Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 23 January 1942 — Page 17
FRIDAY, JAN. 23, 1942
Hoosier Vagabond
PORTLAND, Ore, Jan. 23—All up and down the toast I've been hearing reports of what a fine job Portland had done with its blackouts and civil defense. Portlands good showing is due to twd $hings —(1) They started a long time ago, and (2) one man, the Mayor, Earl Riley, took the responsibility. Last spring the Mayor detached one of his battalion chiefs from the Fire Department, sent him to Washington to study up, and then made him fulitime CoOrdinator of Civil Defense, responsible only to the Mayor. He is Edward Boatright, and he still holds the job. Portland is a city that some visitors find, shall we say. unromantic. It has none of the Seven Seas personality of San Francisco; none of the hotheadedness of Seattle. It is a good staid town, with a deep New England background. And probably because of that it has something that many cities don't have—which is unity. Se when Mayor Riley and Co-Ordinator Boatright started going to town on civil defense last summer, the people worked with them. and followed. Long before the summer was over all the utilities companies had their plans worked out for air-raid emergency. The Red Cross was busy as usual. Also women organized into what were cailed “Light Precaution Wardens,” the forerunner of “Air Raid Wardens.” And World War veterans started an organzation which trained and grew until it was ready to be taken en masse—it has now been—as a body of auxiliary policemen.
Ready for the Real Thing
THEN IN OCTOBER they had an all-out dress rehearsal—a Halloween-night blackout. The Army was to send bombers over from various directions,
——————
over
Inside Indianapolis By Lowell Nussbaum
Anent the City’s newly discovered balance and the possibility of a tax levy cut next fall before the election, were not pretending to be soothsayers. But, being human, we can't resist quoting from Inside Indianapolis of Sept. 17, 1941: “Theres more than meets the eve in the struggle going on before the Tax Adjustment Board to defend the proposed $1.46 Civil City tax rate for next year (1942). The rate rappens to be 20 cents higher than this year's (1941). “A part of the increase is to make up a deficit resulting from the fact the City last year set this years (1941) levy 8 or 9 cents lower than was needed. The remainder is for pay increases. City officials say theyre losing valuable employees to better paying jobs in private industry. That much of the story is pretty well known. Some of our leading ‘meanies’ insist there's more to it. “For instance, they hint maybe the City purposely set too low a rate last year (1940) because they didn't want to go into the fall (1940) election with a tax increase on their hands. And maybe they'd like to get the increase over this year—an off vear. “And then next year (1942) when there is an election, it might be possible to make a good impression on the taxpayers by cutting the tax rate a few cents. By that time, its presumed. the voters will be all over being irritated over this years increase in the 1942 rate. “Personally, we dont know. But it sounds logical.” How's that for crystal-balling it?
How Do You Do
AN AMUSING story about the Rev. George Arthur Frantz is making the rounds and, as we get it, Dr. Frantz has admitied it’s true. As the story goes, Dr and Mrs. Frantz were dinner guests of friends. When the colored maid started to place a cup of coffee at
Washington
WASHINGTON, Jan. 23.—Talking with the press Senator Connally, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. predict: the fall of Singapore. The Senator has good sources of information. He must be reflecting the best judgment available here. No doubt ne is trying to do a public service by undertaking to prepare the country for this blow. Predictions often go wrong and well all nope this one will too. Yet the plight of Singapore is such that we must face the possibility of its loss. But let's face it with our feet firmly planged on the ground. The main thing is for us to steel ourselves against being shaken if that blow comes. We must not be thrown off balance by the shock. Nor must we be thrown off balance by the outburst of bitterness which undoubtedly will be heard in Great Britain. The loss of Singapore will add to the difficulty of winning the war. That we must face. It means a longer time before we can obtain raw materials from that area, such as rubber. It means that other territory probably will soon follow Singapore inte Japanese hands. The Japanese will gain oil and other materials which will enable them to prolong the war.
Can We Take It?
WE SHALL HAVE to supply oil from our own shores. The drain on the shipping of the United States will be increased. Loss of footholds will make the task of the united fighting forces more difficult. The prestige of the white man in the Orient will suffer severely. These and many more adverse effects may be expected.
