Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 8 September 1942 — Page 9
iv
Hoosier Vagabond
_~ LONDON, Sept. 8.—And now the fortunes of war bring us once again to this powerful and bewitching city of London. - I never knew London in peacetime. I can't even
conceive of London in peacetime, Perhaps I shouldn't
like it so well. In fact I don't like it so well now as I once did. + To me the real London must always be the one that endured _ through the winter of the blitz. Then all lives were adjusted to a fine tension; there was purpose and vitality in everything you did; the vast city of millions seemed to draw down into a tight little family of fellows under fire. But the character of London has changed vastly since then. Bombings have been almost non-
- existent for more than a year. The stern expectancy
of those days is gone. There has been a relaxation. Today London is jammed. It actually seems more like Washington than like the London I knew. It's hard to.get a hotel room. You can hardly walk for the crowds. At noontime the throngs are crushing. Balloo don’t laze overhead constantly, as they once
How Different It All Is
TWO YEARS AGO the blackout found most peo-
‘ple at home. Tonight they roam the streets till long
after midnight. There are 40 plays running in London. Night. clubs are numerous, expensive, and packed. There are symphony concerts and grayhound racing.
There are twice as many taxis and busses as be-*
fore. Store windows still have attractive displays.
‘People stand in queues a block long for movies, for
busses, for restaurants. Prices have continued to skyrocket. The top-list hotels hand you bills that are shocking. Every night
_ thousands pay $3 for dinner and think nothing of it,
although yqu can get just as good a dinner at a chain restaurant for 60 cents.
3 insi de Indianapolis By Lowell Nussbaum
WE GET THE RAZZBERRY from a woman reader, who, asking us not to use her name, takes us to
‘task for saying that war plant jobs need glamorizing
to attract the fair sex to “dirty: hands” jobs. She says: “We don't need to have the jobs glamorized, but we do need help getting into a ‘factory job. © “You read the headlines: ‘Five million women needed for war work.” You dash out to Allison's and join the 35 ‘women making application. When they find you haven't any experience, but are merely intelligent and willing to learn, they say: “Sorry, we can’t use you. Go take a defense course.’ Okay, you try, but find the classes @re ' full three and four months ahead.” What's the answer? Well,
for one thing, she suggests that instead of having
three hours an evening for six weeks, the classes be held 10 hours a day, five days a week, and that would cut the course down to two weeks. Thus a housewife could attend while her husband is at work, instead of being at school nights ‘while he roams around.” Another solution? “As simple as some of the operations are in the modern factory, a girl could
‘be taught her particular job in one day-usually—by
the factory itself.” Why not? Just a Spare Tire PITY THE PLIGHT of poor Harry Hohlt, minority member of the board of county commissioners, Harry's 4 Democrat and the other two members, William 7T. Ayres and William Bosson, are Republicans. As majority members, the two Republicans find themselves able to agree on most everything, and Harry's vote doesn't count. He can agree with the majority, or disagree—it doesn’t matter. : So he doesn’t waste much time hanging around the court house like he
Washington
WASHINGTON, Sept. 8—War production rests on steel. You can’t make steel without using scrap metal. To make steel you dump pig iron into the furnace and then you dump in junk, Maybe something else, for all I know. But scrap metal must go into the furnace when you make the steel.
So when steel men tell us there is only two weeks’ supply of steel scrap in the hands of the nation’s steel mills, that is what they are worried about. It is just as had as if they were going to have a strike in two weeks. No scrap, no steel. ‘Two furnaces in Chicago were in danger of going down over the week-end for lack of scrap. Pittsburgh and .Youngstown steel mills are in horrible shape on scrap, so industry
spokesmen say. That is why Donald Nelson of WPB “called newspaper publishers from all parts of the
country to ‘Washington last week. There is enough scrap lying around the country to get us through. But it must be collected, sorted and hauled to the
steel mills. The sorting and hauling will be taken
care of. But the junk must be collected from millions of basements, millions of back:yards, millions of farms. Hence, public assistance is necessary.
“Simple for the Householder.
