Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 3 April 1942 — Page 18

FRIDAY, APRIL 3, 1942

*

Hoosier Vagabond

I naturally met the rest of the family, including;

PALM SPRINGS, April 3.—TIt happens that, in addition to the many signal honors that have come to me—such as being frequently mistaken for a poet—

I am also blessed by being a personal friend of the most popular girl in this popular desert resort. She is the queen of this year’s annual desert circus. She is referred to in the newspapers as “the tops in local royalty.” Everybody is nuts about her. But having known her and her whole family for years, I just treat her like dirt, which gives me a terrific sense of superiority over the rest of the population. This girl's name is Edie Bush. She is 21 years old (and purty, too). Despite my superior airs toward her, I make it a point in a sort of underhand way to court her goodwill, because by the time she’s 40 she’s going to own this whole damn place, and 20 years from now I may be needing a nickel for a cup of coffee. Edie is hostess at the Deep Well ranch where I've been staying (in fact that’s why I've been staying there). If it would interest you, I'll tell you how such things as this come about. If I had time I'd make a novel out of it.

How It Came About

WELL, SOME FIVE years ago I was going down the Yukon river on a paddle-wheel steamboat. On this boat I met a couple from. San Francisco— Duane and Sevignée Bush—and we became good friends. I stayed with them at their gold camp in Alaska, and visited their home on our return to the states. The following winter there came to this couple = beautiful baby daughter named Vondre, a remarkable child, and for some mysterious reason I was appointed godfather to same. In the ensuing years I-have cultivated this child with perfumes, candy, gardenias, Jove letters, old lace and an occasional pinch, and have finally made such an impression upon her that now, at the age of four, she actually remembers my name. - In the course of this courtship of my god-daughter,

By Ernie Pyle

my god-daughter’s elder sister Edie (now 21 and purty—or am I getting old and repetitious?). But anyhow I met her, and then she went off to Oregon to college. After three years of higher learning she decided her time had come, so she turned her back upon the classroom and looked about for something to conquer. And since her Cousin Melba rather runs the Deep Well guest ranch, she chose that as her first conquest. She didn’t choose wrong. In one season she has captured the whole place. Everybody in town knows her, from Mother Coffman down to vhe lowliest cowboy. She walks gaily into the snooty Racquet club in her overalls as if she owned the place, and they hold out their arms.

It Was Wonderful!

SHE HASN'T BEEN out of overalls since last October, and dreads. the near day when she will have to return to San Francisco and put on a dress. She wears her hair in pigtails, and guests can’t believe she is more than 15. That saves her a lot of trouble, too. : She is absolutely agog over “hostessing” at the ranch. She loves to ride and swim and talk to people, and thinks it’s perfectly ridiculous that she should be getting paid for it. She plays miserable paddle-tennis and she’s lousy at dominos, but she’s got what it takes to make the guests happy. She has a crush on the word “wonderful.” If a disgruntled guest were to come up foaming and vell, “This lace stinks!” I'm sure Edie swould say, “Wonderful, Mr. Nibbs,” and he would be whipped. Edie smokes cigareis, used to take a cocktail but doesn’t any more, and keeps her overall pockets full of string and nails and things, like a little boy. In the big Palm Springs annual circus, Edie will ride (or has ridden by the time this appears) on the leading float surrounded by her “court” of five girls. I wish I could have been there, to swell with pride. But a man can’t have everything, and I've already had my inning—walking nonchalantly down the main street of Palm Springs with overalled Miss Bush on my arm, the cynosure of all eyes, as they say. It was “wonderful.”

Inside Indianapolis By Lowell Nussbaum

A NORTH SIDER has written Inside a letter complaining about a motorcycle policeman filling out a sticker and having to ask what street he was on. (It was Fairfield). It was a typical gripe, but it reminded us of a private one of our own. The other evening we passed by a downtown alley, where a policeman was standing guard. In the alley, parked big as all get-out, was an auto. And on it was a Fraternal Order of Police emblem. Think the illegal parker got a sticker? Don't be silly. It wouldn't bother as, but we've seen it happen so often now we're a little pained by the whole procedure. The officials of the organization, of course, deny vigorously that there is any intent, or thought, or even the faintest notion, of “protection” for its membership. We'll grant that perhaps the leaders of the organization feel that way.

