Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 30 December 1941 — Page 9

| Inside Indianapolis By Lowell Nussbaum

SDAY, DEC. 30, 194

¥oosier Vagabond

X SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 30.—The White House is me of Sah Francisco's biggest stores, It was named (iter the famous Maison Blanche in Paris. Tt has i here 87 vears, and if as much a San Francisco as Twin Peakt or Fisherman's Wharf, It has 800 people working for it, and « they call themselves co-workers, L < not employees. There are a lot of fine stores in America, so I'm not writing about the White House for that reason. I'm writing about it because, so far as I can learn; it has done the best commercial job in San Francisco in its preparations for war. For months the White House has been organized as though it were an army, for the possibility Bf alr raids. It has raid equipment, its employees Rave drilled, everything is ready. ‘And furthermore, the executives don’t share the mplacent feeling of some of us that the Japs won't oomb San Francisco for a year, or maybe never, They think the Japs will bomb San Francisco prac- | tically any moment now. © The White House began its preparations for the

| present war last May. It began organizing the store

floor by floor and getting its co-workers thoroughly trained In first-aid and bomb conduct. Today it is organized in a two-fold way. (1) It is one of the strongest units of the Red Cross for general city-wide assistance in case of a bombing. (2) It is thoroughly organized within its own walls for sudden disaster from the air. Let's take the Red Cross part first. Twenty-six of the stores’ workers have trained so thoroughly in Red Cross work that in case of trouble, they immediately become part of the general staff of the Red Cross. They will be executives,

Trucks Become Ambulances

FURTHER, the White House's fleet of delivery trucks forms San Francisco's biggest bunch of potential ambulances.

BIG HEARTED Dick Evans, assistant manager of Sears’, felt pretty sympathetic when he learned the plight of & woman customer Christmas Eve. She had purchased a $1.95 doll for her little girl several weeks before and ordered it in layvaway. When she went to get it on Christmas Eve, it wasn't there, and there weren't any more in stock. Dick reasoned that the doll probably was on a delivery truck right then, but he couldn't be sure, Perhaps it never had been removed from stock and placed in layaway. Late in the evening, after the store closed, the customer phoned again and said the doll still hadn't arrived. Dick had a mental picture of a little child sobbing on Christfas morning because she had no doll. 80 he put on Ms hat and overcoat, and went to another store. Rapping on the door, he got a store offieial to tet him in. There he found a $3 doll which he Rouen. Then he drove about eight miles to the Stomer’'s home, his heart filled with cheer over the pil deed he was performing. arrived at 11:08 p. m. “Oh said the surprised customer. “Its too bad yOu Went to so much trouble. The delivery truck Brought the doll jukh five Minutes ago.” .

One Big Jamboree

THE COMMITTER arranging for the usual celeBiation of the Presidents birthday, Jan. 36, has decided to have one big eivie party instead of the usual two or three dozen smaller parties. The big jamboree Wil Be in the Butler Feldhouse. A knockout proih of entertainment is being arranged, with several Rio and movie stars being sought. One of the advantages of the unified program is that it makes it

ashington

WASHINGTON, Dee. 30—Both inside and outside the Administration demand is heard for recasting war production agencies in order that some one may have controlling power. When SPAB was s6t uh Bernard Baruch called it a faltering step forward. ‘This offended some of hig friends in the Administration, but he refused to back down on it. That was last September. Four months later the slow and confusion indicate Baruch was right. There isnt anybody running the shew, Mr. Roosevelt is too busy with many other urgent mate ters. William 8. Knudsen is head of OPM. Under him in charge of priorities is Donald Nelson. But Mr. Nelson also is executive die tor of SPAR, which theoretically is a poliey-mak« ing board over OPM and Mr. Knudsen. Thus Mr. Nelsons §8 Both over and under Mr. Knudsen. This typleal of the confused mage. FOr & time it was hoped that some one would able to grab the ball and run with it regardless the sonfusion of authority and direction. Leon has done that time and again, with jot and restriction of civilian production. It isn't down that way in the blueprints, but thats the WAY to get things done in Washington, particularly fi_this Administration. If somebody doesn’t step in

that Mr

it be

oy grab the ball, it doesn’t get carried.

