Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 26 December 1941 — Page 14

FRIDAY, DEC. 2; 194!

Hoosier Vagabond

. SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 26—This city is grave about the war, but like London it still must have its little war jokes, which is as it should be. For example, I have a friend here who has regis. tered for civil defense, and when people ask her t branch she applied for, she says she signed up to be a “victim.” She says that with everybody else in town signed up to be rescuers, there won't be anybody left for the bombs, so she has decided, like Barbara Frietchie, to stick out her neck in the name of patriotism. Another thing—the Government in wartime is always giving you dire warnings not to repeat rumors. Of course, the theory is good but as far as I've been able to see the Government is wasting . its breath. Its simply human nature to gossip. People have to talk in a tense period or they go crazy. I sort of doubt that people can be preached out of rumormongering. The best way, it seems to me, is to handle rumors as one hero here handled the submarine story. On that first night's bad scare there was a wild rumor abroad that a Jap submarine was lying right under the Colden Gate Bridge, just lying there like a porpoise, looking around. Well, an awful lot of people really believed it. And to one of these believers our man the next morming svoke as follows: “Well, they've caught the submarine.” “Oh, wonderful,” was the answer, “I'm so relieved. How did they catch it?” . “Why, they caught it in a fish net. In fact, Joe DiMaggio’s father caught it,and they've got the sub on exhibition down at DiMaggio’s restaurant now.” That ended the submarine scare.

Ready-to-Use Bomb Victim THE EDITORIAL rooms of The San Francisco News have been equipped with blackout curtains, just as are all editorial rooms in London.

The other night one of my friends on the staff of The News was caught at a party by the blackout, and

By Ernie Pyle

it was fairly late when the “all clear” went. My friend lived across town, and he was due at work on an early shift, so he decided to go right to the office and sleep there the rest of the night. He stretched out on a couch in the office of one of the editors, right beneath a window, and went to sleep with his clothes on. After daylight he was awakened by the startled shouts of a copy boy. My friend roused up, looked around, and found he was covered with broken glass. It seems that during the night somebody had thrown a gas tank cap through the window and showered my sleeping friend with splintered window glass. And he never even woke up. Hes what .I would call the ideal, housebroken, ready-to-use bomb victim.

That Odd Axis Fellowship

BUT THE FUNNIEST story yet, to me, was the one my little Japanese girl was telling. * She's completely for our side, no question about that. But she also knows a bargain when she smells one. One day, just before Christmas, she was downtown buying some small Christmas trees. She stopped at a stand, and found the price for two little trees was $350. She thought that was too high, so she started haggling with the stand man. : Now the stand man happened to be an Italian. So, suddenly he stopped gabbling at his new customer, looked at her closely, and said, “Are you Chinese or Japanese?” “Japanese,” she said. The Italian smiled and beamed his comradeship. “Ah, in that case,” he said, “you can have 75 cents off, we will deliver them, and I will pay the sales tax myself.” “But 75 cents isn’t enough off for those little ones,” our girl said. “If you'll give me two bigger ones at that price, I'll take them.” So that's the way it wound up. Two big trees, 75 cents off, no sales tax, and free delivery, just because an Italian had an attack of the old Axis fellow-

ship but forgot that most Japanese out here are really American. And nothing . My Japanese girl laughs and laughs when she tells about it.

Inside Indianapolis By Lowell Nussbaum

RUMORS OF NAZI submarines lurking off the East Coast, and the threat of air raids on New York and Washington have stirred afresh the talk of moving a part of the Government offices now centralized

in Washington to the hinterland. That brings up again the possibility that Indianapolis one of these days may become one of several “little Washingtons” each of which would serve as sub-capitals for groups of states.

