Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 30 September 1942 — Page 9

HONDON, Sept ‘30,One fie a gesture has come a Cropper, simply because whoever

started it didu’t take human nature into account.

That is the program inviting Americans to British homes for tea or a meal. A call was issued when our troops first came over, and Londoners “responded magnificiently. The Red Cross today has a list of 7000 families in London ready and eager to have American soldiers come into their homes.

. But do you know what has happened? The soldiers don't go. And the British are beginning to feel hurt. But you can’t just take a soldier by the ear and lead him qut te dinner, The. Idiers don’t take up these standing’ invitations because there’s too much ‘else they want to do first. Most of them have: less than 48 hours in town, and they want to make big whoopee and get in a little sightseeing. You can't blame them. ' “As one ' philosophical Englishman said the other day, “If I had never been to America before and registered at a New York hotel and saw a sign at the desk saying Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Jones of the Bronx would like for me tc come to dinner this evening, do you think I'd go? Of course not. I'd want to see the lights of Broadway and the Stork club and ride

: on the subway.”

: Yes, They Are Swell

80 THE POLICY now is to soft-pedal the homeinvitation idea. Plenty of American soldiers are getting into British homes, but they get there by meeting. somebody they like and being personally asked, rather than onthe pick-out-a-name-from-a-list ‘basis. The British really are swell to the Americans. Here's an example. One night two U. S. marines were aang, in the Savoy. They got into the wrong place

without: Knowing wink ‘they: ‘were doing, for you pay a mighty fancy price for dinner at the Savoy. 1 guess they did have enough money for the bill, but they were doing alot of obvious counting between them, An: Englishman at another table saw them, came over, and asked “in the Englishman's apologetic way if they would join him in a drink. They ‘accepted and got to talking, and without: the marines being aware of it the Englishman paid their entire bill for them. - When an ‘American in uniform strolls off the beaten path and gets into a restaurant which doesn’t see many Americans, they really dust off the place for him.

Oh, Yes, Those “QO fiial Cabbies!

EVERY" MORNING the Red Cross starts small in-

"dividual parties of soldiers out on’ sightseeing trips, * traveling in taxis. ‘Usually a British volunteer worker

goes along. . On Sunday there i§'an ali day tour, taking in practically everything you ever heard of, with lunch served in the middle. It's conducted by an army officer. A lot of the boys also take the all-day excursion boat rides up the Thames. : Most ‘English taxicabs. are driven by men past middle age. And half a dozen of these older fellows have unofficially appointed themselves the “official” cabs to take the American soldiers sightseeing from one club. © They wen't let any other taxis in on it. They don't cvercharge the boys; in fact, they even undercharge them. And although London cab drivers aren’t gabby like New York hackies, these old fellows give the boys g, sightseeing spiel as they go along. They wait outside the buildings for the boys, and then take them on to the next place. When the tour is over they stop at a pub on the way home, but they get very fatherly and won't let the boys have more than one drink. The whole thing is very cute-—doubly cute. if you ever saw a London cab driver.

Inside Indianapolis By Lowell Nussbaum

GAS RATIONING has jts merits, in the opinion of George H. Denny, who "built houses prior to ra- . tioning but now is employed at the P. R. Mallory ~ plant. For five or six months he has had trouble with his 'gds- gauge. It just wouldn’t, work. Every time he went to a garage to get it fixed, the mechanics were busy and he couldn’t wait. And. then, the day the rationing date was announced, the gauge mysteriously started working, and it’s still wor $ George Sadlier, as county ouncil president and a member of the recent tax adjustment “board, spent as month wrestling with budgets and levies. He reports that during that period, nobody approached him, outside of the official meetings, to urge him to cut + the Budgets But two days after the budgets and

i levies were formally approved, he went out to the

“ county infirmary where two inmates, who pay no taxes, urged him to “cut those budgets.”

It's a Tough Life

. IF YOU SEE A MAN scurrying through tHe city

hal lobby with a haunted look on his face, it’s prob-

ably ‘Wilbur Winship, the street commissioner. He's a busy man these days, what with his regular work, *! plus sandwiching. in the tin cap collections and help. ing handle the scrap ‘metal: collection, Complaints” ' about weeds . and streets. needing oiling are dying down, now, just in time to, make way for taxpayers’ screams about leaves in the street. It's a dog's life— » béing street commissioner, says Wilbur, , . . Schools Superintendent DeWitt. Morgan, who doesn’t smoke, has been fiddling with a cigaret lighter Tecently: A

. \ ; W ashington ‘WASHINGTON, Sept. 30.—Every day brings new evidence of concern here and in. England over the

