neutral Sweden's Sa modern destroyers. ? The new threat was published in Paris following the death of a German non-commissioned officer shot

4|outside a subway station Monday 12 | night.

Yesterday the Gelmags executed 10 more hostages in retaliation for such attacks on troops, in in sannection with which about 34,officially estimated

EEE

that sabotage was spreading in the occupied zone and said that 74 factories and 1800 trucks already had been damaged or destroyed while 194 trains had been derailed.’ Ten Serbian peasants were exe-

categories of the Parision oa cuted in Jugoslavia immediately

after being tried by court martial on charges of sabotage against the Germans. an EY Ler The : Stockholm explosions ‘oc curred at the Maersgarn naval base there and destroyed the 1(20-ton Klas Horn and Klas Uggle, both built in 1931, and the 1040-ton Goteberg, laid down in 1935. 3 . Blazing oil on the water at the

scene prevented immediate investi-|:

i in London heard |exceed ;

CRUCIAL SPOTS)

British Fear Budenny Army|

Moscow re-|-

‘been

Entered as Second-Class Matter : at Postoifice, Indianapolis, Ind.

‘It's. Hard to

new excuse to get to the front.

even survived the horrible nightmare of Dunkirk. Just — we thought — a temporary setback. They'd never take Paris. Col. Fuller was the only man in Paris who knew what was coming. He advised us to make plans to get out. He told us “off the record” that the French Army wouldn’t even bother to defend Paris. We listened patiently and then went to the Crillon or the Ritz Bar and said cheerfully, “Fuller is a great guy but he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” Of course, he was 100 per cent right. It was.Montgomery who gave us the excuse of getting to the front again. He was leaving for Beauvais to join his group. not stow away in his ambulance? So we packed our knapsacks again and went went off gaily, bouncing happily inside the brand-new ambulance. It was a lot of fun—until we got to Beauvais.

Hard to " See City Die

At first it is hard to watch die, but after a while you get

quite accustomed to ‘it.’ Actually’

they make -it ‘easier ‘for: you be-

. cause they die very quietly. The

‘wounded don’t cry. hin a way

The Wounded Don’t Cry—No. 3

Die'—Like Beauvais Did

With Bob Montgomery, Author ‘Watches Vain Efforts of Surgeons Close to Front.

By QUENTIN REYNOLDS

Bob Montgomery had come over to join a group of Americans who were driving ambulances. and I were back in Paris again trying to think up a

See a City

Ken Downs

Meanwhile the three of us ate at

Maxim’s and at Pierre’s and the war seemed quite far away. Nearly every day we'd drop into the American Embassy to see the Military Attache, Col. Fuller, the smartest military man I ever met. Gradually the red pins on his war map were coming closer to Paris. The debacle of Sedan and Abbeville had ¢ a and gone. We

it is: harder to watch © a city die. Beauvais was a middle-

aged city still in the prime of life of

and it died very gallantly but not at all quietly. It was an ordinary French city, proud of its beautiful cathedral and of its home for the ‘aged. It boasted a little, too, of a large school for boys which was on top of a hill overlooking the city. The city was very close to the front, so close that the wounded were. brought directly to it from the front. Downs, Montgomery and I met the city at 10 o'clock one night.

The city was very beautiful at |

night bwt perhaps that was be«

flames. The Germans had been bombing it all day and they had scored a direct hit on the home for the aged. They had also scored a direct hit on a hospital in the center of the town, which was unfortunate because the hospital had been full of badly wounded. The school for boys on top of the hill had been turned into a frontline hospital and the wounded were brought there. Orders had been given for the ambulances to move the wounded out of this hospital to the (Continued on Page Seven)

WANT GASOLINE TAX FUND USE LIMITED

Should Pay Only for Street * Repairs, Say Experts.

