Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 4 February 1942 — Page 9

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SECOND SECTION

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 4, 1942

The India

By Ernie Pyle

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Hoosier Vagabond

skis in a “V" long enough. So I usually did what| most ski novices do in an emergency—just fall over sideways into the snow, on purpose. The next thing Olaf gave us was the “stem turn.” That's the simple maneuver of skiing, but everything | else is based on it. So we spent all day at it. All| day? Ha! Those girls and I will need a year and a day before we can “stem turn.” ora ony en Arey Bo perecs (Readers are asked to remember that Mr. Abend wrote this chapter Finally Olaf said to me, “All right, go ahead.” I Prier to the siege of Singapore.) just seemed to faint all over inside. I tried to shout,! “No, I won't go!” But no sound came out. I gave a shove with my ski-poles and, Heaven help me, I was off.

Boy, Is He Graceful!

I DON'T know what happened, but somehow I made a perfect turn. “Did you say you'd never been! on skis before?” Olaf asked. “Never in my life,” I said. ‘Well, youre all right,” he said. good skier.” That's the way I am about everything. Just backward. Always best at the beginning. I knew it would be like that. For that first turn was the only passable one I made ail day. On the second attempt I fell clear down. Other times I'd get to turning in the wrong direction and have to go that way. Once I forgot either how to turn or to stop. and ran right astraddle of a little fir tree, and skinned my legs. This evening I asked Olaf, “Don’t you get sick of teaching dumb, awkward clucks like me the same thing day after day?” And Olaf, in his soft voice, said, “No, not when | people really try to learn, as you all did today. Bug, we get some people who think it's romantic or something just to dress up in ski clothes, and they won't] even try to learn. That burns me up.” !

TIMBERLINE LODGE, Ore, Feb. 4 —My first day of skiing is over. And, just as soon as I get rested up a little, I'm going on the warpath after the man who invented this outlandish mode of transportation. Give me an oxcart, instead, any day. I know, from this first day, that Ill never be a skier. All my instincts, my sentiments, my muscles and my ligaments ery out tonight, “Nuts to skiing!” But a man with a determination can't have his own way. I came up here to ski for a week, and if I gave up after only one day, I could never again hold up my head in public. Consequently, tomorrow at 10, barring famine or flood, I'll be out > there falling down as usual. Maybe, in one week, I can at least learn to fall with grace and precision. Olaf Rodegard was our instructor today. Olaf is from Norway, but he's been in this country 12 years, and his English is perfect. There were just two girls and myself,

Hero Pyle in Action

TAKING the first step gave me one of the most ghastly moments of my life. Those skis felt like they were 100 yards long. I had a wild. caged-like sensation. But somehow I wobbled safely to the skiing grounds. Walking on skis is hard work. Every 50 feet or so the muscles in my legs would give out, and I'd have to stop and rest. The first thing Olaf did was show us how to stop. You stop by pushing your legs apart, thus bringing the front points of your skis together, making a “V.” But my leg muscles were so weak I couldn't hold the

Inside Indianapolis By Lowell Nussbaum

thing else: merely grabbed his flute case and the next train for Chicago. . . . Motorists still are staying | away from the auto license bureaus in great droves. Harry A. Sharp, assistant State license bureau com- | missioner, says only about one-third as many licenses |

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Chapter lll—Singapore, Vital Fortress

SINGAPORE TODAY IS just as important to the United States as it is to the British Empire. It affords the only place westward of the Hawaiian Islands where the larger vessels of our Navy could be drydocked or properly repaired. Our own bases in the Philippines, even before the Japanese attack, could handle no vessel of more than 10,000 tons. The same capacity limitation is true of the great Netherlands base at Sourabaya, on the Island of Java. Although a drydock is being built there to handle any ship up to 45,000 tons, it is not scheduled for completion until sometime in 1942. Singapore sits astride the great British trade route leading from the Suez Canal and from India to Australia and New Zealand. If Britain loses Singapore > her “life line” to those dominions is cut. Hallett Abend But if Britain loses Singapore our plight will be desperate, too, for then our whole fleet in the Pacific will have to depend upon Pearl Harbor, and Pearl Harbor is thousands of miles away from the areas where Japan is attacking with landed forces.