My Day
WASHINGTON, Thursday.—Melvyn Douglas arrived yesterday morning to stay with us for a few days, and I was so glad to see him. There is something that is warming about the personality of certain people, and both Mr. Douglas and his wife have that quality of outgoing affection. I am sure it makes all their friends think of them often when they are away and greet them with open arms when they meet. I only wish that Mrs. Douglas were here, too. I had the nine regional people, who work under Miss Wilmer Shields in OCD, come to see me yesterday afternoon at the White House. These particular staff members have been helping to establish volunteer offices under the local defense councils in their areas. They cover a tremendous number of states in certain regions and travel endlessly with never enough time anywhere. . In spite of this, they told me such inspiring stories of the way volunteers are accepting responsibility and really running business-like volunteer offices, with no paid nor professional personnel.
interceptor planes were to try to head them off, guns brought in on trailers were to fire blanks at the sky. Bad weather prohibited all the flying and shooting. But the city did go ahead with its blackout. They say it was about 99.6 per cent total. So, when the real thing came, Portlanders knew how to go about it. On the day war was declared, word came from the Army at 5 p. m. that the city must be blacked out by 6. The Mayor went on the air and told the people what to do. He took his instructions directly from Gen. Wash in Seattle (head of the Second Interceptor Command). Every time the Mayor had any fresh news he went right on the radio. He had a microphone at his desk, all six stations were hooked together, dnd they butted in on any program, regardless. There now hasn't been a blackout here for several weeks. But as in other cities, the civil defense program is going ahead, getting itself enlarged and polished up.
Many More Being Trained
MANY PEOPLE are being trained. Even before the war, 3500 auxiliary policemen and 2500 auxiliary firemen had been training. Now more are being trained, and so are air-raid wardens. As far as I
can see, the eventual setup will be like London's. When it is all finished. there will be two air-raid wardens for every block. Half of them will be women. The women will serve in daytime, the men at night. As for the physical evidences of war and defense, there aren't as many in Portland as in San Francisco. No sand has been distributed vet: no buildings sandbagged: ne signs put up directing the public to daytime basement shelters. The only things you notice are occasional windows equipped for blackout, and the black-painted traffic lights in the outskirts. The only item in which Portland seems to have fallen down is the one that has stumped other cities, too. Nobody can hear the sirens!
his right, he said: “I'm sorry, I don't drink coffee. It keeps me awake.” “Dr. Frantz, this is Sanka,” the hostess rematked. “How do you do,” Dr. Frantz replied, nodding to the maid. . . . E. A, Froesch, industrial safety engineer for the Allison plant, appeared on crutches at the C. of C. Safety Council session vesterday. He wouldn't explain how it happened— denied he had sprained a ligament in falling over a safety sign.
New Plane Plant?
A QUIET SURVEY of the City and its environs is being made to determine whether Indianapolis will make a bid for one of the new airplane plants to be established between the Rockies and the Alleghanies. Among the factors that must be considered are the available housing, electric power supply and skilled labor—to mention a few. . . . Progress being made in the construction of the Bridgeport Brass Works here was checked this week by two big shot executives from New York. They were Herman W. Steinkraus, Bridgeport Brass vice president and general manager, and J. C. Hays, executive vice president of Stone & Webster, the construction firm. Both seemed pleased. The plant probably will be operating soon, April Fool A PREMATURE “April Fool” issue of the Shortridge Daily Echo was published yesterday. Some of the items in it are enough to make the facuity and student body's hair stand on end. For instance, a headline asserts: “FBI Arrests Seven S. H. S. Teachers.” An editorial asserts that: “The most unpopular person in the Shortridge administration is Vice Principal Emmett A. Rice” who “graduated from reform school.” It goes on like that for four pages. . . . Miss Bernice Booze gets quite a bit of kidding because she happens to be a stenographer for Joseph E. Seagram & Sons, Ins, the whisky distillers. She formerly was employed by the State Alcoholic Beverages Commission.
By Ernie Pyle I
By Raymond Clapper
But they must not demoralize us any more than the Russians were shaken by the sight of the German | Army a.most at the gates of Moscow. That only| spuired Russians to more heroic resistance. No doubt some piping voices will be heard in this country, telling us to give up. Some Americans, perhaps, will begin to ask why we should go on with the war in the Pacific. You can almost hear their insidious questions now. What interest have we in the Far East? Why should we go on with the fight? Why don’t we dig in at Hawaii and let the Japanese have everything west of there? Why not stay on our own side of the ocean? |
There Can Be No Compromise
WE PROBABLY SHALL have the same kind of people here that France had when the Germans got too close. The French asked what was the use? They decided to quit. They thought they could do business
with Hitler. The pitiful degradation of France todax will not be sufficient to convince some of our people, perhaps. Everything we have is at stake in this war. Life,| liberty, the pursuit of happiness, monev, and all the] things money can’t buy. They will be at stake until Germany and Japan are crushed. These things that are all we live for will be in danger until the regimes which have brought this war on the world are beaten down. As President Roosevelt and everyone eise who has understood the menace has said repeatedly, the enemy must be beaten everywhere and anywhere he may be. We ought to know by now that there can be no compromise. Pearl Harbor surely has told us that beyond argument. All we have to do is to remember that— and if we do. we can take the bad news in our stride and keep right on going.
