Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 20 January 1942 — Page 11
SECOND SECTION
TUESDAY, JAN. 20, 1942
The Indianapolis Times
Hoosier Vagabond By Ernie Pyle
throw in together and for a 49th state—to be called Jefferson. : The thing got a lot of publicity. hotter and hotter. And then, out of a clear sky, Gilbert Gable died during the first week of December. And five days later came Pearl Harbor. That ended the whole thing. Southwest Oregon does have a lot to recommend it. At least I've never been anyplace where the citizens just continually keep harping about their wonderful country as they do here. One of the worst is a newcomer named Frank Hilton. who owns the weekly Part Orford Post. Hilton started his career on a weekly up in bitter cold Wyoming. Since then he has spent two or three decades on big-city dailies, but he always wanted to get back to a weekly. Now he has one and he says he hasn't had so much fun in years.
Automatic Cash Register
AS YOU WALK into his office you see a sign on the back wall: “The World's Smallest Newspaper Office, and in America’s Most Western City.” The office is about 12 by 12 feet, but that’s too much room, so there's a partition and the other half is the Chamber of Commerce. Whenever Hilton goes fishing, he just leaves a can on the counter for subscribers or advertisers to drop their money into. One afternoon when he came back there was $7 in it. Hilton says this is real pioneer country—he calls it! the biggest. most savage country in America. Why. Curry County is as big as Delaware, and has} 3 : » only 4300 people in it; the storms blow in off the| Burma-Yunnan highway from Rangoon ocean at 100 miles an hour and people can't walk Mr. to Kunming. The road was divided into igi | pn everybody is friendly and kind. ceoments and an American officer appointed to superThey sav Port Orford is the only natural deep-| Vise each section in co-operation with Chinese officials. To this extent the Chinese authorities, apparently
water harbor in 1000 miles of coastline. And even I Ill Somn igi ne Vie om the J uae SS with complete willingness and considerable relief have handed over to the Amer-
sharply above the harbor is among the most beautiful icans the responsibility for
S. Army Takes Charge of Burma Road
Step Taken to Halt os Vicious Racketeering On China's Lifeline
By LELAND STOWE Copyright. 1942. by The Indianapolis Times and The Chicago Daily News. Inc.
RANGOON, Jan. 20.—Under the pressure of unprecedented attention from the British and American governments and the pressure of the Pacific War's exigencies, another attempt to reform the Burma Road and eliminate the contraband and racketeering abuses, which have dominated its 35-year career, is being launched. fe According to an announcement made : 7, rhe Re) ——— J here, the first step toward military con- RA, I 5 (ombong S-——s trol of the highway's traffic was worked out with the approval of the Chinese Government. The new plan puts American Army officers attached to Gen. John Magruder’s military mission to Chungking in charge of traffic over the entire 1400 miles of
PORT ORFORD. Ore. Jan. 20.—This, folks, is the scene of the Great Secession movement of the 20th Century. If the march of other events hadn't come along, this kernel out here might have given somebody the chance to become another Lincoin. For the Union was about to rend itself asunder. t all started last September in a remark somebody made that Curry County ought to secede from Oregon, because the state had been so neglectful of the county in ordering improvements. The Mayor of Port Orford overheard this remark. The Mayor was a dynamic, far-visioned genius named Gilbert E. Gable. He arrived in these parts from the o, and he had been making things
{ AVL Ye Secession boiled s
Gulf of Tonkin NRonghoi
A
ast eight vears a hum ever since. He sincerely believed that Southwest Oregon was destined to become an empire, and he did everything he could to help destiny along. He built a $750.000 pier at Port Orford. He built a huge lumber mill He built a whole community of new homes. And he had a sense of the dramatic, too. So he hopped onto this secession remark. and started the ball rolling. The first idea was to secede from Oregon and join California. The county court even appointed an official commission to study it. Furthermore, Governor Olsen of California went so far as to receive an Oregon delegation which went to Sacramento.