“You'll make a

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Uncertainty Created a Disadvantage BECAUSE OF THE uncertainty concerning the

MISS MAUDE M'VICKER. chief clerk in the school superintendent's office, hopes the third time really is “charm.” and that her streak of bad luck is ended. A couple of weeks ago, she worked overtime at the School Board offices and the janitors started cleaning

the

out. In the semi darkness, she stumbled over a janitors mop bucket and bruised her leg. Monday night, she attempted to reach several large lumps of coal in the coal bin at her mother's home, and the pile started sliding, knocking her down and bruising the same leg she'd hurt before. That was pretty bad. and made r limp. And so she was just little slow in getting into an llinois Mapleton streetcar yesterday morning and the operator accidentally closed the door on her. She yelled like a Comanche. “Woaps. excuse me: I didn’t see you,” apologized the operator. “Never mind that,” she shouted, “just get me out of here.” He did. If there's anything to that “third time's the charm” business, she ought to be okay. as soon as her bruises better.

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Grab Your Own THE WIND was pretty strong the other day and right and left. Martin Geis, the Employment Security Division, was t Georgia and Meridian Sts. when he saw - hat blown off a pedestrians head. The aight for Mr. Geis, who grabbed it. The \ t turned around and was just reaching t when a gust of wind whipped Mr. Geis’ He dropped the stranger's hat and grabbed is own, | missed. The affair wound up with hats skimming along through half a dozen muddy puddles before they were captured.

Tooting for Uncle Sam

PHILIP SIEBURG. flutist with the Indianapolis Symphony, got a telegram Sunday afternoon about an before the orchestra's pop concert. It told him opening for a flute plaver in the Naval He didnt wait for the concert or any-

was blowing hats off. > for

both

hour an

band service.

Washington

DETROIT, Feb. 4 —What I get out of this trip is that the country could not do the war production job without the automobile industry. We could not produce all that will be needed without using the vast number of executive and engineering men in the industry. We could not do it without using the vast army of skilled and semi-skilled labor which had been tied up in making automobiles. Also we shall save some time by using machines that can be adapted from automobile making to war work. General Motors has agreed to produce 40 per cent of the plane engines for the Army, 25 per cent of the tanks, half of the trucks, 2 third of the machine guns and half of the Diesel engines for the Navy. Studebaker has had a normal automobile production of £3.000.000 a month. By December it should he producing war goods valued at $25.000.000 a month. By June of next year it is obligated to be producing at the rate of £40000,000 in war goods a month,

The Spirit at Detroit CHRYSLER EMPLOYED 73.000 men before Pearl Bry next December this company will need 30.000 men to do the war work under contract. Genal Motors will jump its wage rolls from 243.000 to 30.000 Those figures give some idea of the expansion that is going on. Not even in its best vears was the automcbile industry ever called upon to produce what the Government is now asking of it. Here is a little incident showing the spirit at Detroit: Machinery repairmen at the Chrysier-Dodge plant found an old cylinder grinder, not used for 20 years, and are repairing it for a grinding operation on airs craft engines.

My Day

ATLANTA, Ga, Tuesday.—Our visit yesterday to Santa Rosa Island was preceded by a trip with Gen. MacGruder around the army post. I saw old Fort Barancas and they showed me the two 13-inch mortars, which date back to Spanisn times. They were surrendered to Gen. Jackson in Pensacola, Fla, when Florida was ceded to the United States. All this ground is historic and was fought over during the War Between the States. When we crossed to Santa Rosa, we saw the fort which was held by northern soldiers all through tnat war. : The soldiers gave me some 5s, copies of their paper, called the 3 { “Barancas Breeze,” and I think : a % it is excellent. I met with the Pensacola Civilian Defense Council at 11 o'clock and was verv much impressed by the organization. ; Their system of communications is well set up and they have auxiliary policemen and firemen enrolled and trained. They have appointed their air raid wardens and they are now being trained.

there was

here

Harbor.