Its known that Government agents have been in Indianapolis in recent days checking over available and potentially available office space. One pretty fair sized office building is known to be available and several others could be made available either by remodeling or by moving existing tenants to other partially filled buildings. Also being studied by the Government is an even bigger problem than finding office space. It is how to house the thousands of office workers and their families who would come here from Washington with their offices. We'll bet a Jot of the workers would welcome a chance to move to Indianapolis with its relative safety from bombing,

If Wishes Were Guns

WHAT DO 13-YEAR-OLDS think about in school these days? We'll admit we don’t know, but a note found among the papers of Jean Anne Fleener of School 57 in Irvington may give an idea. Decorated at the top with the names of various movie stars and with pencil sketches of islands, labeled “Japan—I hate them,” the note was addressed to “Barb.” “What on earth can I do?” it read. “I've been sitting here thinking. I wish I was a man about 21. And then I could fight those Japanese. Gee, just to be a man. That was such a dirty trick to pull on us. Oh, heck, anyway.” Beneath it, under the signature “Babbie (precaution)” was a reply: “Dear Jean Ann: Just think how well they must have planned that attack. It makes mc boil ‘cause

Washington

WASHINGTON, Dec. 26—I hope a way will be found to give the widest circulation to Vice President Wallace's discussion of the foundations of the peace in the Janflary Atlantic Monthly. We need thinking by the public in this field far more than in the business of military strategy. In fighting the war we must rely on the decisions of those in command who have the secret information. Back-seat driving in military matters is necessarily advice given in ignorance of many controlling facts. It is therefore useless, if nothing worse. That is not true concerning organization of the peace. There legislative decisions will have to be made. They will be made in a setting of public discussion. An informed public opinion is necessary. Otherwise we shall be at the mercy of demagogues looking for short-range votes instead of longrange . As Blair Moody says in a provocative book on these questions, “Boom or Bust,” the first thing a demagogue learns is that it is easier to frighten a thousand persons than to educave one. Vice President Wallace, out of a rather large experience and knowledge, is trying to throw light on a subject that is complex and yet as vital to our future security as winning the war.

World an Economic Unit

WE KNOW NOW, Vice President Wallace says. that the modern world must be ized fer what it is—an economic unit. If that fact is not clearly kept in mind from now on, we are liable to trap ourselves into short-run decisions that will work longrun harm, It is just as if Detroit were considered an economic pit apart from the United States. Detroit is going fc" hit some hard weeks of unemployment while the automobile industry is changing over to war work.

My Day

WASHINGTON, Thursday. —Yesterday, Y started

a word at the Union Mission

p Instead, they sat quietly in their seats and listened to the speeches and joined in singing the carols

before anycne suggested that they to get their Christmas

Shei We Were ving to make peace they make war. rer-r- — —”

Mayor Pays Stickers

MAYOR SULLIVAN held the first meeting of his Civil Defense Committee last Friday at the World War Memorial. The meeti started at 1:30 and dragged along until well after 4 p. m. The chances are the Mayor will hurry along the next meeting. The reason is that four women who attended the first meeting found parking stickers on their cars. They had parked on the south side of Michigan St.—forbidden territory for parked cars between 4 and 6 p.m All four gave their stickers to Russ Campbell, the Mayor's secretary, and Hizzoner wrote out a check for $8 and paid the stickers.

Here and There

THE FIRST THING that J. Bradley Haight did after receiving a telegram notifying him he had been appointed Indiana operating chief for the U. 8. Employment Service was to step out and buy a new dress suit. But he swore he had planned to get one that day, anyway, to replace his old one. . . . Even those guys that make the new street signs have trouble with typographical errors. The new sign just installed on 38th St. av Byram Ave. lists it as “Bryam St.” “5 h Employees of the Western Auto Supply (363 N. Iilinois) decided to give their supply shelves a thorough cleaning the other day, and you can't imagine what they found. Three cylinder head gaskets for a 1914 model Maxwell. Boy, page Jack Benny!

Add Ho Hum .

“HAD YOU HEARD” Department: House flies vibrate their wings about 330 times a second or nearly 20,000 times a minute. (Energetic little things, aren't they?) . . . Not all spiders waste their time. Their webs are useful for the crosspieces in surveyors’ telescopes, and also are invaluable as hair-lines in telescopic gun sights and periscopes. . . . Heavy muskrat pelts do not forecast severe winters. Muskrats and other furbearing animals cannot vary the thickness of their pelts in anticipation of future weather. The quality of the fur merely reflects the abundance or scarcity of food and water during the preceding season. . . , If you want to argue about any of the above, take it up with the editor of Outdoor Indiana, the State Conservation Department's publication,

