Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 31 December 1941 — Page 9

e Indianapolis Times

I Hoosier Vagabond

_ BAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 31. —The other night my phthe rang and the voice said, “This is Lieut. Petticrew at the Presidio” Bo I started trying to think who might be this tieut. Petticrew, and whether or not I was supposed to know him. And then all of a sudden it came to me, and it is an odd coincidence. Just another one of those small - world - after - all things. It was this way: A year ago in England I wrote that the thing I missed most was sugar. So a number of readers back home sent me boxes of sugar. The very first to arrive was from a Mr. and Mrs. Dick Petticrew of East Lansing, Mich. I didnt know the Petticrews, and I had never expected to lay s on them, but you never can tell in a world like this. Por the voice on the phone here in San Franison was none other than that of the sugar-sending Pettitrew of East Lansing. The Petticrews came downtown to see me, and they turned out to be swell people. Dick got a reserve commission after graduating from Purdue University four years ago. He was called up last June, and after

2 few months at Camp Lewis in Washingtoa was trans-.

ferred down here.

The Old Midwest Training

MRS. PETTICREW, whose name is Sally, came along and they found a nice apartment and are crazy

| about San Francisco. Dick is in the ordnance department, and they are so busy getting shells and bombs

By Ernie Pyle

out to the coast that he works a 12-hour shift, seven days a week. The ordnance officers have to do a lot of telephoning to the arsenals back East, and Dick, being afflicted with the old Midwestern habit of thinking you have to scream over the long-distance phone, shouted himself practically voiceless, I asked him what impelled them to send me the pt in England, and he said oh he didnt know but he guessed it was just one of those rare times when you actually up and do one of the nice things you're I thinking about doing.

Right in the Thick of It

SAN FRANCISCO is full of war anecdotes. Here is one: A certain rather foppish little man has been busting to get into the civil defense organization, mainly because he thought he would look so nice in a uniform. So he volunteered for civil defense, and what do you suppose they put him to doing? Why, he is a spotter, and he has to sit in a manhole on a dark street, with just his head sticking out, from midnight till 4 8. m. every day.

Why, the Big Hicks!

SAN FRANCISCANS apparently aren't all as cosmopolitan as I've been led to believe, Shortly before Christmas I bought presents for my father and Aunt Mary, and had them shipped to Indiana. Aunt Mary's gift came from the City of Paris, and Dads from Roos Brothers. And do you know that the clerks in both places, when they went to put down the shipping address, had to ask me how to spell “Indiana™! I'm telling you the truth.

Inside Indianapolis By Lowell Nussbaum

THE NEW TIRE restrictions caught some of the taxicah companies napping. Theyre not on the priority fist for tires, and some of them have no extra tires en hand, Red Cab, which operates the bulk of the taxis

on the streets here, has no tires except those on the wheels of their cabs. The firm contracts with a tire company to keep its cabs equipped with tires on a mileagecost basis. Now the tire company is prohibited from providing any more tires. As a result, the cab company is taking steps to make its present tires last as long as possible. Old tires will be recapped as long as the fabric is safe. Drivers have been given strict orders against cruising in search of passengers. That ought to help regute traffic congestion. And it's going to be about as much as a drivers job is worth to smash a tire against a curb. Tom Ruckelshaus, head of the company, says 15 or 20 cabs have been jacked up already and the tires on their wheels will be rotated on the other cabs. More may be jacked up later if efforts of the cab companies to get on the priorities list fail. To add to the cab companies’ troubles, it looks like they won't even be able to get new cars after Feb 1, says Mr. Ruckelshaus.

Around Town

IT COST THE State Alcoholic Beverages Commission just $395 to move over the week-end from the State House to its new offices in the Hilinois Building. The new offices are pretty ritzy-—fluorescent lighting nn’ everything. Each of the four commissioners has a private office. with a handsome blue rug . on the floor. . . . The girls at the City Hall are or-

Washington

ASHINGTON, Dec. 31 —Read it and weep es n Wake Island fighting off the Japanese Sith ond four planes, then with only two, and inglly with only one plane. American soldiers in the hilippines defending bridges with rifles ani hand grenades. It wont be our men out there that w.ll lose the Philippines. If the islands are lost they will have been lost here, by our lagging war production. Months ago many of us wrote complaining about the slow, confused, molasses - in - January defense production. And I suppose some of the others were called on the carpet as I was and dressed down by some of the big shots in OPM. We were listening too much to New Dealers. What did newspaper reporter know about production? I still don’t know anything about production. All f know is what people tell me. Here I have the report just issued by the Tolan Committee of the House. This committee reports that the testimony it heard was Almost unanimous that production to date had been & failure, when measured against the facilities available and the visible need for war goods. This House committee says two major obstacles have impeded war production. First, manufacturers have been reluctant to convert their production from givilian to military purposes. . Second, the defense agencies of the Government have not required such conversion.

