Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 12 June 1942 — Page 15

FRIDAY, JUNE 12, 1942

The Indianapolis Times

SECOND SECTION

Washington

WASHINGTON, June 12.—-We are doing an unprecedented shipbuilding job because we have broken away from traditional methods. Facilities are sufficient to build 20,000,000 tons of shipping next year—as much as the entire British merchant marine—but there probably won't be enough steel to do it. We could be building 25 per cent more ships right now if the steel were available. That involves one of the questions of balance that have to be decided between the United States and Great Britain. Private citigens can't know whether navy ships, merchant ships or tanks should go shert. We only know that if the present rate of submarine sinkings keeps up we will need to build every ship that we can possibly build in order to transport the necessary supplies to Europe for the western-front offensive that is coming sooner or later. One of the tasks of the new joint AmericanBritish production board just set up is to decide what can better be made in England and what can better be made in the United States. Our specialty is the big mass-production job. Shipbuilding has traditionally been regarded as a hand-tailored job, but to some extent in the last war and to a far greater degree in this one we have made it a regular manufacturing job instead of an old family handcraft to be passed down from father to son.

The Answer Is Prefabrication

AS A RESULT of that approach, men who never saw the ocean are building ships. A stove factory in Indiana is making lifeboats. The huge forepeaks of our merchant ships, a whole section of the prow, are being made in Denver. At Baltimore, the Koppers Co., which never made

By Raymond Clapper

ship propellers, is turning them out on a production line with such speed that old-line manufacturers have been visiting the plant to see how it is done. Part of the production line is out-of-doors, as there wag not time to put a roof over it. Making propellers was the job and the roof could wait. In the gigantic Kaiser yards at Portland, Ore, men who came from Middle-Western farms, who worked on the| Bonneville dam, and who never saw a ship, are turning out ships in two months. They finished one in 46 days. Admiral Howard Vickery, in charge of construection for the maritime commission, explains the phenomenal records being made on several grounds. We are prefabricating. For instance, deckhouses are manufactured complete, with all equipment down to fitted bedrooms and plumbing fixtures, and then swung down on the ship by cranes, and welded into

place.

Let the Navy Take Heed

WE ARE WORKING from one set of plans. En- | gines made in any one of a dozen plants can go into, any ship. Pumps and boilers the same. Welded con- | struction saves a vast amount of time. Funda-| mentally the speed comes from ignoring traditional] methods. It comes from using 20 and 40-ton cranes so that the enormous units can be swung aboard al-| ready assembled. | These are the main reasons why America is able to build two ships a day. The industrial method has| been used. There is equal need to do the same kind of job in building anti-submarine craft, We are suffering staggering losses. If Japan begins a submarine campaign off the west coast, our difficulty will be multiplied. Huge numbers of light craft are needed. Navy building methods are slower than the maritime commission's because they are geared to a more exact and complicated type of construction. Why not turn the maritime commission loose on|

Ernie Pyle, in poor health for some time, has been forced to take a rest. he is expected to resume his daily column within a short time.

| | this, or introduce its methods into the navy, However,

Inside Indianapolis By Lowell Nussbaum

THE CHIGGER season is getting under way around here. For the last week or 10 days, the pesky critters have been coming to life and making themselves known to anvone so foolish as to sit down on the grass in chigger infested territory. They're particularly likely to be found along streams, in woods and on farmland. They dote on tall grass. Dr. Herman G. Morgan, who is personally acquainted with the bull chiggers of Morgan county, where he has a summer home, advises removing the clothing, from the skin out, when you return from chigger territory. Then take a salt rub. That gets ‘em before they have a chance to burrow under the skin. Leave your clothing outdoors. Without a host, the chiggers usually depart and look for a new victim. If they burroy under the skin before you can stop them. there are a couple of remedies. One is the old-fashioned method—scratching when no one is looking. The other is to give the bites the old onetwo treatment—first a light touch of iodine, then a covering of collodion (New Skin or nail polish will do). That poisons them and smothers them at the same time. Incidentally, Doc says it's possible to develop chigger immunity after you've been bitten enough, and he cites farmers as an example. You never see a farmer scratching chiggers. So cheer up, you victims, We're Scooped, by Golly IT LOOKS LIKE we've been scooped by. of all things, a monthly magagine—the Indiana Bell Telephone publication. It reports that while some of the hovs were winding up the Bell Conservation club vietory carnival May 30 at Kernel's lake, several mice hopped out of a box of excelsior. One of the mice ran up thé pant leg of Marty Jaimet, the phone company's plant department safety director. Marty, according to the magazine, was unable to dislodge the rodent by dancing around, and finally had to yank off his trousers. In doing so, he slammed his watch

