Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 12 February 1942 — Page 17

Hoosier Vagabond

PORTLAND, Ore, Feb. 12.—The skiing is over

: G uts about it. The gon, and Mrs. Dexter Keezer, whom I have known and I'm sorry. For now I'm nl hs oy )

whole “feeling” of the thing came all of a sudden, Just as they said it would. I think this week has taught me a few things more than just how to stand up on skis. I've discovered, for one thing. what a completely exerciseless life I ordinarily lead. Why, after the agonies of sore muscles had finally worn off, I felt better than I'd felt in years. I even gained weight up there at Timberline. I learned also that you can do things when youre face to face with the necessity for doing them. But most important of 2ll I learned that a person works hardest, fights best, plays more gaily, even is braver, when he has companionship. In the last two years—due to the urgencies of war living and the illness of That Girl and some other things—I have learned what it is to be alone. I have at last come to know the terror or being afraid by yourself—either in the vain little torture of embarrassment, or in the gigantic fright of thinking You are about to die.

Sharing Fun and Sorrow

TODAY, AT LAST, I know that no man except a freak is able to stand absolutely alone. I know that if I am bombed to death, I want somebody with me. If I am by events placed in a dramatic position, it comes To nothing unless there is someone I love on hand to appreciate it. And it was thus that my odd skiing interlude was saved in the end. It was saved by the arrival of two people I knew and could be natural with—

Inside Indianapolis By Lowel! Nussbaum|

CLIFF BERGERE, the race driver and Hollywood stunt man, makes it a practice to drive up to the Hotel Antlers each moming in his car (Star license 280) and pick up his friend and fellow racer, Harry Hartz, on the way to their work at Allison's. Yesterday he parked double in front of the Antlers, got out of the car and locked himself out. The two Speedway celebrities spent the next half hour or more trying every trick they knew to get into the car. A crowd of kibitzers gathered quickly and offered jesting advice. A cycle cop roared up and prepared to put a sticker on the car. When

only reason we mention it is that it’s addressed to

The Times? our granddaddy. The name was changed to The Indiana Daily Times July 20, 1914, and then it was changed to The Indianapolis Times (that’s us) in

the family of Blodgett (Bill) Brennan of the State Conservation Department. Son Michael, 4, developed

By Ernie Pyle E. J. Griffith, who is administrator of WPA for Ore-

It was only when I looked, with them beside me, down the shockingly perilous mountainside and stood with them against the blizzard, that I finally relaxed and laughed and threw myself around—and then I skied at last, because it was fun to ski with friends. I must tell you about this Anne Keezer, for she is quite a fellow. Her husband is president of Reed College out here and has just been given an important job in Washington. Her stepfather is Lowell Mellett, of Mr. Roosevelt's “inner circle.” And she herself is the mother of two lovely and incorrigible little girls.

Annie Just “Disappears”

ANNIE KEEZER IS a whirlwind of animation, exaggeration and headlongism. She sews and knits and skates and skis and rides and reads and entertains and takes charge of things all over the place, because she has to let her spirit out into something. She is probably the most enthusiastic conversationalist I've ever heard. The best yarn that ever happened isn't half as good as when Anne finishes telling it. All of which is just a build-up to what happened on our final afternoon of skiing. We were plunging down Timberline’s famous “Magic Mile.” Anne was skiing ahead of us, turning and exploring the white mist of falling snow. And suddenly Annie disappeared! She had simply skied right over a 20-foot precipice. She flew a vast distance through the air, lit on her head, and wasn't hurt at all. She said she had no sensation of falling, and when she got her head out of the snowdrift couldn't think where she was. It was a fantastic enough thing to watch. But I'm disgusted that I can’t stay around to hear Annie tell it to other people. I'll bet by the 10th telling she will have fallen half a mile, broken her back, and discovered gold in the snowdrift. Annie is wonderful.

Such Is Fame

WE'VE JUST RECEIVED a letter from the State of Pennsylvania's Department of Commerce. The

the travel editor of the INDIANAPOLIS SUN, instead

of The Times. How's that for “keeping up with” The Sun, in case you've forgotten, was

April, 1923. Bad iuck chose Sunday and Monday to visit

STATES FIGHT TO HOLD SOCIAL

SECURITY RULE

Charge Government With

Trying to Federalize All Benefits.

