Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 24 August 1942 — Page 9

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* Hoosier Vagabond

SOMEWHERE IN NORTHERN IRELAND, Aug.

24.—Now take First Sergeant Godsey, for example, |

He' 's about as American as they come. He's an Iowa farmer, tall, skinny, with a weather-

a beaten Tace. . He gripes, cusses, smokes three packs

. of cigarets a day—but he isn’t : really hard at all. like “any - farmer you know back . home. He wouldn't have to be over here at: all if he hadn’t chosen to be. He's 43 years old. He has a wife and seven children at home. He's been in the army for 18 months. He owns a big farm on the bank: of the Missouri river, about 20 miles south of Council Bluffs, It was his father’s before . him. Unlike many farmers, Sergt. Godsey absolutely loves farm life. He’s eager to get home, but he takes that yearning philosophically. He knows he won't see Iowa’s tall corn again for a long, long time, and so he doesn’t fret about it. Sergt. Godsey’s wife has a good business head, and she is in charge of the farm while he’s away. Their oldest son, who is 19 years old, does most of the heavy work. When Godsey saw the war coming he stocked, up his farm with the finest machinery money could bly, 80 his folks are well fixed at home. In addition, he allots them more than a hundred dollars a month out of his first sergeant’s pay.

Swe Dollars a Month Left

HIS OWN WANTS are few. He has spent almost

, nothing on himself during his army career, and has

only about six dollars a month left from his pay. ‘In all these months in the army, Godsey has never missed a day writing to his wife, except when he has been on maneuvers or while he was at sea

+Inside Indianapolis By Lowell Nussbaum

rum ELECTION isn’t ‘until next Novem , but we'll bet we can tell.you the birthday of the next county treasurer. You won't bet? Okay, it’s July 17. . Both Frank P. Huse, the Republican candidate for treasurer, and Bob Allison, the Democratic aspirant, were born on that date. And scandalously enough, the two bitter political rivals have been celebrating together for a number of years. This year it was at the Real Estate board’s dinner at the Indianapolis Country club. They won't tell their ages. . . . “Herman Brecht, mortgage loan manager for the People’s State bank, has gone to Miami Beach to report as an air corps second lieutenant. . Urban Wilde, real estate board executive secretary, admits he has more respect for house ‘painters since spending his vacation painting a part of his house. ‘ Ow-ow, those muscles and blisters.

The Diet Club

EVERY ‘NOON, .you’ll find a ‘certain group of business’ and professional men having lunch out at Methodist hospital. They eat in a.:special dining room and have a great time. It amounts to practically a daily luncheon club. The “club” membership is comprised of men with diabetes or nephritis. Out there each one gets the: diet his ailment requires. They've had their “club” about three years now, andxto hear them having a high old time as they eat, you'd never guess they had a care in the world. . . . The hospital also provides luncheon facilities for people wanting to put on or take off weight. « « - Douglas Williams, the G-man, has a certain date

A! early in September underlined in his date book.

That's the day he surrenders . to Cupid. The future Mrs. Doug Williams is Margaret (Peggy) Paul, who has been assistant, ‘librarian at Manual the last three years. . . . We referred to Evans Woollen the

Washington

NEW YORK, Aug. 24, —It wasn’t a bad thing to knock off from covering Washington and get back into political reporting for.a few days this week. You say this is no time for politics. That's the way I felt When I walked into the Democratic state convention in Brooklyn. Several thousand people pulling at each other ‘in that convention hall didn’t make much sense .to me. It was revolting at first to see men and women—on the day that * allied troops were being cut to pieces landing in France—marching around the convention hall yelling. for Bennett or Mead. The whole scene seemed incongruous, so out of place in a time like this,

such a waste of energy over af-

fairs that are trivial by comparigon with the job the nation is éngaged in now, that I was about to write something along that line. But I am glad I didn’t. 'It was a ridiculous performance in one way—just as all political conventions make an absurd circus out of the process of

¢ self-government. Yet we always do it that way.in ' America. And having always done it that way

rhaps there was some point’ in going through the usual routine again at this particular time,

: Lets Cling te Self-Government WE CAN'T HAVE politics as usual now any more

than we cah have anything as usual. ‘But I'm not

so sure the country would benefit by suspending this

sort of thing. We shall lose a lot of things before this war is over. We:are losing them of neces-

sity now. But one thing we must cling to as the

' key to restroation of other things that are being

suspended now—that 4s: the habit, of self-government. There is something to be gained by continuing . the forms of self-government, even though a. good deal of the substance has: had to be taken out of

“it. for the time being. In this Democratic state convention here, We

My Day

WASHINGTON, Sunday—We left Hyde Park early Friday morning, changed trains in New York City and came straight through to Washington. On the whole, we felt very well pleased with our time spent on the, train, for we had completely canRips vassed the Christmas lists and

k soldiers, which I column, writen about their ne for

single day writing to him.