Too Much
BUT THEN
700 Miles to Singapore
Stowe Competition
THE two northern counties of California got tn thinking, and decided California hadn't been so good to them. either. So they proposed that they secede from California, and the two southwest counties secede from Oregon, and the four of them
From Rangoon to Mandalay, and north and eastward through the wild hills of northern Burma and the Yunnan province of southern China to Kunming, United States Army officers now are in charge of traffic over the 1400-mile route of the Burma road. From Kunming, vital war supplies may reach
I've ever seen. : receive much more Lend-Lease
war materials than was ever pos-
Inside Indianapolis By Lowell Nussbaum
THE 500-MILE RACE. for more than a quarter
entury has been the Memorial Day mecca of thousands of Hoosiers. Now that the race has been called off for Hoosiers are wondering what to do for entertainment come next May 30. The chances are a lot of them will head for the Speedway, anyway, out of habit, and it seems to Inside Indianapolis thet the City Is missing a good bet if we don't take over the Speedway for a big national defense ceiebration. Why not start plans now to entertain 200.000 or mavbe 300.000 people out there all day long? Put on bicycle races: mavbe some short auto races; aerial acrobatics —possibly demonstrations of military maneuvers with some of the n-powered warplanes. Half a circus could be borrowed for midfield entertainment: be hard to get a hundred bands. And all sorts of prominent entertainers could be signed
this year, these
Just
new
Alliso it wouldn't
nationally hout cost. The whole thing could be turned into a memorable patriotic celebration The $2000.000 raised at the recent defense rally would be just a drop in the bucket to what could be done at a party like this The admission fee might be a dollar or two a head— with each patron receiving defense stamps for his
up wit
Here and There
ONE OF THE PROBLEMS facing civil defense officials in case of a serious emergency was demonstrated Sunday when that big 24-inch water main gave way at Senate Ave. and Washington St. Water Co. officials and employees, noticing the pressure drop, tried to get in touch with the company to see if tney were needed, but they couldn't get in on the line because eof the thousands of “curiosity” calls flooding the switchboard. Equipping employees of vital companies such as utilities, with radios may be the answer. . William Freaney, Moonev-Mueller-Ward executive and World War captain, has received orders to report to Ft. Harrison as a major. ... The twin trolley poles of a trackless trolley left the wires and halted at a 45-degree angle. "Oh. look.” said a passing stenographer, “that trollev's giving the sign V for Victory.”
Any Bombs Today?
THE POSSIBILITY of an incendiary bomb attack doesn’t frighten officials of one downtown department store. They've bought 50 cement sacks. each lled with 50 pounds of sand, and distributed them on the roof and upper floor of the store—just in case. Sand. as you probably know already, is much better than water for smothering incendiaries. A stream of water just makes the bombs explode. We'd tell vou the store's name, but they asked us not to— vet. . . . Arnold Royer of The Times advertising staff
taming the Burma Road
and increasing its monthly tonnage totals of Lend-Lease war materials actually delivered to China. On the other hand, it has not vet been made clear whether the road will be reformed to the extent of the inauguration of a military police system aleng the entire length, as experts have long urged. A handful of American officers without even one company of troops obviously cannot police the road. It also is not yet known whether the American officers will be supplied with adequate personnel to inspect thoroughly all lorries to prevent the transporta-
| tion of commercial goods under
guise of “war materials” or to maintain the necessary number of checks and re-checks {rom one end of the road to the other. In any case the Chinese have now granted American Army officers supervision of the Burma Road, with policing machinery and similar essentials still indefinite. or not worked out. The Chinese authorities unquestionably are showing an extremely co-operative spirit.
sible in the past. Some observers here also remark that if the plan succeeds there shortly will be many thousands of tons less of American war materials left stored in Burma where they might be transferred to the British forces in case of emergency. It is clear, however, that the Chungking government is at last acting - on the assumption that something drastic must be done to jolt the Burma Road out of its doldrums. Under the Sino-American agreement, the new road supervision plan is being worked out in co-operation with Gen. Yu Piepeng who was named administrator of ths Burma-Yunnan highway by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek last August.
o ” ”
War Materials First
IT 18 STATED that mercial traffic—which until now has usually superceded war materials in transit privileges over the road—will be strictly subordinated to those Lend-Lease materials which China needs for the immediate prosecution of her war efforts against Japan.
com-
Chunking, China's capital.
