Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 3 February 1942 — Page 9

TUESDAY, FEB. 3, 1942

The Indianapolis Times

SECOND SECTION

Hoosier Vagabond

TIMBERLINE LODGE. Ore. Feb. 3 —Let it be known that henceforth—anyhow for a week or 10 davs—the author of this column shall be referred to as Ernst Otto Sven Pyle, familiarly called “Swish” by his intimates. No, I am not turning Quisling or Nazi spv. It's just that for an interlude my talents will be devoted to the slipping and sliding pastime of skiing, so of course I must have an Old-World name. The “Swish” refers to my hére-he-comes-there-he-goes. aspect (I hope). I have been planning this winter sports spasm for three years— and managing to sneak out of it every year before this. You know me: I'm a tropical beachcomber at heart. But this winter I got trapped. The Japs cut me off from my winter among the Balinese maidens. And here was I, left hanging high and dry in the Northwest, staring snow-covered Mt. Hood in the face. There seemed no way out but to ski out. I've never had on a pair of skis in my life. Now that the time is nigh, putting on skis is the one thing in this world I do not wish to do. A man of my age! It is ridiculous.

No Escepe for Pyle

BUT THE TIMBERLINE LODGE people saw that I was cornered, It was come up and ski, or else. My ski debut was all set for two weeks ago, on my way north. But at the last minute I phoned and said I had to see about a bomber in Seattle right quick. It was a close shave, I thought of going back south by way of Kansas City and El Paso. But that would have taken too much rubber off my last set of tires. And I figured they'd catch me sooner or later. anyway, so I might as well ski before my bones got even more brittle.

Inside Indianapolis By Lowell Nussbaum

THERE'S A STORY behind the story of the recent theft of certain historically valuable papers from the Indiana State Library. It has to do with the curiosity of Miss Caroline Dunn, librarian of the Indiana Hjstorical Society, which has offices in the same building as the State Library. A while back, a reputable dealer in Battle Creek, Mich, submitted to the Society certain correspondence between a couple of our pioneer notables—Robert Dale Owen and Governor Oliver P, Morton. The Society was happy to buy the papers, and entered into negotiations with the dealer to buy some more similar papers. Miss Dunn, happy over the “find,” read the letters and was struck by a portion of one letter that sounded familiar. Out of curiosity, she turned to a copy of Richard W. Leopold's book, “Robert Dale Owen—A Biography,” and, sure enough, there was a description of the correspondence. A footnote which Miss Dunn happened to read asserted that the correspondence in question was in the files of the Indiana State Library. Miss Dunn took a look. Of course it wasn't there, since it happened to be in Miss Dunn's office. But she discovered certain other valuable papers were missing. Well, to make a long story no longer, she got in touch with the dealer, who returned the money and the additional papers he held. and a WPA worker who had stolen them from the library was nabbed and sentenced to 90 days. All of which goes to show that curiosity is helpful at times.

Here and There

AN INSURANCE adjuster has spent of time here recently inquiring inte the jewelry Carole Lombard wore on her visit here just before her fata] airplane flight. . , . A. J. Jack) Rogers,

quite a bit

Washington

DETROIT, Feb. 3.—A visit to Detroit is good for

the spirit. You see the tanks coming off the line. You see the airplane engines. You see the antiaircraft guns, and fire a test round in one of them. What you see big as it is, is only a start. The giant tank arsenal now fully in production, 800,000 square feet, is small compared with other plants being built. During my visit here one automobile company has received an order which will need a building four times as large as the tank arsenal, which itself is about to be enlarged. But even that is not the most inspiring thing.

By Ernie Pyle

So I drove back through Portland. I stopped there| |

for a last deep breath, trying to muster up the Wi

age to come up here and face my Armageddon. Until yesterday noon, my fear was largely devoted to the prospect of people laughing at me. But now I have a tangible fear. For yesterday noon George Henderson came in to my hotel in Portland to have lunch with me. Mr. Henderson is connected with Timberline Lodge in a promotion way. Mr. Henderson is a young and handsome man of the athletic type, and one of Ore-! gon's better skiers.

Huh, What's a Broken Leg!