Tax. experts insisted today that the Works Board should confine gasoline tax funds exclusively to its street repair program, after charging before the County Tax Adjustment Board that gas taxes were being used to finance other items in the public works program. . ‘The assertion led to a vigorous

generally by the City between Walter Horn, Indiana Taxpayers Association analyst, and Leo F. Welch, Works Board vice president, while members of the Adjustment Board sat back and listened. Mr. Horn asserted increased gas. tax funds which the City will receive next year should be used only for ‘budget items directly connected

with the repair and maintenance of ||

streets. He said that. gas tax funds have spread out through other budget items and that 4 property tax receipts are being used to help finance the street repair program. Mr. Welch denied that any gas tax funds had been appropriated for i ot connected with street pair or maintenance. He exp

streets program expenditure pro-|’ posed. for next year is due to the| necessity of keeping streets in proper shape. Mr. Horn contended that with gasoline tax funds for next year expected to top this year’s receipts by

Saran, | the 36 City would show a cor-

cause nearly a third of it was in |

debate on the use of gas tax funds |

that a $39,000 increase in the total|

™W BILL GOES TO ROOSEVELT

Senate Adopts Conference ‘Report to Pass Record Finance Measure. . WASHINGTON, Sept. 17 (U. P.).

.—The Senate today completed Con-

gressional action on the $3,553,400, 000 tax bill, the steepest in American history, and sent it to the White House. Only the formality of President Roosevelt's ‘signature remained before the measure, affecting every American—many of them for the first time in a tax way—becomes

law. On Oct. 1, the levying of an additional annual $1,026,700,000 in new excise taxes will start. On next March 15 approximately 2,275,000 new income taxpayers will help foot an added individual and corporate income tax bill of $2,526,700,000. Current levies and the new tax bill are estimated to yield approximately $13,000,000,000 annually toward paying the mammoth cost of

be $8,000,000,000 or more in. the red next year. Final Congressional action came on Senate adoption of a conference report on the measure which started through the legislative process more than six months ago. With personal exemption for married couples reduced to $1500 and for single persons to $750, and a sur-

first dollar of taxable income, persons who this year paid nothing will iy themselves paying as much as 60. About one-third of the new money will come from excise levies —the “nuisance taxes” which are estimated to yield some 3e 35,900.00 ‘a day. These imposts aff a wide

take collaboration with

defense. Even so the Treasury will}.

tax starting at 6 per cent on the

iow |

PRICE THREE CENTS |

city for four hours.

walkout remained unsettled.

MUST WIN NOW,

HILLMAN WARNS

U. S. Faces Lone Stand if Axis Defeats Allies, He Tells Rubber Union.

Sidney Hillman,

.He spoke at the United Rubber Worker's (C. I. O.) convention dt the Hotel Severin. “If the United States is foolish enough—and indifferent enough—to abandon Britain and her allies to the fate of a Nazidominated victory,” he said the time will come when we shall stand alone —a small island in a black sea of Hitlerism. . “We would either have to undera triumphant Nazidom,” Mr. Hillman said. In the process we would run the risk of becoming another France, with Washington another Vichy, or, with our backs to the wall, we would have to wage a last-ditch fight for survival on the soil of the Americas.” " The course of the United States is plain, he said. This country must “produce and produce again, - to provide the foes of Hitlerism with planes enough to darken the skies, and tanks enough to shake the earth of Du Europe and Africa,” Mr. Hillman ded The people of America are not yet fully awake to their peril, the speaker continued. “The Nazi propaganda minister, Herr Goebbels, has a favorite word for us Americans,” he said. “It is ‘unsuspecting’. e are in the Nazi view, sleepwalkers in a. world aflame. And they would have us (Continued on Page Seven)

Five Flavors Pep Boys on March

CHICAGO, Sept. 17 (U. ‘PY The Army turned its field ration into a surprise package today oy adding five flavors of candy to the dessert section. - Col. Henry B. Barry, commanding officer of the Chicago quarter master depot, revealed that the place of fhe one-ounce chunk of chocolate in the dessert section of the canned Type C field ration will be taken by separatelywrapped pieces of orarnge, lemon, lime, butterscotch and caramel candy. It is easier to wrap up, easier to make—and the good effects of the sugar will last longer because ‘soldiers will eat it between meals,

variety of articles and id

Loss of the Mr. Keemle . Western Russia be able to carry tke

ut. The Ukraine if}

the Army said.