By Eleanor Roosevelt
They are finding opportunities for training volunteers, discovering places where they can be useful, and really stimulating all the people of their communities to take a hand in defense work. In the evening, we had a group of friends to dinner, and were shown the latest newsreels and a very thrilling Errol Flynn movie called “They Died With Their Boots On.’ It is the story of General George Armstrong Custer. What a personality he must have been! He was full of life and courage, a daredevil, always in trouble and had plenty of faults and foibles. But he made enemies of the people who should have been enemies, and was adored and followed to the death by his cavalrymen. He lived in a colorful period, which allowed for the development of just the qualities which he had. In another way, we are living through the same kind of period at the moment, and perhaps we shall also develop some General Custers. We have made a good beginning, I think, in some of the things which have happened in the battle of Manila and Pearl Harbor. A busy morning at the office. Y. Frank Freeman came to lunch. He is here from Hollywood to work out some plans with the Treasury Department and with Lowell Mellett. Another instance of how much
.
The Indianapolis ‘Times
SECOND SECTION
lll—Revolutionary Europe
Copyright, 1942, by The Indianapolis Times and The Chicago Daily News, Inc. A dozen civil wars are brewing within Europe in addition to the general revolt against Naziism that will boil over the moment Hitler's awful grip is weakened.
So far they are formless and leaderless.
wins they may never occur,
If Hitler for Hitler's gestapo is fran-
tically building barriers against them, in France and Italy, in the Balkans and the Low Countries, in Scandinavia, wherever they have penetrated as allies or enemies, and the gestapo is one of the world’s most efficient organizations in its line. Should these civil wars take place they will have a common and related basis,
however.
Beris of Balgaria
upheavals in the limited sense. be savage attacks on a system that per-
They will be more than political
They will
mitted, or at least took no positive measures, to avoid the fearful predicament -:in which the entire continent now finds itself. They will be economic and social. It is too early to say with any certainty in what spe-
cific form these may appear. Despite Hitler's contentions that he is saving Europe from Bolshevism by fighting the Russians, I doubt very much if these revolts will be communistic, as the world has previously known Communism. Some of these outbursts may seem on the surface to be para-
doxical. It is entirely possible, for example, that the Spanish Bour-
Is Germany headed for a gigantic collapse? If so, when and how will it come? An attempt to explain that riddle which baffles a wartorn world is presented in a new eye-witness series by David M. Nichol, just returned from 16 months in Central Europe. The Times herewith presents Mr. Nichol's third article.
- \
The Duke of Spol=to, urable to visit his Croatian kingdom, may never see Zagreb.
BAPTISTS END PARLEY TONIGHT
Singing of Negro Spirituals
And Christian Hymns To Be Feature.
Baptists of Indianapolis and the] including representatives | Mr. Strickland said that school
vicinity,
of the Negro churches, will bring | (their five-day institute to a close,
this evening with a choral fellowship. The Mt. Paran Baptist Church Choir will sing Negro spirituals and the Woodruff Place Baptist Church Choir will sing traditional Christian hymns at the service in the Woodruff Place Church. The institute for ministers, laymen and women has included addresses and seminars dealing with all phases of Baptist work in the community and over the world. It was also planned to promote good will and friendship between the two races participating. Total registration totaled 450.
Dr. Thomas to Speak
Dr. J. W. Thomas of New York, director of city work for the Northern Baptist Convention, .was to speak several times today on the subject, “Making the City Christian.” Dr. J. M. Horton, executive secretary of the Indiana Baptist Convention, spoke last night on “Baptists Under Orders.” Dr. Horton indicated ways to advance the all-out program of the church by avoiding “bottlenecks or a slow-up” in procedure. Common causes of such slow-ups are headstrong deacons or self-willed Sunday school officials, he said. Outstanding among the plans adopted by the institute are those for vacation schools for 10,000 children beginning June 15 and con-
eps Wal, Yo. latlp,
tinuing from two. to four weeks. i . t
bons may be restored and the Bulgarian house unseated in the wave that sweeps over Europe. Italy’s throne may be shaken from its rotten foundations, and the puppet Duke of Spoletta, unable so far to visit his Croatian kingdom because of the dangers involved, may never see Zagreb.