By Raymond Clapper

Some officials here fear that as many as 200,000 men may be temporarily unemployed. That is a in Detroit and one that the Government must seek to alleviate in every possible way. But production of automobiles has to be drastically cut to win the war. us ultimate benefit must prevail over the immediate 0SS. We went through this same thing nationally when we shoved up the tariff twice after the war at the very time that we should have made it easier to import goods. That short-run decision contributed to the economic collapse which hit other countries first and then backfired on us with the worst and longest depression in our history. Under the pressure of war we can make some of these decisions at the risk of the local damage that so often is an unavoidable by-product. We have. just done it in the agreement with Canada to abolish tariff walls for the duration of the war, From now on the United States and Canada will consider themselves one economic unit. President Roosevelt will ask for whatever legislation is necessary to make this arrangement effective. Milo Perkins, director of the Board of Economic Warfare, was chairman of the American negotiators.

Right Attitude of Mind

BECAUSE TOP war production by both countries is necessary, it does not make sense to obstruct the exchange of material by imposing tariffs. If we have something Canada needs or Canada has we need, the important thing is to get it where it is needed. Each country will fit its production into that of the other country. Scarce raw materials will be allocated between the two countries in any way that Wil} SOutsvute to the hig combined war output. not a spec pattern for twar tions, which will be governed by hr ions, economic well-being rather than actual survival. The same attitude of mind, however, is the pattern needed —a flexible, realistic wrestling with the actual problems, rather than incantations that have come down fo us from the McKinley Administration, which may have been all right for quite different days.

By Eleanor Roosevelt

S. suppose it is long habit ce

with them, but it never seems quite natural to me, even now, Afterwards, I went over to Arlington, Va, where the Kiwanis Club held their children’s .

and have a preparations.

—

'1942 and You'

New Year in U. S. Must See 'All-Out’ Economic

Mobilization to Beat Axis Powers, Jones

Determined that victory will result, whatever sacrifices may be nec-

, Americans face a war year. Americans be

What does that year hold?. What

asked to do—and to do without—in 1942? The

below, by Secretary of Commerce Jesse Jones, is the second of written by outstanding men in industry and government, answering these questions and looking ahead to “1942—and YOU.”

By JESSE JONES

Written for

NEA Service

WASHINGTON, Dec. 26.—We are now engaged in the greatest struggle in all history in defense of everything we cherish, We are resolved to destroy once and for all

the ruthless aggressors who

are warring against us with

the avowed intention of enslaving us and of sweeping away our institutions and customs founded on freedom.

We will

accomplish the enemy’s de-

struction by the weight of our armaments, wielded by our own fighting forces and by those of our Allies. Before that can happen on a decisive scale in this world struggle, however, the flood of all the war machines needed for the Job must be provided by the nation’s eco-

Jesse Jones

play a part. Important beginnings to economic mobilization were made in 1941. Four million five hundred thousand persons are already engaged on the economic front. .meant an increase of 8,000,000 (defense workers) in the past year. = = ” “ANOTHER step taken in 1941 toward producing the war machines we shall use to smash our

enemies was to make the largest addition on record to the coun-

nomic forces. most vital importance for all of us to comprehend the sweeping, total character of the mobilization now under way—economic as well as military. total mobilization, every adult American can and should

Consequently it is of the

In this

try’s productive plant and equipment. During the year, $8,500,000,000 in new equipment and $3,600,000,000 worth of new plants were added. By the beginning of 1942, the arms industry, broadly considered, will be no less than third in size of all American industries; by the end of the coming year it should certainly rank first.

= ” s CLEARLY the prime objective of our economic mobilization is to

Says|

“The prime objective . . is to provide such a crushing superiority of armaments that the enemy's greatest efforts will be overpowered.”

provide such a crushing superior ity of armaments that the enemy’s greatest efforts will be overpowered.

None of us, as producers, shall withhold his hand from this

sweeping mobilization of our productive strength. As it proceeds, the country’s aggregate output in the coming year will move ahead. Since most of it will flow into war materials, we shall, as con=sumers, have to adjust ourselves

to the rationing of scarce articles, Let us, however, take comfort in the certainty that with our unparalleled national strength so dedicated to victory, this great nation will decisively win the struggle so brutally thrust upon it.