THE OMAHA WORLD-HERALD recently conducted a scrap collection campaign throughout: Ne-
braska. The result was so successful that. WPB has .
asked that similar campaigns be conducted throughout the country, and the Heyspapers have agreed to rate. Eat know what the details will be but: they will be simple for the householder. All he needs to do at
the moment is to go through his basement, his back-
My Day
©
yard, and around his place, and pile up his metal junk. Within a few days the newspapers will tell him + about the pickup. The main thing at the moment is
AVASHINGTON, Monday.—The United States
office of education is co-operating with high schools : ‘to make their pupils air-minded, and I have a long “Jeter from Gould academy in Bethel, Me, telling “me about the aviation ground school course for their o
older students, which is beginning this fall. A teacher training course in aeronautics has been held at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Colo., and Gould academy is fortunate in having their teacher in physics and chemistry a graduate of this course. Many schools will carry on similar courses for high school students ’ the purpose of developing o greater knowl-
“of giving such basic preparation
thay wil es 1 4 vais rss of empioTment
~ navy and merchant marine with all the steel that will
that the child can wear it for two or three years.
By Ernie Pyle
The American impact is Beavily felt already. One immense hotel is 75 per cent filled with American officers. Apartment buildings have been turned into barracks for the men, and of a morning you see bluejeaned American privates sweeping off the London sidewalks. One square has been nicknamed “American Square.” Peeps and jeeps and American army trucks are on the streets. Your best friend is likely to show up any evening, having left Washington yesterday. Americans on the street don’t bother to speak to each other now, as we did in that winter when there were so few of us.
“The Divine Spark Was Gone”
BEFORE REACHING HERE from Ireland I was all night on a boat and seven tiring hours on the train. It was a long weary journey, and London at the end of it was like a rainbow. It was an excited homecoming to a place I love, for I do love London.
Some of the old hotel attendants shook hands as though they were a reception committee appointed by the city. Even the odor of the hotel’s special soap brought back thrilling memories. I walked around the neighborhood. From hundreds of old strolls I knew almost every building by heart. Some that I had known are no longer here. And those that still stand seem a little darker, a little shabbier. For London hasn't waisted paint in prettying up. But gradually it sank into me that this was no longer the London I had known. The divine spark was gone. Somehow I felt disillusioned and let down, as on meeting a dear friend after many years and finding him changed. Once the front line of this war was in the very streets of London; today the war seems far away and the streets are like the streets of New York. . But no one in London doubts that the pendulum will swing again—and no one doubts that London once more can “take it” when the time comes. Only, this time, they're calm in their confidence that most of the “taking it” will have to be done on the other side of the channel.
used to when he was on the majority side. He drops in once a week or so, though, to sign vouchers, But most of the commissioners’ proclamations, such as Labor day closing, etc., are signed by merely the two majority members. It's a tough life, this being a minority member, isn't it, Harry?
Get Em in the Scrap
AN RCA WORKER who lives west SigEesis that the drive for badly needed scrap metals could get a mighty boost if campaign officials could mooch those two enormous water tanks at the old P, & E. roundhouse out on W, Washington st. They've been standing there for years, and are not :in use, he says. Bet they’d make quite a dent in the side of a Jap warship, if they were melted down into shells. . « ¢ No, the gatling gun that's stood in front of the Gatling Gun club, 709 N. Illinois st., for many years, hasn’t been turned in for scrap. It’s missing, but it's merely down in the basement getting reconditioned. One of the local landmarks, it’s one of the original guns built by Dr. Gatling back in civil war days.
Ouch, My Corns
ONE OF THE GROWING crop of new residents reports she had occasion to visit the state’s store license division the other day. The division is housed at 141 S. Meridiah, in the state office building, but she didn’t know it. She asked a policeman where to find the division. - She ‘reports he replied: “Oh,
you go over here to the court house. The court house r
and the state house are the same thing” At the court house, they sent her. to the state house. From there she had to trudge to 141 S. Meridian. She finally arrived home, footsore and weary—and just a bit annoyed. . . . The I. A. C. has changed its air raid alarm signals to conform to OCD signals—just the opposite. The standard signals are: Air raid, short, long, short, long; blackout, a series of short rings, and all clear, continuous ringing.