Scrap Rubber

CLEVELAND, June 12—Whatever the result of the fortheoming campaign to salvage scrap rubber, there is not enough reclaiming capacity in the United States to save the tire situation. If the reclaiming plant ran 24 hours a day they could process about 350,000 tons of rubber a year. If this quantity could all be made into treads for tires we'd be fairly well off, provided we cut down our speed and our mileage to match the capabilities of reclaimed treads. But the product of the reclaiming plats is pretty well spoken for. England has never done much if any reclaiming (and no manufacturing of synthetic rubber, and a little stockpiling of natural rubber), and England came in with a

request for something like 50,000 tons of reclaim. Cunada also needs some, We don't generally appreciate the fact that America is the great purveyor of rubber to the united nations—new rubber, reclaimed rubber, synthetic rub-

ber, scrap rubber. We have the stockpile of new rubber and we have more old rubber (mostly in tires) than all the rest put together,

Magbe We Ought to Have a Law

IN ADDITION TO the requirements of our associated nations we must look to reclaimed rubber for many of the essential products of civilian life. Overshoes, I am told, have always been made of reclaim, and they are as essential in some climates as tires. Several replacement parts around the house are made

My Day

WASHINGTON. Thursday —Yesterday afternoon the king of Greece was received at the White House on the south lawn by the president and his cabinet, with Justice Stone and congressional representatives attending. I was very proud of the formal salute given by our army and navy boys and the playing of the two national anthems by the navy band. It made a very charming ceremony of welcome. We sat on the south poreh, had tea and talked for a little while. The dinner in the evening was entirely official. The president, both last night and this morning, had an opportunity to get to khow this ruler of a country which is today undergoing such terrible hardships. of all the countries in Europe, Greece seems to be suffering more from lack of food than any other, From Everywhere one ears ihe same story

to the ground, breaking it. . Ernest Tappy, one of Ayres’ salesmen, tells us we were wrong in saying you can have cuffs on trousers so long as they have less| than 5 per cent wool in the material. The regula. tions now say no cuffs if there's any wool at all, he says.

Praise Department

THE PASSENGERS on a southbound trackless trolley yesterday couldn't figure out why the operator started to cross Michigan st. at Pennsylvania, then | slammeg on his brakes and hopped off the car. They | understood when they saw him take the arm of a blind man who had started out into heavy traffic. | After leading him over to the Stokes drug store cor- | ner, the operator ran back and took charge of his| trackless trolley again. One of the passengers asked | us to find the operator's name. He is Albert Smith, | ' 1152 E. Ninth st. . . . And while we're passing out kudos, a word of praise for our local insurance agents is in order. For weeks now they've been neglecting their own business to visit local plants and sell the war bond payroll savings plan to the employees. It's really costing the agents money, since insurance agents aren't on salary—they're paid on the amount of insurance they sell. (P. S.—We hope no agents mistake this as an invitatféh to call on us)

t's the Rain—Not Rubber

ATTENDANCE AT Indiana’s state parks is down about 40 per cent under last year, the conservation department reports. Last year, attendance up to June 7 had totaled 240,000. This year it is only 146.000. That's a drop of 94,000 people, but don't blame it all on the rubber shortage. Conservation department officials attribute most of the drop to the rainy season. Last year there was less rain and it came in the middle of the week instead of week-ends| as’ it has this year. The total attendance may be down for the year, but the chances are that with long auto trips—to Yellowstone, California, etc.—pretty | much out of the question, a lot of Hoosiers are going to get acquainted with the state parks for the first time. And they may be surprised at the beauty they find, too.