By DANIEL M. KIDNEY Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON, Feb. 12.—State

unemployment - compensation officials, having heard Federal Security Administrator Paul V. McNutt testify that he favored federalization of all social security, fought back today before the House Ways and Means Committee.

Their first two witnesses were

Chairman Claude A. Williams of the Texas Unemployment Compensation Commission and Judge John A. Petrie, chairman of Alabama’s Labor Department.

Their position on the pending bill

to enlarge benefit payments to the disemployed through a $300,000,000 Federal contribution was summed up in a message from Chairman Barcley Craighead of the Montana Commission, who said in part:

“Montana opposes use of Federal

funds to increase weekly amount of benefits. With tremendous demands made upon the Federal Government for war financing it does not appear common sense to use Federal funds to increase benefits.

No Projects in Montana “It appears that a state like

Michigan, with billions allotted for war projects to begin as speedily as possible, should be able to stumble along for a few months and meet an adequate benefit formula, if states like Montana, without defense projects participate in defense work only to

the extent of sending workers to other states, can get along.

and permitted to

“We in Montana believe affairs,

at least in the Far East, give appearance that the allied cause is drifting from disaster to disaster,

SECOND SECTION |

A Navy family . . . (left to right) Ensign Harry Bryant, giving the oath; Chief Electrician E. W. Spalding, the father, and Frank and Damian Spalding, the sons.

A FEW DAYS ago after E. W. Spalding re-entered the Navy, he was on hand at the Navy recruiting office in the Federal Building to see his two sons take the oath of service. His sons, Frank, age 20, and

Damian, age 25, received the first ceremony of admittance from Ensign Harry Bryant. : Mr. Spalding, whose home is at 928 N. Rural St., is temporarily stationed at the Naval Armory here as chief electrician. He re-

tired from the Navy in 1934 after 30 years of service and re-enlisted Jan. 28. The uniform which he is wearing is the one he wore in 1934. On the sleeve are three “hash -marks”’—one for each 10 years of service.

By

HALLETT ABEND

Chapter X—Perilous Frontiers

SOME TIME BEFORE the outbreak of war

in

land, Ore, and ending in Washington, D. C., brought me no comfort. The general public was mildly interested in the BritishGerman conflict.

The War and You—

U.S. LOTTERY PROPOSED AS CASH SOURCE

No More Cans for Tobacco Or Beer; Immunization Of Children Planned.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 12 (U, P.). —Today’s civilian war notes: GAMBLERS—Spend $1 or $2 and win, maybe, $100,000. Rep. Harold Knutson (R. Minn.) believes there are enough people willing to do that to raise $1,500,000,000 annually in, war revenues. He will intreduce a bill for such a national lottery today. } = = n TIN CANS—No more variety. Instead of 150 different sizes there’ll be only 10. No more cans to be used, after this month, for beer, tobacco, cereals, flour, petroleum products or dog food.

= o un APIARISTS — Bees, essential to the war effort because they produce honey and pollinate fruits, vegetables and forage crops, will get all the sugar they want even if you don’t. Beekeepers need only prove their bees need it.

» » ”

Aliens Register, Too

ALIENS — Must register for the draft Feb. 16 if they were at least 20 on or before Dec. 31, 1941, and if they will not be 45 or older registration day. That's provided they haven't already registered.

» Hn ” CHILDREN—President Ropsevelt has set this goal by May 1, child health day: Immunization of all children past nine against diphtheria and smallpox.

2 o 8

WORKERS — Factory employees in mid-December averaged 178.7

Europe in September, 1939, President Roosevelt excited

the peoples of various nations with a declaration about

the necessity for instituting a quarantine against aggressors. At another time there was lively and unseemly dispute as to whether he

it was explained to him he grinned and roared away. Finally, as Clif and Harry were about to slam a brick through the car window, one of the hotel employees brought a wire

and with the Federal Government appropriating more than one hundred billion dollars to meet this crisis, states with available unem-ployment-compensation reserves

an abscess in his inner ear which a physician had to lance Sunday evening. Monday evening Mrs. Brennan went to bed with a severe attack of pleurisy, and at midnight that night son Billy, 6, awoke with an earache. All three are still in bed. Papa Bill

The idea of our being drawn into a two-ocean war was declared fantastic. When I waxed hot and angry because of my own certainties, and offered bets at odds

cents an hour, worked an average of 41.2 hours a week. Average weekly pay check: $33.69. t-3 » 8

and the boys managed to get the car open by manipulating the wire through the floor board.