He's just about -

"has been in its present camp for three months, and

"On the School Front

win this war, as it should. We can endure that “without qualms about the future of self-government

By Ernie Fyle coming over here. She, in turn; Tan missed a

They don’t merely add a few words ‘or. sentences each day on the end of yesterday's letter—each writes a complete letter and mails it daily. Godsey lives in a Nissen hut with six other sergeants.” The hut is also the company office. You could ‘hardly call Sergt. Godsey a commuter. He takes only: two short steps to get from his “home” to his “office.” His desk is a home-made table with a hand-made set of pigeon holes perched on top of it. An electric light hangs low over the papers on the desk, for even the days are often dark. There is a colored photograph of his eldest daughter on the desk.

Spectacles and House Slippers

GODSEY PUTS ON spectacles and “wears house slippers when he’s working inside. Getting up before daylight is no hardship to him, for he did that on the farm, anyhow. Still, it isn’t every farmer of 43 wha could stand up to the long marches our troops are getting over here. Godsey’s outfit once marched 38 miles on the first day of maneuvers, following up with 25-mile marches every day for a week. Godsey went through it all, and I've heard his company commander say he felt it was a good thing to have a few “old guys” in every outfit. ! Godsey, for example, wouldn’t quit on that long march, because he was too proud to let the boys think he couldn’t take it, and some of the youngsters have told me frankly that/the only reason they kept going was that they were ashamed to fall out as long as “that old guy up front” was still pegging away. Sergt. Godsey is thoroughly serious about this war. He's over here to fight, not to have fun. His outfit

except for marches and maneuvers he hasn't been outside the camp gates at all. He wants to, get the war over with, so he can go back to his farm.

other day as “school. board president.” We should have said ‘“ex-president.” Locke is president now.

We blush. Theodore L.

JOHN A. MUELLER who has been on leave of absence from his school board job was due back

Aug. 15 but has asked extension of his leave until{

Jan, 1. He’s with the war production board, assigned to surveying the use of heavy duty machinery to see that it’s in 100 per cent use. . ... Mrs, Josephine Wolf, clerk in the school board offices, has been transferred to Broad Ripple high school. .% . H. L. Harshman, the schools’ research director, got back today from his vacation. . . . Coach Tom Woods, the new football mentor at Shortmidge, has sent out notices for prospective gridsters to report Sept. 1 for practice. . . + The local Wellesley contingent starts back tomorrow for the fall term. It’s quite a bit early, but a long Christmas holiday—six weeks, we hear—will make up for it. The idea is. to save fuel next winter.

Off on a Tangent

MRS ROY E. LONG, 2611 E. 17th st, was all confused the other day when she got to Ingram and Nevada ‘sts. and found the street signs said Ingram and 18th. What confused her most was the fact that the street—formerly Nevada and now 18th— seemed to run due north and south whereas 17th runs east and west. We looked it up on the map and ‘found the afiswWer. “Just ‘west-of: Ingram; 18th curves and thence Tuns due southeast. From the curve on, it used to be known as Nevada. Now it’s 18th until it comes to Massachusetts ave. It's still a bit confusing, isn’t it? . . . Some months ago the treasury department decided to discard the name, defense bonds, and change it to war bonds. But up in the state war savings bond headquarters in the Illinois building, they've no less than eight large posters on the wall, and four of them refer to. defense bonds. Boy, page. Wray Fleming.

By: Raymond Clapper

delegates exercised their right of self-government to a high degree. They nominated their candidate for governor in a vote which went against the president and his political associates. They did it knowing that ‘their names would go on the list that could be used for future reprisals. Nothing much was involved as between the two candidates themselves. Both Bennett and Mead are ordinary average public men. One would make about as good a governor as the other. ‘Yet a majority of the delegates had given their pledge to vote for Bennett. They carried out those pledges even though it meant. defying President Roosevelt.