Importance of the Burma road as free China's lifeline is shown in this map
with all of Thailand, Indo China, eastern China, and most of the Malay Peninsula, now controlled by
Japan.
priorities for cargoes to be trucked from Rangoon or Lashio to Kunming. War “must” classified first,
materials will be it is said: Materials for the Yunnan-Burma railroad second, maintenance equipment for the road itself, the third and last a non-essential— for which it would seem there would be no space in the present emergency, although some commercial goods might conceivably be allowed to trickle through under the final category. Lieut. Col. Adrian St. John who was recently sent to Rangoon as Gen. Magruder's representative, has been appointed by Gen. Magruder to supervise the road traffic from Rangoon to a point about 300 miles inside China. Col. St. John stated today that the road is already “militarized” from Burma port as far as Paoshan in Yunnan province. He did not state, however, how or when the road would be subjected to military police or explain how much militarization would be possible without such
create new depots or relay points for lorries along the highway. This week-end Gen. Yu is scheduled to go to Lashio to confer with the officer of the Magruder mission there regarding the early elimination of the long, troublesome bottlenecks, which was recommended by the committee of American transportation experts in their report last August.
” ” ” Step in Right Way DUE TO the labor shortage in Burma, the Chinese are sending 1,000 laborers to speed the loading and dispatching of LendLease materials to China. The Chinese workmen will be directed by Chinese army officers. Two hundred mechanics from the Chinese military labor corps are also en route to Burma to increase the assemblying of American trucks here. Scores of American lorries are daily becoming available for the Chinese, who have already several thousands in China, or en
where they are urgently needed is not yet known. Those here who are long familiar with Burma Road abuses and problems frankly say that complete American military con= trol of the highway would unques= tionably result in greatly increased deliveries of Lend-Lease materials to China. They also say the appointment of three or four American officers can only be regarded as the first step in the right direction. The effective development of the Burma Road reform—Iate as the effort is in being launched— will depend chiefly upon two face tors: 1. Upon the degree of Chinese anxiety to clean up the road and put it on a strictly war-serving basis. 2. Upon the personal acuteness, even more than upon the personal energy, of the American Army of« ficers who have been appointed to supervise the road. Time . alone will show {he Chinese that the Americans im= mediately concerned. are capable
goes to the Birmingham Post Monday as national advertising manager. . A prominent ex-America Firster was seen buying a book the other day. The book: “United We Stand.” . Name seen on the side of a station wagon: “Repulsive Acres.”
American officers and Chinese road executives will establish
of supplying these essential ele American officers plan to ments to reform the Burma Roady
State Has Spent $107,000 for Defense: GRAIN DEALERS Special Session Regarded as Unnecessary DIE NEXT WEEK
By EARL RICHERT ‘of $3600 a month during the ninejand $3700 for office furniture. Ap-| So far, the State of Indiana has months since the fund was created. | proximately $260 a month is spent! used $107.000 for the specific pur-| The other $30,000 was appropri- for rent for the Council offices in National pose of civil defense. ‘ated to five state departments by | the Board of Trade Building. Of this amount, $63.000 has been the State Budget Committee for| The personnel force of the civil ‘spent out of the $200,000 civil de- civil defense purposes. | . 'fense fund created by the 1941 The Department of Public In- with each new duty put on it by Opening Jan. 26. Legislature and $44,000 has been Struction received $5500 for making Washington until the Council now| used out of the $50.000 appropria- | School surveys, etc, in defense has 25 salaried employees. (Several| Hoosier grain dealers will be ad [tion for the creation of a State, {areas: the Fire Marshal received employees, such as those in the wing dressed by Sam L. Rice, president Guard. $5100 to hire two inspectors to work air arm, donate their services as ©f the Grain and Feed Dealers’ double-dwelling units and small] : " lin defense areas: the Adjutant Gen- does Mr. Jackson.) | National Association, at their cone apartments, This $107,000, of course, does not! or al received $12.000 