Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 7 October 1942 — Page 11
Hoosier Vagabond
what not, written by Lieut. H. A, Harcher, the paper’ s|
‘associate editor. ‘The other is called “Army Poets,” and is a collec-
LONDON, Oct. 7.—You've. heard of “The Stars & Stripe ,” the famous A. E. F, newspaper published in the last war, and which has been reborn in this one. . It has been published at home, yet I'm surprised
at fhe number of Americans arriving here who haven't
heard of it, so I'll tell you something about it. The paper is extremely popular with the troops, and an important factor in _ morale, : The Stars & Stripes is published in London, for all troops in the European theater of war. It , is written by service men, and . about service men. It comes out once a week, on Saturday night. Its -circulation system is so good the editors say every copy is delivered by Sunday evening, even to remote camps in Northern Ireland. If isn’t given away; soldiers subscribe to it, or buy it at 5 cents a copy. The Stars & Stripes is tabloid in size. It has eight pages and carries no advertising. It has one full page of pictures each week. There is always one alluring piece of Hollywood “leg art,” as we say in the newspaper world. It has one’ sports page, and one page of comics. The comics are “Blondie,” “Li'l Abner” and “Joe Pa-. looka.” Two strips of each of these are run each week, :
They Go in for Poetry
IT HAD INTENDED carrying some regular American columns, but after the Newspaper Guild raised an issue over Westbrook Pegler writing for the other army publication, “Yank,” the war geparyment turned thumbs down on all columnists. It had, in fact, been arranged for me to. contribute one of my Shakespearean epics: each week to The Stars & Stripes, but’since I come under the dubious heading of “columnist” it had to be called off. The troops seem to be surviving the blow. The paper does have two “columns” of its own,
4 however. One is called “Hash Marks,” and is a mix-
ture of Jokes, sidhite from home, army wisecracks and
| By Ernie Pyle
tion of seven or eight poems each week, sent in by soldiers. Soldiers go for poetry, and they're sending in about 50 verses a week. One of the most persistent poets is Maj. E. M. Llewellyn, the paper's editor. . The paper carries a column of editorials and two cartoons each week—one by Bruce Bairnsfather, of “Old Bill” fame, and one by Sergt. Dick Wingert. Bairnsfather is the Stars & Stripes’ only paid contributor. :
What They're Up Against
THE PURPOSE of the paper is twofold—to be an authentic record of the war from the military standpoint, and to give American soldiers just what they want to read. Apparently it is succeeding in both. There are many. thorns in the path of putting out an army paper. The main difficulty is a lack of appreciation of the paper's importance by some of those in higher command. The résult is a perilously small staff, occasional backdowns in the face of unimaginative army policy, and sometimes such rabid oversights as putting a Stars & Stripes reporter on guard duty when he goes to some distant camp to gather news. _ The five men over here representing “Yank ” the army magazine in New York, work independently of The Stars & Stripes, but they seem to have suffered more from army misunderstanding than the others. These “Yank” men carry special orders from the war department, absolving them from regular army duties; but they've been in a constant muddle ever since they arrived. One of ‘these five men here has got “lost” and hasn't turned a line. It seems he went to a certain camp to gather material, a certain colonel grabbed him and made him librarian in that camp, and he’s still there—practically a captive, and completely forbiden to do what he was sent over here by airplane to do. * Every once in a while he gets a few hours out of camp, gets to a telephone, calls up one of the “Yank” staff. in London, shouts ‘the one word “Help!” and hangs up.