; unsatisfactory condition of affairs in India. London press dispatches report a strong undér-

; gurrent of Spitioism, which. it is forecast will be aired

in commons shortly in a general debate on the government's policy of refusing to reopen negotiations with ‘the Indian: people. In the United States, petitions, open letters, newspaper-advertise-ments «and meetings indicate anxiety over continuation of the present deadlock. $ This comes primarily fr friends of Britain. If is in sense a movement of former or lationists, or lion-tail twisters. Certainly they. are all strongly anti-axis. A meeting this week in Washington was called under the sponsorship of such persons as Gov. Harold: Stassen of Minnesota, Mrs. Hugo L. Black, Mis. Pearl Buck, Bishop James E, Freeman of the Episcopal church, and former: Governor Pinchot of Pennsylvania. Senators Pepper of Florida and Ball of Minnesota, early friends of aid to England and members of-opposing political - parties, were Speakers at the Washington meeting. :

4 Transition Is Edsier. Now

£0 ‘FAR AS CAN be, judged, common purpose dominates all of these people. It is\the hope that the deadlock ‘between the British government and the

"Indian people can be resolved promptly in order to

X sullen and frustrated in steps

- strengthen: the” defense of ‘India, in which American troops are participating, not, only for defense of India Dt 10 use’ India. xs fis Offencive: base: aghingt, Japan. ie 25 of Spe fouk tk iz Vie Tuan Jen ward

ernment, the disasters of Burma and En oo Wl 0 oe

ab. about 10:30 at Books, pictures, prints, beautiful Mexican ‘suddies,| carefully chosen pieces of furniture and silver (which|

Somplete surprise,

men, too) smoke at their

friend, gave it to him. ... , Despite the- cold ‘weather, some of the hardier members of the I. A, C. still are sunbathing on the club roof. They say®that now they get tan from the ultraviolet rays, without getting burned. How about getting frozen, boys?

Perilous Pastimes

JOHN B. STOKELY, vice president of Stokely Bros. & Co., the food packers; has a broken ‘collarbone, It happened when he was thrown from his ! Irish hunter during the landowners’ party given several days ago by the Traders Point Hunt. . . . Also recovering from a broken bone is Louis Schwitzer Sr. In his case, it' was a leg instead of g collarbone. . . Otto Frenzel, the banker, hasn’t any broken bones vet, but we’re holding our breath. It's reported ‘he, has acquired a motorcycle which he keeps at his home near Carmel, and he has been roaring all over the countryside on it. Probably getting ready for ‘gas rationing,

New Smoking Rules

THE OLD RULE barring girls from smoking at their desks in the offices of P. R. Mallory & Co. has fallen by the wayside as the result of the war and the need for speed. The girls have been asked to smoke at their desk rather than to take time out to smoke in the rest rooms. . , . The same holds true, we hear, at R.C.A.—at least in some departments. ... And out at Curtiss-Wright, they let the girls (and benches in the factory, but ‘the office’ girls are forbi to smoke at their desks. The theory is they can spare office help long enough to snitch a smoke in the rest room, but they can’t spare the factory workers. . .. Judge John Niblack’s name is misspelled in the e ity directory. They've got him listed as Niblock. . Either way, it's $10 and costs,

Only 3 Reporters Appear, But: Party Expects to Increase Votes.

By THOMAS L. STOKES ‘Times Special Writer : WASHINGTON, Sept. 30-—There was a bit of irony about the meeting of the executive. committee. of the Republican nitional committee here, but: it may turn out in their favor in the end. ‘There was no advance publigity on the session. The publicity directof, Clarence Budington Kelland, the author, did not get here from his home in Arizona. Chairman Joseph W. Martin thought it wasn’t necessary anyhow to bother about publicity. ) So the party leaders gathered in virtual seclusion in their new head‘quarters, a big house on Connecticut ave~—in a large front room where the sun came in through many windows—and basked in the warm . glow : of optimistic reports about their chances in the November election. (The national commiftee had to vacate its old headquarters in an office building, when the C. I. O. outbid them for space. That's how times have changed.) Only three newspaper reporters appeared on the scene all day.

Stir Won’t Win Votes

It might have been a meeting of a local citizens’ association, instead of the G. O. P, Yet, despite this lack of attention, Republicans are expected to pick up seats in congress this year, just as the leaders said confidently at this meeting, o the: basis of reports from Bo scouts of dissatisfaction among the voters with tie way the war is being run. It was all rather symptomatic of the general political situation. That -| is, it won't be for any stir the Republicans create, any policy they have espoused, that they may gain seats in congress this year, but because of a protest against the administration. - The . leaders recognize that, and some said so privately. That's why they were satisfied to meet quietly.