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have been issued as had been issued at this time last| vear. Motorists apparently are waiting to see whether there's going to be gasoline rationing or anything else that might make it impractical to operate their cars. The deadline for the old plates is midnight, Feb, 28. And there won't be any extensions. That's definite, ! says Mr. Sharp. |

Here and There

FORMER CONGRESSMAN Eugene B. Crowe was “visiting” around the State House yesterday. Maybe he was talking over all that publicity his Republican successor from the Ninth District—Earl Wilson—is getting with his proposed curfew for Washington stenographers. . . . There's a sign at the State Fair Grounds reading: “Parking—Insield.” .,. A sign on a Ft. Wayne Ave. tavern listed an old fashioned delicacy: Pig tails, 10 cents. . .. Our State game wardens as well as State parx and forest employees have been organized to keep their eyes open to spot enemy planes. . . . Bob Harrison, in charge of radio activities for the School Board, has a dandy boil on his neck.

Fun on the Air

QUITE A FEW of cur short wave radio owners have been having fun lately listening to the propaganda broadcasts, in English. from the Axis nations. From Rome, the other night, came a “news” program which reported that Navy Secretary Knox had been found unconscious in the Holland Tunnel, apparently the victim of knockout drops and had been placed in Walter Reid Hospital “so he can be under the eve of Dictator Roosevelt.” The commentator, in all seriousness, said it was reported Secretary Knox was delirious and kept shouting: “My Kimmel for a horse.” There was a lot more to it. . . . Some of the boys just back from Burns City are laughing about the fancy residences they built for the officers. The builders went to all sorts of pains to make the houses look neat and smart. Then the officers moved In and started building chicken coops. rabbit hutches, and even a duck pen in the back yards.

By Raymond Clapper

They found more than 50 ancient derelict machines in the graveyard, chipped the rust off with hammers and chisels, and are putting them into stopgap performance while waiting for more efficient machines to! be made. These old machines had been marked for shipment to the steel mills as scrap. Not only is the industry determined to use the mos efficient time-saving methods. It is also going on the theory that any production now. however inefficient, is better than none pending the arrival of more modern machines,

The Big Hole in the Picture

LABOR SUPPLY IS certain to cause severe trouole. There are not enough skilled people in sight, | even though all who were in the automobile industry will be used. A million more will be needed by the former automobile industry. The temporary unemployment now is certain to give way within a few months to the most acute shortage. Plants are doing a good deal of training themselves in anticipation.

future political status of the Philippine Islands, the United States Government has never seen fit to pour into Manila Bay the tens of millions of dollars which the preparation of a naval base large enough to serve our whole fleet

would cost.

Consequently, in this war in the Far East, our fleet has to base mainly on Pearl Harbor, which by the shortest direct route is about 4760 miles from Manila.’

Without fueling, suppl

y and repair services of

adequate size in the Far East, the Navy's scope of operation is circumscribed, but with Singapore and Pearl Harbor, North Australian and Philippine ports jointly available to both the American and British fleets against

Japan as the single Far Eastern representative of a hostile Axis group, the advantages and preponderance of striking power will finally swing sharply in favor of the democracies. As the Japanese well knew, there was almost nothing in the way of British naval strength in or around Singapore in the spring of last year. Meanwhile the base itself, with its magnificent equipment and its trained personnel, was kept ready at an hour's notice to fulfill the part it was designed to play and to justify the investment of millions of pounds made therein by the British Empire,

20 Square Miles of Water

IT WAS AT the Imperial Conference in 1921 that the project of the Singapore base was first officially proposed in order to insure the mobility of the Grand Fleet in waters east of Suez, but not until 1923 did the scheme actually appear in naval estimates.