Inside Indianapolis By Lowell Nussbaum
JIM RUDDELL, Art Tracy and Bill Nees, all of Central Rubber, traveled clear up to Lake of the Woods, Ont., a week or so ago, on a fishing expedition. They returned with a sad story about terrific wind, two inches of snow and only one day fit for fishing, + « » Harrell Mosbaugh, director of the conservation department's fish and game division, is back from Bottineau, N. D., where he had good luck hunting upland game birds, ete. . . . For the benefit ‘of numerous people who wonder what the names of the new army . and navy auxiliary units stand for, we've just done a bit of original research. For instance, we find WAAC stands for Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps. And the WAVES are members of the Women’s Auxfliary Volunteer Emergency Service. They picked the initials, then figured out the name. And then there's the WAGS. We gon’t know if anyone has worked a Te out of those initials yet.or not. ° 2
2's Hard to Stump
‘ COL. JOHN D. FRIDAY, state selective serviceofficial, finds quite a few difficulties in getting around the state visiting local draft boards these days, he reports. For one thing, he has trouble keeping up with his schedule because of tlie 35-mile speed limit. But even tougher, he told some friends, is finding a place to sleep in some of the larger towns. “You just ean’t find a room any more,” he said, “but I've got that problem whipped. I carry a folding cot and some blankets in my car, and Whenever I get in a town and can’t get a room, I Just go to the armory,
Washington
WASHINGTON, Oct. 7.—In considering the probfem of placing labor in war industry and on the farms —we'll really get down to business on this after the elections—we might well take into consideration the Suggestions of a man who had some experience in that field in the last war—Bernard M. Baruch. Out of his experience as chairman .of the war industries board in the last war, Mr. Baruch ap-
proaches, the drafting of labor in
a manner somewhat different from much of the current talk. His views were outlined in a memorandum prepared for congressional study some years ago. His ideas are still pertinent. Mr. Baruch says a distinction ‘must be made between the soldier and the civilian worker. The soldier serves the nation directly. His service profits no one but the country as.a whole. He has surrendered his ordinary civilian status and is clothed, housed, fed and attended. But the civilian serves a private industry operated for profit. Enforced and involuntary service for a private master is defined by the supreme court as slavery. Everyone now working on manpower is conscious of the deep American repugnance to forced labor, and many feel that this must be taken info consideration if the purpose in mind is not to be frustrated by public resentment. :
No Work, No Ration Cards!
BUT MR. BARUCH does not say that men in civilian life are free agents in wartime. Perhaps, as a practical matter, the government cannot say, “work here.” But it can say, as.it did in 1918, “work where? you ; are needed or fight. w Mr. Baruch says-that principle, which was barely invoked in the last war, can be ensely expanded to deal with a situation that is ady far more acute than it was in 1918.“The government can specify
My Day
| SEATTLE, Wash, Tuesday—Last Sunday, my
daughiter and son-in-law, with the two older childfén
went with me to Bremerton. . After a very pleasant a Taffinder, wife of Admiral Sher-
set up my cot and 5 to sleep. Had to use it at South Bend just the other day.” Quite an ingenious fellow, eh!
Attaboy, Jack
JACK CECIL, 7th grade pupil at St. Joan of Arc, is one of the town’s most enthusiastic war bond collectors. Jack caddied all summer at Meridian Hills and saved enough money to buy nine bonds. Then he wheedled enough fronmr his parents, Mr. and Mrs, Karl Cecil, to buy a couple more. Now he’s investing his dimes in war savings stamps, and atfthe same time, putting “the bite” on his nejghbors to do likewise. , . . The rumor that the army will take over the French Lick Springs hotel as a convalescent hospital are rite again. . . . Double billing at the Emerson theater Thursday through Saturday: “I Married an Angel” and “Unseen Enemy.”
My, We're Ashamed!
IN THE MAIL we find a letter from John A. Strack who writes: “In today’s (Tuesday’s) Inside Indianap-|:
nger ily the American tiag and that they used to 0 this quite religiously. May I inquire what's wrong th The Times inthis respect? One never sees Old ry floating from The Times’ flagstaff.” Ouch, John, that one backfired on us. But not dor long. Take a ldok at our tiagstar now. Never let it be said we can't take a hint. . . . Seen on a downtown street: A car with its windows soaped. Looks like Hallowe’en is starting early this year. And it’s not too early to 1mpress on young America that this is a poor year to follow the annual custom of destroying garbage cans and other articles that are hard to Teplice, How about 1t? {
i you mention that the boys at engine house 13 no
By Raymond Clapper
cases of employment for which women, men outside of military age and men not fully capacitated are sufficient. Employers can be forbidden to use help of military capacity in sueh jobs. The government can specify
whole classes of employment that are: not essential at]
all and it can say that every man not in military service must be used in an essential occupation. Further, the government can say that if a man be called and found unfit for military service but fit for other essential work, he must so employ himself or be ut off from rations, transportation, fuel and other upplies under government control. You could take up his ration cards. That principle could be applied to the whole population. If you want to eat, want to keep warm, want any gasoline, you must work where you are needed. That might be effective.
Indirect Pressure Most Practical?
LONG AGO MR. BARUCH said there .was no doubt that in a future emergency there must be control of human effort behind the lines. That principle might be applied in a way not suggested in this memorandum but which I understand Mr. Baruch considers practical. It would be to make the employer the point of control. It would mean something like a work card, which other countries have had to use. For instance, we are having trouble holding men
‘on the farm. Employers might be required to hire
only men who could show clearance from their local draft boards, or from theilr local U. S. employment service office. Thus men needed on the farms would not be certified, so that no employer could hire them. In short, there will be grave question about the desirability or possibility of ordering a man to stay on a job. But it is possible to prevent him from going to another one, and to call him into service if he is of military age: : ‘The main danger is that we might get a law so offensive that it would break down in enforcement. Some, like Mr. Baruch, think indirect pressure is the most practical method.