War Moves Today

By LOUIS ¥. KEEMLE United Press War Analyst

The German drive into the Ukraine already has struck a severe blow to Russia’s war production resources, and if it continues to sweep eastward towards the Don River, may be a factor in hamstringing the Russian Army into a protracted war.

Ukraine would be a great handicap

to the Russian war effort, but not necessarily a vital stroke. Leningrad, Moscow, Kiev and other Sities of of |

are great production centers, and

it ‘they hold out, ‘together with the other centers in that region, should burden. Their output would be supplemented by the newly -developed industries in and east of the Urals. . ‘Much stress has been laid on{™" | Ukrainian wheat, but the ‘crop is. prop-|in fact Lin one-fifth of the total

and sweeping beyond 1, the GerRussia of some | AiSP!

Tans bad deprives

The resumption of service, however, | by the Kansas City Light & Power Co., with the aid of strike } |breakers and the issues that brought about the spectacular’

‘Now Is the time to win the war, associate director — | general of OPM declared here or da

Five Union Leaders Arrested; Home Gu Stands By; Hospitals Suffer; Company Fears Sabotage of Lines

KANSAS CITY, Mo., Sept. 17 (U. P.)—Full electrie service was restored in Kansas City today after a strike power company employees that completely blacked out the

of

was accomplished

The company moved cots and blankets into their two big plants and prepared to feed the skeleton crews at the coms. pany cafeteria. Company officials believed they could maine: tain normal power output so far as the plants are concerned. “We can patrol the plants but we can’t patrol the lines,

he said, indicating a fear. ob

sabotage in that quarter, A battalion of the Missouri State Guard, mobilized by Governor Fore rest C. Donnell stood ready to ach in any emergency. ‘Albert F. Wright, organizer the striking union was free-on bo after spending several hours in

and was scheduled for a hearing

"| 1ate today although it had not heer -| decided what, if any,

is he HE be filed a | strike leaders-also were arrested. Chief of Police Harold Ander said charges of malicious d tion of property and sabotage n be filed and added that “if any son should die as a direct res this blackout I believe som of a charge could be filed a those responsibie for this possibily an accessory to - charge.”

Maybe!

KANSAS CITY, Mo, Sept. i ' 17 (U. P.).—~For five days. tle Herbie “Tex” Schneider’ has been fighting for his life a respirator at University of ‘Kansas Bell Memorial Hospi tal. Last night physicians gave , him a 50-50 chance to live. - At 11:57 the lights wen and the respirator keeping the spark of life in the 2-year-old Sitaitile paralysis patient went ead. | ‘Baby Tex gasped for breath. §| | Then for an hour and a H two nurses, working in light of a sputtering candle, §| kept life in his body by arti- § ficial respiration until an §} ‘emergency generator - was ‘rushed to the hospital, and. the FespiraiOr started again. This morning Herbie's phy: sician, Dr. William G. Her: mann, said, “Maybe.” ;

The strike started at 11 p. m. ; night. Service was cut off entires ly just before midnight and ‘Ww out until 3:52 a. m.

Here’s What Happened

| turbine stations, they:

Cut off all power to

Threatened the city water supply Darkened all the city streets cept a few minor gas-lit bpulevi Threw traffic into con stopping all - intersection lights. Stopped all elevators. 5 pa ked out the ‘municipal

Pe reatened the loss of

cery butcher counters ‘and ice boxes. Cut off most of the city’s line supply by stopping driven 3