A Ve've Got to Go to Work

’

WE HAVEN'T REALLY started in war produc . This coming year must see doubling and bling of it. During 1941 we have put about one of our total resources into war production, ace

My Day

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn, Monday.—1 left Washing ton p yesterday morning and went straight to 3 : to see our new little grandson, who was Just & week old yesterday. ie It & little bit darker as to hair and complexion Rak than Franklin ITI was at his age, oping but changes are rapid in these first few weeks. I I may be forgiven for thinking him a very charming baby. I was happy to see my daugh-ter-in-law and this s who is to remain nameless until his fa-

By Ernie Pyle

The White House has 25 fast trucks. Fifteen of its drivers have passed Red Cross first-aid requirements. The trucks are equipped with stretchers and blankets. | At any time of the day or night they can shift almost instantly from the workaday task of delivering bundies to the dramatic business of carrying wounded to the hospitals. And now to the store’s own inner organization for protection of itself and its customers.

Each floor is organized. Take the fifth floor, for instance. It has ohe captain, who is in complete command of everything on that floor in case of emergency. Under him are four emergency squads, all composed of employees. They are: Traffic squad of nine people, who are to see that all shoppers and employees on that floor are quietly taken to the first floor or basement, either by elevator or stairway. Blackout squad. ‘This has seven people. It is their duty to turn off all lights, pull the shades and make a final check to see that all electric appliances are turned off. First-aid squad. Two people in this. They remain on the floor until the “all clear” sounds. They are equipped with first-aid kits and stretchers. At three places in the store there are emergency hospitals. Fire squad. Five people on this. They, too, stay on the floor throughout the raid. They have sand for incendiaries, and buckets, rakes, shovels, extine guishers and hose.

Every Floor Organized THAT ORGANIZATION exists on every floor, and also in the warehouse and garage. In addition, there are such general preparations as these: As soon as the sirens sound, the elevator starter rings the general store bell three times. Elevators will keep running and right now every elevator has a card of instructions hung on its wall, A phone oper ator will stay at her switchboard throughout the raid. It’s all so wonderful and reassuring that I'm going to see if the White House won't rent me a cot in the corner of the perfume department, and just let me live there till the war is over.

possible to get better entertainment. Another is that the expenses will be less, and consequently a larger percentage of the gross receipts will be available for the war on infantile paralysis. Last year local Birth day Balls raised something like $8800—a large part of which went to Riley Hospital,

Here and There

AUGUST SOUCHON, the Indianapolis Athletic Club chef, has lost the little mustache he has worn for years. It came off after we went to war. His friends say he probably got tired of being joshed about his “Hitler” mustache. French born, August is very proud of his American citizenship. . . . The recent moderate weather has stirred up a number of third degree victims of golfitis. Perhaps afraid they can’t get any golf balls next summer as a result of priorities, they've been out on the fairways in over coats and mittens. Quite a few were observed Christmas Day. . . . The war excitement has made it pretty easy for soldiers in uniform to hitch-hike, one of them tells us, He said he found he could thumb his way faster than he could travel by bus or rail.

Amateur Inventor

TIRED OF GROPING around in the dark for his car when he gets off work at midnight, Jimmy Graham, an employee of the Allison plant, got busy and devised a home-made beacon. He took an ordinary alarm clock, an eight-penny nail and 15 cents worth of wire and rigged them up to turn on his spotlight exactly at midnight. Now he’s the first one out of the parking lot. . . . The “AllisoNews” reports another 54 Allison employees have entered the mili« tary service. That brings the plants total thus far to 363. . . . Donald Hadden, 27-year-old son of Samuel C. Hadden, State Highway Commission chairman, was scheduled to report to the Army today. Another son, Bob, Is reported trying to get into the Marines,

By Raymond Clapper

cording to the estimates of Stacy May, chief of sta-

tistics for OPM. We can't win a world-wide war with a 20 per cent effort. Britain can't increase her production much more. | China ean contribute little. Russia has done heroical« ly, but she has lost heavily in material and in production facilities. The weapons needed to win must come from here. We will never regain the Pacific

until we have enough weapons to take control of the air and of the water. | The C. I. O. estimates that two and a half million men are going to be thrown out of work because of | shortages of materials and dislocations. That means) not only lost manpower, but lost facilities unless war) orders are placed quickly on those shutdown plants.

They Got Things Done

HENDERSON HAS BEEN aggressive in anticipate ing the materials that would be needed for war pro duction. He has raced far ahead of OPM in curtail- | ing civilian production. The job of OPM now is to) catch up with the facilities and the materials which ' Henderson has taken out of daily eivilian use and made available for war work. But this task is largely in the hands of Knudsen, who all along has beer hesitant to force conversion of civilian plants. He didn’t want to change over the automobile industry, and was largely responsible a year ago for rejecting the Reuther plan to that end. Now shortages of materials have forced drastic reduction ih automobile production. The automobile plant facilities will have to be used. Whatever complaints we used to hear about Harry Hopkine, when he was told to put the une employed to work he put them to work. OPM needs some of the same spirit of the impractical New Dealers. They may have been theorists, but somehow they managed to get things done.