versity Park, and also the furtive panhandlers. . Motorists racing around monument circle apparently just to hear their tires squeal and make pedestrians jump. . . . The usual lineups in front of the free scales in front of Strauss’ and Marott’s. . . . The overgrown Easter bunny decorating candy eggs in Hooks (Ill. and Wash.) window. . . . The picturesque array of flags in the Claypool lobby. . .. The scores of youthful soldiers and sailors strolling down the street with proud wives and sweeties hanging on their arms,

How to Get a Seat

OUR ITEM last week about motormen appealing in vain to passengers to “move back, please,” intevested George Willard Qutcalt, 5768 N. New Jersey st. He suggests we let people in on his secret of how to ride sitting down. “I always go to the rear of the car,” he says. “In the first place, there aren’t as many people back there, so even standing room is more comfortable. Then, it is never long before someone gets off and there's a seat for me, even with letting all the women get seats first. This especially is true coming out from town at night on the College car.”

{ i

Latest Type American Bombers Went Uncrated When Invaders Struck

(This is the first of a series of articles in which George Weller reviews the ill-starred land campaign in Java. Readers will find in these articles much hitherto unpublished material that for various reasons could not be cabled at the time of battle.)

By GEORGE WELLER Copyright. 1942, by The Indianapolis Times and the Chicago Daily News SOMEWHERE IN AUSTRALIA, April 3. — From Java’s loss to Australia’s defense represents a change of the southwestern Pacific campaign from retreat to at least a temporary stand, and from British to American direction. Singapore never was more than an empty shell of a base but belief that the shell could withstand attack persisted in Dutch circles to such a degree that the Dutch bled their own air forces to send fighter planes to Singapore — superpowered American Brewsters which, although decrepit and totally unfit to meet Jap navy Zeros, were, nevertheless, taster than the best fighters Britain then possessed, halfway through the campaign. = 2 ” 2 2 8 . WHILE INVADING Malaya, the Japs had the advantage of a deep rear—whose narrow vulnerability the British failed to exploit—the convoy-borne invading force was as fully exposed to aircraft attack when it left Sumatra, Borneo and Celebes and approached the Java shore, as scores of floating crates of egos. The entire Java land campaign has an air of unreality even for those who participated and remained, as did your correspondent, as close to the denouement as consonant with escape. As your correspondent was guided to the last emerging ship by Tjilatjap’s naval executive, the calm and perfectly self-poised

commander, Bart Schokking, he saw seven beautiful American-

George Weller

made dive bombers of the latest model, still uncrated, lying upon the docks. They were deadlier than any yet seen in Java's skies. The day before he had seen other cratesful aboard a puffing freight train climbing from Tjilatjap to Bandoeng. Of course, they were never assembled; trained American pilots were never found to fly them. Whether they ended in Jap hands depended upon whether the Dutch were able to destroy them in time, which, given the Dutch record of demolition, is probable. n » 2

AT THE same time, upon the northern side of Bandoeng pla-

AWAIT ACTION

MILWAUKEE, Wis., April 3 (U. |P).—A war department official announced today that the army, navy

The Indianapolis Times

British tanks. , . .

SECOND SECTION

blown up. These tanks were then used against the Dutch in Java.”

the Japs were smashing their way ahead with British tanks captured in Malaya. For eight long weeks correspondents in Singapore tried prayer, hints and invocations, to get tanks. Armored cars were totally inadequate upon the narrow roads, either in Malaya or Java, Fast in forward motion, they proved death traps in action because they could not be turned around in the road. When they reached ambushes or road blocks they had to be turned around, and because the roads were narrow often one of their wheels slipped off into a ditch or paddy swamp. Then usually they sank or toppled over, their occupants being disposed of by the Japs at leisure. Their reverse speed was about four miles an hour, meaning that a car reaching ambush was usually demolished by Jap tank guns before it could withdraw, Single tanks were able, using ' single

teau,

I. 8. 'SEABEES' Agree on Singable Version

rusty voices at community sings.