By John W. Love

of reclaim. Its industrial uses are numerous. There always was enough scrap rubber for the reclaiming industry, up to Pearl Harbor. Right afterward the collections fell off. People decided to keep on using their tires. (Tires make up 75 per cent of the scrap, and mill scrap the larger share of the rest). Coileetions started rising this spring and recently they hit 90 per cent of their old figure. The head of one of the big rubber companies says |

Hitler Can Appreciate A Joke ——When It’s

At Another's Expense

In the fifth of his series on (he personal life of Adolf Hitler, Frederick C. Oechsner discusses the Nazi dictator’s lighter moments,

By FREDERICK C. OECHSNER (Copyright, 1942, by United Press)

NEW YORK, June 12.—When it comes to jokes, Adolf

Hitler can hand it out but he can't take it. He has a rough, barrack-room sense of humor and frequently makes jokes at the expense of such associates as Goering and Goebbels. But he is quick to resent any jokes at the expense of himself or the official position he holds in Germany. Among the examples of Hitler's humor which bear general publication is the story of the completion of a new balcony in the Wilhelmstrasse from which Hitler was to greet the Nazi throngs. The constructing engineer was about to send out a detachment of 10 bodyguards to test its strength. Hitler,

however, stopped him and

said:

“Never mind, Goering

was just out there wearing all his medals, and it didn’t

give way.” While he pokes acid fun

at other people, including his closest associates, Hitler cannot and will not tolerate jokes on himself. When he learned that an S. 8. man, making a play on words, gaid: “I am from the unterleibstandarte” (lower body guard) rather than from the leibstandarte (bodyguard), Hitler was infuriated end had the man sharply disciplined. Nor does Hitler like political jokes which reflect on the Nazis ot their axis partners. For example, he issued a blanket order in the chancellory that all jokes about Italians and their armed prowess should cease forthwith. Fourteen persons, nevertheless, violated these instructions and 11 were severely taken to task. ” » ”

Schusschniga’s Boner

A SARCASTIC remark, which got back to Hitler and contributed to the tragedy of the Austrian anschluss, was dropped by the Austrian chancellor, Kurt Schusschnigg, who referred to Hitler as the ‘saeulenheiliger” or pillar saint. This is a common expression in Germany meaning figurehead of piety, but as uséd by Schusschnigg it concealed a Sly dig at Hitler's predilection for columns in architecture as well as to his general unctious bearing. Franz Von Papen, then minister at Vienna, with seeming casualness, repeated Schusschnigg's remark to Hitler just 48 hours before the Austrian chancellor was received at Berchtesgaden. The result, as Papen had hoped, was that Schusschnigg was treated with brutal contempt by Hitler This fascination of Hitler's in columns incidentally is interpreted

| by medical specialists as revealing

his subsconscious preoccupation with the column as a phallic symbol. On the occasion of the remodeling of Hitler's house at Berchtes« gaden, Goering, who often shows an ironical turn of humor said to Architect Albert Speer Jokingly: “Yes, but this hall should have 400 columns in it." This remark reached Hitler, who completely missed the irony in it and considered it a sincere and wise observation on the part

| of his chief deputy,

Here Comes Wotan!

OUTSIDE his circle of intimates, Hitler is not without the ability to sense opportunities for creating and enjoying small dramatic situations which center on himself. For example, shortly after the completion of the Kehistein eagle's nest, he invited the French ambassador, Francois Poncet, to the 1800-foot peak for a visit. Stepping from the elevator and seeing no one around, Poncet observed ironically: “What, hasn't Wotan arrived yet?” from behind a curtain came a deep voice, equally ironic, “Yes, here he is!” and Hitler stepped forth. On other occasions, Hitler likes to act the role of benign father to all his péople. One day Hitler was walking in the chancellory garden. He met the wife of one of his bodyguardsmen carrying a 11-year-old daughter in her arms. Heinrich Hoffman was following with his camera, as he often does to get candid shots, and had focused and snapped the shutter before he realized that the child had wet Hitler's tunic, making a dark stain. Hoffmann said to Hitler, “well, of course, I will destroy this plate.” “No. Keep it for this young lady,” Hitler replied. “It will some day be of great value to her and certainly it will be unique.”