AND MR. HENDERSON arrived at my door with his left leg in a cast. Yes, he broke it skiing! It was the second break in two years for Mr. Henderson's leg. He seemed to think nothing of it at all. He says practically everybody who skis has broken a leg. It suddenly occurred to me that I had no skis. A perfect out. I rushed down to the instructor and said, “Well, Olaf, this breaks my heart, but the whole thing's off. I have no skis.” “Oh. that’s all right.” said Olaf. “They have got lots of skis here to rent. And everything else—boots, pants, jackets, mittens. You don’t have to buy anything.” That ruse didn't work, so I hit on the scheme of carrying on a distracting non-stop conversation. Mavbe I could filibuster him. Maybe, by reading him the Bible or constantly reciting poems, I could hold his interest for several days. And then suddenly, a week from today. I'd look at my watch and say, “Goodness me. here it is Tuesday and I'm due in Portland in two hours. Thanks a lot and goodby,| old fellow. I'll be skiing you.” (Somebody will hang me for that one) But I guess it's no use. Tomorrow at 10 I face my doom. If there's no column tomorrow you'll know

what happened.

who runs tHe Abe Martin Lodge and the Nashville House down in Brown County, is sending tasty souvenirs to his friends here and over the state. The souvenirs are packets of Brown County sassafrass bark. Jack accumulated 508 pounds of the bark, and has ordered another 100 pounds. . . . Andy Hepburn of Bobbs-Merrill has an interesting article on the famous Cox Woods in the current Saturday Evening Post,

Board Gets Parole

MEMBERS of the State Clemency Commission had a weighty problem to solve the other night and worked right on through the dinner hour without stopping: When they got ready to quit, they found the doors to their office, which adjoins the Governor’s suite, had been locked from the outside, They spent about an hour wondering how to get out before someone had the happy idea of phoning State Police. That did the trick. . . . The Wallace O. Lees are en route to Tucson, Ariz, for a. month's vacation. Wallace will get a much needed rest from his usual busy round of committee and board meetings, and hotel luncheon fare. Instead of deep sea fishing (his usual winter vacation sport) he says he expects to confine himself to sun bathing and—believe it or not—chess.

Coincidence Departmeit

WHAT'S A COINCIDENCE? Well, the best explanation we know is in an item we read in the current issue of the Curtiss-Wright Bladesman. According to the item, two Curtiss-Wright employees became fathers on the same day recently. The fathers had the same last name—Chambers—although they are not related. Their first names are Wayne and Charles. To each was born a seven-pound son in the same hospital. the same day and within an hour of each other. And C-W personnel records show that bath fathers came here from the Chrysler plant in Kokomo and were hired bv C-W the same day. That. boys and girls, is what is meant by the word—coincidence.

By Raymond Clapper

beat that the war would be lost. They applied ma-chine-precision methods so that the parts of the gun would need no filing to fit. Parts were interchangeable—you could bring the parts up in bins and put the guns together without any last-minute filing down. | This company is assembling the guns in 14 minutes instead of in 400 man-hours. That's what I mean by making the machine goosestep.

They Can't Afford to Fail

(Continued from Page One)

who have to pack up and sail.

to become an evacuee:

I know, because I, too, had

I did not leave because of the danger of an outbreak

of war.

1 had been in China fourteen and a half years

and had reported an average of more than one war an-

nually.

ents in the world as it is run these days.

Wars become “old stuff” to foreign correspond-

No, I sailed

away from Shanghai because of Japanese threats of kidnaping and assassination. : The Japanese Army, and particularly E the Gendarmerie, did not like my news cables, my books or my magazine articles. As long ago as August of 1937 two lieutenants and 20 men spent five hours in a raid on my apartment and office, strewing papers and files on the floors, unfolding

Haliett Abend

of my books.

my shirts and socks, tearing the covers off

They caught my chauffeur,

stripped him to the skin, slit open the soles of his shoes, and when they found no incriminating documents they

beat him badly.

= 2 ”

2 2 2

Then a Visit from the Gendarmes

THEN, LATE in 1938,

some of their gendarmes

forced their way into my office and by threats tried to

make me reveal my Chinese news sources.

For that a

colonel of the Army and a Gendarmerie Major made stiff

and formal verbal apologies.

From early spring of 1940 onward it had seemed to me that Japan was stubbornly heading for a serious col-

lision with the United States.

on behind the scenes were ominous.

Events and tendencies going So I had my 12-

year accumulation of Chinese art objects crated and sent

home, 19 packing cases filled with jades and ivories, porcelains and paintings and bronzes. This was in May. In June things looked worse to me. I had been living for more than four years in a building formerly British owned but recently purchased by the Japanese. I now resolved to send home all my rugs and furnishings worth the freight. I scanned sailings of American ships, reserved space in the President Taft, scheduled to sail July 20, and then gave written notice to my new landlords that I would vacate by noon of July 20. Halfway around the world, on a gracious slope of countryside in northern Vermont, stood a friendly old house where I hoped to unpack those things some day.