Just ‘Ahead of the Sheriff’

That, too, is why they did not display. as much concern as one might suppose—especially for a party that has been rich in its time —over the fact that the party treasury is virtually empty.’ They expect, however, to raise some money

for the campaign to give it a fad finish,

“We're just one step ahead of the sheriff,” is the way Chairman Joe Martin put it. “But we're ahead of him,” chimed in Frank A. Gannett, newspaper publisher, who recently was drafted

. |as assistant chairman to see about

By Raymond Clapper

‘population toward. the allies, may be repeated in India. Some friends of ‘India. make the/ point that.a transition to more self-government can be more easily accomplished during the war than afterward. Théy base this on the willingness of the Indian leaders to leave military defense and related activities suchas control of railroads and other communications in the hands of the military. That in itself would give a large measure * of stabilization and mean the changeover 'of civilian functions only, a more restricted change-than the total switch that might be demanded after the war. Such is the argument of those who favor Jeopening negotiations.

2 U. S. Material Censored

‘THUS FAR American censorship has prevented at least a portion of American discussion from being sent ‘to London newspapers by their correspondents in Washington. I have. been advised by them that when they attempted to send portions of some of my own dispatches to England they were. censored. The point is made that suppressions prevent the British public from having a full picture of the trend of discussion'in the United States. The reason given on behalf of the American censorship to the British correspondents was that their dispatches would tend to indicate to the axis that differences of policy existed between the allies. The British correspondents make the point that the axis has other ways of getting material and that the suppression of news dispatches therefore is not effective. Some of the censored material, I am informed indirectly, has gone through diplomatic channels for the government’s information in London. The main hope here—shared by some important officials—is ‘that members of the British governm nt will find it possible ic: reconsider its position to the ynoint of resuming the .egotiations which were interrupted ‘with the failure of the Cripps mission and Gandhi's _unfortunate launching of his non-co-opera~ tion campaign, .

By Eleanor Roosevelt

abiiciphere-here ahd a thscination in Be breadth of view on évery side; * Ruth and Elliott have made it

a comfortable and homelike home. The green lawn. and flowers immediately around it speak of infinite|

care and attention during the summer months.

Everything in the house is an expression of their

personal interests.

ware,

raising some money, because he is expected .to have access to big contributors who have boycotted Joé Martin, :

Chairman Martin predicted “substantial gains” in the house, but declined to be specific. It would take

53 for Republicans to have a majority. and control the house, which

would make Mr. Martin the speaker. Predicts 30-Seat Gain

Ex-Democrat Sam Pettengill, onetimé house member from Indiana, thought Republicans would pick up about 30 seats in the house, while ex-Senator John Townsend of Deladirector of the senatorial campaign committee, said Republicans should pick up seven or eight seats in the senate. The note of caution in forecasts

|was due partly to. President Roose-

velt, who, the Republicans know from experierice, might yet pull one of those coups for which-he is famous, between now and election. Or there might be an abrupt change in the fortunes of: war which would rebound to the -administration’s benefit. As Joe Martin put it: “A lot of things can happen in a month in these days.” .

HUGHES’ SON’ HEADS DEWEY ORGANIZATION

NEW YORK, Sept. 30 (U. P).— Charles Evans Hughes Jr. son of the former chief justice of the supreme court, has accepted the chairmanship of the Citizens Committee for Dewey, it was announced today at State Republican headquarters here. _ Hughes, accepting the chairmanship, said he would support Thomas E. Dewey, Republican candidate for governor, because he believed that “his - election this year is vital to the welfare of the state.”

HOLD ‘EVERYTHING _

INSTALLMENT, XV—CARGO PLANES VERSUS SHIPS :

ONE OF THE main problems involved i in-an. intensive campaign by air against the Germans is that of transpor-

tation, particularly as it concerns the question of an as-

sured fuel supply. A flying fortress may consume more. than 10,000 gallons of oil in 24 hours.

A fleet of 1000

planes of all required types might involve a fuel ex-

penditdre up to 12,000 tons for a single night’s operations.