“By taking part in a musical en-

COLONEL BURIED, Of 'Star-Spangled Banner’ ON CORREGIDOR

tread, to turn within their own length. The British managed to get the first tanks to Singapore—the day the Singapore causeway was blown up. These tanks were then used by the Japs against the Dutch in Java. The Dutch fought off the invaders bitterly but hopelessly and in many cases suicidally—never a good frame of mind for victory. But the recognition that Java was lost came openly before Java was. even attacked. Gen. Sir Archibald Wavell, Air Marshal Sir Richard E. C. Pierse and the command inciuding the American generals George H. Brett and Maj. Gen. Lewis H. Brereton, left while Jap convoys were still making in the Java sea, their feints preliminary to actual invasion two days before the sea battle. 2 ” 2 THEIR DEPARTURE was made known through an announcement in the Netherlands East Indies press and Gen. Wavell’s farewell

meee st.

“The British managed to get tanks to Singapore-—the day

Captured British Tanks Helped Japs Seize Java |

the causeway was

message was printed everywhere upon invasion day although supe pressed in dispatches to England and America by British and American request until late the following week in order to protect those members of the come mand evacuating by sea.

Thus, the Dutch troops went into battle knowing that the allied leaders already considered the situation sufficiently grave to ware rant their departure. While fully justified in the milie tary sense, it was anything but a morale - building atmosphere in which the Netherlands East Ine dies’ defense by land began. It must be remembered that the Dutch government had already ordered both civil and military officials to remain at their posts until the end and all except those necessary for the rehabilitation of the navy did so.

2 Ld 2

NEXT: Japanese Invasion Taetics.

Home Defense Bulletin

From Marion county and Indiananapolis offices of civilian defense, World War memorial, 431 N. Meridian st.

Fighter-Workers to Build Stepping Stone Posts

terprise whether you huff or wheth-! Jap Guns Roar Requiem |

er you puff you are not only con-| tributing to the stimulation of the As Pallbearers Walk

We must concentrate every effort—not only to win this war—but to eliminate waste

We wish, though, they'd pass the sentiment on down to the officers on the force. And we'll bet if

and marines had agreed upon a

Time for Pp romotion. standardized, a flat version of The

they did, there wouldn't by any civilian members left.

Here and There

RECOLLECTIONS of a stroll: Three colored boys at Delaware and Ft. Wayne ave. attempting to catch a squirrel which seemed annoyed at not being able to find a tree to climb. . = . Anton Scherrer breaking in a new half dollar pipe with a pint sized bowl. . That irresistible odor (yum, yum) emanating from the nut shops. The street department's asphalt gang repairing some of the worst of winter's depredations. . . . Little clouds of dirt blowing up

THE MEANING of the various markings on navy men’s sleeves sometimes is puzzling to mere civilians. Not long ago, Comm R. H G. Mathews was attending a naval function when a woman walked up and said her husband, too. had joined the navy. And then she saw the three gold stripes around his sleeve— denoting the rank of commander—and apparently confused them with “hash” marks—diagonal stripes each of which indicates four years’ service. “Oh, I know what those stripes mean: you've been in the navy 12 years.” she said. And then: “But it looks like they ought to have promoted you to petty officer in 12

For Invasion. By JOSEPH L. MYLER

United Press Staff Correspondent WASHINGTON, April

“seabees” are getting ready swarm all over the world, if neces- | “the range of Mr. and Mrs. Aversary. age Citizen,” accompanied the an-

Handpicked and specially trained |nouncement at the National Con-

as fghter-workers. they are the ference of Music Educators.

nation’s newest armed service, al Adoption of the new version by [the three branches of the armed

for the sake of morale.

Star-Spangled Banner, ana urged reticent vocalists, even if they only “huff and puff,” to sing it lustily

A premiere rendition of the over3. — The hauled national anthem, designed to|to bring the high notes down to

|

services division,

fellow participant, but you are do-! ing: something for yourseif,” Mr.