At that time the four square miles of territory where the base is now located was a dreary district of malarial mangrove swamps, Secondary jungle and occasional coconut or rubber plantations on the low hills. Today the great naval base, with five miles of waterfront, fronts on a deep water anchorage in the Straits of Johore, an anchorage of more than 20 square miles of water suitable for naval use and large enough to shelter the entire combined British and American fleets. This anchorage not only includes the Straits but also the mouth of the Johore River, and the entrance to the . anchorage is protected by the heavily fortified islands of Palau Ubin and Palau Tekong. It is because Singapore is so well protected against attack from the sea, that the Japanese have, from the opening day of hostilities, tried to drive southward along the Malay Pennisula, and invest the base from the land side. If they ever capture the north shore of the Straits of Johore, the naval base will be at the mer-

After British Imperial troops, fighting a magnificent rear-guard action, held off the attacking Japs and enabled a stream of refugees to swarm across the Johore Bahru causeway, the famed passage across the straits of Johore was dynamited by engineers and the island fortress of Singapore, severed from the Malay mainland, commenced its defense to the death against the Jap siege.

thoroughfare as it appeared before

the siege.

Here's a view of the cross-straits

cy of their land artillery, just as Hongkong was at their mercy after they captured Kowloon. A wide stone causeway, for highway use, now connects Singapore Island with Johore Bahru, the capital of the State of Johore, at a point where the Straits are only a mile and a quarter wide. But this causeway is admittedly mined, and a thumb pressed upon any one of certain scattered and concealed buttons would blow it to nothingness if the Japanese ever approach the northern shores of the Straits from overland.

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A Great Harbor Basin

IN CONSTRUCTING the naval base, engineers quickly transformed the wild and swampy area. They cleared off unwanted vegetation, cut down hills and filled the malarial swamps, drove concrete piles ninety feet into the soft ground. They built a big dam, excavated a huge storage basin behind the the dam, and then removed the dam and let in the waters of the ocean. The result was a great harbor basin, 1600 feet in length and 400 feet across. Around this has been built what looks like a sizable manufacturing town. There are acres and acres of power plants, storage sheds, machine shops, repair shops. More than 17 miles of railway track were laid, connecting

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all important centers. Half a mile away is a graving dock, named after King George VI, which is 1000 feet in length, 130 feet in width, and with a depth ,of 35 feet. The world’s largest battleship could be accommodated there, the water pumped out in short order, and then the whole underwater structure would be exposed for repairs. There is also a huge floating dock, towed out from England, and a floating crane that can iift two hundred tons. When a battleship is inside, nothing can be seen except small top parts of the masts and turrets. Ashore are other giant cranes. One of them is 168 feet in height, about equal to a 14-story building, and it can lift 250 tons. Singapore, 16 miles away from the center of administration, but only 14 miles from the southern edge of the base site, is accessible not only by rail but by two fine paved highways.

The Great Danger

THIS SOUNDS very formidable, but consider the shocking demolition Japanese land artillery, aided by bombing planes, could accomplish if they ever succeeded in driving down the Malay Peninsula to the north shore of the Johore Straits! Singapore, the city, just across the small island, would immediately become untenable if the

Japanese ever crossed that narrow strait and landed on the north shore of the island. The armament depot, much of which is deep underground, can supply anything needed in the way of ammunition or explosives, from shells for a 15-inch gun to ma-= chine-gun ammunition, mines, tore pedoes and flares. There are also immense vital workshops and repair depots underground and so protected that even a direct hit from a 2000pound bomb would not halt operations, and provision has been made to provide many underground fuel tanks, Although the richly productive oil fields of Sumatra and Borneo are only a few hundred miles away by sea, a six months’ supply of all fuel oils and gasolines for naval and naval air arm use is always kept in storage at the base. Even the surface workshops are so constructed as to be safe from blast and bomb splinters, and there, under European engineers and overseers, thousands of skilled Malay, Indian and Chinese worke= men are regularly employed. Two huge separate mains assure the naval base of an ample fresh water supply, but as insurance against disruption of these mains two large reservoirs are always kept constantly filled with a re= serve of water enough to last for several weeks.