Taps: for the Japs

INTO THE NAVY RECRUITING OFFICES walked a young man who gave his name as O. K. Williams. “I'm an exterminator by trade,” he explained, “and I thcught you might be able to use my services—on the Japs.” . .. A week or so ago during a high wind, a woman's hat was blown off her head, near Ohio and Pennsylvania Sts, and it just disappeared from sight. Well, sir, it gives us great pleasure to announce that Inside Indianapolis has located the hat for the victim. above the Pennsylvania St. entrance of the Federal Building. Eugene C. Barth, who has offices in the K. of P. Building, noticed an object on the ledge a week ago, but it wasn’t until yesterday that he made out what it was—a woman's red velvet hat. If it stays there much longer, it may become a pigeon’s nest.

Washington

WASHINGTON, Feb. 12—This is one of those moments of awful disaster that make your stomach sink. But it is 2a moment, also, when a nation must think hard, and keep its head, and make new determinations. Singapore is going. It may be gone by the time this dispatch is in print. Now Japan is entrenching in this vital spot, 2900 miles from Yokohama. From that advance base she can follow up her new conquest over the whole south-

The position of the united nations in the Pacific is desperate. They are all but driven back now : to Hawaii. And they will be if Japan is able to follow up Singapore and take Australia and the Dutch East Indies. India is in danger. China is close to being bottled up. If Japan should succeed in finishing up what she has begun, the whole nature of the world is bound to be changed.

What of Tomorrow

THE UNITED STATES and Great Britain between them have maintained a world-wide system through control of a globe-encircling belt of strategic points. Panama, Gibraltar, Suez and Singapore are the gates through which commerce passes from one ocean into the next ocean. Whoever controls them dominates the world-wide flow of human activity. We haven't been very conscious of that because our side has always controlled them. Now the gate between the Pacific and the Indian Ocean is being taken over by Japan. Gibraltar and Suez are reported from London to be next on th Nazi list. Panama alone is still unmenaced. President Roosevelt says we are the targets of a world encirclement. If it should succeed, if the other side

My Day

NEW YORK CITY, Wednesday.—You might be interested to hear a little about the boys in the Brooklyn Naval Hospital. Nearly a whole ward was filled with boys from the “Normandie,” who had been over-

come by smoke or burmed. They all seemed to be recovering, but the experience must have been a very unpleasant one. I also had an opportunity to talk for a little while with a boy who was very seriously injured on the destroyer “Kearney.” He is getting well and will be able to be about again, but his remark was that he wanted to “get back at them.” . NR a That is a wonderful spirit when aR RS your disabilities would free you from active service, but it is the kind of spirit which we may expect to find in all these young men. As T walked through the hospital, I told the doctors that I had a particular interest in the destroyers because my boy is on one. I noticed a smile on the faces of the boys nearest me, so evident they have a feeling, too, tor destroyer duty. Franklin Jr. looked remarkably well, and I expect to find him feeling even better when I go over today.

gave up and called in a couple of trained nurses. Turing, Isn't It Boys? : THE SITUATION in which Ration Board members find themselves is personally serious. They're stuck with rationing—tires, cars and what not—for the duration, apparently. The job takes up lots of time.

should use these funds to care for their temporarily displaced workers. “We believe Sidney Hillman’s time and the time of the many other fine men associated with him should not be wasted in worrying and administering the employment service and unemployment compensation when the states are amply adequate

had actually said that the American frontier was on the Rhine.

x

Japan has been actively an aggressor nation since September, 1931, but unfortunately, up to the summer of 1941 there had been nc effective quarantine instituted against her. A quarantine is an active measure instituted to isolate and keep from outside contact a person or a community, and it is usually enforced when such a person or comemunity has become a menace to the health or wellbeing of the rest of the community.