By Raymond Clapper
to get the household pile of scrap together, so that collections can move rapidly. There really isn't any point in going into all the]: how-come-we-got-into-this-fix, except to emphasize that it ‘has come about as a natural result of the terrific steel production which has been going on and which eats up halt a. ton of scrap for every ton of steel manufactured, or something like that. True we used to send scrap to Japan, but if we had kept it here it would have been used up long ago. The overwhelming fact that has made everybody fumble in war planning is that we are trying to rush the war job at a pace we never expected to have to make. We are in a race with Hitler and it’s a hotter race than we had expected it to be.
Steel Is Our Staff of Life
THE DRAFTING OF MEN is going up into figures never dreamed of a few months ago. It is going up higher every month. In another year the size of our army may be twice what it is now—or more. Ships, tanks, weapons far beyond original schedules will be necessary. We already have passed the world war stage and from here on are moving into something far bigger than that ever got to be. ? Unquestionably .the war will go on for some time— most people here think for several years. We must not only supply this enormous army and the enormous
be needed. We must also supply large quantities to our allies. The main load of the war is rapidly shifting to America’s shoulders. There has been bungling in .the distribution of steel. That is being worked on. Some plants have had to shut down or go on short hours because othe plants were hoarding steel, or because the navy or the shipyards were excessively .stocked. But that is another problem, one of distribution. If every kink is worked out of the bungled steel supply situation, we will need to keep steel produc tion at the peak. The appetite of this war is absolutely insatiable and steel is the wheat, the staff of life, on which our army and navy feed to gain strength for batile. That is why scrap is so Sesperately headed,
By Eleanor Roosevelt
T had a most interesting letter yesterday from a mother whose children are still very small. = She brings out a point which I think important enough to pass on to the war production board and to you. In our efforts to have material in ready-made clothing, we have removed cuffs from men’s trousers and we are prescribing the length of ladies’ skirts. The rules result’ in small children’s clothing have two-inch hems and very little extra material in the seams. This young mother points out that she is about to buy her little girl a new coat and expects to pay $25 for it. As a rule, she chooses it very carefully and insists on a five-inch hem and deep seams, so
Under the present regulations, she will undoubtedly. have to buy a new coat every year, which is a waste of material, labor and money.
GAN POLITICS BE KEYED TO WAR?
Roosevelt Using Methods Of Peactime and Many
- Complain,
By THOMAS L. STOKES Times Special Writer WASHINGTON, Sept. 8—An interesting test is in the making as to whether = old- fashioned peacetime politics will work successfully in such a war as: this, ky av The Roosevelt administration has been holdng back from taking certain steps regarded as essential. The reason generally assigned is a fear that public reaction would be bad, and a consequent reluctance to make such moves before the election. Most talked of is the proposal to lower the draft age to 18, which
everybody seems to admit is bound to come—“after the election”—but which, it is freely conceded, is not being taken now because of fear of political retaliation by mothers with sons in their late teens. Tax Bill Also Delayed Still held back, too, is a program for mobilizing manpower for industry, with the manpower commission, headed by Paul V. McNutt, still undecided as among a number of drafts of bills which have been suggested. For months congress has been dawdling over.a tax bill. The plan now is for no final action until after. the election, For weeks, too, the administration held back on a broad anti-inflation program, including the stabilization of wages and farm prices, because of pressure from powerful political groups.