Copyright, 1941, by Hallett Abend; dise tributed by United Feature Syndicate, Ino.

NEXT: The Isles of Courage.

HAWAII BUILT Munitions Board Directed by Eberstadt

Determines Priorities of Army and Navy

INTO FORTRESS

Japs Never Can Conquer Pacific Outpost, Defense

Leaders Contend.

By WILLIAM F. TYREE United Press Staff Correspondent

HONOLULU, T. H, Feb. 4. — In

But obviously there is room ®i8ht weeks since the Japanese at-

here for more direct action by the Government and, Ck on Pearl Harbor, soldiers have

by labor organizations.

entrenched themselves on planta-

The assembling and training of this industrial Hons and beaches until this “Gi-

army is a task as necessary as the assembling and Pralter of the Pacific” seems to be, an impregnable fortress.

training of the fighting army. { The Government and the labor unions can carry

The strength of the Hawaiian

the load in this. But the labor unions are quarreling S2rTison may not be told, but it

about double-time pay for Sunday work. and the Gov-| ernment’s labor activities are scattered around among. several agencies, none of which has the power and contentration of authority necessary. This needs attention now. We need it headed up as Bevin has headed up the British labor supply. Mr. Roosevelt has done it on the production side. Now it must be done on the labor-supply side. That isn’t Donald Nelson's job. But he can't get his production unless an adequately trained labor supply is provided. That is the big hole in the picture now.

By Eleanor Roosevelt

As usual, very little has as yet been done to find work for the volunteers in the community services. In Pensacola, the local defense council has only established a registration bureau and not a volunteer office. I gather that a great many people have been registered and are still waiting opportunities to be trained and placed in useful work. The Red Cross people told me that they had just begun their first nurses-aid course. Their training in home nursing and first aid has been going on for some time.

may be said that the army personnel from Lieut. Gen. Delos Emmons to the ordinary buck private believes the Japanese never can conquer this Pacific outpost. In a day in the field with the army, I found ample evidence to substantiate the assertions of Gen. Emmons and Admiral Chester Nimitz that the islands will be held.

Guns Guard Coastline

While the Navy plays a major role in the defense plan, soldiers who might have to defend the land are scattered over lava slopes, pineapple plantations and beaches. Even the lawns of mansions bristle with machine gun nests and piilboxes. Heavy guns, ranging from 77 mm. to 240 mm. and 16-inch coast artillery batteries command every inch of the coastline of Oahu. Soldiers live beside their guns in “fox holes,” from which they can respond at a moment's notice to an alert signal from their underground headquarters.

A Private’s Lament

I was asked by some colored women if I would come to speak to them about civilian defense in one

of the colored high schools, since they were anxious | Pvt. Keyes’ only complaint was that 'he couldn’t “pour lead at the en‘enmy.”

to do their part also. I went there at 12 o'clock. In the afternoon, some friends came to call at Lieut. and Mrs. Miller's, and later we dined with Capt. and Mrs. Read, so the day was a full one.

At 7:15 this morning, we started for Atlanta, Ga. We stopped for lunch at Columbus, and reached! [fore the blackout and puffed his

Warm Springs at 3 o'clock. After a short time there,

we drove on to Atlanta, where I am to speak tonight

about civilian defense work at a meeting in the civic auditorium. :

I saw Pvts. William Keves of Brotherton, Tenn. and Donald Lafernier perspiring in their dugout.

A sergeant who accompanied me on the tour took a last look at the fortifications in the tropic dusk be-

cigaret.

(This is the men who have come to the top in the war production setup.) By JOHN W. LOVE Times Special Writer WASHINGTON, Feb. 4—Donald M. Nelson has been making some pencil sketches for remodeling the joint Army and Navy munitions board. That very important but little-known agency of which Ferdinand Eberstadt of New York recently became the first civilian director, The study Mr. Nelson has been making probably explains the delay in Mr, Eberstadt's formal appoint-

(ment, but that doesn't mean Mr.