The board members, themselves, have to do the spadework, although this task may be relieved somewhat when funds become available for hiring a secretary and a stenographer, or two. members must put in on the job is interfering seriIt can be found on the second. story ledge. ously.with their own businesses to be getting worried. Some folk think they ought to be recompensed for their services, but this isnt in sight at present. appears to want to resign right now, none is tickled at the prospect of keeping this up for years. Maybe

siderations.

own circle.

The time the board

While none of the members

with those two new members the individual load can be reduced.

By Raymond Clapper

should break through, and hold, we could then live in that world only by always remaining an armed camp, on the alert—as we were not in Hawaii—for the dawn attack that might come any time at any point in the Western Hemisphere. America will never accept such a fate. Lincoln had to make his decision. It was that just one thing counted. The union must be preserved. His country was beset by confusing conSome wanted peace at any price. Some wanted compromise. He was beset by appeasers, compromisers and designing politicians within his He was gnawed by the suffering of his people. Still the union must be saved. There was Lincoln's greatness. That conviction was his gift to this nation.

Beware of Propaganda

TOMORROW, when the loss of Singapore hits home, we shall be beset with similar confusions. We shall be told that lend-lease was a mistake, that none of this would have happened if we had followed some other policy. We shall be told that Russia is only waiting to run out on us, and that the British are not trying very hard to win the war. We shall be fed with many other brands of poisonous propaganda, sometimes by people who don’t know it is poison and sometimes by people who know all too well that it is poison. We are already hearing the “I told you so” line from the cunning Wheeler. But what he was telling us, if I remember correctly, was that it was silly to think anybody was going to attack us and that Roosevelt was just trying to scare up a war. The united nations all need each other desperately now, for better or for worse. We must depend upon others to get time for us. If they can get us the time, we shall build the strength to achieve the victory that must come before we can rest. America can accept no other outcome.

is “window dressing.” out shat the Social Security Board will have complete power over the method of distributing the funds.

to relieve him and his associates of this unnecessary load.”

Hillman Wants Job But Mr. Hillman himself spent

and they're reported yesterday morning telling the committee he wanted the job. The afternoon session was Mr. McNutt’s. Although the latter insisted that the bill before the committee had nothing to do with federalization of unemployment compensation, he conceded that he favored this.

He also favors Federal adminis-

tration of grants to the aged, disability insurance, and aid to education, he testified under questioning by Rep. West (D. Tex). hasn’t quite made up his mind about health insurance, he said.

He

Rep. Disney (D. Okla.) tried vain-

ly to find out if Mr. McNutt would feel so federally inclined if he were still Governor of Indiana.

In an effort to thwart opposition,

the unemployment benefit bill is worded to say that its purpose is not

n attempt toward a uniform na-

tional system of unemployment insurance. It adds that if that question is presented to Congress it should be decided on its merits.

Called ‘Window Dressing’

This, the state officials contend, They point

The only change from the original

proposal of the Administration is that an increase “over present state benefits” is provided, rather than a flat $24 weekly, they maintain.

The pay-off term remains at 24

weeks, which is in excess of the term in the states. often cited as a State where unemployment worked well and where the system was set up when Mr. McNutt was Governor, the period is 16 weeks and the maximum payment $16 a week.

In Indiana,

compensation has

Propose Higher Payment Under the new bill, everyone

drawing or needing unemployment compensation would be paid $7.20 additional from Federal

funds. |

Wherever our frontiers may be today—the English Channel? the Pyrenees? the coast of Nor=way, Greece, or Newfoundland?—it is certain that

Hallett Abend

because no effective quarantine was instituted against Japan, the aggressor, we have today. in the

Far East very perilous frontiers in the South China Sea, the Sulu Sea

and the Straits of Macassar.