By Eleanor Roosevelt

of divisions reaching out through the regional bureaus down to the community level. I am convinedd, however, that we need one over-all planning group, and two other groups to meet those needs by the use of every available agency, public and private, This over-all planning group will tie in all the other divisions and use them to the best advantage, besides working closely with the civilian protection organization.

iana

Burma Road Racketeers Rob

Million Blankets Fail To Reach the Wounded: Whisky Gets Through

(Continued from Page One)

both in China and Burma. In addition there has never been real police control or patrol along the Burma Road's

extended Chinese section.

Trucks have been continually plundered or stripped of their vital parts or have disappeared altogether. Assaults upon drivers and robbery always have been common, while many murders have been committed and

the arrest of the murderers virtually unheard of, if such ever happened.

DURING THE FIRST week in December a United States Navy supply truck was proceeding up the road behind another lorry when a huge Chinese armored car rammed the lorry, which was entirely on its own side of the road.

A dozen Chinese soldiers in the armored car jumped out, hauled the lorry s driver from his seat, beat and kicked him.

One soldier grabbed an iron hammer used for cracking roek beside the road and bludgeoned the drivers brains out with re« peated blows,

Other soldiers knifed driver's companion to death, The gang then overturned the lorry, re-entered the armored car and drove off. ‘ Three Americans on the navy truck were powerless to inter vene against 12 armed soldiers. Two weeks before this happened William Dunn, of the Columbia Broadcasting System, was traveling down the road. A group of Chinese army hitchhikers ase saulted his chauffeur because he had refused earlier to give them a lift. They beat the driver with spades and sticks, and one finally knocked him out with a big rock. The driver would unquestionably have been killed if the Ameri can had not been present. The driver said afterward, “If I strike back they will shoot me and nobody will care.”

Was Secrecy Mistake

ALL THIS is merely a very ine complete intimation of the dimensions of the Burma Road abuses in its seamy history, Why hasn't the story been told long ago? Chiefly because the gallant Chinese people were resisting with their backs to the wall, Correspondents who might have reported the truth about the Burma Road were fearful of aid ing the Japanese aggressors, Nevertheless, I believe that it was a great mistake that the whole, sordid story was not pube lished at least a year ago when a half-hearted and completely ineffectual move was begun to inevrea te traffic over the road. Alter traveling up the road to Kunming in October, I wrote a series on the Burma Road, but

the

| eould not give more than a few | hints aboul

racketeering

U. S. DENIES 10 JAPANESE SLAIN

Rejects Tokyo Protest, Through Swiss, of Davao Violence.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 30 (U, P). ~The State Department has rejected a Japanese protest that 10 Japanese nationals in the Philippine sity of Davao were killed by Amer icans at the time of the Japanese assault on that city.

The Japanese’ protest was ree ceived through the Swiss Legation. The State Department announce ment yesterday said that it had not heard of and had no reports of any kind which would substantiate “in the slightest degree” the alleged incident, “The objective of the Japanese in making this protect is clear; that is, to attempt to divert attention from their iniquities by making accusations against others,” the State Department said.

Charge Ruthless Attacks

“For days previous to the delivery of this note, the Japanese not only

and

not condone the act of any of its officials or of any persons under its authority which controvened ac-

other abuses when writing from Chungking. Moreover, I did not feel justi fled in attempting any elaborate expose of conditions until I had spent considerable time inside China and conducted much thorough investigation. At that time, too, still another changed administration had just taken over the road's supervision =but today it has achieved noth ing more than superficial reforms such as improvement of certain physical dispositions along the road.

Private Goods Instead

HOW THE Burma Road racket has vitiated China's war waging capacities could be shown through hundreds of examples, but the following fact provides adequate intimation, Raw materials which for more than a year piled up untouched along the lower sections of the road and which are badly needed so China's arsenals can produce more than the present fraction of their productive capacity in small arms, machine guns and ammuni« tion—=the amount of these ma« terials actually required each month inside of China=represents less than one-sixth of the monthly capacity of the Burma Road. In actual fact, however, the Chinese have moved only one twentieth of the monthly quota of these needed raw materials over the road for the past 10 months, A few thousand tons monthly of materials for Chinese arsenals have been replaced by tons of private merchandise smuggled in and sold for profit.