Eberstadt hasn't been one of the busiest men in Washington. He is a good deal like William L.

last of five articles on ,

Batt, the big war materials man, | in the way he came up in Wash- |

ington notice by making the best of | things under the New Deal. It was James Forrestal, Undersecretary of the Navy, who called him to Washington to look over the munitions board a couple of months ago. Ferdinand Eberstadt is better known to financial men and industrialists than to military men or Government people. Fifteen years ago he would have been called an international banker. He had taken graduate study in Europe just before the last war and had returned to Europe in 1917 as a captain of artillery. In 1924, Dillon, Read & Co. sent him over to represent them in the wave of

HOLD EVERYTHING

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- “Well,” he said, “we're here— » 2 » - ~ -

COPR. 1942 BY NEA SERVICE, INC. T. M. REG.

“I see where the Government may take over private autos—they’ll have to hurry if they want to beat the finance

U. S$. PAT.

European financing of the 1920s. By 1928 he was wondering where | it would all end. He resigned and returned to New York, but only to go back with Owen D. Young in| the reparations conference. All that by the time he was 38. For a couple of years he was New York partner of Cyrus S. Eaton of Cleveland, and participated with

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him in the spectacular struggle with| -

Bethlehem Steel for control of Youngstown Sheet & Tube. Following the great American washout of 1932-33 he set up his own Wall Street firm of F. Eberstadt & Co. He specialized in underwriting the securities of middlesized and small companies, at a time when few big investment houses were giving them any attention. The importance of the joint Army and Navy munitions board lies in its function as the munitions link between the two services. Before the Eberstadt appointment the board was operated entirely by the services and reported directly to the President. Recently Mr. Nelson arranged to have it report to him. This ANMB, as it is known around its offices in the War Department, is the board which would have controlled the industrial mobilization if the original plans had been followed. Had it been legally able to take on the buying for lendlease to England, it might have become what is now the War Production Board. The members consist of the Undersecretaries, Forrestal of Navy and Robert P. Patterson of War; Maj. Gen. H. K. Rutherford, Brig. Gen. Charles Hines and Col. A. W. Waldron for the Army; Capt. E. D. Almy, Capt. A. B. Anderson and Capt. V. H. Wheeler for the Navy. The board is nearly 20 years old. It sprang from the necessity for bringing the Navy into the Army's industrial planning. Nobody foresa’ *a war in which the nation’s industrial organism would be tested to its limit, but it was fortunate the framework existed here upon which so large a share of the in-

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dustrial co-ordination could be built ups : he :

3 LOCAL DENTISTS ON CHICAGO PROGRAM

Drs. William Hopkins Crawford, Glenn J. Pell and G. Thaddeus Gregory of the Indiana University School of Dentistry will read papers before the Chicago Dental Society at Chicago Feb. 23 to 26. About 7000 dentists from all parts of the nation are expected to attend the 78th annual! midwinter meet= ing. Limited attendance clinics are a feature of the conclave, and dentists view them as opportunities for post-graduate study.

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

1—Which of the Virgin Islands of the United States is the largest in area? 2—Does ‘gross tonnage” or ‘“dise placement tonnage” denote the actual weight of a ship? 3—To which country do the Celebes Islands belong? 4—Mexico is bounded on the east by which State and body of water? 5—Was Rehoboam king of Israel or Judah? 6—Cygnet is the name of a young

’ - -—— "or - 9

2.30 Miniatura «ixow piece of jewelry? 7—Name the Spanish conqueror of Mexico. 8—Hummingbirds can fly backs ward; true or false?

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Answers 1—St. Croix. 2—Displacement tonnage. 3—The Netherlands. A 4—-Texas and the Gulf of Mexico, 5—Judah. 6—A young swan. T—Hernando Cortes, 8—True.

= 8 8 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