Take the Auto Industry

THE COMMITTEE cites the automobile industry. Autémobile manufacturers said only 15 per cent of thelr facilities were convertible. Engineers and labor union officials testified that 50 to 80 per cent could i tonverted. It is a matter of record, the committee jis pointedly, that the entire automotive industry of Fapland has been converted to defense production. jow, after 18 months our automobile industry is to thanged over to war work. But not because OPM

A it hs months OPM resisted officials here who urged We are changing over because a shortage

S100.

My Day

TON, Tuesday —On Sunday evening I ¢ Work City for Minneapolis, Minn., for I had some time ago to spend a little while at the 3 held there by the National Student FedThis organization is composed of the elected heads of student government bodies and can be of great value in directing the thought and activities of these young college people. many of whom are going to be leaders of their generation. I read an editorial written by Dr. Alvin Johnson, the director of the New School for Social Research, in New York City, in their bi-weekly bulletin, and I could not help thinking how valuable a stimulus to young people this type of short article might be. I hope that publications reaching them, will reprint

nd thought in it is, that in the past, periods of great crisis, we have tried to c past and we have never been success

ganizing a first-aid class. Classes will be held Tuesday evenings starting Jan. 6. . . . Two minor State officials are trying to get into the FBI or the Secret Service. We'd tell you their names but it's supposed to be a big secret.

Tough On the Kids

SCHOOL CHILDREN might as well enjoy what's left of the Christmas holidays because there's not much vacation in sight between next Monday and the close of the school year, June 7. The kids don't even get a break between semesters—one ends Jan. 28 and the next starts the very next day. Another bit of tough luck is the fact that Washington's Birthday and Memorial Day, both school holidays, occur this year on Saturdays. About all that's in sight is the spring vacation—a week late in March. . . . About 50 teachers have left the school system this year to join the armed forces or to go to defense industries. Those in the armed forces have leaves of absence for the duration. . . . A teacher called the School Board offices to inquire the procedure in filing a claim for compensation insurance. She was asked how she was hurt. “A child bit me on thé arm.” she replied. She never did bother to turn in a claim with the details.

One Sport Too Few

WHEN PHIL BAYT, chief deputy sheriff, was in Washington High School, he was a four-letter man— football, basketball, baseball and track. His mistake was in not taking up wrestling. If he had, he probably wouldn't have come off second best in a wrestling match with his young son, Robert, 18 months, ori A ome ne sprained his neck so badly he couldn't bow Mant he Sheriff's bowling team Monday night. . Biroaset he William J. Hoey family by one ot Her name is Sue. That makes Frank Thompson, the former State Auditor, a grandfather. . . . To John Kleinhénz (Water Co.) family, the big bird delivered a boy—Christopher—Monday.

By Raymond Clapper

of materials forces it. But for 18 months we have been using up record-breaking quantities of rubber in a boom automobile industry. Fer 18 months record-breaking automobile production has been using up precious chrome. Now chrome mines in the Philippines have been evacuated in the face of the Japanese advance. OPM has just been compelled to order restricted use of chrome steel. For several years Germany and Japan have been buying up such supplies. For instance, they ran up their copper purchases from Latin American countries to several times normal. They were getting ready for war at any cost. Officials here who months ago were pleading that our Government do the same thing were considered impractical nuts and were brushed aside as panicmongers.

We're Paying for It Now

THERE IS ONLY one point in bringing this up. It is to emphasize that the confusion, divided authority, and hesitant state of mind that caused these failures still exists. Only today the White House has added to -the confusion. Secretary Ickes has been running the oil defense program. Now the foreign end of it is being placed under the Board of Economic Warfare headed by Vice President Wallace. Ickes and the Economic Warfare Board had an agreement by which the Waliace board decided policy and Ickes as oil administrator carried out the policy. Now, without prior consultation apparently, a new operation is laid on top of the existing organization. It isn’t a question of whether Wallace or Ickes does it. The objection is to the division of authority, to the overlapping, the setting up of new agencies without even consulting other interested agencies. You find the same story all around here. It's as disorganized as a junkpile. This war will be won or lost in American factories. Yet a House committee tells us that the Federal agencies have failed to insist upon conversion of plants to war work to the degree that was possible. Right now, because of that failure, plants are being shut down and men thrown out of work. For that double loss, soldiers and sailors and Marines who are doing the fighting will pay dearly, and are paying dearly this very moment.