for work on [vention Jan. 26 and 27 in the Co= This action is regarded necessary |even closely approach the total cost Stout Field: the Labor Division re- $400 Top Salary lumbia Club. by members to comply with war-|to Hoosier taxpayers of the home | ceived $5000 for the hiring of two| The salaries range from per diem| Other speakers will include James time housing emergencies for de-| defense program. ‘conciliators to work on labor dis-|wages for several persons to $400({D. Strickland, state tire rationing fense workers. Previously the Board | Police and fire departments|pute: in plants with defense orders per month paid to Frank Thompson, 0 -ordinator; Stephen C. Noland, denied petitions for duplex and | throughout the state are spending|and the Central Purchasing Bureau|former Democratic state auditor, | editor of The Indianapolis News; double houses in singlc family areas|additional money because of the received $2700 to hire two girls to|who is defense area co-ordinator for| DI C. C. Clore of Greenwood, and due to protests from property own- war emergency and the attorney|work on priorities for state institu-|the council. tT. gs of Crawfordsville. ers. {general has ruled that cities and | tions. ; . Carl T. Wilson of Sulphur Springs, George F. Rooker, Board secretary- | counties may make appropriations Py A DT ay beer president. and Fred K. Sale of Ine engineer, said “it Will be necessary for civil defense uses, providing the! @jaence A. Jackson, state civil | personnel and there are a number dieniapolis, secretary, will make to adopt some plan to provide living appropriations are approved by the qefense director, said that the|of Republicans working under Mr their annual reports. New officers quarters for additional thousands State Tax Board. ; SA Ler BA . . : ‘| will be elected and committee reso$2700 for priorities work for the|Jackson, a former Democratic state Purchasing Bureau was a necessary official. Among them is Frank T.
who will come to Indianapolis for lutions presented at the second-day Roe + session, defense work. expenditure for civil defense. He Millis, Republican House floor lead-| A foo. chow and dance will fol Issues Apartment Permit And such state departments aS explained that the state institutions er during the past session who iS | Jow & Benguet Monday night po He explained, however, that vari-| the Health Board, State Police and hag to be kept running and that now working on local defense coun- h ‘ y Mena 2 Fire Marshal are paying for many | / i {Phish Homer Le Challlouy. Amerls ances for multiple dwelling units p g since priorities were in effect on!cils. | canis director of the America would not be granted in cases where purely defense measures out of ap- | practically all items needed at the| 5. os lariat employees [ce > n needed, according to Defense Coun- |
East where the enemy had only second-rate equip-|it would be detrimental to certain | Propriations which the legislature state institutions, the girls had to be ars/lierion, will. sear. lcil officials, to work with the county |
Dn Bu ig wip fighter production in 1942 areas, made for normal activities. hired to work on the question fullwill'be that type of plane pe of p | The Board last night granted a or the $63,000 used out of the time. ... and city defense councils and to TEST YOU R We put in leak-proof gas tanks for the BriMish permit to Sherley D. Sample for $200,000 civil defense fund, only| Of the $33,000 spent by the Civil handle priorities and tire and shipments but used the old-style tanks for our own construction of a two-story apart- | $33,000 has been spent by the Civil Defense Council itself, $20,000 has) JS tomobite rationing—tasks placed KNOWLEDGE planes. At the start of the war in 1939 the British|ment building at 1105 E. 49th St. at Defense Council itself —an average been spent for operating expenses] on the state agency by the Federal i = Government. More than a third of [4 —All four of President Roosevelt's sons are in the armed services of the United States; true or false?
were using armored planes. Many of ours still have a cost of $20,000. = no armor, the Truman committee says. A petition of the Federation of | the 25 are secretaries. Such are the dismal samples of our production Associated Clubs, Inc, to convert a HOLD EVERYTHING Mr. Jackson regards the remain-| [ing $137,000 in the state's civil de- 2—In what game is the term stalee } tense fund as ample to bear neces-| mate chiefly used? I sary expenses during the remainder 3—Name the largest planet of the
story that fill this long report. Mr. Nelson will need | residence at 2309 N. Capitol Ave. of the year unless some emergency solar system.