= =

Knew About Book

THEN CAME midnight of July 18. The Japanese knew it was my last night on what was called their side of Soochow Creek. They

2

knew, too, that I had a new book nearly completed, for I had applied repeatedly for a military pass so that I could send a photographer to the near-by city of Sungkiang to get pictures of the tomb and temple of Gen. Frederick Townsend Ward, noted American, who was killed in battle eighty years ago. What they apparently did not realize was that my new book dealt solely with events in and around Shanghai in the period from 1860 to 1862, and that therefore it did not concern them at all. The only reference to any of the tragic events of the last few years was a brief account of how Japanese soldiers, when they captured Sunkiang late in 1937, looted and wrecked the Ward Temple and toppled the Ward tombstone from its base. That midnight of July 19 my six-room apartment was denuded. Everything had been sent either to New York or across the creek into the International Settlement. The only things remaining in the place that had been home for

The world-famous

four years were my desk, my office file and books, my bed and two small steamer trunks already packed.

” ”

Men With Masks

THEN CAME a gentle tapping at my door, which I opened think=ing it was the elevator boy with a telegram. There were two clumsily masked Japanese, each with a drawn revolver. They asked for two things only: “that anti-Japanese book you are writ ing,” and “the telegrams you have sent insulting Gen. Miura.” I told them neither such things existed, whereupon while one of the thugs held his revolver within two feet of my head the other twisted my arms behind my bagk, forced me to kneel, and then kicked me in the small of the back. The one with the gun used his free hand to strike me about the face and head. Well, they got the 354 typed pages of my new book, and other manuscripts, and went away. “Just an ordinary case of armed robbery,” was the Japanese Embassy explanation and defense, to which my retort was that these extraordinary robbers were cere tainly acting under official instructions since they wanted only my papers, and examined but did not steal some valuable jewelry and a bundle of currency containing about $350.

”

5

AFTER THAT life in Shanghai was not so pleasant. The authorities of the International Settlement immediately sent armed Chinese constables to guard my new office and residence, working four-hour shifts night and day.

I was urged to go armed, to hire an armed bodyguard to attend me everywhere, to wear a bulletproof vest, I consented to the guards at my doors, so that my servants would not be molested or my papers further pilfered. But as to the other items, I stoutly declined.’ Again there came a lull, until late September, when by great good luck I obtained a three-day scoop ‘on the now famous Berlin-Tokyo-Rome “defensive alliance,” so-called. The story was printed in the New York Times and cabled back in its entirety to the War Office in Tokyo, and to the Japanese authorities in Shanghai. Then it began. The first day after publication there came five threats by telephone. The next day more phoned threats. And then the anonymous letters began to arrive by mail. I had, it seemed, grossly libeled the honor of the Japanese Army. I had slandered “imperial polity,” and I had had the temerity to publish prematurely a “sacred State secret” before the Government in Tokyo was ready to make announcement,

Bund, cosmopolitan Shanghai's once-free waterfront.

Not Even a Good-By

TWICE AFTER TWO o'clock in the morning Japanese in civilian clothes, slightly drunk, tried to force their way into my apart= ment with a resultant unseemly uproar in which my Chinese cone stable and the would-be intruders were outdone by the angry barke ing of my three bristling dogs. So the new status was reported to the American Consul-General, to the State Department at Wash= ington, to my New York office, to the Settlement police. Then I acquired an armed personal body guard, but no bulletproof vest, And so I became an evacuee, slip= ping quietly out of Shanghat without telling good-by even to many good friends. So I know what I am writing about when I speak of the bitter= ness of a forced departure. Half a year in Canton, three years in Peking, 11 years in Shanghai— uprooting is a grim business. Thanks to the Japanese I, like tens of thousands of others, had no home, and only vague plans, The outer swirl of the approach ing typhoon of war had torn me loose from home and business. I was powerless, except to tell the tale of what Japan's “New Order” means, and to warn my fellow Americans against it.

Sepyignt, 1941, by Hallett Abend: dise

tributed by United Feature Syndicate, Ine, NEXT: Singapore, Vital Fortress,

COUNTY PLANS | T0 LIST VOTERS

Thousands Who Changed

Precincts Must Register Again Before Primary.

Machinery will be set up in the

next two weeks for registration of

sands of others from one precinct] them NOW ALL OF THIS know-how is at war work. to another in preparation for the!

The automobile industry has been scrapped. Literal- May primaries.

ly it does not exist. Most of the assembly lines al-| ready have been torn down. Within two weeks there

The operations are being con- | trolled entirely by County Clerk jpg education and interests | the American member of the com-

p i spit new | Charles R. Ettinger despite a who are at the top of the

will not be left in Detroit the assembly lines with 1941 law that provided for a bi-

Bill Batt, No. 2 Man of War Board, Is Native Hoosier; Mechanical Design Is His Business and His Hobby

This is the fourth of several articles about men who have come to the top in the war production setup.