By Eleanor Roosevelt

ful. Two short sentences point the way to the future: “The physicists have discovered the possibility of penetrating the black fog of London with infra-red rays. Reason is, after all, a kind of infra-red ray.” We should use our reason to understand the meaning of the past and to shape our action in the future. We have learned what not to do. Have we the courage and foresight to begin to build a new order when this crisis is over? Since mentioning Mr. Louis Adamic’s “Two Way Passage” I have finished the book. I thought it showed keen insight into the various strains which make up the United States. Whether his plan for a two-way passage is possible, just as he describes it, or not, only time will show. One thing is sure, this two-way passage must serve to interpret what we have accomplished in this nation by way of good will and better understanding.

Japan.

Thus, a rackets has

Road?

Mr. Stowe The first

mile central section from’ Lashio to Kunming must be rigidly controlled and

strictly policed. Americans and British who have been most closely associated or most familiar with the Burma Road have long been convinced that China's lifeline could only be cleaned up and put on an efficient corruption-proof basis if its operation and control were placed chiefly in foreign hands— or completely under military control and policing. Certainly robbery, assaults, occasional murders and typically chaotic conditions along the road cannot be eliminated without an extensive police force of some kind.

Full Policing Needed

UNDER PRESENT wartime conditions it may be necessary for the British or American military to assume the policing of the road or share it with Chinese troops. Chinese troops alone probably could not do the job since the authorities of Yunnan Province would resort to all possible obstructionism to prevent such a move. ~« After many -conversatiops with the best qualified persons, I am personally convinced that order and effective war aid to China will only be established when American or British police forces control the entire length of the Burma Road. The Chinese Government has changed the Burma highway's administrators and agencies many times but actual war materials reaching Kunming—war materials as contr.cted commercial goods or contradand--today still only comprise one-eighth or per-

They threaten correspondingly to complicate or handicap the future disposition of the fighting forces in Eastern Asia.

American - British - Dutch

cleanup of the Burma Road become absolutely imperative

for the prosecution of the Pacific war. What can be done about the Burma

thing to be done obviously is

to take politics, profiteers and brigandage out of the road. But to do that the entire Burma Road especially its 750-

haps occasionally one-fifth of the road's monthly capacity. Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek has made earnest efforts to get the road system reorganized but he could not leave a thousand more pressing responsibilities to go and administer the road himself.

Excuses Numerous

WHEN YOU inquire why the ‘Generalissimo has not succeeded in cleaning up the Burma Road, you get various answers. Some say China's great war leader simply does not have available enough reliable men that can be spared from other tasks. Some say there is so much corruption and squeeze all the way through the Burma Road's numerous complicated agencies and also through so many Chinese governmental departments that a thoroughgoing reform is hopeless. Others explain with much justification that the hostility and ambitiousness of officials of Yunnan Province and their reluctance to co-operate with the national government constitute extremely great difficulties for Chiang. Last spring an American who long has served the American Red Cross in China, Dr. John Earl Baker, was asked by the Chunking Government to administer the Burma Road. His program for policing the road and other urgently needed reforms was never acted upon.

A Chinese was appointed the chairman and Dr. Baker reduced to “adviser.” When Dr. Baker tried to resign in October he advised the Generalissimo that “my powers were confined to those of

Victory Hinges On Burma Roa

Chinese Big-Gun Attack Is Impossible Unless Policing Stops Rackets

This is the second of a series of articles on internal conditions in China and the Burma Road bottleneck.

By LELAND STOWE Copyright, 1841, by The Indianapolis Times and The Chicago Daily News, Inc.

RANGOON, Dec. 31-—Cold facts make it indisputable that the Burma Road abuses, sabotage and war profiteering, all of which have flourished under Chinese administrations or toleration over a period of three and a half years, threaten to reduce seriously China's contribution to the ABCD Allies’ common war efforts against

d Cleanup

soldiers and the hunger and pov= erty of China's common people, the record of the Burma Road racket seems shameful beyond words. To all who have admired and been inspired by the wonder= ful resistance of the Chinese people, this other sordid side of the truth about China can only come —as it has come to me—as a bitter deception. But the critical exigencies of the ABCD Allies’ present war efforts throughout the Far East command that recriminations should be ruled out. They do not command that the American and British Governments, or peoples, should remain uninformed about .the truth of the Burma Road.