Kent said. . “The elusive quality which

ticipation.” Maj. Howard Bronson, music offi-

we | term morale can be stimulated as a positive vital force by group par-|

in every home. great army, numbering every school child in Marion county, is ready to help YOU get rid of every bit of waste paper on your premises. To-day—NOW-—get busy and

| Past Bomb Craters. By FRANK L. HEWLETT

United Press Staff Correspondent FT. MILLS, CORREGIDOR, March 31 (Delayed).—To the

A

cer in the war department's special quiem of a thundering Japanese collaborated on bombardment, the defenders of Cor-

the new version with Dr. George pegidor today buried Lieut. Col.

ard of Pennsylvania State

la~p

Herbert L. Harries among the bomb

re-

take the first step. Clean up—get every unnecessary thing around YOUR home into action. YOUR HOME is a vital .spot

vears.” Smiling, the commander replied: “Well, I guess I just didn't have it coming, lady.”

By Raymond Clapper

commerce conferences. He is a director of several firms. >

from the downtown streets looking for people’s eyes to land in. . . . The crowds of bench sitters in Uni-

From India

CALCUTTA, April 3.—Although India’s independ-

combat-and-construction force cre- in this community—get it

Lilla Belle Pitts, Columbia Uni- craters of this besieged island | Yoni ready.

versity Teachers college, New York, fortress. was elected president of the music| The tall officer with elegant white

educators conference at the closing) mustache, under whose father Gen.! session. She succeeded Fowler| Douglas MacArthur served in world | MOTHER IS RELEASED | : N NON-SALUTE CASE

ated by the navy tq build advance forces—each of which previously posts “outside continental United | Played its own arrangement—was States against the day when Ameri- announced by Maj. Harold W. Kent, can arms start driving forward injeducation liaison officer of the war the farflung theaters of war. |department’s public relations bureau.

The name for the new service is! 9: Tom wali) SOD of nolioy/

phonetically derived from the fic) oremost piusic educatéts that the tials “C. B.”—construction battalion. | flat version would be played by

Smith, Detroit, who became first war No. 1, died after a leg ampuvice president. Hayon Morgan, di-| tation in the Corregidor hospital to rector of music at Michigan State|which he was taken several weeks

ence leader, Nehru, is a Socialist, his congress party is heavily backed by native industrialists. They are

conservative and usually disagree with Nehru’s socialism. But they see in the congress party an opportunity for their own business expansion as against British interests, which they claim are holding them back. The American picture of Gandhi sitting at a spinning wheel fails to reflect this economic side of the independence movement. In fact, Gandhi's close friend and advisor is the chief native industrialist, J. K. Birla, senior partner of Birla brothers, who operate a vast array of business enterprises, including insurance, sugar mills, paper mills, jute mills, cotton mills, investmert companies, brokerage houses, shipping. chemicals, foodstuffs. The list of these partners’ subsidiaries fills almost a page in the Calcutta telephone directory. irla openly expresses suspicion that the American technical mission to India. headed by Henry F. Grady. may have imperialist designs. As the big voice for more business as usual and more profits as usual, he seems indifferent to the urgency of war effort—in which he twins up with Gandhi.

“Absorbed in Resentment”

ANOTHER SIMILAR business leader is Gaganvihari L. Mehta, (the last name is as common here as Smith at home). He is the new president of the federation of Indian chambers of commerce and industry. President of the Scindia Steam Navigation Co., and also one of the port-commissioners, he has been Indian delegate to international labor and chamber of

My Day

NEW YORK, Thursday. —I came up to New York city yesterday and spent a little time in the afternoon with a friend who has been away for some time in the armed services, and who finds it quite thrilling to get back and see some of his old friends again. Last evening I read some articles in the April magazines. I was very much interested in Oswald Garrison Villard’s account of Sir Stafford Cripps. There seems to be a great variety of opinion about the gentleman. It arises, I imagine. from the fact that he has been fairly consistent in certain principles and not easily swayed by the experiences of particular situations. That trait may have both advantages and disadvantages. There are times when public men must be able Yo accept ridicule and defeat, and wait for time either to prove them right, or to give it is probably wiser to compromise on half victories,

s or

He studied at the London school of economics, commands a sardonic English, and writes many articles advocating rapid industrialization of India through congress party independence. Handsome and engaging, he is one of the rising younger men who look to Nehru, rather than Gandhi. > | India must be an important supply base for the united nations’ effort in this part of the world. Japanese conquest of the southwest Pacific throws a new burden on India as a supply source. This was the reason the Grady American mission was assigned to help develop Indian war production. One difficulty 1s that Indian industrialists see an opportunity to develop a profitable post-war industry, but are only mildly interested in the war effort. They are absorbed in resentment over alleged blocking of their enterprise in the past.