By Eleanor Roosevelt
Hoosier Farmer's Letter to McNutt Typifies Crucial , Problem.
(This is the third of a series of articles on manpower.) :
By BEN ‘WILLIAMSON WASHINGTON, Oct. 7—What is this manpower problem that is the newest headache of war production? In simplest terms it is typified in a letter from an. Indiana farmer to War Manpower Commissioner Paul V. McNutt. The letter: ; “My oldest boy ‘was inducted into the army. My other boy is down at Indianapolis making Allison engines. My crops are rotting on the ground because I can’t get help. Please do something.” What to do? Issue a directive to Allison to release the younger boy and send him home? Allison ‘needs ‘him, or it wouldn’t have hired him to help make fighter-plane engines. Then issue a directive to selective service, seeking to get the older boy out of the army and deferred for farm work? Obviously the army doesn’t want to let him go; it probably had selective service increase its quotas to get him.
Power Lacking Besides, a war manpower commis-
sion directive to either place could]
be ignored. Because the directive | would not be backed by positive authority to do anything about either boy’s situation. Or about their farmer-father’s situation. That's the manpower problem at its base. Now complicate it with: 1. Demands on draft boards to bring the army up to perhaps 10,000,000 by the end of 1943. (That's the total Maj. Gen. Lewis B. Hershey, boss of the draft, is aiming at as of today. Other estimates of army and navy needs range up to 13,000,000 fighting men.) z 2. Increasing conflict between draft boards and war industries over deferments for skilled work-
lers, often those training others to
become skilled. 3. Increasing pressure for production on war industries, while they lose men to the draft and to enlistments. 4. Local draft boards boxed in between pressure to raise quotas for the army and local pressure io dee] fer for industry—and without. clear cut authority to do anything but meet the quota set by seleciive service. od
+ Effects Felt Everywhere
Every city and village and crossroads meeting place in the country knows the effects of these complications. The - aircraft industry in California loses 15,000 men to enlistments in six months. A Cleve-
. |land manufacturer of vital parts
takes on 3500 employees to meet an expansion order, and keeps only 1100 of them because a factory.on the other side of town offers more overtime and fatter weekly pay envelopes. The army considers. furloughing 4000 miners to go back to digging copper. But what's the base 0 lem in Washington? : It's the lack of a master manpower plan. It’s the lack of any final authority to allocate manpower resources between the fighting services and the Industries and farms that must supply them with guns and food. That's the conclusion of the house committee on defense migration— the Tolan committee—which has investigated the manpower problem and has questioned the administration leaders most concerned with it.
Directives ‘Often Ignored
Up to now Washington has depended on co-operation of agencies. The army tells Gen. Hershey how many to draft over the .next 60 days. Commissiofier McNutt issues directives to Gen. Hershey asking for occupational ‘ deferments. But those directives ‘can be ignored— and to a great extent are—by .the local draft boards. Who, then, decides what manpower shall go to the army and what to industries and farms? To whom, in other words, shall the selective service system be answerable—the army or the war manpower commission? Gen. Hershey says: “I .think cooperation is the answer. + We have not yet had a clash. If it ever should come, if there ever came a time when you could not carry out those directives and at the same time provide the armed forces with the men that they call for, I don't know what the answer is.” That - time—from all the signs across the country—has arrived. It has arrived with Mr, McNutt's office
prob-
- | now drafting. a bill for compulsory mopiiimtion of all the nation’s man-
Barrage From the Ho» ie Fr
MERCHANDISING
CLASSES OPEN|
Housewives and Pupils Are Eligible for Courses Starting Oct. 19.
Classes in retail merchandising for housewives and high school seniors are being formed for the week of Oct. 19. Approximately 235 persons have completed the course and 100 are in training this week. A few openings still remain in classes next week. : Twenty downtown stores are cooperating in the program of instruction for persons who wish to further their opportunities for positions as saleswomen. The school consists of five classes, in session for two hours each day. Persons who wish to enroll may contact Owen A. Johnson, coordinator of distributive education for the Indianapolis public schools.
ANNOUNCE AWARDS IN CAMERA CONTEST
Nine place awards were made in
the annual photographic contest held by the Riviera Camera club.
The winning pictures will be on display at Hoosier Photo Supplies, Inc., later in the month. Winners were (portrait) R. L. Wolfe; (scenic) E. N. Combs, first, and Dorothy Combs, second; (open class) Dorothy Combs, first, and Robert Avels, second; (Kodaslide) E. N. Combs, first; J. E. Storer, sec ond, and B. C. Johnson, third. Judges were Dr. Omar A. Dynes, Earl Robertson and Al Reager.