» 8 ”
Quislings Doomed
THE FATE of the Darlans and Quislings and Musserts needs scarcely any comment. They will be the first to disappear, perhaps even in upsets preliminary to the wider and deeper catacylsms into which Europe is heading. The mislabeled “representative” structures will certainly be revamped, and civil administrations, torn apart by the Nazis and their hirelings, must be almost completely rebuilt. Because of their size and strategic importance, France, the conquered, and Italy, the ally, represent for the Nazis the most delicate and dangerous areas. Reports of fatigue and unrest in Italy, of bitterness toward the Germans and towards the government that created the Axis ties are too persistent to be ignored. Under Nazi pressure “to do something” about these, the Italian government has reacted most sensitively recently and has silenced some “of sources from which they came. It hasn't so far been able to do anything about the emotional Neopolitan who hisses under cover of darkness when the British bombers come, “He lives over there. Why dont you go to Reme?” and waves the R. A. F. to the north with a heartfelt signal the fliers never see. Sicily developed so many administrative weak spots that there has been a considerable transfer of officials between the island adjunct and the northern industrial regions. Italy's supplies of food and other goods have disappeared as thoroughly as those in any Nazi-conquered nation.
= 2 = THERE ARE MANY indications that Army and party circles themselves in Rome are unhappy about their allies and are veering towards a policy of passive col-
the neutral’
Admiral Francois Darlan . . .
if civil wars flare in Europe the Darlans
and Quislings and Musserts will be the first to disappear.
laboration like that of Vichy, a vastly different program than full-scale assistance. It is likewise confirmed on excellent authority that the Italians this fall have continued their efforts to fortify their border with Ger-many—-“the border of little faith,” as the Italians refer to it.
The basis for revolt in France may be found in the opposition to the tiny segment of the French people who actually support Darlan’s policies. It consists of industrialists, those who can still work for the Nazis; financial interests who ardently want peace before their economic structure is wrecked on the dual shoals of domestic ineptitude and Nazi bleeding, and political opportunists who have frankly elected for Naziism and will be wiped out if it fails. They are opposed by the bulk of the people. Thinking Frenchmen in Vichy sense this uneasiness and are appalled at its possible consequences, but it is far more apparent in other parts of the country. The industrial suburbs of Lyon are seething with inchoate revolt while the factories in which they earned their living slow down and come to a halt. Parisians on leave in the unoccupied zone are amazingly indiscreet in their speech and actions.
= 2 #
Conceal Feelings
“FIVE OUT of 10 Frenchmen in Paris are opposed to collaboration,” joked one of them whom I met in Ly, “and four of the others
Net Teams Can} Travel in Tire-Rationed School Busses
With every tire rationed, and every Hoosier a basketball fan, along comes another problem. James D. Strickland, state tire administrator, has ruled that school busses carrying rationed tires may not carry Indiana high school ana college basketball teams te out-of-town playing dates.
busses equipped with rationed tires may carry students and teachers
‘HOLD EVERYTHING
only to and from their homes. However, busses using tires purchased before the rationing program went into effect will not be bound by the ruling, Mr. Strickland said. To some 700 high school and college net squads who stand to be affected by the ruling before the season ends, the word to the bus operators is: “Driver, tread lightly if you tread at all.”
COPR. 1942 BY NEA SERVICE, INC. T. M. REG. U. S. PAT. @
x
1-23
“Here's my new report card, Pop—please remember that you have to expect reverses at frst!”
&
are trying to get permission of the Nazi authorities to cross the demaracation line.” He did not need to add that this was sufficient reason for them to keep their feelings guarded. To label these people as Communists, which the Nazis and their Vichy hirelings undertake, is the sheerest hypocrisy. They are patriots among whom the Communists represent only a small portion, with the advantage that they alone have any appreciable underground organization or leadership. Spain, too, is fertile ground for rebellion. Bled white even before the Nazis loosed their continental upheaval, it now finds itself in the curious position where many of the warring factions want the same outcome for differing reasons. Much of the army has remained monarchist throughout. Some of the Republicans—and they still exist in large numbers— believe a restoration offers the best means of ending the dictatorship and re-establishing constitutional government. The Falange, the Nazi-organ-ized equivalent of the S. S. whose influence was somewhat diluted when Franco opened its ranks to every Spaniard, probably would not oppose the return of the king, for its members feel it would be followed by a new collapse and would hoist the Nazi nucleus more firmly in the saddle.
2 ” 2
BULGARIA'S KING BORIS has sat on an uneasy throne from the beginning of his government's dealings with the Germans. Bul-
FEW ON FEB. 16 LIST TO SERVE
Bulk of Needed Manpower Will Come From Those Already Registered.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 23 (U. P)).
| —Only a few of the 9,000,000 men
who will register for selective service Feb. 16 are likely to be called to the colors soon, officials indicated today. The bulk of the manpower in the immediate future will come from the 17,500,000 already registered, Selective Service authorities said.