People Want the ‘Bad News’
Yet, despite the hold-back on unpleasant and necessary actions, a tide is apparently setting in against the Democrats, or so political reports would indicate. Those who report. on the temper of the people say the prevailing feeling is reflected in the question everywhere: “Why don't they give us the bad news?” In short; why does not the administration move in a forthright manner to do the things necessary, instead of delaying, since they have got to be done? Reports all seem to agree that the people are ready for whatever is necessary to win the war, and don’t want it sugar-coated, don't want -it held behind the back. They are getting impatient, and if the reports are correct somewhat sour, about the: ways things are
going. Analysts Arent Sure Could it be, then, that the hold-
litical advantage may be reacting just the opposite? Is it possible that in trying to win the election, the administration is in the way of court ing 3a political reverses?
iness. They hesitate to be too sure, because they know’ that: President onstrated that he is a political master; he has proved that he was cor-
thought he had ‘slipped up. Mr. Roose troubles now come
ing back, the attempted sugar-coat-| ing is proving a boomerang and} that the very course taken for po-
These questions are being asked : by men who make politics their bus- ;
Roosevelt has long before now dem-| B&
from what, in time of peace, was|
Anyone who ever. bought children’s clothes knows| how rapidly they ‘outgrow them. When you have|gro the familly to | wear them, they the !
Warns of Early . * Furnace Firing WASHINGTON, Sept. 8 (U. P.). —Luther Ward, bituminous coal consumers counsel, today cautioned coal ugers against wasting the fuel by lighting their furnaces to ‘take the chill off” at the first sign of cool ‘weather, Usually this cool weather lasts only a short time and is followed
by warmer weather when no heat is necessary, he said.
Stassen Seeks to Keep Minnesota Post, but
- Plans Enlistment.
' By UNITED PRESS
Seven states nominate party cans didates in state and congressional primaries today for the November general election. Campaigns revolved around pre-war isolationist records in Minnesota and Colorado, but local issues dominated the voting in other states. Minnesota—Senator Joseph H. Ball (R.) appointed to fill the unexpired term of the late Senator
Ernest Lundeen, was opposed for
renomination by Walter K. Mickelson, secretary to Senator Henrik Shipstead. Mr. Shipstead, who 1s not up for re-election, indorsed Mr. Mickelson. Senator Ball based his campaign on his support of administration foreign policy.
Stassen May Resign
..Governor Harold E. Stassen sought renomination in the Republican gubernatorial race, but indicated his intention to resign in four months to enter the navy, He was opposed by Martin Nelson and former Rep. John G. Alexander. Henry L. Olson, 26, former “flying tiger” pilot in China, seeks the Democratic nomination from the ninth congressional district. Former Governor Elmer Benson and Mrs. Ernest Lundeen, wife of the late senator, were among candidates for the farmer-labor senate nomination. The Democrats had no state-wide contest. Colorado—Edwin C. Johnson, prewar isolationist, faces Justice Benjamin C. Hilliard of the state supreme court in the Democratic senatorial primary. Other states holding primaries were Washington, Vermont, Arizona, Louisiana and Maryland.
HOLD EVERYTHING
rect politically before, when some| |’ who know their politics pretty well| |°
3 went La the rocks, an
“1. This picture just received from El Alamein in the Egyptian desert shows two. German soldiers who were machine-gunned to death during an encounter with the British. Their vehicle is the notorious “people’s car” for which thousands of Germans paid, but few of which were de-
livered.
2. U. 8S. troops march down the gangplank from a transport which “somewhere in India.” 3. Second Lieut. Sam F. Junkin, Natchez, Miss, the first U. S. army air forces pilot to down a German plane in combat, recuperates - at a Canadian hospital in England.’ He was wounded in the raid on Dieppe when he bagged a Nazi Focke-Wulf 190. 4. Piloted by Capt. Clyde Pangborn, famed American distance flier, the first of Britain's giant four-motored Lancaster bombers to come to North America, circles Montreal before landing. 5.. German soldiers in Russia spare none. They carried the parents of these Russian children: away as prisoners, leaving them orphaned.
brought them to a po!
Washington's Daring Bared In Gun Gift
WASHINGTON, Sept. 8 (U. P.).— Crackshot Maj. Patrick Ferguson of the 71st Highlanders lifted his rifle and at 100 yards drew a bead on an
American officer wearing a high cocked hat. “Halt!” ordered Maj. Ferguson. The American didn't even look back. He spurred his horse forward. Maj. Ferguson lowered his gun. And the admiration of cne soldier for arother's courage enabled the colonial officer to: live: and become America’s first president—George Washington. This story was disclosed today by the - Smithsonian institution ‘along with information that the Scotsman’s personal weapon—the first breach loading rifle ever used in warfare—has been added. to! its collection. Gen. Watts de Peyster, who pre-
Salvage Arms on Wrecked U.S. Ship.