. ”

15 Per Cent Tax

IN COUNTLESS different ways the same thing has been happen« ing. Yet while these abuses existed and were even tolerated by many Chinese officials and prof ited from by executives and em ployees of governmental agencies, the Chungking authorities were soliciting scores of millions of dollars worth of American equip ment supposedly to put China in a position to fight an offensive war, If the whole story of the Bur-. ma Road is ever written it will make a fat volume stuffed with unsavory fact. There is space here for only a few typical illustrations. A Chinese agency, the Southwest Transportation Co, now controls all trucking over the road and as

Chinese of Guns

Trucks along the Burma Road , , , racketeers, profiteers and murderers ride its hairpin turns.

such handled Lend-Lease cargoes marked China defense supplies. Until the Burmese Government protested most emphatically, this company used to charge 15 per cent on all cargoes moved from Rangoon to Lashio including water material cargoes. This change came in time to save American taxpayers paying Southwestern a substantial profit for moving Lend-Lease donations to China as far as Lashio.

” Ld »

$30 Profit on Each Ton

BUT THE COMPANY'S executives devised other means of profiteering, one of them being to sign up private trucking companies as their contractors. Thus, while Southwest Transportation's rates remained at a nominal figure, huge quantities of cargo were handed over to private ‘“contractors” who charged double or triple tonnage rates on cargoes they carried. Cases verified by Burma control officials show profits of $30 per ton often made from a 3-day haul over one section of the road or as much as $1000 on 36 tons. Those who have been intimately acquainted with the Burma Road racket over a long period say that a portion of these fat profits inevitably reached the pockets of Southwest executives, who engineered the deal. Instances of this sort could be multiplied scores and probably hundreds of times.

Ld ” »

4 Times the Rate

BURMA AUTHORITIES have: been powerless to prevent the shipment of commercial goods into China disguised as war or Chinese Government materials since Southwest officials, all Chinese, always are in a position to offer assurances that any convoy contains urgently needed war materials. It is known that China's National Resources (‘ommission dispatched a convoy fram .Lashio paying tonnage rates exactly double the established tariff. In Lashio early in October a Chinese Government official was

War Labor Board Like That Of 1918 Expected This Week

WASHINGTON, Dec. 30 (U. P.) = Administration labor officials today expected details of a War Labor Board ready for President Roose velt's consideration late this week,

Secretary of Labor Francis Perkins plans to meet business representatives to obtain their views on organisation and function of the board. Miss Perkins discussed the proposed board with A. F, of L. President William Green and C. I. O, President Philip Murray yesterday. The C. I. O. and A. F. of L. heads were said to have been in “substantial agreement” in advocating a nine-man board with four chosen from labor, four from management and a fifth representing the public.

Some Administration labor advisors have urged a smaller board, all chosen without relation to their industry or labor affiliations. They have urged a three-man board whose field be limited to policy making. Mr. Roosevelt told the industrylabor conference which recommended the War Labor Board last week that he would act immediately to create it. The conference discussed the proposed board at length but made no recommendation as to its personnel or functions. All of the 24 conferees were said, however, to have agreed that it should be modeled after the first World War board set up in 1918,

HOLD EVERYTHING

AN oy

sr £5 ) 2 5

a Recs age”

SZ A) SS

TE 5

FJ Se WO, ar Fal TTT LLL }

EN GN ; Row i

promising to fix delivery of commercial or contraband shipment of goods to Kunming and offering to pay nearly four times the regular tonnage rates. Such things merely are an ordinary Burma Road phenomenon, but explain why the road has been the biggest squeeze and biggest racket of the Far East for the past three years. Due to the personalities involved many such incidents also explain why the abuses have gone unchecked,

o ” ”

Gas for $1.60 a Gallon

PERHAPS THE richest subject for graft connected with the Burma Road has been gasoline, because motor fuel is one of the chief lacks inside China and the black market prices make it liquid gold. Sixty to 80 per cent of a cargo over the road has often been the average for gasoline, including high octane for aviation, Vast quantities of this precious fuel have constantly disappeared from trucks to the enrichment of all parties to the contraband trade. Gasoline is simply delivered to dumps inside China usually under fictitious names and then it simply never reaches its supposed destination. No Chinese representatives along the road have ever altered this situation. Gas sells in Kunming for as much as $1.80 a gallon—{o pri‘vate persons, of course. In Kunming streets you see an enormous number of new Ameri can limousines, especially Buicks, very few of which are owned by the government or army officials.