In an attempt to annul this contemplated action at its source, the Nazi command has converged its efforts on cutting the arteries through which the supply of aviation gasoline flows to England. In the first six months of 1942,

a total of 275 ships were sunk in American waters— a circumstance to which we can hardly remain indiffer-

ent. The Germans are known to be bending every effort on the production of torpedo-carrying aircraft as’ well as U-boats, which can suddenly be released in a pack to isolate : Britain. by 28 slashing its i stpply lines. EE The grave dan- : ger is that the present - depredations, serious ‘as they are, do l not represent ' the peak of axis William B. Zift striking power, and are instead experimental forays intended as a proving ground for future tactics, and that a massive assault is in preparation with the object of completely wiping out our trans-Atlantic shipping in a‘ single paralyzing -stroke. The battle against the submarine remains precarious. Our method of meeting it is simply to build boats and cargoes at a rate faster than the axis is able to send them to the bottom of the sea. : ® = =n

Subs Must Be Wary

IF THE ENTIRE question were one of successful convoy, the use of patrol planes in great numbers would greatly relieve the situation. The submarine knows that it can be seen with comparative ease from above, and common “prudelice forces it to break cons tact with the convoyed ships and

“keep itself at a safe distance. It is

aware that once it is spotted, any depth charge dropped in its vicinity will have its name on it. "As a supplement to the work of long-range ‘machines, it is entirely possible to make provision in merchant-ship construction for small torpedo planes or light bombers. These could take off ‘from ship decks under control of ‘certain inexpensive appartus which has already been proposed; or they could be thrown into the air by catapults, a method which

is beginning to be widely used.

If patroling machines were ‘used in sufficient, quantities, the coast-

al waters on both sitles of the Atlantic to a depth of at least 500

miles could be kept clear of raid- . ers. But such ‘an effort is, at best,

inakeshift, It is in the history of all protective devices that they palliate but never cure. Ways and

means are found to meet them.

Ships on Wings

A BETTER METHOD would be to cancel out this situation altogether by removing our cargo ships from the . surface of “the seas, shifting by calculated transition stages to a merchant marine on wings. The day is swiftly coming when ail important longdistance hauling will be done by airplane, enormous craft stripped to mere skin and motors for the purpose of carrying heavy freight. We need no longer be tied to the Burma road, to the gray surface of the Atlantic or to the icelocked northwest passage to Russia. If we can forego our orthodox devotion to traditional methods we can give ourselves, in the field of supply as well as battle, that capacity for swift movement which characterizes the successful campaigns of this era. When the time element is reckoned in together with the cOst of construction and ratio of loss by sinkings, it would be cheaper now to open our trans-oceanic supply lines by air, rather than attempt to meet the challenge of the submarines by an increased production of sinkable surface ships. It is we alone who have the machinery, the industrial capagity

~ and the resources to attempt this.

With one cut of the sword we can slash the Gordion knot which ties us to these myriad and mani-

fold preblems of transportation -

and of supply. : # # » WE CAN TODAY, if we wish,

‘build great fleets of glider cargo which can be hitched.

carriers, behind towing airplanes and éross

either ocean with safety, economy,

and efficiency. The army expert,

. Lewin Barringer, sees long-range

traction-planes designed and built for this specific purpose, carrying crew, radio and fuel, with all passengers and freight, moving along at 200 miles per hour in the trailing gliders. . The advent of plastic gliders makes it" possible to think in terms of 10 and 12-ton cargo-car-rying gliders towed in line. . Plastic gliders could be: slapped out in astronomical numbers in comparison with the production speed of the fabric-covered tubing type used today. The flying cargo carrier could be built of plywood, steel, laminated plastic or other substances not on .the critical list.

Yards

y Williom B. 2iff

and shops now devoted to ship: | ‘building and: lied" types of (con struction could easily be adjusted to the manufacture of . freight planes nd parts. In addition to providing the required insurance against a surprise German action, aerial transport: t even prove cheaper * than that in use now. Among factors which must be considered in addition to original investment are cost of operation per cargo-

pound, expense of convoys, and

loss of merchandise by sinkings.

” » ” . Urged Flying Boats vy IN. 1937, a report made by the United States Maritime commis-

sion’ already recognized that “the addition of aircraft to the fleets

of shipping companies now seems °

to be justified. . . . The cost of - passenger transportation over the ocean is likely to be less on future aircraft than on superliners.

. This conelusion is arrived at by

a comparison of the cost of depreciation, fuel, and crew for the super liner and both types of air. craft—the flying boat’ and the dirigible. “Aircraft designs now available for immediate construction would enable a fleet of 18 flying boats, on a daily service of three planes a day, to offer the same total passenger capacity for a year as the superliner, at a production cost for building the planes, estimated at $18,000,000 against an American production of $50,000, 000 for the superliner.” Grover Loening points out that it takes nearly two months for the average 10-mile-an-hour convoyed freighter to travel the 12,000 miles from our East coast

around the tip of Africa to the

Red sea, or the Persian gulf. He figures that the type of flying ship now in our possession can carry a useful load, on such a run, of 20 tons. A plane of this type

could easily make 70 trips a year

across the “Atlantic, delivering 1400 tons of cargo. Without dipping heavily into our reserve of essential materials, we could ‘turn out 1000 such aircraft a month.