Honolulu, and even just off our California Coast.

review the rapidity with which our ideological frontier against Japan, the aggressor, has been shifted from the far north to an area lying close to and even south of the equator. And it is appalling to contemplate the extent and importance of the huge area of the globe that we have let Japan overrun while we did little more than protest. Late in 1931, when Japan was beginning the conquest of Manchuria, our frontier was probably along a line west of Mukden. A year angl a half later it was in Jehol province. On July 7, 1937, it was near the Marco Poio Bridge, on the outskirts of Peking. By Aug. 14 it had moved southward to Soochow Creek, which practically bisects Shanghai. Just before Christmas of that memorable year it was upriver beyond Nanking and ran straight across the decks of one of our river gunboats, the U. S. S. Panay. = = ”

The ‘Too Bad’ Era

THIS “FRONTIER” has shifted far and rapidly since then—to Hankow, to Chungking, to Canton, to Hainan Island, to the Spratley Islands, to French IndoChina, to Thailand, Malaya, Borneo, the Philippines, and beyond. The, United States and its peos ple lived in a world of unrealities and foolish debates. We were dimly sorry -for the 35,000,000

That frontier has been as close as

It is astounding to

Manchurians and 200,000,000 Chinese living under the Japanese yoke. We knew Japan could move southward and cut off our supplies of tin and rubber—but we believed she would not make such a move. It was “too bad” about the peoples of Poland and Czechoslovakia, of Greece and Holland and France, but some day, we believed, they would be freed. Meanwhile, we smugly believed no one would dare to attack us, and that we would be left alone until three or four or five years from now, by which time we would have a two-ocean Navy! In the autumn of 1940 Japanese terrorists, employed by the Japanese military, drove me out of China, where I had lived and worked for nearly 15 years. Before coming home I decided to make a survey tour of the areas Japan was certain to attack next. I wanted to see how strong was our own position in the Philippines, how vulnerable the British in Malaya and Singapore, how courageous the Netherlanders in the East Indies. The best that could be said was that the sense ofi imminent peril was growing, and that active preparations were being made to meet the threat of the expected blow.

= » EJ IN JANUARY of 1941 I returned to the United States. A crosscountry tour beginning at Port-

HOLD EVERYTHING

rr

After 16 weeks, the Government would make the full payment of $23.20 a week for the remainder

ARY

By Eleanor Roosevelt

I had a very nice telegram from the head of a group of Navy mothers who visit the hospital and try to make boys who come from a great distance feel at home. The rest of my day was spent on private appointments, and I worked rather late on the mail. Everyone I met seemed depressed over the news from Singapore. We have been told that we must expect reverses at the start, and yet we want victory at once. The Ax.s nations prepared their people for many years, physically and mentally, for this struggle. They built up huge reserves of war materials. The people who did not want war, tried to plan for a peaceful world. They conditioned their people to peace. Those who foresaw that, whether we wanted it or not, we might be attacked, had a hard time getting a hearing. No one wanted to spend money on things which might never be needed, and for that reason our preparation had, of necessity, to be slower. We should remember now, however, that day by day the opposition in the Pacific and in the Atlantic, in Europe, Africa and Asia, 1s wearing itself out far more rapidly than we are. Some day, when we have reached the full power of our production, the day of victory for those who love peace, will come. Then we shall have to remember St. Paul's epistle to the Romans: “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, bu rather give place unto wrath; for it is geance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.”

%

ven-

of the 24 weeks.

The measure has support from

national organized labor leaders, particularly the C. I. O. Greatest benefits would be expected to accrue to automobile workers, during the war conversion period in the industry, it was pointed out.

“We know that more than 20

states will join in this fight against camouflage Williams said today. more than six states will support it. That gives 42 of the 43 fighting on our side.”

LOCAL STUDENT 20 |. IN ORATORY CONTEST|

federalization,” Mr. “Certainly not

John H. Morrison Jr. of Indian-

apolis won second place in the annual Breen oratorical contest held recently at Notre Dame University.

The Notre Dame student is the

son of Mr. And Mrs. John H. Morrison, 4306 Broadway. It was his first experience in oratory and he t {competed with 56 members of the student body. The Breen contest has been held annually since 1877.