Something in This Point

THE NOMINATION of Bennett instead of Mead won't have any great effect on the course of history. But the fact that American citizens are still able ‘to carry through the forms of independent political action may mean a great- deal. If this war runs for several years, as it is very likely to do, all of us will find our lives and freedom of action increasingly circumscribed. Before long a man probably will work at the job the government orders, not at a job of his own choosing. ‘The government is drafting human lives to win this war and it will draft anything else it needs to

1

"if at the same time we are able to preserve the institutions .of local self- »government out of which our free way of life grew. Because out of that can Com; at the appropriate time, the resvoration of self-government on the .arger scale. . So perhaps this sweating, noisy, bellowing convention, with its ridiculous placards and ‘its dreary, meaningless oratory, was—for all of its seeming in-|e¢ appropriatness—serving in effect to preserve that one precious thing which is the marrow of America. I don’t want to make too much of the point but I think there is something in it.

By Eleanor Rutevelt

as they came back, telling where the different men were. They found such a. demand for news from home, however, that they are now adding considerable news about the home front. - C. B. S. finds that the boys deeply appretiate this ER hoes ma pure

EO Ee

ney enclose Teport of the work which the churches are doing.

Near the big camps, different denominations ‘are|

helping the army chaplains by providing music. The

churches also often: provide hospitality for parents,

wives and friends, who. come long distances to visit the men.

In many communities, Catholic, Protestant ‘and |

Stowe Gives. Opinions on

_ By LELAND STOWE Copyright, 1042. 1942, by The Indianapells T Times

’ MOSCOW. E 24.~Will. the British and American forces: be

in a relatively much stronger. posi= }

tion to invade western: 3 next spring than they would be at. any time in the next three weeks? :

This is a fair question.

Certainly a correspondent has

available only a small fraction of - the information which the gen-

eral staffs in Washington and |

London possess. But there are some very important facts about the Nazi war machine which inevitably reveal themselves most clearly to those who are closer to

where Hitler's war machine .

dealing its blows. . For this reason let us consider the lessons of Hitler's single front in his 1942 summer offensive in relation to Hitler's 1943 prospects. How did the Nazi general staff prepare the Don river-north Caucasus offensive? How are they fighting it? If there is no second front this autumn, what kind of strength can we expect Hitler to marshal to stymie a British - American expeditionary force ‘next spring? ~The answer to the first question is this.

Stowe It took the war industries of Germany six months to produce and pile up huge reserves of tanks and guns for the present Nazi drive for the lower Volga and Baku. From last November until early May these sinews of mechanized warfare were poured out from thousands of factories and transported across Poland and Rumania into the Ukraine. ;

2 8 =

Prepared Last Winter

ONLY THESE FIVE or six months of unsapped winter production have enabled the Nazi of-

fensive to. keep rolling at its «.

amazing uninterrupted, ' tempo oye Sines early June. Nazi. dions. have pen Hardreds of sille a ny of the Don. sisi. and deep down into the Caucasus. Never theless, their armored motorized divisions keep receiving fresh tanks, . armored cars, trucks, guns and mortars across one of the most extended supply lines ever recorded in military history. As a feat in organization - and efficiency this is an extraordinary accomplishment, Without it, the Germans’ southern armies could

never have driven, since June 28,

to within two score miles of the Volga and far in the southeast of Kuban. But, first of all, the long winter lull and the Nazis’ tremendous piling up of vast reserves in war materials all through that period made possible Hitler's great Baku-or-bust offensive. If Hitler gains his most important 1942 objectives, Stalingrad and Baku, his piled-up winter reserves will have been one of the chief factors in the costliest and most dangerous victory the Nazis have ever won. ® = = Tih er Concentration Is the Key NOW ‘AS TO HOW: the German war machine is fighting this south Russian offensive. The keynote of the entire campaign has been a combination of massing: unprecedented reserves in: manpower, tanks, guns, planes, and ‘of the age-old German . military practice of fighting only on one front at a time. L All through this summer “the Nazis have not struck or attempted to strike a ‘single major blow anywhere north of the pivotal point of Voronezh, 300 miles south of Moscow. They have concen=trated absolutely everything on the southern front. They have brought in scores of Rumanian, Italian, and Hungarian divisions. They have transferred a score or more divisions from France, Belsium, Holland plus large numbers of garrisons and troops from Germany itself.