By JOHN W. LOVE Times Special Writer

WASHINGTON, Feb. 3.—The engineers have been taking over here for a year now, but the shift of power is so

gradual few have noticed.

In setting up the War Production Board they drew their new voters and transfers of thou- own chart of authority, or Donald Nelson did and he is one The “Engineers’ revolution” has its foreshadow-

ings in the new setup. Of all the men of engineer-

| President Roosevelt appointed him

bined war materials board, a super-{super-agency. In this board Mr.

question in staff meetings and elsewhere. If something will help win the war, go ahead. If it won't skip it. Bill Batt as they all call him, grew up as a farm boy in [ndiana, went to work in the Monon railway shops where his father was employed, learned the machinist trade, and managed somehow to get an engineering education at Purdue University. He stayed on a couple of years in research, as Don Nelson was wishing about the same time that he could do.

Became Internationalist

By 1908 Mr, Batt was in the ball

sociation of manufacturers to ace cept. the most conciliatory program it had adopted up to then. A believer in the social obligations of industry, he regretted that the Ade ministration had not seen fit to warn labor unions of the same need to account to the public. Mr, Batt's views of industry's ree lations with government were simie lar to those of Averill Harriman, and Mr, Harriman introduced him to President Roosevelt, Mr. Batt was one of the first in America, to perceive that “business as usual” was out. As a member of the old National Defense Advisory Commission, it somehow fell

and roller-bearing plant of Hess- to him to become the Paul Revere Bright in Philadelphia, where he of industry.

set up the physical laboratory.| When SKF bought Hess-Bright as TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

its American subsidiary in 1922 or 1—Where did the famous British

1923, he was general manager and cavalry charge, immortalized in

Here at Detroit you see in its most highly developed state the thing that makes America tick— men who understand the magic of the machine and who can make it goosestep as nobody else can. They are a special tribe who have gathered here and flowered to the point of genius, like the violinmakers of old Crembna. In

which to make a single automobile, An industry 35 vears in building has literally been scrapped overnight. Special machines are being greased and stored out in the weather in some cases, perhaps never to be used again. Whatever later complications are to come out! of that, the main fact now is that all of the executive skill, the technical skill, the labor, most of the!

| partisan registration board. | WPB probably William Loren The new board, composed of Batt, the No. 2 man, comes

arry Gasper, Democrat, and ,aapegt to being a profession- | George K. Johnson, Republican, was l : 5 " restrained from taking office under al engineer still. He is manufacturer as well as

a court order issued by Circuit ! / } } } qd Judge Earl R. Cox. No hearing has echnuldgis: but his Jesh for meother things, they are ord. «ry people like the wuling in the |chanical design is close and warm, rest of us. But if something is to be made by ma- 100r Space and a considerable number of the ma-| Peo 56% Jorg mnal miling in § both as hobby and as business. chines, then they are off in a world of their own Chines are going into war work. | A few days after Mr. Nelson had

where their imaginations soar—but always hitched to An industry far bigger than America has ever, delegated Mr. Batt to head the the know-how. seen is being built on the ruins of the automobile materials division and the ma-

industry. | : : ; : v » terials requirements committee, How to Make It Goosestep

'Batt and his British friend, Sir Clive Bailleau, are in charge as completely as any two men can be of the industrial materials for the Allied world. They also will work with the Economic Warfare Board and the corresponding British agency on questions of trade with neutrals, Mr. Batt has one theme-question he asks himself and his associates these days, “Will it help win the war?” He keeps bringing up the]

45,000 Names Removed

Meanwhile, William Flanary, deputy clerk in charge of registration, It is no longer ,,,ounced that he has cancelled Each has more| 5000 names from the registration

they made him president. SKF stands for Aktiebolaget Svenska Kulager Fabriken, or Swedish Ball Bearing Co., home offices in Gothenburg, Sweden, operating (in the | y good old days) 10 factories and 57| Tennyson's poem “The Charge of subsidiary companies. The Batts the Light Brigade,” take place? were of British descent, but Bill 2—Chewing gum has rubber in its Batt got along nicely with his| composition; true or false? Swedish directors and became some- 3_Which section of the War Dee