The number of men over 36 years of age who will be called to complete this year’s 3,600,000-man Army will be “proportionately very small.” A new order list probably will be created to determine how the new age groups—20 to 21 and 36 to 44— will be called up.
Speed Is Essential
Brig. Gen. Lewis B. Hershey, Selective Service director, hinted at this procedure when he said, “if you have grass already cut, you'd better get it in the barn before you begin cutting any more.” Another reason why new registrants will not be integrated among present order lists, as they were after last summer’s lottery, is that we're at war now — we're calling men for active service, not for training alone, and speed is essential, officials said.
Available Sources
Sources available for new selectees, exclusive of the men registering next month, were listed as follows: 1. Approximately 1,000,000 men from 21 to 28 who already have been classified 1-A and are available immediately. 2. An estimated 200,000 to 400,000 whose 1-B classifications probably
Will bo GRABER. 30- 1A. DE
garia’s people, by race and lane guage, are closely akin to the Russians. They are naturally distrustful of the Germans, but they learned about Nazi plans through correspondents who were paid agents in many through a press that carefully concealed the truth, and a gove ‘ernment that gave them no inkling of its program. Shortly before Bulgaria's ade herence to the three-power pact, one of these “newspapermen” in Berlin spoke savagely about the “stupidity” of his countrymen who would not recognize the benefits of the new order but continued to look to Russia. A few days later we were in Leipzig for the opening of the famous fair. The program of an official dinner was interrupted for the announcement that Nazi troops that morning—actually it was days earlier—had crossed the Balkan border. The Bulgarian correspondents led the cheering for their country’s downfall. Boris, sensitive to his people's feelings, was reported several times prepared to abdicate before he agreed. So delicate has the situa= tion remained ever since that Bulgarians, alone of the threepower adherents, never have participated in the Russian fighting, These are but examples of a pattern that exists in all of Europe. The Danes, who believed they could make a deal with Hitler, have found it wouldn't work and wish passionately now that they had gone down fighting, no matter how briefly. Their resentment is certain to flare back against the government which made the tragic bargain.
2
Jugoslavs at War
JUGOSLAVS ALREADY have overthrown one government that made a bargain. It cost them their country temporarily, but they are fighting today what in any other kind of a world would be a major war for its reconquest. Rumanian,
Slovakian and Hungarian troops had to be sent home from the Russian front because they were sick of the war and the Germans who led them into it. No amount of censorship has been able to dis= guise the uneasiness in the Balzans. The Czechs staged an economie revolt this fall that pushed Freiherr von Neurath, one of the Nazis’ last “conservatives,” into limbo. Before it could be checked it required the service of Himm=ler’s No. 2 expert in terror, Reinhard Heydrich. To date the Gestapo technique —establishment of a central police force, trained and controlled by them, elimination of all but the government party as in France and Holland, and the most ruthless suppression of any criti= cism or opposition—has succeeded in keeping most of these move=ments underground. They need leaders and they need arms. So far they have neither. Gen. Charles De Gaulle has performed an invaluable service for the French, but he has failed to strike a spark to the tinder that waits only some modern Joan of Arc, some 20th century Garie baldi, some new Patrick Henry, and some wedge in the Nazi front to flash into violent fire over all of Europe.
” =
war-time relaxation of physical ree quirements. 3. Approximately 800,000 men of 1-A caliber who were deferred under last summer's policy of exempting men between 28 and 3§ wherever possible. 4. Approximately 50,000 men who were classified 4-A and deferred because they already had received military training.
TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE
1—In which country is the city and district of Mandalay? 2—What is the date of “Groundhog Day?” 3—Supply the missing word in the following quotation from Bulwer Lytton: “Beneath the rule of men ene tirely great The is mightier than the sword.” 4—A craftsman who works with jewels is called lamasery, lapie dary or estuary? 5—From which European country did the United: States acquire Florida? 6—Madagascar is in the Atlantis, the Indian or the Pacific Ocean. T—Name the countries in South America that border on the Pae cific Ocean.
Answers
1—Burma. 2—Feb. 2. 3—Pen. 4—Lapidary. 5—Spain. 6—Indian Ocean. T—Colombia, Ecuador, Chile.
Peru and
ss 8 9 ASK THE TIMES
Inclose a 3-cent stamp for ree ply when addressing any question of fact or information to The Indianapolis Times Washington Service Bureau, 1013 13th St., N. W. Washington, D. C. Legal and medical advice cannot be
given nor can extended research be undertaken.