Needed: Missionary Work

MEHTA SAYS THAT even in the third year of war India cannot build a merchant vessel or an automobile, and can assemble only few airplanes. He adds that this is not for lack of capital, or machinery

or with supporting army or marine |

|symphony orchestras and dance From the Aleutians to Australia, hands alike, and would encourage from Iceland to the Red sea, from Ei — the Caribbean to India the Seabees will lay the stepping stones essential] to ultimate victory over the axis.

Building Is Their Job |

Primarily ther job will be to build—everything from docks and dock facilities to air fields, runways, | hangars, oil tanks, structures of ail kinds and artillery emplacements and mounts. But the seabees must be as handy with a tommy gun as with a carpenter’s hammer, Alone

May Fame Never Melt, General!

LONDON, April 3 (U. P.).—Gen, Douglas MacArthur will occupy a niche of honor in Madame Tussaud’s famous wax works—when a body and a uniform are added to a sculpture of his head. The likeness of the American general's head was cisplayed for the first time yesterday. From a table top, Gen. MacArthur, or rather his likeness, gazed with determination after a minor adjustment straightened his left eye.

units, they will be expected to de-|

fend themselves against enemy at-| tack while they do their work. The seabees are being recruited among men 17 to 50 years old from all over the country, and trained in| a $7,000,000 center recently com-|

or trained personnel, but is a question of outlook and

_policy—India cannot be strong economically until it

has independence. | But the Indian leaders have made a fetish of self-! industrialization of India. So they are unable now to readjust themselves to the itlea that, unless the! war is won, India will be under Japanese imperialism —which will tolerate no back talk as the British do. One must sympathize with many aspects of the plight of India, and make allowances because of the treatment it has received in the past. But the attitude of some of these native commercial interests needs a lot of missionary work before India can be considered fully in the war.

‘By Eleanor Roosevelt

people who may have compromised too much. No one can really judge that without an intimate knowledge of the entire political situation of that period. Of one thing I am sure, from my slight personal acquaintance with the late prime minister, that whatever he did was not done from motives of self-interest, but because he deemed it best for the people as a whole. He may well have been mistaken, for as we grow older we tend more to compromise. That is why I believe we should always have youth and age together when decisions of importance are made in government circles. The two points of view are needed to balance the scales and achieve wise decisions. There is an article called: “American Negroes in the War,” by Earl Brown, which I hope all of us will read. Some of the statements made I know to be true, many of them I have not checked and cannot vouch for, but that is not important. Today what concerns us most deeply is the necessary change in attitude on the part of the white race. The psychology which believes that the white man | alone of all the races in the world, has something imposed on all other races, must go. that our chance to live in peace in in respect for the individual, no mat-

a wrench, and in its aft hand, a |

missioned at Norfolk, Va. Thus far | the navy has been authorized to] train six regiments, or 18 battalions, totaling nearly 20.000 men. Symbolizing the seabee’s dual role

stand next to likenesses of Premier Josef V. Stalin and Marshal Semyon Timoshenko.

1

|

Normal was elected second vice president.

college, Ypsilanti, Mich,

NEXT DRAFT GROUP PUT AT 13,500,000

WASHINGTON, April 3 (U. P).

' _More than 13,500,000 men from 45 the Red Cross.

(to 85 years old must register April 127 for selective service, according to

an estimate made today by the cen- fao.draped easket of Col.

sus bureau.

| 589,800—12.516,400 white and 1.073.- Corregidor island were forced to 1300 non-white—the mated.

|

Men in this age bracket total 13,bureau esti-

Those born during the period

April 28, 1877-Feb. 16, 1897, inclusive, must register.

Their ages on

| registration day will range from 45

years and 70 days up to 65 years!

exactly.