» » ”

Mussolini Keeps Score

IN THE CELLAR of the reichs« chanecellory stands a miniature cannon modeled after one of Krupp’s modern giants. The barrel is about three feet long, with a silencer, Hitler, when he had time, used to delight in loading, aiming and firing this little piece himself. The targets were wooden figures of Polish, English, French, Bel gian, Dutch and Russian soldiers. The Russians were painted with leering bestial faces. In time all the figures were shot to pieces. Prominent visitors were taken to the cellar to see the cannon. When Mussolini visited Hitler, as a great mark of distinction, he was even allowed to load and shoot it and with great glee Mussolini entered himself in the record book of shooting results which was kept there. Hitler enjoys target shooting,

Adolf H itler ' By Frederick C. Oechsner

Hitler does have a sense of humor=if the joke is on the other fellow. Not so long ago a new balcony was built in the Wilhelmstrasse from which Hitler was to greet the Nazi throngs. An engineer was about

to send a detachment of 10 bodyguards to test its st rength.

Hitler stopped him, saying:

“Never mind,

Goering was just out there wearing all his medals and it didn’t give away,” Hitler is shown in this picture

conferring a medal on the rotund

Goering for some reason or other,

but his associates learned that it was not wise as a regular thing to out-score him, He became definitely miffed. Col. Gen. Werner Von Fritsch, who later died under mysterious circumstances on the Polish front, once dared to score seven bull's eves in 12 shots on a military target range, whereas Hitler scored only one but with good secondary shots. There was an unpleasant moment, but Hitler turned the whole thing off with a laugh and said, “Well, general, after all shooting is your business.” » ” ”

Quits Radish Growing

ALL OF THE 8. 8. men around Hitler have to be good shots, Hitler sometimes took part enthusiastically in pistol practice. One of his prize possessions was an old English pistol given to him by Unity Mitford. It is unique and worth over 2000 marks. Besides using it for target shooting, Hitler occasionally used to carry it with him to the front. The ammunition for it ran out (he had 5000 rounds) and he couldn't get more in Germany, but be said, “never mind, we'll fetch it ourselves in London.” Walking has been the main, form of exercise for Hitler, al though in earlier years he did some gardening on the Obersalzberg at Berchtesgaden. It was a great day when radishes grown and picked by the Fuehrer were served on the table. At one time he also had some iron dumbbells put in his bedroom and with these he exercised for 20 minutes each morning for a short period.

. » on FOR A RRIEF time Hitler

practiced setting-up exercises, naked, for 10 to 20 minutes at .a

stretch, His manservant, Walther Meyer, a former bodyguard, counted “one-two, one-two” for him, Meyer once suggested that Hitler should box with him. They sparred with bare fists. Meyer clipped the chief one on the right ear which remained swollen for several days. Prof, Morel, his house physician, was annoyed and alarmed, but it all passed off and Hitler did nothing about it. Finally he gave up the dumbbell workouts, and walks in the woods remained his essential exercise. He set a fast pace and took particular pleasure in making Goering, sweating and puffing in his greal bulk, go along and keep up with him. One of Hitler's great means of release and escape from the world is music. Yet, strangely enough, Hitler personally is highly unmusical. He cannot whistle or sing. Very few people know that for several vears he tried to tootle a flute presented to him by the Belgian Rexist leader, De Grelle, in 1935, He never got beyond the first tudiments, although he is able to pick out simple tunes on a mouth organ, ”8 on »

Shuns Radio Music

TO SEE HITLER at a concert is interesting, particularly if he feels that he is not being watched. His face may grimace in pain or pleasure, his brow screw up, his mouth knots and his eyes close rapturously. Wagner, of course, is his favorite. He once said, “For me, Wag=ner is something godlike—celestial—and his music my religion. I go to his concerts as others go to church.”