Forget Romantic Ideas

ON THE CONTRARY, neither the United States nor Britain can collaborate with China to defeat.

* the Japanese aggressors unless

Chiang Kai-shek . . . A thousand more pressing responsibilities

prevent him from reorganizing the

Burma Road.

investigation and recommendation only.”

Prospects Dark

LATE IN THE summer Chiang named Gen. Yu Fei-peng chief administrator of the Burma Road, following the presentation of a long list of reforms by a committee of American transportation experts. The chairman of the com=mittee, Daniel G. Arnstein, was offered the post—a post which itis generally. admitted should be held by an American or Briton, if a real cleanup is to be achieved— but Mr. Arnstein declined thereby creating a certain degree of American responsibility for the continuation of the Burma Road mess until the Japanese blitz broke out. American officials who have investigated Burma Road conditions recently say that Gen. Yu has made some physical improvements but frankly testify that they see no real prospuct of anything more than a very slight increase

in tonnage over the highway for several months, if then. Nor can they anticipate any fundamental eradication of sabotage, smuggling and war profiteering over the road.

”

Shameful Beyond Words

CONSEQUENTLY, the whole of eastern Asia has been enveloped by war while the chief artery for making an offensive force out of China's great army remains in a deplorable condition crippled by inefficiency, politics, lawlessness, racketeering and other vices. The responsibility unfortunately must rest chiefly with the Kuomintang dictatorship which has tolerated these abuses for years and likewise upon certain weaknesses in the Chinese character and upon the profit-seeking appetites of a lamentably large number of Chinese businessmen, politicians, or governmen officials and employees. Whe one has seen the fortitude and selfless courage of the Chinese

#n #

the American and British publics are acquainted with conditions as they exist, and achieve a realistic conception of how much may be expected from the Chinese fighting forces. Romantic ideas about China and upper class Chinese such as have been predominant in America until now will only invite certain disillusionment, possibly with . serious effects upon American morale. Important Chinese offensive forces must now be built up much later than they might have been built up were it not for three years of Burma Road racketeering. American will to help China cannot change that unpleasant fact. American lend-lease equipment, which already ison this side of the Pacific, cannot reach the Chinese forces in large amounts for a considerable time because Burma Road conditions—created or tolerated chiefly by the Chinese—prohibit it.

It's Costly Scandal

IP IS EQUALLY true that American materials cannot be supplied to China in any large amounts by air. Therefore, part of the winning of the Pacific war must be uncompromising reform of the Burma Road system combined with the highway’s capacity utilization. On the record of the last three years, the Burma Road cannot be expected to function efficiently as part of the Allies’ Far Eastern war strategy until it is policed by the military and probably by American or British soldiers.

It is also most likely that virtually all transportation, storage and repair and inspection funce tions in connection with the Burma Road will have to be done by American or British officers. Until such time, at least in the considered opinion of this correspondent and many more expert observers, the Chinese people will continue to pay the price of a very great and costly scandal which the world was led to believe was a 1.0ble endeavor, known as the Burma Road.

» o

Mr. Stowe’s third article will appear Friday. :

TWO SWORN IN, THEN ENJOINED

Test of Registration Law Begins.

Twenty-four hours after Circuit Judge Earl R. Cox swore in newly appointed members of the bi-parti-san Voters’ Registration Board, he issued a temporary restraining order, preventing them from taking office. Monday, Judge Cox confirmed the appointment of George K. Johnson, Republican, and Harry J. Gasper, Democrat, as members of the registration board under a new 1041 law and swore them into office. Late yesterday an injunction suit was filed in Judge Cox's court, declaring that the new law, which took control of registration away from county clerks in the larger counties, is unconstitutional and asked a restraining order.

Hearing Jan. 20

Judge Cox immediately issued the order and set Jan. 20 for a hearing on the suit. . Pending the hearing on the constitutionality of the new law, County Clerk Charles R. Ettinger will continue to control the registration files as under the old law. The new statute, sponsored by Republicans in the last Legislature, presumably to take voters’ registration away from Democratic clerks, provided for a two-member, bi-par-tisan board. It provided that the chairmen of the two major political parties nominate the board members with the Circuit Judge confirming them.

Claim Law Invalid

The suit, brought by Charles O. Studevent, Republican attorney, and McLafferty, Democratic House employee, charged that the law is unconstitutional because it “attempts to confer administrative powers upon heads of political parties.”