275 Pounds of Scrap Keeps Steel Furnace Busy a Minute
Is it worth a little extra effort to contribute just one more pound to the nation’s scrap drive? Listen: To keep one open hearth furnace busy for just. one minute requires more than 275 pounds of scrap. If the Empire State building were torn down and its 60,000-ton steel framewerk added to the scrap-pile, it would fill the needs of America’s steel industry for less than 10 hours. Toss 8698 old jaloppies into the nation’s open hearth furnaces, and you'll sate their ravenous appetites for scrap for just one hour. If every man, woman and child in a city the size of Boston put forth prodigious effort and collected 400 pounds of scrap apiece, the total would suffice to keep the nation’s steel stacks smoking for just 24 hours.
17,000,000 Tons Needed
Such figures are cited by steelmakers to point out the vital importance . of the present salvage hunt—a campaign sparked by 1600 daily newspapers and more than
112,000 small-town ‘weeklies.
Awareness of the tremendous size of their task, it is believed, should bring even greater response. Winter stockpiles demand 17,000,000 tons : of scrap, and it must be brought out of hiding in’ homes, farms and factories, ‘in cities and suburbs. Eating up old metal at the record-breaking rate of 4,500, 000 tons a month, the steel industry consumed more than 37,000,000 gross tons in the first eight months of this year—and ‘it still Isn't enough. Scrapyards‘ at the mills, where nietal mountains once - towered, are barren now, So’ urgent 1s the need
for scrap that: mills ‘are accepting
2 BE A
every bit that comes in, even in small truckload lots. When a trainload of scrap comes in, giant magnets transfer its contents directly to charging buckets,” and this loose metal immediately is rushed to waiting furnaces.
Compared to Making Bread “There’s plenty of scrap to ‘be had,” says G. H. Manlove, associate editor and market expert. of Steel magazine. “It must be dug up, accumulated, sorted, and rushed to the mills. Making steel is like baking bread. After the dough is kneaded, ends are cut off and the dough is used in making more bread. ' Normally, the. ends of steel slabs are cut off and these ‘crop ends’ are used in making more steel. “Scrap ‘reclaimed. at the mill is known as ‘home scrap’ to differentiate it from ' ‘purchase ‘scrap’ obtained from outside Sources. In peace-time, steel’ mills ‘reclaim a great part of their needed scrap from their’ own production. Now lend-lease : steel is shipped abroad in semi-finishd form, resulting in a shortage of home scrap. ' Every ship sunk, every tank blown up, adds to the shortage of scrap, since none of it returns io the In all, 4,000,000: tons of scrap
must: be -salvaged from farms and|"
homes. An additional 3,000,000 tons must come ' from industry. The *remaining 10,000,000 tons must come from ‘the active market. -America is pitching into the scrap drive with a will, , the urgency of the steel industry's appeal.
_~
A Chute Falls From the Heavens fo Give China's Beautiful Cloud a Wedding Gown
By KARL ESKELUND
| heaven.
wedding dress literally fell from - AVG pilots intercepted ‘a flight of
{Japanese bombers trying to raid thejthejr ~ | town, and sent three of the enemy [planes crashing to earth. But one % | American plane was damaged bad{1y. and the pilot had to bail out.
WAR ENTERING A NEW PHASE’
Lyttelton Says None Would ‘Want to Live 80 Days
Over Again.’
LONDON, Oct. 7 (U. P.)—~Capt. Oliver Lyttleton, British production minister, said last night that the war is entering a new phase, having passed the period he had fixed as its “gravest 80 days.”
He urged redoubled work in production and in all branches of the war machine in order to be ready “for whatever the future may bring.” “The 80 days are now over,” Lyttelton said. “No one would wish to live them again. “At the time when I mentioned the 80 days at Aldershot, the German offensive was in full swing and the situation in Egypt was far more critical than today. “Clearly no one could then foresee. the issue of either of these critical campaigns. I chose 80 days because, from; about this time, it is not possible to launch a fresh campaign in Russia on a scale sufficient to attain major strategical objectives. “Tactical gains may be made, but these would have substantially the results of the previous offensive. “Though it is true that the war is now entering another phase, we must redouble our work in production and-in‘ull parts of the war machine to be ready for whatever the future may bring.”
ADDRESSES BUILDERS
Edwin C. Heinke, city editor of
The. Indianapolis Times, will address the Building Contractors’ association of Marion county on “Labor * Problems—a Curbstone View” at the group’s October meeting at 6 p. m. today in the Athel'acum.
HOLD EVERYTHING