CHICAGO AREA HAS 1ST ALERT

Air Raid Warning Comes As Naval Stations Hold Yule Exercises.

CHICAGG, Dec. 26 (U. P) —Circumstances of the Middle West's first genuine air raid “alert” mystified the civilian populace today. Naval authorities said they were following a policy of “watchful

tragedy | waiting” and reported there were

“no further developments” after the 70-minute “alert” which interrupted Christmas Day festivities for 9000 men at four naval stations in the Chicago area. The alarm was sounded at 1 p. m. during a Christmas show at the Great Lakes naval training station. Hundreds of sailors swarmed into air raid shelters where they continued singing carols and Navy songs. The school’s theater was preparing to show the motion picture “Dive Bomber.” The “all clear” signal was heard and the holiday show resumed before Army, civilian defense and other authorities learned of the alarm, which naval officers insisted was not a rehearsal.

Say Alarm Authentic

Comm. T. DeWitt Carr, executive officer of the Great Lakes school, released an official statement announcing the “alert” was ordered after receipt of “a warning from a responsible source that eight to 12 unidentified planes, coming from the northeast, were heading west across Lake Michigan.”

“There was no word of flights at the time, and, in view of the mysterious circumstances surrounding

were sent up to carry out assignments, if necessary. Comm. Carr indicated that the reported flight of planes had not been discovered by the patrol craft, when he said later that their idenMS Semaitied a mystery. “alert” was ordered at the school at Great Lakes, Ill, the naval air base at Glenview, Ill, and at the Navy Service School and the Naval Armory at Chicago.

400 OR 14007

in the Marine Island.)

$20,000 WRECK NOT FATAL PHOENIX, Ariz, Dec. 26 (U. P). — William and Manuel Macias crashed their automobile into a Southern Pacific freight train yesterday, derailed used $20,000

garrison at Wake

the strange planes, the alarms were) | given,” he said. “Navy patrol planes| | defensive |

By WALTER LECKRONE Times Special Writer CLEVELAND, Dec. 26. While West Coast cities grope through blackouts, the industrial Midwest stays calmly unprepared for defense

from enemy air attack. Potential enemy bases big enough to hide 500 bombing planes lie unguarded within three hours of Cleveland. Access to them is possible by ship. Heavy bombers could be flown there from Germany, or Norway. Over a 10-year period Nazi air officers have flown over the region and mapped it more completely than the Canadians who own it. From Milwaukee to Pittsburgh the Great Lakes areas is a closely packed mass of vital war manufac- . Detroit's automotive plants, including the big Chrysler tank factory and the Ford and General Motors plane and engine factories, are visible for miles from the air. Toledo factories make small arms, and essential machine parts. Cleveland’s great production of steel, machine tools and Army scout cars is well known. Lorain’s steel and shipyards are nearby. Within 30 minutes by air are the giant Ravenna Ordnance works, the Plum Brook explosives plant, the steel of Canton and Youngstown and the upper Ohio Valley, the rubber mills of Akron.

Berlin Knows Locations

These are no military secrets. The location of every plant is known in! Berlin. | Against attack Cleveland has a half-developed plan for blacking out the city, and fighting fires, and other cities of the region have barely gone that far. But blackouts

would be worthless. Nothing in this whole area could stop a mass air raid in daylight. The back door stands wide open.

Only 600 niles due north from Cleveland is the south shore of Hudson's Bay, an inland sea 1300 miles long and 500 miles wide that opens on the Atlantic. It is not the frozen Arctic waste of popular fancy. It is almost as exactly far- north as London and Berlin. The entrance from the Atlantic is in the same latitude as Stockholm and Leningrad. Its salt water does not freeze, except in shallow spots where . fresh-water rivers enter from the south. Around it lie thousands of square miles of uninhabitated territory, never visited except by Indians who are out of touch with civilization, without telegraph or radio. Scattered over this territory are hundreds of lakes and rivers—perfect landing fields in winter. The nearest town, Port Churchill, is 500 miles away, at the end of the railroad on the west side of the bay.