Autos for Racketeers

CHUNGKING ALSO has a great many automobiles owned by private citizens despite the fact that the gasoline and motorcar shortage is supposedly very great, War profiteers and fixers inside government departments ride well, Even in Rangoon the majority of fine automobiles, particularly new American makes, are owned

CIGARET PRICE ROOF SOUGHT

OPA Acts After Increase Is Announced for ‘Lucky Strikes.” WASHINGTON, Dec. 30 (U. P.). —Price Administrator Leon Henderson prepared today to. establish

a ceiling over all manufacturers’ cigaret prices to prevent an in-

lcrease in “Lucky Strike” cigaret|:

prices announced by the American Tobacco Co. ; Refusal of the American Tobacco Co. to withdraw its announced. in-

crease in the price of Lucky Strikes|

from $6.53 to $7.10 per thousand,

less discounts, resulted in Mr. Hen-|

derson’s action. “Under the circumstances, considering that the ‘Lucky Strike’ increase might involve advances on the part of other manufacturers, OPA is compelled to issue a schedule of maximum prices for cigarets at or’ about the levels of Dec. 26, 1941,” Mr. Henderson said.’ The American: Tobacco increase was announced Dec. 27. ‘President George W. Hill of the American Tobacco’ Co. conferred with Mr. Henderson yesterday. After Mr. Henderson's announcement of the decision to establish a ceiling, Mr. Hill released a statement he said he had made at the conference. It said, in part: . “The American Tobacco Co. has presented to the price administrator a statement and evidence of increased costs . . . which show that its costs have increased in an amount in excess of the price increase, so that the entire amount price increase represents costs, without additional

Mr. Henderson's schedule will be on manufacturers’ prices, but he said that if wholesalers and retail-

and|,

by Chinese representatives of the Burma’ Road and other Chinese agencies or private enterprises.

These same prosperous Chinese have taken a large proportion of the finest suburban houses near Rangoon. Their number has ine creased markedly since the LendLease shipments began to arrive several months ago.

Until the Lend-Lease to China was inaugurated the Burma Road racket was chiefly vicious for its seriously weakening effect upon China's armed strength, upon her industrial capacity to produce her own armaments and upon the morale of her people. It still exercises the same effects, but now that China and the United States are allies the Burma. Road abuses definitely threaten to throw a much larger burden of combat throughout Eastern Asia upon the Americans and British.

” ” »

Problem for U. S. Too

THEY THREATEN also, unless a wholesale cleanup is soon made through all the Burma Road agencies, to cost an inestimable number of American and British lives in the next year or two— lives which might be saved, provided China is made capable of an all-out effort on her own fronts. But China will never be capable of doing her armed utmost in the field until Burma Road abuses “and Tacketeers are abolished. She cannot do her utmost without regularly receiving the maximum of bona fide war materials over the Burma Road, nor can her allies do their utmost to help her. The Burma Road scandal has become an urgent war problem ° for the American Government and the American people, quite as much as for the Chinese Government. It would not have become that haa it not heen for uncurbed cue pidi‘y on the part of a consider able number of Chinese authorities both official] and private in connection with the Burma Road over the past three years. ecial Cable, Copyright, 1941, by T

he Indianapolis Tim , Ly hel es and The Chicago Daily

WRITE IF YOU WANT A JOB AT BURNS CITY

BEDFORD, Dec. 30 (U, P.).— Lieut. Comm. T. E. Kelly, head of the labor board at the Burns City Naval Depot, warned today that applications for permanent Jobs. at the depot were acceptable only through the mail and that no

{interviews would be granted.

Persons listing suitable qualificae tions in their applications will be asked to appear for examination ag the depot when the labor board bee gins functioning, Comm. Kelly said,

TEST YOUR - KNOWLEDGE

1—-Who were called Boche in the World War I? : 2—In which hand does the Statue of Liberty hold a torch? 3—Which nation is called the Land of the Rising Sun? 4—-Who said “I am the light of the © world”? 5 65—1Is -the Balkan Peninsula in Asia or Europe? 6--The Administration of President Monroe, when party dissensions practically disappeared was called the “Era of g=== feweag”? T—Name the five states that border on the Gulf of Mexico. 8—Which National League football team is known as the “Eagles”?

Answers

1—Germans. 2—Right hand. 3—Japan. 4—Jesus, in the Gospel of St John. 5—Europe. 6—Good feeling. T—Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. 8—Philadelphia.

® =» ASK THE TIMES

Inclose a 3-cent stamp for re-

ply when addressing any question of fact or information to The