MELBOURNE, Australia, Sept. 8 (U. PJ. ~Ten heavy bombing planes worth upwards of $175,000 apiece, 12,000 tons of war material and 1000 tons of fuel oil have ar- _ rived at an Australian port, and
in their wake came one-half of
‘the American freighter which brought them to. Australia only to be wrecked. Australian soldiers with seafaring or stevedoring did the job, one of the biggest salvage
* jobs of the war.
The ship broke in halves when a ‘the
fo Smithsonian ithsoni sented the rifle to the Smithsonian, found the text of a letter written by Maj. Ferguson relating the incident which occurred during the bat« tle of Brandywine. “FH was not pleasant to fire at the back of an unoffending individual who was acquitting himself very coolly of his’ duty so I let him| alone,” he wrote. - Later, Maj. Ferguson learned that the officer “dressed in dark green and blue, mounted on a good bay horse, with a 1emarkable high cocked hat” was the American commander. hi “I am not sorry I did not know at the time who it was,” he told his family in. the letter. Gen. de Peyster, who was in the civil war, cited this letter to Smithsonian officials to refute the ‘“unsavory reputation” given “unjustly” to Maj. Pergpson by the American history books.
TOBIN GALLS LABOR T0 POST-WAR ACTION
' BLACKPOOL, England, : Sept. 8 (U. P.).—Daniel J. Tobin, of Indianapolis, - fraternal delegate of the
American Federation of Labor to}
MICHELSON HITS
AT PETTENGILL
‘Reactionary Party’ Names Business Propagandist, He Charges.
Times Special 3 WASHINGTON, Sept. 8.—Ape pointment of . former Democraiig Rep. Samuel -B. Pettengill -of - Indie ;
{ana a8-head of the Republican sae
tional finance committee was ase i sailed today by ‘Chatles Michelson,
{Democratic national committee
press agent. In his weekly column entitled
| “Dispelling the Fog,” which is dise ‘tributed free, Mr. Michelson wrot®
of the Hoosier eX-Congressman’ as follows: “The G. O. P. is the reactionary party, now. as always. Their nae tional organization has chosen. for its finance head ex-congressman. Pettengill, hig business propagane (dist, who as a Democratic represen tative fought the economic meas« ures that brought this country out of the teriffic depression amid which the last Republican administration went out of power.
Give Way to Republican
“Pettengill of Indiana is best ree membered at the capital for his fight against the enactment of the holding companies bill which ended the pyramiding of super-corporas tions on top of utility corporations, He fought practically all the new
| deal enactments, particularly those
that threatened the domination of the big corporations over labor cons ditions. “After a while Pettengill saw the handwriting on the wall ard took himself out of the political picture— and a Republican was elected to his place. “Then he reverted to his criginal incarnation—corporation lawyer and spokesman for the interests. He became the head of the committes on constitutional government, which under various names proclaimed the doctrine: that Franklin® Rcosevel§ was beat on dictatorship and the substitution of socialism or come munism for our democratic form of government, and generally carried on the work of the Liberty league when that ill-omened en faded away.
Recalls Link fo Gannett
. “He was with Frank Gahnett, whose presidential aspirations gave us the comedy element in one pree convention national campaign—he . got two votes in the Republican Sonvention, Likewise he was one of the protest crowd when the presie dent, after the Nazis began sinke ing our merchant ships aud tried to torpedo our destroyers, ordered the navy to shoot any menacing sube
Union: sald that or-| the congress, today ok
ganized labor must participate .ac- £
tively in the post-war peace con- fi erence.
“We in Amietion and you in Eng-|
land must insure that organized la-
bor is prominently represented at|
the Dede 4 conference table, not in |r