Must Patrol Vast Area

The nearest Allied patrol base is on Newfoundland, 800 miles from the entrance to Hudson Straits. A hostile supply ship that had slipped through the British blockade would not have to pass within 500 miles of an Allied naval or air base, or within hundreds of miles of a civil. ized community, on its way into Hudson's Bay. It would encounter icebergs and storms in the Atlantic before it got in—ships encounter them there every day in normal trade—but none inside. Patrol planes watching the region have five times the area to

HOLD EVERYTHING

Midwest Plants Exposed to Air Attacks If Nazis Can Set Up Hudson's Bay Bases

cover that patrol have around Pearl Harbor. In 1930 Capt. Wolfgang von Grenau, German World War pilot, flew from Sylt, now a Nazi naval base, to Labrador and New York by way of the Faroes, Iceland and Greenland. He was charting a route for conmimerce and mail, he said. Next year he was back, flying this time to Chicago and Cleveland. The report of a Canadian air corps pilot that Von Gronau’s plane had extraordinary mapping and photographic equipment was ignored. Capt. Von' Gronau announced, with some ceremony, that his mission had failed—that the 4000-mile route from Berlin to Chicago was “not feasible.” In 1932 he was back again. One of Goering’s first acts was to promote Von Gronau, despite his “failure.” He is still a Nazi officer.

Flier Charted Region

A famous pioneering aviator, known for “mercy” flights, and for being frequently “lost” over north Canada, was clapped into prison by Canada when it found his expeditions had been devoted to making maps . for the Hitler Government, and that he had more complete charts of the empty region south and east of Hudson's Bay than any Canadian had ever made. War had begun before he was caught. From camouflaged bases in the Hudson's Bay region enemy planes would be within 600 miles of Cleveland or Buffalo, 775 miles of New

York or Minneapolis or Chicago, 400 miles from the Soo locks. Philadelphia’s Navy yards, Baltimore's bomber factories, Boston, and even Washington would be within range of their bombing planes. Tremendous damage could be done before such bases, once established, could be wiped out. The only feasible defense is a constant sea-air patrol over Hudson Straits, a naval-air base on Hudson's Bay itself, and a constant patrol.

planes

Wrong Building, But He's Sleepy

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 26 (U. P.). — Emil Olin’s insisténce on catching up on his sleep at a Mission St. apartment house where he was not a tenant landed him in the County Jail today. . Miss Even Schwartz, manager of the apartment house, said. that for several months she had been finding him sleeping “on front steps, back steps, hallways, the attic, the . basement, out-of-way corners.” The climax came when

a thant found Olin asleep in the bathtub of her apartment. Olin’s explanation was his former wife used to live at the apartment house and when he ‘became lonesome for her he went ‘there to

to do his sleeping

* A

CONDITIONS FOR PEACE STATED

Axis Must Be Blunted for 1000 Years, Lucas Says; Others Agree.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 26 (U.P.).— Senator Scott W. Lucas (D. Ill) said today that when .the peace terms are drawn after the war Japan, Germany and Italy. should be reduced to the point that they will not have a dominant force “in the family of nations for 1000

years.” “There can never be a lasting

peace until the philosophy of Hitlerism is destroyed,” Mr. Lucas said. Other Senators interviewed agreed in principle with Mr. Lucas, ale though some had . variations to suggest about the terms imposed, Disagreement of the Axis nations, dismemberment of Germany, and the maming of raw materials hce cessible to all peoples were emphae sized. President Roosevelt expressed the same idea in his speech before Congress asking for a declaration of war on Japan: : “I believe I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost but will make very certain that this form of treachery (Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor) shall never ene danger us again.” ‘

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

1—Can women serve on juries in al} the States? 2—What 1s a maverick? . 3—Wedgewood is a kind of tree, pote tery, or mechanical device? : 4—Who wrote “Nights with Uncle Remus”? ; 5—Name the dog that appears with Myrna Loy and William Powell in the “Thin Man” motion pice tures. 3 6—Is Athens, Greece, a seaport? , - T7—Which two vegetables are mix to make succotash? 8—An Army Corps is commanded by a corporal; true or false?

® =» =

Answers 1—No. . 2—An unbranded animal. 3—Pottery. 4-—Joel Chandler Harris. 5—Asta. 6—No. 7-—Beans and corn. 8—False,

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He was sentenced | and