The new law also failed to provide alternatives in the event of a tie vote between the two board members, and this makes it invalid, the suit charged.

violated the Constitution because it

Cox Issues Restrainer as

The suit also stated that the law affected only six of the state's 93] = — ww

By RICHARD LEWIS

relieve parking congestion?

fic question for 1942.

first of the year. It isn't a new idea. Municipal convenience of shoppers and merOakland, Cal, Kansas City, cago and Pittsburgh. Before asking to consider the idea seriously, Loer plans to make a parking sur-

of the parking situation.

Should Indianapolis provide mu-| nicipal parking lots downtown to!

ago as background information for downtown parking meter installation which was being considered by the Safety Board at that time.

The survey, however, is now con-

It’s City Hall's number one traf-| sidered outmoded because of numIt won't be erous loading zones and other no-

posed by Traffic Engineer James parking areas painted on the curbs E. Loer officially until after the since then.

Mr. Loer’s survey will attempt to

|establish the total parking capacity parking lots are operated for the | {in parking lots and garages as well chants in the downtown areas of [as at the curb. Chi-

downtown. It will count car spaces

When - he has this information compiled, the engineer believes he

the Works and will be in a position to make a Safety Boards and Mayor Sullivan) recommendation on the municipal Mr.

parking lot idea. In outline, the idea would involve

vey of the downtown mile square | {the purchase of downtown property to get a statistical, birds-eye view | {by the City for parking space. One | possibility that has been considered The Police Department made alin the past is the backyard of the curb space survey about 18 mouths] Court House.

HOLD EVERYTHING

Municipal Parking Lot for Shoppers Here Under Study by Traffic Engineer

Although he does not commit himself on the whole idea, Mr. Loer

believes that medium size lots spotted here and there over downtown would be preferable to one or two big lots.

Thinking out loud, he said, the lots could be financed through a separate tax unit, like the Park or Sanitary Districts. The lots would not be self-supporting because the fees should be kept low. One method of financing the project has worked in Kansas City where six off-the-street parking lots were purchased by the City.

A special benefit district was created to finance the initial cost— about $120,000—and pay maintenance charges of about $8000 a year.

Business Assessed

Businessmen in downtown Kansas City whose properties were benefited by the proximity of each lot were assessed 90 per cent of the cost. The remaining 10 per cent was added to the all-City tax rate. At Oakland as well as Kansas City, lot operation was not expensive. In addition to maintenance work, done by the regular municipal equipment, there were the salaries of three attendants for each lot. One attendant sat in a booth at the lot entrance and handed each motorist a ticket with the time of entry stamped on it. A supervisor with a megaphone directed the parking which was done by the motorist himself. The motorist could lock his car if he wanted and he had the assurance that it would not be moved. On the way out, the motorist presented the ticket to another attendant who collected the parking fee. : No Substitute for Lots In Mr, Loer’s opinion, the lots should not substitute for private, all-day parking lots. A schedule of fees should be set up to discourage motorists for parking more than two hours. The ‘purpose of these lots, he said, is to relieve curb parking congestion. The average curb parker, he

said, doesn’t stay more than an

hour or an hour and one-half. He believes private lots should be ex-

car to work should park in a private, lot, he said. Short-time parking could be encouraged in a municipally owned lot, operated primarily for shoppers, by a low fee schedule for. the first hour or two and an exorbitant schedule after that to penalize parkers who overstay.

Graduated Fees

For instance, a nickel for the first hour, 15 cents for the first two hours and a dime to a quarter for every hour after that might do the trick, in Mr. Loer’s opinion. To encourage parking, the ‘lots should be roomy so that drivers find it easy to park and get out. The lots should be located conveniently throughout the mile square.

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

1—Odessa is a seaport on the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, or the Pacific Ocean? 2—What American naval officer established commercial relations between Japan and the United States in 1853? 3—There are active volcanoes in the Hawaiian Islands; true or false? 4—Is a knot a unit of distance or of speed? 5—“The Bohemian Girl” was composed by Puccini, Balfe, or De Koven? 6—What was the breed of the dog “Rin-Tin-Tin” formerly starred in motion pictures? 7—QGreat Salt Lake is in which

State? : English

8—Complete the old ¢ * proverb, “Marriages are made % I www

Answers 1—Black Sea. 2—Commodore Matthew OC. Perry.

8—Heaven, » ” 8

. ASK THE TIMES