This is a war in which the sup- -

ply lines will have the last.say. In this first true conflict on a

global scale a premium is paid on

ility—on the capacity to ‘get re fustest with the mostest.”’ ” ® 5 y

Could” Fly Tanks: -

IF WE COULD pour aid in to Chiang Kai-shek, completely emancipated from reliance on railroads and crawling mountain arteries, we could erect a major front against the, Japanese, fac-

—ing them with millions of resolute"

well-armed Chinese. We ' could fly our regiments, tanks and guns < over the short North Pole route

to Russia’ without the slightest :

danger of interference. With, this supplying air train, we could move great armies’ of goods and men to any threatened point, to the Panama canal, to

- the Caribbean islands, to Alaska, .

or to South America. We could

terminate the battle of the At--lantic, taking our cargo-carriers’

out of the reach of raiders.

Leader Proud of Women in Air Patrol;

130 Enrolled i in Wings Throughout State

Women are in industry, in business, in the army. and navy and they also are-in the civil air patrol. It’s nothing new. They've been there some time but now. with more and more men in the service their presence is being more clearly Fo It may be even safe to say | : {before this war is over the Oe | will be in the majority in the CAP.

- Walker, W.. Winslow, ‘ state wing commander, reviewed the progress

do and" they are doing them well,

he said. . Approximately 130 women are enrolled over the state in the CAP

Crete was an example of a fully-developed air ‘ferry in operation. So was the supplying of General Rommel’s depleted Afrika Korps, enabling him to throw the astonished, British army “of the ’ Nile back on its heels. The Italian Savoia Marchetti SM-82 not only has been carting equipment and men but has also been carry: ing fighting planes. EJ » ”

Progress Already Made

THE GERMANS have been well ahead of us in the development of this spéctacular innovation in long-distance transport. . The United States army, however, has been quietly developing its own system of aerial transport linking up its big supply depots at Mid- ° dletown,- Pa.; San Antonio, Tex., and San Francisco, Cal, It now handles a greater tonnage of air . freight than all other agencies

of the western hemisphere com-

bined. An increasing stock of estevitial military goods is now being flown over the high wall of the Himalayas into China by U, 8. army pilots. It is estimated that by autumn a greater weight of supplies can be delivered weekly by air carriers of a type now in production, than the: full capacity of 8000 trucks paintully creeping ‘over the hairpin turns of the now defunct Burma road. 2G Our army now possesses various types ‘of military carriers which are capable of carrying from 50 to a hundred fully armed infantrymen along with their equipment. . These planes. which could . cross the Atlantic with ease, fully loaded, will soon come off the assembly lines in impressive numbers. o » ”n

Assisted Take Offs

ONCE ATTENTION were cen- { tered on this problem, many methods could be contrived to increase load-carrying capacity of all types. Assisted take-off is one which ‘promises great possibilities for the immediate future. Re-' fueling by ‘air is another. There are also real possibilities for the rigid ‘airships as transoceanic freighters. Gen. Billy Mitchell believed they could be made valuable as mother ships for airplanes as well as fuel: ape riers. Provision ' would

be -made to convoy such ah when they ole man ‘the known Yange of hostile lanes, though if they were to travel in flotillas cne might be constituted as an aircraft: carrier, and the others merely as cargo transports, thus making - themselves self-sufficient 4s a protective unit. - » The creation of a. vast air carrier organization would ' resume. . other functions for which they are ‘fitted. It would give this country immediate command of circumglobular transportation and with ; it a mobility and freedom of. op ation unmatched by the farth stretch ‘of the military imagina tion.

ER Rg i a

United Featire. Byndieate, { * TOMORROW—Organization for, Air Offensive. ;

LUGILLE BATSON: T0 HEAD BUREAU

| Succeeds Meta Gruner in

~ Orphans * Home Post; Long in’ Work.

Miss ‘Lucille Batson’ is the new. ‘the, children’s bureau of the

Miss Meta, Gruner, who

has accepted a position in St. Louis,

Miss Batson has been with the

lege for Women and: has

‘|courses at the University of Calif

uia and Cincinnati university. She «so had two years of graduate st at the New ‘York School for £ Work.

Long in Social Werk -

‘ Sees Roving Dee “In Brown Count