Just as at one stage the Ger- ]

- mans threw everything they could possibly spare into Poland, at another stage into Norway, at another into the Low Countries:

-and Flanders, at still another into- |

Jugoslavia ‘and Greece, so this summer an overwhelming concen= tration of the axis military power has been thrown into the north

—with the greatest possible local |

superiority wih.a Single dro,

‘What of Next Spring?

In this phiote from ‘an ‘enemy source, German’ ‘soldiers, in a single file, cross over the wreckage of a bridge blown up by: the Red

army. ‘to halt the Nazi drive in the Don river area of the Caucasus.

ts in the ‘bitter fight for this river crossing.

Note smashed . trucks and other Pieoes of SYuipment, Dlasted

theaters in stalemate, toward holding the Soviet troops pinned behind the Volga, toward exploiting the oil fields of Maikop and probably of Grozny—even should his divisions still be unable to reach Baku. And above all, Hitler’s ‘war industries will : be concentrated on building up gigantic reserves to use against the Brit-. ish and Americans in the West next. spring. Until the present moment the Nazis--have been using: about 27 armored divisions in the titantic battles of the Don elbow and still others in the north Caucasus, These are: reported to represent more than half of the armored divisions Germany now possesses. They are understood to average about 250 tanks per division— which’ means ‘that the Nazis have tied up along the Don nearly 9000 tanks, even though the Russians announce’ that they have destroyed 4000 + German tanks in three months up to Aug. 15. ty 888

Nazi Tank Construction

WHAT PERCENTAGE of tank production capacity of Germany

)

and her vassal-state ‘factories do.. ! ‘represent? I do not pretend - to know the exact fig--

ures. But if. the United States, “starting from almost zero 18 months ago, can produce about 60,000 tanks this year, does it ‘seem possible that the combined industries of . Germany, : Czechoslovakia, Poland, Rumania, France, Belgium and Italy canibe producing less than that per year? Some of these countries, notably Germany, had been building ‘tanks for many years before America even started? It appears conservative to estimate that the Nazis must be able

to construct much more than 60,-. 000 tanks per year. So Nazi- .

dominated countries may be expected ‘to turn out 30,000 to 40,000 tanks during next winter's lull--between October and midApril. Hitler's general staff will not need half that number of tanks to fight on defensive lines against the Russians next summer—if the Nazis are permitted to. win the lower Volga and the Caucasus this autumn, : It is safe to estimate that, of .German-controlled production ‘next - winter, at least 20,000 tanks can be. alloted’ for the defense of Europe’s western coast-

line against a British-American invasion. That would arm 30 new

Nazi armored divisions with a full war strength and leave 5000 or more tanks in reserve. 8 ” 8

CAN THE ANGLO-AMERICAN armies count on being able to land as many as 15 armored di-

visions in France or Belgium next spring? We do not meet any British and American: officers in

this part of the world who mdke

any such rash predictions. Yet the fact remains that the Nazis have one-twentieth, or perhaps one-fortiethy as much tank strength in western Europe today as they are certain to have there next April or May. By that time . half . or two-thirds of the veteran armored divisions which are now fighting in southern Russia can be reformed, completely

‘rested and waiting for the Brit-

ish-American invaders. What is true of tanks is equally true of howitzers, field guns, mortars and airplanes. If there is no second front this autumn, Ger-man-controlled production of all

. these heavy war materials will

pile up huge reserves once more —with the bulk of them designed to make western Europe impregnable against invasion. The

Nazis’ whole strategy is to crip- --

ple the: Red army’s offensive pow-

‘er, to do it while Russia's allies

are inactive in western Europe— and then to fight the finai round of their war against the British and Americans when Russia can be. pinned .and "held so that she

can ‘give them virtually - no ‘Hote= :

worthy Help. > ¥'s 8 °

There Are Lesons ‘for Us

FOR "ANYONE ‘who has ob-

.served closely the Nazi high com-

mand’s methods in their gigantic 1942 campaign in southern Russia, the lessons for the British and American general staffs are unescapable. It seems well-nigh impossible to find solid, factual, logical reasons for the assumption that the Germans will be weaker against: the ' British-American-allied forces in western Europe

‘next spring than they are now.