support and our patience while he is ciearing this{into a clubhouse, was withdrawn by| Jungle the organization's attorney after al | arises—such as an epidemic or a 4—In which State are the Evere glades?
| debate. | mammoth fire in a defense area. | 5—Jouhn Pierpont Morgan Sr. the
B RED CR 05S CHURCH y Eleanor Roosevelt GROUP WILL SEW $6000: Fur: Aviple ! financier, was born in England, Adjut. Gen. Elmer F. Straub also] France or the United States? ’
The Red Cross unit at St. Pat- Au ; | rick’s Catholic Church, sponsored by thinks that the $6000 remaining in| g—Snakes are not slimy; true op the State Guard fund will be ample| false?
p the Altar Society, will sew tomorrow in the school hall, 948 Prospect St., unless the state guard has to be 7—The shamrock is the emblem of called out. | which country?
from 10 a. m. to 4 p. m. Mrs. Wil-
If the new program succeeds, of course the Chinese forces will
LONING BOARD T0 EASE LAWS
Acts to Permit Multiple Housing in Some Areas For Newcomers.
City Zoning Board members are] taking steps to relax their policy on! building variances to permit more!
route. How many will be assigned te British forces in Burma
monev police.
Profits from the concessions could go to the Army and Navy relief organizations
Yessir, that's us, always on our toes.
Washington
WASHINGTON. Jan. 20—Bungling and delavs in production. described in the report of the Truman Senate Committee, are glaring enough to justify Donald Nelson in the severest kind of shakeup action. While it is customary here to single out the Army and Navy procurement agencies as and time-wasting, the Truman committee shows that OPM isnt too fast on its feet either This Truman report -is an encyclopedia of what is wrong around Washington You can dip into it at almost any page and be shocked. Last April the Truman committee asked OPM how much aluninum would be needed. In May OPM replied that we would be short 600.,000.000 pounds a year June 28 the Truman committee let out a blasting reon the aluminum shortage. The next day OPM announced it had submitted plans to the Undersecretary of War for eight aluminum plants with a capacity of 600.000,000 pounds But when the Truman committee took a look. the *plans” consisted of a list of eight localities in which the necessary electric power could be found. The companies to produce the aluminum were not designated, the plant locations were not designated. and there was not a suggestion as to the terms on which contracis shculd be let. July 15 OPM designated the companies to produce the aluminum. The first contract was signed Aug. 16—April to August. And that was in 1941,
Now Nelson Does Harve the
IN THE SUMMER of 1940, after France fell, the foreign market for copper fell off and it was a drug on the market. In November, 1940, a large producer of foreign copper attempted to sell a large quantity to us at a price beiween 9 and 10 cents a pound. as compared with the present price of 12 cents. Ameri-
My Day
WASHINGTON, Mondav.—Yesterday we returned to sunny, mild weather. I was almost tempted to take the four large envelopes of mail, which I brought home from the Office of Civilian Defense to do over
By Raymond Clapper
can copper interests opposed the the defense agency turned it down. OPM did not move to increase copper production until July 9. 1941, when producers were asked about it. Not until Oct. 1 was Government aid given to increase production. That was a project which had been submitted to OPM in July, and approved by it Sept. 22. The increase is expected to be available in January—of next year. Incidentally some months ago Donald Nelson, as executive officer of SPAB. decided to expedite copper production. But OPM Director Knudsen claimed jurisdiction and Nelson was elbowed out of the picture. Some of his friends urged him then to carry the fight to the public but he declined to do so, feeling that it would onlv produce dissension. Now he has complete power over such matters and is not compelled to get out of anybody's way.
importation and!