Sometimes even in the midst of

the most tense political situation he will want to hear music and, if there is no other possibility available, he will have a small orchestra come to the chancellory where, alone or with two or three of his closest associates, he will listen for a half hour. He definitely does not like gramophone or radio music, but wants it produced directly from the instrument itself or from the throat of the singer. On this he commented, “I must see the mu sician himself who brings musie from the dead instrument.” Hitler is no lover of military music. He once described it as a military necessity.” His taste runs to light Bavarian and Austrian compositions and folk songs. ® x2»

A True Prophecy

ONE LAST ANECDOTE: A: woman of some prominence in Germany and an expert palmist, often had asked Hitler to let her read his palm. He finally agreed but in order to make it more sporting, stipu= lated that another person should stand with him behind a curtain, and she should read both their palms without knowing in ade vance which was which. This was a few months before the begine ning of the war. Two right hands were thrust through the curtain, one of which she read quickly and without much interest. The other she examined long and exhaustively, found much ine terest and good in it, and finally pronounced that the owner some day would do something to set the world’s tongues wagging. The curtains parted and the owner of the hand appeared. If was Rudolf Hess.

NEXT: Hitler's library and the wild west stories.

we ought to have a law, and enforcement thereof, which would forbid the owner of a tire to wear it down to where the fabric begins to be damaged. Beyond that point it cannot be retreaded properly.

The Reclaiming Process

THE COUNTRY’S largest reclaiming plant, I believe, is Firestone's in Akron. It looks and sounds like a power plant but smells worse. Imp ovements in the reclaiming process appear to be on the way, and, of course, the capacity of the mills could be increased for less money than it takes to build a synthetic plant. The United States Rubber Co. announced the other day that it has developed a method of reclaiming’ which improves the quality, saves materials, and cuts the time so drastically that the capacity of some of the equipment is stepped up 60 per cent. The U. S. plant is at Naugatuck, Conn. Should this process or something like it be made universal, it seems possible the capacity of the industry might be increased to somewhere around 500,000 tons a year. You can still see on the pavements, especially at corners, the marks of the rubber which is lost forever. The driver is a fool who leaves his track on the street.

By Eleanor Roosevelt

Indicate that they are made of wood and not of flesh and blood. When I read this morning the story of the Czechoslovakian village which had been entirely wiped out, I could not help wondering at the psychology of a people who believe you can crush a nation by such tactics. Every woman and child taken from that village to a concentration camp will carry in their hearts a hatred which can never turn into tolerance for the people or the system which assumes that through such brutality .one can force people to acceptance of a conqueror and forgetfulness of the methods used in subjugation. Mrs. Martin Vogel came to see me the other afternoon to tell me a little about the work which the home hospitality committee, now numbering 56, has been doing during the spring. More than 100 hostesses, Mrs. Vogel told me, have entertained service men in their homes. More than 1000 men have been to these parties which have ranged from an invitation to

n to take a Sunday dinner, to a buffet

Tention, Miss

Veteran Irish Sergeant Finds New

Experience in Drilling London Girls.

By HELEN KIRKPATRICK Copyright, 1942, hy The Indianapolis Times and ‘The Chicago Daily News, Ine. * LONDON, June 12—“I have whipped all kinds of men into shape,” said a former Irish Leinster sergeant, “white men, yellow men and black men, but I never thought I'd be asked to drill girls.” Anxiously, he eyed the long rows of hundreds of girls. It did not seem to bother him once he started, however, although he admitted later he had not been able to speak as sharply to them