Competition has been suspended. a question of going after business. THE ARMY ASKED one automobile company to make 3 certain gun. The production executives were advised to study the methods in 3 Government arsenal. At the arsenal, the Army officer in charge explained that gunmaking was a special art. He proudlv told the automobile makers that it required 400 nan-hours to put one of those guns together. Each piece had to be filed and fitted by hand. Ten men working a 40-hour week were necessary to assemble the gun. The automobile executives said if they couldnt

My Day

PENSACOLA, Fla, Monday —Yesterday was a nice day on the train. We ate a very late breakfast, during which one or two visitors dropped in—first a gentleman who wished me to send the President his very best wishes, and then a soldier boy who was trying to console himself for a dull life. He had taken a detail of men from one place to another and thought a little chat with us might relieve the monotony. > A little later on a gentleman came bursting in to tell us that there was a man on board who had a piece of shell from a torpedoed ship, and it was evident that being near a torpedo was no small experience. We did much less work than usual, but got through the mail not finished before leaving Washington.

which I Then fk ve 4

asd

than it may be able to produce. Competitors are now, pooling ideas of production short-cuts in a giant war production cartel, with orders, priorities and raw materials controlled by the Government. There may be some guilty consciences because this was not begun sooner. If so, that will only spur the! determination now to do this job in time to win the war. As one executive said, “This is the test of free enterprise, whether we do the job that has been put up to us.” They know they can't afford to fail.

By Eleanor Roosevelt

late, due to a tree which had been found across the! track. With this discovery, I realized that I would be late] for my broadcast, unless I found a fast method of transfer later, so I wired ahead for a car and on arrival in Flomation, Ala, the station master's son took us in tow and in less time than it takes to tell it, we were started for Pensacola. I shall always be grateful to that young man for taking most of last afternoon to drive me to Pensacola. He told me that from now on Uncle Sam is working him seven days a week, as he works on aviation parts. He was an extraordinarily good driver, drove carefully, but fast, and I walked into the broadcasting station four minutes before time to go on the air. I suppose that from now on, in view of the fact that there are many reasons why trains and planes should be delayed and mere civilians can be removad from either one if more important people wish to

travel, I had better travel less and allow more time past, or else have nythin ery imp

files, leaving 261,000 eligible voters. The cancellations were made under provisions of a 1933 law which provides for disqualification of

| voters’ registration if they failed to

vote in either of the two preceding general elections. All 45000 voters were notified of their disqualification but none returned cards for re-registration, Mr, Flanary said.

306,000 Registered in 40

In the 1940 general election, the total registration was 306,000, an alltime high for Marion County. The previous peak in 1936 was 286,000. New registrations between now and the May balloting are not expected to bring the total back up to the 306,000 record. Starting early next month, registration branches will be set up in all sections of the City and in rural districts to accommodate new voters and for transfer of old voters who have moved to new precincts. Any voter who has moved to another precinct since the last election must file a transfer in order to vote,

TRUCK KILLS WOMAN TAYLORSVILLE, Feb. 3 (U. P). —Mrs. Jennie Zeigler, 68, Taylorsville, was injured fatally last night when she was struck by a truck driven by James Giles, 20, of near

HOLD EVERYTHING

N

NAVY RECRUITING OREICE

thing of an internationalist himself. Scientific management caught his interest in the early days of the movement. He was president of the international committee on scientific management and would have attended its meetings in Stockholm last year if the world had not started to fall apart. Mr, Batt is chairman of the board of the American Management Association, and was awarded the Gantt medal for his contributions to scientific management by the Management Institute and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, of which latter he is a former president. In his big job today he has the confidence of thousands of engineers. He's Republican, buf—

It was in the broader domain of

what might be called business politics that Mr. Batt caught Washington’s attention. Like several other top-ranking WPB men, he is a Republican, but unlike many men back in the middle 1930s he believed

in the possibility of an understanding being reached between business

and the Administration in Washington. ' : Mr. Batt knew that businessmen were not all highbinders, to use his

| | word, and he thought he caught a [sympathetic spark in the Washing-

| 5=In

partment is known as G-2?

4—-What was the middle name of President Andrew Johnson? the nursery rhyme, who “kissed the kirls and made them cry”? 6—Weight of pearls is measured by carats, grains or drams? 7—Will an airtight drum support more weight in water if exe _hausted of all air, or if pumped full of air’ under pressure? 8—Which State was named in honor of Elizabeth, the Virgin Queen of England?

Answers 1—Balaclava, Russian Crimea, 2—False. 3—Military Intelligence Division. 4—Jackson, : 5—“Georgie Porgie Puddin’ Pie,” 6—Grains. T—Exhausted of air. 8—Virginia.

*s » & 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. ,O. Legal and medical advice cannot

od