"Loader Among Speakers at Sessions
slow
Aviation Picture Just as Gloomy
OUR BOASTED efficiency and enterprise seem to catch the sleeping sickness at Washington, Aviation is our special dish. Our commercial aviation is without equal anywhere. Yet the Truman committee exposes the fact that we are still clinging to that particular fighter plane that the British couldn't use over France because it had neither the ceiling, the speed nor the firepower. The British gave them to Russia and used them in the Middle
port : Necessary Expense
Council Spends $33,000
Say
help to the medical profession. On my regular broadcast at 6:45 the Secretary of Agriculture, Mr. Claude R. Wickard, joined me.
the week-end, and sit in the sun in the garden. However. I decided that winter sunshine is apt to be deceptive and 1 would soon find it very chilly. so I remained indoors. Our guests at dinner on Saturday evening were extremely interesting. One of them, Dr. Jerome Davis, is working for the Y. M C. A. with the German prisoners in Canada. The other one, Dr. D Davis, had just returned from Europe, where he had been in Germany as late as the month of November, in the prison camps where British and Russian soldiers are being held. Both of them gave descriptions of conditions, and we enjoved talking with them. Yesterday afternoon, I talked on a local radio station with Mr. John Kelly, head of our physical fitness program; Dr, Dearing of our OCD medical group, and ‘Pr. Gwynn, head of the District of Columbia Medical Association, who has inaugurated this series of broadtasts. He (ries to interest the general public in keepdng itself well and in doing the things whicl®will be a
I felt that I had a double obligation to him, because Mrs. Wickard has been out taking my place at an important meeting at South Dakota. She, I am sure, gave much of interest, which I could not possibly have given to this meeting. On the way home she is stopping to see her daughters. I have great sympathy with her, for I nearly always use any trip which takes me in reach of my chlidren, to snatch a few hours with them. I wonder if you noticed in the papers yesterday, : the mention of the American Youth Commission’s last | report. The foreword is written by Mr, Owen Young, chairman of the board. I would have liked to have discussed it at length on my broadcast last night, but there was no time to do so. I think, in any case, it is important for people to read the report itself. The committee has agreed on some very interesting statements. Just to excite a little more argument, they announce that much unemployment existed among our young people, which thev, themselves were entirely unable to prevent. They then go on to state that all young people should stay in school until they are 18, should have | one year's service to the state, after which our eco-| nomic system is obligated to adjust itself so that anyone who wants & job, may have it}
liam Ott, 1428 Lexington Ave. is unit chairman. Composed of 30 members, the unit already has turned over to the American Red Cross more than 50 articles of clothing made by members. The unit meets every
| Wednesday at the same time.
SIMMONS TO HEAD UNIVERSITY CLUB
The University Club directors elected W. Hathaway Simmons president at its annual meeting in the clubrooms on N. Delaware St. yesterday. Others elected are Stanley W. { Shipnes, first vice president; Walter W. Kuhn, second vice president; Alfred J. Stokely, treasurer; David L. Chambers, Jr. secretary, and Arthur A. Stettler, assistant sec-
why can't I wear
“If you insist on getting married In your reandmothers yi Lig Ee Sranapw'y wetting
priations for civil defense.
HURT CRITICALLY AS |
Belmont Ave.
tion critical. The train had stopped to un ple several cars at the Srousiug,
CAR CRASHES TRAIN
Mrs. Edna Catherine Mosier was | injured badly today when her auto crashed into the side of a Pennsyl-| vania Railroad freight train on S.| | Service Bureau, 1013 13th St.
City Hospital reported her condi-
All of which means, according to|8—In which great books of religious State House observers, that unless some great emergency arises there will be no need for a special session of the Legislature tc apprcpriate| funds for civil defense measures. If 1—True, the money runs out at the end of | 2—Chess. this year, the regular session of the 3—Jupiter. Legislature, beginning next Janu- | 4—Florida. ary, can make emergency appro- | 5—United States. | 6—True.
teaching are “Gog and Magog”
mentioned?
Answers
T—Ireland (Eire). | 8—The Biblé and the Koran.
s o ASK THE TIMES
Inclose a 3-cent stamp for res ply when addressing any question of fact or information to The Indianapolis Times Washington N. WwW. Washington, D. C. Legal and medical advice cannot be given nor can extended research be undertaken. ?