The MacArthur sculpture will |

A small proportion of this age

group, such as men already in the armed forces, will not have to reg"ister.

of builder and fighter. the navy has designed an arm insignia picturing

HOLD EVERYTHING

a flying bee with a sailor hat and a ferocious scowl. “In its forehand, or leg,” as the navy puts it, “it clutches a spitting| tommy gun; in its amidship hand,

carpenter's hammer. They'll Prepare Bases |

Seabees will be sent first to bases already under construction in the Atlantic or Pacific to augment and | eventually replace civilian construc- | tion workers not skilled in fighting. Subsequent units will be assigned | to duty elsewhere as opportunity] arises to establish new bases or re-| capture ald ones “When they tell us to put a base in somewhere,” a seabee officer said, “we’ll move in there and put it in.” ‘ Should the Japanese be driven off Wake island, for example, the seabees presumably would be sent there to rehabilitate that base for use by the United States navy. : Seabee recruits are being handpicked by officers of the navy’s eivil engineer corps to make certain that they have the necessary qualifications or aptitudes as mechanics, carpenters, masons, electricians, | pipefitters and the like. The high age limits is to assure a supply of skilled artisans and trained foremen,

¥ NLA i)

Recruits are coming in faster than they can be housed and trained, a

“Why don’t that dame on the

&

night shift. stop Urying to pretty up my

ago for treatment of a leg injury | received in the last war. | MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. April 3 A native of Washington, he had| (U. P.).—Mrs. Helen Blake, 30-year= . lived in Manila for the past seven|pld mother who faces trial on crime years. He is survived by his widow, | inal charges for instructing her two a former St. Louis newspaper | children not to salute the American | woman, who is under internment | flag, was free on her own recoghnie [in Manila, where she served with | zance today pending defense prepae | rations. Clinging to her religious beliefs 'as prescribed by the Jehovah's Wit nesses, Mrs. Blake went before Juvenile Court Judge Russell W, Smith yesterday for a preliminary hearing. With her were hor two daughters, 8 and 10, who were ex= | valk around bomb craters. Ipelled from school because they { While Chaplain Lieut. Col. Perry | obeyed their mother’s orders. |O. Wilcox of Elmira, N. Y,, read | The school board's action followed the burial service Japanese guns|controversy among the parents of from across Manila bay began lay-| other pupils when they were ining down a bombardment of Cor-|formed by their children of the regidor. The chaplain continued the Blake girls’ refusal to give the daily service in a steady voice. allegiance pledge. Col. Harries was one of Manila's! Following their expulsion, probae best-known Americans. {tion officer Elmer Wilhelm filed Seven years ago he retired from charges of contributing to the dee the army because of his leg wound linquency of minors against the and started on a trip around the mother.

Dodge Bomb Craters The officers who accompanied the Harries ‘to the grave in a remote part of

AY uti never got any farther| RACHA GETS 50 PINTS ; LYONS, Ill, April 3 (U. P).=When the Japanese attacked the, Philippines he returned to active | MTS: Theoh T. Bulat. wife of the duty as a general staff spe cialist, | MAYO™ persuaded 50 of he rfriends first under Gen. MacArthur and 10. Goriate 5. pints of biood Sach ¥ ‘then under Lieut. Gen. Jonathan M. the American Red Cross blood bank | Wainwright. : in Chicago, They nicknamed ‘er “Dracula.” Last of Military Family ox He said he Wanted to do his part to keep the American fag @ WAR QUIZ flying over tne Philippines. ie His death meant the extinction! 1_This insignia might have somes (of a military family, which for 11|thing to do with geometry, Just generations had produced high- what does it indicate? ranking army officers—two under the American flag and the others under the British flag. Col. Harries’ father, a major general, was Gen. MacArthur's superior officer in France in 1917 and 1918. The father commanded the port of Brest: later directed the repatriatetved 55 Diop of Conn aae| 2-In what country are pilots jutant general. from more different countries being A graduate of West Point, Lieut. | trained than in any other? Col. Harries first served with the Seu]} What way does Canberra, U. 8. coast artillery and later in| S2PIRI Of Australia, resemble Washes the infantry. He came out of the &%on? first world war with the rank of Answers lieutenant colonel. | 1-This is an army insignia indiGen. Wainwright, a friend of the cating the wearer serves in the Harries family for many years, at-| financial department. tended the brief funeral services as| 2—Canada trains pilots from more did Maj. Gen. George F. Moore, |different countries. the commander of Ft. Mill, who 3—Canberra, like Washington, is in the - berated