Syl 2

2-12

“I hear we're being transferred to Iceland-—how about an injection

of anti-freexe?”

that we would be at war with Japan by Christmas of 1941, I was looked at pityingly for a fool. We wouldn't attack Japan just to help China, I was assured, and the Japanese would never commit national suicide by attacking us. The summer of 1941, divided between Washington and New York, brought no consolation. Congress dawdled. Negotiations with the Japanese were getting nowhere, but the popular expectation was

~-that' Japan would. desert Germany *

and Italy and side with the democracies. That was never possible, of course, but the belief that it was possible was fostered in this country by Japanese agents and hirelings. Our freezing of Japanese economic assets and stopping of all trade were supposed to bring Japan to her senses. Instead, they prodded her into attacking us when we were not expecting attack, and before we were fully prepared. The first week in September, I started on what was to be a 38,000-mile air trip covering Honolulu, New Zealand, Australia, the Netherlands East Indies and the Philippines. I returned to New York Nov. 7, still willing to bet that we would be fighting Japan before Christmas.

# ” on

America Awakes

THEN CAME DEC. 7TH, and Japan's treacherous attack upon Hawaii, the Philippines and Malaya. By a stab in the back, Teutonically pig-headed and stupid, Japan gained a big strategic advantage, gave our Navy the worst defeat in its history at Pearl Harbor, and did this country a service of incalculable value. It unified public opinion, demolished the fc~"" "1 (heories that we could be made safe “bahind an iron ring of defenses,” and showed us that our frontiers were, inevitably, wherever the Japanese, the Nazis, and the Fascists had

their outposts. It had to be a mighty blow from outside to jar us into full wakefulness. In the autumn and early winter of 1940 Japan had made two momentous decisions, and then burned her bridges. She chose not to attempt a graceful and tactful retreat from her impossible position in China, but instead first joined the Berlin-Rome Axis and then extended recognition to her puppet government headed by Wang Ching-wei at Nanking. By these acts she outlawed herself in the eyes of the great and little democracies of the world and also made it impose sible ever to conclude an honorable peace with the Chungking government headed by Gen. Chiang Kai-shek. That long ago Japan decided to fight the United States. Japan deliberately chose to gamble on her own ability to continue a campaign of aggression and conquest, to gamble on the defeat and dissolution of the British Empire, and to gamble on the continuing patience and forbearance of the United States. All or nothing—the dictator pf East Asia and the East Indies, or defeat and disarmament and reduction to the place of a third-class power—those are now Tokyo’s alternatives.

BRE By httea

NEXT: Japan's gamble,

by Hallett Abend; dis‘eature Syndicate, Inc.

Coal Shortage Feared

COAL—The U. S. Chamber of Commerce warns its members to build up coal stockpiles or face the possibility of a serious shortage. It cited the Federal Office of Solid Fuels Co-ordination as saying that surplus capacity of coal mines may be available only a little longer for general consumers. ” ” o BINOCULARS—Got any? If so look them over and if they're size 6 by 30 or 7 by 50 the Navy would like to borrow them for the dura tion. Address: Naval Observatory, Washington. 2 ” »

Fixes Nylon Ceiling

STOCKINGS—If nylon stockings are higher today than yesterday, call Price Administrator Leon Hen derson. He says they're “as high as they should go” and has set dollar and cent maximum prices for manufacturers. ” 2 »

BOY SCOUTS—President Roosevelt on the 32d anniversary of scouting said much more was going to be asked of them as “we go for=ward with our program to preserve our liberty and to bring peace on earth through complete victory over our enemies.”

a ” td

For Gen. MacArthur

NIGHT WORKERS—It may be the “MacArthur shift” instead of the “dogwatch” or “lobster trick” yowll be working soon. The Army congratulated night workers at the Colt Fire Arms Co., Hartford, Conn., for changing the name in their plant. 2 » » ORANGES—There will be plenty of them this year. The crop was 84,414,000 boxes. ” ” »

CIVILIAN MANUFACTURES — The reduction has only started. The Commerce Department says ultimately 85 per cent of industry will be devoted to war production. Only a little more than 50 per cent will be converted this year.

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

1—France withdrew from the League of Nations last year; true or false? 2—Henry A. Wallace, Vice President of the United States, was born in Iowa, Nebraska, or Mone tana? 3—In which city is the Metropoli« tan Museum of Art? 4—In a bull fight, the bull is killed by the matador or picador? 5—Which biblical character won a fight with the jawbone of an ass?

Answers 1-=True. 2—Iowa. 3—New York City. 4-—-Matador,

S—Samson ss 8 8

ASK THE TIMES

Inclose a 3-cent stamp fer reply 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.