On the contrary, the most solid

and ‘factual reasons exist for the

fearful expectation that the Germans will be proportionately very. much stronger in manpower and the most decisive weapons in the West, next spring, than they can possibly. be at any time in the next two ‘or three months. It was last winter’s fighting lull and its s accompanying . building up of tremendous reserves in material which has given the Germans

: their serious dagger thrusts to

the Volga’s fringes and the heart of the Caucasus. The Nazis rg hal

-50.deeply entangled here now t!

they cannot reverse themselves across the entire European continent before the snow flies. No observer, however, can doubt for a moment that the Germans’ armed might will have been transferred in- = preponderance

. prudent,

1) western Europe long before it “is tulip time onoe more in Holland. 8.8

It’s a Black Outlook

IF THE BRITISH and Americans are short. of ships today for landings in France, Belgium, or: elsewhere, will they not need 10 or 20 times as many ships when the Nazis have several scores of additional ‘divisions re-entrenched in the west, them 15 or more motorized . divisions? This is one of those embarrassing questions which needs to be weighed and . answered: by British and American military

strategists—t 0 d a y—not next

menth. : * 0» ”

Most Important Question

These are the: prospects. And they are the. only visible logical prospects that even the most most conservatively trained observers of this war can report to the American or British

. people. . We cannot dodge this

black; ‘soul-testing outloook. * We ‘have got to face the war in terms

of. three- or. four: more years—and barring littl® short -of a miracle, in terms of at - least 3,000,000;

4,000,000 or ' 5,000,000 American dead and wounded. Provided, of coure, that we intend to maintain America’s honor and fight through to victory regardless of cost. BUT BECAUSE these are the prospects, every American, from the occupants of the White House down to the lowliest shoeshine boy, needs very urgently to ask himself a few very practical questions today. The most im-

portant of all the questions, it’

seems to me, is this: Who. is

America’s most essential ally?

without what nation’s active support would America’s chances of winning the war be most gravely endangered? : On the basis of actual and po‘tential strength, on the basis of manpower, on the ‘basis of proved capacity of its fighting forces, on the basis lof its strategic and far-

flung geographical position, there is only one conceivable answer.

Soviet Russia is the one great

power - which is indispensable as an ally of the United States—ifwe are going to win thé war. | The Russian army and air force alone can assure AngloAmerican victory over Nazi Germany. If Russia’s fighting mil

lions were suddenly removed from |

the- scene, they alone would be irreplaceable. Not . merely the millions of men but the extended points of attack—or points of re-

including among .

straint such as the Russians’ far eastern army occupies in eastern Siberia—would ‘be utterly irreplaceable.. ‘We might ‘replace -2 000,000 British troops anyw in western Europe or Africa. United States can never lag the . much greater number of armed ‘Russian soldiers nor could we ever rent any portion of Seviet: soil on which to create another future second front in the east. . ” ® ®

Russia ‘Absolutely Vital’

SOVIET RUSSIA today is abe solutely vital if Germany -is ever to be fought. If ‘we Auietioans create close understandihg and co-operation with Soviet Russia the United States will have every prospect of removing any Jape anese threat to the Philippines and ‘our Pacific islands—for as long as we prove capable and fare sighted : enough to co-operate loyally with Russia. Without Russia playing ball with us in the Far East, there can be no hope

~ for stability and: our: naval and

air forces throughout the Pacific will Have to be kept several times @reater than otherwise would: be necessary—-at what cdst in Wa Hon, none: can. guess, yd It should be as plain a ae Hose

we would: hope to win thé war, we can hope to create a durable. Pan-European structure in poste

: war Europe and if we, as Amer=

icans, can hope to establish any solid alignment of powers in the Far East and the Pacific. These paragraphs are written and these convictions deeply held by one who felt the Soviet Union was sadly mistaken in its ‘war

one who does not think the Soviets have found all the answers in their system, who doesn’t like some of the things about the system and who says so quite as

- freely and honestly in Moscow as

in New York. Perhaps this fact does not make these observations any less important. ‘In any case,

it could not change in the slight importance

- entirely ° new Amierican-Russian

the duration of this war and just as essentially throught the long years of post-war period yet.to come.

:

Nazis Tighten Ring Around Turkey

DRAFT IS PARLEY TOPIC

' HERRIN, IIL, Aug. 24 (U. P) Agricultural, industrial ‘and transe portation leaders of Southern ,

'nois will - confer -here - Wedn

with Col Paul’ G. Armstrong, director of ssleeiive sefvicey

8. Scoupalicna) delerme reblems,: Sows aunouiced