as he would have to men. But at the end of an hour, he had the girls slow-marching with almost the precision of a smart guards regiment. “Your hat'll stay on, Miss,” he said gently to one youngster, fin« gering her beret. “Keep your hands at your sides and your eyes front. Stop talking. Now snap to attention!” He paced up and down in front, looking strangely out of place in his dark suit and black felt hat, a yeoman warder of the Tower of London drilling a bunch of East End kids on the roof of a settle« ment house, On either side shat« tered roofs spoke of the raids that hit this part of London so badly. ” o 8 WHEN HE FIRST appeared the girls’ faces fell. They had been told that a beefeater from the Tower of London was coming to drill them but he was not in a beefeater's costume. “I couldn't come along in my skirts to drill girls, could I?” he asked apologetically. This was one of hundreds of girls’ training corps , recently established to give girls between 16 and 18 some basic dis cipline and elementary training. Soon some of them will have to Join the ATS, WAAFS or WRENS, evening, for the first time

Irish from Wapping, Jewish girls from Whitechapel and a mixture of the first generation from East London's polyglot population were mingled together. After the girls drilled the ser geant took officers, most of them Red Cross officers, who gave up their evenings after long days in Red Cross jobs, to work with the G. T. C. One group of girls seemed = particularly alert and neat. Their drilling was better than that of the other groups. I asked their officers—two quiet young women in Red Cross uniform, about them. ® » » “THEY WERE THE worst rows dies of the neighborhood when we got them,” one explained. “The rector of the church told us that no one had been able to do anything with them. We've had to keep on our toes and always a step ahead of thém. When we first started the Red Cross lec tures they whistled, got up and danced, fixed one another's hair— in fact, did everything but listen, We went right on and after a while, when they saw it didn't faze us, they settled down and ever since have been a model group.”

MAP TOWNSEND DRIVE STRATEGY

House Supporters Expect 40 Signatures Needed To Fut Bill on Floor.

WASHINGTON, June 12 (U. PJ). -Dr., Francis E. Townsend and members of the house supporting his old-age pension plan met yesterday to map strategy for a drive next week to discharge the ways and means committee from consideration of the pension bill, House members predicted that 40 signatures, still needed to bring the Townsend bill to the floor, will be added to the petition on Speaker Sam Rayburn’s desk Tuesday.

HOLD EVERYTHING

Dyeing

to Live

Navy's Khaki-Colored Uniform Offers

Protective

Coloration

in Tropics.

By JOSEPH L. MYLER

beach attack continued sailors who had witnessed the “destruction” of their comrades had an idea. Before their turn came to join in the attack, they soaked their conspicuous whites in black coffee, achieving an. effective, if temporary protective coloration. The lesson—learned during war maneuvers in the Caribbean two years ago—was not lost upon the navy. Now it supplies khaki-col-ored uniforms for such operations. » ” ” FORTUNATELY, the navy was able to get all the dyes it needed from American sources. In the last war all branches of the armed service were stymied by the fact that Germany had a monopoly on the production of cheap, fast colors. American dye manufacture was virtually nonexistent before 1914, when Germany supplied 95 per

ments. Now it is a $1,000,000,000 industry and, according to Maj. Lyle A. Clough of the army quartermaster corps, “is producing sufficient good, fast dyes to satisfy our military needs.” “During the last war,” Ma). Clough said, “we didn't have the same conception of protective col- - gration and. camouflage that we i have, now. Protective soloration

United Press Staff Correspondent WASHINGTON, June 12.—The American sailors in their tropical

white uniforms were perfect targets. Landing patty after landing pa-ty was “wiped out.” Put as the

* — What You Buy With

WAR BONDS

cent of this country’s require-

vital im- 3

The 55-mm howitzer and its little brother, the 105-mm howite zer, are called “the two sweetest things of their kind in existence.” The 155-mm gun will drop a 95= pound shell 12,000 yards away. The shell is lobbed high, and drops like a bomb, giving it far greater authority when it explodes, L, WN Rye) ’ RN

/ 3

b

.

The 155-mm howitzers about $20,000 each. They sential for our offensive against the axis powers need hundreds of them are a standard divisional g do twice as much dams old Prench-75, in